| Since I wasn't able to get enough footage for my Disgaea review, why don't I review something else that takes place in hell?
Oh, because it sucks and I've been trying to find an anime to review that I like for a change. Well it's too fucking late, this is already a week overdue so I'll just have to resume the hunt later.
Soul Eater is an ongoing manga series and 50 episode anime series that is published by Square Enix.
That is literally all you need to know. Final Fantasy has long been a stagnant series with stupid characters and an occasionally interesting but for the most part trippy aesthetic and story pacing on par with InuYasha's, and Soul Eater can best be described as Naruto as envisioned by Square Enix. Let the cutting commence!
Soul Eater is stupidly the name of the main character, a living scythe capable of transforming into a weapon shape or a humanoid shape wielded by Maka Albarn, an underworld weapons technician in training who seeks to turn Soul Eater into a Death Scythe so that he might be wielded by the god of death in an ongoing struggle against the forces of death and rebirth and the forces of mindless destruction.
Wait, that sounds kind of interesting. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?! How'd the premise get so sloppily executed?
...no pun intended. The obvious answer would be that the characters suck and the tone is indecisive. The three big recurring male characters (And one of the recurring female characters) are have a major psychological problem. Soul Eater is stupid, Black Star is just Naruto all over again, the Thompson Sisters are both idiots, and Death the Kid has literally crippling OCD, as in he'll try to run away from combat because he began fretting whether or not he set the toilet paper roll up properly or refuse to attack something trying to kill him because it was perfectly symmetrical. C'mon, not even Dr. Steinmen from BioShock was that crazy! He knew to shoot back! Actually speaking of shooting back, Death the Kid, you're holding your pistols the wrong way! If you hold them like that you can't use the sights and can't brace for recoil properly.
Anyway Soul Eater takes place for the most part in the afterworld I THINK, it's not really clear as to whether or not Maka Albarn and Black Star are already dead and are serving the death god in the afterlife, especially when it reveals Maka's father is a living weapon like Soul Eater. How does that work? Do scythes have functioning dicks now? And speaking of Naruto, in the pilot of Soul Eater Maka has a voice actress who completely phones it in because she was boycotting doing her job properly until she got to appear in a second season of Seitokai Yakuindomo, so afterwards she switched to the same voice actress as Naruto. But that's just something amusing, Naruto's voice actress doesn't do that bad of a job, she just keeps picking shit roles. Maka Albarn is arguably the main character, she's a weapon technician with dead fish eyes and pigtails who seeks to turn Soul Eater into a powerful Death Scythe to show up her adulterous father who I think is literally named Death Scythe. Her partner Soul Eater is too stupid and personality depraved to dwell on, so let's move on.
The second technician/living weapon pair we're introduced to are Naruto's developmentally challenged brother Black Star and Tsubaki who can turn into a variety of ninja weapons like a kusarigama, shuriken, and later on a ninja sword. Tsubaki is the supportive best friend stereotype who never thinks to just switch partners before Black Star gets them both killed, Black Star is one of those screaming idiots who never realize ninjas were essentially spies who hid their identities and used stealth to attack because they were typically outnumbered and ill equipped. So he naturally announces his presence in combat and is about as subtle as Chuck Norris, and even less likable. Which sucks, Tsubaki could have been more interesting if her partner weren't such a waste of oxygen.
Lastly we have the trio of Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters, living handguns turning Death the Kid into the bastard love child of Trish from Devil May Cry and Monk.
Actually Death the Kid is the son of the death god, and just saying that makes me want to strangle the person who wrote this. How the fuck does an embodiment and overseer of death create life?! This would be like the horseman Famine working at a bakery or Kratos being nice, it completely violates the very nature of the established character, so why the fuck would you do it?! I wouldn't bitch so much and just say he adopted a new embodiment of death and destruction, but Death the Kid pisses me off. He could easily have been the most powerful out of the other technicians since obviously he himself is a death god and already can tap a much more potent power than humans, but his OCD and obsession with symmetry creates so many instances where he could have utterly crushed a major villain but didn't because he was staring at a perfect cloud or whining that the Thompson sisters have differently sized racks. And the Thompson sisters themselves aren't worth talking about, neither have that much depth. One is stupid, the other is cowardly and a little prissy.
