CLXXVII: "Soul Eater"

I'm not making up the title. Soul Eater is another anime that was adapted from a manga of the same name, published by Square Enix and created by Atsushi Okubo. Wasn't into it at first, but the titular character kind of grew on me with his personality, so as with any title, I hung on for the ride. With anime, games, and two different manga, this series was another that, more or less, fell onto my lap.

The main story is set in the fictional Death City, the location of it being Nevada in the U.S. (hence why they sometimes call it Death Vegas?) The Death Weapon Meister Academy, or DWMA, is a facility where students undergo training, half of them are Weapon Meisters, and the other are actual human weapons. The story centers on a group composed of 3 teams, but the main two happen to be the titular Soul Eater, and his meister Maka Albarn. The two but heads often, but ultimately, they are the best of partners who look out for each other for better or worse. Alongside them are two other solid pairs. One of them is the ninja Black Star (who reminded me a little of Naruto when I first saw him, in fact may rival him) alongside his partner Tsubaki Nakatsukasa. The other happens to be a team of three technically, starting with Death the Kid. Always striving for perfect symmetry, he is the son of Death himself, who happens to be the head of DWMA. As his son, he can choose not to attend, but for his own reasons does so anyway. Keeping in line with his symmetrical disorder, the Thompson sisters Liz and Patty serve him well as his human weapons. While it starts out as a normal routine to make the Death Scythe, fit for Death to wield, it escalates to more serious matters early onward when more characters appear. Maka and Soul must have each others' backs to deal with it all.

The anime lasts for 51 episodes, running between April 2008 to March 2009 originally. It is dubbed under, and licensed by Funimation Entertainment, also premiering on their channel. This product was also done in the studio Bones. Like others, the anime deviates from the manga, but heavily when DWMA battles Arachnaphobia for the first time. In addition, another manga, Soul Eater Not!, serves as the side story, where as three other freshmen: the weapon Tsumugi Harodori, and meisters Meme and Anya are the central characters. The Not! portion of the title is an acronym meaning Normally Overcome Target, which is a non-combat class to control the powers and overcome matters to live normally, in opposition to the combative practices of the EAT (Extremely Advanced Talent) classes seen in the main story. And with Sid not a zombie and antagonist Medusa Gorgon being the nurse, it's safe to guess that it most likely precedes the main events of Soul Eater. Maka and Soul are voiced respectively by Laura Baily and Micah Solusod.

Soul Eater caught me off guard, and I liked it. The score here will be 8 of 10, though the plot devices were mundane in some areas. Still, nothing displeased me about this title.