It would be unfair if I said that this is one of the best shounen manga I have read. In fact, I've never read anything bad among long shounen series. 'Kenshin' was astonishing, I read the 28 volumes of it in my native language in some 4 or 5 days. 'Letter Bee' was a very serious intoxicating thing and I'm waiting for it to be completed so that I read it to the end. 'Jing' was an extremely weird and extremely interesting adventure.
Therefore, it's better to put it this way: 'Soul Eater' is the next item in my collection of wonderful shounen pieces, which proves once again that this genre is a source of extremely rare gems.
story and characters
Call me sexist or whatever, but female mangakas never create stories like this. Even if they make a fantasy story, it'll be about a cute girl in a beautiful dress and a bunch of hot knights. The best thing that ever managed to get away from it is 'Slayers'. Of course, there are a few other examples. But surely, you won't see an androgynous child say 'do you know where true hell is? it's inside your head'. In katakana.
But that doesn't mean there's nothing for girls to enjoy. Unlike most shoujo, shounen does not mean that an extremely lame male character saves the world and gets all the girls. No, instead there are enough naked male torsos to look at
I mean, isn't he hot?
Isn't he?
But that's not the point. Of course, it's not. The point is that the left side is lower than the right, and the symmetry is broken!
Okay, okay, enough with that. To be honest, this manga won my heart with a long black dress of the Heroine
You've got me, I was just kidding.
To sum it up, 'Soul Eater' is complete madness. Madness is the main theme of the manga, madness if the greatest enemy of the protagonists, but in fact, madness fills up every single page of this work.
And in the end, the true madness is really inside the head - inside the head of the author. However, this is the case I'll gladly follow it.
What I wanted to say with all these images is that this manga is gorgeous. Because the characters are hot because they are cool (now this was a real coincidence). Because they are hot exactly because they are strong, because they are ready to support each other whatever happens, because without those things whey could not win. Because when some sh*t happens, the author makes us laugh at some stupid detail like that symmetry thing or silly actions of major characters. Because right after something stupid he again makes the reader shiver and long for more, because it's impossible to let go of those wonderful people, each having his own personality and therefore personal reasons and motives, in a pinch.
I mean, this is epic.
And you know what I liked the best? The fact that, unlike most happy-ending stories, this happy end was not entirely happy like in 'happily ever after'. I don't like tragedies and dramatic bad ends, but that does not mean I like those kinds of stories where everything comes to an end and there's nothing more to tell. The greatest thing in 'Soul Eater' is that the enemy is not completely defeated, which means there will be more adventures ahead and there are still some goals not yet achieved, and the story does not end here where we part with the characters. That's much more positive and promising than when mangaka shows us how happy the characters are to finally settle down and never ever have to fight again.
graphics
It is almost strange and difficult now to recall that the first volumes give an impression that the author is 'slightly' inexperienced or at least has a very strange style. In general, the graphics gets only better with time, and every next volume makes the style more and more sophisticated, which I personally think to be important for a mangaka.
It's a rare phenomenon for me that a mangaka does not simply draw nice lines and clear contours, but bothers to create an explicit impression with his work. When necessary, mr. Ookubo even uses unusual for manga bold brushstrokes.
When necessary, he emphasises that what needs to be felt rather than simply read.
And does not spare black colour, when necessary, writing monologues and inner thoughts of characters to make the reader taste them better.
And my favourite trick would be one page filled with black and covered with strange white stripes. At a closer inspection, it seems to be the author's fingerprints covering the whole page. But I won't show it to you because that's something you'd better find and examine yourself.
language
I would separately mention the wording in the manga, too. What I noticed it that the author was frequently using phrases that were tasty to pronounce like this line by Tesca Triptoca:
とことん混沌 (tokoton konton) - 'a complete chaos'
Another pleasant aspect for a person who understands the original language is repetitions of words and phrases that have key meaning for the story:
月だって歯が抜けてかみ合わないのに (tsuki datte ha ga nukete kamiawanai no ni) - 'even the moon cannot do it well (does not 'gear' well) because it lacks teeth' - the verb 'kamiau' that literally means 'bite each other', which was used several times with the meaning 'complement each other', 'get along well', here is used in relevance to the moon that literally lacked teeth, which made the verb have a double meaning.
conclusion
Were there any minus points? Oh yes, there were. Some meaningless deaths that are explained by nothing else but the fact that it's a shounen and it has to deal with this topic, otherwise it won't look like a real war. That's what one would have to put up with. However, I'm sure you've noticed already, I do love this manga. It was one of the best things I've ever read, let's not say anything about its genre. The perfect balance between different aspects of what manga is makes it stand out greatly. Incredibly interesting story with profoundly elaborated characters and unexpected twists, a hint on romance between some charactesr, but before that - other feelings, devotion, belief, trust, friendship and support, sacrifice and peace-making.
