Soul Eater Not! - Episode 1 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Soul Eater Not!, Episode 1.

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[Kaoru Chujo]

With the first episode supposedly coming today, here is a characters/seiyuus page, with images of twelve characters and their seiyuus, and a bit of info about each seiyuu.

[Flower]

Well, I guess I should state from the get go that I have neither read nor seen any of the Soul Eater franchise, so I came into the episode flying blind.

First off, I loved the scene when the cabby offered Meme his services.

"Hey miss! Need a taxi?"

"Umm... Who am I and where am I going?"

".....huh?"

I must admit I chuckled a lot at that one while watching, but it is a good summary of what I feel after watching the ep, although with a crooked grin on my face added to make the picture more accurate.

Kinda liked it I guess? Well, I will check out further eps, at least.

[jedinat]

My favorite first episode of the new season so far. Though I still haven't seen a couple of them, like Mushishi. I didn't care so much for the first Soul Eater series but this one looks promising. Really like the character dynamics and the potential there.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Flower

Well, I guess I should state from the get go that I have neither read nor seen any of the Soul Eater franchise, so I came into the episode flying blind.

Ditto. I've read some episode reviews of the first series, enough to know that it wasn't my kind of show. This series, on the other hand, looks to be a lot more suited to my taste.

"Where did I come from, and where am I going?" That goes a little beyond being absent-minded.

Why so tsundere, princess? If you pull that with people who have never met you, you're going to get what you got: an epic failure to get your true feelings across.

[MasterVampire]

So does this new series take place after the original series has ended?

Does Maka still have credit for beating that Kishin guy?

[Random Wanderer]

TVTropes tells me it's something of a prequel. There may be some overlap.

[bakaouji]

Yeah, this is nothing like Soul Eater. As far as I'm concerned, pretty much all the heavy-lifting was done by the cameos. The main characters don't even come close to recreating the manic energy the originals did with their wacky idiosyncrasies.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is just another run-of-the-mill show featuring cute girls doing cute things except its using a preestablished premise that belongs to a popular franchise as a cover to make a case for itself. So far, the show looks pretty ordinary to me and it doesn't seem to exhibit even a fourth of the ambition that the original had. This show is everything the original couldn't be possibly be accused of and that it's completely ordinary.

[Random Wanderer]

Good. Even looking at pictures of Soul Eater was a turn-off for me. Something without the insanity will work just fine.

TVTropes also tells me that NOT gives information on how a lot of things work at DWMA that the main series doesn't touch on, such as dorm rules, money management, why some kids wear uniforms and others don't, and several other things that help to flesh out the world of the original Soul Eater. It's up to you if that interests you or not.

Me, it caught my attention because it looked like a series about moe girls being moe, with the setting and all just being a bit of flavoring to that.

[Blue-kun]

I actually rather enjoyed this. Having read the manga and watched the anime for the original SOUL EATER, I was always of the opinion that Okubo had a certain knack for comedy, and it carried over quite well here. The three girls came across as being funny and it feels like they could work together rather well, with Tsugumi's "commoner" status and attitude serving as a good way to balance out the jokes of the two other, much wackier, friends.

Visually, it started off a bit too normal for a BONES production, but it picked up the slack after the OP. It's (at least) above average as you'd expect from them, and the action scenes seem like they'll be well handled again.

Last but not least, major props to Yuuki Hayashi for the OST -- sounds really promising. Early 2013 I kept saying Sawano was my favourite anime composer in activity, since he had some great momentum going on, but ever since then Hayashi has certainly made a good effort to steal that spot. BLOOD LAD, Gundam Build Fighters and now both this and Haikyuu all sound very, very nice.

Anyhow, quite enjoyable, I'll keep on watching it for the time being.

[Jerseykid]

This is an abomination! My glorious soul eater being infected with girl power

However.....if only to see exalibur one more time

[kagato3]

NOT seems more slice of life / world building. The opening at least hints there may be some conflict in the form of the girl withthe scorpion motif. It will be interesting just how far back this is before soul eater started

[FlareKnight]

It's good to have any Soul Eater back that's for sure .

