Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. We continue our look at Soul Eater by the looking at the second part of the anime. It’s here that the story finally begins to progress forward and the wheels are set in motion for the overall story of the series. Let’s continue.
Ending Themes
During this second part of the anime we got new ending themes. The first “Style” by Kana Nishino. Surprisingly, out of all the endings this is the most peaceful and lighthearted out of all of them. It’s very calming and relaxing which is something you find welcoming after watching all the action and drama of the second part. The other ending is “Bakusou Yumeuta” by Diggy-MO’. I’m gonna get a lot of hate for saying this but out of all the endings this was my least favorite of the bunch. I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad song it’s just that it lacks what all the other endings have, energy. Whether you’re a fan of the first two endings or not you can’t deny that there was a sense of energy to them. I feel no energy whatsoever from this ending. I always found myself skipping this ending and even when I did stick around to listen to it occasionally in the hopes that it would grow on me, I found myself soon forgetting the song and just started humming the second or first ending song.
Episodes 18-24
Episodes 18-24 serve as the first major arc in the series. The first 17 episodes were setup episodes introducing us to all the major characters and establishing their personalities and relationships with each other while also building up the villains and introducing the plot device that would elevate the series to the next level. The arc starts at night with a party at the DWMA celebrating the founding of the academy. Everyone has shown up, students, teachers, alumnus, celebrities (oh look a large group of evil souls have gathered at the academy) and Shinigami himself is present at the party making this the perfect opportunity for Medusa and her team to revive the kishin. As Medusa’s team get into place we get a few laughs at the party such as Kid trying to give a welcoming speech but Black Star keeps being loud and distracting (you know, how he normally is), Soul forcing Maka to dance with Spirit where Maka points out how he used to hit on her teachers in elementary (man you really are a scumbag), and we get a scene of Stein and Medusa dancing with each other (at this point in the series this was honestly the best couple. Even though they weren’t official everyone loved pairing these two. One’s an evil sadistic witch trying to destroy the world. The other’s a mad scientist who enjoys dissecting stuff. They’re perfect for each other). As Stein and Medusa are dancing Stein tells her he knows she’s a witch and to drop the act and tell him what she’s after (well let’s say she didn’t choose to be the school nurse for nothing if you know what I mean, //youtu.be/rv9qs5WVHS8?t=30s). She comes clean and tells Stein that she’s going to revive the kishin (well that was easy) and even tries to convince Stein to join her saying that he’s just as crazy as her and should just give in to it (Pyro Jack: No offence but those two would have the hottest sex ever. (Nitsuj): I would normally ignore that comment but you are right). Just before she can kiss Stein, Sid comes in to stop party (way to be a cockblocker Sid). Apparently he and Mila survived the explosion by digging underground (Yin-Yang: I can dig it) and inform Stein that they have to get Shinigami out of here before it’s too late (it’s too late isn’t it?). Medusa jumps outside and combining her powers with Eruka and Free create a barrier trapping everyone in the party for 1 hour according to Free. Luckily, Sid and Mila use their soul resonance to allow Stein and our main characters to escape before the barrier could be completed. Once the barrier is up Medusa and the others make their way to the basement of the academy where the kishin is sealed. While they do that the Mizune sisters attack the city (yeah, apparently Mizune is 6 little mice witches and the one Medusa killed was the oldest of the siblings. She tricked the other siblings into believing DWMA killed their sister and now they want revenge). Stein explains to everyone what’s going on and tells them that they can either follow him or stay here and wait for assistance. They all decide to go with Stein and after a quick wardrobe change (where did those clothes come from? Did they each have their outfits on standby in case something went down?) they make their way to the basement of the academy.
