First Impressions / SOUL EATER

Summary:

As Maka continues to make her way towards the shrine, the newly revived Ashura gets himself adjusted into his skin. After opening his eyes and seeing Eruka in front of him, he terrorizes her with a scream before moving on. Black*Star wants Tsubaki to enter youtou (phantom blade) mode, and when she refuses because of his injuries, he decides to take on Ashura without her. He attempts to use his Big Wave attack, but Ashura isn’t fazed at all and knocks him out with a single flick of the hand. He knocks out Kid in a similar fashion by stretching out his skin like a rubber band and hitting Kid’s head with it. Ashura follows that up by using his skin as a wrapping and covering himself with it, effectively creating himself a set of clothes. He then jumps through the ceiling of the shrine and towards the surface. Maka arrives at this moment and manages to catch him by grabbing onto his skin, but when Ashura emerges above ground in the middle of Death City, she gets thrown off. Soul has to change back into his human form so that he can cushion her fall, and he can only watch everything that happens afterwards because Maka loses consciousness.

Although Ashura has escaped, Shinigami-sama’s seal is still active and tries to restrain him, but he’s already too powerful. Fortunately, Shinigami-sama himself arrives on the scene because Free’s magic wore off. Ashura recognizes his old foe and comments on the changed mask, so Shinigami-sama explains that the old mask scared children. The battle between them begins after Shinigami-sama tells Ashura to die again, however neither a Shinigami Chop nor a blast wave attack have any lasting effect on Ashura. He counterattacks with two giant beams of energy, and although Shinigami-sama is able to defend himself, deflecting the beams causes much destruction to the city. Shinigami-sama then tries to meet Ashura head on, and after Ashura knocks him away, Shinigami-sama uses an ability that keeps Ashura pinned down. Ashura is able to call up enough power to dispel it though, and Shinigami-sama subsequently wonders if he can do this without Death Scythe. When Ashura counterattacks again with an attack called Vajra, he succeeds in piercing through Shinigami-sama’s defenses and destroys part of the mask. The end of the battle comes after Ashura takes advantage of the limitations of Shinigami-sama’s range in order to escape the area completely.

In the aftermath, Shinigami-sama has Sid prioritize the safety of everyone who went underground, but he also wants Side to send out word to all Death Scythes to gather at Death City. Free, Eruka, and Mizune all escape, and though they think Medusa is dead, she’s actually got enough left in her to grab onto Stein and bite down on his shoulder. He manages to get her off of him, and after hearing her say that she loves him, he stabs her to finish her off. Stein believes that the two of them are similar in that it’s not possible for them to understand love. The following day, the residents of the city start to rebuild, but unbeknownst to everyone, a snake slithers out of a drainage pipe.

Preview

Well that was one helluva episode. It didn’t quite end how I thought it would (I thought Shinigami-sama would be able to contain Ashura), so it ended up feeling a little depressing because all the good guys other than Stein lost their battles, but it was still a lot of fun to watch. Seeing Shinigami-sama get to do some actual fighting was a treat, and now I’m curious about what he could do if he had a weapon with him. The music was also a strong point, and the parts during the climax of the battle reminded me a lot of the Xenosaga soundtrack.

I assume this episode is the end of this very long arc and next week will start the new one. Both Ashura and (presumably) Medusa are still at large, and it looks like from the preview that some new allies will be introduced to help out. Next week would be the perfect time as well to start a new OP and ED – the official website has revealed the new OP to be by the brilliant green‘s Tommy heavenly6 and the new ED by SOUL’d OUT‘s Diggy-MO’ – though maybe they’ll wait a few weeks until the new season officially starts in October.

45 Comments

  6. It’s a shame they censored Medusa’s deathblow. =/ But yeah she came out the winner here.

    @Kabitzin:
    Actually, in the manga Old Shinigami’s hands are completely different and look more like black claws.

    Dragoon
    Reply

  11. Thanks for the info Ally.

    I haven’t read the manga, but from what I gather from the Anime Maka’s mother is supposed to be some uber ridiculous Maester, does she ever make an appearance?

    Also, something to note – In one episode of the Anime, we see Death the Kid wearing a cloak / mask which makes him appear exactly like Shinigami-sama, so I assume Shinigami-sama is wearing the same type of cloak, do we ever see what he ‘really’ looks like?

    Regarding this episode, I’m wondering if Medusa injected Snake’s into Stein’s body when she bit him, since she almost did the same to the two Witches when she stuck her hands in their mouths. + Obviously she’s still alive.

    Ashan
    Reply

  12. ^ To above poster

    Maka’s mother never makes an appearance because she’s somewhere in the world apparently doing more important missions than defeating the Kishin… The only HINT we get at her existence being confirmed as alive is when Maka’s father tells Stein she helped him finalize the divorce papers so they’re basically through.

