"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body."
Soul Eater is a shonen manga by Atsushi Ookubo which has been regularly serialized in Monthly Shonen Gangan since 2004. It received a 51 episode anime by Studio Bones in 2008. As of January 2011, Monthly Shonen Gangan has ran a Prequel / Spinoff named Soul Eater Not! by the same mangaka, running alongside the original series while covering and expanding on events prior to the original story.In the world of Soul Eater, a human soul that falls to corruption has a chance of transforming into a "Demon Egg", which in turn has a chance of hatching into the ultimate avatar of madness.To stop this from happening, Death himself has set up the Death Weapon Meister Academy in Death City, Nevada. The DWMA trains warriors ("Meisters") and Weapons (humans who can shapeshift into weapons) to fight and retrieve the evil souls before they become Demon Eggs. A Meister and Weapon who manage to collect 99 corrupt souls and one Witch soul receive the highest honour: the Weapon becomes one of the Death Scythes, servitors of Death himself.The main characters include:
Maka Albarn and her scythe, Soul Eater (just call him Soul). She's a raging workaholic, he's a slacker, but they make a great team. They almost made Soul into a Death Scythe at the beginning of the series, but failed on a technicality and have to start over.
Death the Kid and his twin-pistols the Thompson Sisters: Son of Death himself, whose incredible natural power is offset by his extreme Super OCD, being absolutely obsessed with symmetry. The Thompson Sisters serve as his weapons: Liz is the older and more cynical sister, while Patti is younger and more goofy.
The series is basically what happens when the plots of Shaman King and Harry Potter are pulsed together in a blender, Studio BONES is put in charge of the animation, and what appears to be the world's craziest graffiti artist and world's biggest Tim Burton fan is hired as animation director. It should be noted that the anime deviates from the source manga midway through the series.The anime was acquired by FUNimation, with tantalizing previews on their website. All of the episodes are viewable on Netflix, their Video Portal (which is only viewable... In America...and Canada) and their YouTube channel. The series currently airs on US television on Toonami on Saturday nights at 1:00 AM Eastern as of February 16, 2013.See also Elemental Gelade, a similar concept with a more futuristic sci-fi bent. Shaman King also shares lots of similarities with this series. (A partner as a weapon, characters design, etc.)It's worth noting that the "Book of Eibon" is a reference to H. P. Lovecraft. The author being a fan would give a new perspective on the series' focus on madness, power, and godhood, especially portraying madness as something akin to an infectious disease.Not to be confused with anotherSoulEater.
Warning: The following tropes are from both the anime and the manga. Be VERY careful with spoiler text.
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Absurdly Sharp Blade: Soul has been shown to be able to cut through stone pillars and a really large Mosquito when in his Demon Hunter form.
Mifune's swords sink several inches into the ground, or the walls whenever he throws them. And (at least in the anime) they don't even seem to be particularly magical.
Adult Fear: The method used by Medusa to get her body back is not recommended viewing for parents of young children. Really, Medusa is just made of this trope. Just her treatment of her own child is sickening enough. Parental abuse doesn't begin to describe it.
Medusa's treatment of Crona is an in-universe example as well, as Spirit points out that it's more disturbing to him than to the others because he is a parent.
Adults Are Useless: Averted. The grownups are more powerful and tend to pull off Big Damn Heroes moments when the main teenaged cast gets in trouble.
Aerith and Bob: To ridiculous lengths. Just among the main cast, we have Death the Kid, Black☆Star, and Soul Eater alongside Maka, Patty, Liz, and Tsubaki. And it just goes on from there.
Mostly averted, in Soul Eater Not! it's mentioned that they can register in Shibusen with whatever name they want.
Also inverted since Tsubaki and Liz were the most perverted in Spartoi.
All Witches Have Cats: Inverted. Blair, who Maka and Soul thought was a witch, turned out to actually be a cat that had a human form and magic and merely dressed like a witch.
Almighty Janitor: All the main characters are considerably more powerful than their status in DWMA would imply: Maka was one soul away from making a Death Scythe when she was forced to start over, Black☆Star never bothers to advance in ranks when he could be training instead, and Death the Kid is a shinigami.
As Soul Eater Not! has addressed Maka, Soul, and Jacqueline as EAT (Especially Advantaged Talent) students, the 10% of students who considered as combat specialists, it could be assumed that this trope may not apply. Even if they have the same number of stars as an average student despite being very capable, they are ranked in an entirely different class and given different missions.
As of the formation of Spartoi, this trope is out the window, as the 6 weapon-meister pairs included in the group have been promoted to two-star status. YMMV on whether Soul and Maka are still underranked. Soul may be a Death Scythe now, but he and Maka are still very inexperienced using the new abilities that come with being one.
Always Chaotic Evil: Witches, with few exceptions, are considered this due to the "Sway of Magic", which leads them towards destruction.
Ambiguous Gender: Crona. Recognized as ambiguous numerous times by characters within canon itself. Any person that seems to know hir gender is probably basing their hypothesis off of fan translations and unsubstantiated claims by other fans. The official English translations of the manga and anime use "he" simply because it's the closest English has to a widely used gender ambiguous pronoun, not because they think Crona is male. There is no solid canon support for Crona being either gender, partially thanks to third-person pronouns ("he" & "she") being almost completely unused in Japanese.
Amusing Injuries: Somewhat averted. In the first fight between Black☆Star and Kid, Black☆Star still has the head wound Soul accidentally gave him, even after the battle. Somewhat, because they don't die of comedic injuries, but averted because the injuries do last for the normal amount of time.
People nailed by Maka's 'Maka Chop' (Hit in the head with the spine of a book) in the anime, at least, have a book-shaped dent in their heads for a bit, and occasionally tiny decorative fountains of blood, but next scene are back to normal.
Death's Reaper Chop does the same thing, except he uses his large, square-edged hands instead of a book. Usually on Death Scythe.
Medusa and Arachne both have the motifs of predatory animals (snake and spider), whereas their henchmen have the motif of their prey. Frogs (Eruka) and mice (the Mizune sisters), whose names are the Japanese words for "frog" and "mouse" with their syllables reversed (kaeru and nezumi) for Medusa. Mosquito for Arachne.
Anime Hair: While both Soul and Black☆Star have spiky hair, their hairstyles pale in comparison to Ox Ford's sheer pillars.
During the invasion of Arachne's castle, Ox pretty much outright says that his pillars are the source of all of his powers. When he breaks them off (not rip; break, like they're made of ceramic), his soul actually starts weakening. Then Kim uses her regenerative magic to glue them back on and tells him not to wash his hair for a couple of days, which might account for the reason as to why he stopped shaving his head.
The fact that he was stabbed in the gut and bleeding heavily in a steaming room might have had something to do with it, though.
Shinigami and Kid are Grim Reapers, but they are not actually personifications of death—they are little more than powerful meisters, with no specific control or influence over death.
As of now, it been explicitly stated that Shinigami-sama is an Eldritch Abomination / Anthropomorphic Personification of death, and his actual name is Death. Kid is actually a fragment of him, given a unique personality and independence, and Shinigami-sama will most likely cease to exist once Kid comes into his full powers.
Anti-Advice: In the anime's ending, while Marie and Crona are searching for Medusa, there's a montage of them searching a swamp. After a while Crona decides to simply go in the opposite direction to the one Marie picked.
Anti-Villain: Mifune, the noble Samurai who fights only to defend the child witch Angela. Note the irony in his rival being Black☆Star, an assassin working for the good guys. Most assassins are not good people in this series.
Then again, he's not a very good assassin. Really, Black☆Star wants to be a straight-up warrior too, but he's not adverse to putting assassin arts and stealth to good use.
Eruka may or may not be an Anti-Villain. Yes, she's a witch. Yes, she wants to revive Asura. But that's only because if she doesn't follow Medusa's orders, her snakes will eat Eruka from the inside out. Also has a giant tadpole named Otama Jackson for a pet, who she treats with a lot of love.
Free may or may not also be an anti-villain, for the same reasons as Eruka. He began following Medusa as gratitude for her rescuing him from Witch's Prison, and by the time they're reviving Asura he seems to be afraid of some sort of punishment for failure and/or disobedience (being immortal, he doesn't have to worry about being killed, but she could presumably still make his life pretty awful in other ways). Much like Eruka, we never really see him on his own. We know that he hates Shibusen, but mostly out of a fear of Shinigami-sama trying to take his soul. Aside from simply helping Medusa the only really evil thing we ever see him do is slaughtering the Witch's Prison's guards when they try to prevent his escape, and in his defense they tried to kill him first.
Also worth mentioning is the color of his soul in the anime. Innocent humans and good people have blue souls, while evil people all have red souls (or purple, if they're witches). Free's soul, however, is green, implying that he's not really good or evil.
Crona is a Type II Anti-Villain. S/he doesn't really /want/ to be an antagonist, but hir messed-up childhood, as well as Medusa's god-awful parenting skills, make hir out to be one. Later in the manga, s/he's using madness without Medusa telling hir to, sure, but it's all because s/he thinks getting rid of order will make everyone free.
Arc Number: 42, which when spoken aloud in Japanese is "shini", the Japanese word for "death."
Archaeological Arms Race: Eibon's Demon Tools and the process of "keep away from Kishin" involving them. Specifically B.R.E.W and the Book of Eibon, and with good reason, as B.R.E.W is whatever you desire it to be, and the Book of Eibon is a collection of magical and dangerous creatures that can be summoned at any time by the user and actually IS Eibon himself at one point.
Arm Cannon: Death the Kid's soul resonance attack, Death Cannon.
Artistic License - Physics: The battle with Free ends with him frozen and sinking to the bottom of a river. Ice floats, in case everyone forgot.
It's possible that his density overcomes that of the ice.
Art Shift: Whenever someone is going insane or experiencing some intense emotion. Happening more often as the series goes on.
Ascended Meme: In chapter 74, Excalibur sings his little song which up until that point was only heard in the anime. All together now! "Excalibuuur~! Excalibuuur~!"
