From the moment you hear the first strains of Soul Eater’s opening theme song, “Resonance,” you know you are in for something special. FUNimation’s release of the first thirteen episodes of the fifty-two episode series from BONES expertly mixes kinetic fight scenes with a wonderful sense of comedic timing and solid character drama.  Top all that off with a slick animation style and a fantastic soundtrack, and the show quickly becomes a real a treat for anime fans looking for something new and exciting.

The series begins with a three-episode prologue that introduces the three main characters and their partners.  Each of these characters are students at the DWMA, a school that trains folk to hunt “kishin” and consume their corrupted souls in an effort to eventually become what beings known as “Death Scythes”.  All this really means is that they work for the Grim Reaper and are really, really good at killing really powerful bad guys.  The bad guys, in this case, being humans who have become monstrous beings capable of devouring the souls of others.  If left unchecked, these creatures have the potential to become dark gods which means it is up the students of the DWMA to stop them.   

Of the seven major characters in the series, the two that the story follows most often are Maka and Soul.  Their relationship as a “meister” and “weapon” duo forms the primary core of the show with most major events being told from their point of view.  Once the show gets past the first three prologue episodes, the overall storyline begins to emerge and is continuously enhanced with new supporting characters and villains constantly being layered on to create an ever-expanding array of side stories and subplots. 

Overall, the show is very involving with only a few filler episodes showing up to interrupt the progression of the main storyline with the worst example being the first Excalibur episode.  Although that particular episode is so far off the beaten path as to have practically no relation at all to the rest of the series, at least it was pretty funny.    Despite the occasional less-than-stellar filler episode, the worst thing I can say about Soul Eater: Part One is that it’s not on Blu-ray yet (dammit!).  Although the DVD transfer is fairly solid throughout, with a fantastic anime like this, Blu-ray would just make this show even more epic than it already is.

Bottom line:

Soul Eater: Part One is a fantastic investment if you enjoyed FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist or similar shows along those lines.  With its perfect blend of high-octane action mixed with deep personal drama and solid comedic timing, Soul Eater just keeps getting better every time I watch it.  I highly recommended you give this anime series a try.  I am certain you will be hooked before you know it.

Final score: 5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed by:  Laughncat 1

Description:  Soul Eater: Part One – Episodes 1-13 (released by FUNimation)

Purchase:  Amazon / Right Stuf

I was lucky enough to come across this excellent video a few weeks ago via a post on Danny Choo’s Facebook fanpage. At the time, there was no subtitled version available, but the overall beauty of the work drove me to contact the creator to see if he had any plans to make one. Surprisingly, not only was Tohru Hanayama kind enough to respond to my question, but he was also kind enough to produce a subtitled version for English speaking fans such as me less than a week a later.

After the new video went up, I was contacted by Mr. Hanayama a second time to let me know about it. Curious to learn more about the work and the story behind “Crossword”, I asked Mr. Hanayama if he could provide me with some insights into the short film that I could share with you folks. Please hit the jump to read his response.

A more apt title of this piece would probably have been “Recent newsletter from FUNimation gives lazy webmaster second chance to talk about awesome things.”  Although I may have failed to post about FUNi’s new list of acquisitions that was released a few weeks ago at Otakon, I’m glad that I got a another chance to post about it.  I’m very excited about FUNi getting the rights the second EVA movie as their Blu-ray release for 1.11 was impeccable.   Also, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Summer Wars and Okamisan has already stolen my heart.  All in all, I’m glad to see that their most recent batch of acquistions appears to contain shows of a much higher quality than some of their other announcements from the past year… =^_^=

Complete list:

• Evangelion 2.22: You Can (not) Advance
• Summer Wars
• Okamisan
• Ga-Rei-Zero
• Blessing of Campanella
• Hetalia Axis Powers: Paint It, White
• Strike Witches 2

Hit the jump for videos, release dates and plot synopsis info all the new shows.  

If you are a fan of the ZOIDS series, there’s a lot to love about Kaiyodo’s Blade Liger release.  Sporting an insane amount of detail and a huge number of joints for maximum poseability, the Blade Liger is a collector’s dream come true.  Sadly, that dream also comes with a steeper than usual price tag attached.

I honestly don’t think I have ever seen an anime series as unrepentantly smutty as volume one of the Queen’s Blade series. Up until now, the short anime series Eiken was the benchmark against which I measured all fan service based anime series. Sadly, that series has now been thoroughly unseated by Queen’s Blade’s obsessive attention to the nude female form and fetish oriented combat scenes.