More Soul Eater thoughts.

June 10th, 2008 by Brack

I think I can now pinpoint the problem I have with Soul Eater, and it’s a problem I have with some other shonen titles to various degrees. It’s the Adult Authority Figures.

I mentioned some time ago the difference between Sgt. Frog and it’s antecedent, Urusei Yatsura, in how they treated adulthood. Sgt Frog treats adulthood as being just as fun as childhood, Urusei Yatsura portrays it as some kind of living hell.

Now the difference between Soul Eater and what is obviously my favourite shonen series, One Piece, is also a difference between how they treat adults, but rather than a difference in a philosophical view of adulthood (Soul Eater seems to side more with UY, given Maka’s father’s characterisation), it’s in the use of Adult Authority Figures.

Soul Eater, like many shonen series has the main characters firmly placed as students of older, wiser, characters, who know more than they do. Naruto is an exemplary case of this format, for all the goofing off and disobeying orders that Naruto does, he’s never shown to be smarter than Kakashi. In Soul Eater, no matter how goofy Dr Franken Stein or the Grim Reaper are, they know more than the main characters, and at the current time, the main characters ultimately have to bow to their greater knowledge.

In One Piece, however, all characters who feasibly have authority over the main characters are wrong. Even if, in theory, they are right. Regardless of common sense, fact or circumstance, Luffy’s decisions always end up being the right one in the end. It’s resolutely anti-authority. It’s a bunch of kids having adventures, doing what they want, without adults telling them what to do. Even if some of the kids are 27, 34 and 100+ years old. Part of what turned me off Bleach was the slow turn of the main characters from being anti-authority, to doing what the series’ “grown-ups” want them to do.

The lesson is: if you are going to write an adolescent fantasy, go the whole hog and STICK IT TO THE MAN!

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Soul Eater - Episode 4,5,6 & 7

June 8th, 2008 by Brack

I really don’t have enough to say to warrant episode by episode summaries. Part of this is that everything that is good about it (the design, animation and direction) is consistently good, and I’d just be reiterating the same points over and over again.

The other part is that, the story just chugs along like your bog-standard shonen adventure manga 101. Episode 4 and 5 reintroduce one character that we briefly met in the prologue episodes, albeit in a new form and set up the introduction of the main teacher character. Episode 6 has Death The Kid get into a fight with Black Star and Soul Eater, and while nicely animated, it’s nothing special in the writing.

Episode 7 steps it up a notch with the introduction of an actual antagonist for the characters, the androgynous Chrona and their weapon Ragnarok, and for the first time in the series you get the feeling something is at stake. Hopefully this raises the actual level of drama for the series, and avoids making it something on the level of the Shaman King or Black Cat adaptations (albeit much better made).

Also, this: My prediction of this being the next highly cosplayed series over here, seems correct. At the MCM Expo there were a fair number of Soul Eater cosplays, far more than you’d expect for a show that’d only been on air for 6 weeks in Japan at the time. Admittedly, the manga could be the reason, but if that was the case we’d have seen more at earlier events. Seems like we could be seeing a lot of Makas, Death The Kids and Dr Franken Steins over the next year…

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Soul Eater - Episode 3

May 11th, 2008 by Brack

The last prologue episode introduces Death The Kid and his weapons Patty and Liz Thompson.

This is my favourite episode so far, the personalities of the characters suit Takuya Igarashi’s direction far better than the other main characters do. Soul and Maka’s manzai duo relationship, and Black Star/Tsubaki’s ninja parody don’t quite fit Igarashi’s comic beat that Death The Kid’s obsessive compulsive disorder does.

Death The Kid, you see, is obsessed with symmetry. And like the characters in Ouran High School, Igarashi finds the comic beats in characters personality defects marvelously. Patty and Liz are more upbeat than the frequently depressed/enraged Death, Patty to point of perky heroic idiocy, leaving Liz as the straight man of the trio.

Which brings us to what is the probably the most interesting thing about Soul Eater, every character is part of a comedy team of some kind, normally a duo. Rather than make the coupling of weapon and user a romantic one, the choice of the story is to make them a comedic one. As I wrote in my original post, I feel Igarashi in Ouran Host Club owed a lot to stage comedy in the way he shot gags, and had the cast deliver them. The story so far in Soul Eater isn’t that ground breaking, in lesser hands this would be another Black Cat or similar unsuccessful shonen manga adaptation. Instead we are getting a show that is wringing every ounce of quality from the source material.

