Soul Eater is something I decided to read because of its strange popularity and naturally, I wanted to see what the hype was all about. As most of the commentators seem to agree upon, this series is definitely unique. Its basic storyline, characters and art style are strangely twisted and can be set apart from most of the shounen genre. Soul Eater takes "insanity" as its main theme so there are times when the explanations of some things don't make sense. Either that or the author is just plain terrible at giving proper reasons.
The problem with this series is that it is too all-over-the-place. There are too many main characters, and the ones that should be focused on more are given way to less prominent characters. I believe that Soul and Maka are the protagonists of the story, but sometimes, BlackStar and Tsubaki take the spotlight more often than not. Some of the characters themselves are annoying and overblown (i.e. BlackStar). The author seems to enjoy creating many characters with odd flaws and exaggerating them to an extent that they sometimes become unbearable. These flaws are created for lightening the mood; however, this comedic relief is used too often and becomes especially irritating during serious moments. But I do think that it is pretty funny when the author does it at the right time. There are moments that make me laugh and reread it but I think the author should take care not to overuse comedy especially when the situation is serious.
Also, the relationship between characters are sometimes shallow and unimportant even though they are supposed to be the exact opposite. The only relationship that seems genuine is that of Maka and Soul. The rest of the cast seem like they're supposed to be really good friends and genuinely care about each other but there's not really any concrete evidence that depicts their strong emotional bonds. They're supposed to be really good friends that trust and depend on each other, but they come off as distant acquaintances that sometimes talk to each other because they're sent on the same mission...Overall, the development of their relationships still needs a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, I do think that their characterization is improving, and I guess 88 chapters isn't enough for them to mature but I think the author is making it too slow that the audience can easily get bored of it.
Another problem I have with this series is that the author is not very good at drawing fight scenes. It's supposed to be an action shounen but Soul Eater falls below the standard line. The fight scenes are messy and lazily drawn, and are not as exciting as you would have hoped. Personally, when I read shounen, I like the fight scenes where the characters suddenly power up (for legitimate reasons) to defeat an enemy that was just overpowering them moments ago because they are exciting and make you root for the hero. In Soul Eater, it tries to excite its audience, but I end up disappointed and going "that's it?" The idea is sound, but the execution of the action sequence fails to live up to its expectations. For example (spoiler), when Death the Kid goes mad inside the book of Eibon, he didn't seem crazy. In fact, he seemed just the same except he was going on about nothingness instead of symmetry. He and BlackStar were supposed to duke it out in an explosion of awesomeness but instead there was just an exchange of fists, some hits here and there, and BlackStar giving a random explanation that somehow brought Kid back from the madness...which didn't seem like madness at all. However, I do think that "insanity" is portrayed well. There are moments when you just have to go "whoa. That is wonderfully horrific." The author is good at drawing horror and this aspect is probably what makes Soul Eater fun to read.
The last thing that irks me about Soul Eater is that the main storyline barely appears. There has only been one arc that focuses on the principal conflict. The rest of the arcs barely contribute to this and usually go off on a tangent. So far, all that I can get from the main story is that everyone wants to get the kishin (for some reason) and therefore Asura is unleashed and insanity contaminates the world (from the one arc about the actual story). All of the other chapters are basically about the characters powering up but it is so poorly executed that it just seems as though they've randomly gotten stronger without doing anything!
Personally, I think the anime is a lot better than the manga. It's funny, it has good animation, it captures the audience's attention, the art is better, and things just flow better.
Both the manga and the anime are unique and the author does have a lot of imagination to create such a world. The designs are, again, extremely unique. Whether "unique" is a good or bad thing, I leave it up to you. It would explain why there are so many divided opinions about Soul Eater.
I wouldn't tell you not to read Soul Eater, but I also wouldn't recommend it. Sure, read it if you're bored or if you want to read something completely different than you're usually accustomed to, but in my opinion, Soul Eater is a completely average manga, with the only thing outstanding being its strange uniqueness.
Personal opinion --> 7/10
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