Shinigami tells everyone at the party about the kishin in the basement known as Asura (just don’t tell them about the green guy in the sub-lab). Long ago when Shinigami was bringing order to the world he formed a group known as the Great Old Ones. These guys served as the keepers of peace in the world (the original meisters and weapons) and each of them were immortal as well as the embodiment of a particular emotion that invokes madness within people (oh, so they were all siths). Asura was the embodiment of fear as he never trusted anyone not even his own weapon and was constantly paranoid about everyone and everything (hey sounds like every government in the world). In order to quell his fears he ate his own weapon whole (that can’t be good for the stomach) and began devouring human souls until eventually he became a kishin and began spreading his madness around the world deteriorating the sanity of people until they became mindless beast (not to steal his thunder but I think the internet already does a good job doing that). Shinigami stepped in and defeated Asura by ripping off his skin and using it as a container to seal Asura in a temple below the academy (damn Shinigami, you were merciless in the past) and he finished the seal by combining his soul with the city. This means that Shinigami is bound to Death City and can’t leave no matter what (I’m surprise he didn’t go mad from being stuck in one city his whole life). Back with Stein and the others they make their way to the basement where they run into Spirit who also escaped the barrier by following the body of Medusa (in his defense she does have a nice figure). After Spirit joins them they run into Medusa who’s standing in their way and Stein says he and Spirit will fight her while the rest go and stop the others. He does give Black Star direct orders saying that if they run into Crona he is to face him since his soul wavelength attack will be the most effective against him. The main cast gets pass Medusa leaving Stein and Spirit to face her. They run into Crona where Maka says she wants to face him and tells Black Star to keep going (so the honor student is disobeying orders for her own selfish reasons? You have been learning something in school).
So Maka and Soul fight against Crona again where they actually do a better job than last time however they’re still not strong enough to beat him. Wanting to protect Maka (because he loves~ her) Soul goes to confront the little demon of the black blood within him (who I like to call Demi). In the past Demi has been trying to get Soul to give into the black blood so that he can control him but Soul has fought him off each time and this time proves to be no different until Maka shows up in a silk black dress where she and Soul dance (is this really the time to be doing this? In case you forgot there’s a crazy child trying to kill you). She tells Soul that she wants to use the black blood to match Crona’s soul wavelength thinking it’ll give her what she needs to connect with him. Soul warns her about the dangers of the blood but Maka is determined to use it (sometimes you gotta get a little crazy to beat your opponents) and Soul finally agrees to her plan and promises to pull her out of the madness before it’s too late. After their dance is over Soul allows Maka to give into the insanity that is the black blood (scene here: //youtu.be/aCrszE0xXtc, I like the crazy Maka. She’s crazy). As Maka journeys to connect with Crona we do discover that Crona is Medusa’s test tube child and his upbringing wasn’t exactly the best (scene here: //youtu.be/OlEQEqq9yVg). Eventually Maka does connect with Crona’s soul and goes into it where she and Crona are toddlers in a wasteland (I kind of imagined Crona’s soul to be a little darker and more disturbing). In truth Crona’s abuse and neglect as a child was so traumatizing that he became afraid to connect with anyone and came to the conclusion that the best way to get rid of your fears is to destroy them (well he’s not wrong). Maka manages to connect with Crona showing him that there’s nothing to be afraid of when you connect with people and this throws his soul into chaos as his old ideals and new ideals are colliding with each other. Maka manages to settle his soul down with a hug (I guess that’s all he really ever needed) and the two become friends (score one for the home team. Actually in all seriousness this is a very moving scene).
