A single drama CD was produced on August 31, 2005 which came bundled with an art book. An anime adaptation produced by Bones first aired on TV Tokyo in Japan on April 7, 2008, and contained 51 episodes; Funimation licensed the anime series for North American distribution. An action-adventure video game by Square Enix for the Wii was released in September 2008, and an action video game for the Nintendo DS was released in October 2008. Another action game was released in January 2009 on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Another manga series which will run alongside the main series, titled Soul Eater Not!, began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Gangan on January 12, 2011.
Plot
See also: List of Soul Eater characters
Soul Eater is set at Death Weapon Meister Academy (死神武器職人専門学校 Shinigami Buki Shokunin Senmon Gakkō)—"DWMA" (死武専 Shibusen) 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 (職人 shokunin). Attending this school are meister Maka Albarn and her scythe partner Soul Eater; ninja Black Star and his partner Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, who can turn into a variety of different weapons such as a kusarigama, shuriken, and ninjatō; and Shinigami's son Death the Kid and his pistol partners Liz and Patty Thompson. The goal of the school's meister students is to have their weapons defeat and absorb the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch,
which will dramatically increase the power of the given weapon and turn
them into "death scythes", weapons capable of being used by Shinigami.Shortly after the start of Soul Eater, Maka and Soul Eater face off against the witch Medusa, who forces her child Crona, meister of the demon sword Ragnarok, to collect non-evil human souls and transform into a kishin (鬼神), an evil demon god. Medusa and her cohorts attack DWMA with the intention of reviving 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. However, Medusa is seemingly killed by the meister and DWMA teacher Franken Stein in the process, while Crona surrenders to the DWMA and goes on to enroll there and befriend Maka.
As a result of Asura's spreading madness, Medusa's older sister Arachne comes out of hiding after 800 years. Arachne reforms her organization Arachnophobia, which poses itself as 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 in the body of a young girl, and forms a truce with DWMA so they can annihilate the threat of Arachnophobia together. The DWMA students and Medusa's entourage infiltrate Arachnophobia's headquarters where Maka defeats 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 enemy in possession of an artifact called the Book of Eibon. Following this, Maka finally succeeds in turning Soul Eater into a death scythe, and the duo become part of the newly formed meister unit Spartoi along with their friends, who rescue Death the Kid and defeat Noah, though Noah is reincarnated by the arcane power of the Book of Eibon.
While DWMA searches for Asura's whereabouts, Crona resurfaces in a city in Moscow, destroying it and killing the death scythe stationed there, and then kills Medusa and goes completely insane. Maka is ordered by Shinigami to hunt and kill Crona, inadvertently discovering Asura's presence on the moon during her search. A four-way battle between DWMA, Asura, Noah, and Crona ensues on the moon's surface.
The anime series faithfully adapts the plot of the manga until DWMA's first major battle against Arachnophobia, at which point it deviates from the manga's plot considerably. After giving DWMA information on Arachnophobia, Medusa takes advantage of Stein's increasing madness to lure him away with her. Crona leaves DWMA with teacher and death scythe Marie Mjolnir, and the two manage to bring back Stein after Maka defeats Medusa. Meanwhile, Arachne finds Asura and forms an alliance with him, intending to spread his madness across the world. Shinigami and Asura resume their fight in the ensuing confrontation between DWMA and Arachnophobia, which ends with Asura defeating Shinigami, turning on Arachne, and eating her soul. Maka defeats Asura in the final battle, and the world returns to normal.
Soul Eater Not!
