So recently I just finished Soul Eater (late in the game I know) and then followed up with the more recent Soul Eater Not. Two vastly different shows set in the same general universe, produced by the same studio (Bones), but (the anime) written and directed by different people.
I know it is unfair to compare the two and I will try not to, but I am sure my bias will seep through.
Soul Eater
Students a the DWMA (Death Weapon Meister Academy) train to become proficient at defeating witches and humans who have strayed the path to become evil and thus their souls have become corrupted. Students generally work in pairs as weapons (students who can physically transform into weapons) and the meisters that wield the weapon. After a meister and weapon have accumulated 99 evil human souls and 1 witch soul (which the weapons absorb) they can become an official “Death Scythe” that can be wielded by Death himself (who founded the academy and the fictional “Death City” where it is located).
The show follows primarily pairs/trio: Maka Albarn and Soul Eater (a Scythe), Black Star and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa (who is able to transform into several weapons associated with ninjitsu), and Death’s son: Death the Kid and his partners Liz and Patty Thompson (both pistols).
The show has a lot going for it.
The story is enjoyable. However, for me, the first six episodes (or so) are a bit annoying and mostly exposition: necessary, just not my favorite part of the series. I know a lot of people prefer the manga story-line, but since I haven’t read it this doesn’t bias me.
The artwork is my favorite thing about this show. It has got it’s own cartoon-ish, nior, Halloween feeling to it that appeals to my aesthetic sensibilities. I love the sun and moon (my favorite background creepers)!
I watched the English dub and it is absolutely fantastic. I often watch subs since I watch a lot of new material on Crunchyroll, but the dub of this is really good and I highly recommend it if you haven’t watched it.
The soundtrack is really good and I am an absolute sucker for the 2nd OP: “Black Paper Moon” by Tommy Heavenly6.
http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/Tommy-heavenly6—PAPERMOON/8e52f8a06aa16038c0d2974c395ada65
Attention Parents: Overall this show, while not harmless, is probably good for the 12 and up set. There is some ecchi stuff early on, mostly with Blair, but this is minimal in the overall picture of the show. There is blood. Black blood and otherwise. There are also themes of abuse, mental illness, infidelity, and madness. All of these themes could be a really interesting talking point with your kids if you watch the show with them.
I loved this show and highly recommend it (as I know many other do as well). And this now brings me to the other Soul Eater….
Soul Eater Not!
Last year’s Soul Eater Not! jumps into the same universe as the original Soul Eater (Anime ending in 2009). It is classified in the ecchi, comedy, and shounen categories which I don’t think is exactly accurate. It seems to be more of a slice of life, seinen style of show with some yuri suggestion thrown in for good measure. Whatever it is trying to do, it never seems to firmly achieve it.
The story revolves mostly around 3 freshmen students at the DWMA: Tsugumi Harudori, a weapon (halberd) and two meisters, Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn. They are all weapons of the NOT class (Normally Overcome Target) who are there to learn to control their weapons and abilities, as opposed to the EAT class (Extraordinarily Advantaged Talent) which takes their abilities into the field to fight evil humans and witches (ie: the original Soul Eater). Much of the show revolves around Tsugumi’s indecision around which person to pair up with for her meister.
Soul Eater Not! was meant to take place slightly before the main story-line of Soul Eater. Because of this you do get cameos from most of the Soul Eater series characters. Pre-zombie-fied Sid is most heavily used and is treated fairly well as a character. Stein also makes a couple of appearances playing “the wacky doctor” to an annoying effect, I found. Maka serves a small role as some inspiration for Tsugumi as well. The cameos from the original series (with the exception of Sid) felt kind of contrived and forced, but maybe that was me.
The yuri undertones (or maybe overtones?)… I know this is a standard in the “cute girls doing cute things” shows (and this was essentially “cute girls doing cute things” at the DWMA), but my god did they beat you over the head with it. If Meme wasn’t sleep-molesting Tsugumi in some part, then it was Anya getting all tsundere-style jealous that Meme was touching or rubbing up against Tsugumi (maybe I exaggerate, but not much). And then there was the whole side story of Kim Diehl and Jacqueline O’Lantern Dupré (who were both in Soul Eater as side characters) and their whole romance/ friendship/ partnering which seemed largely unnecessary.
And can we talk about boobs for a minute? I know if there is a school anime with a bunch of girls there will be a scene where they talk about their boob size. It’s a given. It is an immutable law of anime. But for gods sake! In Souls Eater Not! they wouldn’t shut up about it!! Fine, mention it one time *eye rolls*, we’re done. But repeatedly???!!! Can you tell that this annoyed me?
The animation was clean and well done. Is it what I liked from the original? No, but it was meant to be different, so if you accept that, it was animated fine.
The story is weak. It never quite gets a foothold of what it is trying to be. I liked some of the end where it got a little action oriented and thus the characters got some development, but otherwise the show felt largely directionless.
The OP was actually pretty good. Monochrome by Dancing Dolls.
Attention Parents: The show is a bit more ecchi than Soul Eater and has yuri undertones. Otherwise there is no blood and little fighting or challenging themes to deal with.
I do realize I may be being unfair to Soul Eater Not!, but I do feel like it didn’t make clear what ever it was it was trying to do. As a slice of life, or even as a “cute girls doing cute things” show it didn’t live up to it’s potential. If you haven’t watched these shows, maybe Soul Eater Not might be one to watch first and perhaps then enjoyed more?
Happy viewing everyone!
dadwatchesanime 
I recently watched a show called Noragami, which also features characters that transform into weapons.
Girls talking about boobs is okay with me… although I wouldn’t say the same thing if it was a bunch of guys talking about their privates.
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I know Noragami. My boys are big fans of it. At one of the conventions this year we saw the dub premier for that show along with a panel with some of the voice actors as well. Oddly enough, Micah Solusod who was the voice for Soul was also the voice for the weapon in Noragami, Yukine.
I usually don’t care about the boob talk, but in this show they just way overdid it.
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The art style change from kind of Halloween-esque and arty and a little edgy to over the top MOE is what has put me off of ever watching Soul Eater Not! You can’t go from super hip and cool to standard moe fare that’s too common now. It’s just….NO. It’s Not! Soul Eater as opposed to Soul Eater Not!.
I love Soul Eater, with my favorite character being Soul himself. Maka, ah Maka. I know she’s seen as a strong female lead but she just grates on my last nerve. She’s too straight-laced, too goody goody, too must-stick-to-the-rules. On top of that, she whines. A lot. Tsubaki and Soul are my favorite characters.
That being said, I’d like to find the manga, because I’ve heard Maka’s character is better in there than in the anime.
Also, the dub is amazing. (Except BlackStar’s voice. Holy batman, NO.)
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Yes. The change in the art styles was disappointing to me as well. However, I do think that was intentional as the whole style of thew show was meant to be a more “moe” departure from the original.
I think Blackstar’s voice is going to be annoying no matter who does it. It’s just the way he’s written. 🙂
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