As for the others Stein and Spirit manage to lock Medusa in a stalemate leaving their match at a draw but Stein has the upperhand. Back in the city Blair takes on the Mizune sisters where they combine to form one hot mouse girl and we get some catgirl on mouse girl action for a few seconds (clearly this is the fight we should have been focusing on). Kid and Black Star catch up to Eruka and Free who have just reached the shrine which is overflowing with madness that causes people to see hallucinations of Asura killing them (well it might come true). After fighting off their hallucinations Eruka tries to inject the black blood into Asura while Free keeps Kid busy. Black Star comes in and tries to stop Eruka by cutting the syringe but it was all a hallucination caused by Asura’s madness. In truth Black Star missed the syringe entirely and Eruka just injected the black blood (//youtu.be/x2vjmgtD1_A?t=15s). With the injection Asura reawakens (he looks like an older version of Kid) and uses his skin to make clothes (don’t know if I should find this horrifying or cool. Hool maybe?). Kid and Black Star try to stop him but they’re no match for him and he escapes above ground where he’s greeted by Shinigami who escaped the barrier 20 minutes early ahead of schedule (//youtu.be/KuflAzi59p8, this is all true). Shinigami does everything in his power to stop Asura (even losing that peaceful tone in his voice and going old school on us) but despite Shinigami’s best efforts without a death scythe he just can’t finish the job and Asura uses his weakness of staying in the city against him and escapes out the city borders and goes out into the world (scene here: //youtu.be/P9u7hJnsai8). After landing, Shinigami (now out of badass mood) tells Sid to call all the death scythes back to DWMA so that they can come up with countermeasures against Asura. As for Medusa, Stein destroyed her body however her soul escaped in the form of a snake (how fitting).
Episodes 25-30
Things slowdown in episode 25 as the death scythes gather at DWMA to address the Asura threat. Only three death scythes show up (the others are busy). The first one is Azusa who was in the same class as Stein and Spirit when they were younger as well as the class president (must have been a full time job watching those two nut jobs). She’s a crossbow with a high accuracy from any distance. Next up is Marie a death scythe who in the past once used to date Stein (oh the nightmares he must of gave you). She’s a carefree and absent-minded woman with amazing strength who longs to get married and settle down. She’s a mini hammer who can transform into a tonfa as well. The final death scythe is Justin Law a weapon who is a devote follower of Shinigami and a fan of rap music particularly Lotus Juice as he’s constantly wears earphones listening to his blaring music. It’s so loud that it disrupts his hearing however he claims he can read lips. He’s a guillotine and became a death scythe at the age 13 making him the youngest student to become a death scythe and he did it without having a partner as he’s capable of fighting by himself. Spirit is worried about this meeting as he thinks he’ll be reassigned because he failed to stopped the kishin meaning he’ll be moved faraway from Maka (and the bridge between you guys is already long). Luckily for Spirit he’s not being reassigned but instead being put on standby as Shinigami’s go to weapon. Azusa is put in charge of using her powers to find Asura, Justin is put on standby, and Marie becomes Stein’s weapon in the hopes of calming Stein down and stop his soul from going insane. With Asura released in the world his madness will begin to corrupt people and drive them insane. Since Stein is already one step away from insanity he’s more than likely to go mad so that’s where Marie comes in. Her soul wavelength has soothing powers which should reverse the effects of madness in Stein according to Shinigami. Near the end of the episode we see the main characters playing a game of basketball (I call next game) where they make a bet that if Maka’s team loses she has to ask Spirit out on a date. Her team loses mostly because she doesn’t know the rules and she’s forced to ask Spirit out on a date where he is so overjoyed that he actually pukes.
Episode 26 is all about Crona. After the battle with Asura, Crona gave himself up to DWMA and was thrown into detainment for the time being. Shinigami has decided to give Crona a student trial run to see if he can adapt to the academy and he’s put into the hands of Maka. Also, as for Ragnarok he got the souls he ate removed from him and is now mini (but still feisty, rude, and abusive). Maka and Marie show Crona around the academy where he’s still unsure if he can handle school life (it’s a battleground where one mistake could kill you) so Maka encourages him to write a poem to calm his nerves down (big mistake. Scenes here: //youtu.be/qP2i9wCMbPY and //youtu.be/YCa5_CUZgUY). Later on, Maka and Crona are sent out to investigate a golem going berserk in a village (you sure it’s wise to send him out so soon? I mean he can barely handle the school). While Maka and Crona investigate the golem Stein also does some investigating of his own at the academy since it’s weird for golems to start attacking when they’re primary function is defending (yeah and boos from the Mario series are supposed to be scared of you. Now look at them, haunting houses, showing at parties, and trapping plumbers in paintings). Maka and Crona find the golem and try to stop it but they get stopped by Giriko an insane chainsaw weapon who seems to have a connection with the golem (well if Steven Universe can explore the possibilities of rock love why can’t Soul Eater?). Maka and Soul take on Giriko and the golem where they almost get defeated after Maka gets paralyzed by some poison until Crona steps in to save them (yesterday’s crazy enemy is now today’s crazy friend). Once Maka gets a moment to concentrate she begins to sense a presence within the golem, something powerful and dangerous.
