The Official MSBS Anime Rant: Soul Eater Not!

To quote MLPFan, Soul Eater Not! was a disgrace like Teen Titans Go! (It’s funny how the two shows happen to have an exclamation mark at the end of their names). To further elaborate on what MLPFan said, I indeed do agree with her that the show took away what made the original good and made it bad. I remember being very enthusiastic about writing that Soul Eater anime review post I published earlier this year in 2016 after my Sword Art Online anime review post. While I may not have liked the ending, Soul Eater was still a relatively great show for me. Hell, I even have a Soul Eater Evans cosplay jacket that I got from Hot Topic that I wear to school everyday (don’t judge me). However, when I was browsing on Hot Topic’s official website for anime merchandise, I happened to stumble across something peculiar…

“QUICK VIEW
ADD TO BAG
SOUL EATER NOT! LOGO RUBBER BRACELET
$7.00 $5.25
25% OFF
select styles”

The saltiness I had in my head could be comparable to that of the daily sodium intake of Ronald McDonald Trump.

On behalf of A.U.R.A. (Alliance of United Reviewers of Anime), I would like to have the honor of being the first member to present the first anime rant made by an A.U.R.A. member, aka me. Today, I will be doing a Halloween special post by dedicating it to my hatred of the anime series Soul Eater Not!. In general, I’m just going to go into detail and analyze this 12-episode prequel spin-off that’s apparently supposed to be based off a spin-off manga of the same name by the same creator of the original Soul Eater manga. Now before I begin this rant, I would like to state that this anime rant is just my opinion on the show. If you do happen to like it, I’m okay with you doing so. I’m sure a lot of people in the anime community have different opinions over this show, but as for me, I’m leaning towards the hate side of the show.

So Soul Eater Not! is supposed to be a spin-off and a side story that takes place 1 year prior to the events of the original Soul Eater. The premise is still the same, except that in Soul Eater, it focused on characters that were enrolled in the EAT (Especially Advantaged Talent) class at the Death Weapon Meister Academy. In this spin-off, it focuses on characters that are enrolled in the NOT (Normally Overcome Target) class, a class meant to teach students to control their powers in order to keep themselves and others from getting hurt rather than fight evil like the EAT class. One of these students in the NOT class is a Demon Weapon student named Tsugumi Harudori, who befriends two Meister students named Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn and grows conflicted about who to choose as her partner. Over the course of the series, our main protagonists encounter different problems throughout the anime as they live their lives as everyday students at the DWMA. Sounds decent, right? Not quite...

First up, let’s discuss the animation, art, and music. So for Soul Eater Not!, Bones reprises its role in animating the anime spin-off as it did for the original Soul Eater. Not only did Bones provide some very clean animation for Soul Eater, but if you are familiar with the show, you would know that Bones used a very unique art style that stood out from most anime series you see nowadays. However, the same can’t be said for Soul Eater Not!... Wonder why? Being that Soul Eater Not! is supposed to have a somewhat cutesy premise, Bones revolves its animation production on exactly just that. To be honest, I initially thought the new art style was adorable when I first saw it. When I first saw Maka in her new character design for this anime in the first episode, I actually thought she looked cute the first few times I saw her. However, when I saw the other original characters’ new designs, I wasn’t very impressed. Some of their designs either ranged from being bland to even just plain bad. I mean, Soul literally looks like a total pothead with his new character design! Come on, I thought this anime was supposed to be a cute anime! The moment I came to this realization, I immediately concluded that I despised this spin-off’s art style. Basically, the art style is just a poor man’s Kyoto Animation. As for the animation, I wouldn’t really call it straight out terrible, but I wouldn’t really call it something special either. That, and I was watching one video on YouTube ranting on this anime by a YouTuber named MrRecklessPenguin, when he then pulled up this one scene where Maka is shown fighting this girl named Eternal Feather who was apparently hypnotized by the main antagonist of the spin-off into causing chaos at a school festival, showing how badly executed the fighting scene was done. Seriously, that scene is on the same level as bad as the animation of episode 5 of Dragon Ball Super (Dragon Ball fans, you know what I’m talking about). That’s how bad that scene is. Finally, for the music, I know this may sound nitpicky, but it was pretty forgettable. While I liked Taku Iwasaki’s music composition for Soul Eater, I don’t really get the same level of enjoyment that I have for his music composition in this series’ music composition. Also, I didn’t really like the opening or the ending songs of this anime. I always wonder to myself how I even managed to get past those songs, because every passing second I heard them on the screen, I just wished I could decapitate myself in order to stop myself from listening to those songs. I’m not even going to give the official names for those songs since I don’t think anyone would go to the trouble of listening to those songs and waste about 90 seconds of their life with each of them. The only thing I’ll give the songs credit for is for the voice actresses of the three main characters singing the songs.

Next, let’s talk about the story. Again, there's nothing special whatsoever when it comes to the story, not just the animation, art, and music. The first half of the series mainly revolves around episodes with nothing but generic plots. Oh, and do I need to mention that there's countless moments of annoying fanservice from left to right in at least half of the entire series? Two girls laying on top of each other where the one under them has their prematurely large breasts exposed to the other? IT'S FANSERVICE! Oh, it's time for the physical fitness exam? LOOK, THERE'S FANSERVICE OVER THERE TOO! Two girls just got done cleaning a pool and now they're going all-out yuri? NO SURPRISE THERE!
Fanservice. Fanservice everywhere.
I know I'm probably exaggerating myself too much, but still, this might as well just be a full-on ecchi anime.
(Googles up that Soul Eater Not! is categorized into the ecchi genre on MyAnimeList.net)
Oh. Anyways, as for the second half, it's not any better. It may shift the series' approach from a cute anime to a more action-packed and story-driven path, but for me, I felt like the shift was rushed and a poor attempt to redeem the series.
"What took you so long. What the heck?" - President Barack Obama
The 44th President of the United States pretty much summed that up for me.
But before I analyze the characters, I would like to point out one final crucial flaw: the shifts in tone. For example, the same girl I mentioned earlier who got hypnotized cut herself in one episode, setting a dark mood for the audience as she passed out at the end of the episode, only for that mood to return back to being peachy in the next episode!
"Everything turns all peachy!" - Patrick Star
I'M DONE WITH TALKING ABOUT THE STORY.

