#i know i know its baba yaga’s arc and book of eibon arc

[nikikikiko]

still thinking about that scene where noah finds kid after beating up mosquito and kid throwing liz and patty away so they could be safe. thinking about how liz initially tried to get kid back but then recognized the threat level and understood immediately that she couldn’t do anything without making kid’s sacrifice in vain. thinking about how patty insulted liz because liz wasn’t doing anything and how patty desperately wanted to ignore the dangerous situation just to get their pseudo brother back.

thinking also about the fact liz & patty had to break the news about everything, and how useless patty must have felt snd that’s why she’s training physically harder to be a kind of pseudo-meister. thinking about how liz might have so much guilt over needing to do the necessary thing for her and patty’s survival and how that might have been a reoccurring thing in her past.

i have so many thougjts abt that particular arc can you tell

[soul-dwelling]

Do you think something went wrong behind the scenes after the Baba Yaga arc in SE, hence why the book of Eibon arc was so bad and the rest just bloated with a ending that still somehow felt rushed?

I have been following this manga for about ten years--so how come, even this late, do I not know the names of the editors of Soul Eater, and what else those editors worked on?

It's not like I haven't complained that the editors were not reining Ohkubo in on his worst tropes--so, that's my fault for complaining without actually doing the work to name names.

Until I figure out who was editing the manga, I can't determine why certain stuff felt bloated and the ending felt rushed.

The Book of Eibon Arc took its time to say...maybe not much at all. It was fine when I first read it, although upon re-reading the gender stuff isn't holding up as well, and the chapters could have done with more exploration for each sin. It is somehow an arc that feels bloated by how many ideas and locations it can access, but never sticking with any one very long. The only one where the briefness worked was how little time they spent in the chapter on greed--so that it nails everything Liz wanted in the past and what she wants right now for Kid.

But I thought that arc did really well on the emotional beats for Kid, Black Star, and Maka...

...Even if the story had to shoe-horn in last-minute back story for Maka (Liz and Soul bonding over music, Soul getting the invitations for a new meister) to justify why she now has self-doubt bouts.

But even then, Maka and self-doubt have gone together since the very first chapter: what has Maka been if not constantly worried she's not good enough--not good enough compared to Blair's adherence to idealized womanly appearance, not good enough against Ox in the exams, not good enough to protect Soul from Crona, not good enough to resonate with Black Star, not good enough to protect Crona. The Book of Eibon felt like the culmination of so many of Maka's doubts--but when it's depending on the Checkov's gun of "Soul got a lot of invitation letters," it feels cheap compared to tapping into that long history up to now to acknowledge, yeah, Maka has a lot of self-doubts--and rather than erase them, the Book of Eibon could have existed as a reaffirmation that despite those doubts, she keeps going.

The last arcs of the manga were where I actually started with the manga, as it was wrapping up around the time when the anime aired on Toonami. So, at the time, it just seemed like one long battle. When re-reading it, it does seem like a poor outline, or one that could have been improved. Trying to write war well is next to impossible, as it is this bloated mess of chaos where victory depends on who can't get more time to keep going, and trying to write it in a neat narrative structure is a challenge. But it is such an odd arc: Kid goes ahead of the others to the Moon, then leaves before the others to run in on Kim bathing to go to the Witch World, all while the fighting on the Moon keeps going. I don't know whether other war arcs do this better: I cannot stand the current arc in My Hero Academia, it is such a mess, and I think less because war itself is a mess but because there are so many competing storylines and ass-pulls. But I think the Moon arcs in the finale did overstay their welcome.

At least rushing the ending had a good reunion of Maka and Crona, and Maka's new dress, and just the tiniest moment of mourning by Kid. Too bad a lot of that is overshadowed by the mess of the rest of Chapter 113 (and how Fire Force screws up any sense of finality or closure to this universe).

[just-absolutely-super]

Soul Eater Episode 47 or “Suddenly...A GIANT MECH FIGHT”

Okay so I can’t remember which came first--certain chapters of the Capture Baba Yaga Castle Arc or the anime episodes--so I’m just gonna evaluate the changes with a grain of salt.

With that said, I guess Bones’s fanfic over what Brew’s power really is makes sense given it wouldn’t be until much later that we see what it could actually do (up until the Book of Eibon Arc all it did was connect one of Kid’s Sanzu lines)

But still...this is kinda...out there even for me

Takes the form of its wielder’s desire, okay I guess? I mean, the point of Brew in the manga is to combine things so this wouldn’t technically be wrong?

But now Death City is a giant fighting robot and I’m just like ???????? OKAY THIS IS WHAT WE’RE DOING NOW????

Honestly, if you had told me that Shinigami would turn Death City into a giant fighting robot and the reason Arachnophobia was taken down was because of this I deadass would not have believed you...

Like, it’s both awesome and very very weird, even for Soul Eater

And I’m talking about the series that straight up GENDERBENT THE CHARACTERS FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES

Going back to B*S vs Mifune, so I supposed I spoke too soon about how they looked over B*S proving himself to the Will of the Nakatsukasa Clan because they decided to rush it in during this episode

Key word: rush

Like...they just crammed all this character development in a 10 minute period. And it wasn’t even when B*S was willing to try and understand the sword and its Will. He’s dying, so we gotta make it as dramatic as possible!