In episode 27 we finally see what’s inside the golem. As the group stays on guard against Giriko and the golem, spiders begin to climb the golem and go inside it (well that’s not weird at all) until finally the soul inside the golem finally emerges revealing itself to be Arachne a very powerful witch (congratulations Mr. Golem it’s a witch). Arachne is the leader of this powerful witch organization known as Arachnophobia that in the past tried to take over the world (//youtu.be/1W7c8QghPxk) but Shinigami stopped her (this was back when he was young, fearless, wild and actually scared the world) however she escaped and hid inside the golem to replenish her strength. She’s been in that golem for years (not looking a day past 40) and now thanks to Asura’s madness was able to rise again. Crona attacks her out of fear because it turns out Arachne is Medusa’s sister (one’s a snake and the other’s a spider. The mother must of had a lot of weird fetishes). Giriko cuts him off and beats him where she gets saved by Justin who takes on Giriko in a fight. Justin seems to be the stronger of the two and Arachne decides to retreat with Giriko with the golem buying them time (scene here: //youtu.be/Y47CYP9JIEg). After the fight Justin takes the kids back to DWMA with Maka still paralyzed and having to ride in a coffin. As for Arachne and Giriko they get picked up by this small old man named Mosquito (is that because you sucked up all of your social security money?) a loyal follower of Arachne who takes them to their hideout where Arachne vows to destroy Shinigami.
In episode 28 Black Star overhears Sid talking to Azusa about the discovery of one of Arachnophobia’s lab where a device is being tested that messes with people’s morals. Black Star wanting revenge for what they did to Maka (somebody’s in love) goes with Tsubaki to raid the base and make them pay. Black Star manages to take out the small fry but it all changes when Mifune comes out to face him. It turns out Arachnophobia has taken Angela hostage and is forcing Mifune to act as their bodyguard in order to keep her safe. So Black Star and Mifune have their second fight only this the kid gloves are off and Mifune fights him a little more seriously and wins (scene here: //youtu.be/27ewW0efp5k). Mosquito comes out and tells him to finish Black Star off but before he can Sid, Mila, and Asuza spring an ambush getting Black Star and Tsubaki a chance to escape.
These next few episodes are build up for the big battle to come between Arachnophobia and DWMA. In episode 29 Medusa finally returns by taking over the body of a child named Rachel. While she still has her witch powers she’s now in the body of a child and don’t think this was an accident she did this on purpose. By taking over the body of a child she’s pretty much made herself untouchable to DWMA as they won’t risk hurting a child. In this new child form she goes to Arachne and tries to team up with her but Arachne pretty much rejects her and tells her to leave however Free and Eruka have infiltrated Arachne’s ranks so Medusa will have eyes on her (keep your enemies close and your family and friends closer). Back at DWMA Stein begins to teach the students how to resonate as a team (as in resonating with other fighters).
