First Impressions / SOUL EATER

Summary:

Having just finished attending a Witch Mass, Medusa is stopped by a fellow witches Eruka Frog and Mizune for stealing something from the room of their leader Mabaa. Eruka also questions what Medusa is doing hiding in Shibusen since that could endanger the rest of the witches, and she is against creating Kishin since those could become their enemies too. Medusa responds by sticking her hands in both witches mouthes before they can even react, and this scares the two into submission, allowing Medusa to return to the school. There, she gives Soul a checkup and hears about the weird dreams that he’s been having recently. In them, Soul is confronted by a small, well-dressed demon who asks if he wants a strong spirit that forgets fear. The demon had tempted Soul with power but had then kicked Soul out of the room, telling Soul to seek that power. Soul didn’t want to leave because it always resulted in him bursting from Maka’s body, and hearing all this leads Medusa to conclude that Ragnarok’s black blood is in effect, though for her purposes right now, she tells Soul not to worry about it.

Black*Star meanwhile has been presented with a jar filled with special water that absorbs soul wavelengths. He quickly realizes that if he can endure sticking his arm into the jar, then he can use Tsubaki’s phantom blade mode, so he immediately gets to work. Since Maka also wants to become stronger, Stein explains to her that Black*Star pushes himself with all of his own self-aggrandizing talk, but that’s his way, and Maka has her own. Maka then goes to pick Soul up from Medusa’s office, but she happens to walk in while he’s still getting dressed and sees the scar across his chest. The pained look on her face is noticed by both Medusa and Soul, however it’s gone by the time the Meister group gets together for a party later that day. Elsewhere in town, Medusa gets cornered in an alley by Eruka and Mizune. They intend to kill her, and when Medusa points out that there are a lot of young Meisters around, Eruka notes that they can use transformation magic to help them escape if it comes to that. Eruka also knows that she can’t win in a normal fight against Medusa, but the advantage they have of conducting the battle here in Death City is that Medusa can’t use her powers or else risk revealing her true identity to everyone at Shibusen.

Eruka and Mizune then cancel their Soul Protects and prepare to finish off Medusa, but to their surprise, Medusa takes off her lab coat to reveal that the tattoos normally on her body are now gone. At that very moment, Mizune starts struggling with something coiled around the inside of her body, causing Eruka to realize that Medusa put snakes in them when she had stuck her hands in their mouths previously. Thus, without even needing to cancel her Soul Protect, Medusa is able to kill Mizune. Fortunately for Eruka, someone comes running to investigate what’s going on, and this diverts Medusa’s attention long enough for Eruka to transform into a frog and escape. The ones who show up are none other than Stein and Maka, and Medusa pretends to have just sensed the two witches who had canceled their Soul Protects. She agrees with Maka’s guess that one of the witches could have been the one who was there when Soul got hurt, but Stein immediately shoots the idea down. Stein knows that that witch was interested in Meisters and weapons, so it’d only make sense that that witch would hide and observe instead of canceling her Soul Protect in the middle of the city.

This doesn’t, however, alleviate Maka’s fears of what would happen if she encountered Chrona and Ragnarok again. It’s not until Soul comes running looking for her that she decides to face his wound and never lose to fear. She tells Stein that she now understands what she had been lacking, and Stein observes to himself that Maka now has the courage to fight fear. Later that day, Medusa tracks down Eruka and forces her to agree to take a special key go free Prisoner 13 from the witches’ prison. Eruka realizes that Medusa is talking about the man with the demon eye, and she’s fearful because this is the same guy who took Mabaa’s left eye.

Preview

It’s nice to see a Medusa focused episode because it sheds a lot of light on the witches and how their society works. I always thought that the witches stayed solo from other witches, so it was interesting to see them all gathered together with a leader and everything. They could probably wreak a lot of havoc if they banded together to try to take down Shibusen. In any case, it was fun seeing Medusa bully around her peers, and I liked being able to root for her for once since she’s another one of those characters that I consider to be delightfully evil. They also seem to be playing up the idea that Stein is the only one who can match her in wits and in strength, so I’m looking forward to the fight between them, if it ever happens.

Overall, this episode had some exciting and fun moments, but it looks like the really action-packed one is going to be next week with all the new villains, Black*Star being able to use Tsubaki’s new form, and something happening to Soul. It’s also probably going to be the last week with the current ED theme, since the new one by Nishino Kana will likely premiere the week after.

24 Comments

  10. “Finally the main storyline begins.”
    Does that mean we’ve been wasting time for the past 11 episodes compared to whatever is coming from this point on? Actually, it’s probably best that I don’t know the answer to that b/c it makes the series all that more enjoyable as things get better and better.

    Omni
    Reply

  13. the preview at the end of the episode… medusa saying her cobra-cobra thingy… makes me wanna hug her!!!!!!!! Haven’t heard Houko Kuwashima in many roles like that recently.

    As for the frog witch (Eruka was it?), ‘t was nice to hear her seiyuu, since I also like her role as Golden Darkness.

    btw, as for the story… hmm… I never thought the events for next week were gonna happen so soon. I always thought it was longer before we reached it. Ain’t a good nor bad thing, tis was just a thought. Nonetheless, I hope Soul Eater will have enough material to last up to 52 episodes. Seems like I’ve completely mixed up/confused the order/length of the story in the manga, but heck, I see that as a blessing in disguise. 😛

    bring on more soul eater!

    42-42-564
    Reply

  16. judging from next’s week preview, they’re gonna start cutting down on the the manga material. i love the voice of Soul’s dark side. he sounds cooler than i thought he would.

    v1cious
    Reply

  18. I think Wererat42 meant that finally one of the main arcs begin instead of just 2-3 episode arcs (sorta like when bleach jumped into soul society instead of having ichigo beat up hollows nd stuff). I’ll admit it does get more interesting from here. 🙂

    wottow
    Reply

  19. OHHH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “ABK” YOU ARE A HILARIOUS SUBLIMINAL FINDING FOOL!!!!! I LOVE YOU>> THAT PIC “IS” HILARIOUS>> I AM DIEING LOL LOL LOL LOL,and i never say LOL

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  21. https://randomc.net/image/SOUL%20EATER/SOUL%20EATER%20-%2012%20-%20Large%2022.jpg

    Sexy back! I hope the anime captures the crazy evilness of Medusa’s character as it is in the manga. Plus…

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Free should be showing up next ep judging by the preview. His evil eye kinda reminds me of the Fuhrer character (Pride in the anime, Wrath in the manga) from Full Metal Alchemist.

    KaminaLives
    Reply

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