Soul Eater Vol. #19
Prepare for shocking and sudden death.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Atsushi Ohkubo
Translation/Adaptation: Jack Wiedrick
What They Say
In his madness, Death the Kid has embraced a new notion of “order”: Only in nothingness can there be true balance and equilibrium. But for Black*Star, being on equal footing with anyone is not his style. Black*Star has always wanted to “transcend the gods”-now his only chance may be to overpower his shinigami friend and take Death down if he wants to save him…!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s the battle of a century, Black*Star versus Death the Kid. I love the cover of this volume of Soul Eater. Kid looks appropriately deranged, and the smears of paint mixing it up are a good metaphor for the confrontation awaiting in this volume. Then again, the covers rarely have anything to do with the inside content, so let’s move on.
Black*Star is the only member of the group that can descend to Kid’s level, literally, at the bottom of the book of Eibon. He confronts his friend who has embraced the madness found therein, given manifest by whom I can only figure is Eibon himself. He looks like a looming Cthulhu lurking at the edges of the scene, one of the elder ones indeed. (Japan does love their Lovecraftian horror.) Kid told the old one his desire, for the symmetry of nothingness. Hey, it’s the only way to be sure, after all!
The interesting part of the exchange with Black*Star is that Kid isn’t entirely brainwashed, he’s corrupted. There is a cold, dark logic there. And while blows are exchanged during the fight, the outcome is decided by words rather than attacks. Black*Star becomes a target of Eibon as well, drawn into the madness. In the end, both of them reject that power and the book decides to take a hands-off approach to see who will win out in the end, the meisters or Noah.
Before the book spits everyone back out, Maka and Soul finish their confrontation with Giriko. Giriko is a character that exists for no other purpose than to be absolutely hated. The lengths the lunatic went to in order to continue to spew forth hatred and lewdness is extreme. So extreme that Maka and Soul can’t stand up to his, or her at this point, might. Luckily for them Giriko is his own worst enemy, and the confrontation ends with a whimper and a bang.
The timing on the student’s escape from the book couldn’t have worked out any better for their teachers. Stein and the others had closed in on Noah’s position and were launching a surprise attack, only to be completely outgunned in moments. It’s amazing to see the group of adults so misjudge their own abilities. It costs them dearly in the exchange, as limbs fly and one of the meister’s looses their life to Noah’s attack. I wish I could say the death had an impact on me, but the character in question never felt developed to the point where I cared or even understood them.
While Maka and Soul were always the heart of this story, they have never been the most powerful of the group. That position has been contested between Kid and Black*Star. It’s in the final battle of this volume that Kid shows that he is quickly approaching the power of his father, and is a force that I doubt anyone would be able to stand in the way of.
The confrontation with Noah feels off with how sudden it all occurs. Noah never takes the threat of the meisters seriously, thinking that he can handle them easily with the powers of the magical menagerie in his book. In the end, he can’t stand against Kid. It’s not a complete victory though, as Gopher manages to snatch up the book after the battle and flee with it to parts unknown.
In Summary
For all of the confrontations and battles that happen in this volume, I have to say they’re fairly anticlimactic. Anyone hoping for a drag down, knock out fight in this volume of Soul Eater is going to find themselves disappointed. Blows, when they are traded, are quick and with a stark finality. Kid versus Black*Star delivers the most flash, but the other two big fights of this volume were less impactful. The confrontation between almost everyone and Noah is vicious, but it’s a simple matter of numbers in the end. The victory of the mission to save Kid is dulled by the bloody outcome of the fight with Noah. It looks like it’s time to regroup once more before the hunt for the kishin can begin anew.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A -
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B +
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: March 25th, 2014
MSRP: $13.00
