Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 – The Longest Review Ever

It feels bad to have to apologize AGAIN for a delay, but circumstances pretty much forced me to put my reviewing aside.  I had to deal with some added responsibilities, and I was sick for most of this week to boot.  It didn’t help that this is by far my longest review to date – although warranted due to the sheer amount of things that I need to cover with this game.  I simply ask that you bear with me on this one.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a 2008 role-playing game developed by Atlus.  It is the fourth game in the Persona series, one of many offshoots of the main Shin Megami Tensei series.  Both this game and Persona 3 are arguably the most popular games in the entire SMT series: Persona 4 has received both an anime adaptation and a recently released sequel in the form of the fighting game Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena.   Persona 4 has been heavily praised in both Japan and worldwide, so let’s see if it lives up to the hype.

Persona 4 starts with the player-named protagonist moving into the small Japanese town of Inaba, to spend a year living with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his daughter, Nanako.  Not long after arriving, a series of mysterious murders start occurring in the town, which leave the police (including Ryotaro, a detective) stumped.  Meanwhile, the protagonist learns of an urban legend called the Midnight Channel – supposedly watching a switched-off TV at midnight will reveal the viewer’s soulmate.  But as the protagonist and his new schoolmates find out, the Midnight Channel doesn’t reveal one’s soulmate, it shows the murder victims prior to their killings!  And what’s more, the protagonist realizes he has the power to go through TV sets like a portal, transporting him and his classmate Yosuke to another world on the other side!

No, you have to actually fit through the screen to go in

The fog-filled world contains mysterious places and items related to the murder victims, as well as a strange bear-like inhabitant called Teddie, who informs them that he has sensed people being thrown into the other world and asks the pair to find a way to stop these events.  Besides Teddie, monsters known as Shadows inhabit the TV World, becoming notably aggressive after people are thrown in.  Initially powerless to fight the Shadows, the protagonist and each of his friends end up confronting “Shadow Selves” of themselves: Shadows formed out of their inner thoughts that wreak chaos in the TV World (the majority of those inner thoughts cover rather mature subject matter – the main reason this game is rated M).  Once they come to terms with the thoughts that gave birth to their Shadow Self, it transforms into a Persona, a manifestation of their true selves that they can commend in battle, allowing them to combat the Shadows.  The protagonist and his friends form an Investigation Team in order to find the link between the TV World and the murders, and catch the culprit behind them!

Considering all that information is just an introduction, the beginning of the game drags on for several hours before you get into your first battles and are allowed to choose your own actions.  The bulk of the game consists of the Investigation Team’s missions to save those that appear on the Midnight Channel, and thus become targets of the murderer.  The mysteries behind the TV World and the murders are revealed very slowly, leaving large sections of the game devoted entirely to character development.  Though in a game where character development directly leads to the ability to fight, it’s quite appropriate.

Following the long introduction, Persona 4 plays like a cross between a visual novel and a dungeon-crawling RPG.  Players are free to wander around Inaba after school and spend time hanging out with other characters, working at part-time jobs, completing various quests or developing their character stats (courage, expression, understanding, knowledge, diligence).  The game operates on a calendar system – players are only allowed one action after school and one action during the evening.  Certain days have pre-determined events, and sometimes the game sadistically steals an entire week from you in the form of midterm exams.

Persona 4’s small town setting really sets it apart from most modern RPGs

Each person that the player can hang out with has their own Social Link, which increases as the protagonist forms deeper bonds with them.  This of course includes all of your party members.  Some Social Links require character stats to be at certain levels before they can be started (annoyingly high requirements in some cases).  It is very important to develop Social Links, for a reason I’ll explain soon enough.

As for the dungeons, they consist of 8 to 10 maze-like floors to fight through to get to the boss, with the enemies becoming progressively tougher as the player progresses.  The floors are randomly generated, so it’s difficult to predict where the doorway to the next floor will be.  The dungeons unfortunately have only one save point in them, right before the boss.  However, there is a purchasable item that allows players to exit the dungeon at any time, and they can start off at the highest floor they reached upon returning.  A battle will start upon contacting any of the shadowy enemy avatars, but unless the player themselves initiates the fight by “attacking” the enemy with their weapon, the enemy(s) will get a preemptive strike.  I found this particular part of dungeons very frustrating, since it is almost impossible to approach the shadows without alerting them, and missing with the weapon attack almost always results in the enemy catching you off-guard.  Each dungeon has its own particular theme (most being rather out there), and manages to stand out despite every floor looking almost identical in appearance.

