<object width="640" height="385"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DTTCUzmHKvI&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;"> </param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed wmode="transparent" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DTTCUzmHKvI&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"> </embed></param><param value="transparent" name="wmode"></param></object>    Let me first state that this review is based off the first three episodes of the recent release of Soul Eater, Part 1. In an attempt to get more reviews and impressions, we're experimenting with alternate forms, like, say, partial reviews as placeholders for full reviews...   Soul Eater, Part 1 (of 4) Release Date: 2-9-2010 Studio: FUNimation Discs: 2 Runtime: 13 episodes (315 minutes) MSRP: 59.99 Episodes currently viewed: 3 Plot: Weapons and Witches, Meisters and Monters. The Soul is power, and power, unfortunately can corrupt. Evil souls will eventually hunt down and consume others to expand their power, while good souls band together to take them out. Toward this end, weapon meisters and the weapons team up as pairs to take on these corrupted souls.  However, the cast of characters are not real reapers, but are still in training...Dug it! I'd seen the clips, and am thoroughly familiar with the characters, but I've fallen in love all over again. The first three episodes are actually all dubbed "Prologue," and each walks us through a Meister/Weapon pairing.  The teams are youths in training, and the key concept is that they all must quest to gather the souls of 100 corrupted humans, and 1 soul of a witch. If they do this, the "weapon" will evolve into an incredibly power tool. Despite the cast of powerful characters, it seems that very few actually accomplish this feat. When the story opens Maka and Soul have collected all 100, and are attempting to finish the deed with the much more dangerous witch fight.  Tone and Soundtrack: Hilarious! The one vibe that none of this has illustrated yet, is that the show is an action/comedy, with the scales constantly tipping back and forth. With a really, really great soundtrack pushing dramatic moments, I almost get caught off guard with how cool the characters can become. If I had to make a comparison, the use of a fairly frontal ambient soundtrack closely resembles the light rock feeling of certain Gurren Lagann's moments.  Though, I'll not that my initial spree with the English Dub was not entirely pleasant. I think newcomer Micah Solusod does a relatively brilliant job with the cool-obsessed Soul Eater Evans, but I am just having such a hard time getting behind Laura Bailey's Maka Albarn. The design and plot seem to convey a youth I just don't hear yet in Laura Bailey. Not too fond of the Black Star VA either, though that has more to do with just how much I enjoy the Japanese voice actors.  Screen Shots From Episodes 1-3 Pros and Cons:  Positives +++ Great Animation Great Soundtack (loved the ED) HIlarious, yet still full of some wonderful fight sequences.  Negatives --- Being a comedy/action series, I feel like most of the VA's hadn't figured out yet how to be both funny and cool.The soundtrack does that weird thing where the background music is like, 2 notches quieter on the English dub. Cannot speculate as to why.  Final Verdict:I couldn't stop if I wanted to. 3 episodes isn't a great deal to judge, since it is the "prologue" to a 51 episode series, but I found myself in absolutely in love with what I've seen. Even having read the manga, this is a series that is just better seen than read.
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Hey, by any chance do you guys like free stuff? Oh, you do! Well, how would you like a free copy of Soul Eater, the new action anime from FUNimation Entertainment? Fortunately for you, Ani-Gamers reviewer Ink has just finished watching Soul Eater, Part 1 for review, and we will be sending his DVDs out to one lucky Ani-Gamers reader. How do you enter? Just drop us a comment on this post letting us know your e-mail address and the name of your favorite character from a shōnen action series, and we'll pick a random winner from all of the commenters. It doesn't even have to be a character from Soul Eater — you could pick somebody from Dragonball, Naruto, Fist of the North Star, or any other show, as long as it is a shōnen action. Good luck! Post a Comment!