As You Know: Egregious example in the first episode, as it's used by name. Possibly Justified, since Death is also warning them. "Don't screw up." They do.
Attention Whore: BLACK☆STAR! This example should be on the top of the page! At first; he calms down later.
Attractive Bent Gender: Tsubaki's found commenting on how cute Soul looks as well as getting flustered over Black☆Star, while Blair manages to seduce a succubus and in the process making Kilik swoon.
Awesome, but Impractical: Excalibur, who is something of an Infinity+1 Sword, has an insane amount of unreasonable demands that he makes to the point that people decide that his power is totally not worth it.
Though, he was willing to cut down his list of 1,000 unreasonable demands to a still-unreasonable 800 demands just so that someone would use him. Presumably, a very persuasive meister could negotiate him down to something manageable.
Awesome but ANNOYING really. And so awesome, in fact, that in a failure student claims him and becomes THE BEST MEISTER in the school. The weapon form itself is exceedingly practical and easy to use, and extremely awesome. It's just the PERSONALITY that makes it unmanageable.
It's heavily implied that Excalibur is actually an Eldritch Abomination that is the personification of rage. He's just that annoying.
Soul. Anyone whose ever done any kind of weapons training knows that having your only cutting edge on the side of your weapon that faces YOU is not good. Scythes are extremely impractical weapons in real life and hard as hell to use in a fight against any other weapon. Traditionally, even spearmen would carry a short sword on them in case the enemy got past the pointy end of the spear (the only part that they were concerned about).The fact Maka can wield Soul and beat up magic and sword users is a testament to her awesomeness.
This is mitigated at higher-level transformations as "Witch Hunter" is shown to be effective with both inner and outer edges. The next form, the "Demon Hunter" ("Genie Hunter" in the Funimation dub of the anime) transforms Soul's weapon form into an oversized Pick-Axe, and the final form, "Kishin Hunter" covers it in huge spikes.
Note also that, at least in the anime, Death's weapon of choice is a Scythe. He's even mentioned as being "at his finest", somewhat justified as Spirit also has both inner and outer cutting edges.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Parodied; at one point, Kilik gets into a fight with a mook with a magitek headset that lets him accurately predict exactly what moves Kilik will use to fight him. Unfortunately for the mook, he has absolutely none of the skills required to actually make use of this data, and promptly surrenders.
They do it again during the battle on the moon against Crona.
Badass Bookworm: It's easy to forget under the maniacally grinning, scythe waving badassery, but Maka is a nerd that spends most of her free time reading and has really no idea how to play basketball or to dance without crushing her partner's feet.
Don't forget about Ox, he pretty much describes himself as such.
Stein probably counts as well. He's the only character other than Maka who's shown actually reading a book on-screen, and also the most powerful meister to ever attend the Academy.
Badass Longcoat: Maka. With a sweet new white one to parade around in school, as of joining Spartoi.
Special mention to Death the Kid in the manga; during the beginning of the Baba Yaga's Castle arc he temporarily sported a trenchcoat with the same closures and shoulder-decals as his blazer and a collar like the cloak he sometimes wears on outings. It was invisibly ditched before he could fight in it, but he still looked even more badass than usual in it. No sign of it in the anime, though.
Badass Normal: Mifune in the anime. No magical weapons or overt supernatural powers — all he's got is a backpack full of swords, and he still fights both Shibusen teachers, Almighty Janitor students and a Kishin on equal footing. The Manga, however, explicitly reveals he has a supernatural connection with his swords.
Badass Teacher - The Shibusen staff in general, though Stein is the one with most examples.
Ballroom Blitz: One of the episodes, where the Kishin is eventually released. Soul and Maka's scene in the Black Room might count as well, seeing as they are dressed up during that scene and in imminent danger of succumbing to insanity.
Bandage Babe: Sid's partner Nygus is always covered in bandages. What adds to the irony is that she is also a school nurse.
The fact she is not always bandaged begs the question why she has them in the first place.
Her meister is a ninja zombie. I think she's supposed to be a mummy ninja to keep with the whole 'Undead' theme. Why she stopped is a question for the ages.
Bare-Handed Blade Block: Stein can do this because he can attune to any spiritual attack; those corrupted with Black Blood can harden their blood beneath their skin, often using this to catch blades.
Also, Ragnarok, who not only blocked Giriko, a Big FuckingChainsaw, but also pushed the golem that was using him on its back. And let's note that he did this after his Villain Decay into Sleep Mode Size.
Black☆Star failed spectacularly at this when he tried to catch Soul while they fought the Kid.
Crona was also able to block Soul's scythe blade in her first battle with Maka, and another time during the fight against Medusa, on account of being able to harden the black blood.
Maka did this when the black blood took over during a fight with Crona; she blocked Ragnarok with her arm.
He eventually gets around this problem in the anime...
Baseball Episode: Not an episode per se, but the gang do take time out of their schedule to play Basketball whenever they get downtime.
Battle Couple: Soul and Maka, Black☆Star and Tsubaki and a few others.
Except they're not technically couples.
Beam-O-War: Shinigami and Asura perform a variation of these, involving a beam versus an energy shield, or an energy shield versus another.
Beat: In an episode where Kid investigates a ghost ship, Liz gets separated from him and Patty. When the spirit of a little girl manifests before her, she looks at her in fright as the scene freezes for exactly ten seconds, before she scurries away in fear.
Beware the Nice Ones: Lord help you if you somehow manage to annoy the Shinigami.
Berserk Button: Soul has absolute faith in Maka's abilities, knows she can take care of herself, and he'll call her on it if she acts up or they're out of sync. But he does NOT act well when someone seriously threatens Maka. Apart from willing to literally act as a Human Shield for her (on more than one occasion), he does not take well to this. Which results in this followed by this.
Step 1: Show Kid something that's too assymmetrical and/or threaten/insult his father. Step 2: Run.
Whatever you do, don't mention Pumpkin Panties to Medusa when she is in Rachael's body. She almost killed Spirit over this. Also, never pick her up by the hood. She will throw a fit.
Big Fucking Scythe: Witch Hunter and Demon Hunter. You don't get much bigger than that.
I call your scythes and raise it a Kishin Hunter.
Witch Hunter isn't technically a scythe. Scythes have one blade on the inside curve. It's a giant Monk's Spade in a large crescent shape because it can cut on the outside edge.
By the time you hit Demon and Kishin Hunter, you're not swinging a scythe blade anymore, those are giant glowing AXES. Demon and Kishin Hunter cut on the outside edges. Many, MANY edges for Kishin Hunter.
Big Bad: Medusa is the first one , followed by Arachne, and then Noah(The Greed incarnation) Later it was revealed to be the Table of Contents by controlling Noah. Then finally Asura as the big bad for the entire series and possibly as the end boss. In Soul Eater Not! it's Shaula Gorgon the younger sister of Arachne and Medusa.
When he's fighting, at least. Otherwise, he is rather daft, such as when he was actually disappointed he didn't get to dig his way out of prison with a spoon.
Big Damn Heroes: Maka when just after Medusa diabillitates Crona's black blood and is about to deliver the final blow
Of course we have the moment early in the series when Stein and Spirit show up to save Maka in her first fight with Crona.
Bigger Bad: Asura. He has no direct impact on the story other than spreading madness wavelengths and being the final villain for three episodes of the anime. But he has a made a few recurring appearances, like Medusa is still the most active villain and possibly features in the Battle of the Moon as a fully Major Villain.
Bilingual Bonus: In chapter 12, we are shown one panel of Soul's cheatsheets, with their text written in a readable size around him. The said text is in English and are extracts from Alice in Wonderland.
Bishonen Line: Mosquito and most of the pre-kishins as they devour more and more souls, it seems.
In the anime, Asura arguably gets this after Kid and Black☆Star wear him down. Although that may have been his stronger form (hence not a proper BL).
Blade Reflection - Used to show the human forms of the Weapons while they're transformed. One example in the anime had the reflection changing from the face of the meister to that of the Weapon.
Bland Name Product: Deathbucks Coffee and Death Robbins (with 42 flavors!)
Not to mention Liz and Patty temporarily transforming into .42 Death Eagles.
Although the fact that the currency is apparently called Death Notes is a rather hilarious use of this trope.
The number 42 is a pun, as in Japanese "four" and "two" are "shi" and "ni". "Shini" means "death".
And many other examples, since this is a shounen series after all.
Bloody Hilarious: In one episode where the students of Shibusen must take an important exam, neither Soul nor Black☆Star study, intending to cheat instead. However, Soul gets his "crib notes" taken away, and Black☆Star gets beaten senseless for looking at the answer sheet and is left lying in front of the class to serve as an example. However, just when all seems lost, Black☆Star signals Soul, and begins to write on the wall beside him using his own blood. Soul, thinking that Black☆Star is trying to show him the answers before time runs out, eagerly awaits his friend to finish writing... only to realize that Black☆Star is writing an autograph for him. May also count as Cant Get Away With Nuthin.
Blush Sticker: Blair, when she's catty. Patty, always.
Body Horror: Medusa is capable of inserting snakes into someone's body and all burst out at once on command. Soul's nightmares of bursting out of Maka's body.
Crona and Ragnarok also. Episodes 7 and 15 come to mind (8 being their first appearance, 15 Ragnarok's 'Black Dragon' transformation upon the "Nidhogg").
The hallucinations caused by Asura's revival involving biting people's faces and ripping the skin off like laffy taffy. Along with the grotesque body forming from a bag of flesh.
Out of universe this happened with a few of the scenes adapted from manga to anime: Free's introduction cuts out the part where he kills the guards coming after him by crushing with a huge ball of ice and the flashback to Crona's childhood changes Medusa forcing Crona to kill his/her pet rabbit to "defeating" a small dragon.
Breather Episode: Episode 25 has the main cast playing basketball after a grueling 7-episode story arc.
Basically any episode where they're NOT fighting is considered a breather episode (ex., the evening ball episode before the end, and the Ultra-Test).
Breath Weapon: Asura's signature attack involves him somehow pulling his weapon up from his stomach to stick out of his mouth and fire a laser. Insert relevantmeme here.