And your party follows you in some sort of awkward formation

The dungeon’s treasure chests are also randomized: some of them yield weapons and armor, some have SP (magic points) recovery and others have completely useless 10 HP recovery.  SP recovery is hard to come by for most of the game, unfortunately – that fact alone makes it necessary to set aside several days to finish a dungeon.  It doesn’t help that most of the dungeons have several enemies that can’t taken out with physical attacks, thus forcing you to spend SP to deal with them.

The battle system of Persona 4 seems rather simplistic at first, but holds a deceiving amount of depth, especially once you build up a full party.  With the exception of the player’s own character, the player can choose to directly command their party members in battle or just give them orders on how to fight and let them choose their own actions.  I personally didn’t bother with the orders and just controlled them directly.  The key to fighting in this game is exploiting enemy weaknesses, mostly through the elemental magic present in every RPG ever, which knocks them down and allows an additional attack.  If all the enemies are knocked down, the player can order an All-Out Attack, which deals heavy damage to every enemy.  The problem with this though, is that there’s no logical method to figure out enemy weaknesses, reducing the player to simply guessing in most cases.  And the OTHER problem is that your party members have weaknesses of their own, which the enemies can exploit for a free turn of their own.

As you develop Social Links with your fellow party members, they gain the ability to perform certain actions in battle – such as shielding the protagonist from attacks, the ability to endure killing blows and the ability to wake up knocked-down allies when they themselves knock an enemy down.  The REAL key to battle in this game is teamwork, becoming closer to your allies equals better teamwork potential.  I’d advise not to change your party members around too often unless you plan to do a lot of level grinding; being underleveled substantially increases the difficulty of fights.

Stating the obvious is a common theme in battles too

My biggest complaint about the battle system is a simple one: it’s an automatic game over if the protagonist falls.  This is REALLY annoying if you’ve progressed through half the dungeon and just ended up in a bad situation with a powerful enemy and/or got caught off-guard.  You can buy an item that lets you instantly escape from battle, assuming you can recognize when you’re in a tight spot.  The battle system’s ultimately a lot of fun, but the possibility for unfair enemy advantages is very real (thanks a lot, preemptive strikes).

Let’s finally get into the namesake of the game: Personas.  While the protagonist is a special case, every other party member has a single Persona, which possesses specific strengths and weaknesses.  With one exception, each Persona lays claim to one specific element of magic.  The protagonist starts with one Persona like his allies, but can possess up to 12 different ones – additional Personas can be earned through the “Shuffle Time” game that takes place after victories in battle.  Two or more Personas can also be fused together to create a new one in The Velvet Room: a type of dream world that exists in the protagonist’s mind.  Just for the record, no, this isn’t optional.  You’ll likely get destroyed in the first dungeon if you don’t take a timeout to fuse Personas about halfway through, and this applies for just about every subsequent dungeon too.

Fusing 3 Personas usually yields a better result than 2 as well

Fusing Personas is where all your Social Links come into play.  Each Persona and Social Link has an Arcana, such as “Magician” or “Strength”, associated with it, and developing the Social Link of a certain Arcana boosts the player’s ability to create Personas of the same Arcana.  There is a formula of sorts to fusing Personas, but it becomes very complicated when fusing more than two together.  Fused Personas can inherit up to four skills/magic from those that are combined to create them at random, but it’s rather time-consuming to get them to inherit the exact skills you want.  That aside, it’s pretty fun to experiment with fusions and see what new Personas come out of them.  The Persona Compendium expands the potential for experimentation – it allows you to register any Personas you possess and pay a fee to resummon them after they’ve been used in a fusion or discarded.  Helpful if you want to use a specific Persona in multiple fusions.

Now that all THAT’S out of the way, we can move on to the characters.  The player-named protagonist can’t really be considered a character though, as he only communicates via player-chosen speech choices.  He is essentially a player avatar (his canon name is Yu Narukami, also).

Yosuke Hanamura is the first ally to receive a Persona and participate in battle alongside Yu.  He and his family moved to Inaba 6 months prior to the start of the game, and opened the megastore Junes, which is despised by some for stealing much of the local shopping district’s business.  Yosuke himself leans towards being comic relief and establishes himself as a wannabe ladies man – but he proves to be an insightful and reliable (if sometimes hot-headed) team member.

