Soul Eater (Preview)
In which I start down a bad path
Ever wonder what pure execution looks like?
People talked a lot last season about the obvious highlight, True Tears, being a victory for execution over brilliant ideas. And it’s true: believable characters, subtle interactions, and emphasis on mood and atmosphere made it more than a typical anime romance, even if the story was basically unremarkable. But what happens when the Shonen/action genre is executed with that kind of skill? Well, obviously subtle and believable are not the words you’d still want to be using.
Substance will make a drama work, but action needs Style. And hypothetically, I’d require a ton because I hate action shows. I swear to god my wife watches more InuYasha than I do, and she’s a fairly normal person when it comes to TV (not to mention has never fallen into the Shonen demographic — I hope — and is neither fat nor crushing on Richard Cox. But I digress, as the thought of InuYasha always makes me do). I have tried so many times to enjoy Bleach (why?), only to realize that half-hour could be better spent waxing my nipples.
So why am I so stoked? You’ve probably heard by now, but BONES’s Soul Eater (based on the manga) is so fat with style (and with no small amount of RAD) that it’s threatening to pop out of its drawers.
Story
Shibusen University or something to that effect was founded by Shinigami-sama to create death weapons to stop the world from falling out of balance and being devoured by diabolical demon thingies called Kishin. Each weapon must feed on souls to gain its power, and travels with a human partner. Soul Eater is such a weapon in training, and Maka is his human partner. In order to become a full fledged Death Scythe, Soul Eater must eat 100 messed-up souls, but the final one must be a witch’s.
Shinigami-sama watches on as they make their attempt at number 100, alongside Maka’s dad, a Death Scythe himself who’s in the process of becoming estranged from his wife and daughter (he’s got a cheatin’ heart).
Thoughts
This thing is fucking wild! As is typical of the genre, there’s a very simple premise and a series of systems and rules for making things needlessly and superficially complicated. Also, people talk at each other a lot during fights. But there’s that execution. Of course I love BONES, they might be my favorites in fact, but here they’re attempting to outdo themselves. They’ve forsaken any concessions to reality in favor of a highly stylized and over-the-top version of their unmistakable look. Traditional animation is mixed with CG, but just to make 3D cartoons — it’s a billion years removed from Macross Frontier’s high-tech slickness or Blassreiter’s awful awful awful video game outtakes.
Comedy-wise, it’s a lot less successful. It remains to be seen how strongly they’ll rely on visuals, since jokes aren’t very good and only sight gags seemed to really pull off well.
The previously mentioned subs were actually not far off from my minimum requirements, I’m guessing speed was on their minds more than proofing. But beggars and choosers, all that.
All in all, it’s dumb as hell but it’s dumb fun — I’m happy to have seen it, and I officially want more.
- otou-san out!
April 10th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I read the manga and found it to be a serviceable shounen series. However, the Bones execution is phenomenal so far. The scythe fighting was so good, and the OP hints that they will cover most of the series instead of going into fillerville.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:07 am
boy am I glad to hear that. I spent some time last season in fillerville at the Shana hotel, and let me say they have a great maid (good with a band-aid) but they really make you stay too long.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Is BONES also responsible for SoulTaker? That’s a series I fell in love with based on style alone. I can’t comment on the story because I’m old and senile. I just remember thinking, “my god, this is like a Mike Mignola illustration - only animated!” This was long before The Amazing Screw-On Head was adapted for animation. Now THAT is dead-nuts Mignola.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
no, their big things are RahXephon (which I know you dug since it was your fault I watched it), Eureka Seven, Wolf’s Rain, and Darker Than Black. All awesome. The SoulTaker, according to ANN, was done by Tatsunoko, who go as far back as Macross. Is it worth seeing?
April 13th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Ah, I’ve seen Wolf’s Rain, too. And eventually I’ll get around to Eureka - it’s on my Q.
As for SoulTaker, it’s tough to say if you’ll like it. I did, but I might just be easier to entertain. It wouldn’t hurt to check out at least one episode though.