Remember all those grave markers in the Death Room? The anime ending strongly implies those are all the graves of kishin.
Remember when Soul mentioned, right back in the very beginning, Shinigami's Seven Lights? Neither did Noah.
Anime only: Maka, Soul, Black☆Star, and Tsubaki see who can make a basket for rights to defeat Asura. Maka makes it.
In episode 9 of the anime, in Excalibur's first appearance, he asks Black☆Star and Death the Kid if they know what his hat is. 23 episodes later, he finally answers the question: It's an english seaweed roll.
A brick joke from within the same episode of the anime: episode 28 is named "The Sword God Rises - Does It Have A Sweet Or Salty Taste?", which seems like a meaningless, gibberish question. At the end of the episode it turns out it was talking about a candy that Mifune gave to Maka. The answer? Salty.
Bros Before Hoes: Soul and Black☆Star. Though not just hoes; anything really.
Brown Note: Crona's poetry has the ability to instill extreme levels of depression in anyone who reads it.
That sounds familiar... Well, both Hayate and Crona had evil parents, so this was bound to happen.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: A very large amount of the cast, particularly the teachers at the Academy. For instance, Spirit is the most powerful Death Scythe in the world, but is a Loveable Sex Maniac and Bumbling Dad. Stein is the most talented Meister to have ever graduated from the Academy and is a brilliant, amoral scientist, but has a certain tendency to travel around on a swivel chair whenever possible and is a bonafide maniac. Marie has lightning powers and is another powerful Death Scythe, but is so obsessed with getting married that she once tried to start a relationship with a toilet. And Tesca Tlipoca...another Death Scythe who wears a giant bear head mask and can apparently understand a monkey's language. The list goes on and on.
But Not Too Foreign: If Black☆Star's words when he visits Tsubaki's home are to be believed, Maka has at least a little Japanese in her. Since "Spirit Albarn" isn't a particularly Japanese name, it's possible that it comes from her never-seen mother.
Which would mean her mother is a rare blonde Asian, or Spirit's hair is dyed, like Cat Valentine
Though one has to remember this isanime we're talking about...
Black☆Star is basically a combination of Naruto and Sasuke. Think about it, a hyperactive, knucklehead, kid ninja who's the last of his clan, uses a sword, has crazy markings appear on his face when he in his dangerous, yet powered up form, and even has a special kind of star symbol in his eyes.
Cast of Snowflakes: Body types in particular vary a lot, especially among the women in the cast, from the tall but curvy Tsubaki to the flat-chest Maka to the Thompson sisters, who have different heights and proportions (and to Kid's annoyance, breast size).
Cats Are Mean: Or at least, big enough Jerk Asses to force you to start a quest to defeat one hundred opponents all over again,just for the heck of it!
Her entire role in the Clown arc was tormenting the Flying Dutchmen.
Cat Smile: A rather disturbing version of this that showed teeth was used when Maka was in the Envy chapter of the Book of Eibon.
Maka says "I'll take your soul!" or something similar (she even says it at the end of each episode preview after the closing credits).
Soul does it in her place too, sometimes.
"MAKA CHOP!!!!"
Black☆Star has his "YAH-HOO!" when he's showing off.
"Not a single being in heaven or on earth is as holy as I." (This is a line from the Buddhist canon, believe it or not, alleged to have been spoken by Buddha himself. In Japanese, the first few words are... get this .. "Tenjho Tenge.")
Sid likes the phrase, "That was the kind of man I used to be."
Of course, before he became a zombie, it was "That's the kind of man I am".
Crona has two; "My blood is black", and "I don't know how to deal with [X]."
Excalibur's "my legend began in the 12th century", and "FOOLS!."
Death the Kid's "Kichiri Kachiri", which could be translated as "Precise and Perfect".
Stein's "I want to dissect [X]."
"REAPER CHOP''!!!!"
Free is a bit rusty at the whole magic thing, so his mishaps are usually accompanied with an emphatic "GODDAMMITSHIT!"
As he's using his magic, he often repeats "Wolf! Wolves! Wolf! Wolves!"
Also used with weapon characters, since their souls appear nude when their bodies are in weapon form.
Centipede's Dilemma: When Maka and Soul are unable to resonate during the battle against Free, Maka starts thinking about how she usually fights and resonates with Soul.
Character Development: Crona, particularly in the anime. BIG time Crona. He/she starts out as a near blood thirsty monster who loves to kill and eat souls. But as the story goes on, It becomes clear that he/she is being used by Hir mother. This is not a Heel Face Turn because, he/she remains afraid of everyone inside Shibusen, only listening and following Maka. He/she slowly learns to appreciate Marie, then the whole cast, delivering one of the most adorable moments in the series history. It takes a grand total of 30 episodes for Crona to truly become good.
Characterization Marches On: Over the course of the anime, Soul becomes less hotheaded and more of the laid back 'cool' guy he always strives to be. It's not Character Development because this was never something addressed or called out on, it just happens and nobody notices. He makes Maka the hotheaded on in comparison.
Chekhov's Gunman : Enrique and Tezcatlipoca were quickly introduced (as mysterious bear and monkey) during chapter 47, when the Shibusen students were going to Arachnophobia's base. They weren't mentioned or saw again until chapter 60, when Arachne died and Medusa was about to kill Maka.
Christmas Cake: Poor Marie, and she is very anxious about her unmarried status; see Cargo Ship entry to see just 'how desperate she wants to be married. (Nervous Laugh)
Church Militant: Justin Law is a very devout Christian, but also the Death Scythe in charge of Europe. Interestingly he views Shinigami-sama as God. Nobody corrects him.
To make it stranger yet, Justin Law turns out to really worship the Kishin instead in the manga...
Cigarette Of Anxiety: Doctor Stein tends to do this when he needs to calm down. It's subverted once after his second fight with Medusa, where rather than calming down he's has a bout of Laughing Madness because of the Kisin being released. This is later exploited to frame him for the murder of BJ, by leaving a packet of his favorite cigarettes (which the local shopkeeper orders in for him specially) at the scene.
Clear My Name: Stein gets to do this, right while/after going completely insane. Thank Death for Nakama.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Excalibur. Explains why no one tries to wield him, ever, despite being the most powerful of all the weapons.
And Patty. So very, very much. Giraffe!
Not to mention Marie, willing to marry a toilet just so she won't be a single Christmas Cake.
Free got himself sent to witch prison for the sole purpose of digging out with a spoon. He then found out that witch prison serves meals with chopsticks.
Color Failure: Several examples. Most recently in episode 46 when Excalibur turns up in the Death Room. Shinigami, Yumi and Spirit go white for several seconds before promptly resuming their conversation and ignoring the newcomer.
Combat Tentacles: Medusa's vectors, Asura's wrappings after he escapes Death City, Pharaon's Wrath's bandages, and to a lesser extent, Black☆Star and Tsubaki's shadow attacks.
Most recently, Crona's thorn... vine... whip-like... shadow... things??
Comedic Underwear Exposure: All of the Panty Shots were removed from the Anime, but Lord Death picking up Rachel!Medusa by the back of her dress and exposing her pumpkin panties (multiple times) was left in.
Compliment Backfire (or possibly Compliment Just-As-Planned): After Crona devastates a whole city using the black blood, Medusa makes dinner(!) and tells Crona how proud she is(!!). Crona freaks out, first attacking Medusa for her hellish experiments and forcing him/her to abandon Maka, the only person who made Crona happy, then for acting so strangely ("Who are you?! What have you done with my mother?!"). The Clown is pleased: Crona is now completely independent and able to receive the Kishin and Medusa's vectors indicate she's not quite dead.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: After Death the Kidd is captured by Noah, Gopher attempts to tourture Kidd for fun and profit by beating the shit out of him, to no avail. Once Gopher finds out about Kidd's OCD, he tortures Kidd by drawing on only one side of his face, and by using a back scratcher to scratch one of the boy's nipples, but not the other.
Cooldown Hug: Maka and Crona. Also, Marie and Stein.
And yet another example in episode 50, which can be counted as something of a subversion.
Played with in chapter 84 when both Maka and Kim hug Stein in order to stop him from being affected from Soul madness.
Corner of Woe: Crona is very familiar with it. (S)he even gave it a nickname!
Covert Pervert: The Guide in the book of Eibon said how long you are in gender-swapped form is proportional to how lustful you are. Notice that Tsubaki is the only one specifically worried about not turning back. Liz is third-to-last to her annoyance, Tsubaki is second-to-last which upsets her very much, and Blair is last...no surprise there.
Creepy Cool Crosses: Spirit's tie and attire during the flashbacks. The Death Room is full of (mostly wonky, as it happens) crosses, though with Okhubo's use of numerous religious references, this could actually be plot-relevant.
This troper thought for some time that they were the remains of previous Death Scythes.
One epilogue scene (during the final episode credits) shows Shinigami burying a red/evil/soul/orb in the field-of-crosses, using one cross as a piledriver/seal of some sort.
Cross-Dressing Voices: Black☆Star is voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi, a woman. This becomes more evident in his character song, "My Star".
Also he is voiced by a female in the english dub.
You may recognize Crona's voice as Fujioka Haruhi's. But well... we're not sure WHAT Crona is yet, so this trope may not fit. But it might. Maybe not, though. It possibly could—why are you so confusing, Crona!?
This is the Japanese voice actor - Maaya Sakamoto, not Caitlin Glass. (Maxey Whitehead voices Crona in the English dub).
Cross Over: Happens when the in-universe manga works Soul Eater and Soul Eater Not! decide to use similar characters. In the Soul Eater manga, Akane Star and Clay Sizemore show up as members of the Central Information Office, complete with aged appearances and new hairstyles.
Dark Is Not Evil: The Shadow☆Star and Kid and Black☆Star Insanity Powerup
Arguably Shinigami, Kid and the GOO (if not all their fellow anthropomorphic... things). At best, they're eccentric (the GOO's manner being very reminiscent of Shinigami), at worst downright scary. Even Kid when he gets suitably provoked, definitely Shinigami.