Chie Satonaka is another classmate of the protagonist, a steak-loving tomboy who is interested in martial arts.  While very hot-headed and pushy, she shows occasional moments of insight and is gifted with physical attacks in battle.  She is very protective of her best friend Yukiko Amagi, and has no problem kicking Yosuke around when he says questionable things.

And man can she kick

Said best friend Yukiko Amagi is a very reserved girl whose family owns the Amagi Inn, a traditional Japanese inn that is the pride of Inaba and a well-regarded vacation spot.  Yukiko is set to eventually take over the inn, and is incredibly dedicated to her current job of helping out there everyday.  Perhaps too dedicated, as Yukiko can come across as rather oblivious at times despite her high intelligence.

Teddie is the lone inhabitant of the TV World, a strange being who appears as a person in a bear costume.  He is very emotional and a bit of a worry-wart, aspects of his personality that are often played for laughs along with his unfamiliarity with certain real-world concepts.  A more serious aspect of Teddie is that he himself doesn’t know what kind of being he is, which leads to major problems later on in the story.  He eventually becomes a guide during battle, remembering the strengths and weaknesses of Shadows for the player and giving advice during battle.  At the same time though, he NEVER shuts up when your party members have low health or are afflicted by a status effect.

A bit later in the game, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa and Naoto Shirogane are introduced.  Kanji Tatsumi is an infamous delinquent who allegedly beat up an entire biker gang on his own.  Rise Kujikawa is a teen idol that goes by the stage name of “Risette”.  She moves back to her hometown of Inaba after announcing that she will be taking a break from showbiz.  Naoto Shirogane is a 15-year old detective prodigy, who is sent to Inaba to assist the police with their investigation of the murder case.

Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima are also major characters in their own right.  Ryotaro is so dedicated to his police work that Nanako is often left to fend for herself.  Though the bumbling of his assistant, Tohru Adachi, is sometimes to blame as well.  He does manage to figure out parts of the mystery despite not knowing about the TV World, and eventually comes to suspect that the protagonist is involved in the murder case in some form.  Nanako is initially quite shy, but opens up to the protagonist before long.  She is mature for her age, doing most of the housework that her father isn’t around to do.

She’s absolutely adorable too

The main cast of the game has great overall chemistry, leading to some memorable and hilarious moments, and none of them are unlikable.  They also go through some further development via their Social Links.  I won’t go over the Social-Link only characters, but many of their links can be started via joining clubs at school or accepting certain part-time jobs.

Considering Persona 4 was made for the Playstation 2 system, it looks really nice.  While there’s nothing particularly impressive about Inaba itself, the dungeons are always beautifully rendered and the battles look great.  The bosses are for the most part very imaginative in design and are quite memorable, if a bit out there in the themes they personify.  Each character’s personality is clearly shown in their idle and attack animations – it’s really quite awesome.  The occasional anime cutscenes are a real treat too, especially since they’re usually saved for the most visually-appealing scenes.  I still wish there were more of them though.  The one thing I can criticize would have to be the visual novel-style headshots that pop up whenever a character speaks in-game.  They really, really need to have a wider range of expression when the difference between “normal” and “pissed-off” is very minimal.

You don’t look tired at all!

Persona 4 mostly uses J-pop songs for its music (performed in English).  The game achieves varying levels of success with its soundtrack – while I do enjoy most of the songs, some of them, particularly the dungeon themes, need longer loops to avoid being repetitive as hell.  The boss themes are not J-pop; they’re just awesome.  However, you won’t hear any of them besides “I’ll Face Myself” until pretty late in the game.

The voice acting is, for the most part, really good.  Chie sounds like she should, Teddie sounds appropriately silly and so on.  I don’t feel that Yukiko’s voice is that fitting, however.  It sounds too overly nasally and is more suited to silliness than anything serious.  While doing Social Links, the voice acting becomes just horrible, if you can even call it voice acting.  Only small snippets of dialogue are actually voiced during Social Link activities, which come off as really unneeded and awkward, especially since what they say rarely if ever matches up with the shown dialogue.  This even applies to the Social Links with major characters.  I honestly don’t see why those aren’t fully voiced, in the least.

