Soul Eater 09: The Legendary Holy Sword! Kid and Black Star's Grand Adventure

Online Videos by Veoh.com

SO THERE'S THIS SWORD THAT'S STUCK... Kid and Black Star search for the legendary blade that cleaves the very heavens, Excalibur. What could possibly go wrong? If you've been watching Soul Eater this far, you know that the answer is: a lot. By the way, did you know that Excalibur's legend started in the 12th century?

The search for Excalibur starts out innocently enough as Black Star is sent to the library as punishment for his spotty performance in school-related activities. Here, he soon meets up with Death the Kid, who is searching for a book about the legendary sword Excalibur. By the way, did I mention that this sword's legend started in the 12th century?

Naturally, both are fascinated about acquiring the legendary living weapon, but for different reasons. Of course, any Soul Eater viewer can likely guess the motivation that drives these two goofs. With a little inside info from Dr. Stein, who apparently failed to truly wield the sword, Black Star and Kid set off on their grand adventure to find the sword -- whose legend started in the 12th century.

Now in earlier posts about this series, I mentioned that Black Star is at his best when paired with Soul because they're just a hilarious duo. Well, Black Star with Kid is a pretty hilarious combination, too. Of course, the funny parts are best experienced by watching as opposed to me telling you so I'll just leave it at that. Let's just say that Death the Kid's reaction to water reminded me of my past misadventures about flooding when I used to live in Manila -- and I even had an uncle help me the same way Black Star helped Kid on my way to school. Just like Kid, I guess I was a "perfect" student, too. Perfectly stupid.

I also like the Gintama-ish reaction from the fairy in the cave when asked about Excalibur. By the way, that's another series I highly recommend. It's actually even funnier than Soul Eater, and that says a lot. Anywho, our two heroes eventually meet up with the legendary sword. Will one of them be compatible enough with the Excalibur to draw it out? The answer will surprise you -- and probably make you laugh out loud, too. All I can say is that any sword that makes Black Star and Kid respect each other more is truly legendary to me, regardless of whether its legend started in the 12th century or not.

Soul Eater 08: Medusa the Witch! The One Who Possesses Souls

Online Videos by Veoh.com

DESPERATION: Maka and Soul find themselves in a pinch during the battle with Chrona. With Soul severely injured, just how will the duo get out of this mess?

Extra thoughts: A new super villain from the shadows reveals herself in this episode, and more is explained about evil weapons that feed on normal human souls as well. The episode also shows the reunion of Stein and Death Scythe in the field, which was subtly foreshadowed in the previous episode.

As far as plot devices go, this episode serves as the classic hero-faces-adversity twist, which ultimately leads to an increased resolve for gaining strength. Then there's also the "uncertainty" twist where the hero is inflicted by a dangerous condition that could consume him (e.g. Bleach's Kurosaki Ichigo's "Hollow" powers, for example).

This episode manages to offer a nice mix of action, comedy and even some touching moments. The scene at the clinic with Black Star and Death Scythe is quite a hoot. Death Scythe's complete lack of confidence when talking to her daughter is kind of sweet, too, if not understandable. One moment you're the hero of your child and can do no wrong. Then the child reaches the teen years and things do a 180. This seems to be especially the case in Japan with fathers and daughters. It makes even a lot more sense when you think how girls view cool young guys as opposed to "ossan" -- which dads basically are. Yep, that's a no win situation right there.

Soul Eater 07: Black Blood of Terror! A Weapon Resides Within Chrona?

Online Videos by Veoh.com

A FORMIDABLE FOE APPEARS: Soul Eater takes a more serious turn as a fearful adversary makes an appearance.

Soul Eater 06: The Rumored Freshman! Kid's Memorable First Day at School

Online Videos by Veoh.com

YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST TIME: The much talked about son of Shinigama-sama, Death the Kid, makes his first official appearance as a student at Shibusen. Naturally, Soul and Black Star decide to give him a welcome fitting of a popular kid who gets all the attention.

Favorite part: For hot-blooded boys, the "gattai" or combined transformation is one of the "coolest" phenomenon in anime. With that said, I just loved, loved the gattai sequence in this episode. I mean, Soul and Black Star literally combined -- to hilarious effect.

Now while Soul and Black Star are quite compatible as friends, that unfortunately doesn't extend to their relationship as master and weapon. Kid, on the other hand, doesn't have the same problem and easily wipes the floor with them. I especially liked the part where Kid goes crazy after Black Star commits a crime against symmetry. Will the incompatible master and weapon find a way to turn the tables?

