These are the first words spoken of the series, spoken by Maka Albarn who is introduced in this episode. Along with her introduction, we also meet Deathscythe (later to be known as Spirit), Lord Death/Shinigami, Soul Eater (whose last name is actually Evans) and Blair the Witch. However, all of the major characters from the first "arc" get an appearence in the opening sequence.
So the episode begins with a basic narration about the premise of the series: there's an academy called the Death Weapon Meister Academy, or DWMA, that is run by Death himself to train young Weapons (people who transform into weapons) and Meisters (the people who use weapons) to keep the demons known as "Kishin" from wreaking havoc across the globe. It doesn't tell you much other than that, but it ends with the first appearence of Lord Death, who sums the narration up nicely. This short appearence basically cements his reputation for most of the series as a cheerful goofball.
The title sequence is a bit like a dance party ''beginning'', blending some title-exclusive action sequences with shots of some of the characters dancing somewhere in the middle there. I don't blame them, the music is pretty dang catchy. As previously mentioned, the series shows several plot-important characters before their real introduction, such as Medusa and Chrona.
~~~~~
This episode opens in what appears to be London, where a woman appears to be walking home through some cobblestone streets. suddenly— Holy crap, there's a faceshot of a red eyed monster licking it's lips! The woman stops... No, woman! Run! RUN! IT'S GONNA GET YOU!
Oh, too late, he got you. Slashed you with his razor-sharp claws, nearly cutting you in half in 5 different places.
From her bleeding body rises a blue light, later revealed to be a human soul. He... sinks the tips of his claws into it, as if trying to grip it, and brings it to his mouth. One lick of his freakishly large tongue and it's gone. This scene is one of the least child-friendly scenes of the anime, btw, so try to skip this bit if you're watching with your children. ...What am I saying, most of you are children yourself :P
Anyway, it seems someone has seen him. A young woman, having stumbled upon the scene, has let out a scream and is now running. Silly woman, you'll never outrun the monster!
Unsurprising, she doesn't. She trips, presumably over one of them pesky cobblestones (DAMN YOU COBBLESTONE, YOU HAVE THWARTED MY PLANS AGAIN). The monster catches up in a relatively short amount of time using his very springy heels and leans over her, chanting "Power, POWER, POWER!!!". Well, that does it: you, m'lady, are DEAD. He brings his claws up to strike the deadly blow...
Hold on, who's this kid?
Well look at that, there are 2 of them! The kids identify each other as Soul Eater and Maka, and say that the monster's soul is a "Kishin Egg" and absolutely pure evil. Long story short: It isn't human anymore. Well... yeah, he kinda has another face sewn on top of his, and he's built himself some metal claws to kill peeps with. He's also got superhuman jumping abilities, so it is very obvious this guy is not human anymore. Thank you for the assessment, Sherlock Holmes.
Maka engages in a little exposition herself, stating that any soul that breaks from the path of humanity becomes evil, and runs the risk of transforming into a Kishin, hence the term "Kishin Egg".
They decide to finally get their asses in gear and kill the thing; this is where Soul reveals he can turn himself into a scythe. and so, with some scythe-twirling action from Maka and some Pre Action One Liners, the fight begins!
They identify the character as "Serial Killer: Jack the Ripper", which makes some sense. I personally like to call him Spring-Heeled Jack The Ripper. ANYWHO, he runs at them (In a VERY derpy manner, might I add) and jumps at them, all spread out like an idiot. This should be over quickly.
Surprisingly, this guy's actually pretty strong. He knocks some bricks out of a wall while slashing at them and actually keeps the pair on their toes for awhile. Not saying that the pair are weak or anything; Maka lures Jack to a flight of stairs, jumps back and kicks her way behind him using the back of his head as a launch pad. For a while there, it looks like Jack's gonna tumble down the stairs... but he ends up recovering and jumps into the air, just as Maka runs at him to finish the job. Not that it does any good, she just jumps as well and cuts him in half with Soul.
So he sorta collapses in on himself, and you see a red soul appear. This is what Soul referred to as a "Kishin Egg".
Soul half-transforms out of the scythe, nabs the Kishin Egg and eats it. And, what do you know, more exposition. You see, this isn't their first battle. That soul was the 99th Kishin Egg that Soul had eaten, and now he just has to eat the soul of a witch in order to become one of Lord Death's weapons. Around this time, you get the general gist of Soul, but it isn't quite clear yet.
So they decide to report to Lord Death. To do this, Maka breathes on a window to fog it up, and writes the numbers 42-42-564 (which translates into death, death, kill - shi ni, shi ni, goroshi). This turns the window into a monitor to the Death Room, where Lord Death resides. It turns out that Maka's mother was also a Meister, and if the way Maka reacts when Lord Death compares them is anything to go by, she was pretty good.