Overall, Persona 4 is an incredibly engaging game that has sometime for everyone.  Whether you’re interested in the moderately-challenging battle system, solving the murder mystery, fusing cool creatures or watching a varied cast of characters develop before your eyes; there’s never any lack of things to do in Persona 4.  I would recommend this game to any RPG fan of any age. . . well, not really.  The mature subject matter the game covers at times doesn’t make this a game I’d recommend to anyone under 17.  And the visual novel aspects of the game on their own aren’t particularly well presented: don’t buy Persona 4 just for that.  If you happen to own a Playstation Vita, I would recommend you buy the updated version of the game – Persona 4: The Golden.  Aside from including another playable month and new Social Links, it allows the player to actually choose which skills their fused Personas inherit.

Unfortunately, Super Teddie is not a playable character

Soul Eater – Tim Burton does Anime

Soul Eater is a 51 episode shonen anime from the animation studio Bones, released in 2008.  It is adapted from the 2003 manga series of the same name by Atsushi Ōkubo, which is still ongoing.  This unfortunately means that the anime suffers from some Adaptation Decay, which becomes very apparent in the later episodes.  But this series has an interesting look to it and has become quite popular in its own right, so let’s get into my first anime review.

First Impressions

The first few episodes give a very, very brief background on the concept of the series that can leave first-time viewers a bit lost at first.  The main protagonists are some of the many students that attend the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA), a training facility and school for humans that can take the form of magical weapons (referred to as Weapons; so original I know) and their wielders, who are called “Meisters”.  Once a Meister and a Weapon team up, they must capture the souls of 99 demonic entities and the soul of a powerful Witch.  These souls are needed to transform a Weapon into a Death Scythe, a personal weapon for Lord Death himself, who actually runs the DWMA.

Unfortunately, Soul Eater starts off on the wrong foot with the first few episodes, dedicating a full episode to each of the 3 main protagonists: Maka Albarn, Black Star, and Death the Kid.  The first episode, which introduces Maka Albarn and her Weapon, Soul Eater, seems very stretched out.  The major events of the episode could be covered in half the time, and it also tells us next to nothing about Maka’s history and day-to-day interactions with Soul.  What it does manage to establish is that Maka’s father, Spirit, is Lord Death’s current Death Scythe, and is separated from Maka’s mom.  He also has a reputation as a womanizer, something Maka despises him for.  For an episode that is supposed to focus on Maka, it devotes plenty of time to showing Spirit dramatically crying and screaming over Maka’s dislike of him (played for laughs of course).  This complicated daughter-father relationship should have been saved for a later episode, in my opinion.

Black Star and Death the Kid do have very obvious quirks to introduce the audience to, but Black Star’s giant ego and Kid’s obsession with symmetry grow irritating when each has an entire episode devoted to them.  Black Star in particular comes off as incredibly annoying (due to his ego being THE focus of his episode), though he does grow more interesting over time.  Kid’s entire deal with symmetry is a rather sensitive quirk that is not fit to be used as often as it is in his first appearance.  I’d say that while the first episodes establish an interesting feel for the series and are animated very nicely, they ultimately fail to make the plot or characters look all that interesting.  When a show starts as slow as Soul Eater does, it’s hard to make the audience stick around for the story to pick up.

Characters and Development

Maka and Soul seem to be the de facto main pairing of Weapon and Meister in Soul Eater.  At her core, Maka is a rather sweet girl who is dedicated to Soul and matching her mother’s accomplishment of creating a Death Scythe.  But she also has a tsundere streak, which shows itself when Soul gets into trouble or when her father is around.  Maka is quite an emotional character in general, despite her efforts to stay calm.  Soul on the other hand generally stays cool and collected, but is no less dedicated to his partner.  He often comments on whether or not things are cool and reminds himself to keep his cool in every situation, which hints that his “coolness” is a façade of sorts.  Especially considering he’s close friends with Black Star and is capable of matching his energy and impulsiveness.  Maka and Soul are not that interesting on their own, but their relationship is put at the forefront of the series and is repeatedly tested: it’s interesting to see how the pair reacts to certain plot developments.

Apparently scythes are illogical as weapons in reality.

