「それぞれの覚悟!」 (Sorezore no Kakugo!)
“Their Various Resolves!”

I can’t seem to put my finger on it but something felt a little off during this week’s episode.

Soul Resonance

As excited as I was for Tsugumi to have an awesome moment, let me start with my one complaint with the road the story took to get us there. In this particular episode, I felt a little conflicted when Clyde, Clay, and anyone else in charge of protecting/restricting our main trio had a sudden change of heart. Because as much as I want to see Anya and Tsugumi save Meme (which I’m sure will involve beating the crap out of Shaula), it’s tough to disagree with the points Clyde and Clay made while they were in serious mode. Just what can two girls do against a witch that the entirety of the DWMA has been trying to locate and takedown for weeks can’t?

At the same time, it’s hard to pass up on any opportunity for Tsugumi to shine. While I don’t remember Soul Resonance giving the ability for a weapon to shape shift until it became an actual “Deathscythe”, all I’m going to say is that the feeling of watching Tsugumi grow from someone who couldn’t transform completely into an almost nearly full-fledged weapon is almost as satisfying as punching someone in the face who says you’re unable to do something. But what may have been even more impressive than her wings was probably her response to Dr. Stein’s question.

Who would you pick?

While I think it’s all but set in stone, do you think Meme has a chance to become Tsugumi’s true partner? Looking past the fact that Anya and Tsugumi were able to perform a Soul Resonance with each other, you have to be pretty impressed just how close the two are with each other. From what I remember it always felt like Anya was getting the short end of the stick and if I had to say who Tsugumi was closer with, I would have said Meme. Sure there’s still the third option of Tsugumi somehow having multiple partners and Meme is in an unfair situation but at this point its hard for me to see anyone besides Anya becoming her partner.

Looking Ahead

With the climax right in front of us, I don’t think there’s anything that’ll stop us from grabbing it. The DWMA is in a crisis with Shaula’s poison spreading worse than a zombie outbreak and a pissed off Tsugumi and Anya are amped and ready to release Meme from Shaula’s grasp! Throw in all the cameos from SOUL EATER that we’re getting and what more could you ask for? Along the way I’m sure Meme will get her chance to show us what she’s really made of but only time will tell, right?

Till next week!

Full-length images: 12.

 

Preview

30 Comments

  1. Anime, you have ONE episode to make me like Shaula. It wouldn’t be so important if she wasn’t THE VILLAIN. So far, she has only existed in the thin coak of Mystery and has NO CHARACTERIZATION WHATSOEVER. We don’t even know her motive!

    That said, the rest of this was a satisfying build up to the climactic showdown and I couldn’t be happier!

    starss
    1. Meme is a special person

      Her mind control is trough her Blood. So, my guess is Meme is a Daughter of a Witch, or she is the 3rd Witch on the Board under the control of scorpion

      Germanguy
  2. While I don’t remember Soul Resonance giving the ability for a weapon to shape shift until it became an actual “Deathscythe”,

    Well, soul resonance provided extra powers, specifics varying from team to team. Some weapons had extra control over their shapes anyway: see Jackie. Accomplishing flight, however, is quite impressive. Very few manage that.

    Wanderer
      1. Keep in mind what Liz and Patty become when in Soul Resonance with Kid. The general point, as far as I can tell, is that soul resonance provides additional powers to the weapon, which may include changing forms.

        Wanderer
      2. Just like what I’ve said, “Still a scythe” or in the case of Liz and Patty, they’re still the same kind of weapon which are very different from what Tsugumi and Anya did.. Well, whatever, I might spoil you if I explain it further..

        m0ng
  3. In all of this debate over the flying halberd being a reasonable ability or not, it seems people are forgetting to compare it to the abilities of weapons OTHER than Soul. They complain that it took a while for Maka and Soul to figure out flying, but Soul has other advantages and NEVER masters shooting electricity (Ox and Harvar), illusions and shape-shifting and chain traps and smoke screens (Black*Star and Tsubaki), or long distance super detection (Azusa) for example.

    Tsugumi’s clumsy flight isn’t out of line to me, and while it could have been foreshadowed better, HER NAME does allude to it in Japanese. Quote:

    “Tsugumi’s last name means ‘Spring Bird’ in Japanese. However, more notably, it is a pun on her Weapon form. The ‘Hal’ in ‘Halberd’ (ハル haru) is pronounced in the same way as the first kanji in Tsugumi’s last name (春 haru). The ‘Berd’ in ‘Halberd’ (バード baado) is identical to the Japanese way of saying the English word, ‘bird.’ The second kanji in Tsugumi’s last name means ‘bird’ in Japanese (鳥 tori).”

    Passer By
    1. In a response to you and the people above you — You make a really good point. I don’t disagree in the slightest XD.

      (I just finished the manga for Soul Eater so I may have missed a few things after marathoning it >>)

  4. For all of those who know also about the manga, I have a question…basically did the ‘anime’ already diverged from the ‘manga’ at this pt or has the manga already cover this episode???

    Basically, I’m asking if it’s like the second part of Soul Eater anime where it different from the manga…

    Zxenon
    1. It’s impossible for it to be different. The author of the NOT manga has stated he was deliberately stalling on releasing plot-based chapters, instead putting out short filler chapters, because he said he didn’t want to spoil the anime for people. What that means is that this is the ending that the author wants people to see. It is the canon ending. And the manga ending will match it. There would have been no reason to have been doing things that way otherwise.

