image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Eater_(manga)
I do not own Soul Eater, so my reading has been done through fan translations online. There were many times that chapters were missing and that pages were not translated or were translated poorly. I mention these to say that my interpretations may be inaccurate and that I may have gotten some things wrong.
Soul Eater is 25 volumes long with 113 chapters. My review will be below, and if you continue reading below the stars, you will see my explanation and my recounting of what I read.
Every post past this point will be a spoiler, so please read ahead with caution!
Review time!
Plot: 1 star. The main plot of Soul Eater is for Maka turn her weapon, Soul, into a death scythe. A sub-plot comes up along the way for the Kishin to be defeated. Many characters have their own sub-sub-plots below that, such as Ox getting Kim’s love, Black Star surpassing god, Kidd creating balance, etc., but I’m going to focus on the main plot and the Kishin sub-plot. I’m going to give Soul Eater 1 star for plots. It clearly has several, and all of them (except a few sub-sub-plots) are resolved. It does not deviate much from the main plots except to add direction for what will help achieve the main plot.
Art: 1 star. The art was rough in the three introductory stories, but it clears up into beautiful composition. I’m not a fan of the dark, scratchy pictures that show up from time to time, but they are all very expressive, and they add a grittiness to each scene that helps me feel the situation. The action flows well, and it is easy to tell what is going on. I cannot get over the incredible battle scenes! They get my blood pumping; they’re so great!! Definitely 1 star, and I wish I could give more; it’s great.
Story Progression: 1 star. This one is harder to rate because I had some bad translations. I will say that this manga has a lot of story; it definitely seems more driven by story than action. What I mean is that any time a chapter was missing, I could tell; so much happens in each chapter that you really can’t miss any without becoming very confused. There’s a lot of great action, but it’s the story that carries this manga (the action just spices it up). I would have to give this a full star since the missing chapters and bad translations aren’t the fault of the manga.
Genre: 1 star. “Adventure, dark fantasy…” I would say Soul Eater follows that. There’s a lot of adventure, and it certainly has dark elements (Crona, anyone? That entire backstory? Holy crap; it’s so dark!) and fantasy. Witches, human children becoming weapons, black blood, madness clowns, and Excalibur; even though it’s set on Earth out of Nevada of all places, it’s pretty fantastical. Also, lots of the original bad guys are historic villains like Jack the Ripper and Al Capone in a fairly modern setting; it’s hard to do that and not be considered fantasy. I’ll say 1 star, though comedy could also easily be added in, as can ecchi; this manga has some funny scenes -and some sexy ones.
Enjoyment: 1 star. I want to be hard on this manga because it is one that I really like. The comedy’s great; the action is incredible; the art is intense; I love the character development; the lore is fun and interesting, but there are some moments that were hard. It is dark; I don’t like people of faith falling to sin; child abuse is terrible; succumbing to madness and losing heart; people being corrupted: these are all really heavy subjects. But I loved it enough to read it a second time, and I have recommended this to my friends. I will give it a full star for my enjoyment; it’s truly so incredibly made!
This story has reached and/or surpassed my criteria, so it has earned 5 stars!
I highly recommend anyone to read this if they like dark adventure manga!
If you’d like to read my full review, please click here.
Completed Manga Review 