SOUL EATER - 23 September 8
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Summary:
Knowing that he’s running out of time, Stein wants to defeat Medusa quickly, but she’s hard to catch off guard. Medusa is simply fighting to buy time, and in order to beat her, Stein has to refocus himself. She tries to tempt him again to join her, but Stein lets himself go wild and explains the madness and fear inside of himself - what he needs is the order granted by an ego-less god. Medusa eventually stabs Stein in the gut, and from that, he counterattacks with his signature Kon-i attack. Though greatly injured, Medusa thinks she has won because she’s in position to cut off Stein’s head with her Tail Snake. She is thus surprised when she suddenly freezes in place, unable to move at all. The reason is because Stein had used one of his suture techniques on her entire body. Unfortunately, Stein can’t do anything else until he releases those strings, and Medusa knows that once that happens, her Tail Snake would behead Stein faster than he can kill her.
Meanwhile, Eruka prepares the black blood for the Kishin, and when she gets interrupted by Kid, Free protects her. Both Kid and Free come under the effect of the madness of Ashura, but both are able to get out of it, and Kid ends up keeping Free occupied while Black*Star arrives and goes after Eruka. After a brief struggle, Eruka manages to stick the syringe needle into Ashura’s bag, however Black*Star uses everything he’s got to break the syringe, spilling the black blood everywhere. Back in the tunnel, Stein knows that his chances of success are very low, and right as he decides to take a gamble, the entire place starts shaking. He and Maka’s father both can sense that the Kishin has been revived, and as it turns out, Black*Star hadn’t succeeded in breaking the syringe - he had merely hallucinated that he did. The success of Ashura’s revival causes Medusa to laugh and declare this as her victory, but Stein uses this very moment to release everything and strike. He succeeds in slicing her in half, and as the lower half of her body explodes into a rain of blood, Stein comments on how he got his chance when she felt a sense of achievement from the Kishin’s revival. He grimly notes the irony in how he won because of the Kishin, yet in the end, the Kishin’s revival is his defeat. Having said that though, he’s then laughs over how refreshing this is. Over at the shrine, nothing Kid does can stop the revival. Ashura soon begins to emerge and wears the bag as his skin, smiling in the process.
Preview
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For an episode that I thought was a bit slow in the middle (particularly during some of the Stein vs. Medusa parts), I liked how the two battles ended up being tied together, with the result of one affecting that of the other. The BONES staff also did a pretty good job handling the scene where Stein slices Medusa apart. It managed to be quite bloody, yet the arrow/snake shape of the blood took off some of the edge to it, and I suspect that’s a much better option than just animating less blood or even censoring. In any case, now that Ashura is revived, I’m looking forward to some more heated battles, and from the preview, it appears that I’ll get my wish of seeing Shinigami-sama in action.
Oh and on a semi-random side-note, I didn’t realize how cute Eruka could be sometimes - she’s a fun character to watch, especially her facial expressions.
waffles54 at 12:51 pm on September 8th, 2008
There won’t be a ashura vs shinigami sama if the stories follow the manga
ranom at 12:56 pm on September 8th, 2008
yea, that’s true if they do continue on the manage path
ranom at 12:57 pm on September 8th, 2008
manga* ehehe
Lawrence at 1:02 pm on September 8th, 2008
forth lol………………….
Lawrence at 1:04 pm on September 8th, 2008
wait there is ashura vs shinigami in the manga XD check I beleive it to be in around chapter 20 XD
FlareKnight at 1:15 pm on September 8th, 2008
Well with Medusa biting it I guess this will let Eruka survive. Though being in the room with the revived Kishin may end up getting her killed anyways so not much of a trade off :).
Was just an insane episode. The fight with Stein and Medusa was a mess and they did a good job with it. Plus the struggle to try and stop the Kishin from being revived was pretty intense.
Kanako at 1:53 pm on September 8th, 2008
cant wait for new opening ! i think after next ep
oleg.t at 2:18 pm on September 8th, 2008
looks damn coolll have to see
Shinn Agami at 2:19 pm on September 8th, 2008
Oho! Medusa’s decapitation was very… err… artistic to say the least, but the wriggling snake/vector/blood thingy made me think of health class all of a sudden, :).
Looks like the cat’s out of the bag. Ashura is one creepy Playdoh, and i can’t wait for next Ep’s fight scenes.
Ungas at 2:44 pm on September 8th, 2008
wasn’t medusa’s body cut into two by stein because she let go of her guard when ashura awakened?
Show Spoiler ▼
Algent at 3:11 pm on September 8th, 2008
The rain of bloods vectors is the same in the manga. They are really sticking to the manga =]
quigonkenny at 3:40 pm on September 8th, 2008
>>“It managed to be bloody, yet the arrow/snake shape of the blood took off some of the edge to it, and I suspect that’s a much better option than just animating less blood or even censoring.”
Actually, I think they did animate less blood. It was pretty nasty in the manga, although the arrow/vector blood was the same. And I guess they did “censor”
it in one respect, in that there is a nice two-page spread right as Stein slices through her that shows that the cut slices through not only her, but also the vector threatening to behead him. In the anime the cut is always just out of frame, except for the “lower body fountain” part.
Nice to see animated blood that’s actually blood colored, though. Guess black blood was never really an option, though, huh… ^_^
ROFLWAFFLELAWL at 4:05 pm on September 8th, 2008
Eruka ftw. One of my fav characters ;]
As for the Ashura VS Shinigami I think it’s just a recap on the very first fight correct?
BROOKLYN otaku at 4:13 pm on September 8th, 2008
damn Skippy the frog girls cute GECKO!! but she still needs to get hers for betraying the mouse clan’s kin. otherwise cant wait to see “what was a satisfying fatality” animated. evil rarely wins BIATCH!!!
nyan-nyan at 4:51 pm on September 8th, 2008
@Omni
ERUKA?! CUTE?!! OF COURSE!! I’ve thought so from the very begining! I have a small fetish for straight bangs with long, straight, hair. That’s all there is to it. ;D
DZero at 7:06 pm on September 8th, 2008
@ROFLWAFFLELAWL
No, since he doesn’t have the mask from the past on.
Ally at 8:47 pm on September 8th, 2008
Not to mention the form of Ashura, if it was the past he’d be wearing that cool looking pinstripe coat.
Quen at 1:10 am on September 9th, 2008
My main activity during this ep was taking screencaps of cute Eruka moments
Kaitune at 3:18 am on September 9th, 2008
Stein remains my forever favorite character in this series… I really love the deadly intimated relationship between him and Medusa.
Show Spoiler ▼
Eirias at 8:38 am on September 9th, 2008
I don’t get why Kid doesn’t just dominate the people he fights. I understand that it is a plot contrivance that he remains fairly weak, but he is a shinigami. He’s used his executioner mode once, to fight Chrona to a stand-still. Just because he doesn’t have black blood or assassin’s techniques doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a ton more soul wavelength than the others and two nearly-perfectly synchronized weapons.