You can’t keep a good villain down.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Atsushi Ohkubo
Translation/Adaptation: Jack Wiedrick
What They Say
While Black*Star and Tsubaki keep Mifune and Mosquito distracted, Sid is able to locate Arachnophobia’s demon tool and put an abrupt end to their sinister plans. But though the evil organization won’t be manipulating anyone’s morality anytime soon, the blueprints for the dangerous tool are sealed away in Shinigami-sama’s secret vault rather than destroyed. Surely Shinigami-sama would never think of constructing a demon tool himself?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Volume 7 of Soul Eater left off in mid-battle between Black*Star and Mifune, or more accurately their rematch. This volume opens up of the conclusion of the battle, which ends in a stalemate but leaves DWMA operatives with the demon weapon they came to the facility for. It also leaves Black*Star itching for a fight, which boils over to the next stage of Meister training.
It seems that while the students are getting quite good at working with their weapon partners, working together with other pairs as a team is proving more complicated. We barely begin to see what the next level up for the cast will entail as the students keep stepping in each other’s way and striking them accidentally. Or maybe not so accidentally, as Ox-kun seems to enjoy frying Black*Star with electricity.
Death the Kid finds himself ducking out on his own party to go on a mission for his father half the world away. Another demon tool has been located in the Sahara, aboard a train which never stops. This perpetual motion machine becomes the target for Arachnophobia and a certain third party. The challenge of getting aboard the train leads to a fun chase scene which has Kid showing off his boarding skills while in hot pursuit. The enemy he ends up facing isn’t particularly threatening, except for the bizarre fetishistic design of the blob-like guy. This just goes to remind me that Soul Eater is clearly aimed at a slightly older teen audience, what with the language and occasional eyebrow raising fanservice that pops up from time to time.
The relatively easy retrieval leads to a more questionable discovery by Kid that his father might have had something to do with the construction of these demon tools. A suspicion that Sid and his partner seem to share, as Death orders them to lock up with devices at DWMA.
The real development of this volume is the not-so-surprising return of our last big enemy. The return itself is a scene directly out of a horror movie, as a little girl finds herself the unwilling host to an evil that doesn’t want to rest. Unfortunately, she’s not the only child at the mercy of the newly re-spawned evil.
This volume closes with the usual nonsense authors comic, involving face crabs this time. Sometimes… it’s better not to ask what the hell is going on in an authors mind.
In Summary
This is a momentum building volume for Soul Eater. Most of the events and actions happening this time around are clearly setting up the conflict to come. There’s the usual mix of good action and some disturbing horror, but no real stand out battles. As usual, the art is great at being both cute and horrific. The new enemy doesn’t seem particularly threatening yet, however there’s a good lesson in here about making sure your old foes really are dead before they end up coming back to haunt you.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B +
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: February 28th, 2012
MSRP: $11.99
