Soul eater

Soul eater
Original title	ソ ウ ル イ ー タ ー
transcription	Sōru Ītā
genre	Action , fantasy
Manga
country	Japan
author	Atsushi Ōkubo
publishing company	Gangan Comics
magazine	Monthly Shōnen Gangan
First publication	June 24, 2003 - August 12, 2013
expenditure	25th
Anime television series
Country of production	Japan
original language	Japanese
year	2008/09
Studio	Bones
length	24 minutes
Episodes	51
Director	Takuya Igarashi
music	Taku Iwasaki
First broadcast	April 7, 2008 - March 30, 2009 on TV Tokyo
German-language first broadcast	June 6th - July 11th 2011 on Animax
synchronization
Manga
title	Soul Eater Not!
Original title	ソ ウ ル イ ー タ ー ノ ッ ト!
transcription	Sōru Ītā Notto!
country	Japan
author	Atsushi Ōkubo
publishing company	Gangan Comics
magazine	Monthly Shōnen Gangan
First publication	January 12, 2011 - November 10, 2014
expenditure	5
Anime television series
title	Soul Eater Not!
Original title	ソ ウ ル イ ー タ ー ノ ッ ト!
transcription	Sōru Ītā Notto!
Country of production	Japan
original language	Japanese
year	2014
Studio	Bones
length	24 minutes
Episodes	12
Director	Masakazu Hashimoto
music	Asami Tachibana , Yūki Hayashi
First broadcast	April 8 - July 2, 2014 on TV Tokyo

Soul Eater ( Japanese ソ ウ ル イ ー タ ー , Sōru Ītā ) is a Japanese manga by Atsushi Ōkubo , which was published from 2003 to 2013. On April 7, 2008, TV Tokyo began broadcasting the 51-episode anime adaptation. From 2011 to 2014, the offshoot series Soul Eater Not! as a manga.

The world

In the world of Soul Eater , people live with all kinds of supernatural creatures. So in the action both Shinigami (dt. "God of death") as well as witches and demons appear, which can change their shape between a human shape and the shape of a weapon. In the middle of Nevada lies the city of Death City , in the middle of which is the Shibusen (short for: 死神 武器 職 人 専 門 学校 , Shinigami Buki Shokunin Senmon Gakkō , dt. "Death God Arms Master Academy"). In it, the god of the dead Shinigami and his subordinate teachers train the students to become “master weapons”. It should be noted that each student has one or more weapons (a maximum of two weapon demons (see Death the Kid)), which form a team with their respective master. The goal of the students is to transform their weapon partner into "Death Scythes", for which one has to collect the soul of a witch and 99 unclean souls (Kishin eggs). If these impure souls existed too long and consumed too many innocent souls, they could become a Kishin - a demon god who wants to and can throw the world into chaos. A well-kept secret of the Shibuses, however, is that the city itself was built on the prison of the first Kishin, which is now sealed there.

In addition to this city as the center of power, there are two other parties that are striving for more power and who promise the liberation of the Kishin. One group is led by the rather lonely witch Medusa , the other by the witch Arachne , who appears later in the plot and maintains her own army, the Arachnophobia. Witches generally have the ability to take on the form of an animal as a camouflage. So they cannot be perceived by the masters and shinigami, who can otherwise feel their strong soul located nearby, whose fighting strength is symbolized by the size of the soul (a luminous spherical appearance).

action

Introduction of the main characters

Figure constellation

Starting in this scenario, the student Maka Albarn and her weapon Soul "Eater" Evans are introduced, who received the order from Shinigami to collect 99 corrupt souls. Soul, who values his cool appearance in particular, takes the form of a large scythe in combat, and his master Maka are very successful in this and have finally collected them by killing corrupt creatures. In a conversation through a window pane, which Maka can use like a telephone, they are now given the task of “consuming” the soul of a witch, which is supposed to bring Soul the rank of Death Scythe (dt. Death Scythe ). So they look for the first witch they want in their area and come across Blair's house , which is modeled on a pumpkin. However, all attacks on Blair fail, as these two are always one step ahead and Soul cannot cope with their sexy appearance. Nevertheless, they ultimately manage to use a Souls trick to overwhelm Blair and steal her soul. After Soul has eaten her soul and hopes for a great increase in his abilities, nothing happens. Both of them are shocked to discover that Blair is not a witch at all, just a cat with strong magical abilities. As a result, both have to start all over again to collect souls, as these were confiscated due to the failure of Shinigami. As a cat, Blair survived this attack unscathed, as they are known to have 9 lives. As the story progresses, Blair takes a neutral position, but protects the residents of Death City. She often visits Maka and Soul's apartment and enjoys presenting herself freely to Soul and observing Maka's reaction.