Beyond explaining who the characters are vaguely because they don't have much personality, it's hard to talk about Soul Eater because I got 15 episodes in and still couldn't tell you what the main plot was. C'mon, InuYasha only took ten episodes to introduce everything we'd need to know, making them look on the ball is insulting! There is some hints to an overarching plot but never a main villain. We do see a witch called Medusa trying to experiment with the Kishin, the ultimate enemies of the death god, but her only subject is easily defeated by the veterans of the death god's academy Shibusen and Death the Kid. We are introduced to a character I actually really liked called Dr. Stein who is clearly psychotic but who is kept around because the danger Kishin pose, but there are several events that call his intelligence to doubt.
The thing that really pisses me off about Soul Eater though aside from the lack of subtlety, shitty main characters, and barely there plot is that it could have been good. Tone down the stupidity of Soul Eater and remove Black Star from the equation all together and give a weakness to Death the Kid that isn't quite as stupid and we might have gotten some decent characters, tone down the dead end comedy relief and focus on the central conflict and you could have had a better story, but instead we get a lot of wasted potential and really fucking stupid characters. I'll come out and admit it, I actually like the quirky art style, no other anime I know has had a moon with bleeding gums, but it's all for naught under the bad writing.
I will say this, Soul Eater isn't as bad as some mainstream animes I can name. I'd rate it higher than Naruto or DearS, but ultimately can't recommend it. You could watch the first and third episodes (Not the second episode, it features Black Star) to get a taste of the interesting art and take in music that doesn't suck as much as most anime music does, but ultimately it's a forgettable experience not really worth exploring in the first place. Hopefully next week won't be the same story.
Oh by the way Black Star, deicide is not an act awarded with a halo. Just ask Kratos.
--Pyramid Head
Next Non-Game Review: Love Hina |
| Pyramid Head:
and Death the Kid has literally crippling OCD, as in he'll try to run away from combat because he began fretting whether or not he set the toilet paper roll up properly or refuse to attack something trying to kill him because it was perfectly symmetrical. C'mon, not even Dr. Steinmen from BioShock was that crazy! He knew to shoot back! Actually speaking of shooting back, Death the Kid, you're holding your pistols the wrong way! If you hold them like that you can't use the sights and can't brace for recoil properly.
Funnily enough he actually improves upon that part of his personality in the manga with time.
Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly9jLm1oY2RuLm5ldC9zdG9yZS9tYW5nYS8yNTIvMTYtMDk5LjAvY29tcHJlc3NlZC9lMDI0XzAwNl8wMTNfMjAxMl8wMTNfMDI3XzAyMC5qcGciIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48L3A+
Anyways, looking forward to your Love Hina review since i loved the manga, but have yet to watch the anime. |
Since I wasn't able to get enough footage for my Disgaea review, why don't I review something else that takes place in hell?
Oh, because it sucks and I've been trying to find an anime to review that I like for a change. Well it's too fucking late, this is already a week overdue so I'll just have to resume the hunt later.
Soul Eater is an ongoing manga series and 50 episode anime series that is published by Square Enix.
That is literally all you need to know. Final Fantasy has long been a stagnant series with stupid characters and an occasionally interesting but for the most part trippy aesthetic and story pacing on par with InuYasha's, and Soul Eater can best be described as Naruto as envisioned by Square Enix. Let the cutting commence!
Soul Eater is stupidly the name of the main character, a living scythe capable of transforming into a weapon shape or a humanoid shape wielded by Maka Albarn, an underworld weapons technician in training who seeks to turn Soul Eater into a Death Scythe so that he might be wielded by the god of death in an ongoing struggle against the forces of death and rebirth and the forces of mindless destruction.
Wait, that sounds kind of interesting. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?! How'd the premise get so sloppily executed?
...no pun intended. The obvious answer would be that the characters suck and the tone is indecisive. The three big recurring male characters (And one of the recurring female characters) are have a major psychological problem. Soul Eater is stupid, Black Star is just Naruto all over again, the Thompson Sisters are both idiots, and Death the Kid has literally crippling OCD, as in he'll try to run away from combat because he began fretting whether or not he set the toilet paper roll up properly or refuse to attack something trying to kill him because it was perfectly symmetrical. C'mon, not even Dr. Steinmen from BioShock was that crazy! He knew to shoot back! Actually speaking of shooting back, Death the Kid, you're holding your pistols the wrong way! If you hold them like that you can't use the sights and can't brace for recoil properly.