Overall a good first episode. Got a feel for that main trio and got some nice cameos. Good to see those familiar faces again even though they aren't likely to be very prominent in this series.

A good start. Even got a little bit of action in there. Certainly not a surprise that some jerks tried to use the partnering thing as a way to get a girl. Those two idiots will be perfect partners I'm sure...

Should be a fun little triangle situation going on here. I'm sure they'll keep it going for most of the series though not sure how long it can last long term.

It probably will be good to see the smaller conflicts and life at Shibusen. The best thing I think this series can accomplish is being successful enough to hopefully get the main Soul Eater series the Brotherhood treatment.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't something so utterly enjoyable as this. Really beautifully made.

I'm not coming to this as a fan of the original Soul Eater, which I didn't last very long with. This first episode, however, was good to look at, funny, and even moving for me. I felt all Tsugumi's moments of doubt and joy and determination. Props to the newish seiyuu playing her, Chisuga Haruka; and also to writer/director Hashimoto Masakazu (who also did both jobs on TariTari), and to Bones. By the way, I totally loved Tsugumi's poking-out hairstyle.

But the real reason I am here is for the other two stars: Yuuki Aoi and Hayami Saori, two of my favorite seiyuus, fellow-students at Waseda University, and partners in a long-running radio show. Hayamin has one of the most beautiful voices in the world, singing or speaking; and Ao-chan has one of the strongest seiyuu voices, and great ability to work with it. I didn't even recognize her voice at first, which is unusual for the very distinctive Ao-chan. She was wonderful in Love Song for a Certain Pilot, and she's started well here (as Meme; Hayamin plays the princess).

I can understand why people who liked the first series are put off by this one. This ain't that, at least so far. But I myself am ready to see the story and the characters evolve. The less we see of stupid shounen villains like the two guys, though, the better.

[ACertainStark]

Having read the manga, I knew what to expect.

I'm just happy it's Soul Eater pushing out its more SOL side and it still has the same charm.

The art is still a bit off-putting though.

[Sackett]

NOT is a moe slice of life manga, with occasional super powers. Sort of like the first season of Railgun, but with less action.

So if you happen to both like SoL and the Soul Eater franchise, then this show will probably be great for you.

If you like Soul Eater but not SoL then this show may give you some interesting world building tidbits that you like, as well as some extensive cameos of certain secondary characters from Soul Eater.

If you like SoL but Soul Eater was too crazy for you... well you'll probably like this show... but the madness might infect you.

[ACertainStark]

Considering Soul Eater contained a hefty amount of SoL and blended it in many serious moments, I think fans should be okay.

[Myssa Rei]

Yes, but Soul Eater was still a shounen action series first and foremost, with the SOL moments used for readers to catch their breaths. NOT has things flipped around, with the SOL moments front and center, revealing aspects of the world of Soul Eater the action series glosses over.

Oh, and Sid isn't dead yet. Can't forget that!

[FlareKnight]

Clearly it's late, took me several moments to figure out what SOL even meant .

Nothing wrong with a series that focuses a bit more on the lighter stuff. It's still the same universe and a chance to see things from another point of view.

Certainly possible to enjoy the original series and NOT and plan to do just that.

And yeah, that looks like the staircase from hell. Not sure I'd make it up that thing.

[Goty]

Originally Posted by bakaouji

If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is just another run-of-the-mill show featuring cute girls doing cute things except its using a preestablished premise that belongs to a popular franchise as a cover to make a case for itself. So far, the show looks pretty ordinary to me and it doesn't seem to exhibit even a fourth of the ambition that the original had. This show is everything the original couldn't be possibly be accused of and that it's completely ordinary.

Well, there is a reason it's named Soul Eater NOT.
But yeah, to me this is more "Soul Eater, gone generic".