Now let’s move on to the characters. So our main protagonist of Soul Eater Not! is Tsugumi Harudori, a transfer student from Japan who enrolls into the DWMA as a Demon Weapon student in the NOT class. Then there's Tsugumi's two friends, Meme Tatane, a very... well-endowed girl who has short-term memory and sometimes even forgets her own name occasionally, and Anya Hepburn, a rich girl who acts condescendingly towards others and is attending the DWMA in order to escape her restrictive lifestyle and to better understand commoners. I honestly wish I still liked them like I used to do, but come on, you all know I didn't come here to praise these characters, right? Basically, I want to follow those brats to the fiery pits of hell, where I'll kill them a million times over! They're just so bland and generic! Same goes for the main antagonist of the anime, Shaula Gorgon, who doesn't really stand out as a baddie in comparison to her sisters Medusa Gorgon and Arachne Gorgon, both of which actually felt like real villains and had their background and character developed properly. The only characters I liked were the characters from the original Soul Eater and a Meister named Akane Hoshi and his Demon Weapon partner Clay Sizemore (wow, I actually liked characters that originated from this spin-off. KILL ME). Even if I didn't like the original characters' new designs, at least they remained the same and weren't butchered in terms of character. The only characters who had different personalities from the original were Liz and Patty, though to be perfectly honest, I didn't really mind their personalities that much, even if I prefer their original personalities. As for the rest of the cast, they're pretty much forgettable. Or in this case, they're not even worth remembering.

I will say that I liked that Soul Eater Not! explained some of the original characters' backstories and how they got where they are in Soul Eater. Most notably why Liz and Patty became city thugs and how they met Death the Kid. There are some other moments in Soul Eater Not! as well that do the exact same thing or do something similar, but overall, they're just nice tidbits to see, although I wished they could have been expanded upon more.

In conclusion, I think the only reason this show is not as high as most anime on the first page of the list of Top 10 Worst Anime is because not many people have seen it or know about it. To be honest, I wouldn’t blame them. Only the most loyal Soul Eater fans could be able to defend and actually like this poor excuse for a spin-off anime series. I’ve only seen few people actually declare that they actually think Soul Eater Not! is a decent anime. Now it certainly isn’t bad on the level of bad like Boku no Pico or School Days, but there is one thing I will say about this anime: this is actually the first anime series I ever regretted watching. To me, this is currently the worst anime series I have ever watched so far. Which is really saying something since for a guy like me, I’m actually pretty easy to be impressed. Unfortunately, this show does not happen to do that. The spin-off tries so hard to appeal to both fans of the original Soul Eater and yuri and slice of life fans, the opening and ending songs annoyed me, the soundtrack is subpar, the animation is mediocre, the three main girls are annoying, the villain is unmemorable, too much unnecessary blatant fanservice is used, and the only things I found to be decent were the voice acting and cameo appearances of the characters from the original Soul Eater. If you have either not watched this anime yet or have just recently finished watching Soul Eater and plan on watching this show, I would highly recommend not investing any time in this anime nor its original manga source. Oh, and remember that Soul Eater Not! logo rubber bracelet I mentioned at the beginning of this rant? Seriously, did the creators REALLY think they could make money off of this garbage? To sum up this anime, in the words of Daymon Scott Patterson, aka fellow YouTuber Daym Drops, the base product is trash! THE BASE PRODUCT IS TRASH!

Even if not a lot of people know about this anime, I just had to do a post on this since so many people aren’t aware of how bad this anime is. By the end of this anime rant, I think the best course of action would be to check out my Soul Eater anime review and see if you would be interested in watching that show and ONLY that show. Otherwise, here’s my final score for the anime:
3.0 out of 10.0 stars
(Trust me, 3 out of 10 stars is pretty generous by my standards. I could easily rank it with 1 or 0 stars without discrimination).
Until then, peace! And if you're reading this during the Halloween season, happy Halloween!

Comments

Good review, again though, I'd like to see a post that's like stand up comedy, or a stand alone story.
Nice Halloween special though, I think mine should be a review of Gravity Falls or Zelda Majoras Mask.
Well, I should try a non-linear story post instead. - Skullkid755

I like Soul Eater but I have to say no to Soul Eater Not! - DoritosAreLife

If you though Soul Evans looks already awful in SEN, Then, you don't want to see Death the Kid! I mean, he looks terrifying in the new SEN animation style! TERRIFYING! - MLPFan

Can do rant about Yuuki Yuuna? I'm not a fan of that anime. MLPFan hates it with burning passion. She said YuYuYu is a Madoka rip-off. Just ask her if you never saw it. - visitor

Well, I can't just simply rant on an anime just because someone I know hates it. I'll have to watch Yuuki Yuuna sometime in the future in order to formulate my own opinion on it. - visitor

Actually, now that I've researched Yuuki Yuuna, I don't think I'll like it. I don't want to watch it right now, but since you requested me to review Yuuki Yuuna, I'll consider going to the trouble of watching it sometime in the future. - visitor

I like this little review/rant style post. I had pretty much the exact same thoughts as you did and I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like this. - RoseRedFlower