YMMV / Soul Eater Not!

• Americans Hate Tingle: While it was not much of a success in Japan or the West, the series was especially hated and given very negative reviews in the west, for being a Slice of Life Moe-pandering prequel to Soul Eater, where the original anime and manga were very popular. The fact that Soul Eater Not! was made over a potential continuation to the original only adds fuel to the fire.
• Ass Pull: In the anime, Tsugumi gains the ability to fly just like Soul did in the manga and did so by mostly using her imagination. This is much different from the previous use case because the only reason Soul was capable of flying was after becoming a Death Scythe and using his abilities in conjunction with Maka's Grigori soul.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: It's Soul Eater...as a moe Slice of Life show. Fans of one tend not to be fans of the other.
• Awesome Music: If there is anything that fans and haters of NOT can agree on, it's that the opening song "monochrome" by Dancing Dolls is really fun and catchy.
• Broken Base: Asking fans of the original Soul Eater "What do you think of NOT?" tends to bring out different reactions. Some love it just as much as Soul Eater, some find it okay but nowhere near as good or entertaining, while others completely ignore its existence.
  • The way the anime is designed has also received mixed responses. Some fans are accepting of the new style, or at least willing to tolerate it for the sake of the show, because it reflects how different NOT is. Others do not appreciate the new style catering to a more Moe crowd. Other visual changes such as to the designs of the original cast, particularly Tsubaki and Maka, were not well received.
• Complete Monster: Shaula Gorgon wants nothing less than to take down the DWMA and prove her superiority to her older sisters. Going undercover as DWMA staff, Shaula kidnaps civilians to perform heinous experiments on them and turn them into bloodthirsty soldiers for herself known as "Traitors", disposing of them as they outlive their usefulness to her. Attempting to unleash madness in Death City, Shaula allows her Traitors to run amok, killing as they please, forcing Meme to fight her friends and then trying to personally kill her along with the other protagonists when this fails.
• Fan Nickname: Not Soul Eater
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some fans will admit that the only reason they watched the anime, or read the manga, is because they just wanted to see the original Soul Eater cast again.
• Les Yay: Oh Lordy: Tsugumi fangirling Maka and restyling her hair into pigtails, Tsugumi faceplanting into Meme's boobs, Meme and Anya vying for Tsugumi's partnership, Meme climbing into bed with Tsugumi, Tsugumi and Meme getting all blushy and flustered from seeing Anya in her waitress uniform — with three female leads, there's bound to be quite a bit of this.
  • Jacqueline trying to pair up with Kim feels very much like a girl trying to ask someone out.
    • The anime goes ahead and turns what could be considered subtext about Jacqueline's feeling towards Kim in the manga, into just plain text.
  • To sum it all up: there is at least one Les Yay example in nearly every chapter of the series, and they all range from being rather fluffy to Pseudo-Romantic Friendship.
• Moe:
  • Anya. So...Adorable...!
  • Kim's cuteness levels absolutely skyrocketed in this series as compared to how she is in the later half of Soul Eater. Which is saying a lot.
• Pandering to the Base: Is accused of doing this to moe Slice of Life fanservice.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Redesigns of Soul Eater characters in the anime, along with an ever present blushes on female characters and some characters looking older despite the series' prequel status, were a common criticism.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Shaula, despite being presented as the third Gorgon sister, is barely developed within the story, with her motivations nor her relationship with her sisters fully explored.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot
  • In Chapter 15 Shaula used her magic to take control of Eternal Feather to cause chaos in a flea market and then she forced her to commit suicide by letting her slash her own throat. At this point, it appeared that Soul Eater NOT was about to take a serious turn. Unfortunately, this entire incident is easily solved and forgotten a chapter or so later and the story doesn't change in either direction or tone. Eternal Feather survived her injury thanks to Dr. Stein and Shaula hasn't been seen since. None of the characters talk about or think back to this incident, and it isn't until Chapter 29 that it is mentioned again, albeit for a joke rather then for anything plot relevant.

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