Next up, we're introduced to Maka's dad, who is Death's personal weapon known as Deathscythe. He's... hard to describe. I may as well just write out the quote:
Deathscythe: Hey, Soul Eater! If you even think about touching my Maka... if you lay a hand on her,as a Deathscythe— no, as her FATHER, I will freaking KILL YOU. You got me, you little octopus-head?
Soul: What are you smokin'? See how cool I am? You think i'm gonna settle for a flat-chested girl like her?
(Deathscythe comically pokes out of the window)
Deathscythe: WHAT'D YOU JUST SAAAAAAY!!! You trying to tell me my Maka's not ATTRACTIVE?! Why haven't you made a move on her yet, you're a MAN AREN'T YAAAAAA!!!
(Deathscythe turns to Maka with a calm expression)
Deathscythe: Maka, your Daddy loves you.
So... yeah. That's Deathscythe for you. Maka doesn't seem to like him much, as she basically disregards him as her father right there. And thus, for the rest of this scene, Deathscythe can be seen moping in the background.
AND MORE EXPOSITION, ABOUT STUFF WE WERE TOLD ABOUT BY SOUL.
It turns out that witches are hella tough. How tough? Hundreds of Meisters, who had already collected the 99 Kishin Eggs, have fallen victim to witches thoughout the school's long history. Also, if they fail to collect the witch's soul, they have to start collecting Kishin Eggs again from SCRATCH. That, of course, if they don't die.
So, off they go to find the wi— wait, what?
REAPER CHOP!!
~~~~~
And so, we are treated to the titlecard. This episode is named Resonance Of The Soul.
The first thing you'll see is a pumpkin house. From inside, there's the sound of running water and a voice singing a song basically comprised of the word "pumpkin". Typical witch, folks.
So we go inside the house to be treated to a leg, slowly rising out of a bath, coated in soap suds. WOAH, that was sprung on us!
Next scene: A magical brush starts scrubbing her back while she dances in the tub. While bent over on all fours. GWAAAAAAAHH~~~~ *nosebleed*
Cut to Soul and Maka standing outside of the house, ready to sneak in. However, Soul feels it's "unmanly" to sneak in, so he decides to just storm the place. Maka tried to warn him, but he went anyway. By now you should have a solid idea about Soul and Maka: Soul's the laidback, but occasionally hotheaded type, while Maka's the good-girl teacher's-pet type.
ANYWHO, Soul desides to come in through the window. Which window, you ask?
I'm kidding. You already know it's the bathroom one, don't you.
Cue Soul falling directly into the witch's boobs. And, once he looks up and realises what's happened, he has a nosebleed of explosive proportions. And drastically tries to convince himself he's totally used to it while half hanging out of one end of the bath with blood rushing out of his nose.
Well, around this point Maka decides to go and retrieve Soul. This ends in Soul taking a boot to the face and landing facefirst next to the toilet. Maka lands and makes her Badass One Liner, ready to take the witch's soul...
Before said witch hops out of her bath, fully clothing herself in an instant, and evicts Maka and Soul from her house in under 15 seconds. With a Halloween Cannon.
~~~~~
We now go live to Deathscythe for some exposition! While having a good time at a Cabaret club, one of the women he happens to be treating rather finely decides to ask about his daughter. This results in the 2 women he's with having a whispered conversation, right in front of him, about his divorce and his daughter hating him. After having a major manic-depressive fit in which he runs around outside screaming about how he loves his daughter and wife, he casually goes back in to pay before dashing out again.
~~~~~
Back to Maka and Soul, who are attempting to attack the witch again.
ATTEMPT 1: While having a conversation about the previous attack, they come across her going out. Soul grabs Maka and pulls her behind a tree, but the witch notices their butts poking out. Cue Soul being pulled into her amazing rack while having a nosebleed.
ATTEMPT 2: This time, Maka's written down a detailed plan on a piece of paper. Soul tells her that a piece of paper won't give them an edge this time, so in a huff she asks him what they should do. His answer is simple: Brute Force. She yells about how that's his answer for everything and how he's so apathetic etc. while slapping him in a rage... only to realise the witch is right behind them. HA Ll OWEEN CANNON!
ATTEMPT 3: they decide to actually just fight her out in the open.
The witch, known as Blair, uses pumpkin themed equipment. Her bombs are pumpkins. She rides around on a giant pumpkin. Her house, I repeat, was a pumpkin. This woman loves her some pumpkin.
Maka+Soul and Blair are pretty evenly matched. Maka dodges all of the bombs Blair throws her way. However, Soul and Maka begin to squabble, mainly about their previous attempts. Blair comes down and offers Soul a home with her - as her weapon. Maka tells her to butt out, and then the fight is on!
