[libba]

Originally Posted by Change of Pace

Spoiler:

Dammit, what a LET DOWN. The manga doesn't do it as much, but Bones' adaption consistently pissed me off at how much they revered and made Maka the obvious Shounen main character. I was hoping Bones wouldn't fall face first into the archetype THIS badly, but Soul Eater ended up with the main gal defeating an opponent who she really had no chance against, and everyone else doing absolute nil. Also, if Maka's now a weapon, Soul is unnecessary, yeah? Sheesh, you'd think it's named after the dude Soul for a reason, but Bones just had to give Maka all the spotlights. Just... ugh. If it wasn't for the pretty animation I'd be throwing stones and ranting like a lunatic. Bones has this stupid fixation with Maka that brings them down constantly; it's not realistic to have your little joshi kosei defeat someone even Shinigami had no hopes against. Like, a punch may be innovative, but so is a Shinigami chop, yeah?

I actually liked that spotlight -- usually girls in shounen are:

Spoiler:

1) openly useless
2) acting as support classes
3) there for the sake of PC or whatever - meaning, they claim to be just as strong and capable as boys but when real action starts we see that they are weaker or\and never allowed to outshine anyone with balls. Just look at Naruto
4) acting as a fragile mystic (like a shrine maiden guarding some ancient knowledge)
5) plain old damsels in distress
6) waiting passionately for the hero to come home, all the while keeping his slippers warm

I wouldn't have been surprised if Soul were a tsundere girl character actually - a supporting character who has his interesting moments, displays undying faith in the main character, doesn't really do anything on their own, and spends the final battle posing tragically as a sacrifice.

And here we have a female shounen protagonist who does not pull her punches in the most literal of ways. Hooray for that.