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Soul Eater - Episode 2

May 11th, 2008 by Brack

After last episode introduced us to Maka and Soul Eater Evans, this episode introduces us to Black Star and Tsubaki.

Black Star is an exaggerated parody of shonen manga ninjas, the central gag of the parody being pointing out how noisy these ninjas are. Which is a good gag to make, however, having that gag made repeatedly for 24 minutes grates a little. Tsubaki, well Tsubaki doesn’t have much of personality at the moment, just the sort of silent suffering straight man in this double act and occasional voice of wisdom.

Thankfully the level of animation and design at work continues to make up for any shortcomings in the story, as we get another episode full of great action when Black Star and Tsubaki go after the witch Angela, and clash with her self-appointed bodyguard Mifune. It’s not really any more complicated than that, these first 3 episodes are a self-admitted prologue to the main story, entirely aimed at introducing the characters.

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Soul Eater Episode 1

April 13th, 2008 by Brack

Maka and her scythe, Soul Eater Evans, have to capture 99 souls and one witch’s soul in order to turn Soul Eater into a full Deathscythe. We join them as they are about to capture their 99th human soul. Acting as something of a greek chorus to these events are the Grim Reaper and his Deathscythe, Maka’s estranged father. You see, in the world of Soul Eater people turn into weapons, and the physical embodiment of death performs manzai routines with his scythe.

Yes, it’s another show that taps into kids’ love of personifying death. Is Yu Yu Hakusho the origin of this theme in manga and anime? Or is there something that came before that? I can see links to Go Nagai and Ishimori works in the general structure of these stories, but is there a predecessor to the whole teenage agent of the afterlife thing?

Director Takuya Igarashi does a really good job with the material from Atsushi Okubo’s manga. The story is fairly standard shonen fare, as is the humour. What Igarashi does is bring alive and embelish Okubo’s great design work. As with Igarashi’s Ouran Host Club anime, he takes the art and improves it for animation. The blacks are drawn out and exaggerated, and the colours made more vivid. Also the stand-up/manzai influenced comedy delivery that Ouran had is brought back here, making the most of fairly weak gags, and now it’s alongside the typically accomplished action scenes that Bones are known for. All in all it’s shaping up to be another slick, solid product from Bones.

AN ASIDE: I’ve seen the design compared to Tim Burton, but while that’s a fair comparison, I can’t help thinking there’s a more direct, if more obscure, reference to be made. The grotesque grinning moon and sun remind me of Ian Miller and John Blanche’s artwork, but I’m sure they are drawing on something too. While moons and suns with faces seem to be something wired into the human mind to see, I’m sure the actual nature of the grotesquery is a reference to something my ignorance of art history is preventing me putting a name too.

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Soul Eater Trailer

March 24th, 2008 by Brack

The Soul Eater trailer surfaced on youtube while I was eating chocolate eggs.

It’s looking pretty good. The action looks solid and the bits with Death The Kid in the trailer remind me of how well such comedic reaction segments were delivered in Ouran Host Club. Definitely looking forward to this, ideally it should be a mix of FMA’s fluid action and Ouran’s frugality-minded sense of design and framing. And I’ll also make the easy prediction of this being 2008’s cosplay fad.

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HATE FUN? - Uninformed Judgments on Spring Anime Part 6

March 15th, 2008 by Brack

Neo Angelique Abyss

The characters in this look like factory farmed bishounen. The same interchangeable ‘tude, just with different haircuts.

Soul Eater

This looks like another series guilty of the sin of ‘tude, but at least it looks different, and the characters look different from one another. The design has something of graphitti quality mixed with videogame iconography to it that I find charming. Definitely one I’m looking forward to catching, particularly as the dependable BONES are producing and Ouran Host Club’s Takuya Igarashi directs. Yes, this should be one of the good ones.

Vampire Knight

And another bishounen manga adaptation. Lots of these this season it seems. High School, Childhood Friends, Vampires, you know the drill. This looks v. generic, with nothing in the way of staff to make me interested. I understand the Viz release of the manga is rather popular, so I expect this to get similar fan attentions thrown it’s way.

Wagaya no Oinarisama

Here’s the hermaphrodite fox-demon anime you were demanding! From the man who gave you the El Hazard episodes that were no good! And Love Hina!

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