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View Poll Results: Soul Eater Not! - Total Series Rating
Perfect 10 0 0%
9 out of 10 : Excellent 0 0%
8 out of 10 : Very Good 3 60.00%
7 out of 10 : Good 1 20.00%
6 out of 10 : Average 0 0%
5 out of 10 : Below Average 0 0%
4 out of 10 : Poor 1 20.00%
3 out of 10 : Bad 0 0%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad 0 0%
1 out of 10 : Painful 0 0%
Voters: 5. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 2014-07-03, 11:40   Link #1
Kairin
AnimeSuki's Mascot
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Soul Eater Not! - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Soul Eater Not! ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:
  • General impression of the series.
  • Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
  • Thoughts about the animation quality.
  • Characters/Character Design
  • Voice Acting
  • Which kind of footage (Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive) you feel you'd really like to see.
  • What the show meant to you.
  • What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun
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Old 2014-07-05, 18:46   Link #2
Guido
Snobby Gentleman
 
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Monterrey, México
Age: 43
Well, this year's spring season ended last Monday, so I'm doing best to finish the shows left pending during this weekend.

I realized what was I got myself up to once picking Soul Eater NOT!; it's a spin-off from the mainstream manga SOUL EATER, and, indeed, I watched the first SOUL EATER anime around 5 years ago.

The character development to me wasn't top notch, but what's important it was immersive amongst the characters for Tsugumi, Anya, and Meme. Furthermore, Tsugumi acted as the sort of rope or chain character connecting us, the audience, to the other supporting cast of characters in the like of Kim Diehl, the Thompson sisters, Clay & Akane, and some many others.

Soul Eater NOT, IMO, is most ideally to pick-it up as a slice-of-life take on the whole SOUL EATER universe that approaches more personally the themes of friendship, everyday life, and growing-up, yet not forgetting about the dangers that ocassionally the witches in the likes of Shaula Gorgon can pose if allow to rampage as they please unpunished. Nevertheless, fans of the original SOUL EATER will be pleased that the characters, whom were main cast in the first series, ocasionally appear few times interacting with the main cast of this spin-off. However, some fans most likely will feel dissappointed by the scarcity of action sequences in contrast to the first series.

Still, I believe it is a cute series for the character: designs, interactions, and relationships; I'm finished with my third title for the past Spring 2014 Anime Season; done with one out of three BONES shows I picked-up the past season.
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Old 2014-07-08, 17:05   Link #3
Funkatron
Highly irregular
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Dallas, TX
Age: 41
If I were to sum up this show in one word, it'd be mediocre. Mediocre plot, mediocre story, mediocre characters, mediocre animation. It had none of the flair and style the original series had. It was just plot in the beginning, fluff fluff fluff, little plot in the middle, fluff fluff fluff and then a little plot in the end, with a very unexciting fight. to top it off. Just mediocre
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Old 2014-07-08, 22:40   Link #4
Kurohane
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
You can't get into Soul Eater Not, using the same expectations from it's original series. You just won't get any satisfaction if you do. Despite having the name Soul Eater, it's more of a slice of life story. Here, it focuses on the NOT class who learn the basics for meisters and weapons, but the students never see any action or go on missions. This class is basically for beginners, and if you do well enough then, you move into EAT, where Maka, Soul and other well known Soul Eater characters take classes.

The story focuses on a girl name Tsugumi. She acts like your usual teenage girl, preoccupied with things like love and whatnot. Tsugumi lived her life as an ordinary girl until she found out she was a weapon. To control her power, she's enrolled in DWMA. There she meets Anya, a high class Tsundere, and Meme, an amnesiac girl who forgets things easily. Both of them want to be Tsugumi's partner. We have a triangle of sorts. In the end, who will she pick, and can Tsugumi keep her mind out of clouds long enough to choose.

I liked the premise. I went into this basically expecting a slice of life story, so when I went in I knew what I was expecting, and enjoy it. Tsugumi and co. go through everyday to the fullest, with having little adventures too. There are times when having to fight as well, as dealing with trouble maker students in first episode, or encountering a strange thug, who's presence links to something even deeper.

Also, I even got to see cameos of the original Soul Eater cast. We have Soul, Maka, Blackstar, Tsubaki, and Kid. Liz and Patty even have an episode focused on them as this series takes place before they became Kid's weapons, during the time while they were still street thugs. They even become side characters for the rest of the series other than just being cameos. Soul and Maka get the same treatment to, but their scenes are fewer.