Black Star’s insane ego can get annoying sometimes, but it also allows him to pull off impressive moves when he gets motivated.  While maybe just a little delusional with his stated goal of surpassing the gods, his dedication and sheer willpower are unrivaled.  Black Star can shut out anything that’s unimportant, and focus only on his own (and Tsubaki’s) fights.  Despite his constant boasting, Black Star won’t allow himself to be greedy or dishonest: he’s not really a bad guy all things considered, putting a lot of trust in his partner and friends.  Tsubaki is the one sane man of the main protagonists: a self-less young woman who is the only person capable of handling Black Star’s tremendous ego.  Normally very reserved, she becomes very forceful in battle when teamed up with Black Star.

Kid’s neurotic behavior in many ways parodies typical shonen protagonists that look “cool” all the time, as he desperately tries to be cool, collected and perfectly symmetrical in all situations.  Which he is most of the time, but his perfectionist nature always manages to get in the way in some fashion.  His weapons often get caught in the middle of his neurotic breakdowns, and have to frantically lure him out of his stupor or continue the fight for themselves.  Liz is by far the most amusing of the pair, with her emotional disposition often being played for laughs when she tries to keep Kid on-track.  This is the complete opposite of Patty, who is a stereotypical clueless scatterbrain who Liz ALSO has to constantly keep on-track.  Kid and Black Star have a mutual respect for each other as characters who always want to look as badass as possible.  Though Kid does tend to get frustrated with the latter’s impulsiveness (and personal hygiene).

Lord Death himself, the founder of DWMA, is Kid’s father (shocking I know) and a fairly comedic character despite his role as the school’s headmaster.  His non-threatening appearance and personality, however, serve as a mask for his true plans and motivations.  Lord Death’s tendency to keep others in the dark, including his own son and DWMA staff, leads to plenty of mystery and conflict to keep viewers interested.  Plus he makes a great comedic foil to more serious characters like his current Death Scythe, Spirit.

The witch Medusa is one of the major antagonists, and she is quite effective in that role.  She has a snake motif in her appearance and powers, as well as her personality.  She is sly and manipulative, and takes care to never show fear to anyone.  Unlike many shounen anime villains, Medusa doesn’t shy away from fighting directly, often putting herself in harms’ way to accomplish her goals.  Other witches fear Medusa, thinking that her relentless pursuit of her goals puts them at risk to be exterminated by the DWMA (There seems to be a witch organization of sorts that governs their actions, but very little is made of this).  Another thing that sets Medusa apart from the typical villain is her pure fighting prowess.  While she is still quite strong, she cannot overwhelm every single character in the series, nor does she run from battle without accomplishing her goals.  It is Medusa’s manipulative nature and her ability to alter her plans on the fly that are her greatest assets, not her power.

The appropriately-named Franken Stein was DWMA’s greatest meister, and Spirit’s first partner.  He is a rather mysterious character who calmly helps the meisters and weapons get stronger, but struggles with his own demons behind closed doors.  The madness of his past comes back to haunt him, however, thanks mostly to Medusa.  The theme of madness, which comes up often in Soul Eater, and certain artistic motifs serve to link Stein to the villain.

Crona is an enigma: a character whose GENDER is not revealed to the viewers (though I think Crona’s male).  Crona behaves quite erratically and has a relationship with his weapon that is questionable at best.  He/she is quite fond of the phrase “I don’t know how to interact with ____”, which is proven to be more than a catchphrase when his incredibly depressing backstory is covered.

Excalibur kind of exists in his own vacuum, creating hilarious situations and driving others to wits end whenever he appears.  Most of the time Excalibur is restricted to comic relief episodes that feature him, a wise decision for such a deliberately irritating character.  Though at times the episodes seem to be trying too hard with Excalibur’s over-the-top stories that parody specific genres or films.

“Fool! My legend begins in the 12th century!”

There are plenty of other characters introduced later on, adding plenty of uniqueness to the cast without expanding it beyond the viewers’ ability to keep track of them all.

Plot Development

It is eventually revealed that the monsters that the Miesters hunt were former humans who lost their humanity after they began devouring human souls.  If they are not killed, they will eventually transform into a Kishin, an extremely powerful demon god who threatens the stability of the entire world.  Medusa, the series’ most active antagonist, seeks to reawaken the first and most powerful Kishin of them all.

While it’s true that the first few episodes drag along without revealing all that much about the Soul Eater universe, the story develops quite quickly afterwards.  Battles are rarely dragged out, and all the major characters get their time in the spotlight.  The villains’ plans are put into action without an obscene amount of build-up, and said plans actually SUCCEED much of the time, a shocking development from a shonen anime series.  Rarely is there a lack of action or plot development to be found in Soul Eater.