Then another student is introduced, the over-the-top student Black ☆ Star, who is plagued by the oversized ego . For those who come from a ninja family, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa is a female weapon that can take on various forms. Although Black ☆ Star has a big fighter heart, the two have never managed to get hold of a soul, as Black ☆ Star transforms every mission into a single show insert and thus eliminates his ninja skills himself. On his first assignment, taken up in the plot, he is supposed to take out Al Capone , which fails due to the great appearance of Black ☆ Star. However, he gets a second chance when they learn that Al Capone wants to kill the witch Angela Leon . When both arrive at the alleged crime scene, however, they only find a large number of the souls of Al Capone's followers, who had previously failed due to Angela's protector Mifune . Since they too are supposed to kill the witch, there is a fight between Mifune and Black ☆ Star, which Black ☆ Star wins thanks to the tricky support of Tsubaki and Mifune, who does not want to kill. At that moment, Angela appears, who turns out to be a young girl. Being unable to kill a child, Black ☆ Star and Tsubaki finally give up both the multitude of free-floating souls and the witch's soul. As the story progresses, Mifune and Black ☆ Star have more duels.

Finally, the Shinigami's son, Death the Kid , and his two weapons Patricia “Patti” and Elizabeth “Liz” Thompson are presented. Kid constantly shows his clear weakness for absolute symmetry . In addition, since he has two weapons, he has to collect twice the number of souls. For example, the three of them receive an order from Shinigami to kill a witch in the Anubis pyramid in Egypt who is up to mischief with resuscitated mummies. Once there, kids show typical weaknesses. For example, he is plagued by the uncertainty as to whether the picture is currently hanging in his house, whereupon he even leaves Liz and Patty alone just to check it. The somewhat taller and actually more grown-up Liz, on the other hand, turns out to be extremely fearful, while Patty attracts attention with her childish carelessness. Coming back in the meantime, the Kid fails to finish off the Pharaoh because his sarcophagus is perfectly symmetrical. Almost killed, the pharaoh shows his true asymmetrical shape. The rage overcomes Kid and like a berserk he shoots the Pharaoh through the pyramid and thus kills him. The pyramid is completely destroyed, which Kid regrets not only because of their symmetry. Back in Shibusen, Shinigami confiscated all souls as punishment for the destroyed pyramid, so that the trio also had a hard time completing their training.

Characters

Cosplayer as Soul and Maka

Maka Albarn ( マ カ ・ ア ル バ ー ン , Maka Arubān )

She is a young scythe master who, along with her school friends and the soul weapon, is at the center of the plot. In combat as well as outside, she is rather calm. In contrast to soul, it asserts itself more through her mind than pure muscle power. She is the daughter of a Death Scythe and a weapon master, which gives her both weapon skills and master skills.

Soul Eater Evans ( ソ ウ ル ・ イ ー タ ー , Souru Ītā )

Soul is Maka's weapon, although it can take the form of a scythe. His human form resembles that of a teenager. Soul's behavior is largely based on what he thinks is "cool". For example, he usually attacks opponents head-on, which often ends in defeat. Despite his attempts to appear cool all the time, he shows feelings for Maka at crucial moments and would be willing to sacrifice his life for her. He also plays the piano very well. His real last name is actually Evans ( エ バ ン ス ), but he is usually referred to as soul .

Black Star ( ブ ラ ッ ク ☆ ス タ ー , Burakku Sutā )

Black Star is an assassin and Tsubakis master and comes from a family of ninjas, the so-called Stern-Clan. In combat, he often uses ninja techniques, which, however, usually fail because he considers himself a great star and announces his position by shouting or posing loudly in order to gain attention. The only times he uses the techniques successfully is when he finally begins to take the fight seriously and tries to catch a glimpse of the bathing Tsubaki. At the sight of Tsubaki, however, he immediately forgets his seriousness again and, since he has revealed his position, is usually incapacitated by her with a ranged weapon.

Tsubaki Nakatsukasa ( 中 務 椿 )

It is Black Stars weapon and can take several different forms ( shuriken , smoke bomb, ninja dagger, chain sickle, later also the devil blade.). She is often discouraged by Black Stars' loud appearance, but at the same time this is one of the qualities that she appreciates in him. She is helpful and tries to help everyone even if she doesn't know how to do it. The tsubaki is a Japanese flower, also known as the "flower without fragrance". Her brother Masamune often compares her to this because she always puts herself in the background and the wavelength of her soul is compatible with almost everyone.

