Soul Eater Not! – 03
Didn’t you already show an EAT demonstration back on day 1, Sid? Are you just trying to rub it in the NOT students’ faces?
 Whatever issues with the pacing I had with Soul Eater Not! were forgotten after this episode which gave us plenty of glimpses of bigger stories afoot. Combined with action sequences that continue to be good and some genuinely funny gags between the girls, and episode 3 made for my favorite from this show yet. |
Camera spinning around these 2 as they swung at and weaved around each other made the fight that much more intense.
Three episodes in, one thing I’ve appreciated greatly about Soul Eater Not! is that it’s had some sort of action sequence in each one. They haven’t been flashy, but they’ve still been fun to watch, providing breaks between the cute-girls-doing-cute-things sequences. Solid camera work, such as in Anya’s alleyway fight, and smooth animation have made them particularly memorable.
And I was pleasantly surprised by the writing in this episode that effectively weaved a few compelling story threads together while providing some laughs along the way. I wonder if the show’s purposefully making a meta joke about its origins by having its heroines step right into the paths of other characters having adventures of their own, like side characters in someone else’s story. Kim’s got some mental issues, possibly PTSD by the looks of her flashback in the cold open, resulting in her cold front and bullying, and it seems Ox has been admiring her for a long time, trying to help her from afar. Given how much time they’re spending on Kim, I have to wonder if she’s going to be a supporting character rather than a cameo, which would be quite fine with me.
Yikes, Kim must have some pretty dark experiences in her past.
Clay and Akane along with Sid (whom I still find odd seeing not as a zombie always going on about the “man he used to be”) are clearly involved in some high stakes conflict that Anya and the others stepped into this episode. I’m not 100% clear on the details yet, and whether or not Anya was specifically targeted or just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the battle of DWMA versus the “Traitors.” I’m definitely eager to find out more, especially if it’s going to be accompanied by melee combat of the quality we saw this week.
Not that the episode was all serious stuff; I probably laughed more watching this one than either of the previous ones. Sid’s calm and 100% unironic explanation of DWMA’s Weed/Bloom EAT/NOT system had me in stitches, as did the surprisingly decent – though still awkward and typo’d – English of the official DWMA stage name form. This really is one of the most absurd and oddly run schools I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.
Probably the best worst acronyms I’ve ever encountered in my life.
Even the CGDCT antics had me smiling this episode. Meme’s and Tsugumi’s unison “oujo-sama” was too cute for words. And though I find it odd that the first thing Meme does to Tsugumi when paired up with her in class is to tickle and grope her in front of everybody, the sight of Anya jealously looking on made it all worthwhile. Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by anything Meme does anymore. The girl clearly has some mental issues and possibly brain damage, what with the sleep martial arts, the complete inability to remember people’s names, even those she’s been hearing her friends talk about minutes prior, and choice of bringing pumpkin for a curry night. That girl is still an enigma to me, so I hope we have episodes coming that explore her story.
So consider my outlook on this show considerably more positive than last week. It was as if Bones had read my complaints about the pacing and decided to address them by throwing two stories into the mix while also improving on the existing ones. I’m not saying the show has become something spectacular, but it has certainly positioned itself as something more than just another CGDCT show by playing with the absurd action filled world of Soul Eater.
You could totally see this gag coming the moment Meme showed her note-filled arm, and that somehow made it that much better.
About lvlln
A math/science geek and a self-dubbed cynical optimist. I don't care if it's deep, if it can make me feel something or laugh, it's fine in my book. @lvlln
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Ah, it’s episodes like that really do make me wish they would ramp up even more action. But, I think they are finally finding the right groove with this mix.
Meme’s condition is very much backstory worth.
Personally, I’m glad they are fleshing Kim out more. I thought she was wickedly underused in the original. And more Ox is pretty awesome too.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
After watching this episode I read the manga chapters for it. Originally there was only one EAT demonstration; Maka and Soul’s; and it happened at this point rather than on day 1. I’m guessing they switched things up both to give Tsugumi a stronger reason to look up to Maka as her personal role-model, and to introduce Jackie before they had her show up and be suspicious of Kim healing Anya.
On another note, it took someone else pointing it out for me to realize that Kim’s dream involved being swarmed by her old-self. If you look at her in the flashback Eternal Feather provided, before she cut her hair, that was what she looked like, down to the tanuki-ear hair-decorations.
