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Series: Soul Eater: Part Four
Release date: 27th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 271 mins
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Starring: Chiaki Omigawa, Kouki Uchiyama, Akeno Watanabe, Emiri Katou, Houko Kuwashima
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
The Matrix. Bergman, Burton, Dali, Lynch. The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari. X Men. Pokemon. Deposit ingredients into a cartoon cauldron. Stir. Simmer for 51 episodes. Serve with a generous J-pop garnish. Whaddayougot? Soul Eater.
Concluding the series, Part 4 follows a questing band of young bloods from a specialist academy of the arcane: the DWMA.
The Death Meister Weapon Academy – mentored by none other than the reaper himself – tutors the plucky punks, who are divided into fighters – ‘meisters’ – and their partners, who morph into weapons. The curriculum serves fittingly macabre ends. Culling a specified number of souls enhances the weapons, transforming them into a death scythe – traditional armament of their headmaster. Each pupil boasts potent, yet inchoate powers, which must be disciplined until they attain mastery. For their unique abilities may soon be called upon.
Episode 40 depicts a world on the cusp of disaster. Evil witch Arachne plots to amplify the madness of an ancient demon, Asura, submitting the population to his infectious lunacy. Death and the DWMA attempt to intervene, but must also contend with the wiles of Arachne’s devious sister, Medusa.
Hypnotically converting a DWMA tutor, Dr Frank Stein, to her cause, Medusa watches from the sidelines as Arachne and Death’s henchmen enter a grim endgame – poised to conquer the weakened survivors.
Appalled by Death’s apparent pact with the serpentine sorceress, disaffected students Black Star, Death The Kid and Maka threaten to turn against their benefactor. But the bony patriarch has a (cunning) plan and, locating Arachne’s base, press-gangs the malcontents into action. The master’s apprentices offer the last, best hope of salvation, but can they overwhelm the might of Asura, a living god?
Adapted from a hugely successful manga series devised by Atsushi Okubo, Soul Eater is a sprawling opus which exuberantly flaunts its inspiration. Fusing fragments of myth, filmic and literary lore into a rich, dayglo mosaic, this is kleptomaniac post modernism delivered at breathless pace.
Okubo has stated that his primary visual sources are David Lynch and Tim Burton, and it’s the latter’s work that provides the most explicit precedent. Soul Eater’s landscape is a vision of candy-coloured expressionism, summoning the foreboding iconography of Sleepy Hollow, only to repaint it with the garish tint of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Death City (home of the DWMA) is a deranged gothic folly - a skull encrusted fortress bristling with conical towers that would do Jack Skellington proud. With a nod to Magritte, Death’s chamber is surreally vaulted by azure sky, its windows impossibly built into the air itself. Arachne’s lair is equally impressive – a futuristic, cobwebby boudoir cum-Frankenstein’s lab, customised for world domination. Architecture, in this uncanny parallel world, becomes a projection of the self.
Characters are frequently overwhelmed by their mysterious surrounds. Lost in fog shrouded netherworlds, forebodingly gnarled forests, and disoriented by endless corridors, external landscapes bear the imprint of mental trauma. A cracked mirror: for broken minds.
Anarchic and daring, this stylisation is most flamboyant when it enters a totally subjective mode. A succession of unsettling dream sequences brilliantly showcase expressionist technique, Dr Stein’s warped hallucinations and incarceration in a Twin Peaks-esque ‘red room’ notably eerie examples. As he succumbs to Medusa’s evil machinations, Stein’s environs are redrawn, the witch’s control symbolised by an omnipresent arrow motif. Visualising an apparently Freudian, symbolic logic, a lurid nightmare sees him tempted by forbidden fruit, and ending up as the subject of a fatal dissection which will reveal his “true flesh.” Fragmentary glimpses into Asura’s damaged mind – revealing a flickering purgatory of flames and ashen corpses – even seem to glimpse hell itself. But – in line with the offbeat tone – the malevolent gloom is offset by a lysergic palette. Crimson clouds dash overhead, and the screen frequently erupts into iridescent fireworks as its cast engage in spectacular duels.
Ostensibly a fantasy romp, Soul Eater plays fast and loose with the format, abruptly shifting tone as fluidly as its eclectic visual style. Thematics here – establishment vs. anarchy, and necessity of teamwork – are oft trite. Equally, the plot mechanics – comprising separate quests for magical weapons, high level intrigue and spectacular bouts of occult whoop-ass – are unremarkable. Adopting a playfully irreverent disregard for these formalities, Soul Eater frequently goes AWOL on bizarre digressions which jarringly puncture narrative momentum.