Death the Kid ( デ ス ・ ザ ・ キ ッ ド , Desu za Kiddo )

He is Liz and Patty's master and also the son of Shinigami. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder , which shows that everything has to be symmetrical for him. For this reason he also carries two weapons, since the use of only one weapon would be out of the question for him, even if his life depended on it. His biggest problem is that his hair is solid black on one side but has three white stripes on the other. If this is mentioned in his presence, he falls into a kind of depression from which only Patty and Liz can rescue him. Even if the two give him a problem too, as they look different in human form. In combat he can destroy symmetrical things, but if they are elaborately worked and symmetrical, he cannot fight, but gets into a frenzy as soon as he discovers something asymmetrical.

Patricia "Patty" Thompson ( パ テ ィ ー （パ ト リ シ ア） ・ ト ン プ ソ ン , Patī (Patorishia) Tompuson )

Patty is the younger of the two sisters and one of Kids' pistols. She has a very naive view of the world and everything is just a big game for her. This is also the reason why she does not seem to have any fear.

Elizabeth "Liz" Thompson ( リ ズ （エ リ ザ ベ ス） ・ ト ン プ ソ ン , Rizu (Erizabesu) Tompuson )

Liz is the older of the two sisters and the second from Kids Pistols. She sees things from a far more adult point of view. However, unlike Patty, she is afraid of her opponents and especially of ghosts. She is often annoyed by kids' perfectionism, but she always cheers him up when he falls into one of his depression. Both sisters grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, where they once roamed the streets as thieves.

Blair ( ブ レ ア , Burea )

Although Maka and Soul initially mistook her for a witch, it soon turns out that she is just a cat with strong magical abilities. Her magic is based on pumpkins, which she uses as bombs, among other things. Whenever she finds a chance, she flirts with soul, partly because she likes it and partly to see Maka's reactions to it. Her soul was supposed to be the witch's soul, which Maka and Soul were still missing, but since it was not one, the two only took one of their nine lives, which resulted in Maka's and Souls' collected souls being confiscated and they had to start again from scratch. Blair continued to exist as every cat is known to have 9 lives.

Medusa ( メ デ ュ ー サ , Medyūsa )

Medusa is a witch who prefers to use snakes as a weapon. She is sly through and through and aims to free Asura in order to make him serve her own plans. To do this, she infiltrates both Shibusen and ruthlessly abuses her child Chrona as a spy after her own disguise as a school doctor has been exposed.

Chrona ( ク ロ ナ , Kurona )

Chrona appears as the androgynous child of Medusa. After the birth, Chrona's blood was exchanged and thus merged with the weapon Ragnarök, which Chrona, in addition to the abuse by her mother, becomes an additional burden. Chrona's mental state is correspondingly broken, which is why it is difficult for him to distinguish between right and wrong. Usually strongly introverted, Chrona befriends Maka in the course of the plot and is also accepted as a student. His mother Medusa uses this opportunity to use her influence to abuse Chrona for espionage purposes.

Franken Stein ( フ ラ ン ケ ン ・ シ ュ タ イ ン , Furanken Shutain )

Franken Stein, a clear reference to Frankenstein , is a mad scientist who is marked by numerous experiments on himself. He is covered with scars and a large screw goes through his head that he keeps turning. It also shows time and again that he sees each individual as an object to experiment with, which makes the students in his environment very insecure after he is appointed class teacher at the beginning of the plot. Still, he is considered to be the most powerful armorer to ever graduate from the school. Among other things, he takes advantage of the fact that he can precisely analyze the souls of his opponents and react to their weaknesses. However, he does not have a steady partner, a weapon, and therefore uses either Maka's father Spirit, on whom he repeatedly carried out experiments in his sleep without permission, or his old love Marie Mjolnir. But even without a weapon, stone is a worthy opponent. His only weakness is his insanity, which Medusa in particular knows how to use for her own purposes. Only Marie is good as a sedative in this case.

Mosquito ( 蚊 , Mosquito )

Mosquito, a little old man who is the butler, chauffeur and advisor to the witch Arachne, has lived on earth for 800 years. Shortly before the disappearance of the witch Arachne by the threat from Master Shinigami, he also went into hiding to wait for the renewed uprising of the secret organization Arachnophobia. His special abilities are his transformation into his earlier versions of himself, in which he not only makes a change on the outside, but also increases his strength immensely. It seems that there is a real friendship and joy of seeing each other between Arachne and Mosquito. Mosquito would do anything for Arachne.

Arachne ( ア ラ ク ネ , Arakune )

Arachne was hunted by the witches and the Shibuses 800 years ago and betrayed by her sister Medusa. She hid her soul in a golem and was resuscitated by the waves of madness. She heads the Arachnophobia organization.