Soul Eater 05: The Strongest Weapon Master, Stein, Appears

Online Videos by Veoh.com

ANYBODY SEEN A SEWING MACHINE 'ROUND HERE? With Sid defeated, Soul, Maka, Black Star and Tsubaki finally come face to face -- or, more accurately, face-to-top-of-the-head -- with the man responsible for transforming the poor ex-teacher to a zombie. Besides being certifiably messed up in the old noggin', Stein also happens to be the original partner of Maka's papa, Death Scythe. Oh yeah, he's also the strongest weapon master to come out of Shibusen. Did I already mention that he's crazy? What could Master Shinigami possibly be thinking by sending four kids to apprehend him? Sensing a massacre in the making, Death the Kid decides to help. Unfortunately, he gets side tracked by, um, something you wipe a certain body part with. Things certainly aren't looking good for our young heroes.

Speaking of which, I'm not a big fan of horror movies because, well, let's just say I don't like peeing with my pants on. It's the same with sad movies. I mean, why the heck should I pay for the privilege of depressing the heck out of myself? It's the same reason why viewing the last few episodes of Code Geass' first season ruined an entire weekend for me. That show taught me how women must feel right before that time of month.

Anyway, back to horror movies. Despite my wussiness when it comes to scary movies, I'm pretty good at dealing with a wide range of monsters. I can handle werewolves, vampires and mummies -- provided the stay wrapped -- with no problem. But there are three things that seriously creep me out. One is "Sadako" lady-in-white-with-long-black-hair types because they genuinely put the fear of God in me. Second is monsters riddled with stitches or impaled with sharp objects because they plain gross me out. Third are decomposing people because they're both scary and gross (though not as scary as Sadako. Sadako's hits you psychologically, too). Soul Eater's Stein happens to be the classic example of the second type: he's got stitches all over his body and a huge, friggin' giant screw going through his head. Fortunately, he's a goofy cartoon character, which totally cancels everything out. In short, I just went through a long, incessant rant for nothing.

Soul Eater 04: Witch Hunt Invoked!? Heart-Pounding Remedial Lesson at the Graveyard?

Online Videos by Veoh.com

NOT-SO-WHITE ZOMBIE: Following the debacle that was their initial witch hunt, former Shibusen school rising stars Maka and Soul find themselves "soulless" and back to square one. As a result, they are forced to take a remedial course with another victim, er, student -- the chronic underachiever, Black Star. Their mission is to track down their former homeroom teacher Sid, who reportedly kicked the bucket after taking a very sharp object to the forehead. Now the ex-instructor is apparently terrorizing the area after being turned into a zombie. I guess that's just the kind of man that Sid is and/or was. So how did the once-kind Sid turn into an evil zombie? And just how do you beat a zombified ex-teacher who also happened to be a top-class weapon master? And does Sid dig through the ditches and burn through the witches and slam at the back of his Dragula? Well, I guess you'll just have to watch Soul Eater's fourth episode.

On an unrelated note, is it just me or are certain Japanese zombie creations uncharacteristically energetic? Off the top of my head, two zombies come to mind -- Soul Eater's Sid and Darkstalkers' Zabel. Whatever happened to good, old slow zombies? You know, the ones that used to appear in old movies and managed to kill characters who were apparently too stupid to outrun something that moved just about as fast a tree? I blame Michael Jackson. His Thriller zombies suckered you in by first moving slow. Next thing you know, they're dancing as quick as a bad guy in a cowboy movie who's being shot at the foot. Then again, I actually like Sid and Zabel. Being chased by zombies as limber as them, though, is another story altogether. That's just askin' for a bladder problem.

Macross Frontier 02: Hard Chase

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Alto finds himself in the cockpit of one of the latest Valkyries (or Gerwalk to be technical, I guess) after an unexpected turn of events. Although a bit rough on the edges, Alto displays some potential as a pilot, but will it be enough against the invading alien monster? And that's all I'm going to say about the plot at this point as shows are best experienced by watching them, not by reading a summary.

As a fan of the original series, I'm really liking this attack-on-the-city setting as it seems to pay homage to its classic forefather. It's also obvious they've spent a lot of moolah on this series as the mech animations are sinfully good. Singing certainly appears to be more well integrated in Frontier vs., say, a certain unnamed Macross series that basically force-fed the musical aspect of the show until you puked. Yes, I just can't let that go.

Anywho, so far so good Macross Frontier. You've definitely got my attention.

Soul Eater 03: The Perfect Boy? Death the Kid's Magnificent Mission?