Soul Eater Not! is a side-story to the main series, focusing on a freshman halberd named Tsugumi Harudori, who befriends two other meisters, Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn. All three take part in the NOT (Normally Overcome Target) class at DWMA and learn to control their powers in order to overcome their difficulties to have a normal life, as opposed to the battle-oriented EAT (Especially Advanced Talent) class taken by Maka, Soul, and their companions. Medusa and Arachne's younger sister Shaula is introduced in this story as the antagonist. The events of Not! take place prior to the events of the main series—Sid Barrett, who is killed and revived as a zombie early in Soul Eater, is still alive; Medusa works undercover at DWMA as a nurse; meister Kim Diehl and her weapon partner Jacqueline O'Lantern Dupré are initially unacquainted; and Liz and Patty have recently been taken in by Death the Kid.Development
After the end of his first manga series, B.Ichi, Atsushi Ōkubo created a one-shot story called "Soul Eater" published in Monthly Shōnen Gangan. Japanese readers were so fascinated by it that Ōkubo created two other one-shots called "Black Star" and "Death The Kid". The results were high and the editor Gangan Comics asked Atsushi Ōkubo to create a series from his one-shots which became the introduction chapters to the final manga series Soul Eater.Media
Manga
Soul Eater began as a manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ōkubo. The manga initially began as three separate one-shots serialized between June 24, 2003 and November 26, 2003 across two manga magazines published by Square Enix: first in the summer 2003 special edition of Gangan Powered, followed by the autumn 2003 special edition of the same magazine, and finally in Gangan Wing. The manga started regular serialization in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan manga magazine on May 12, 2004. The first bound volume was released by Square Enix under their Gangan Comics imprint on June 22, 2004 in Japan, and as of September 22, 2011, 20 volumes have been released. 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 of which went on sale on July 29, 2008. The first English volume of the manga was sold on October 27, 2009; the second was released on February 23, 2010. Another manga series which will run alongside the main series, titled Soul Eater Not! (ソウルイーターノット! Sōru Ītā Notto!), began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Gangan on January 12, 2011. Soul Eater Not! is licensed by Yen Press, and will be released in English simultaneously.Drama CD
A drama CD was released on August 31, 2005 by Square Enix entitled Soul Eater (Vol. 1): Special Social Studies Field Trip (ソウルイーター(Vol.1)特別社会科見学 Sōru Ītā (Vol. 1) Tokubetsu Shakaika Kengaku). 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 anime's scenario writer was Akatsuki Yamatoya who based the anime's story on Atsushi Ōkubo 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 started airing on April 7, 2008 on TV Tokyo, and two animated specials aired on May 29 and June 1, 2008. The episodes also aired at later dates on TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Osaka, TV Setouchi, and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting Co. The final episode aired on March 30, 2009. The first DVD compilation volume was released on August 22, 2008 with the first three episodes. The second DVD compilation volume was released on September 25, 2008 with episodes four through seven. Each DVD volume will be released in monthly intervals. The anime was licensed by Funimation, who released the series in four half-season DVD box sets starting with the first volume in February 2010.The anime was regularly broadcast Mondays at 6:00 pm on TV Tokyo. The official Japanese website of the Soul Eater anime series announced that each episode will air in two different versions: the regular Monday 6:00 p.m. version and a late-night "Soul Eater Late Show" version. Special footage was added at the start and end of the commercial break; the next episode preview was also different from the regular version. The dual broadcast of this supernatural action series was being billed as the "world's first evening and late-night resonance broadcast". The "resonance" term refers to a story concept in which the characters, such as the heroine Maka and her living weapon partner Soul Eater, achieve maximum power by synchronizing their souls. MTV Portugal premiered Soul Eater on February 1, 2010. In the Philippines, Soul Eater aired in a Tagalog version over the cable channel Hero TV which will last from April to June 2010. The anime made its North American television debut when it started airing on the Funimation Channel on September 6, 2010. The series is being rebroadcast by TV Tokyo under the title Soul Eater: Repeat Show (ソウルイーター リピートショー Sōru Ītā Ripīto Shō) as of September 30, 2010, featuring new opening and closing themes. It was broadcast in Italy on Rai 4 between September 6, 2010 and September 8, 2011.
