Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Soul Eater: The Meister Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Death doesn't take a holiday.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 27, 2011

Have you ever played a videogame without an autosave function that has an insane number of tasks to complete before you can level up? And have you almost made it—maybe more than once—before blowing it just before, or even during, the final task? If so, you’ll probably feel right at home with Maka and Soul, two of the main heroes of Soul Eater, for it’s one of this intriguing anime’s central conceits that the Grim Reaper, here a good—if patently goofy—guy, has set up a school of sorts where masters (or meisters in this show’s verbiage) train with their “weapon” (a sort of human Transformer who can morph into any number of attacking elements) in order to complete an insane number of tasks. But the catch (literally) is that each Meister and Weapon duo must rustle up 99 evil souls (kind of like Harry Potter horcruxes), known as kishin, plus one witch soul (just for good measure) before their “level” is complete and the Weapon becomes part of Death’s personal hit squad. The chief focus of Soul Eater is on Maka Albarn, a young girl whose Weapon is a sort of neo-punk boy named Soul Eater. The two are part of a Death City, Nevada entourage known as the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA), a training ground of sorts where Meisters and their Weapons learn to work together. In the Soul Eater universe, only the efforts of the Grim Reaper (also called Lord Death, the Americanized version of the Japanese Shinigami), his dotty obsessive-compulsive kid, and the various Meisters and Weapons can keep the world safe from the nefarious efforts of various kishin and witches. Considering the havoc that the kishin are attempting to wreak, in this instance death is a very good thing indeed.

If you’ve ever wondered what an anime conceived and directed by Tim Burton might be like (and who among us hasn’t?), wonder no more. Soul Eater is like some bizarre Eastern sibling to Burton outings like his production of Henry Selick's The Nightmare Before Christmas or his own The Corpse Bride, and not just in general tone. Even the animation style here can be oddly reminiscent of the Burton stop motion opuses, with grinning specters, maniacal moons and just flat out weird beasts and monsters popping out of nowhere. Combined with this sort of quasi-Burton atmosphere is more of a pop art look that is at least somewhat redolent of 1960’s guru Peter Max—bright, cut-out shapes and colors cartwheeling across the screen that might have come out of a fever dream version of Yellow Submarine. That unusual and eclectic visual style gives Soul Eater part of its decidedly unusual edge.

Mirroring the efforts of Maka and Soul are a companion pair of Meister and Weapon, Black Star, an egotistical male Meister, and his Weapon, Tsubaki. Unlike Soul, who is an “entry grade” scythe, Tsubaki is a shapeshifter and can assume any number of forms. The series spends a fair amount of time contrasting the two pairs, with Maka being relatively level headed and well meaning and Soul being occasionally impulsive, while Black Star is out for glory and little else, while Tsubaki is shy and withdrawn. We therefore get two completely opposing dynamics between this quartet, giving any individual showdown a rather elastic set of parameters where just about anything might happen.

A series about so much death and destruction might seem like an incredible downer, but Soul Eater is that most unexpected of things, at least with something built around a conceit this morbid: it’s often hysterically funny. Some of the humor is fairly simple minded adolescent fare, but some of it, particularly the running gags dealing with Kid of Death’s obsessive compulsive disorder, are actually laugh out loud hilarious. Combined with the freewheeling animation style, Soul Eater offers one of the most skewed sensibilities of recent animes, and that is obviously part of what has made the series such an international sensation.

Soul Eater is a good deal more diverse than many other contemporary animes not simply by virtue of its incredibly innovative animation style, but within the story arcs themselves. As Maka and Soul and their cohorts battle demons and beasts of all shapes and sizes, a number of disparate elements are utilized to spice up various episodes, including everything from gangsters like Al Capone to golems. Soul Eater is never content to simply reference these items, but manages to actually craft fantastical characters that are alternately goofy and scary.

In a sign that anime has become a cultural phenomenon to be reckoned with, my 12 year old son informed me that in his weekly Culture Day at his middle school, the topic of the week was indeed Anime. One of the many well informed kids that spoke (no doubt more articulately than I) about this genre informed his classmates that there were only two animes worth watching: Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater. Now as a parent I must forewarn other parents that there are occasional (slightly) objectionable elements to Soul Eater, mostly in terms of some PG-rated language, as well as the expected "fan service." But aside from those issues, I have to say I couldn't agree more with my son's classmate. Soul Eater has enough visual panache that any passing issues with its storyline disappear into the mist.

Soul Eater: The Meister Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Soul Eater's AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 is from a native HD source, and the results are often staggering. This is simply one of the coolest looking animes out there right now and the Blu-ray presentation is top notch. Soul Eater manages to blend a more traditional anime style with a number of more innovative elements which make this series easily one of the most visually innovative in recent memory. While some the CGI elements look a little lackluster, especially when compared to actually much more impressive hand drawn elements, overall this presentation is bright, colorful and extremely varied in style and approach. There's also ubiquitous usage of quasi-3D elements, a la Disney's multi-plane system of yore, and that gives the visuals a lot of added depth and nuance. Line detail is exceptional throughout the series, and the palette is incredibly robust and beautifully saturated. A winner all the way.

Soul Eater: The Meister Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both lossless tracks on Soul Eater are excellent and the choice will probably boil down to whether you want to experience the original Japanese language track in a relatively narrow Dolby TrueHD 2.0 rendering, or opt for the at least slightly more expansive English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. This series actually could have utilized a bit more surround activity, though what's here is quite impressive, with excellent fidelity and some great LFE. Voice work in both languages is great, and even those who don't like English dubs will probably find little to complain about here. Fidelity is excellent throughout the series, the underscore thumps along nicely in a variety of rock and hip-hop beats, and the overall mix sports good balance and excellent dynamic range.

Soul Eater: The Meister Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 7 Commentary with ADR director and line producer Zach Bolton, Laura Bailey (Maka) and Micah Solusod (Soul) is fun, if not overly informative. Part of the problem, as in the other commentary track on this three disc set, is that the actors have never seen the finished episode prior to the commentary, and so they simply either "ooh" and "aah" or forget to comment.
• Soul Eater Late Show (HD; 43:26) is a wild ride featuring brief summaries of all 26 episodes. In Japanese with English subtitles.
• Episode 23 Commentary features three voice actors, Vic Mignogna (Death Scythe), Chuck Huber (Stein) and Luci Christian (Medusa) watching for first time. Chatty as the first commentary, this actually has more pauses as the actors keep watching and not commenting.
• Textless Opening Song "Resonance" (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Closing Song "I Wanna Be" (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Closing Song "Style" (Version 1) (HD; 1:32)
• Textless Closing Song "Style" (Version 2) (HD; 1:32)
• Trailers

Soul Eater: The Meister Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Soul Eater may strike some as a traditional shonen anime, but its visual ingenuity is so completely above and beyond anything that's been seen in similar series that it sets the bar instantaneously higher than it's been in some time. While there are certainly elements in Soul Eater that have been seen in other series, they've never been seen quite like this. A mad and magnificent blend of traditional anime stylings with newer concepts that are redolent of everything from Tim Burton to Peter Max, blended into an intriguing and varied plotline make Soul Eater one of the standout series of contemporary animes. Highly recommended.