Online Videos by Veoh.com

PAGING DR. PHIL: The son of Shinigami-sama himself, Death the Kid is one perfectly powerful boy. He's also perfectly in need of some serious therapy. This is my favorite Soul Eater episode so far simply because Kid and his partners, Patty and Liz, are just drop dead hilarious. I LOL'ed. A lot. you probably will too, so I'll just keep quiet as to not ruin the surprise.

Soul Eater 02: I'm a Star! The Big Shot Appears

Online Videos by Veoh.com

A STAR APPEARS: As a top-class assassin, Black Star's fighting style is most conducive to stealth and striking from the shadows. Unfortunately, "Mr. Big Shot" has one personality quirk that tends to get in the way, much to the dismay of his living weapon, Tsubaki. I couldn't help but think of another certain ninja -- one that likes ramen. In fact, Black Star seems to be the amalgamation of certain anime character stereotypes. Normally, that gets tiring for me pretty quickly. But I just can't bring myself to hate the guy. I think Black Star is at his best when playing off of Soul as they end up looking like a manzai group without a straight man. Otherwise, it's easy for him to lapse into "stereotypical character A." I also like how he tends to succumb to fads he conjures in his head. It kind of reminds me of some people I know -- the only difference being Black Star is designed to be intentionally silly. Real-life people, on the other hand, don't even realize how silly they are being sometimes. Or is that most of the time?

Soul Eater 01: Soul Eater Becomes a Death Scythe?

SOUL SEARCHING: Scythe specialist Maka Albarn and her living weapon Soul Eater collect their 99th soul and are only a witch's soul away from powering Soul up into his ultimate form: a Death Scythe. Collecting that witch's soul, however, is apparently easier said than done...

Now as much as I like Soul and Maka, their relationship reminds me of many an anime character that have gone before so I wouldn't consider the two exactly ground breaking from a personality standpoint. Still, the combination works so that's still fine by me.

I do enjoy the little added touches to spice things up a bit and keep it interesting. Maka's dad, for example, is your stereotypical super-doting, overprotective dad but the added 21st century element of his divorce woes is actually a pretty funny twist -- and how often do you hear someone say that about divorces? Plus I can never hate super-doting, overprotective dads because that's exactly how I'm gonna be if I ever have a daughter. Die, hormonically active young male scum! I also like the fact that they named a "witch" Blair. I see what you did there, Soul Eater. In short, I'm intrigued enough to continue giving this series a chance. I pray that it doesn't disappoint.

Chi's Sweet Home 04: Chi Forgets

CATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER: Chi steels herself and attempts to go home to her family once again. But little things here and there distract the curious kitten.

Soul Eater - Main Page

SOULFULLY DELIGHTFUL: At first glance, Soul Eater looks like one of those forgettable, mass-produced Saturday morning cartoons that now populate American TV. But don't let the simple drawing style fool you. Soul Eater is one of the more enjoyable shows to debut in the Spring '08 season.

Part Tim Burton movie and part action-packed shonen anime, the manga-based Soul Eater chronicles the adventures (or is it misadventures?) of students at the Shinigami Weapons Technician Vocational School -- or something that roughly translates along those lines. As part of their curriculum, weapon technicians try to collect the souls of 99 corrupted humans and 1 witch to increase the power of their living weapons. In the process, they also try to protect the world by preventing the rebirth of evil "Kishin." It's a twist on the old good-vs.-evil, collect-something plot device. But the series provides enough fresh touches to keep yours truly interested.

From what I've seen so far, Soul Eater features a nice mix of action, introspection and goofy hijinks from a hilarious cast of characters. From a not-so-secretive ninja and spunky rebel who tries to be cool yet miserably fails most of the time to a doting dad going through a divorce and an obsessive compulsive genius, Soul Eater serves up a delightful cast of misfits. I also found the art style growing on me after a while and the action sequences are nicely directed from a camera and body movement standpoint. I think it's definitely one of the highlights of this anime season, especially since it doesn't take itself too seriously and is ridiculously funny. But don't take my word for it. Go watch and see for yourself.

Episode 1: Resonance: Soul Eater Becomes a Death Scythe?
Episode 2: I'm a Star! The Big Shot Appears
Episode 3: The Perfect Boy? Death The Kid's Magnificent Mission
Episode 4: Witch Hunt Invoked?! Heart-Pounding Remedial Lesson at the Graveyard?
Episode 5: The Strongest Weapon Master, Stein, Appears
Episode 6: The Rumored Freshman! Kid's Memorable First Day at School
Episode 7: Black Blood of Terror! A Weapon Resides Within Chrona?
Episode 8: Medusa the Witch! The One Who Possesses Souls
Episode 9: The Legendary Holy Sword! Kid and Black Star's Grand Adventure