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 A Blank Black Mallow FUNimation just sent a press release out announcing that they've signed a multi-year national licensing agreement with New Jersey-based Shocker Toys LLP, who make really cool toys of indie figures (like an awesome version of The Maxx) as well as the Mallows, marshmallow-shaped 5" figures with a variety of designs. Scary clown... Shocker now has the rights to create anime versions of "Mallows" toys for Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Dragon Ball Z, and One Piece. The Mallows toys are a bit like a highly stylized figma or Revoltech: they have ten points of articulation and seven interchangeable parts. And if your preferred title was NOT amongst those offered up, you can also buy your own plain black or white Mallow to doodle on, which is pretty cool. I'm already thinking about ordering one myself, except they're out of stock at the moment. I have to tell you, looking at the current designs for other franchises, some of these are really cool. Hopefully the anime ones will be as well, 'cause I might love to have a few of these around my desk.         FUNimation Entertainment Awards Multi-Series Toy License to Shocker ToysFUNimation Entertainment Awards Multi-Series Toy License To Shocker Toys Flower Mound, TX – February 10, 2010 -  FUNimation Entertainment today announced the signing of multi-year, national licensing agreements with toy manufacturer Shocker Toys LLP, now a toy licensee for several high-profile action-adventure anime properties including Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Dragon Ball Z and One Piece.  Shocker Toys has the rights to develop, manufacture, market and sell designer figures called “Mallows” based on characters from the four series. Mallows is a new toy line created by Shocker Toys and comprised of 5” marshmallow themed figures. The figures feature up to 10 points of movement and up to 7 interchangeable parts. Mallows  are available themed or in blank, black or white, do-it-yourself versions. Attendees of American International Toy Fair in New York City at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, February 14-17, can see like figures on display at the Shocker Toys booth (#4924) located in the new Action Figure aisle in the lower level of the Javits Center. The company expects to begin production on the figures this year. “We look forward to Shocker Toys bringing these series into the homes of fans and collectors in a fun, new way,” said Adam Zehner, Director of Licensing and Acquisitions at FUNimation Entertainment. “We can’t wait to see how our characters will be translated into the unique Mallow style.”  "We are very pleased to be working with Funimation to bring their great titles into a new Funimation series Mallow toy line for their dedicated fans,” said Geoff Beckett, CEO. "Our new Mallow collectibles will have great options for playing, trading or displaying and some new features that your other toys don’t have."    About Shocker Toys, LLP. New Jersey based Shocker Toys, LLP current roster includes Indie Spotlight 6" scale independent comic book action figures, Who Wants to be a Superhero figures and 5" Mallows For more product and licensing information visit the Company’s website:http://www.shockertoys.com   About FUNimation Entertainment                   FUNimationEntertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is the leading company for home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States.  FUNimation has a proven formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution. For more information about FUNimation Entertainment and its brands, visit www.funimation.com.
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Somehow Firefox recently updated itself to the latest version 3.6 from 2.0 and one of the new things Firefox has is a really quick/easy way to change the look of your browser window called Personas. A quick look at their gallery where people can upload Personas revealed some anime ones – the Totoro one is [...]
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Medium: TV Anime (51 episodes) Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy Director: Takuya Igarashi Studio: BONES Original Run: Apr. 7, 2008 - Mar. 30, 2009 (TV Tokyo–Japan) Release Date: Feb. 9, 2010 (FUNimation–N.America) Rated: Not Rated Forgive my repetition, but for summary’s sake: Soul Eater revolves around a bunch of kids, classified as anthropomorphic tools of destruction (weapons) or those that wield them (meisters), whose end goal by training at the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) is to keep the world safe from witches as well as those that feast on human souls for the sheer guilty pleasure of it. Centered on students, the main theme is, appropriately, one of learning. Edification does not have to mean mindsets or skill sets or interpersonal relationships, but Soul Eater manages rather impressively to interweave all three in a manner that never becomes formulaic or boring. If there was one defining factor that initially caught my eye and made me keep tuning in to FUNimation’s streaming broadcast, it was a combination of the art and fight choreography. But within the first few episodes, I also found myself chuckling at the series’ sense of self-deprecation and drooling over the