Episode 41

Summary:

Although Stein physically has left Death City, his mind is still struggling against the madness which manifests itself as the people and places he knows. Shibusen doesn’t have the manpower to search for him, however Marie thinks that he’s chasing Medusa, and that’s a problem because Shibusen can’t do anything to her anymore thanks to their deal. Maka is frustrated about how they let Medusa go, but she feels a little better after getting a postcard from her mother. She also finds out from Kid about the deal that Medusa made, and he doesn’t understand why Shibusen trusted something a witch said, risking student lives. Crona meanwhile decides to ask Shinigami-sama about letting her go to Medusa so that she can bring Stein back. He agrees to let her, but Marie insists on going as well. Shinigami-sama also learns from Buttataki Joe about a hidden page inside of Eibon’s book which describes a key that they need to use BREW. As for Stein, he meets a young version of himself in his mind who shows him a door to the world he seeks, and he soon finds himself face-to-face with Medusa.

Episode 42

Summary:

Still bothered by what happened with Medusa and by how Shibusen is focusing on Arachne and Ashura, Maka asks Sid about Crona. Although the official story is that Crona was expelled, Sid reveals that Crona and Marie are actually headed towards Medusa. Marie has even resigned from her teaching position. Maka, however, can’t do anything about this because she has to take part in Shibusen’s assault on Arachnophobia along with Soul, Black*Star, and Tsubaki. Soul makes her realize that they can’t do anything to Medusa anyway because of the deal, but Crona and Marie aren’t restricted since they’re no longer part of Shibusen. It’s not until Soul questions what she wants to do that Maka decides to choose her friends and thus go after Crona. That leaves Black*Star and Tsubaki to take part in the assault that has already begun with some fighting between Justin and Giriko, and Kid meanwhile is off on a special mission.

Preview

Note: In an effort to get caught back up on this series, I’ve combined the posts for these two episodes.

I probably shouldn’t be surprised given how the rest of this series has been, but even with a story that’s diverged considerably from the original material, the anime is still quite enjoyable. For starters, it was good to see Crona finally getting some character growth, and the look into Stein’s mind and madness in episode 41 was wonderfully done. I was getting a little tired though of Maka’s angst by episode 42, but at least she decided on a path (predictable as it may have been), and now it looks like she’s on her way to helping Crona and Marie against Medusa and Stein. On that note, I have my doubts that Marie is going to end up doing any actual fighting since she hasn’t really done that in the manga, so I suspect she’ll try to win Stein back psychologically or something, and Crona and Maka will be the ones to fight/kill Medusa.

I also noticed that they’re bringing in the clown next episode, though it appears that it’ll be Kid going up against it instead of Maka. Obviously the fight won’t be the same, but maybe this’ll awaken some new power in Kid (Death Eagle?) like it did for Maka in the manga. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that somehow Ashura gets to fight Shinigami-sama again instead of anyone else, but that might be hoping for too much.

27 Comments

  1. The story seems really fucking retarded in the recent episodes but that’s just my idea. Why coming with original story when there are still lots of materials to animate in the Manga?

    PS that Kishin needing a mother thingy is really annoying. It ruined his character for me completely 🙁

    Supreme
  2. The reason why they’re deviating is because the manga has YET to finish. In fact, the manga is FAR from finishing. At it’s current pace, and the introduction of *cough* and the revelation of *cough* and not to mention that in the manga, they haven’t even found the Kishin yet… Zzz… Get my drift? Also, they need to WRAP UP the show in 8 more episodes, which means they don’t have a whole lot of time. BONES has given us superb animes that had to deviate from the manga (FullMetal Alchemist). IMO, given their track record for this things, we should just trust where they’ll take this.

    Ddadain
  3. Honestly I’ve quit reading the manga and am sticking with the anime. I like how the story is going and with the different camera angles, effects, and bgm it really get’s me into the whole thing and brings it on a whole other level the manga couldn’t do. But I’m not so sure Kid is the one going at it with the clown. From what I remember it didn’t seem like Kid was the one fighting the clown in the preview. It talked about Kid and his mission but also showed other scenes making me believe we won’t be focused on Kid. I think it’s one of those eps again where we’ll have about 3 things going on at once (including Justins fight which I’m dying to see).

    ROFLWAFFLELAWL
  4. yeap it’ll be stopping at 50.

    so probably they’ll come up with a movie (conquerer of shambala-ish) to wrap up the anime, if they cant get it done in the next 8 eps.

    then..2nd season of SE?

    i rather they spend the time on finishing Darker than black 2

    the whole bai going missing thing is still a puzzle to me -.-

    yuuji
  5. @ desho?
    It was part of the leaked production list from Bones a while back. It also contained info on a 2nd season of FMA. Bones denied it all of course, but then a few months later FMA 2 was officially announced, so more likley than not the list was in fact legit.
    Makes sense since they seem to want to revist their established properties in these harsh times (Eureka 7 movie, FMA 2).

    Back on topic, I like where they’re going with this but I can’t see how they’re going to wrap it up in 8 or so eps. We still don’t know much about Eibon or the weapons Shinigami-sama is collecting. Obviously we need a nice big brawl at the end as well. ^_^

  6. bullshit, about the anime being better, Ia just read an epic piece of manga with the black star/ mifune fight round III that I HIGHLY doubt they will include since theyve veered off so badly from the original material. Plus if they havent even fully explained Eibon, the madness weapons, and shinigami’s past or even who he is , I HIGHLY doubt the anime will finish it in what frigin 8 or 9 episodes? anime’s better my ass.
    >.>

    The Angry Mexican
  7. I agree with the angry mexican (lol what a name!)

    You guys should read the manga to see the difference for yourselves. It has a much better story, character development and right now there are two big cliff hangers in the last chapter alone! 😛

    Supreme
  8. I follow the manga as well, but I’ll happily debate the opinion that the manga is superior. I didn’t feel that way about FMA, and I don’t feel that way about Soul Eater.

    The manga is certainly different, and indeed very cool. But better? Honestly that’s more a matter of storytelling preference. It’s always best to think of the anime version of a manga as its own unique beast.

    For me, anime = win.

    The Happy Asian Toaster
  9. For me, it’s always been more like:

    Manga = win
    Anime = win

    I just tend to enjoy both immensely even if they diverge or whatever. It’s rare for me to hate one over the other and that’s usually because they did something very stupid.

    Silver
  10. @ROFLWAFFLELAWL:

    Nope Kidd is definitely fighting the clown. I read spoilers for the episode and not only is he fighting the clown, he’s doing it without Liz & Patti with him. Should be interesting.

    Luu
  11. @ The Angry Mexican/Supreme: Can’t we like both?

    Seriously, you can whine all you want about the plot being bastardized (hell, the only thing I’ll miss is NOT the Mifune/Black Star fight but the Mosquito/Kid fight) but I’ll take a COMPLETE story over a faithful but incomplete series.

    Acerbus
  12. IIRC in the manga Maka’s Demon Hunter awakened in the Clown fight, but in the anime it was against Mosquito. So they’ll probably do something for Kidd in the anime. Except I thought he needed Brew.

    Wererat42
  13. Problem is that Maka and Chrona can’t fight Medusa. After all she has a hostage here. Can either of them serious kill an innocent child who’s body is being manipulated by Medusa? This whole affair could turn out being psychological.

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