Video games
Soul Eater: Monotone Princess (ソウルイーター モノトーン プリンセス Sōru Ītā Monotōn Purinsesu), an action-adventure video game exclusively for the Wii and developed by Square Enix with Bones was released on September 25, 2008, in Japan only. Two characters that appear in the game, Grimoire (グリモア Gurimoa) and Ponera (ポネラ), are original characters designed by author Atsushi Ōkubo; Ponera is the titular Monotone Princess and Grimoire is known as Noah in the manga. A soundtrack called Shibusen's Treasure "Campus Broadcast Music Complete Works" (死武専秘蔵「校内放送楽曲大全」) was released as a pre-order bonus CD. Soul Eater: Plot of Medusa (ソウルイーター メデューサの陰謀 Sōru Ītā Medyūsa no Inbō) is an action game produced by Namco Bandai Games for the Nintendo DS and was released on October 23, 2008. Soul Eater: Battle Resonance (ソウルイーター バトルレゾナンス Sōru Ītā Batoru Rezonansu) is a fighting game produced by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable and was released on January 29, 2009.Music
Six pieces of theme music are used for the episodes; two opening themes and four closing themes. The first opening theme is "Resonance" by T.M.Revolution for the first thirty episodes, and the single was released on June 11, 2008. The second opening theme is "Papermoon" by Tommy heavenly from episode thirty-one onwards; the single was released on December 10, 2008 by DefStar Records. The first closing theme is "I Wanna Be" by Stance Punks for the first thirteen episodes, and the fifty-first episode; the single was released on June 4, 2008. The second closing theme is "Style" by Kana Nishino from episode 14 to 26; the single was released on August 13, 2008 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The third closing theme is "Bakusō Yume Uta" (爆走夢歌) by Soul'd Out's Diggy-Mo from episode 27 to 39; the single was released on November 26, 2008 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The final closing theme is "Strength" by Abingdon Boys School from episode 40 through episode 50; the single was released on February 25, 2009. The anime rebroadcasting features two additional opening and closing themes. The first opening is "Counter Identity" by Unison Square Garden, released in autumn 2010, and the first ending is "Ao no Kaori" (碧の香り) by Yui Makino, released on November 10, 2010. The second opening is "Ai ga Hoshii yo" (愛がほしいよ) by Shion Tsuji was released on March 9, 2011, and "Northern Lights" by How Merry Marry.The first character song maxi single sung by Chiaki Omigawa (Maka) and Kōki Uchiyama (Soul) was released on August 6, 2008 by Aniplex. The second single by Yumiko Kobayashi (Black Star) and Kaori Nazuka (Tsubaki) was released on September 3, 2008, and the third single by Mamoru Miyano (Kid), Akeno Watanabe (Liz), and Narumi Takahira (Patty) was released on October 1, 2008. Composed and produced by Taku Iwasaki, two CD soundtracks have been released for the Soul Eater anime series. Soul Eater Original Soundtrack 1 was released on August 27, 2008 with 20 tracks, and Soul Eater Original Soundtrack 2 was released on March 18, 2009 with 22 tracks by Aniplex. The theme song for Soul Eater: Monotone Princess is "Soul's Crossing" sung by T.M.Revolution, and is included on the "Resonance" single.
Soul Eater began as a manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ōkubo. The manga initially began as three separate one-shots serialized between June 24, 2003 and November 26, 2003 across two manga magazines published by Square Enix: first in the summer 2003 special edition of Gangan Powered, followed by the autumn 2003 special edition of the same magazine, and finally in Gangan Wing. The manga started regular serialization in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan manga magazine on May 12, 2004. The first bound volume was released by Square Enix under their Gangan Comics imprint on June 22, 2004 in Japan, and as of October 22, 2008, thirteen volumes had been released. 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 of which went on sale on July 29, 2008. The first English volume of the manga was sold in October 2009.
Art Style Evolution
Atsushi Ōkubo's original style of art greatly differed from that of
the TV Anime adaption of Soul Eater, however, over a certain period of
time, Atsushi Ōkubo's work seemed to change in a huge direction towards
the Anime. This can be clearly seen through Maka's original appearence
when the manga first started compared to her current outlook. This style
of art appears a bit more appealing and professional.
The only difference between the Manga's style of art and the Anime's is how the noses are drawn from frontal view. In the Manga, they appear as small dots or lines, however, in the Anime, they
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