Soul Eater

Soul Eater is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ōkubo. Set at the "Death Weapon Meister Academy", the series revolves around three teams, each consisting of a weapon meister and (at least one) weapon that can transform into a humanoid. Trying to make the latter a "death scythe" and thus fit for use by the academy's headmaster Shinigami, the personification of death, they must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch, in that order; otherwise, they will have to start all over again. The manga was published by Square Enix and was first released in 2003 as three separate one-shots; the first two published in two Gangan Powered special editions and the last one in Gangan Wing. The manga was then regularly serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine from May 2004 to August 2013, with its chapters collected in 25 tankōbon volumes. The Soul Eater manga had 19.6 million copies in circulation as of July 2019. The Manga have been overall well received, specially for its art style and Gothic setting, often compared by critics to Tim Burton's works like The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Plot
The series is set at Death Weapon Meister Academy — "DWMA" for short — located in the fictional Death City in Nevada, United States. The school is run by Shinigami, also known as Death, as a training facility for humans with the ability to transform into weapons, as well as the wielders of those weapons, called meisters. Attending this school are Maka Albarn and her scythe partner, Soul Eater; assassin Black Star and his partner, Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, who can turn into various ninja weapons; and Shinigami's son, Death the Kid, and his pistol partners, Liz and Patty Thompson. The goal of the school's meister students is to have their weapons absorb the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch, which dramatically increases the weapon's power and turns them into "death scythes" used by Shinigami

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The series has a pretty unique setting taking place in a "Halloween" type place.
 * 2) While the plot of the series is to eat the souls of 99 Evil Humans and 1 Witch the plot develops more over time as the series progressed.
 * 3) A likeable cast of characters such as Maka, Soul "Eater" Evans, Death the Kid, Black Star, Tsubaki, Liz and Patty, Shinigami, Blair, Crona, Death Scythe, etc.
 * 4) The series has a handful of good antagonists such as Medusa Gorgon, Asura Kishin, Arachne Gorgon, and Justin Law
 * 5) The art evolution of the series is pretty amazing going from a kind of chunky artstyle to a pretty good one (Especially when you compare it to the managaka's next work Fire Force)
 * 6) The series has many Character Development moments:
 * 7) *Maka's always been a pretty kind and sweet girl, but she did have her temper moments at first. As the series progressed, her temper issues are replaced with being more responsible and courageous.
 * 8) *Soul is first portrayed as a very laidback and level-headed guy who also had a hot-headed, Jerkass streak a mile long. As the series progresses, Soul proves to be very, very competent and kindhearted.
 * 9) *Black Star started off as an arrogant person who mostly cares about himself. He later comes to learn how to respect others and manages to lose a lot of his arrogance, and also learns to be a lot less impulsive and opportunistic, becoming more level-headed to a degree.
 * 10) *Death the Kid starts off as a dismissive and aloof Control Freak who hates any asymmetry, is obsessed over his ideals, lives in doubt about his worth as his father’s successor, and refuses any aid besides his Weapons. In the manga he undergoes a Breaking Speech about how his ideals are incompatible with reality and becomes an Omnicidal Maniac to make the world a symmetrical clean slate, but with help from his friends he learns to trust others more, talk about and process his fears, and become a friendly Reaper who respects humanity.
 * 11) It spawned an anime adaption.
 * 12) The series has pretty emotional moments such as Cronah's past and Shinigami's Death.
 * 13) Epic fight scenes such as Maka, Death the Kid, Black Star vs Asura, Black star vs Mifune, and Maka and Black Star vs Crona among others.
 * 14) The series is filled with funny moments.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The ending was rushed, and it didn't tell us what happened to Crona after the fight with Kishin.
 * 2) Some characters were wasted such as Tsubaki and Blair.
 * 3) As mentioned in WIT #5 the art in the beginning wasn't really that good

Trivia

 * 1) Soul Eater started out as three separate one-shots, which eventually evolved into the first three chapters of the manga.
 * 2) The series was apparently going to run for a little bit longer, but got cancelled for reasons that have never been explained. Theories range from Soul Eater Not! flopping to just general reader interest decreasing.

Reception
Soul Eater was the 7th best-selling manga in 2008, with 3,076,351 copies sold. As of October 2012, the manga had over 13 million copies in circulation. As of April 2018, the manga had sold 18.2 million copies worldwide. As of July 2019, the manga had 19.6 million copies in circulation.

In her review of the first volume, Danielle Leigh of Comic Book Resources wrote that it is "stylish and fun", favorably comparing Ōkubo's art to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Corpse Bride, which considered paired quite well with references to Anglo-American spooks and horror legends as Jack the Ripper and Frankenstein. Leigh, however, criticized the series for its excessive use of fanservice, and considered that it clashes terribly with the series "pattern oriented, with very little depth" art style. Penny Kenny of Manga Life, gave the first volume a "B+". Kenny praised the series for its action scenes and variety of art styles, commenting that its panels "could have come out of Blade of the Immortal, while others are very Yu-Gi-Oh like", and that others "share the same sensibilities as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas", adding that Ōkubo uses a "nice mix of standard action, comic, horror, and deformed design styles that blend together surprisingly well". Julian Gnam of Otaku USA praised the weapon meister/demon weapon partnerships presented in the story, but criticized the series' fanservice and overall found its plot "conventional", adding that it could come off cliché to the "more jaded manga veteran", stating although that this makes the series accessible to casual readers. Reviewing the second volume, Chris Zimmerman of Comic Book Bin gave it a 7.5 out of 10. Zimmerman commended the series for its action sequences and wrote that the character designs are "thoughtful and creative", but criticized it for its lack of character development, prioritizing single chapter fights, and making it similar to other shōnen series. Reviewing the first two volumes, Shaenon Garrity of About.com gave the series 2 out of 5 stars. She praised the manga's setting, describing it as a "hyperkinetic Halloween world that’s equal parts Shaman King, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and The Nightmare Before Christmas", but stated that "snazzy visuals can’t compensate for the bland characters and meandering story". Garrity concluded that the series' popularity comes from its anime adaptation, adding that it is "fun to look at, bright and vibrant and visually imaginative", and in contrast, the original manga is "a lot less fun to sit down and read".

Reviewing the first volume of Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition, Nicholas Dupree of Anime News Network gave it a B+. Dupree wrote that the series holds an inherent charm to its world and characters that is hard to find anywhere else, adding that the key is its "spooky, Spirit Halloween-esque design sensibilities". He pointed out, however, that the comedy did not age well, stating that the main characters' gimmicks become repetitive and unfunny, and he felt that its use of sexual humor and fanservice is "questionable at best", and would not blame uninitiated readers if they drop the series for it "being too much". Dupree concluded: "for whatever warts it bears 15 years later, there's still nothing quite like Soul Eater out there".