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Soul Eater NOT! is not Soul Eater. It’s a spin-off. Just wanted to make that clear
right away. So Soul Eater NOT! is an anime that aired
in the Spring season of 2014, spanning twelve episodes, and is based on the manga of the
same name by Atsushi Okubo, the same author behind the Soul Eater manga. While both Soul
Eater and NOT! are geared toward the Shounen demographic, their genres are fairly different.
Both contain aspects of the supernatural, but Soul Eater is more of an action-adventure
type of story while Soul Eater NOT! is more a slice-of-life.
So the story follows Tsugumi Harudori, a girl from Japan who has recently discovered that
she has the ability to turn into a weapon. So she is sent to the DWMA in order to learn
how to use her powers. This is where she meets her new friends, Meme and Anya. And while
Tsugumi has the ability to turn into a weapon, Meme and Anya are both meisters, so one of
the main conflicts of the story is Tsugumi having to choose which of her friends she
wants as a partner. Now the DWMA has two separate classes for
their students: the NOT class and the EAT class. The NOT class, which stands for Normally
Overcome Target, is meant to teach students how to control their powers so that they do
not present any danger to themselves or those around them. The EAT class, which stands for
Especially Advantaged Talent, is geared toward showing students how to use their powers in
battle. Tsugumi and her friends are currently enrolled in the NOT class while Maka and the
others from the original series are enrolled in the EAT class.
So if you’ve seen clips or images from Soul Eater NOT!, you may have noticed that it has
a different art style than the original Soul Eater series. Soul Eater NOT! has a moe-centric
type of artstyle, mostly due to the fact that it is a slice-of-life series.
Now the animation production for this series was done by Studio Bones, and Studio Bones
is mostly known for their work in various action series, such as the original Soul Eater
and Fullmetal Alchemist. In my personal opinion, I found some of the animation in this series
to be sub-par to some of Bones’s other works, but this might be due to the fact that Bones
was also working on Chaika--The Coffin Princess and their original series, Captain Earth,
at the same time. And I can only assume that a majority of their budget went to Captain
Earth. Despite this, though, Soul Eater NOT! manages to maintain a good quality for the
most part. As for the music in the series, none of the
soundtrack really stood out to me, but the opening and ending themes are pretty nice
to listen to, despite being somewhat generic compared to the music used in the first Soul
Eater series. Despite being slice-of-life, Soul
Eater NOT! does have some action here and there, and we do get an antagonist who presents
a real danger to the characters. However, I personally felt that the climax and resolution
to the story were a bit of a let down--sort of like the ending to the original Soul Eater
anime. Another thing I should mention about this
series is that it takes place before the events of the original series. So we get to see Liz
and Patty before they were Death the Kid’s partners, Dr. Stein before he became a teacher
at the DWMA, and Sid before he became a zombie. So should you watch Soul Eater NOT! Well,
if you’re a fan of the original series and are looking for something just like it, then
chances are you won’t like Soul Eater NOT! very much. If you’re a fan of moe or slice-of-life
type series, or if you’re curious to see the other characters from Soul Eater, then
you should check this one out. I personally didn’t hate it, but it’s
not something I would bother rewatching. So as a final score, I’m gonna give it a 7
out of 10. For me, it’s not good or bad, it’s just pretty average.
So if you’ve seen it, what did you think of Soul Eater NOT!? Comment below and share
your thoughts! And until next time, guys, so long!