Soul Eater ep.04

April 28, 2008 | 19 Comments

The animation for this episode continues to be unbelievably good that it feels like BONES somehow obtains non-stop funding from Square Enix. The only issue that I have with this episode is the removal of a brief comedic scene from the episode. I was thinking that maybe it'll be screened on next week's episode but I am a bit doubtful now since the story has moved beyond that scene. I think this is unfortunate because the scene in question, while slightly juvenile, is actually quite funny. If I have to guess, the scene got cut out because it involves panty-flashing and may not be deemed appropriate for the time slot for this normal broadcast. It'll be interesting to see if the scene will be included in the late night broadcast because so far that other version has no added value whatsoever in comparison to the normal broadcast.

Episode 4

Maka and Soul are facing off against Phantom Priest Rasputin, who claims that no bullet can harm him. Maka, however, manages to slice the guy easily using Soul, letting him to consume the priest's soul. In the morning, Soul is abruptly awaken when Blair decides to stuff his face with her breasts. Unfortunately for Soul, Maka then comes over to the room, trying to awake him for breakfast. Upon seeing the situation, Soul gets to have his face stuffed with Maka's shoes. Later on inside the class, there's rumor going around that their homeroom teacher, Sid, has turned into zombie. Because of this, the class gets a substitute teacher, who turns out to be the current Death Scythe, aka Maka's father. Maka's father quickly informs his daughter and Soul that Shinigami-sama wants to see them so they head off to his place and meets Black Star and Tsubaki along the way. As it turns out, Shinigami-sama wants to give them an extra lesson.

He explains that up till now, both groups of technician/weapon have gathered ZERO soul. Because of this, he wants them to investigate Sid, the teacher who has turned into zombie. Sid used to be a good teacher but now he's a zombie, he's been freed from the fear of death and wants his student to experience the same thing. Because of this, Shinigami-sama wants the two groups to find Sid and figure out who turned him into a zombie. He also warns them that if they fail this lesson, they'd be expelled from the school. Maka and Soul become respectively depressed and tense upon hearing this. Black Star, however, is more observant and decides to investigate a nearby gravestone. While he and Soul provokes the gravestone, Sid suddenly appears from the ground and grabs Maka's leg.

Thankfully for Maka, she is saved by Soul who launches himself as a scythe towards zombie Sid. Maka tries to defeat the teacher by channeling Soul Echo with Soul and producing the scythe technician's super weapon, Witch Hunter. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the strength to wield the weapon and almost slashes Black Star instead. When Sid starts using vanishing technique to hide underground, Black Star decides to use a technique called Trap Star to detect his whereabout. Thanks to the technique, he manages to capture Sid. Back inside the school, Shinigami-sama tells Death the kid that the person who turned Sid into zombie is Dr.Stein. Dr.Stein was actually a technician who partnered up with the current Death Scythe (Maka's father) before Maka's father met Maka's mother.

Impression

The mid-opening part of this episode, where Soul wakes up in his bed, really reminds me of Naruto earlier episodes. I actually like early Naruto series before it becomes convoluted with revenge plots and endless fights because it shows the day to day life of the characters. I actually remember feeling sorry for Naruto because he has to live on his own with no one to talk to. In contrast, Soul seems to be a lot luckier because it seems he lives in some kind of shared house with Maka (who even cooked for him). For this reason, I actually enjoy the seemingly mundane activities that the characters have to do like going to the class and interacting with the teacher/other characters. It's something that I think I'll not see once the series is focused on major battle arc that last for weeks/months.

Anyway, the major surprise here is the rather analytical and thoughtful Black Star, who actually spent the time to investigate the gravestone while Soul was stressed out and Maka became depressed (because they might get expelled by the Shinigami-sama). Black Star also turns out to be a great in-field partner for Maka. While both have their weapon to rely on, I was really impressed with the kind of team work the two technicians showed. Of course it wouldn't be funny if Maka didn't screw up a little bit so I appreciate the total failure when she tried to show off her higher level weapon. And in the end, I do think that Black Star deserves the credit for capturing Sid-sensei since he was a lot more focused in the job than Maka/Soul. It's unfortunate that they cut off the interrogation scene because that scene shows that Black Star is actually quite capable of strategic thinking.....in his own perverted way.

Miscellaneous thoughts

One of the more unique feature of this series is its tendency to use famous characters from real history or famous fictional work as minor characters that populate the series. I have to admit that I have little knowledge on the real Grigori Rasputin, but I have noticed that in popular entertainment works, be it film or video game, the name Rasputin somehow is always associated to an antagonist. Back in 1997, an animated film called Anastasia, placed Rasputin as the evil priest who put a curse on the Romanov line. In PS2 video game, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, once again a character called Rasputin is cast as a leader of a sinister organization that intends on unleashing pure evil onto the world. It's amusing to see him being used again as an antagonist in this series, even if it's just a minor one that Maka and Soul defeated easily.

The real reason for the antagonistic characterization of Rasputin's name is probably because most people believe that the real Rasputin was involved in variety of evil practices. The thing is, it's been noted by some historians that there is a misconception about the real Rasputin's character. Unfortunately, the name is already associated with antagonism up to this day, thereby explaining why it's always used to name villainous character in different popular media work. I can't help but wonder, however, if general public would accept the name being used as a heroic character. How easily would it be to change the perception of the name? If the character is portrayed as a mysterious person whose background the viewers know nothing about, would the first assumption that the audience make is: "This character is evil"?

Preview

Next Week: Maka vs. Dr.Stein

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