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
I didn’t catch that in Kim’s flashback either. That is quite intriguing, and it almost seems to place Kim as a main, if the show continues to explore what’s haunting her.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I caught that, and thought it was an interesting start to an ‘escaping her old self’ storyline.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Anya with the typical “I can’t tell anyone that my body has been infected with some soul-rotting / brain taking over substance!” but thankfully Kim subverted that terrible trope. We wouldn’t want Deanna Troi to show up here, would we?
This show is still so much fun, tho. 🙂
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I was so much in that moment, “Tell ’em! Subvert the trope!”
Not so much Deanna, as Jadzeea Dax? She can show up any time she wants.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
2/3 of the plots on ST:TNG could have been avoided if freakin’ Troi had just gone to the Doctor / Captain and said “I’m feeling sick” or “I had this kooky dream” or “I saw this thing outside the window.” But nooOOOoooo, it was always “oh, nothing, I’m fine.” You’d also think that they’d eventually think “Troi said ‘everything’s fine’. Shit’s gonna hit the fan soon.”
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Captain’s log, Stardate 12345.67
I fear that Counsellor Troi is keeping something from us. That usually means shit is about to hit the fan in non-shakespeare terms. I must tell Commander Riker to do something about this.
Signing off, Professor X.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The acronyms for the divisions give the impression that not much effort went into the naming. That’s just my opinion. It leaves much to be desired.
The girls need to finally make a decision on the weapon/meister pairing. They’re off balance as it is being three. Idealistically, their sharing agreement sounds nice but in reality, isn’t enough to settle an equilibrium and it’s doubtful another student is suddenly going to join in their little circle so far as the OP is telling.
Not really surprised Kim’s personality is the result of a traumatic event. Some people who are ashamed will find excuses to mask the unpleasant experiences.
Going by what the two “Traitor” suspects said as they inquired whether or not the students slept well, I’m guessing the incoming antagonist deals in dream manipulation. They did look sleep deprived themselves.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
In Soul Eater Death the Kid wielded the sisters. So if a meister can have two weapons maybe two meisters can use the same weapon. Since the meister has to wield the weapon, maybe that’s the more tiring job and Anya and Meme can switch off who uses Tsugumi during a prolonged battle.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I was thinking duel wielders as well. But it gets a bit to clumsy in my mind when I think it thru.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
For the time frame of this show, having two meisters sharing / competing for a single weapon will probably work fine, with a little setup for minor conflicts like we saw. For long term, it’s not a workable solution, and everyone will come to realize that.
That doesn’t mean that they can’t all be friends, tho.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…yeah, but with these two wielders?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I didn’t see much of the first season so my memory of it is scarce. Are there even any dual wielding meisters in the Soul Eater universe to begin with?
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
At least two. Death the Kid has Liz and Patty as guns, and Kilik has Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder. At one point Kilik used Liz and Patty along with Fire and Thunder, so he was technically wielding four weapons at the time.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
On the contrary, to come up with some terrible acronyms like that takes a lot of effort.
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
I think we’re running into Poe’s Law territory with these. They’re SO bad and SO APPARENTLY lazily made that I can’t tell if it’s genuine incompetence or laziness or extremely well designed and deliberate appearance of laziness.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Wow! That sounds like such a contradiction that I’m going to leave things as they are here before my brain burns trying to make sense of that.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Sufficiently advanced laziness is indistinguishable from genius….
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
And by laziness and genius, are we talking about the Houtarou Oreki kind? That brand of laziness is sloth-like.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Like Heinlein’s “The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail” segment in Time Enough for Love?
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
BTW, I read that when I was in the Navy as did a buddy who was also an SF fan and we agreed it was spot on.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Ahhhh I really like Kim and I hope she becomes a supporting character too. After teasing us like that, they have to let us know what’s haunting her so much to make her push everyone away.
And yeah, those acronyms are pretty terrible.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I cannot quite recall how much action Kim and Jaquiline saw in the oriiginal run, it wasn’t much. So I’m looking forward to more action from both of them.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
They got a lot more in the original Soul Eater manga than they do in the anime. NOT is clearly based on the manga, because at the point where the SE anime deviated from its manga a key point about Kim which explains how she healed Anya here had not yet been revealed.