Ominous confrontations are dramatically established then undermined, as when Death’s amoral bargaining with Medusa turns into a comic skit about “pumpkin pants.” Characters devolve into super deformed parodies, subverting their brooding with zany absurdity. Despite this, the series maintains a thrilling tempo, masterfully shifting dramatic gears. Plentiful bouts of magical combat punctuate talky scheming, as our battling brats clash with an outrageous gallery of rogues. Lumbering golems, genocidal clown-bots, and a crawling citadel are foes which inventively splice genre motifs into a bizarre magic-mecha fusion.
To placate traditionalists, there’s even an apprentice swordsman, Black Star, whose turbocharged braggadocio culminates in an old school martial showdown with the ronin Mifune. But, even mano-a-mano, there’s always time for cod philosophical discourse. It’s not merely physical supremacy that is asserted – but also an explicit personal code. Black Star’s deadly mastery of the blade is, it seems, pyrrhic, if he wields it angrily, succumbing to the “demon” that lurks within. Needless to say, this is existentialism at the level of The Empire Strikes Back, rather than Sartre.
For all its pyrotechnic razzle-dazzle and glossy irony, Soul Eater is a traditional moral fable, with some alarmingly banal wisdom tucked in the tail. Equally haggard is its knowingly rampant pop-cultural pillage. Little is novel here, but, synthesised with vim and flair, the series makes for a splendidly beguiling jaunt into the beyond. DJO
From the studio that brought you Fullmetal Alchemist and Cowboy Be-Bop.
Soul Eater is an anime that centres around meisters and their weapons, and their mission to collect 99 evil souls and 1 witch soul. Upon doing so, the meister's weapons will become a Deathscythe, which is the highest title for a weapon.
Maka, Soul Eater, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, and Patty and Liz Thompson are the characters Soul Eater revolves around. Besides taking the time to gather souls these students of Shibusen defend Death City from some of the most powerful of creatures while still attending school and trying to become stronger.
Series: Soul Eater: Part Four
Release date: 27th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 271 mins
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Starring: Chiaki Omigawa, Kouki Uchiyama, Akeno Watanabe, Emiri Katou, Houko Kuwashima
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Series: Soul Eater: Part Three
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 306 mins
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Starring: Chiaki Omigawa, Kouki Uchiyama, Akeno Watanabe, Emiri Katou, Houko Kuwashima
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Time to grab your scythe and don your skull broaches: hot on the heels of part two comes the third instalment of the adaptation of Atsushi Okhubo's manga Soul Eater.
Following on from where the second collection left off, part three continues to develop the stories of the young students at the Death Weapon Meister Academy as they search for the 99 kishin eggs (evil souls) and one witches soul required to elevate themselves to the rank of Death Scythe.
They are overseen as always by tall, dark and boney himself, Lord Death, as well as a growing list of increasingly complex teachers, many of whom are in various states of decomposition.
The twelve episodes in this instalment focus on the return of the insidious Arachne – The Mother of Magic Weapons – after 800 years, and the coinciding return of her sister: Medusa. Neither of these occurrences are good news for the team of Maka, Black Star and Death The Kid whose training begins to take a back seat to defence of the academy as their enemies close in around them.
The team's need to collect souls is shelved as they hunt for magic tools and weapons that might aid them against the insurgent Arachnophobia Group, and to that end they are aided by their stalwart partners (friends who can merge with their souls to become physical weapons) in the hunt for these artefacts.
Ultimately the team will have to put aside their differences and learn to trust their friends, partners and each other in order to combat a new foe who threatens to engulf not just the Academy, but the entire world…
Soul Eater is nothing if not ambitious. The world it creates, the rules it codifies and the characters it forges are far-reaching indeed, and, at first, it can feel a little ominous to a first-time viewer. The series has defined its exposition as something to be done through demonstration, and this trend is continued into the third collection of episodes where verbal explanations are few and far between. This can make for an initially frustrating experience as you struggle to figure out just what the hell a 'Meister' is for the first few episodes, but, ultimately, everything slots into place through frequently set examples. Moreover, the thick jargon gives Soul Eater at least a veneer of high fantasy, which is lacking in certain other similarly-themed animes, and this makes it feel like more than a 'watch-and-forget' series.