    Serpico
    Reply

  17. cant WAIT!! good screen caps! look at free peeping the mouse witch like “say!,whats up shorty!”. PLUS! cant wait to finally find out what kind of MUSIC dat priest be listening to
    techno? trance? down south Bass music???

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  22. YES!! the new characters make their grand debut next episode 🙂 Also, the other students will be introduced as well.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Shinn Agami
    Reply

  26. the anime is pretty much following the manga for now. for the manga this point will be about chapter 23, which coincides with the number of episodes shown so far. it currently stops at about chapter 52, but even then the fight with arachne has not really begun. i do think they will continue the manga- for there are quite a number of sub-stories before the arachne arc. can’t wait to see Show Spoiler ▼

    L
    Reply

  27. Show Spoiler ▼

    VT
    Reply

  29. Woa the other death scythes already? seems the next episode is when the anime treads off the path of the manga. If I remember correctly those characters don’t show up until right before Maaka Meets Arcaina. To Ashan Medusa bit stein so her soul wouldn’t be eaten.

    Lucky Channel
    Reply

  30. Thank you Serpico and Lucky Channel for the info.

    I had no idea that this series was intended to stretch to 50-some episodes, from the flow of the show I was expecting it to end in an episode or two, like other series this season. I mean, the flow of it all, how everything was coming together with the Kishin plot I expected that they would fight him, defeat him, and then end the show. Seems I was quite mistaken.

    Taking a quick gander at ANN, there’s some-39 episodes already anounced, should make for a decent pass time as this show was one of the highlights of the season and nice to see it continue.

    Ashan
    Reply

  33. Nyan-nyan, although I don’t read the manga either, I believe that Maka was infected with the black blood when she first met Chrona, if you recall Chrona managed to stab Soul. Once Soul and Maka did their Soul Resonance thing later on in the series, the blood transfered from one to the other, hence Maka became infected. — A person with the Black Blood is more likely to lose themsleves to madness and become a Kishin themselves.

    As to what happens from now on, it’s pure speculation unless you’ve seen the manga, which may or may not have covered the matter further.

    Ashan
    Reply

  34. The manga is going to continue this october, I hope, so that may mean that the anime can still follow it. If they do though, The anime’s probably going to go with a second season based on how far the anime is on the manga.

    If they don’t, I hope Justin gets a lot of screen time. You can never have too much Justin 🙂

    miko
    Reply

  36. @Devs. Perhaps you are correct I will have to look at that part of the manga again sometime. But for Now i got to go run my SoS Brigade :-P. ah though I guess your correct cause maaka’s dad had a fear of being demoted lol.

    Lucky Channel
    Reply

  37. Wow, this episode was just teeming with awesome! I can’t wait for next week.
    Especially because Justin’s there *fangirls* The new opening, too. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait x3 Wahhh~

    Sorako
    Reply

  38. Well do feel a bit for Maka’s Dad. He was the only Death Scythe there and was outside the cube, but still couldn’t stop the Kishin’s resurrection. No matter what that’s a hit to pride at any rate. Though outside of jokes don’t think anyone will seriously blame him for it. He and Stein could barely handle Medusa so not much else that could be done.

    Still one heck of an episode that’s for sure!

    FlareKnight
    Reply

  40. @Tsukuyomi: Urgh, how many times do we have to tell you people that as of now, Chrona’s gender is still unknown and explicitly not revealed by the manga-ka. And don’t tell me that it’s because the scanlated manga says so, Mahou-X’s translation aren’t all that accurate…

    albeitalways
    Reply

  41. If this anime ends with a crappy non manga ending in order to meet up to the assigned 52 episodes, I’ll die D:. -prays for 2nd season-

    Looking at eh present: OMG JUSTIN & MARIE <3 Show Spoiler ▼

    Mirrii
    Reply

  43. when you are reading this dont stop or something bad will happen! My name is summer i am 15 years old i have blonde hair,many scars no nose or ears..i am dead.if you dont copy this just like from the ring, on 5 more sites.. or..i will appear one dark quiet night when your not expecting it by your bed with a knife and kill you. this is no joke something good will happen to you if you post this on 5 more pages sorry i really am

    questionmark
    Reply

  44. Absolutly awesome! Ashura with all his hinduistik signs, Shinigami in an really pissed of moode, the very disgusting scene, when the Kishin came out of his skin-bag, I absolutly adore this episode. Soul eater take seat next to Full metal Alchemist, in my opininon. Both are full of action, deep storyline and adorable charakters. It’s a pitty, Soul eater only has 52 episodes, but filled with good stuff, like THIS nice pictures. I love Shinigami, with all his jokes and misterious Eibon relationship. Wonder how he looks without the mask. Maybe handsome, when I see his son. I watched till episode 42 for now and it rocks me out of my skin!

    Sue
    Reply

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