There’s certainly plenty of comedy in the series between the eccentric personalities of Kid and Black Star, Maka’s relationship with her father and general randomness.  Beyond the first few episodes, the comedy is presented in bursts and kept fresh, and the show is quite good at switching from comedy to seriousness and back again.

While many shonen series either shy away from more mature issues or ignore them in favor of fanservice, Soul Eater does neither.  Sexual themes, madness, child abuse, attempted suicide and plenty of disturbing images. . . all key parts of Soul Eater’s narrative.  Madness in particular plays a large role in the story, serving as the basis of the villains’ schemes and affecting the majority of the main characters in some fashion.  Especially after a certain powerful antagonist shows its face.

Unfortunately, the series’ quick pace turns into a negative later on as the story rushes to the finish, bringing up many plot points and dropping each one within minutes.  This is part of the Adaptation Decay that the series suffers for the last 10 episodes or so, as the manga the series was based off of is still running.  It doesn’t help that most of those 10 episodes embrace the shonen plot elements that the series previously avoided (or parodied) for the most part.  Personally, I would have preferred it if the series simply didn’t have an ending, and just left the door open to be continued with a second season.

Art Style and Animation

Soul Eater’s art style is probably the best thing about the series, and certainly its most unique feature.  The series was designed with darker American animation in mind, and thus ends up giving the environments and characters a very gothic influence.  The backgrounds and scenery shots are very well-done, drawn in a greatly realistic style despite the otherworldliness of the series in general.  That is excluding the sun and moon, which, amusingly, sport goofy faces and a wide grin.  The nighttime scenes and the darker environments are reminiscent of some older 90s cartoons, such as Batman: The Animated Series, that used black canvas as a base for their backgrounds.  Soul Eater also utilizes the classic gothic horror technique of off-balance camera angles, adding to the darker atmosphere.

Against the realistic scenery, the off-the-wall character designs really stand out, both during fights and when just standing around.  The humanoid characters are slim, and most of them incorporate white, gray and/or black into their designs, closely resembling the art style of The Nightmare Before Christmas and basically any animated movie Tim Burton has worked on.  Every character has very distinctive features to set them apart from everyone else, from Maka’s huge black coat to the huge bolt in Stein’s head to Excalibur’s. . . Excalibur-ness.  The only real flaw of Soul Eater’s art style is the fact that some of the full-featured females, mostly Liz Thompson and the walking fanservice machine Blair, are occasionally drawn disproportionate in an exaggeration of the slim character designs.  Even the minor villains that are killed in their first appearance look quite awesome, resembling over-the-top Tim Burton movie villains like Oogie Boogie and Beetlejuice in both appearance and hammy personalities.

Like this guy.

Out of all the settings in the series, Stein’s laboratory is one of strangest.  It’s a mismash of cartoonish mad scientist items, Frankenstein-like stitches holding everything together and black vectors pointing in every direction.  All this perfectly represents Stein’s inner turmoil, and even serves to connect him to a certain snake-themed villain.  Medusa utilizes black vectors in the vast majority of her attacks and, as their art-based connection suggests, shows a rather creepy-sexy interest in the scientist.  The resourceful ways Medusa uses her vectors in battle makes her one of the most exciting characters to see in battle as well.

Just a little creepy.

The other most interesting character to watch in battle is Maka, though Black Star and Kid are certainly not without their awesome moments.  She swings Soul (a scythe weapon) around expertly, and even uses him as a source of momentum to put more force into her punches and kicks.  Maka doesn’t simply rely on Soul’s blade to get the job done, flipping around like an acrobat and contorting her thin frame to dodge attacks and counter from different angles.  Her flexibility and in-your-face style of fighting is a huge departure from main characters in most shonen series, not relying on power alone to beat everyone up.

Soul Eater places importance not only on the souls of monsters and humans, but on the souls of meisters and their weapons as well.  The size of one’s soul (which can only be seen by Maka or other skilled meisters) represents the power of the individual, and the “soul resonance” technique allows meisters and weapons to combine their souls to unlock greater powers.  When matters of the soul are discussed, short illustrations are often used to literally show the viewers how that kind of stuff works.  Most of the concepts aren’t that difficult to grasp, but the unique visualizations of the souls themselves (which resemble their owners) and the sometimes comical ways the concepts are explained are definitely worth seeing.

