Forum - View topicREVIEW: Soul Eater Not! BD+DVD
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Looneygamemaster
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Ugh. I watched the first episode when the show was simulcast and I didn't know what to think of it. This year, when I finally made it through the whole show, I definitely know now.
Just...ugh. The idea of redoing Soul Eater as a shojo slice of life actually has promise if it was done as weird and twisted as Soul Eater itself was; sort of an Addams Familyish type of sitcom, maybe. But Not is so unbelievably bland. And ugly (oh Igarashi, where are you?). And kind of gross.
Says you, that ending was awesome. 
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GinkoArt
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Firstly, thank you for the review.
Secondly... Uggggh.... the harsh criticism this prequel receives purely for the dumbest of reasons is absolutely pathetic. How your typical moe series like Non Non Biyori and Chunibyo get a free pass while Soul Eater Not is in need of dire critiquing is beyond me... And it has lead me to believe the Soul Eater fanbase may be leaning towards the cringe levels of the Metroid and Sonic fanbases. Anyone saying this is "not soul eater" has a null and void opinion, the prequel is called Not because the 3 female students are Not-Class students of the academy, saying this is Not Soul Eater is essentially saying Jojo Part 7 & 8 or Haruhi-chan + Nagato-chan is not Jojo or Haruhi... And lest we not forget the SE mangaka Ohkubo and Studio Bones wrote and animated Not. If it were legitimately Not Soul Eater then there would be no DMWA, no Death City, no Soul Eater characters or concepts making cameos or full on appearances and it would be in a different location/universe with Tsugumi, MeMe, Anya as well as more new not in original Soul Eater and there would be 0% weapon/meister action... And alot of respect to the Haruhi fandom for not throwing a tantrum when Nagato-chan changed up its artstyle quite drastically AND deviated off from the sci-fi path, far more then Not to original SE if I may I add, you Soul Eater guys and gals could learn a thing or two. Not's art is not that horribly different, all they really did was just put some blush marks on female faces. Rid of that and Not's characters, animation/fight scenes, sun+moon, environments, and more are all pretty much nearly the same as original SE as if Bones took a year break from it. Secondly going into Not itself, and right off the bat with episode 1 it has good, though not great, character development, this leads me to believe most people don't really care about having engaging characters in their anime/manga these days. Obviously Tsugumi and co from the Not-Class are not going on any action packed missions and would be on the intolerable whiney side of things because they are newbie students learning all the ins and outs on how to be good weapon/meister, vs Eat-Class students Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Ox who are already nearly at their prime and just simply need to get stronger and don't have as much motivating factors on why to grow stronger other then to defeat enemies like typical shonen fighters. Tsugumi n co are to thank for Liz, Patty and to some degree Kim (more so Jackie to Kim) becoming much more tolerable from punks and bullies to friendly and sociable. Point to Not for actually establishing Liz & Patty's characters vs the original SE which kinda just has them in there like most weapon partners. Good support cast as well just like the original Soul Eater, that aren't too overshadowed by the leads, spoiler[stein for example, although having a slightly smaller appearance actually is part of the reason why the good guys came out on top with his antidote] Second point also goes to Not for having a better climatic battle, where it felt to a degree like the good guys were actually going to lose for once AND above all else having (a cliche but atleast) sensible final attack dealt to the villain versus the original SE which ended on a filler note and dumb attack spoiler[redundant punch to the face that felt like it could have been delivered by any other character]. Not is definitely not a great series, it is not going to move mountains or revolutionize the anime industry, and it is very much subjective that it could be one of the better anime out there from the 2010s, it is also understandable if people just brush it off, state it simply wasn't their thing and watch another of the thousands of anime conceived. But by no means does it deserve the flack that it is given. And all this redundant flack is pointless because there was a 5 year gap between original SE ending and Not beginning and in that half decade gap i'm pretty sure noone was craving a SE sequel because they had hundreds more anime they could watch that also well surpass Soul Eater, and all the flack will be even more redundant another 5 years from now when the moe slice of life trend of the 2010s is over like with the tons of giant robot anime of the 70s, the tons of simple ultra violent ovas of the 80s, etc and is probably replaced by another new trend in the 2020's that others revere and despise far far more...[/spoiler] |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4430 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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well i did say its psuedo yuri at best and like it or not some yuri aspects in series is kinda like fanservice,sure the yuri isnt as blatant as in the manga or in the toaru kagaku no railgun series,but yuri romance is considered some kind of fanservice.otherwise series like this as well as k-on and railgun wouldnt have been as popular.