In fact, what is perhaps the most instantly recognisable aspect of Soul Eater is the design which, while derivative in places, does a passable job for the most part in establishing an original aesthetic. Characters such as Death The Kid (the son of Death) are fantastically thought-out, and with little touches to each of them filling out the edges there really is great scope for dialogue and – surprisingly enough – comedy, which the series manages to do incredibly well. However, from time to time, it feels as though they were not willing to attempt this for every character, and the end result is an unbalanced group of people who sometimes feel as if they've been flung together by designers who were not working in tandem. Moreover, the design occasionally feels too borrowed from other sources, and while the wide-angle shots of urban vistas (complete with an animated sun and moon) really are brilliant, there are moments that feel so derivative as to qualify as filler.
Speaking of filler: while the over-arching narrative is an interesting and involving one, there are occasional episodes where it's hard to escape the feeling that they were written to pad out the numbers, as they contribute little. And while these episodes are in the great minority of what is ultimately an entertaining series, they still cause the total five hour run time to sag in the middle.
The negatives do not detract so greatly from this third instalment of Soul Eater as to make it anything other than hugely fun to watch. Although the mythos is impenetrable, and the design is sometimes unoriginal, the action, dialogue and characterisation would make this a worthy addition to any fan’s collection. JD
Series: Soul Eater: Part Two
Release date: 26th July 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 325 mins
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Starring: Chiaki Omigawa, Kouki Uchiyama, Akeno Watanabe, Emiri Katou, Houko Kuwashima
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Directed and designed by the same creative team that brought us the cult-hit Fullmetal Alchemist, the second instalment of Soul Eater arrives on these shores to an army of expectant anime fans.
Soul Eater takes place in the Death Weapon Meister Academy. Here we follow the exploits of one class of students as they strive to understand the full extent of their powers. But this is a complex matter in Death City, where people can morph into weaponry, and the resonance of one’s soul can become a matter of life and death. For the students to progress to the level of Death Scythe, they must collect the souls of ninety-nine humans and one witch, the witches being the death meister’s mortal enemy.
Matters complicate further when the head of the academy, Lord Death, reveals that there is a terrible Kishan (demon) sleeping underneath the grounds of the institute. The city is attacked by a tribe of witches who seek to unleash the Kishan, and soon student and master are having to band together to save the world from a selection of terrifying and surreal enemies.
With each episode, more is revealed about our characters and just how unstable they actually are. Head lecturer Dr. Frankenstein begins to reveal his psychotic nature, the Demon Sword becomes trapped in his own self-loathing, and Lord Death’s son is increasingly incapacitated by his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder…
The first episode on this release sets this series up like it’s going to be a goth-lite version of Naruto. Just another in a long line of disappointing and lacklustre anime shows. Its mix of ‘school-life’ melodrama and ultra-violent swordplay seem like a desperate attempt to hook in that all important teenage audience. But patience is rewarded, and as soon as the introductions are over, Soul Eater comes thrillingly to life.
Critics of anime will always refer to the use of impenetrable storylines and hokum technicalities, and Soul Eater will do little to change their minds. However, the fantasy logic of Death City is slowly drip-fed to the audience, which saves rambling, boring exposition getting in the way of explosive action. What begins as mystifying and woefully complex starts to become strangely logical and easy-to-follow. Before you are aware of having had any explanation, you suddenly begin to understand the combat jargon and labyrinthine back-story.
Once the story and characters have all been set up, all that is left to do is enjoy the battle sequences, which thanks to Takuya Igarshi’s eyes for direction and team of talented animators are slick, fast-paced and hugely entertaining. People morph into dragons and rip through the sky; huge golems wield chainsaws; people transform into weapons, laying waste to entire towns, with apocalyptic fireballs and waves of flashing lights... They may not be subtle, or even logical, but the level of imagination and spectacle is, at times, truly astounding.
What makes Soul Eater even more impressive is that while you are being dazzled by the kinetic and frenzied fight sequences, you are slowly introduced to a collection of characters, who due to, or perhaps because of their faults and dark compulsions are very likeable. Each struggles with their own psychological concerns and dilemmas, something which becomes more apparent as the series progresses. It is here that the gothic-dressing of earlier episodes makes way for a more adult and sometimes frightening darkness. The Demon Sword’s back-story is one of horrifying child-abuse, and when the academy’s dormant Kishan rises, he begins a campaign of infectious madness with truly sinister results.
But with all this darkness, there comes a knowing humour sadly lacking from a lot of gothic anime, making this all the more enjoyable. During one of Lord Death’s speeches, he seems to openly admit that what is going on makes little sense, and the unexplained appearance of the infuriating Excalibur, a Moomen-esque creature with a superiority complex, hilariously brings the storyline to a grinding halt. Moments such as these stop the admittedly po-faced pretension of some of the proceedings, and keep this show more on the side of pure visual entertainment.
