Soul Eater
Soul Eater is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ohkubo. Set at the "Death Weapon Meister Academy", the series revolves around three teams, each consisting of a weapon meister and at least one human that can transform into a weapon. Trying to make the latter a "Death Scythe" and thus fit for use by the academy's headmaster Shinigami, the personification of death, they must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch, in that order; otherwise, they will have to start all over again.
The manga was preceded by three separate one-shots published by Square Enix in 2003; the first two published in two Gangan Powered special editions and the last one in Gangan Wing. Soul Eater was regularly serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine from May 2004 to August 2013. Its chapters were collected in 25 volumes. A 51-episode anime television series adaptation produced by Bones was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 2008 to March 2009. The series has also spawned a drama CD, an art book, and three video games. A spin-off manga series, titled Soul Eater Not!, was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan from January 2011 to November 2014. Soul Eater was licensed for distribution in North America by Yen Press; it was serialized in Yen Press' Yen Plus manga anthology starting in July 2008, and the first manga volume was released in October 2009. The anime series has been licensed in English by Funimation.
The Soul Eater manga had 20.4 million copies in circulation by February 2022. The manga and anime have garnered positive reception for their distinctive Gothic aesthetic—frequently likened to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas—though some critics have noted excessive fanservice and conventional tropes.
Synopsis
Setting
Soul Eater is set at Death Weapon Meister Academy—"DWMA" for short—located in the fictional Death City in Nevada, United States. The school is run by Shinigami, also known as Death, as a training facility for humans with the ability to transform into weapons, as well as the wielders of those weapons, called meisters. Attending this school are Maka Albarn and her scythe partner, Soul Eater; assassin Black Star and his partner, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, who turns into various ninja weapons; and Shinigami's son, Death the Kid, and his pistol partners, Liz and Patty Thompson. The meister students' goal is to have their weapons absorb the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch, which dramatically increases the weapon's power and turns them into "Death Scythes" used by Shinigami.Plot
Maka and Soul battle the witch Medusa, who forces Crona, her child and meister of the demon sword Ragnarok, to collect non-evil human souls and eventually transform into a, an evil god. Medusa and her cohorts attack DWMA to revive Asura, the first kishin who nearly plunged the entire world into madness before being sealed beneath DWMA by Shinigami. Despite the combined efforts of Maka, Black Star, and Death the Kid, Medusa's group successfully revives Asura, who leaves to spread chaos around the world after a brief battle with Shinigami. Medusa is seemingly killed by meister and DWMA teacher Franken Stein, while Crona surrenders to DWMA and enrolls there.As a result of Asura's spreading madness, Medusa's sister Arachne comes out of hiding and reforms her organization, Arachnophobia, which poses a serious threat to DWMA. Shinigami calls in Death Scythes from around the world to aid in the fight against Arachnophobia. During this time, Medusa reappears with her soul possessing the body of a young girl, and forms a truce with DWMA so they can annihilate Arachnophobia together. The DWMA students and Medusa's entourage infiltrate Arachnophobia's headquarters, where Maka kills Arachne, only for Medusa to betray DWMA, possess Arachne's body, and brainwash Crona into rejoining her. Meanwhile, Death the Kid is captured by Noah, an artificial construct created from the Book of Eibon. Following this, Maka uses Arachne's soul to turn Soul into a Death Scythe. The duo become part of the newly formed meister unit Spartoi along with their friends, who rescue Death the Kid and defeat Noah.
Crona resurfaces in a city in Russia, destroying it and the Death Scythe stationed there, before being provoked by Medusa into killing her and getting taken by insanity. Maka is ordered by Shinigami to hunt down Crona; while searching for Crona with her powers, she unwittingly detects Asura's location on the cartoonish moon within the atmosphere. DWMA launches an attack on the moon to defeat Asura, aided by the witches after Death the Kid convinces them to establish a temporary alliance. During the battle, Crona absorbs Asura's body before being overtaken by him. Maka, Black Star, and Death the Kid eventually restore Crona's sanity and defeat Asura by sealing him on the moon with his own blood; Crona willingly remains with Asura to keep him imprisoned, and Maka promises to one day rescue Crona. The DWMA forces return to Earth, where Death the Kid becomes the new Shinigami following his father's death and establishes a peace treaty with the witches, with Soul being declared the last Death Scythe.