In episode 30 Kid and the Thompson sisters are sent on a mission to stop a runaway train in the Sahara Desert that is said to be powered by a demon tool. Arachnophobia also want the demon tool and have sent one of their assassins known as Fisher King (I’m guessing his stick is that he’s a pool player) to retrieve the item. So it’s a race to see who can board the crazy train (with Ozzy Osbourne as the conductor) and get the item first. Fisher King gets a head start by boarding the train and Kid has to chase after the train on his skateboard (scene here: //youtu.be/3cMQPUU3W-A). After doing some wicked flips (Tony Hawk would be so proud) they manage to board the train and dodge all of Fisher King’s attacks to beat him and stop him from getting the magic tool (scene here: //youtu.be/Y4nViTsarRw?t=2m50s, now that was flawless, //youtu.be/FfvTXACPv30?t=3s). Kid removes the magic tool stopping the train but upon closer inspection he discovers that his father had something to do with the creation of the train as well as the magic item along with Eibon a great wizard who in the past used to research demon tools. Fisher King says he knows all about Eibon but before Kid can get answers Sid comes in and kills him (dick move Sid. Dick move. That’s not cool man). Wanting to know more about Eibon Kid goes to the library in the hopes of finding information on him but the only book about Eibon was checked out on the same day Asura was revived (what are the odds?). Looking at the checkout log Kid discovers that the book was last checked out by M and he deduces that Medusa was the last person to check it out (you forget Kid, you know one more person whose name begins with M).
Episodes 31-36
We get another Crona episode in episode 31. Crona is happy and enjoying life at DWMA (it’s nice to see him happy for once). But those happy days might be coming to an end because Medusa has finally approached him (Crona: Mom, did you lose weight? There’s something different about you). She wants Crona to be her spy in DWMA and wants her to find their vault. Out of fear and returning to his old habits (they die so hard) he follows her orders and finds the vault but quickly gets discovered by Marie who takes her back to his room. Once Medusa finds out about Marie (jealous much?) and how Stein is slowly going mad she decides to speed up that process by having Crona drop one of her snakes in Marie’s drink which will instead increase the madness of Stein instead of sooth his soul.
Speaking of character driven episodes, we continue that in episode 32 with another Excalibur episode. In the episode we focus on a student named Hiro who despite being a nice and normal guy is constantly ordered by his classmates to buy stuff and do task for them. But that all changes when he claims Excalibur for himself (hmm~, a kid with low self-esteem who doesn’t mind taking orders and a guy whose ego is bigger than Kaiba and annoying as hell as with a pretentious attitude to boot as his partner. It’s the perfect match). Of course some of the students can’t stand being in the same school as Excalibur and fight Hiro but even with their combined powers, before Excalibur they are nothing but a leaf in the wind (scene here: //youtu.be/gFBRDDh–Ho). With Excalibur by his side Hiro becomes the new ruler of the academy (all hail Hiro! (Nitsuj and the Jack Brothers): Hiro! Hiro! Hiro! Hiro!). Surprisingly his reign isn’t all bad as all he does is start getting respect from the other students (mind you it’s fear), start having them do task for them (totally reasonable), and openly peeping in on the girls’ shower room (Nitsuj and the Jack Brothers): Pervy Hiro! Perviro! Perviro! Pervert! Pervert! Pervert). But all reigns of terror (if you wanna call this terror) come to an end as Hiro gets rid of Excalibur and the academy returns to normal. Oh no, don’t get wrong, Hiro did all of Excalibur’s requests, he performed them all perfectly, and could tolerate Excalibur’s personality all day. But the one thing that drove Hiro over the edge, the one straw that broke the camel’s back was the last thing you would expect, his sneezing. That’s right, Hiro could tolerate everything about Excalibur except his sneezing. It drove Hiro insane so much that he had to get rid of him (wow, he had all the power in the world and gave it all up because of some annoying sneeze. That really speaks volume about Excalibur).