engrossing nature of the interaction between all of the characters. In short, for a Naruto-esque anime, there’s a lot of good writing lurking in the subtext and an abundance of surrealist art bolstering the background that lend to an amazing series. Not to say that the screenplay is Kafka nor the art Dali, but the series doesn’t attempt to hide its obvious craft. Instead, it adopts elements and uses them to suit its own various needs. The art, while a bit CGI-heavy, offers viewers surrealistic backdrops and personifications (gotta love the sun and moon) as well as fight scenes that are as interestingly executed as they are engrossing. There is a minimum of hazed-out background transformations and executions during fight sequences, making the animation and depiction of fights solely reliant upon actual action (go figure). This adds to both the realism of certain situations and the sheer pleasure of watching things actually happen. Details, it’s all about the details ... until things get moving. Over the run of the first 13 episodes, the first three of which are entirely action-driven, character-building prologue, the frequency of detailed action scenes slips, but this is taken up by the upswing in character maturation and mind games between friends and enemies alike. This is not a weak point though. The action remains in focus while more and more characters are introduced and simultaneously woven into the fray. In fact, one of the most interesting and sinister characters, whose actions result in one of the most entrancing battles within the fantasy genre I’ve yet to see, only really gets her debut in episode 12! Ah, which audio track to tune into? (I could write an essay purely on that!) While I think the Japanese is absolutely and without question perfect, I’d also admit that the dub grew on me like a weed. Don’t get me wrong; the English dub is well-acted in almost every respect (if only seeming phoned-in and out-of-sync a bit too many times), but whoever cast a woman to voice Black Star is at fault for the series' sole inexcusable audio atrocity. While her enthusiasm shows through and through, Brittany Karbowski should NOT be voicing one of the most vivacious central characters in the show, an early teen male, simply because of her estrogen levels and vocal range. Everyone else, however, finds their role and convincingly plays their parts, but there’s just something grinding about Brittany’s girlishness, which, to her credit, is either tamed or brainwashed via repetition throughout each subsequent episode. This review is based on a DVD box set provided by FUNimation Entertainment. great. Post a Comment!
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Set in the world of the “Death Weapon Meister Academy,” Soul Eater tells the story of students who partner with weapons in order to battle demons and monsters. The weapons are normally human, but they transform into swords, pistols, and various other inanimate objects in order to do battle. Their goal is to collect the [...]
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This episode had so many scene changes that I’m tempted to just break this post into scenes.  As I’m still trying to make sense of the chaos, this will mostly be a recap of what happened (or what I understood happened). Scene One: Medusa and Justin Half-guillotine half-clown shaped Justin Law decapitates Medusa, but she immediately responds [...]
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I brought Soul Eater Volume 1 from Shin Tokyo last year, in other words on Wednesday. I don’t know why I brought it, I don’t normally buy or read manga (except The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), but, because I love the show, I brought it. Lets just look over the fact it hasn’t actually come out officially, [...]
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I admit it’s been ages since I really cared about Soul Eater. I loved the anime & manga at first but I guess waiting for a chapter per month kinda kills interest especially when chapters often don’t feel like a continuation of each other. Sometimes I’ll read a new chapter and be like “wtf was [...]
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Because the manga is tastier than the anime. I mean, that ending. That. Ending. Failed. So let’s move on to a topic that actually matters. Action, drama, comedy, betrayal, angst, romance shipping potential… Soul Eater is like Naruto, only without the manga-ka pulling stuff out of his butt. For the most part, anyway. Soul Eater had [...]
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AFA huh? Surfing around blogs and you won’t miss it. So what is everyone expecting from AFA? Figures? Too broke for it. Cosplayers? I wouldn’t mind one bit Xp Animes? I have plenty! Concert? Too broke for it too. . . Bah humbug… What I really want to see is a whole bunch of dancing troopers, doing stuffs together. I think it’d be rather exhilarating. See [...]
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First off, this image is awesome: You gotta love how Chrona’s longsword slices through the left page, even as Black☆Star is unleashing his three blades.  No matter what Tsubaki says, I don’t think Star is kidding when he talks of his third weapon.  The joke is on Chrona though…I wonder what prompted Ookubo to address this [...]