Production
After the end of his first manga series, B.Ichi, Atsushi Ohkubo created a one-shot story called "Soul Eater" published in June 2003 by Gangan Powered. Japanese readers were so fascinated by it that Ohkubo created two other one-shots called "Black Star" and "Death the Kid", published in September and November 2003, respectively. Since the results were high, the editor of Gangan Comics asked Ohkubo to create a series from his one-shots which became the introductory chapters to Soul Eater.In an interview, Ohkubo said that the series was greatly inspired by ideas from Tim Burton's animations, and by concepts from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Ohkubo also stated he decided to make the main protagonist of the series, Maka Albarn, a female to differ from the traditional male hero found in most manga, and paired her and the other main characters with those of the opposite sex to demonstrate an equal representation of gender. He also said the series' title, Soul Eater, was intended to refer to Asura and his desire to eat innocent souls, and not to the character, Soul "Eater" Evans. Ohkubo has explained that, when he began Soul Eater, he already had the plot and details like the DWMA fully formed and shared with his editors. He thought too many manga had characters who were developed through flashbacks, which he considered too clever. Therefore, he decided to develop his characters in the present rather than referring to their pasts, and to focus on "action and momentum," so he could "write freely".
Media
Manga
wrote three one-shot chapters published by Square Enix. "Soul Eater" and "Black Star" were published in the summer and autumn special editions of Gangan Powered, released on June 24 and September 22, 2003, respectively; the third one-shot, "Death the Kid", was published in Gangan Wing on November 26, 2003. Soul Eater started in Square Enix's manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Gangan on May 12, 2004, and finished after a nine-year run in the magazine on August 12, 2013. Square Enix compiled the series' 113 individual chapters into 25 volumes, released under its Gangan Comics imprint, between June 22, 2004, and December 12, 2013. Square Enix republished the series in a seventeen-volume edition, titled Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition, released from July 12, 2019, to March 12, 2020.The manga has been licensed by Yen Press for distribution in English in North America. The manga was initially serialized in Yen Press' Yen Plus anthology magazine; the first issue went on sale on July 29, 2008. The first English volume of the manga was published on October 27, 2009. The last volume was published on March 24, 2015. In July 2019, Square Enix announced the English release of Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition. The first volume was released on July 28, 2020.
Another manga series by Ohkubo, Soul Eater Not!, which ran alongside the main series, was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan from January 12, 2011, to November 10, 2014. Five volumes were released between September 22, 2011, and December 22, 2014. It was licensed by Yen Press in North America, with its five volumes released from July 24, 2012, and August 4, 2015.
Drama CD
A drama CD was released on August 31, 2005, by Square Enix titled Soul Eater : Special Social Studies Field Trip. The CD came bundled with an art book and a script of the CD dialogue. Of the cast used for the drama CD, only Black Star's voice actress Yumiko Kobayashi was retained for the anime voice cast.Anime
A 51-episode anime adaptation was directed by Takuya Igarashi and produced by Bones, Aniplex, Dentsu, Media Factory, and TV Tokyo; Bones and Aniplex were responsible for the animation and music production respectively. The scenario writer was Akatsuki Yamatoya who based the anime's story on Ohkubo's original concept. Character design was headed by Yoshiyuki Ito, with overall art direction by Norifumi Nakamura. The anime's conceptual design was done by Shinji Aramaki. The episodes aired on TV Tokyo between April 7, 2008, and March 30, 2009, and two animated specials aired on May 29 and June 1, 2008. The series aired in two versions: the regular evening broadcast and a late-night "Soul Eater Late Show" version, which included special footage. The dual broadcast of the series was billed as the "world's first evening and late-night resonance broadcast". The "resonance" term refers to a story concept in which Maka and her living weapon partner, Soul Eater, achieve maximum power by synchronizing their souls. Media Factory collected the episodes in thirteen DVDs, released from August 22, 2008, to August 25, 2009. The series was rebroadcast on TV Tokyo, under the title Soul Eater: Repeat Show, on September 30, 2010, featuring new opening and closing themes. Media Factory and Kadokawa brought the two previous Blu-ray box sets together into one box set released on February 26, 2014.In North America, the anime has been licensed by Funimation, who released the series in four half-season DVD box sets starting with the first volume in February 2010. The anime made its North American television debut on Funimation Channel in September 2010. It later aired on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block from February 17, 2013, to March 16, 2014.