By Atsushi Ohkubo. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Soul Eater is a series I love, but it’s also a series that’s very easy to put on my ‘I only have one paragraph worth of things to say’ list, which is why I’ve been reviewing it as a brief for the last two years. With this volume ending the Baba Yaga’s Castle arc, however, it’s a good time to take stock and remind ourselves just why this series works. It’s not just about the awesomely surreal art any more. (Though the art is great… in particular, the use of simple black scribbles to show everyone’s minds being taken over by “spiders” is absolutely horrific.)

The last time I did a big review was Vol. 6, where our heroes ended up losing their battle to stop the resurrection of the big bad. They fare somewhat better here, but it’s still something of a Pyrrhic victory. Arachnae, for all her disturbing spider imagery, was always going to fall into the category of ‘not as interesting as Medusa’. And the astute reader has been waiting for Medusa’s ‘helping’ our heroes to eventually rebound back on them for about 4 volumes, now, so it’s not much of a surprise when it does. (I do wonder what happened to the little girl Medusa was possessing… I assume she lived, but we never do see her again. The anime implied she was returned to her parents and absolutely not mentally scarred by all this, which… seems unlikely.)

And of course our heroes have some casualties of their own, namely Kid, who is still trapped within the villains’ book. This means that Liz and Patty are now a duo like everyone else, rather than a threesome with Kid, and Patty is now the meister. This is dealt with mostly in a lighthearted way (Patty is shown to be hella strong, and also has no qualms whatsoever in fighting dirty when the need arises), but I am hoping that at some point we get an explanation of their backstory, as Liz and Patty just aren’t as developed as the rest of the cast (no pun intended).

The end of one arc means the start of another, though, and there are several things in this volume that point forward to what is coming soon. We discover who the killer of B.J. is, and while it wasn’t obvious, it wasn’t all that surprising either – the killer has always seemed a little fishy throughout the series, so seeing he’s really evil is not that much of a stretch. As for Kim Diehl, it’s a bit of an anticlimax, as the far-too-understanding Shinigami seems to be perfectly OK with “she’s a witch, but not evil, so forgive her”. I wonder if Soul Eater Not! will deal with any of this fallout… assuming it ever catches up to this point in the manga. (I also want to meet her sister, who will inevitably be called Kelly Diehl.) Lastly, Maka and Soul hunt down a serial killer who is an amusing Freddy/Sadako hybrid, and finally gain the Death Weapon status they almost had in Chapter 1 before Soul messed everything up.

Everyone has matured and seem stronger now, which is good, as things are only going to get more dangerous from now on, particularly if Maka is still intent on saving Crona. Soul Eater has rapidly become one of the best shonen series available today. Get it.

(Also, trigger warning for spiders, but honestly, Soul Eater has so many terrifying art things that it seems a bit pointless to just narrow it to one.)

By Atsushi Ohkubo. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I somehow missed reviewing Volume 5 of this series, but no worries. This new volume sees the series doing a lot of things right, and the result is that I feel I can finally wholeheartedly recommend it in ways that go beyond the art style.

The plot here continues from the last volume: our heroes are trying to stop Medusa and her cronies from resurrecting the Kishin, a Very Big Bad who has been sealed up in a subbasement in a bag made of his own skin. Maka has found herself confronted by the series’ most disturbing character (and that’s saying a lot!), Crona, who definitely seems to have the upper hand. Maka can get it back, but only to abandoning herself to madness, and trusting that Soul will be able to bring her back.

This series runs in a magazine called ‘Shonen Gangan’, but the age bracket it seems to market itself to is noticeably higher than the big 3’s shonen titles – more of a 10-15-year-old market. I’d say that’s definitely a good thing, as some of the events in this volume can be downright unnerving and almost terrifying. In fact, at times the unnatural and abstract art style helps – at one point, Maka grabs Crona’s face and runs it along the blade of her scythe, something that would make you scream in horror if it weren’t so cartoonlike. The distancing works very well.

As for Crona (who Yen seem to have dubbed ‘male’ simply because avoiding pronouns is very awkward in English – Crona generally is sexless), in trying to open up, Maka discovers that Crona lacks a very good sense of self, and in many ways almost seems to have a split personality. Maka breaks through using the power of friendship, of course, but it’s very uneasy – Crona’s weapon rebels against this, and there’s a sense that everything is still hanging on a knife-edge.

The rest of the volume sees Black*Star and Death the Kid try to get to the basement to stop the Kishin’s resurrection. This is more shonen battle oriented, with lots of killer hidden moves and self-doubt – hallucinatory images play a big role here, and at one point even the villains almost commit suicide because they’re being tricked by the sheer insanity of the Kishin’s thoughts. However, they finally make it down there, and…

…well, they fail. The Kishin ends up being resurrected after all, though at least Medusa is killed (or is she?). This is the first really big plot line that our three groups have worked together on, and though they all get to strut their stuff and do cool things, it’s rather noticeable that it ends in failure. It has to be said that Soul Eater is, at heart, a world that seems to live off of fear and madness. As a result, things like this happening are far more the norm. Hopefully as they get stronger Maka and company will be able to help prevent this, but for the moment the bad guys have won.

This is not your typical shonen series. It has a high body count and a lot of blood, as well as facial expressions which can cause you to whimper in horror. And as always there is the art, giving you a comforting disconnect from reality to help with the worst gory bits, but also being nowhere near reality in terms of its everyday setting. I’m enjoying it more with every volume, and now that it’s settled down into a plot-oriented groove, it’s become one of Yen Press’s better acquisitions. Recommended, especially for those who want something a little different.

Oh yes, and Patty’s ‘Voice of Authority’ was hilarious. :D