Deal with the Devil: Literally... er... figuratively. We're not sure. But the Black Blood gives a dream image of an actual devil offering power.
Debut Queue: The prologue introducing each main character one by one. Also, episodes 1 thru 3 introduces each team one by one.
Despair Event Horizon: Maka in chapter 74 and 75. Considering how she usually is, it's rather disheartening.
Determined Expression: In the anime, there's a shot of each of the main characters displaying one in turn just before the first battle for the B.R.E.W.
The Dog Bites Back: Subverted, when Crona loses the power from his black blood and, by extention, Ragnarok is weakened, Crona hits him. He gets angry and more than ever he teases Crona, who still can't defend him/herself.
And then later on when Crona apparently kills Medusa. You really can't say that the bloodbath that followed wasn't very much deserved.
The Drag Along: Liz has her moments as this. She hates ghosts, monsters, and anything else abnormal and scary, but being Death the Kid's weapon she has to go with him anyway.
Quite literally Death the Kid himself in his debut episode. Let's just say that he takes home decor veeery seriously]...
Drool Hello: Eruka has a hallucination of the Kisin doing this.
Eldritch Abomination : The Kishin. The strongest of them, even Shinigami-sama isn't sure was ever human to begin with. In addition, Eibon is a direct reference to H. P. Lovecraft.
Not to mention whatever the hell Noah's got stashed away in the Book of Eibon looks like Cthulhu made of ink.
It's now referred to itself as a Great Old One.
GOO says there were originally eight "Warlords", 3 of them eaten by Kishin. These beings all have powers over terror, rage, power, knowledge, and order which drives mortals mad. Oh, and it also calls Death the Kid as "fragment of Law" which sort of explains his obsession with symmetry.
Also, Maba-Sama. As tall as, if not slightly taller than, Angelica, has bat-like wings, which are generally useless, since she prefers to hover; and one of the very few close-ups of her face makes her look like she was built by someone from a Tim Burton visual effects studio.
Soul Eater is just the name he registered in Shibusen, the Eater part is not real.
Empathic Weapon: Weapons are a race in Death City, having both human and weapon forms. Their power increases when they match the "Soul Wavelength" of their Meister partners.
Enemy Civil War: Medusa and Arachne have a rivalry that spans centuries; Medusa and her followers will apparently "help" Shibusen if it means Arachne will suffer.
Epic Fail: Several, of varying hilarity. For instance, group training against Stein. Ox electrocutes Maka and Black*Star, Black*Star One Hit Kills him, and an untouched Dr. Stein Lampshades it all.
Epiphany Therapy: Marie's 'redeeming wavelength' in the anime. Also, Death the Kid literally beats the crazy out of Black☆Star at one point, bypassing a moment of Time to Unlock More True Potential that ensued in the manga.
Black☆Star returns the favor to Death The Kid when the Great Old One drives him insane.
Even the Girls Want Her: The succubus. It's also proof positive that Maka and Spirit are from the same family tree.
Also, Soul and Kilik as girls are prettier than they should be.
Most of the weapon meisters adore spinning, really. It's just that Maka gets more screen time.
It actually seems to be a needed skill, since in chapter 74, the girls in Maka's mind during the Envy chapter are ridiculing her for apparent inability to spin a broom (instead of Soul) well.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Asura is defeated in the anime because he cannot comprehend the concept of courage.
Medusa seems to genuinely not get why Spirit and Stein are so disgusted by the way she speaks about Crona.
While not evil, Crona was RAISED in a very evil enviroment and as a result is completely baffled by the lack of abuse received from the gang at the DWMA.
Stein has a relevant line when witch Medusa confesses her love for him:
Medusa: I love you, you know. A man after my own heart.
Am I the only one who think's the boy's daddy looks like Kakashi?
Not to mention Arachne's extremely strong resemblance to Lulu.
Dr. Franken Stein himself seems a heck of a lot like Kakashi to me: a teacher, presiding over a group of three kids, 2 boys and 1 girl, who is a badass genius prodigy with silver hair, who has a stupid thing happen to him the first time he walks in (Kakashi: eraser trick gag, Stein: Swivel chair fail), gives them a test early in the series (Kakashi: the bell test, Stein: the Remedial Class) and ends up with lightning powers (kakashi's signature move, Stein when he partners with Marie), and were both loners as children (granted Stein was Axe Crazy and Kakashi was just an arrogant I Work Alone type). I mean they aren't exact copies, and Stein is a unique and interesting character in his own right, but the influence is definitely there.
Gopher to Kid, after discovering his OCD (Kid seemed impervious to torture, but then he noticed the corners of Gopher's mouth were uneven and completely lost his cool).
Female weapons generally appear naked when shown within their virtual world while transformed. The male Soul started clothed, but became naked when he had a giant scar to show off. Mercifully, the way-too-young-looking Fire and Thunder appear clothed.
The fanservice tends to be much more tasteful in the anime, generally speaking. Liz and Patti's...moment with the Pharoah is toned down compared to the manga.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Mostly subverted by Kidd, but played straight by his hair (to his chagrin, though he'll completely subvert this when the lines of sanzu on his hair DO all connect). Also, Tsubaki has only one visible stocking.
Then, in the manga, there's Noah's group after The DWMA captures Baba Yaga Castle and Maka kills Arachne The real mastermind behind noah was again the The Book of Eibon's table of Contents
Five Temperament Ensemble: Maka is Choleric, Soul is Phlegmatic, Death the Kid is Melancholic, Tsubaki and Liz are Supine note Liz is also a bit Choleric, Black☆Star and Patty are Sanguine.
Flipping the Table: Referred to in the anime when Death flips Baba Yaga Castle upside-down.
Four is Death: The phone number used to call Shinigami is a play on words using this trope.
When Crona has a dialogue with his/her alter ego inside his/her head, he/she refuses to answers 42 questions before the alter ego leaves. Of course, 42 in Japanese is a homonym of "to die".
Freudian Excuse: An unusual example, since s/he's not evil, but Crona unquestionably obeys Medusa's orders, even understanding they're evil, due to the way she was raised.
Furo Scene: Blair is introduced in a furo scene. Also, Tsubaki takes a bath after studying for the big exam.
After many chapters with little to no fan service, we get a scene with nearly all the female leads in the shower - which was immediately followed by nearly all the male leads in the shower. Apparently Okhubo has been taking a few lessons in gender equality when it comes to fanservice. Seen here
Gainaxing: The girl-weapons in their "in weapon persona", especially Tsubaki.
And don't forget Marie.
Also Arachne had her moments of this.
Fun with Subtitles/ Lemony Narrator: Where else but in the Soul Eater manga can you find captions like "The Next Day" with a musical note right underneath it?
Gangsta Style: The Kid takes this to its ridiculous extreme by inverting his guns and firing with his pinkies.
Gecko Ending: The anime splits off from the manga around the BREW recovery action, setting up the remaining time for a premature ending.
This was unavoidable though as the manga is produced monthly and the anime weekly. Making it impossible to to follow the canon storyline without the manga catching up.
Gender Bender: As of chapter 72 in the manga...it's somehow canon. And surprisingly enough, Kid (who gets the most genderbending fanart) is the only one who doesn't go through this. To make up for that, there's Kilik.
Giriko has a slightly more permanent gender bending experience because his soul is now in an Opposite-Sex Clone. He's annoyed that he's a woman, but it's better than nothing.
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Awesomely handled by Patty on Kid as he brokedown at the sight of the Otama Bombs asymmetrically strewn all over the place by Eruka, while on his way to stop her and Free from awakening Ashura.
Also Tsubaki is a psycho weapon; at the very least after she absorbs her brother's soul/power.
Kim with Jackie when they're brainwashed by Arachne; Jackie (the flamethrowing lantern, naturally) on her own when trying to protect her meister during the same arc.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: One of Gopher's attacks involves him opening his stomach-ish area and shooting out a huge sphere of energy while screaming "NOAH-SAMA!" Not to mention he has an insane infatuation with Noah...
In the anime (episode 10) they encounter an old man. They call him that and he objects, saying that he's active all day and all night. While doing hip thrusts
God Emperor: Lord Death, although he's very low-key about it.
Good Is Dumb: Crona becomes less powerful following his/her Heel Face Turn, but this is justified due to having been purged of all the souls Ragnarok consumed.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Free. This is self-induced two ways: One, he just doesn't defend because he's immortal. Two, he hits himself with the occasional spell mishap.
Kim, after being mortally wounded by Havar. Turns out she's a tanuki witch.
Also, when he speaks of the part of his past when he was a street hoodlum (in the same episode), many Gratuitous English words pop up onscreen, including even an aversion of Precision F-Strike (at a point, the word "PUCKIN'" appears).
The Grim Reaper: Shinigami-sama. We see a flashback to his more traditional persona and he comments that his current "goofy" appearance is as not to frighten the children at his school. His name is also "Death", which we see written in English.
Half-Human Hybrid: Maka's father is a weapon while her mother was not, but slightly averted in that she doesn't seem to be any different to other humans.
It's quite possible that in the Soul Eater universe, being a weapon or meister is a part of your genes like your hair color and whatnot. And Maka got the meister gene from her mother.
A flashback in the manga has Soul's brother commenting on how their family had just enough of the "Weapon Bloodline" for it to manifest in Soul.
In the anime, Maka activated her "Weapon Bloodline" to fight Asura.
In the manga, the 'weapon bloodline' mentioned above was the result of Arachne using Eibon's work to create the original Demon Weapons (the Nakatsukasas are direct descendants). So, being a Weapon is genetic but the result of tampering, not 'natural' evolution, as it were. Maka has unusual traits - demonslayer wavelength, Grigori soul - but these are put down to being very rare in humans rather than a result of her dad being a Weapon.
Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: Discussed in the first episode. Shinigami and Spirit watch Maka and Soul struggle with and Spirit suggests helping them. Death responds that while they could defeat that enemy "with a single REAPER CHOP" that would not help the kids create a death sycthe.
Highly Visible Ninja: Black☆Star. Even when he isn't trying to appear dramatically and give a speech, he still tends to fight with as little stealth as any of the rest of the cast.
Hot Scientist: Stein, somehow. Probably because he's surprisingly ripped. Also, Medusa.
Hot Witch: Medusa, Arachne, and the Mizune sisters when they fuse together. Blair should count, but doesn't because she's not actually a witch. Eruka is more Cute Witch than hot, and Angela is most definitely a Cute Witch.
Homoerotic Subtext: Parodied when Black☆Star and Soul team up to fight Death the Kid.
In the manga, one of the later villains (Noah) has a Battle Butler who seems to run on Ho Yay.
Spirit and Stein are rather worth mentioning. What with Spirit supposedly being a ladies' man, he sure spends a lot of time being subtexty with Stein.
Or Spirit is a firm believer in bros before hos.
There was that one scene with the cigarettes in the ending credits of the final episode....
An Ice Person: Free has ice powers, but he's a bit rusty and ends up freezing himself as often as he does his foes. Good thing he has his other ability.
Idiot Ball: At the end of the anime after the main characters get trapped inside Asura's barrier, everyone else stands around moaning about how they wish they could do something. Hello, how about attacking the barrier? There may only be a tiny chance you'll make a breach to send reinforcments, but even if you don't you might distract the Kishin or force him to use more of his power to keep the shield in place. Baka, indeed.
It's even dumber when you consider that Excalibur is right there with them. Yeah, he makes people go though 1000 tasks(or something like that.) before you can use him, but he's the most powerful weapon in existance and I think he would make an exception for the end of the world.
Improbable Use of a Weapon: Pretty much anything that doesn't fit below will fall into this thanks to Rule Of Cool. The best example being that Kid fires Liz and Patty upside down and uses them like tonfa in close combat.
Inconsistent Translation: A bit of a minor one, but the English dub alternates between referring to some of Tsubaki's various forms by their English names (chain-scythe, ninja star) and their Japanese ones (kasari-gama, shuriken).
Incredibly Lame Pun: Mandheling brand coffee sounds like mandolin, which is why Shinigami keeps strumming a chord every time he talks to Joe Buttataki about coffee. It's a knee-slapper, that one.
This one, from when Kid first meets Soul and Black Star. It's kinda subtle at first, but becomes more obvious upon the second reading:
Jerk Ass: MEDUSA, MEDUSA, MEDUSA. Probably moreso than any other character in the series.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Black☆Star. Despite being an arrogant jerk that often sets back his and Tsubaki's goal and rubs people (Read: Maka) the wrong way, he is very loyal to his friends: when Tsubaki is fighting her brother, he sits very patiently watching and yells at anyone who disturbs her "show"; he tells Crona that if he/she is having problems with anyone to let him know, and Black☆Star will take care of them; and when Maka is paralyzed, he and Tsubaki go to track down who did it to her.
Juggling Loaded Guns: Death the Kid, when he shot Soul and Black☆Star during their bromance hug by accident.
Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: One of the creatures Maka fights in the original end credits animation is a giant version of Wolf Man's daughter from Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School
Leaning Onthe Fourth Wall: In the English dub, during a mission that takes place in a magnetic field that turns you into a memory after 20 minutes (science!): "Come on, we've got to prioritize, this show's only got 10 minutes left!" There happened to be 10 minutes left in the episode, too.
In episode 37, Soul says something along the lines of "Special training isn't cool. Leave that to characters in shonen manga."
Left Hanging: Without spoiling too much, the anime ended with quite a lot of plot threads left dangling.
Legendary Weapon: Excalibur is considered the strongest of weapons (which, in this setting, is a race) and his power is considered the stuff of legend. Any Meister who wields him is pretty much unstoppable, and many have tried, as his location and exploits are well documented. What isn't, is the fact that he is completely insufferable and no one can stand him long enough to use him for long.
Let's Get Dangerous: When the eyes on Shinigami-sama's mask go from round-and-dopey to triangular-and-angry, everyone in the next 3 mile radius should kindly RUN AWAY if they don't have a will written.
Also, Kid with one of the Sanzu lines completed = bad. Kid with one of the Sanzu lines completed, and NOT having an OCD breakdown = Kiss Your Ass Goodbye.
Don't forget, Black*Star when he's not being a Large Ham. You're screwed very screwed.
Like Parent, Like Spouse: Maka's primary objective is to make Soul have the same power level as Spirit so he can replace her father.
Loads and Loads of Characters: Seven main characters, seven more secondary protagonists, the staff at Shinbunsen, the Death Scythes, Arachnophobia, Noah's group, Medusa and her allies, Blair...
The Lonely Piano: Appears in the final battle after Maka and Soul wake up to find that the rest of their True Companions have all been defeated. Of course, they were asking for it, given how Soul both plays the piano and uses this for a literal Theme Music Power-Up.
Lolicon: Maka's dad is a non-exclusive one. The way he acts toward his own fairly young and relatively flat daughter is... well, pretty creepy
Lost in Translation: In the original recording, Joe Buttakaki argues with Lord Death about his coffee requirements, requesting Mandheling coffee beans. Mandheling sounds like "mandolin", so Death, confused, holds a mandolin. In the English dub, they change it so both characters just say "coffee beans", meaning it's no longer a miscommunication, and Lord Death holds a mandolin for absolutely no reason!
In a similar instance, Lord Death and the Death Scythe Spirit are having a philosophical argument about telling jokes and women’s underwear. In the original recording, they compare the importance of repetition in jokes to the repetition in layers of lasagna, which props a helpful popup on the screen to explain the comparison. In the dub, the comparison is taken out of the dialogue, but the popup remains, referring to a lasagna which none of the characters are talking about.
Lovable Sex Maniac: For all his flaws, Maka's Dad is a well meaning, caring and lovable fella.
Love Bubbles: Spoofed with the "break-up" between Soul and Black☆Star.
Lovecraftian Superpower: A few examples, the series being what it is, but the most obvious is Crona who can use his/her blood as a weapon. Not only does it become a sword, but if it is cut out of his/her body, it can be controlled to make blades and needles out of the spilled drops and it makes his/her body very durable against cutting attacks.
Madness Mantra: Hurry up, hurry up. Rid yourself of your fake skin. Give into your weight and walk on. The glorious light illuminating the way out is almost in your sight.
My blood is black... Those doors open inward... My blood is black...
Mad Scientist: Dr. Franken Stein; with special emphasis on "Mad".
Magic Skirt: With the frequency that she is thrown rolling backwards and all the tumbling she is doing, it's quite surprising that Maka hasn't become the queen of Panty Shot with that short little skirt of hers.
The manga averted this for a bit, but later chapters have played it straight.
May Contain Evil: Averted. The pills Medusa prescribed for Maka are just normal herbal medicine for improved blood flow. Of course, this does help to catalyze the Black Blood.
Also Crona's "Oceanless Beach", the city Stein wanders through in his Madness Montage, and the purple lake where Tsubaki fights Masamune could possibly count
Moment Killer: During the scene in the infirmary shortly after their first battle with Crona, Maka is shown standing beside Soul's bed and starts to tear up while looking at an unconcious Soul. She just about gets to finish making a heroic promise before Black☆Star literally crashes into the room and starts strangling Soul on his bed. Many shippers probably agreed that the Maka Chop which came afterward was well-deserved.
Also, when Maka meets Crona in the desert in episode 39, she decides to forgive Crona and they share a hug when Soul is suddenly annoyed and just wants to get the heck out of there.
Moral Dissonance: "Hey! Black☆Star! Wanna kill that witch? Never mind that she's, like, ten years old and has never harmed a fly. She's a witch so it's perfectly legal to murder her!" :D
To be fair, he doesn't go through with it.
May have been the point if it was Shinigami's intention to see if Black☆Star would go through with it once he found out who his targets actually were (possibly re-enforced by the fact that he later allows Angela to stay). The manga also reminds us on occasion that the teams are limited in who they can kill, and with Shinigami being as mysterious as he is it's not at all clear what the rules are and how far he has his human followers go (he has no problem using witches when he gets the chance, for e.g).
While visiting Italy, Soul is confronted by a street gang and beats them effortlessly. Unfortunately for them, they pull this again later against Crona and Ragnarok, and get eaten for their trouble.
Must Have Caffeine: Hello, everyone. My name is Joe Buttataki and I'm a java junkie.
My Greatest Failure: Maka sees Soul's defending her from Crona as this on her part for being unable to protect him, while Soul argues that it's his job to protect her, not the other way around.
My Name Is Inigo Montoya: It's a shonen anime; of course this one gets a workout. All the protagonists use it repeatedly.
Nakama: The kids develop into this, with both their partners and The Team. Their sensei are already this, most clearly when Stein is both insane and framed for murder, and his colleagues don't just believe in him but get him out of dodge with Marie to clear his name.
Never Say "Die": Oddly enough, this trope is present in the English dub when Crona's training as a child with the baby dragon "little one" comes up. Flashbacks show Medusa ordering him/her to "defeat" rather than kill it. This is strange, given that other parts of the dub seem to have no problem mentioning death.
Medusa probably figured that telling Crona to kill the "little one" would have freaked him/her out even more.
New Old Flame: Marie and Buttataki Joe in the manga. Temporary; Justin Law kills him shortly after.
Because Buttataki has a different role in the anime, the role is given to Stein there instead.
Though, that can also be seen in the manga. He's referred to as her "first love" and she's obviously pretty close to him, so it can be construed as at least a subtexty New Old Flame.
Maka has a tiny one when she's genderbent and has a look at an entering Succubus. Hilariously enough, Soul is not pleased.
No Sense of Direction: Marie constantly gets lost in Shibusen, even though she's supposed to be an Alumna. Crona and Ragnarok kind of use this to their advantage once to get out of trouble, saying they were also lost when they go into a restricted area. It took them two hours to find Crona's dorm room while being led by Marie.
Shown again by Marie when her and Crona are on their way to Medusa's hideout. Marie points the two in the direction of a series of confusing signs, the first of which lead to snakes, the second which led to quicksand and the third which led to this creepy (possibly Nightmare Fuel) crayon monster. At the fourth sign, which is pointing in three different dirrections, is when Crona breaks the chain (before it went downhill) and leads the duo that time.
Free also. After infiltrating Baba Yaga's castle the team split up to destroy the Magic Tool Locks that protected Arachne's room. Free was assigned to destroy Lock number 1 of 8. Because of his lack of direction, however, he went instead towards tower 2. However he ended up in tower 8 on the other side of the entire castle. Luckily this let him meet up with Kid and pull off a personality change and stick it to Mosquito rather easily....Mostly
Not Quite Dead: Repeatedly. Especially for the witches, mostly Medusa.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Shinigami developed his child-like persona for the sake of his students, as he would often scare them in his old form. However, some of his original hardcore personality shows up in his fight with Asura.
Odd Couple: Nearly all Meisters and Weapons are opposites of each other, and as they find a medium their power increases.
Makes one wonder about Shinigami, looking at his current collection of Death Scythes. Even accounting for Spirit being 'the' Death Scythe, that's an awful lot of contrasting personalities going on amongst the introduced area heads. Azusa's uptight, Marie's a ditz...
On that note, who imagines a Grim Reaper carrying a sniper rifle/crossbow, a hammer or a mirror? Puts a slightly different spin on the term "odd couple".
One of the reasons that Spirit doesn't go searching for Kishin was along the lines of him being "the only one who can truly be called a Death Scythe".
When Soul appears in front of Maka to take a slash from Crona. Maka's expression is this.
In the manga, during the Baba Yaga invasion arc, Kid and Free fight Mosquito, and at first it looks like they have the upper hand. But then mosquito turns into his vampire form from 400 years ago, and nearly kills them both in less than a second.
And then Mosquito gets one of his own when he realises that Kid has the real Brew. Kid then forces him to retreat.
The first time we see an Oh Crap moment in the anime is when Maka uses her Soul Perception ability against Stein to see the strength of his soul. The shock sent her into a short Heroic BSOD.
Kid has an Oh Crap moment when Noah, who had just thoroughly mopped the floor with Mosquito, suddenly appears right next to him.
Oh, No... Not Again!: Black☆Star takes the cake when after seeing Excalibur in the Wrath chapter of Eibion, which naturally pissed him off, the group leaves the chapter with Black☆Star (and pretty much everyone else) glad to be ridden of the annoyance, only to find Excaliburagain in the next chapter. Black☆Star's reaction? Well...
Black☆Star: [upon seeing Excalibur] OH HELL NO!
Ominous Latin Chanting: Shows up during the fights between Shinigami and the Kishin, and during most of the Kishin battles.
One Head Taller: In the main cast, the female weapons are significantly taller than their male meisters. Soul and Maka are at pretty much the same height.
Not anymore, they aren't. Soul had a growth spurt, it seems. As did Black☆Star.
Although technically he is from the Star Clan and his father was named White☆Star, so you could argue that Star is the family name.
Only The Chosen May Wield: Due to their personality overlap and personal relationships, each weapon can generally only be wielded by whatever meister it is assigned to at the moment. Adult meisters and deathscythes appear to be exceptions to this, ironically, as is Excalibur.
OOC Is Serious Business: Shinigami is a sillygoofball most of the time, except when he's dealing with Asura. In fact, during his last fight with Asura, the longer the fight goes on, the more serious and less goofy he gets. At the end he barely even sounds like the same entity.
Open The Iris: Inverted with Maka. Her normally invisible pupils widen when she is emotionally shocked, or using her 'soul vision' to see other people's souls. Crona too, in addition to his/her eyes completely changing color when s/he's freaking out.
And a possibility that absolutism in either direction what's Bad. Chaos never has been especially good at moderation, though...
See Kid's new theory in chapter 73. 'Order' achieved through killing everything. Seems increasingly likely that it's the extremes which are the danger here, not simply Chaos = Evil.
Orifice Invasion: Medusa does this to a little girl in the suburbs to possess her, and later again to get Arachne's body.
Our Zombies Are Different: Once Sid becomes a zombie, he retains his personality and abilities but his skin turns a dull blue and his face gets frozen in a permanent grimace. He also gains the ability to quickly tunnel through the ground and he picks up the habit of saying "that's the kind of man I was!" instead of "that's the kind of man I am!"
Out-of-Clothes Experience: When the weapons speak in their weapons forms, other than the title character. In other words, only the girls are naked. However, a few chapters in Soul gets a big scar across his chest and starts showing up shirtless in weapon form to show it off. After that, everyone is always naked in weapon form regardless of gender.
Over-Enthusiastic Parents: Spirit/Deathscythe/Maka's Papa. What he lacks in ability he makes up for in effort and love.
Overprotective Dad: Spirit once tried to fend off Soul... and then quickly does the exact opposite once Soul says he's not interested.
Overtook the Manga: An unavoidable case this time as the manga is produced monthly.
Palantir Ploy: Arachne uses her spiders as spies to track enemy movement.
There's plenty in the beginning, but as the manga's gone on there have been less and less. The most recent chapters seem to lack pretty much any sort of panty shots.
Pet the Dog: Upon hearing that Maka was injured in a battle and is now bedridden, Mifune gives Black☆Star a 'get well' candy to give to her. Medusa too can have some kindhearted moments, prompting Soul to ask, "Why would someone who could say something so kind decide to mess up the world? Are you really that cold-hearted?" Medusa doesn't respond.
Unlikely to be a true example, as it's just Medusa being a very cruel Manipulative Bitch using a supposed parent-child bond with Crona against the kids, Maka in particular, to gain their favour.
Power Born of Madness: In Chapter 42, Maka and Soul evidently agree that "insanity is the source of strength." The strongest example of this appears to be the black blood, although other characters seem to receive some form of power boost from insanity as well.
Power Echoes: A rather humurous example with Black Star in episode 13. When he breaks out his demon blade form for the first time against Free, everything slows down and an echoe of "shadow star...star...star...star" can be heard. Turns out it was Black Star repeating the last word over and over again as he passed out mid-attack.
Power Gives You Wings: Manga only Maka possesess the rare angel-winged Grigori type soul, which she uses to create wings for Death Scythe Soul to fly.
Power Perversion Potential: Masamune can provide both bondage and single-handed gangrape. Soul can and has been used for things he oughtn't be used for in doujin and H-rated pictures. Let us not speak of Medusa's extras in literally every Medusa-centric doujin ever. Time will only tell if Noah has it.
Pragmatic Adaptation: While the first three quarters of the anime is more or less taken exactly from the manga, after that the Gecko Ending kicks in and things (obviously) start getting different.
Shinigami to Asura after the latter escapes from Shibusen.
Product Placement: The book Maka is always reading is Gangan, the magazine the manga is serialized in.
Pronoun Trouble: With Crona's gender left ambiguous, fan scanlators, subbers, and dubbing companies were sometimes forced to make a best guess. This has led some fans to claim to know Crona's true gender, even though there's no canonical support.
Punny Name: Dr. Franken Stein and Eruka (spelled with the same syllables as "kaeru", Japanese for frog), just to name a few...
Also, Maka is an anagram of "kama", which is Japanese for scythe.
Puppeteer Parasite: Another lovely trick of Medusa's; After her main body is cut in half, she goes to a modern day suburbia in snake form, and slithers into a random child's mouth; taking over her body and running off. It Only Works Once, so she can't do it again.
Later, it turns out she can do it again.
Medusa explains to Arachne that it was splitting up her soul (to avoid it being eaten by Death Scythe), not the possession, that she could only to the once, due to the Kishin's soul wavelength at that point.
Repeat Cut: Maka's Demon Hunter finishing blow on Mosquito in episode 36. Kid's "Death Cannon" technique frequently evokes this as well. Also Maka punching out the Kishin.
Stein's chair falling over and dumping its rider as soon as it runs over the bump in each threshold.
Sadist Teacher: Stein. He just wants to cut you up so bad...
Subverted. While he can be a certifiable loony, and God help you if he's legitimately going after you, at worst (while sane) he's a Stern Teacher. He genuinely cares for his students, and they (especially some of the girls) like him right back.
Both Black*Star and Tsubaki get one after joining Spartoi
Scars Are Forever: Soul gets a large scar during the first fight with Crona; it remains visible on his body for the rest of the series.
Also, in the manga Black☆Star ends up with a clean scar that bissects the star tattoo on his shoulder after his last fight with Mifune. Even the healer can't remove it, and Black☆Star essentially claims that's because it represents his Character Development.
Scary Shiny Glasses: Dr. Franken Stein is pretty much obligated to do this. Azusa regularly uses this to intimidate people. Ox Ford also fulfils this trope in a less scary fashion.
Sealed Evil In A Six Pack: The Kisin Asura probably counts; he was sealed in a bag made of his own skin and his blood was drained and taken elsewhere to weaken him. Injecting the bag with black blood unseals him.
Series Goal: The meisters and weapons are supposed to be gathering 99 human souls and 1 witch soul, but this goal becomes mostly irrelevant once the Knight of Cerebus is introduced.
Not exactly irrelevent, just not the be-all and end-all for the series. Once Maka and Soul actually get the Death Scythe rank (well, Soul technically) the reality of the position is quickly impressed upon them; Death Scythes exist for a reason, and their abilities are necessary. Which is rather different from the original impression, where it appeared that the position was sought for the sake of it; none of the kids seemed to know what being a Death Scythe involved.
Seven Deadly Sins: The Book of Eibon is organized into seven chapters based on the seven sins. It starts with Lust, then progresses through Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, Pride, Sloth, and finally Greed, supposedly organized by the corrupting influences of each vice. As well as creating artificial constructs named Noah
Shinigami: Interestingly, only Shinigami-sama and his son are directly refered to as this. Meisters and Weapons have varying origins; some are born in Death City, and some Weapons were "found" as humans. It's a blurry line, as Maka is the daughter of a Meister and her Weapon Partner.