Yeah it’s mostly the same scene from the manga and the same lines...but it’s so cheap to me

And Tsubaki thanked B*S and said her family can trust him now but??? That was never an issue??? At least not in the anime.

Yeah, the stag spirit didn’t like B*S during that one scene during the second fight with Mifune, but B*S didn’t really know what that meant then and Tsubaki never elaborated to him either.

Tsubaki also saying that doesn’t make any sense in this context because Tsubaki didn’t try to stop B*S from using the Enchanted Sword

Sure, she didn’t try to stop him in the manga either, but Nygus said that she was aware it wasn’t good for B*S’s soul and implied that she wouldn’t make him use it anymore. Then when they’re in Japan Tsubaki and her family worry about B*S’s motive for fighting. Because his flippant way of wanting to be stronger was similar to Masamune’s. They were afraid he’d be like their other fallen family members and lose his way.

THIS DOESN’T WORK IN THE ANIME BECAUSE NONE OF THIS WAS ESTABLISHED LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

SWEET JOLLY FUCKING RANCHERS BONES WHY COULDN’T YOU BE LIKE NARUTO AND ONE PIECE AND DO A SHITTY FILLER ARC SO THE MANGA COULD GET FURTHER AHEAD AND THE AUDIENCE COULD GET THE ANIME THEY DESERVED

EDIT: I forgot to talk about B*S sparring MIfune

Like, I said, I can’t remember what came first: the episode or the manga chapter of the fight’s conclusion, but if the episode came first then it might have been Bones’s prediction for what would have happened at the end of the fight.

Spoiler alert for those wanting to read the manga but B*S kills Mifune at the end of their fight. It wasn’t out of malice though, his death is treated as an honorable thing. Mifune wanted B*S to kill him off. It was a really beautiful and touching moment in the manga imho

That being said, I don’t exactly mind Mifune being sparred by the anime. I liked him a lot and I had wished he’d have survived and stayed with Angela. I would need to reread that chapter again just to get a good grasp on whether it was actually a good idea or not for the anime to spare him, but for now I’ll say I’ll allow it.

[soul-dwelling]

Man I personally already hate all the youtube kids who say "yeah did you know there is a soul eater manga that is much better than the crappy anime??! Cant wait for the reboot!" Now it will get even more anoying "yeah actually this thing from soul eater is some bullshit from fire force! Okhubo the GOAT fanservice God!!"

"These kids today with their YouTube and their TikToks and their BTS and their NFTs--"

I can easily be dismissed with "okay, boomer," so I am not here for punching down on younger fans. I found Soul Eater long after the anime ended and just as the manga was ending, and I am scared I am being an old man yelling at kids to get off my yard and gatekeeping this series. I will talk shit up and down for a long time about how badly Fire Force has handled things and how it's affecting Soul Eater. But that's me complaining, it's not an objective view, people have their own opinions that differ from mine and will be able to make persuasive argument that show what is good in Ohkubo's works that I'm neglecting. I can keep going like a broken record--but that shouldn't stop someone else from giving the stories a chance and forming their own opinion. I just have gone over Soul Eater a ton, and read enough of Fire Force, to just realize this approach is not for me.

I'm happy for Soul Eater finding new fans. My hangup is that I can't understand people who want an anime remake right now, after how badly the manga handled its ending, and now how Fire Force has wrapped up.

The first anime definitely doesn't stick to the manga. So people want the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood treatment. And while I prefer the 2003 anime, I get that the manga story is so markedly different and didn't fail at its own ending--and actually had some pathos to it--that it needed to be adapted for animation. I just don't see that same quality in Soul Eater to think, "Yeah, adapt that next for a closer-to-the-manga series."

If you want to see certain parts of the manga animated, I would get that: a different Baba Yaga Arc and the Book of Eibon Arc would be great for animation, as they have actual stories to tell. The final arc, more and more, just seems like an extended fight that went nowhere and ended with nostalgia for the prologue's fanservice.

And it is so cynical to basically go Muppet Babies with the Fire Force finale: "Aw, look at Baby Maka, Baby Soul, Baby Kid, and Baby Black Star--can't wait for this to appear in Fire Force then adapted into a Soul World anime!" What story is there to tell there?

And yeah, calling Ohkubo the GOAT of manga is annoying as fuck. Ignoring mangaka who have retired or passed away who could potentially stand as the GOAT, there are people making manga right now that either have made significant accomplishments that, while not the GOAT-level, are still going to reverberate for a long time, or are literally the GOAT.

Not ignoring this recent piece that rightly calls out Oda's sexism, but One Piece stands out more as a GOAT, Jujutsu Kaisen is more consistent and impressive than Fire Force, I didn't get into Chainsaw Man but it had its impact, JoJo overshadows so much out there, My Hero Academia may be overdone and its legacy remains to be seen but it is still garnering significant attention, Bungo Stray Dogs keeps surprising me--and I just don't see any of that with Ohkubo's work.

And that sucks, because I do think something even better could have come after Soul Eater, and this just wasn't it. Bring on the fan works that handle Fire Force better.

(And Tamaki, Lisa, and Maki deserved better.)