      Wanderer
    2. They only have 4 volumes to source from, with the 5th planned to be the end. I think they’ll likely do some OVAs in the near future. I could be completely wrong but I don’t think they’ve hugely diverged from what I’ve read. It’s been a while lol

      Lyfe
  5. I felt a little conflicted when Clyde, Clay, and anyone else in charge of protecting/restricting our main trio had a sudden change of heart

    Well, Kim and Jacqueline’s reason was more or less articulated in the show. Tsugumi’s confinement didn’t sit well with them from the start, and they have reasons of their own to empathize with Tsugumi being willing to screw the rules to protect someone important to her.

    Ms. Misery is basically nuts, so her letting Tsugumi go needs no more justification than provide.

    Clay and Akane do have good points about the odds of taking on a witch. On the other hand, Anya has good points as well. Clay and Akane should be out there dealing with the situation, not escorting her. Leaving Ox to fend for himself was not something they liked doing. Anya, as a meister student at the school, at the least should be back at the dorms, either tending to Tsugumi’s injuries, or preparing to defend the dorms with the rest of the students living there. The only thing stopping that normal state of affairs is a non-standard agreement that would become completely unworkable if she ever moved up into the EAT class. An agreement Anya was not consulted on, and categorically rejects.

    And of course once Tsugumi shows up, Anya goes from an unarmed meister who has already caused a car crash in increased rejection of being sent home as the gravity of the situation became apparent, to an armed meister that has some measure of soul resonance going with her weapon. Continuing to try and forcibly take Anya to the airport could come down to a real fight that could get ugly quickly. Clay and Akane would likely win, but Anya’s home would not thank them if Anya came down with a case of “stabbed by her bodyguards” in the process of getting her out of town.

    So they ultimately opted to cave to Anya’s wishes so everyone could get on with what they should be doing, instead of trying to cling to an agreement that probably shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Yes that would mean that Anya and Tsugumi would likely be charging into danger, but that’s kind of expected of DWMA students.

    As for Stein, him not being overprotective of students is fairly in character for him. They understand what danger they’re looking to charge into, and they’ve got solid conviction to do so. Good enough for him to let them try and see what happens.

    Also, for those debating over Tsugumi getting wings; while it kind of depends on whether or not we’ve gotten a detailed view of her soul, it could easily be explained by her having a Grigori soul, which I don’t think ever came up in the Soul Eater anime, so the following link has manga spoilers: http://souleater.wikia.com/wiki/Grigori_Soul

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Krono
  6. As far as the flying halberd thing, it doesn’t make any sense. All you guy’s are ignoring the what was said in the manga

    Show Spoiler ▼

    It makes no sense for a NOT class student, who doesn’t have a grigori soul and can hardly turn into her weapon form, being capable of pulling off wing manifestation AND flight after a shitty soul resonance encounter with someone who isn’t even officially her partner. Not to mention doing it before waay Maka did lol

    Jonez
    1. Jonez, If I started caring about minor details like that in this franchise I would have to start caring about why weapons were sometimes naked or sometimes not in their reflected forms, or how Stein and Spirit managed to get from Nevada to Venice in the course of a single fight between Chrona and Maka, or why Death the Kid stopped to chat with Free during the race against time to stop Asura’s return, or other, even bigger plot/logic holes that the original Soul Eater had from the beginning.

      Fact is, this franchise, like a lot of entertainment, is easily nit-picked to death if you want to. I choose not to care much because that would be “Hulk would beat Superman!” level comic-geekery and life’s too short to hold all this trivial shit up to standards almost nobody can match.

      So Tsugumi has a little uniqueness… just like a lot of other major characters in the shows. She isn’t undermining Soul’s coolness or Tsubaki’s under-appreciated multi-forms any day of the week. Flight really, really isn’t that big a deal in a world like this.

      The Original Soul Eater was cheeseburger, not fine cuisine. Awesome and novel cheeseburger, one of my favorites (and I don’t like much anime), but still just cheeseburger.

      Soul Eater Not is the defrosted brand-name apple pie they brought me for desert. It’s clearly not as good as the main course, but hey, I still like apple pie and they still kinda went well together. Satisfactory overall meal experience, 8.5/10, would visit this restaurant again.

      Passer By
    2. Oh, and before I forget, all that grigory soul stuff is manga-only, never got adapted to the anime, so irrelevant to the anime anyway. Never liked either manga myself.

      Passer By
      1. The Soul Eater NOT! anime is an adaption of the Soul Eater NOT! manga, which is a spin off of the Soul Eater manga. As such, anything that is in the Soul Eater manga is entirely relevant to it, regardless of whether or not it made it into the Soul Eater anime.

        Krono
      2. lol.. Of course NOT is relevant to the SOUL EATER manga..

        I sort of agree with not liking the manga.. Not entirely but the story towards the ending became so dull that I don’t even know if the author is taking it seriously.. The action is still there but nothing compared with “Black Star vs Mifune” (KEEP OUT!!)..

        Also, Black Star’s ascension to becoming a Bushin became a comedic relief that he can literally float while fighting with Asura.. not to mention, the laser beam swallowing.. XD

        m0ng

Leave a Reply to m0ng Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *