SOUL EATER - 05 May 5
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Summary:
Having arrived at Dr. Franken Stein’s lab, Maka and the others are greeted by the man himself after he stumbles out of the door on his office chair. When they confront him about what he’s doing, Stein explains that his motives are observation and research. In fact, he considers everything in the world to be research materials, and he immediately notices that Maka and Soul’s soul wavelengths aren’t stabilized. Black*Star doesn’t care about this and attacks, but Stein blocks and counters the moves without ever leaving his chair. As he battles Maka and Black*Star, Stein suddenly remembers that Maka is the daughter of someone called Spirit. Maka recognizes that name as the one that her father had before becoming Death Scythe, and as it turns out, Stein had experimented on her father. Stein then charges at her while still in his chair and knocks her down with just the palm of his hand.
Death the Kid is watching the battle with his father and is shocked to see this because it means that Stein hit his opponent without amplifying his soul’s wavelength through a weapon like other meisters have to do. Maka is so rattled by this move that she wildly charges at the now standing Stein, and he easily sends her flying back with just a burst of energy from his hand. Stein then grabs Maka and starts thinking about cutting her open. Fortunately for her, Black*Star then jumps back into the battle and reveals that Stein isn’t the only one who can directly attack with his soul wavelength by using his Big Wave attack. However, this has almost no effect on Stein because he had already figured out Black*Star’s soul wavelength, matched his own to that, and nullified the power of the attack. Stein counters by using his power to fry Black*Star’s head, leaving the boy a bloody unconscious mess.
The combination of Black*Star’s defeat and the enormous soul she sees in Stein shocks Maka so much that she no longer believes that they can win. Soul, however, refuses to accept the idea of giving up before fighting and tells her that she only saw Stein’s soul, not the future. He also points out that Stein is actually waiting for them, and all this convinces Maka to keep fighting. She and Soul immediately initiate a Resonace of Souls and charge up Witch Hunter attack, but Stein halts it with his bare hands. After much struggling on both sides, Stein is able to shatter the attack, and he approaches the defeated Maka. Soul is quick to protect her, but to his and Maka’s surprise, Stein suddenly announces that he’s giving them passing grades. Apparently he had been asked by Shinigami-sama to administer their supplementary lessons, and this all was part of that.
The following day, the group attends class, still tired from their supplementary lessons. To their shock, Dr. Franken Stein shows up - in his chair - as their new teacher.
Preview
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So it was a head fake after all - all that just to teach Maka and company a lesson. I really liked the fight - Stein using the office chair part was every bit as great as I hoped it would be, and it’s a shame he couldn’t spend the entire battle in it - but I’m a little disappointed because I was hoping that this would be the start of a bigger story arc with either Stein or someone else as the villain and/or more about Maka’s mother. Instead, this was merely a cool battle that had more explanation about soul wavelengths, and it basically resets at the end with the only difference being Stein as the new teacher. That’s not necessarily bad thing since it’s still relatively early in the series, but what I’m really interested in seeing from now on is the development of something more involved in the overall plot.
As for Stein, I really like his character, but why the heck does he keep needing to screw his head? Is that to power his soul or something (his soul apparently has a screw in it too)? Since he’s a good guy now, I wonder if we’ll be seeing him putting his apparently amazing powers to good use for the students. For the time being though, it looks like next episode is about Death the Kid attending the school and going up against both Black*Star and Soul. Hopefully the story pacing will pick up a bit.
RmX at 5:26 pm on May 5th, 2008
Dr. Stein is wonderfully insane. It pwns.
BROOKLYN otaku at 5:26 pm on May 5th, 2008
DUDE!?!?!? what ever happened to spoiler alerts???
Ashan at 5:32 pm on May 5th, 2008
@Brooklyn Otaku
You’re reading a blog that summarises Anime episodes, are you really that dense as to not expect spoilers?
Spoiler alerts only apply to something that hasn’t aired yet, information from manga for example.
Kabitzin at 6:02 pm on May 5th, 2008
I think the head screwing is to help him think. Some people twirl their hair, others twist a large screw in their noggin.
Dragoon at 6:10 pm on May 5th, 2008
The main story will start at ep7 with the rate the anime is moving.
escaru at 6:12 pm on May 5th, 2008
Yeah, the screw is just a personal quirk of Dr. Stein that manifests itself on his soul. Notice, for example, how Maka’s soul has twintails.
vexx at 6:18 pm on May 5th, 2008
I *love* the twintails on Maka’s ’soul’.
legno at 6:46 pm on May 5th, 2008
when I read your previous anime summary, I knew you didn’t read the manga. Well somehow I love how you dared on a risky gamble, but I must admit reading the manga chaps gave me the same feeling: dr. stein being a villain but eventually he isn’t
omni you’re doing a great job and reading the manga or not, is your choice but I’ll keep following your summaries
Tryptomine at 6:57 pm on May 5th, 2008
I think the purpose of the screw twisting is to try and keep his thoughts focused, instead of wondering about into his various insanities.
Sadmask at 7:00 pm on May 5th, 2008
Oh yay it’s Dr. Franken Stein.
Hei at 7:02 pm on May 5th, 2008
It’s so colorful….
mu at 7:18 pm on May 5th, 2008
maka’s dad is so…sad. i’m curious to know what kind of person his ex-wife is! how would she stack up to stein? chair-fighting *_* i hope she makes an appearance later. anyway his watching the fight seemed so random last episode but i love how they showed kid wanting to help maka and black☆star! even though he doesn’t make it lol. kid seems to have a sense of justice but doesn’t act too cooler-than-thou about it (too busy being ocd), that’s actually rather refreshing.
phatmlrd at 7:21 pm on May 5th, 2008
I really like how they’ve handle the series thus far keeping it to one chapter per episode (chapters are released monthly so there pretty long ) and keeping the animation high quality through out. Had this been like Bleach or D. grayman they could have easily dragged this fight out across 4 episodes.
Christine N at 7:22 pm on May 5th, 2008
I absolutely can’t wait for the next epsiode, thats when everyone finally gets to meet.
Souleaterfan.com at 8:23 pm on May 5th, 2008
Visit my Soul Eater Fan site. ^^
http://www.souleaterfan.com
GStrike- at 8:23 pm on May 5th, 2008
@Dragoon
Actually the main story starts in about 20th episode or something Imo. when Show Spoiler ▼
Andy at 9:32 pm on May 5th, 2008
Stein has a screw in his head because his top ability is to tune in to his enemies/allies soul wavelength. Tuning your soul might help one think better!
Dragoon at 9:57 pm on May 5th, 2008
@GStrike:
Show Spoiler ▼
ProfessionalRambler at 10:12 pm on May 5th, 2008
I’m so happy that the somewhat-main storyline is finally underway. At least now with the introduction to Dr. Stein and Sid, we’ll be able to move on to Medusa and Kishin’s revival. And the fourth screencap down in the third column FTW!
Crazyguy at 10:12 pm on May 5th, 2008
@Dragoon
Actually the main story kinda revs up during the demon sword chapters(chap: 4-5) where chrona and medusa makes their first appearances
and for those who missed out on the panty interrogation part that was cut from the last ep,
here,
http://www.onemanga.com/Soul_Eater/1/55/
http://www.onemanga.com/Soul_Eater/1/56/
http://www.onemanga.com/Soul_Eater/1/57/