Soul Eater will do little to convert the anime-phobic, but this is a title which rewards patience. An exciting show populated with likeable characters, spectacular action and a welcome strain of the macabre. AC
Film: Soul Eater: Part One
Release date: 28th June 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 325 mins
Director: Takuya Igarashi
Starring: Chiaki Omigawa, Kouki Uchiyama, Akeno Watanabe, Emiri Katou, Houko Kuwashima
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Based on the manga written and illustrated by Atsushi Okubo, Soul Eater was first released as three separate one-shots serialised in two Gangan Powered special editions and one Gangan Wing issue way back in 2003. The anime first appeared on TV Tokyo in 2008. Finally available on DVD, part one brings together the first 13 episodes.
At the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA), Maka and her partner, human-weapon Soul, have collected the spirits of 99 evil mortals, needing just one from a witch to transform Soul into a death scythe - a weapon of great power that will retain order and balance to Death City. Failing, the gifted youngsters have to start all over again, but they’re not alone.
The cocky but gifted Black Star and his weapon partner Tsubaki struggle to form a workable relationship whilst new student Death the Kid must overcome his aversion to asymmetry if he and his partners Liz and Patty are to succeed in bringing down the destructive enemies threatening to collect non-evil human souls to transform one of their own into a Kishin - an evil demon God that would plunge the world into madness…
Soul Eater, like its main antagonist Medusa, is a beautiful but flawed creature. Packed with salacious humour, lengthy action sequences and stylish imagery it demands attention. Its influences can be traced all the way to genres as disparate as British Hammer Horror (with its mad scientists and mummies) and Poliziotteschi films (episode seven takes place in a crime-riddled Italy), though neither can compete with the brashness of old-school Shounen Manga.
Its audaciousness irritates just as much as it fascinates, especially in the opening episodes when we are introduced to the three main protagonists. Excluding Maka and her human-weapon Soul, the other two, Black Star especially, are just plain annoying. Whilst Death Kid’s struggle to cope with anything not evenly shaped brings levels of playground humour, Black Star’s cockiness brings nothing but maddening frustration - episode two is a real struggle until its ‘Shadow Star’ finale finally hits the right notes. In fairness, as the story progresses, the two characters become less of a headache, but it’s very hard to root for something that rattles your cage so much.
Bursting with invention and a slew of impressive weapons certain to delight all, Soul Eater’s pace is fast and furious with a delirious score of rock and hip-hop to keep things wild and rowdy right from the polished opening credits. Sadly, the interest in its lengthy opening sequence wanes after a few episodes, and the lure of the skip chapter function on the remote control is too difficult to resist. Even some of the episodes suffer from being more filler than killer - the main plot lost in the sheer effort to make even the most banal show ludicrously entertaining.
This isn’t a massive problem - the fight scenes ripped straight from the best beat-em-ups are for the most part a joy to behold; and its humour, although aimed at teenage boys mostly, is often titillating and right on the money. Episode nine, introducing the legend that is Excalibur, is a complete riot thanks to its clever twisting of a classic tale. Director Takuya Igarashi is in no rush to reveal the main plot, which is just as well seeing as there are 51 episodes in total, but it’s his use of lingering shots and moments of complete silence that pack an unexpected emotional punch.
Soul Eater’s universe is a joy to behold - even the sun and the moon have personalities, inspired by Okubo’s favourite manga Dr. Slump. It’s this attention to detail that really satisfies - the concept of arrows pointing out the obvious, or simply to show us where we should be looking is innovative and amusing, whilst the inclusion of madcap characters ripped from other genres setting it apart from the crowd. Takuya is well aware of his target audience’s expectations, and he truly delivers the goods. But he’s also savvy enough to incorporate emotion and depth to his characters, and the world that encompasses them, which could, if given the chance, appeal to more than just horny teenage boys (the female characters are clearly the strongest, the males stupid for the most part).
Not only is Soul Eater a feast for the eyes, sticking faithfully to Atsushi Okubo’s original work, it’s also packed with boisterous witticisms, be it verbal or visual, and brilliantly realised personas (even the most deranged antagonists are somehow endearing). In short, Soul Eater is a riot from start to finish. Whether it can sustain as much interest over another 38 episodes remains to be seen (it does seem like a ridiculously long ride), but for now, part two can’t come quick enough.
Regardless of its deficiencies, annoying protagonists and moments of banality, movie fans will find plenty in the inventive Soul Eater to keep them entertained. From mind-boggling action to bawdy humour, from astounding imagery to a pumping soundtrack, this first-rate anime has it all. DW