Episode 33 is the final setup episode for the battle against Arachnophobia. Stein continues to have moments of insanity such as hearing Medusa in his head and seeing her (I told you to sleep with her when you had the chance). Our main characters are put into a team where they’re having trouble performing team resonance with each other and Maka blames Black Star for their troubles because he’s always trying to take over. Maka talks to Stein and tries to get him to remove Black Star from the team (geez when did Maka become a bitch?) but he just sends her away and says that she’s the one failing the team (harsh but true. I know Black Star can be egoistical but out of the three he’s the best fighter so let him go wild on the enemy. Don’t hold the bull back, let him go wild. Let the beast feast). Black Star confronts Maka about going behind his back instead of facing him and the two get into a fight where Maka actually hits him. It doesn’t faze him all that much and he tells Maka that if she takes this one step further he will fight her seriously (he will rip you apart little girl). The look in his eyes terrifies her and she runs away crying (I think I missed something here). Realizing that he might have gone a little overboard Black Star asks Tsubaki to talk to Maka for him which she gladly does. The two have a talk where Maka asks how Tsubaki can handle Black Star when she herself doesn’t fully understand him (Tsubaki: He has an amazing body that drives me crazy). Tsubaki tells her that not understanding Black Star is normal because he’s different from her and that’s okay. It’s okay to not understand your friends fully (Isis: That is so true. As long as we’re alive I will never understand you Nitsuj. (Nitsuj): Like you too Isis). What’s important is that you accept them for who they are which Maka has been failing to do. After realizing this she returns to the others, apologizes for her actions, and they all perform team resonance perfectly.
Episodes 34-36 is the big battle between DWMA and Arachnophobia. They’re fighting in this artic landscape trying to find the demon tool known as Brew which is protected by this magnetic field (don’t bring any metal in). The field can be entered however there’s a time limit for how long you can stay inside before it becomes too much for you to handle. Sid, Azusa, and Justin take on the forces of Mifune, Giriko and Arachnophobia while Stein and Marie along with our main characters and a few side characters (who come to play important roles in the manga) go to secure Brew. They arrive at the magnetic field where Stein and Marie enter while the others hold off enemies (you know this feels like a more grounded version of the Battle of Hoth. Only more magic focus instead of technology focus). After a while Maka can’t sense the soul wavelengths of Stein and Marie so she, Kid, and Black Star venture into the magnetic field to find them (they’re either too deep inside or Stein finally snapped and dissected Marie). Once inside the field they begin to see images of the past where they see images of Shinigami and Arachne as well as Eibon (so many questions so few answers). They eventually find Marie with a maddened Stein (Medusa’s plan has come to fruition) and have them retreat because they’ve reached their limit in the field. This leaves Maka and the others in charge of finding Brew where they run into Mosquito who says that he has secured it (not for long. Step aside old man before I send Black Star to squash you). In order to fight them Mosquito turns the clock back on his body to a century ago where he was much stronger and fights the group where their attacks don’t seem to be damaging him so Soul comes up with a plan to resonate with the team channeling the black blood’s powers to everyone. How does he plan on doing that? By playing the piano in his soul. Yeah, fun little fact about Soul, his full name is Soul Eater Evans (see what they did there?) and he comes from a family of talented musicians but for some odd reason Soul hates being a musician and once he discovered he had the power to transform into a weapon he used that as his escape. So Soul plays the piano in his soul giving the others an amazing power boost especially Maka (he’s looking out for his number one girl) who gains a new powerful move known as Genie Hunter which she uses to slice through Mosquito (scene here: //youtu.be/WHqbbIHO22c, and that is what we call fatality). Despite all of this Mosquito still manages to survive (just like an actual mosquito he’s tough to kill) and Soul tells them they have to retreat because their time limit is almost up and Mosquito hasn’t really shown his true powers yet. In the end the DWMA failed in their mission to get Brew but so did Arachnophobia because the Brew they have is not only broken but it’s actually a fake. In truth while DWMA and Arachnophobia were fighting each other Eruka and the Mizune sisters snuck into the magnetic field and got the Brew for Medusa (sometimes it’s best to be like a snake, stay low and unknown to others. Then when they least expect it, strike).
Well guys that was part 2 of Soul Eater. See how I said things were getting real. Unfortunately, from here on out things go downhill. But I’ll save that for the final part coming out next week. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA- AHHHHHHHHHH~!
*As Nitsuj continues his laughing he leans back in his chair which trips one of Mira’s wires and before he knows it he finds himself tangled up and hanging from the ceiling like the prey of a spider*
(Nitsuj): Mira, stop using my study room as your practice room for wire traps!
(Mira): Sorry.
*All videos, clips, and music are not owned by me and belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved*
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