All in all, this series was good. Tsugumi and co. are fun to watch every week, the little adventures they get into are interesting, and suspense/mystery is added with the main villain's scheming in the background. Yes, despite it being mostly slice of life, there is a main villain in this series. Also, the cameos of favorite Soul Eater characters are the icing on the cake so to speak.

The slice of life with a mix of action was blended well that I enjoyed most of it. However, as we near the end, as it is an anime adaption of a manga, some story plots happen that are bound to get rushed and/or confusing. Some seem to get completely forgotten. Characters from the original Soul Eater Kim and Jackie. We get to see how they become partners, and a couple episodes were dedicated to see just that. However later, Kim says she needs to have some space from Jackie to sort her thoughts out. Not only is this never mentioned again, but a couple episodes later, they're back together, and they work together as partners to fend of crisis during the climax. In another case, Tsugumi receives a book from Maka, while she and Soul are trying to get rid of a few things taking up space in their house, by selling them during a Bazaar. It's obvious this book is plot device material. However, Tsugumi never reads it, and it never even gets mentioned again after the episode.

Next one is about Meme, and requires a bit of explaining. The main villain is a scorpion witch known as Shaula Gorgon, who can control people by injecting people with her poison. That thug mentioned earlier was one such victim. Meme I mentioned is a very amnesic, as she forgets often various things at a variety of times. It turns out she is one of the mind controlled victims of Shaula. However, not only was there not really any hint towards such until near the end, but you never get to know how Shaula came into contact with her. Another student Eternal Feather at some point gets controlled, through a ring that injected the witch's venom in her. You know right away when it takes affect, due to the change in eyes, and they match the thug's as well. During these events, Shuala was testing her venom to see the limits of her mind control, and improving it. No way, she had a finished concoction at the beginning, when Meme is implied to have been injected before the series started.

Meme being mind controlled as well really comes out of nowhere. She doesn't really do anything suspicious until episode 10 when she "sleepwalks" out of her room and into the school, and into a room the girls' encountered earlier to look through some documents. Also, Tsugumi and Anya who share a room with her and are very aware of her sleepwalking, follows her as she does this. She has sleepwalked before, but it was more of a comedic element with her mostly getting into Tsugumi's bed, harassing her, and usually stays the entire night there. Really, it was only through that night that Meme's sleepwalking actions were extremely different, as she uses a bat whistle to send a message via bat courier (not to mention that whistle was one she won during a contest very recently), before leaving the room to head to the school.

She easily gets caught by the teacher and is held for monitoring and questioning. Somehow, she sends Tsugumi and Anya a message through another message via bat courier, and they get the bright idea to bust her out, only to have Meme be shown to be controlled in full with the eyes and all. Questions on how and why Shaula injected Meme, and left her alone until now go unanswered. Also, Meme turns out to be injected with a special type of venom that's different from previous victims, when she was likely the first to be injected before Shuala did any testing, yet the effect is very potent like the recent cases.

An example of rushness is the how Shaula gets defeated in the end. It is so quick and done by Tsugumi and co. You wonder what's the problem with this? It was JUST Tsugumi and co. who took her out. From the original Soul Eater, a witch is even more formidable than a Keishin. The fact that a a few students from NOT were able to get Shaula was very unbelievable, and in less than 5 minutes no less.

My biggest gripe with the series was how the serie's biggest question of who will Tsugumi choose as a partner came to an end. Throughout the series, Tsugumi has been taking a little too long to choose a partner. It's unfair to both Anya and Meme to be kept waiting this long, when one of them in the end has to move on and find another partner. Anya urges Tsugumi to make a decision by Halloween, and it was before summer vacation when this scene happens, so Tsugumi was given plenty of time to pick. Guess what, in the end, she picks both of them. I wish I was joking. To me, this came off like a total cop out. This was really a bad way to end it. To me, this no different from a boy choosing between two girls to be his girlfriend/girl choosing between two guys to be her boyfriend, and end up choosing them both. That just doesn't work at all. From the very beginning, Tsugumi was given a choice between two qualified meisters, and at the end, we expect her to choose one. I really don't see what was the problem in choosing one. Was their friendship going to go south by her choosing one? No, because both Anya and Meme were prepared for that. Whoever she chose as a partner wasn't going to affect the three's friendship, so I really fail to see the point why she chose both of them.

Soul Eater Not was still enjoyable anime adaption of it's manga to me. I watched every Tuesday on hulu during it's simulcast. However, it failed to really wrap up everything well in the last three episodes, and the climax was rushed to try to close up the main plot points that in the end, didn't bring about satisfying conclusion.
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Last edited by Kurohane; 2014-07-08 at 23:03.
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