well i wasnt grossly exaggerating here. especially when it came to the dub voice for blackstar. in some cases especially ep 1 it sounded like the VA was trying too much to keep blackstar's old voice. sure it wasnt clear cut when dismuke did al for the OVA , but there was small signs of it which of course proves the talent of the VA. however this was one case they could have used a new one. |
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HaruhiToy
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Although I am not one to deride someone else's tastes I do have to agree with this. Sometimes it seems like such critics want the EXACT SAME STORY as what was published before and have made up their minds to be bitterly dissatisfied if it isn't that. Personally I was perfectly OK with a less-stressed-out reuse of the setting with different characters and a different perspective. There are weird and disconnected things about it but so what? The original anime was like that too. I thought the consistency between the two stories was actually pretty good and anything with Maka in it starts with points on the board in my view. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3991 |
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^
Yeah it was decent enough and it was cool revisiting the world. Maka's always awesome, more of her is always a good thing. 
GinkoArt makes some good points, though I do think that there are a lot of people that are still craving more main Soul Eater as well. Ever since Brotherhood I think SE is still one of the most requested to receive a "Brotherhood-style" remake.  I know I still really want one too
I hadn't looked up her name yet until reading the nice review to see who she was and what else she had done so far, but I really liked Bryn's Tsugumi, she made me really like her character. She probably had the best design too. IMO, her design did the best job straddling the overly moe style with a tiny bit of inspiration from the superior old style, probably due to her uniform being unique to her, black, and with that bit of an iconic Lord Death face logo on her tie. I'm quite glad they got all of the old voice cast back for the nostalgia hits, made me want to finish it more and I enjoyed hearing those VAs pop in for some fun. spoiler[Hearing Maka on those stairs in episode 1 made me smile when I heard Laura Bailey's voice pushing Tsugumi on, perhaps even moreso since we don't get to hear her in Funimation shows much anymore since she moved, which unfortunately sucks.]
Yup, you do
Yeah, the right expectations certainly help. It definitely helps knowing what you're in for in having fun with it even if the more stylish art and animation are missed, things still look familiar and it can be fun seeing the familiar DWMA city and school from the side of an early student through Tsugumi, as well as your old favorites if you go in with the right expectations. Even with the same content, it probably would have been better received overall had it kept the original, much-loved "edgier" art style while still telling it's lighter story. I thought I remember reading that the manga version of NOT didn't change the art style for the characters quite as much and was more similar to the original manga/anime, though I may be wrong about that. |
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DigitalScratch
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No you're right the Manga had the same art style as SE's manga since contrary to what most think, the original creator Atsushi Ohkubo did make NOT. So when it came out there was no backlash. In fact the Manga isn't criticized nearly as much as the anime is by most SE fans I've talked to, other than for its horrid pacing. I'd actually recommend the manga to those who don't like the Anime's style. Other than a few extra scenes and a few tweaks near the end, the anime and manga are pretty much the same thing and even end on the same note (albeit I think the manga executed it better.) Though there was this fun little twist at the end of the manga where spoiler[ Tsugumi gets a 3rd Mesiter, Aoi Hoshi a member of the Star Clan, and this rightly pisses the other two off] that I think should have made it into the anime but eh. |
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