Veronin

*Minor spoilers ahead* What is Soul Eater Not supposed to be? Is it a yuri slice-of-life made to appeal to people unfamiliar with the original Soul Eater, or is it a necessary part of the Soul Eater canon, aimed at those who enjoyed the action and drama of the original series? The answer to that question remains a mystery. I'm not even convinced the author of the manga understands what he's working on. Soul Eater Not is an exercise in mediocrity. It is a gust of wind with no particular destination. By jumping from genre to genre and trying to appeal to both the slice-of-life crowdand fans of the original series, it ends up pleasing neither. The end result is something that, while not offensively dumb, lingers in the mind with no more than passing apathy. I doubt anyone will remember its existence after a year. Even half that time might seem generous. The first few episodes were promising enough. It didn't seem like it would make any impact in the industry or do anything particularly interesting, but it was fun nonetheless to watch the banter between the innocent protagonist, Tsugumi, and her two companions, Meme (think Yui from K-ON) and Anya (the tsundere ojou-sama). The unique setting of the Soul Eater franchise even gave 'Not' its own distinct identity in the sea of indistinguishable slice-of-life, and hey, it did its job just fine in the moe department. There was no drama, no deep themes or underlying message, and that was OK. For the first half, Soul Eater Not is actually a fairly decent slice-of-life anime. And then everything turns upside down in the seventh episode. The main three are off shopping, fooling around as they always do, and then from nowhere comes a generic villain who attempts to murder one of the side characters in gory fashion, throat slicing and all. Uhh... all right, then. What's supposed to come as a shock instead brings confusion and frustration. It almost feels as if the script was suddenly hijacked by a different team of writers. There is no consistency, no purpose in this except perhaps for a vague thought of "Well, I guess it's time to add in some drama so Soul Eater fans don't get bored." In reality, all that was accomplished was both sides of the audience being alienated. The melodrama is guilty of more than just existing. It is terribly written, every scene reeking of some eye-rolling cliché. Even the accident at the end of the seventh episode is written off as inconsequential, the story awkwardly shifting back into yuri comedy just minutes into the next episode. The drama itself is so boring that falling asleep becomes a more exciting prospect, because, hell, how are we supposed to immediately empathise with characters who previously were only used for gags and fanservice? After trudging through the predictable 'one of the main characters is now possessed by evil!' cliché, the final episode treats the viewer with a full dose of stupid: said character comes back to reality with a kiss and the group then defeats the powerful villain (who they do not have the combat ability to even defend themselves against) with the indomitable power of friendship! Please. I want to puke. Among Not's many issues is its clumsily-written romance. The fourth episode has Tsugumi falling for Akane, one of the few male characters, merely because he threw a few suave words her way. It's never explained whether Akane feels anything for Tsugumi, and of course nothing ever comes of the romance either. It's actually completely forgotten by the next episode. I guess one way of explaining it would be that the manga's later chapters are meant to focus on the two's romance, but even then it shouldn't be completely discarded and brought up again whenever the author feels it's convenient. It's doubly awkward since the author doesn't even know whether he wants to pair Tsugumi with Akane or one of the two girls; it haphazardly alternates between heterosexual romance and yuri. All of it just feels very out-of-place-- a lot like the drama. On the plus side, there are plenty of cameo appearances with the cast of the main series. They don't add more than a few lines of dialogue here and there, though, so don't expect another adventure with Soul or Death the Kid. I suppose it's always neat to see what they were doing behind the scenes. With regards to the sound and artwork, Soul Eater Not does not offend the eyes and ears but it never hits any high points, either. It looks okay. It sounds okay. The only issue is that the unique, paint-like art style of the main series is missing here, so those who enjoyed Soul Eater for its visual design will be quite disappointed. The opening theme is pretty nice, though. It's overwhelmingly cute and mirrors the fluffiness of the anime's first half. The OP was almost like a glimmer of hope in the show's unpleasant final episodes. It's difficult for me to recommend Soul Eater Not because, well... who would I recommend it to in the first place? Soul Eater fans? They will be bored with the yuri of the show's first half. Slice-of-life fans? They will be frustrated with the tiresome melodrama of the second half. Critics? Well, maybe if they enjoy yelling at their monitor. Soul Eater Not is an anime that doesn't really please anyone. It is not quite awful, but it also exerts no effort to be more than just a passing, colourless breeze. It's the kind of show that comes and goes every single season. It is destined to fade away, lonely and forgotten.

