First Impressions / SOUL EATER

Summary:

With Medusa’s surrender and subsequent imprisonment, Maka heads down to the dungeon and yells at the witch for using Crona, but Medusa acts innocent the entire time. Stein talks to Medusa after Maka leaves, and Medusa tries to tempt him again to join her, but before Stein can do anything, Maka’s father interrupts them and takes Medusa away for interrogation. Medusa claims to have meaningful information for Shibusen, but she insists on seeing Shinigami-sama. To prove that she can be trusted, she reveals the location of BREW, and Sid finds it exactly where she said it was. Shinigami-sama subsequently agrees to see her, and after he delivers a Shinigami Chop to her head, they get down to business: Medusa offers to reveal where the Kishin is in exchange for an immediate release and a guarantee of safety.

At around this same time, Arachne is comforting Ashura and reassuring him of his safety. With Ashura in her hands, she has Mosquito activate the madness amplification device, and it starts transmitting. After showing this happening to Shinigami-sama, Medusa explains that Arachne is trying to spread madness across the world. Shibusen won’t be able to figure out the transmission source in time because Arachne is using relay points in all parts of the world, so they still need the location from Medusa. Even though he knows that Medusa’s goal is for Shibusen and Arachnophobia to destroy each other, Shinigami-sama decides to go through with the deal. Maka and the others are shocked to see Medusa later being escorted out of the school, but Black*Star is confident that they’ll have more chances to take her down.

Meanwhile, Marie returns home and finds Stein gone. She rushes out to look for him, but he’s nowhere to be found.

ED Sequence

ED4: 「STRENGTH.」 by abingdon boys school
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

With all the new shows this season, I had actually forgotten that SOUL EATER was due for a new ED, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was by TM Revolution’s band abingdon boys school. In any case, I like the song, but it and the accompanying animation made me think that this was more suitable as an OP than an ED.

Preview

Bah. It’s frustrating to see Medusa get off scot-free after all she’s done, especially since she laughed out loud as she was leaving. I really wanted to see Shinigami-sama swoop in at that moment and deliver another Shinigami Chop to her head. I’m surprised though that she didn’t try to do something with Crona while she was there, but I guess Maka probably wouldn’t let her. On that note, because of her deep hatred towards Medusa, Maka seems primed right now to be the one who ultimately gets to fight and kill her.

The main eyebrow raiser this week was that scene with Ashura’s head buried in Arachne’s breasts. It made Ashura seem like a child who just needs a mother figure, and that unfortunately took away from his scary/intimidating image. I have a hard time imagining this and this being the same person. As for the overall story, it seems to be leading us towards a grand battle at Arachne’s castle with her and Ashura on one side and all of Shibusen on the other. That alone probably isn’t enough to finish out the series though, and I’m hoping more time gets devoted to Shinigami-sama and Eibon. Next week however looks to be focusing on Stein and where he disappeared off to.

39 Comments

  11. About Ashura, I’be been thinking that he has two personalities. You can tell the difference, weather he’s wearing the mask of not.

    When he’s wearing that mask over his eyes, he is the demon god. Pure insanity, acts only by instinct, is insecure, resolves everything with power, just like a disturbed child would. But when he shows his face, his different. He’s Asura. His speach pattern changes, he seems more confident, and is not ruled by madness.

    DmonHiro
    Reply

  13. I actually like the new ED far better than the new OP (however, the forever favorite remains the 1st OP… NOTHING will ever beat that)

    As for Ashura’s surprise shot,well, it is a crime to resist the boobies~

    Kaitune
    Reply

  19. i feel u!!! but i know medusa will get hers in the end,,,that or a chrona i love you!! MOMMY!!! type payback, and whats this!!! awwwww arachne-sama’s gonna clean the kishins ears? wtf!?! wanna see

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  23. @Guru: Yeah, but then we wouldn’t have a complete series. I think that even if they stuck with the manga they’d have to end or rush through the current arc in the manga (which isn’t complete yet) and we’d be left with lots of questions. I mean, as a manga reader it’d be satisfying to see certain things animated (Mosquito and Kid fight) but I kinda prefer they actually give the series a solid conclusion (which I hope will happen).

    Acerbus
    Reply

  24. Chibi medusa is so cute here! But I didn’t expect them to let Medusa go, or she wanting to leave(haven’t watched it). I mean she did just hand over BREW to Shibusen right? In the manga Show Spoiler ▼

    .

    Miko86
    Reply

  27. so this is how powerful of kishin insanity

    dammit the ed is really good >,< haha haha haha

    replace the op with this haha hehe hah hah

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha xD

    Espada
    Reply

  29. A good scenario to save the cute little girl similar to Sasuke absorbing Orochimaru’s abilities while sealing his soul inside him.

    Best scenario the girl that Medusa invaded should take over Medusa somehow thus eliminating Medusa and making the girl inherit Medusa’s power.

    arigatou
    Reply

  30. The new ED was…just simply amazing xDDDDDDDD(want the full song like, NAOW)
    …the song accompanied by the animation at parts sent chills up my spine…:’D
    wwhooaa and I would totally not want to mess with RAGE!Maka ;P ROFL y so badass, Maka ;D?
    reeeally interested in how the anime’s gonna turn ouut:DD!!!
    (especially looks forward to epi 43 hehehehe xDDD;;)

    Tunacancan
    Reply

  32. Oh well… about the Kishin… Azura, Ashura, Asura… however it’s spelled… Wasn’t it mentioned before that what made him a power-thirsty demon god is his fear? That.. he’s only getting more powerful because he’s afraid of the rest of the world. So I WAS indeed expecting the Kishin to be cuddling in either Medusa’s or Arachne’s arms. As for the new ending, if you’ve noticed, Arachne, Medusa and Shinigami-sama aren’t there. And the older generation of weapons, meisters and witches are all dead, hopeless or lying on the floor for no reason. I think the ending will be a one-on-many battle between the kishin and the younger generation… *shivers* Scary… I hope Medusa and Arachne kill each other. XDDD And then Eibon and Shinigami-sama?! o_O OMG…. Some of us were thinking that the Kishin, Eibon, Death (shinigami-sama) and Death the Kid were all related somehow……….. ;| Hm.

    jiyufishie
    Reply

  33. @jiyufishie

    In the manga, they probably would elaborate on how they are all related, but the anime has no time for that.
    I mean, it’s fairly obvious from Kid’s battle with Mosquito in the manga that there can only be one death god, as when BREW activated and Kid got one of those lines on his head connected (they’re called “lines of the son”), that Kid was sucking huge amounts of power away from Shinigami. So if Kid really gets all three lines connected and he becomes shinigami, his father would die.

    zxn666
    Reply

  35. To be honest, despite all his power, Ashura is a pretty pathetic character, I mean, he was basically terrified of everyone and everything, even his partner (who he ATE out of fear o_o), tis pretty much the main reason he became a kisshin, cos he was so weak minded.

    and cmon, if Arachne consents, you know you’d wanna bury your face there too XD

    not sure i like how its deviating from the manga but hey, FMA did and that turned out pretty ace still 😀 *high hopes*

    DSW
    Reply

  36. I’m gonna miss the last ED (LOVE SOUL’d OUT and Diggy Mo’), but this new one is very cool. I’ve liked all the songs so far.

    As for the anime, the blatant plot changes are starting to make me a little itchy. They were doing so well up until now >.<

    Namu-chan
    Reply

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