Sound and Other Factors

The music isn’t really much to remember, a bit disappointing since it could add a lot to the overall feel of the series.  The villain and madness-oriented motifs set an appropriate mood despite this, as do most of the comedic tunes.  What is somewhat annoying is how songs that feature hip-hop vocals tend to pop up at tense moments, getting in the way of the scenes’ emotion.  The most recognizable songs are Excalibur’s theme (one of few genuinely great songs in the series) and a jazz tune with incredibly horrible vocals that I suspect may have been intentionally bad.  The series’ 2 opening themes and 3 ending themes are of high quality though.  The Japanese voice acting is quite impressive, with each character’s voice being very distinct and immediately recognizable.  Maka’s actor can produce an impressive scream with Maka’s normally sickeningly cute voice, and Kid’s actor can effortlessly portray him as both the coolest guy ever and a babbling idiot when his neurotic nature kicks in.  Even Black Star’s enthusiastic voice (Yahooooo!!) is quite infectious.  Medusa in particular has an impressive voice that can switch from friendly to chaotic and evil in a flash.  This is without mentioning the comedic performances of Lord Death and Excalibur, or the terrific portrayals of Crona and Stein.  I would highly recommend to stay away from the English dub of the series though: many of the characters are miscast and show a complete lack of emotion in their acting to boot.

Overall

Soul Eater seems to have found a balance between comedy and serious drama, and rarely steps over itself to include either.  Surprising considering how often Black Star and Kid are over-the-top.  The series strays away from the stereotypes that bind most shonen anime and does its own thing, both with the art style and the mature themes woven into its plot.  Soul Eater is ultimately a very enjoyable and action-packed series that is nearly ruined in the last 10 episodes where the plot takes a huge turn away from its source material, and it’s forgettable and sometimes flat-out horrible soundtrack.  But it survives these flaws in the end: I would highly recommend this series to general action fans and fans of darker American animation alike.

If you don’t watch it, Stein will find you.

Understanding Anime: The Terms and Tropes

Much like any other medium, anime has a large amount of terms and tropes associated with it.  Unlike the mostly self-explanatory terms used in video games or movies, those used in anime may not be well-recognized by the general public.  Thus this article will define some of the more common terms and tropes used in anime and anime discussion, ones that I will use in my anime reviews on this blog.  Some of the tropes are taken from the TVtropes website: I will credit the site when I introduce said tropes.

Basic Terms

OVA

Original Video Animation, or OVA, is a short-form anime series that generally runs between 60 to 80 minutes, though many are longer or shorter than that.  These are the equivalent of direct-to-video films in the U.S., but boast a high level of quality, unlike most direct-to-video features.  OVAs are often used to continue or retell the story of a TV anime series after they end their runs, or simply to avoid having to adhere to the standards and restrictions of TV.  When an OVA is based off an already-existing anime series, they are generally more explicit and have higher animation quality due to their shorter length.  OVAs can also be referred to as OAVs, or original animated video.

Subtitled vs English Dubbed Anime

Any anime series that is licensed for distribution in the U.S. receives an English dub, replacing all the Japanese voice actors (otherwise known as Seiyuu) with English voice actors.  They sometimes are edited for content, or to remove references that English viewers wouldn’t get.  The quality of dubs vary greatly, ranging from terrific to just plain awful.  Some viewers prefer dubs, as they make the story easier to follow, and others proclaim all dubs awful and stick to the original Japanese acting with English subtitles.  For series that I post reviews of, I’ll look at both the original Japanese and the dub versions if they are available, though I admit to having much higher standards for dubs than for the former.

Otaku

Otaku is a term that is used to describe obsessive fans of a specific hobby, series or medium.  When used by English speakers, it usually refers to obsessive fans of video games and/or anime exclusively.  It is used as an insult in both English and Japanese, more so than geek or nerd.  The stereotypical Otaku is a fat, smelly and overall creepy male, who spends all his time in his room watching anime and/or playing video games.  They usually own a large amount of anime action figures or other merchandise relating to their particular obsession.  Another term that goes hand-in-hand with the Otaku stereotype in Japan is hikikomori, which describes a usually-male person who completely shuts out society and spends all their time on one or two solitary activities.  Hikikomori are generally lazy and reluctant to devote their time to anything else.  While rare, females can be considered Otaku as well.