Thanks to the manga explaning some things, it seems now to be more clear.
Shinigami have distinctive souls, and there are only two in the cast - Shinigami and Kid - and it seems to be a race rather than a designation.
The Weapons are descended from experiments by Arachne to fuse the souls of humans with the transformative souls of witches - their ability to switch between human and Weapon forms is genetic.
The anime uses Maka's parentage to give her special abilities, whereas the manga has not; she is apparently a normal human, albeit one with a few rare traits and a very handy infection.
That being said, the manga hasn't yet specifically ruled out the possibility of Maka having latent weapon powers yet and it is a shonen series so really it's still up in the air.
Ship Tease: Soul Eater has so much potential for canon and crack pairings that this is practically inevitable. It doesn't help either when your average weapon/meister relationship includes huge helpings of fierce protectiveness on both sides. Added to this the fact that the core teams of weapon/meister (as well as a few others) have members of opposite genders... Well, you get the idea.
Don't forget Free. Even Asura was envious of his sculpted physique.
Shōnen: Between the fights, the powerups, and the training to be stronger, this is a textbook Shonen series.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Averted; comic relief Excalibur is included until the very end of the anime. And that's not even mentioning his latest role in the manga...
Significant Anagram: Maka is an anagram of "kama", the Japanese word for scythe. Eruka is an anagram of "kaeru", the Japanese word for frog, and Mizune is an anagram of "nezumi", the Japanese word for mouse.
Single Stroke Battle: In the anime, the third and final showdown between Black☆Star and Mifune
Sinister Scythe: Interestingly, only Soul Eater himself and the most recent Death Scythe (Maka's father) are true examples of this; despite their name, the Death Scythes consist of various types of weapons.
Three, to be precise. Since they're all on one side they are the bane of his symmetry-obsessed existance.
In fact, when he gets his super power boost, one dramatically grows to form a full loop, though it goes back to normal when he does. The conversation about this it's states that once he grows/inherits his full Shinigami powers, all of them will do this, all the time.
Slasher Smile: So, so many examples. Medusa's is particularly demonic; Maka's is surprising when you realize just how much control she has over it.
The Sun and the Moon BOTH have one!
Soul also shows his off a lot, too.
In chapter 69, Medusa and Justin Law seem to engage in some kind of Slasher Smile arms race.
Don't forget madness incarnate Asura.
And Stein whenever he gets a screw loose...
Patty sports one when she kicks Black*Star in the nuts after he unwisely decides to ask for a time-out at the very beginning of their sparring match to get his hands tied up to supposedly make it even.
Slipknot Ponytail: When Tsubaki morphs into Fey Blade mode, her hair is let down.
Smoke Out: One of Tsubaki's forms is a smoke bomb.
Smug Super: Black☆Star, AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!
Spell My Name with an S: Many fan translators spelled the Demon Sword meister's name as "Chrona" or "Krona" until the third ED revealed the spelling to be "Crona."
Some people prefer spelling 'Kid' with an extra 'd'.
Spinoff: Ohkubo has recently announced that Soul Eater will be getting a spinoff titled Soul Eater Not!.
Spoiler Opening: Subverted. In the second opening, we see Soul holding an unconscious Maka. In the series, it's actually Soul who falls unconscious at a pivotal moment, and Maka is the one who must save him.
The fourth ending is actually a Spoiler Ending.
For those watching the anime for the first time through the recently released Repeat Show, which so far is just the original episodes with brand new opening and closing sequences, the new opening features characters who don't even appear until the second half of the anime. It also gives away Crona's Heel Face Turn by showing him/her alongside the heroes at all times and even helping them take down a giant golem.
Special Edition Title: In the episode where the aforementioned Heel Face Turn occurs, the end credits change from the usual "Maka walking in place alone" to "Maka and Crona walking together" to demonstrate it.
Standard Female Grab Area: Sort of played straight during the introduction of and subsequent first fight with Stein. Stein grabs Maka by one of her ponytails at one point, almost completely immobilizing her. While this is certainly more effective (and more painful) than the arm, one would usually expect that a strong Action Girl like Maka would be perfectly capable of throwing a few elbows into Stein's stomach or something. Had the size of Stein's soul not made her sink to her knees in fear and had she not exhausted her strength in using (what was at the time) a technique that was her most powerful and which she was still inexperienced in, then Maka might have attempted an escape.
Stealth Mentor: Sid and Stein were first introduced as enemies.
Actually, Sid appeared in the episode prior to that one. He's not outright named, but it's obvious to anyone who remembers his human appearance who he is when he appears in the next episode. Hint: the back of his shirt has his name on it.
Stealth Pun: Dr. Franken Stein is a Mad Scientist with an enormous screw through his head, which he turns to keep his mind on the problem at hand. He is also The Corruptible, and the closest person in Shibusen to full insanity. In other words... he's got a SCREW LOOSE.
In Episode 3, when Death the Kid is seeking souls for Patty and Liz, Shinigami-sama tells him about a witch who's ressurecting mummies in the Tomb of Anubis. She uses her mummies to collect human souls, which she uses to make more mummies. There's even a bit of a graphic showing how five mummies create two mummies each, who create two each, who create two each... she's running something of a Pyramid Scheme.
The witches' ultimate weapon is called B.R.E.W.
Given all the other music references in this show it should be a surprise to no one that the Werewolf is fought in London
Stock Ninja Weaponry: Tsubaki isn't just proficent with "ninja" weapons; she transforms into them (more specifically she has smoke bomb, kusarigama, tanto, giant shuriken and katana forms). Black*Star wields her. Interestingly, Black☆Star's mentor Sid (despite being ninja themed) averts this trope by specialising in knives (his partner takes the form of a modern, Western survival knife).
Strange Bedfellows: Medusa leads Shibusen's operation against Arachne's base in the manga.
Supermode: There's the basic Resonance of Souls, the more advanced Chain Resonance, using the power of the Black Blood, Maka's Witch Hunter and Demon Hunter attacks, Black☆Star's Fey Blade mode and his blade modes after unlocking Masamune's true power, Kidd's Lines of Sanzu, Free's werewolf form, Mosquito's younger forms, and many others.
From Mosquito's comments about the shinigami, Kid's Sanzu Lines seem not to be a supermode so much as an example of a future 'normal' mode.
Super OCD: With Death The Kid, it's implied to have something to do with the lines going through half of his hair. In the manga, he acheives a Power-Up when one of those lines grows to all the way.
And achieves a Crowning Moment of Awesome when he says that any other time he would be obsessing over it, implying that right now he's NOT obsessing over it.
This is justified in that he, and his father, are more or less the personification of order. He just cannot help himself about his obsession yet, like his father can.
Take a Third Option: During the last Mifune vs. Black☆Star fight in the anime. Mifune asks Black☆Star if he will choose the "Path of the Demon" or the "Path of the Warrior". Black☆Star (somewhat predictably) decides that neither path is good enough for him, and choose to forge his own path forward. He never really elaborates on what the path is, but it clearly comes with powerups (the Enchanted Sword grows about a foot longer and glows red.)
Take Our Word for It: We don't actually get to read Crona's poem, but it must've been pretty depressing, since it sends anyone who reads it into a Corner of Woe.
It even sent Black☆Star into a Corner of Woe! That must have been some poem.
Crona also does this for Maka when Medusa is about to attack her. He/she then dies, sort of.
Also, in ep48, when Asura attacks Kid (or the bystanders in general?) Shinigami takes the shot instead and gets blown to bits. Ouch.
Soul does this again for Maka in episode 51, when Asura is just about to deal a finishing blow.
Chapter 79 has Sid push Marie out of the way of an attack, costing him an arm in the process.
Talking Animal: Blair, who is technically just a cat with magic strong enough to be able to assume a human form.
Talking Is a Free Action: Villains will literally stand by patiently, sometimes for over a minute, as the heroes formulate a new plan out loud.
Lampshaded by Soul during the fight with Stein
Soul: "He's been waiting patiently for you to finish this temper tantrum. Isn't that so polite of the good Dr. Stein?"
Talking Weapon: Ragnarok, which can also use its mouth for Crona's Screech Alpha attack. Excalibur is also a talking sword, however much the cast might wish he wasn't.
Technically, all Demon Weapons are this, to the point that in the first chapter/episode, Maka is honestly worried when Soul stops talking to her while in scythe mode.
The Team: A complicated example. Maka's Resonance Link team consists of herself (The Hero and leader), Black Star (The Big Guy), and Death the Kid (Sixth Ranger, maybe with a bit of The Smart Guy as well). However, there are also their weapons, that all have their own roles. Soul is Maka's scythe, and is The Lancer. Tsubaki is Black Star's sword, and is The Heart. Liz and Patty are Kid's guns, and are The Chick and the Cute and Psycho one, respectively.
Thanatos Gambit: Medusa seems to have pulled one of these as of Chapter 87. Crona, in a shocking plot twist, kills her after she showed him/her motherly affection for the first time; and it turns out that this was her plan from the start so that Crona's Black Blood could be completed. Truly the greatest mother in the world.
Maka's parents are named Spirit and Kami. (Which can mean "Spirit" in Japanese.)
Actually, her name isn't Kami. The English-speaking fandom thinks it's her name because of a scanlation error that translated a word for wife, 'kamisan' as a name with an honorific by mistake. She's never actually been given a name. Funny what a single mistranslation can do.
The witches seem to be named after animals; especially women in Greek Mythology associated with animals.
Kishin Eggs are a mishmash of historical/fictional/mythological antagonists.
The weapon people, who are usually named after mythological and/or video game weapons: Marie Mjolnir, Masamune, Ragnarok, Excalibur, Soul Eater, etc.
Though Excalibur is stated (at least in the anime) to be the Excalibur in Arthurian legends.
Two of the students are named after Western Universities (Ox Ford and Harvar D. Eclair, Oxford and Harvard respectively).