Simok123

The title "Soul Eater NOT!" should give you a warning if you're coming to this show expecting an action shonen like Soul Eater. It's exactly as it says it is, for the most part, its NOT Soul Eater. But does it NOT being Soul Eater make it automatically bad? Not at all. This is a fun experience and definitely a worthy prequel to Soul Eater, even if its not quite the same. Story(7) If you didn't already know, the whole concept of Soul Eater is about these kids that to go a school where they learn to basically fight witches and other evil. Every living personhas a soul and depending on your connection with your soul, determines how good a fighter you are, essentially. Certain people have the ability to transform into weapons. Other students wield these weapons and they partner up to fight evil. Where as the original Soul Eater focused on pro students at the school that go on missions and leave the school quite frequently, Soul Eater Not focuses more on the newcomers of the NOT class. The story revolves around 3 cute girls that go to the school. Tsugumi is a weapon. Meme and Anya are misters and they both want to partner up with Tsugumi. The only problem is, you're only supposed to have ONE mister at a time, not two for one weapon. Nonetheless, the group befriend each other and leave that problem for later. Now most people are very quick to judge this show for its complete change of style, both visually and genre wise. The whole first half of the show if not longer, other than the lore, its essentially nothing like Soul Eater at all and takes on the more "Moe Slice of Life" role similar to shows K-ON! or Yuru Yuri rather than an action show like Soul Eater. The show is even categorized as an Ecchi, though the fanservice here is relatively minimal to non existent at all. The show at first definitely isn't Soul Eater, but again, its not trying to be. While it is very similar to other Slice of Life Moe shows does that mean its quite as good as them? I'd say no. The slice of life portions here are fine but shows like K-ON handle this genre much better. However, what's here I don't think is bad and I really do appreciate because they help show what Soul Eater didn't: how one BECOMES one of the higher class students and what life is like BEFORE they go out adventuring. In many ways, I feel like this show introduced the whole concept of a series nicely, (though it has some what of my same problems I had with the original where they hardly showed them doing any actual school activities at all.) Near the end of the series, the story starts to pick up and it feels a lot more like Soul Eater. It transitions a lot more into an action show. Not only that, it also has a few connections to the original series that I think make this a nice prequel overall. Art(6) One of the primary knee-jerk reactions to this show was how much the art style had changed from the original show. The original show had a very unique and funky art sort of art style to it. This one, while still remaining somewhat different to a lot of anime, is mostly a very generic, cute art style. Now many people see this as a negative, and to some degree I agree, but after a while I noticed that the original art style doesn't really suit this type of show, the same way this new one wouldn't suit the original. They're 2 different shows. While the old style was definitely better, this one works for this type of show and it's nice to see something a little different. Sound(7) I like the opening and ending while the main BGM wasn't that memorable to me. Voice acting seems solid enough to me and I'm pretty sure most of the characters from the original cast have the same voice actors. Characters(7) As for the new characters here, they aren't as good or fleshed out as the ones from the original series, and while many would complain that they're very simple, I still enjoyed them I found them over all to be likable and fun. As for the returning characters, their cameos are probably a lot of the appeal to fans of the original series, though certain characters get a lot more appearances than others. Enjoyment(8) Overall it kind of had a slow start but as a fan of both Soul Eater and Moe Slice of Life I enjoyed this series a decent amount, especially near the end. Overall(7) Many people label this show as a shameless attempt to cash in on the moe fanbase. Whether or not that statement is true, I personally still enjoyed this show. If you're a fan of the original Soul Eater and also like or don't mind a moe slice of life type show, I'd say give it a shot. However if you're a fan of the original series and are looking for a more action oriented show and can't stand a cute premise like this, this show probably isn't for you. But also if you haven't seen Soul Eater and are interested in watching it, I think this is a nice way to introduce you to the series as by the end, it does transition into a more action type show and answer a few questions of how things happened in the original series. But again, that's only if you're into a moe type of show as well. If you are only interested in Soul Eater, skip this and just watch that. You won't be missing anything TOO important at all.