And the humour that made me ROFL from the 1st to the last volume.
Because, you know...
If you thought there would be something here, you're an idiot!!
Even if you turn the page over, it's the same, you idiot!!
Now this page is extremely 'natsukashii' - nostalgic for me, because I still remember so well my first visit to Osaka with its symbol.
Oh, and personal thanks to mr. Ookubo for introducing Russia into the plot.
To sum it up, 'Soul Eater' is complete madness. Madness is the main theme of the manga, madness if the greatest enemy of the protagonists, but in fact, madness fills up every single page of this work.
And in the end, the true madness is really inside the head - inside the head of the author. However, this is the case I'll gladly follow it.
What I wanted to say with all these images is that this manga is gorgeous. Because the characters are hot because they are cool (now this was a real coincidence). Because they are hot exactly because they are strong, because they are ready to support each other whatever happens, because without those things whey could not win. Because when some sh*t happens, the author makes us laugh at some stupid detail like that symmetry thing or silly actions of major characters. Because right after something stupid he again makes the reader shiver and long for more, because it's impossible to let go of those wonderful people, each having his own personality and therefore personal reasons and motives, in a pinch.
I mean, this is epic.
And you know what I liked the best? The fact that, unlike most happy-ending stories, this happy end was not entirely happy like in 'happily ever after'. I don't like tragedies and dramatic bad ends, but that does not mean I like those kinds of stories where everything comes to an end and there's nothing more to tell. The greatest thing in 'Soul Eater' is that the enemy is not completely defeated, which means there will be more adventures ahead and there are still some goals not yet achieved, and the story does not end here where we part with the characters. That's much more positive and promising than when mangaka shows us how happy the characters are to finally settle down and never ever have to fight again.
graphics
It is almost strange and difficult now to recall that the first volumes give an impression that the author is 'slightly' inexperienced or at least has a very strange style. In general, the graphics gets only better with time, and every next volume makes the style more and more sophisticated, which I personally think to be important for a mangaka.
It's a rare phenomenon for me that a mangaka does not simply draw nice lines and clear contours, but bothers to create an explicit impression with his work. When necessary, mr. Ookubo even uses unusual for manga bold brushstrokes.
language
I would separately mention the wording in the manga, too. What I noticed it that the author was frequently using phrases that were tasty to pronounce like this line by Tesca Triptoca:
とことん混沌 (tokoton konton) - 'a complete chaos'
Another pleasant aspect for a person who understands the original language is repetitions of words and phrases that have key meaning for the story:
月だって歯が抜けてかみ合わないのに (tsuki datte ha ga nukete kamiawanai no ni) - 'even the moon cannot do it well (does not 'gear' well) because it lacks teeth' - the verb 'kamiau' that literally means 'bite each other', which was used several times with the meaning 'complement each other', 'get along well', here is used in relevance to the moon that literally lacked teeth, which made the verb have a double meaning.
conclusion
Were there any minus points? Oh yes, there were. Some meaningless deaths that are explained by nothing else but the fact that it's a shounen and it has to deal with this topic, otherwise it won't look like a real war. That's what one would have to put up with. However, I'm sure you've noticed already, I do love this manga. It was one of the best things I've ever read, let's not say anything about its genre. The perfect balance between different aspects of what manga is makes it stand out greatly. Incredibly interesting story with profoundly elaborated characters and unexpected twists, a hint on romance between some charactesr, but before that - other feelings, devotion, belief, trust, friendship and support, sacrifice and peace-making.
And the humour that made me ROFL from the 1st to the last volume.
Because, you know...
If you thought there would be something here, you're an idiot!!
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