Maka's Witch Hunter (a possible reference to Rush's song "Witch Hunt")
Or more likely the concept and act of an actual Witch Hunt, originally the search for someone suspected of being a witch. These days it can mean looking for any negative element in society in a panicky effort to root it out after one prominent incident involving said element, such as pedophilia.
Mosquito's Police Stinger (both the band The Police and their singer Sting)
He is also, appropriately, a vampire. Though one of his transformations has him taking on a more 'traditional' look rather than the insect thing. Unwisely, Liz and Patty point out this look is 'boring' and he "looked stronger before".
In the first chapter, Maka is actually seen carrying around a folder entitled "Maka's Blair Witch Project".
On top of that, Maka Albarn might be named for Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who voices 2D (a Soul Eater look-alike) for Gorillaz.
Sid Barett (Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd) and Kim Diehl (Kim Deal of the Pixies).
Kilik's Soul Resonance: Aphex Twin.
Justin Law (Cantonese pop singer Justin Lo) The reference is more obvious when you see the names in Katakana)
Black Star is the name of a Hip Hop group formed by Talib Kweli and Mos Def. Coincidence? It's possible, but given the massive number of music references made with every other character in the series, it seems likely that the band is Black☆Star's namesake. Even more telling, this would round out the three main teams by giving each a musical reference (Damon Albarn for Maka and the Thompson Twins for Kid).
In a theme that isn't part of a Shout Out, all three named members of the Star Clan are named a color and then "Star." Black Star, his father White Star, and his cousin Red Star (though he generally goes by the less obvious Akane Hoshi).
Eibon is named after a character who happens to be a sorcerer in Clark Ashton Smith's story The Door to Saturn. Eibon also wrote "The Book of Eibon" which chronicled his life and was filled with magical spells and rites.
The little girl Rachel may have been a reference to Jacob's wife Rachel in the Bible. (Especially considering the obvious reference to Eve, the serpant, and the apple shortly after Rachel's body was taken over by Medusa.)
Noah, the collector. Another well-known Noah also spent time collecting things—animals for his Ark.
Kishin Asura may be a reference to a group of power-seeking dieties in Hinduism called Asura or Ahura.
Nidhogg: "Are you saying you would take away freedom?!"
Kid: "I am a Shinigami. I grant no freedom to kill."
Thriller on the Express: episode 30 of the anime, "The Red Hot Runaway Express". Kid, Patty and Liz have to board the speeding train and fight an enemy on board for possession of a magical artifact, while a third party outside is fighting both sides.
To Be a Master: Collecting enough souls to obtain the rank of Death Scythe
Token Motivational Nemesis: Nakatsukasa Masamune, is spite of being such an important figure in the life of his sister Tsubaki, is killed within one episode of his introduction.
Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Book of Eibon. Heavy on the Eldritch now that we know there's a GREATOLD ONE living in it's last chapter.
Too Dumb to Live: In the anime, Lord Death has trapped Asura in his inescapable death chamber, and the shinigami seems to be pretty much guaranteed to win. Asura fires a powerful beam attack at Death the Kid and some other people who are watching the battle, which they aren't really able to join. Lord Death shields the onlookers with his body, which would be all well and good, except that he has been shown to be able to deflect all of Asura's beam attacks with Death Scythe, whom the Lord Death is currently HOLDING IN HIS HAND! Following this tremendous act of stupidity, about half of Lord Death's body is obliterated, and he both unconscious and in very critical condition (he eventually recovers, after the main antagonist has been defeated by the show's main characters); Asura leaves from the chamber like it's going out of style.
Totem Pole Trench: In chapter 46 Kilik have once his two (very tiny) partners be the head for their disguise as a cloaked Arachnophobia soldier.
in Episode 21 of the Soul Eater anime: Blair is fighting the (remaining) 5 Mizune sisters. She smashes four of the sisters with one spell...but the fifth sister behind her starts giggling madly. Activating the hivemind within the sisters (accompanied by speaking in sync and rhythmic finger-snapping), Create a they then proceed to stack themselves in a tower formation. When the last member completes the desired tower, all the Mizune undergo a merger, the five combine to form... a Hot Witch. It Makes Sense in Context... I guess.
Transformation Sequence: Kid activating his Resonance of Souls. It was even interrupted at one point.
Translation Convention: Considering the academy is in America and most of the on-screen text is in English, it's implied that everyone is actually speaking English.
Trash Landing: During their fight against Blair, Soul drops Maka into a dumpster.
Maka again gets the trash treatment after asking Black☆Star to punch her in apology. He doesn't hold anything back, & she goes flying into the trash.
Unconscious Objector: In the anime, Maka is knocked unconcious and begins using her previously unknown weapon bloodline abilities to attack in the final battle against the Big Bad. He realises she's even more dangerous in this state and and wakes her up forcing her to invoke The Power of Friendship instead.
Underboobs: One of the Fanservicey traits of Mizune's combined form.
Unnamed Parent: Maka's mother has only been referred to in both the anime and manga as "Maka's Mother" or "Spirit's (ex)wife". A scanlater accidentally turned the word for wife into a name (Hence the fact that everyone's been calling her "Kami", but officially, she's nameless.
Unsettling Gender Reveal: The readers get this in Chapter 67 if they thought both of Kilik's weapons were girls.
Unwinnable Training Simulation: Maka, Soul, Black☆Star, and Tsubaki, once they have apprehended Sid, are sent to kill the person who made him a zombie in the first place. That would be Stein, who is one of the most powerful Meisters in the world. They aren't told this is a test ahead of time.
Utopia Justifies the Means: Kid seems to have been hit with this recently. A black mass tells him that he's the God of Order (or something) and that he needs to create the ultimate symmetry by making everything unexist.
Wager Slave: The breather episode with the basketball game. If Kid's team loses then they'll move all the pictures in his house slightly off, if Maka's team loses, she has to spend the weekend with her father.
Weapon Twirling: Every single Meister in this series seems to love doing this. It may or may not aid with Soul Resonance or not, but it sure looks cool and eats up a few seconds of screen time.
Wham Line: "Stupid little brother." Said by Asura to Death the Kid.
What Could Have Been: Apparently, Soul Eater started out as three separate one-shots, which eventually evolved into the first three chapters of the manga.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Among other things, Crona's name is a play on "Kuro na", translating as "dark one". And just for a moment, Shinigami-sama and Asura's competing auras form a yin-yang symbol.
Word Salad: We either hear the lyrics to, or hear Justin Law thinking the words to his music.
" Hey God... Today I killed another pig that was full of antibiotics... HEY GOD!!"
The Worf Effect: Black☆Star suffers from this (he beats Mifune in his first appearance and takes down Sid, but is utterly overpowered by Stein, bested by Death the Kid, needs help to take down Free, fails to stop Medusa and is one-shotted by Asura during his awakening, following being utterly humiliated by Mifune during their rematch and failing to complete his objective during the battle with Mosquito.) and indeed suffers a minor Heroic BSOD from it. Later in the anime after recovering from his Heroic BSOD, he fights Asura and the Worf Effect started when Asura recovered from Death the Kid's Death Cannon with all three Sanzu Lines.
Seems to be reversing in the manga as well, unless Black☆Star loses to Crona...
Chapter 79, Tezca Tlipoca is bitten nearly in half by one of Noah's worms. Since we know virtually nothing about him, it's unknown if it'll stick. Stein, Sid, Marie, and Nygus are all also defeated very easily by Noah and Justin Law in the same chapter.
Turns out the Tezca we saw get bitten in half was an illusion; Justin knows that Tezca is the only person capable of tracking him, so Tezca faked his death put Justin off his guard.
Also, this applies to Tsar Pushka and Feodor. They were killed (or maybe had a Fate Worse Than Death) by Crona in his/her return to the plotline. It was probably just to show that the new-and-improved Crona can, and will, kill a death scythe and its meister for Medusa.
Worthy Opponent: Despite his love of children, Mifune fights Black☆Star as an equal because of this trope.
Eventually. They're not fighting on truly equal terms until their last encounter, as Mifune held back due to his opinion of Black☆Star's youth and attitude. The trope applies once Black☆Star figures out the latter.
World of Symbolism: The big showdown between Death and Asura could be strongly reminiscent of a debate between Christians and Atheists. Death could easily be substituted for God, while the Kishin could be substituted for the devil, or a nonbeliever. It's actually really interesting when looking at it under those pretenses.
Xanatos Gambit: Medusa manages to dupe the Sibusen into raiding Arachne's castle and going up against her forces with the whole intention of taking Arachne's body for herself. When two of your enemies are fighting each other, it doesn't matter who wins. Though, as per the trope, she did have a prefered outcome. Which leads to Maka being used as the Unwitting Pawn.
An earlier example is during the battle for BREW when Medusa has the Mizune sisters and Eruka retrieve the real BREW before the DWMA and Arachnophobia can get to it and switch it with a fake BREW while the two opposing sides cut each other down fighting for the fake artifact. She later informs the DWMA of the real BREW's location so as to gain their trust as a part of the previously mentioned gambit to get DWMA to trust her.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Let's see. So far, we have three pink-haired people (to be fair, Kim and Mizune are witches, and Crona is... Crona), a neon blue-haired Japanese ninja, a red-head (not a ginger; Spirit actually has red hair), and two teenagers with white hair (justified, as Soul could be an albino, and Eruka's a witch).
You Killed My Father: In the anime, Mifune killed White☆Star, Black☆Star's father, and Black☆Star eventually defeats him. Though in something of a departure from trope, Black☆Star isn't interested in revenge — rather, Mifune tries to kill Black☆Star because Black☆Star is following in his father's footsteps — his father nearly became a Kishin.
It's averted in the manga, however, in which Sid was the one who killed Black☆Star's entire family after they turned to evil, and is now the closest thing Black☆Star's got to a surrogate father.
Your Answer to Everything: Maka says this to Soul Eater about him using brute force early in the series.
Interesting how that one worked out, especially in the anime. He asks why she's running off without a plan.
Your Other Left: Black☆Star apparently has this problem in the anime.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Black☆Star saved the world and stopped Asura's rebirth from happening with a last attack! .......what? It was a hallucination? ........never mind.
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