Anyway Soul Eater takes place for the most part in the afterworld I THINK, it's not really clear as to whether or not Maka Albarn and Black Star are already dead and are serving the death god in the afterlife, especially when it reveals Maka's father is a living weapon like Soul Eater. How does that work? Do scythes have functioning dicks now? And speaking of Naruto, in the pilot of Soul Eater Maka has a voice actress who completely phones it in because she was boycotting doing her job properly until she got to appear in a second season of Seitokai Yakuindomo, so afterwards she switched to the same voice actress as Naruto. But that's just something amusing, Naruto's voice actress doesn't do that bad of a job, she just keeps picking shit roles. Maka Albarn is arguably the main character, she's a weapon technician with dead fish eyes and pigtails who seeks to turn Soul Eater into a powerful Death Scythe to show up her adulterous father who I think is literally named Death Scythe. Her partner Soul Eater is too stupid and personality depraved to dwell on, so let's move on.
The second technician/living weapon pair we're introduced to are Naruto's developmentally challenged brother Black Star and Tsubaki who can turn into a variety of ninja weapons like a kusarigama, shuriken, and later on a ninja sword. Tsubaki is the supportive best friend stereotype who never thinks to just switch partners before Black Star gets them both killed, Black Star is one of those screaming idiots who never realize ninjas were essentially spies who hid their identities and used stealth to attack because they were typically outnumbered and ill equipped. So he naturally announces his presence in combat and is about as subtle as Chuck Norris, and even less likable. Which sucks, Tsubaki could have been more interesting if her partner weren't such a waste of oxygen.
Lastly we have the trio of Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters, living handguns turning Death the Kid into the bastard love child of Trish from Devil May Cry and Monk.
Actually Death the Kid is the son of the death god, and just saying that makes me want to strangle the person who wrote this. How the fuck does an embodiment and overseer of death create life?! This would be like the horseman Famine working at a bakery or Kratos being nice, it completely violates the very nature of the established character, so why the fuck would you do it?! I wouldn't bitch so much and just say he adopted a new embodiment of death and destruction, but Death the Kid pisses me off. He could easily have been the most powerful out of the other technicians since obviously he himself is a death god and already can tap a much more potent power than humans, but his OCD and obsession with symmetry creates so many instances where he could have utterly crushed a major villain but didn't because he was staring at a perfect cloud or whining that the Thompson sisters have differently sized racks. And the Thompson sisters themselves aren't worth talking about, neither have that much depth. One is stupid, the other is cowardly and a little prissy.
Beyond explaining who the characters are vaguely because they don't have much personality, it's hard to talk about Soul Eater because I got 15 episodes in and still couldn't tell you what the main plot was. C'mon, InuYasha only took ten episodes to introduce everything we'd need to know, making them look on the ball is insulting! There is some hints to an overarching plot but never a main villain. We do see a witch called Medusa trying to experiment with the Kishin, the ultimate enemies of the death god, but her only subject is easily defeated by the veterans of the death god's academy Shibusen and Death the Kid. We are introduced to a character I actually really liked called Dr. Stein who is clearly psychotic but who is kept around because the danger Kishin pose, but there are several events that call his intelligence to doubt.
The thing that really pisses me off about Soul Eater though aside from the lack of subtlety, shitty main characters, and barely there plot is that it could have been good. Tone down the stupidity of Soul Eater and remove Black Star from the equation all together and give a weakness to Death the Kid that isn't quite as stupid and we might have gotten some decent characters, tone down the dead end comedy relief and focus on the central conflict and you could have had a better story, but instead we get a lot of wasted potential and really fucking stupid characters. I'll come out and admit it, I actually like the quirky art style, no other anime I know has had a moon with bleeding gums, but it's all for naught under the bad writing.
I will say this, Soul Eater isn't as bad as some mainstream animes I can name. I'd rate it higher than Naruto or DearS, but ultimately can't recommend it. You could watch the first and third episodes (Not the second episode, it features Black Star) to get a taste of the interesting art and take in music that doesn't suck as much as most anime music does, but ultimately it's a forgettable experience not really worth exploring in the first place. Hopefully next week won't be the same story.
Oh by the way Black Star, deicide is not an act awarded with a halo. Just ask Kratos.
--Pyramid Head
Next Non-Game Review: Love Hina