now soul eater (2008) is my best friend
guy who has only seen the first 10 episodes: this series genuinely might be one of the shounens of All Time (it's me, i'm the guy)
maybe it's just been a while since i've partaken in the devil's animated japanese bildungsromans, but god, the last time i devoured something so quickly was hunter x hunter circa 2020 and that was, ahem. a difficult period in everyone's lives, let's say. there's a certain earnest, whimsical quality to late 90s-early 2000s era shounens that just can't be matched by the verdant new crop of (very watchable, frankly still quite tasty) chart-topping animanga coming hot off the presses in the year of our lord 2024. i like the absurdist/post-ironic/deconstructionist direction that newer mainstream releases have been taking, but they will never hold a candle to the pure, unadulterated Sincerity that shines through older works like the above-named biblically flawless story about two preteen boys committing war crimes and unwittingly inciting global political upheaval with universe-expanding implications, all in the name of friendship (and unresolved daddy issues). if togashi has __ fans, i'm one of them etc etc. we used to be a country...!
tl;dr i may sit and obediently eat my slop, but it doesn't mean i forfeit my right to complain about it (:
that being said, soul eater (2008) truly is [veronica sawyer voice] a mythic bitchβsolid teflon, never bothered. certainly not with trifling matters like lengthy exposition dump-y training arcs or hard magic system mechanics, although i do like those too. seeing as i'm only a fifth of the way through the anime and have yet to begin reading the manga, i don't really have much to offer by way of substantial character analyses or narrative critiques, so this will just be a brief list of elements i've greatly enjoyed thus far:
- a real deal GIRL protagonist whose gender is ultimately inconsequential to the plot (a good thing, in this case) and wears a structured men's overcoat as casual combatwear
- in media res done right. our main duo? yeah, they've known each other for years and are actually on their 99th kill as partners! all that's left is the soul of a witch, and oh...that's not...[please excuse this brief interruption before we return to our regularly-scheduled programming]. this was precisely why i enjoyed the first season of kekkai sensen so much ::heart-eyes::
- platonic partnerships of the soul-bonded variety (jaeger copilots a la pacific rim, master-servant contractual obligations a la fate/stay night) featuring partners who are Not Entirely Humans in or out of combat, whether they like it or not (think: his dark materials, parasyte, venom). honestly, i would prefer if conventional meister/weapon power dynamics were a bit more unbalanced in favor of meisters, because i love a symbiotic (codependent?) relationship that can appear parasitic from either direction, depending on how the light strikes. but beggars can't be choosers lol
- pale-haired clinically insane mentor figure who passively observes moments of emotional distress/lapsed judgment/power-crazed mania with minimal parenting-isms. civilizations rise and crumble to dust, yet this time-tested shounen trope remains true
- death canonically personified as having 1) no backbone and 2) an angsty, reclusive teen son who probably listens to a lot of mcr
- formal learning environments that are objectively and undeniably a threat to the safety of all parties involved, as perpetrators, victims, witnesses, or otherwise (assassination classroom...they will never make me hate you, tentacles and all). i love elite killer cliques and i cannot lie! being pressured into collectively doing something unspeakable against your better judgment and bonding over your mutual accompliceship in the aftermath...yeah...maybe i should finally get around to reading the secret history
anyways, that's all for now! work is slowing down as we approach the holidays, so i'm looking forward to finishing this series with a good cup of earl grey and my cat dozing in my lap. watching soul eater really revived my interest in shounens in general, so i might tackle yu yu hakusho and trigun afterwards if i'm feeling up to it!
stay hungry,
t