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Reviewed by Penny Kenny Soul Eater is a sexier, older teen-oriented take on the Pokemon franchise. Only instead of capturing monsters, the young weapon-meisters use their scythes to capture souls. Once a scythe - which can take human form - eats 99 human souls and the soul of a witch, it can become a Death Scythe, the weapon of Death himself. After three prologue stories in which creator Atsushi Ohkubo introduces the main protagonists, the story proper begins as Maka and her scythe Soul Eater, and Black Star and his weapon Tsubaki, compete for a zombie's soul. If they fail to claim it, they'll be expelled from Death Weapon Academy. If you enjoy over-the-top characters, undead action, weird looking creatures, and fan service, Soul Eater is the series for you. Ohkubo isn't going for emotional nuance here. He defines his characters with one or two traits and sets them loose to battle. Maka has Father issues. While "coolness" is everything to Soul Eater, he's still a sucker for a big-bosomed woman. Oblivious Black Star is a show-off and Tsubaki is nervous and loyal. Rounding out the main cast is Death the Kid, who's obsessed with symmetry. Their common trait is that while they're not very competent, they do give it their all. Soul Eater's pace is fast and furious. It bounds from humorous situations to ferocious battles without pause. The only thing that slows the action is "bathing beauty" fan service pages. While the art is nice and, in general, they're rather amusing, they do tend to bring things to a halt, which creates a jerky reading experience. Ohkubo draws on a variety of art styles. Some panels, with their delicate linework, could have come out of Blade of the Immortal, while others are very Yu-Gi-Oh like. Still others share the same sensibilities as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The blacks are heavy, sharp, and crisp. The mix of styles and color play creates a sense of crude, bumptious energy. Though they share the trait of being lanky with their weight in their feet, the characters are still distinctive looking, making it easy to identify them even when they're in action. Ohkubo uses a nice mix of standard action, comic, horror, and deformed design styles that blend together surprisingly well. The action scenes are laid out well for the most part. The battles are broken up - going from wide-shot larger panels to smaller panels that draw in on a particular character's face then back to the wide-shot again. This helps keep the reader focused, allowing him to catch a breath before swinging back into panels of dizzying acrobatics. The only fight scene that doesn't work for me is the one between Kid Death and the Soul of the Pharaoh. It's hard to figure out exactly where the attack is coming from, what the attack is, and how the character is reacting. One problem I have with the translation is that the sound effects are translated on the page - inserted beneath the sfx in parentheses. I find it distracting, not only because I feel I have to read them, but because it crowds the panel. Other readers, however, might not have that problem. While Soul Eater Volume One isn't a Halloween book per say, this is the perfect time to check out its mix of action, humor, and light horror. Think you could have written a better review of Soul Eater v1? Write us and we'll probably let you give it a shot! --EiC PC |
27 October 2009
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