Conception

Some names of well-known films and musicians or music groups appear in Soul Eater. One of the teachers is called z. B. alluding to the former Pink Floyd front man "Sid Barret". The tattoo on the face of one of the antagonists reads No Future (this is a well-known slogan of the English punk movement). Fighting techniques also refer to well-known artists, such as Blair's attack "Smashing Pumpkin" in Chapter 18, the attack by an opponent in Chapter 61 called Nine Inch Nails , an attack called "Police Stinger" in episode 29, which was directed at the band The Police and their singer Sting refers. Soul also occasionally wears a T-shirt with the inscription In Utero , which refers to the album of the same name by Nirvana . You can also see Soul's room in the first volume of Soul Eater in the chapter "Tutoring" where various posters of musicians can be seen, for example the electronic musician Aphex Twin and the British trip-hop band Portishead . The "Blair Witch" is a clear allusion to the Blair Witch Project , which is also taken up directly in the manga.

Publications

Manga

The manga Soul Eater by Atsushi Okubo began as three one shots that between 24 June 2003 and 26 November 2003 in the manga magazine Gangan Powered and Gangan Wing of Square Enix publishing have been published. On May 12, 2004, the manga began regular series operations in Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine . The manga ended with chapter 113, which was published in the September issue of the magazine on August 12, 2013. The first tankōbon was published in Japan on June 22, 2004, the 25th and final volume was published in December 2013.

The manga was published in full in 25 volumes by Carlsen Manga between October 2009 and January 2015 .

From January 2011 to November 2014, a spin-off series also from Atsushi Okubo with the title Soul Eater Not! next to the regular series. Since September 22, 2011, the chapters have been published in five volumes, which were also published in German from November 2013 to December 2015.

Anime

An adaptation scheduled for 51 episodes was produced by Bones , Aniplex , Dentsu , Media Factory and TV Tokyo . The anime was broadcast every Monday on TV Tokyo, with an afternoon and a late night version. In the latter, additional material was added at the beginning and end of the commercial break, and the preview of the next episode also differed from the afternoon version.

The plot of the anime is largely based on the story of the manga, but differs fundamentally from the manga from episode 35.

Animax has been broadcasting the series in German synchronization since June 2011 . Since November 2012 it has been possible to watch all parts of the series in German synchronization on MyVideo .

In early December, the production of an anime based on Soul Eater Not! announced. The series then started on April 8, 2014 on TV Tokyo and other stations.

synchronization

role	Japanese speaker ( seiyū )	German speaker
Maka Albarn	Chiaki Omigawa	Manuela Baker
Soul eater	Kōki Uchiyama	Rasmus Borowski
Black Star	Yumiko Kobayashi	Fabian Harloff
Tsubaki Nakatsukasa	Kaori Nazuka	Kerstin Draeger
Death the Kid	Mamoru Miyano	Robert Kotulla
Elizabeth "Liz" Thompson	Akeno Watanabe	Traudel Sparrowhawk
Patricia "Patty" Thompson	Narumi Takahira	Marion von Stengel
Shinigami	Rikiya Koyama	Martin May
Chrona	Maaya Sakamoto	Robert Kotulla
Medusa	Hoko Kuwashima	Traudel Sparrowhawk
Dr. (Franken) Stein	Yūya Uchida	Martin May

music

The opening credits are Resonance by TMRevolution and Paper Moon by Tomoko Kawase . The end credits are I Wanna Be from Stance Punks, Style from Kana Nishino, Bakusō Yume Uta from Diggy-Mo and Strength from Abingdon Boys School .

radio play

On August 31, 2005, a radio play CD was released in Japan under the title Soul Eater (Vol. 1): Tokubetsu Shakaika Kengaku ( 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 included an art book and a dialogue script. Only Black Star's voice was taken from the speakers for the anime.

Video games

Nintendo Wii games:

• Soul Eater: Monotone Princess (2008)

Nintendo DS games:

• Soul Eater: Plot of Medusa (2008)

PlayStation Portable / PlayStation 2 Games:

• Soul Eater: Battle Resonance (2009)

Trivia

There are two allusions to German Nazi culture in the original anime. So in episode 27 you find a tap with a swastika as a turning knob and in episode 28 Black Star paints a Hitler mustache on Maka's skin. To what extent these associations were intended is unknown.

Web links

Commons : Soul Eater  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Anime Official Website (Japanese)
• Manga Official Website (Japanese)
• Official website of the manga (German)
• Official website of the spin-off (Japanese)
• Soul Eater in Anime News Network (English)
• Soul Eater on MyVideo on myVideo.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://natalie.mu/comic/news/96851
2. ↑ New Soul Eater Manga Series to Launch in January 2011. Anime News Network, December 7, 2010 (English).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Soul Eater Not! Manga Will End in 5th Volume. Anime News Network, April 11, 2014.
4. ↑ BONES Animates Soul Eater Not! Anime. In: Anime News Network. December 7, 2013, accessed January 1, 2014 .