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  <object width="660" height="405"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DTTCUzmHKvI&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x402061&amp;color2=0x9461ca&amp;border=1"> </param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed wmode="transparent" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DTTCUzmHKvI&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x402061&amp;color2=0x9461ca&amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="405"> </embed> </param> <param value="transparent" name="wmode"> </param> </object>    Okay, okay, I said I'd leave picking the gems out of FUNimation's streaming titles to you guys, but one of them was too big too ignore. For instance, the first four dubbed episodes of Soul Eater were on that list. Now, I don't know about you all, but given caliber of this release, as well as our sneak peeks at the VAs, I'm certainly interested. That said, grab a snack and come check them out too.   Unfortunately, the episodes are not embeddable, but I have faith in everyone.   Episode 1: Resonance of the Soul Episode 2: I'm the Star! The Most Big Guy is Showing up Here? Episode 3: The Perfect Young Man - Death the Kid's Magnificent Mission  Episode 4: Engage the Witch Hunter! A Heart-pounding Remedial Lesson in the Graveyard? Anyways, back on subject. I'm not too far into the first episode and I can't say I've fallen in love with Maka's VA yet, but I'm trying to give it a chance.
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Just received this press release from Funimation. Four entire anime episodes ready for your viewing pleasure at 9:00am PST today . Read on for the press release. [Note to our anime readership. We're currently working on Blassreiter, Dragonaut, and Tower of Druaga. We should have reviews shortly.] Greetings to all souls on this Friday the 13th (spooky, huh?)! We want to put superstitious minds to rest on this date and put at least one sure, good thing into the lives of you anime watchers. Or rather, four. [Today] at 11:00 am CST, FUNimation ...
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   <object width="660" height="405"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Li1Huzd87io&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x402061&amp;color2=0x9461ca&amp;border=1"> </param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed wmode="transparent" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Li1Huzd87io&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x402061&amp;color2=0x9461ca&amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="405"> </embed> </param> <param value="transparent" name="wmode"> </param> </object>   I heart Soul Eater. Like, what isn't brilliantly addictive about a show centered on teams of highly eccentric students who transform into weapons and fight corrupted souls turned demons?   If you haven't seen Soul Eater yet, you can check out the Manga, published by Yen Press, or wait till early 2010 for the Anime to be released. That said, ye old FUNimation blog has put up an additional two clips to fill out roster of characters. Today's stars are the obsessive compulsive Death the Kid, his guns Patty and Liz, and cookoo for cocopuffs Dr. Stein.   Initial impression: Its always weird at first when you're used to something one way, but I think I could really get behind this voice actors. I'm still out to judgement on Maka, since I think that style from the Japanese voice became very central to my associations, but I dig this.    Death the Kid --- Todd Haberkorn Patty Thompson --- Cheramie Leigh Liz Thompson --- Jamie Marchi Dr. Fraken Stein --- Chuck Huber   <object width="660" height="405"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rfSOzYbRS0g&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x402061&amp;color2=0x9461ca&amp;border=1"> </param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> <embed wmode="transparent" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rfSOzYbRS0g&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x402061&amp;color2=0x9461ca&amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="660" height="405"> </embed> </param> <param value="transparent" name="wmode"> </param> </object>
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Chapter 67 of Masami Ookubo's Soul Eater is out, translated, and blogged by Anime Kritik! w00t! For the first time ever, I've followed a monthly release and blogged the next chapter a month after the last one! Pretty exciting stuff for me. Anyway, this is a pretty nice chapter, and I definitely feel like it's in the 'groove'. For me, Ookubo has a sort of order that happens in his arcs - they start off well enough, then they get a little rocky, shape up for some great chapters in the middle, get a little rocky again, and then explode in a giant train of EPIC chapters.
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So Ookubo apparently decided to finish Kilik’s squad’s mission before focusing on Black☆Star’s.  I really enjoyed this chapter, and there are two things in particular that I must mention. 1) Fire and Thunder I’ve seen people in the Forums speculating a lot about Kilik’s twin pots.  I always thought it was kinda odd, I mean why focus [...]
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Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy About the Mangaka Okubo Atsushi is better known for his more recent work, Soul Eater. However he also assisted on the older series, Get Backers. B.Ichi is his first independent work where he did both the art and story. About the Manga While I enjoyed reading this in [...]
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Posted via email from moggling
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This post is in reply to this excellent post by Anime Kritik, because secretly my place on this blog is just to do replies to AK posts which I know won’t get any hits back at Fuzakenna :p I was originally going to make this post immediately after reading Chapter 47 where AK was when [...]
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