It turns out Blair can use her robe as a weapon. Maka has a close call with it, but manages to deflect and use that as a boost up to Blair on her flying pumpkin. She makes a slash, gving her and Soul a victory!
Oh wait. Nope, she jumped at JUST the right time, and only the pumpkin was cut. What...?
Aww crap, there she is.
She summons a pumpkin bomb which sends Maka flying onto her face. From there, she uses her hat to grab Maka by the ankle and throw her up onto a roof. Maka begins to realise her attacks aren't working, so she asks Soul for help.
He doesn't answer. Cue a flashback to Blair offering a place at her side. He appears in the reflection of his blade and smiles widely.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
AND we cut back to Deathscythe. Coming back from his visit to Chubacabra's Cabaret Club, Death greets him with a glare and a sharp word. You see, during the entire time Maka and Soul were trying to get Blair, he was at the club. You probably don't notice this since it's daytime in Death City but night-time for Maka and Soul. Anyway, Death has conjured up the battle on his magic mirror. He informs Deathscythe in a matter-of-fact voice that she isn't doing too well, and might in fact die.
Deathscythe begins to transform to go and help Maka, but Death reminds him that Maka is being tested here and that his inclusion would probably forfeit Maka's 99 souls. So Deathscythe decides against helping his daughter and stays to watch the battle.
However, Death muses to himself that there's something...off about the witch. What exactly is "off" is revealed at the end of the episode.
Back in the battle, Maka is having her ass handed to her by Blair. She's hit with a blast that sends her flying down the side of a roof. She manages to hold on by sticking Soul into said roof. She decides that hanging one handed off the side of a building would be a perfect time to strike up a conversation, so she asks Soul why he hasn't been answering her.
He responds by transforming back into a human, keeping hold of her with one hand. Aaaaaand then dropping her into a couple bags of trash.
And this is the part where you realise "Aww crap, he's sided with Blair D:". It's alright, they balance the reveal with a lovey-dovey, nosebleeding Soul.
Cut to Deathscythe recieving a Reaper Chop for egging on Soul's decision so that he'll leave Maka alone.
Anywho, Maka accuses Blair of using her magic to make Soul fall in love with her. However, it turns out that Soul made the decision on his own, stating "Any man would take a body like Blair's over Maka's flat chest.
Cut to Deathscythe recieving a Reaper Chop for checking out Blair's body.
After Soul's particularly cutting (no pun intended) words, Maka goes on a particularly heartwrenching rant about men. How can a rant about men be tearjerking? From a young age, she saw her father cheat on so many women, one after another, while also on her mother. And when she went to the DWMA, she decided to trust men again, and now the one she had chosen was betraying her! She begins to cry, and futilely cries out "WHAT REASON DO ALL MEN HAVE OR CHEATING?! IT'S NOT FAIR!!
To which Soul replies:
"How am I supposed to know? I can't answer that."
His left arm turns into the scytheblade, surrounding Blair.
'After all, cool men don't cheat on their partners, do they?'
And so, they defeated Witch Blair through some really ballsy trickery.
It turns out the soul of a witch is purple. OR IS IT?!
He eats the soul... and wind begins to envelope him in a twisting cyclone of destruction! The ground begins to light up, ready to burst with powerful hellfire to signal the newest addition to Death's arsenal! Lightning crackles in the background, presumably to look cool! 4 BLADES PROTUDE FROM SOUL'S BODY!!! THEY'VE DONE IT!!!!!
Woah, woah, slow down buster. It's the first episode. In fact, everything just kinda... farts out. Yup, Blair's soul was a dud. In fact, here comes Blair now!
You see, Blair is just a cat. A shapeshifting, particularly magical and extremely sexy cat. And, as we know, all cats have nine li— uhh, souls, don't they? Oh man, the humiliation just keeps building up...
Wait. They lose their 99 Kishin souls as well due to Blair's bad soul.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
~~~~~
And we are treated to a preview of next episode, centered around a boy named Blackstar and his weapon, a pair of chain-scythes/ninja-star/ninja smoke-bomb Tsubaki. You'll get to hear about THAT next time, though.
And at last, the credits roll with the BEST ANIME ENDING THEME COMPOSED IN THE HISTORY OF EVER, I WANNA BE.
and then a FULL preview, which follows every single episode (sans ending, of course).
~~~~~
That wasn't so bad, was it? It could have been worse. I had fun doing this, and I apologise if it changes a bit throughout; I stayed up all night doing this, and I had to pause for long periods of time to find certain tropes at some points. Please do comment; your feedback, positive or not, is appreciated.
