Opening Songs
OP 1 - Monochrome (Dancing Dolls)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Kimi Ga Ireba (Haruka Chisuga, Aoi Yuki, Saori Hayami)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Supernatural
Episodes: 12
Remember "Soul Eater"? It was a really badass school anime that focused on combat, with meisters and weapons that worked together, making the ultimate duo that could take down even the strongest of foes. Combine that with kind of a slap stick atmosphere with school life, girls, grades, social standings and you get one of the most addicting shounen anime, ever. Now, throw that most of that out of the window, and amplify the school life factor and the slap stick factor by 10, then make all the main characters girls. That's "Soul Eater Not!" for you. Think of it as a very simplified and peaceful version of the original "Soul Eater", only this time we throw in the moe factor. For fans of the series, this might be a passable experience, with plenty of cameos and throwbacks to the original. If you're a newcomer, I do suggest watching the original before jumping into this one, but if you just want another chummy, easy go experience with a mostly female cast, "Soul Eater Not!" has plenty of attempts to win you over.
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| Ladies and gentlemen, your main characters! |
"Monochrome" by Dancing Dolls is the opening theme, and believe it or not, its not as bad as it looks. For a moe anime, I expected a moe opening theme. Apparently not, because "Monochrome" feels like its something straight out of Claris (they disbanded, RIP to them). Its not incredibly cutesy, instead is elegant and nice to listen to. The ending theme "Kimi Ga Ireba" by the 3 seiyuus of the 3 main characters, and sad to say, that's typical ending material, its nothing to write home about. Its a slow tempo song that's pretty much a ballad.
Rating: 7.0/10
Its pretty much just "Soul Eater" with all the slapstick in the world. Nothing to write home about, most of the show is just 3 pretty girls fooling around, enjoying life, doing "girly" stuff. Admittedly, the show caught my attention early on with all the cameos from the original series, and the 3 girls seemed pretty well fleshed out and diverse enough for me. A sleepy headed girl, a dense, indecisive main character, and a classy, tsundere princess like character. These 3 seemed to go well together, and I was ready to spend 12 episodes with them. Sadly though, while the beginning and ending arcs were decent, the middle episodes were kind of boring. There was also a lack of NEW interesting characters (I wasn't too drawn to Akane and Clay, or any of the other new girls). The action scenes are few and scarce, but they were good. They packed the old "Soul Eater" style of frantic-ness and style. THESE, were a blast to watch.
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| ONE bowl of noodles please, for all 3 of us. |
The story stars Tsugumi as its protagonist, a regular girl living a regular life...until she discovers that her leg transformed into a halberd. Quickly realizing that she is a weapon, she is enrolled into Death City, a city with a prestigious academy that trains meisters and weapons, destined warriors that will become powerful enough to save the world. Of course, poor old Tsugumi is just a regular girl, and her coping with all this is pretty hard. She has a pretty rough start and gets discouraged, how could a mere girl like herself suddenly become a weapon powerful enough to be fit of a meister? She was on the verge of giving up, but used Maka (the protagonist of the original) as motivation to go on. On her first day, she meets two meisters, Tabane and Anya, that could potentially become her partner. Luck would have it that the 3 of them even stayed in the same room! So begins the super regular life of 3 very different girls in a very irregular environment.
So that's that for "Soul Eater Not!", a super moe/slapstick prequel spinoff of the original "Soul Eater" series. Fans who don't mind the sudden change of pace might enjoy themselves a little here, with the regular cameos of characters from the original. Newcomers might find this to be a subtle entrypoint to the franchise, though watching the original is still highly recommended (even if it didn't follow the manga, it was pretty good). As long as you're prepared for the simplicity of just having 3 girls doing stuff together like best friends, you'll be fine going in on this one.
Peace.