Manga

Japan’s version of American comics, but more focused on individual, separate series than the Marvel and DC domination of the latter.  Most anime series are actually adapted from manga, and manga thus contains the same art style and genres.  The manga itself is drawn without color, excluding the chapter and volume covers.  A variation of manga is the light novel, books that contain manga-style art and rarely exceed 200 pages.  These are usually released in series just like manga, and are also a common source for anime adaptations.  The American equivalent would be the graphic novel.

Genres

Shonen

This, along with the next 3 terms, refers more to a demographic targeted by anime and manga than an actual genre, but nonetheless are important when it comes to choosing series to watch or read.  Shonen anime mostly targets pre-teen to teenage boy, though many Shonen series also have a large female fanbase.  Shonen generally, but not always, features a mix of action, comedy and drama, without putting a lot of time into romantic themes that would bore their intended audience.  The main protagonist, and the majority of the characters in general, are usually male.  The definition of exactly what is and what isn’t Shonen is quite vague, with more mature series such as Death Note being viewed as Shonen.  Most anime that airs on American TV is Shonen, and is often edited to target an even younger demographic.

Shojo

This is the gender-flipped version of Shonen: series animed at pre-teen to teenage girls.  Shojo anime tends to give a bigger focus to romance and relationships, and (generally) has a more cutesy art style.  They may or may not feature action, and tend to be slightly more risqué than Shonen series.  As a result, Shojo series are rarely aired in the U.S., and when they are they’re often heavily edited in order to attract a SHONEN audience.

Seinen

Seinen anime series target adult males 18-40, which falls into the minority of viewers.  Seinen is not associated with any one genre in-particular, but examples tend to aim for more realism than Shojo and Shonen anime, and often feature mature content or psychological themes.  However, neither large amounts of violence nor psychological themes clearly define Seinen: it is the realism.  Plenty of darker series like Claymore or Deadman Wonderland actually fall into the Shonen category.  While Seinen series target males by definition, female viewers are just as likely to enjoy them.  Most mature series that air outside of Japan are Seinen, including those that air on Adult Swim.

Josei

Josei’s the female version of Seinen, targeting adult women 18-40.  Like Seinen, Josei is not associated with a particular genre, and aims for realism.  Josei series tend to be set in the modern day, and focus on a female protagonist’s (adult) relationship struggles or growing pains.  There are Josei series that feature a male protagonist, such as Nodame Contabile.  Unlike Seinen, Josei series very rarely air in English markets.

Ecchi

Ecchi is a term that is too broad to define in Japanese, but the general English meaning of Ecchi is “fanservice”.  While plenty of anime contain sexual content and jokes, a series in the Ecchi genre make such things a main focus.  Some, but not all, Ecchi series push plot to the side in favor of featuring plenty of panty shots, double entendres and nudity.  Ecchi series usually push the limits of what is acceptable to air on TV.  Ecchi typically does not contain straight porn content and avoids EXPLICT nudity, so they rarely cross the line into the next genre.  Most Ecchi is comedic by nature, and sometimes have OVA series made later that are more explict.

Hentai

Hentai is the dreaded step above (or below) Ecchi, essentially anime porn.  Hentai is Japanese for “perverted”, after all.  Hentai series usually do have plot, if not always compelling, and their themes can range from lighthearted to dark and gory.  Hentai, of course, never airs on public TV.

Harem

A Harem series is a specific type of romantic comedy that features a male main protagonist along with many, many female characters.  Said protagonist is often the ONLY visible male.  Most, if not all, of the major female characters take a romantic interest in the protagonist at some point.  This is the true defining factor of a Harem anime, as many other series feature elements of the genre, but do not have romance as the main focus.  Additionally, some romantic comedies will only feature one male protagonist, but are not Harem series due to the male having only one love interest.  True Harem series heavily cross over with the Ecchi genre as well.  Some series are even “Reverse Harem”, featuring one female protagonist and many male characters with a romantic interest in her.  Both Harem and Reverse Harem series usually target the Shonen or Shojo Demographic.

Yuri/Yaoi

Yuri and Yaoi are more general terms than genres, but are quite widely used.  Yuri roughly translates to “girl love”, while Yaoi translates to “boy love”.  Yuri and Yaoi series focus on homosexual relationships between girls and boys, respectively.  Series can contain aspects of Yuri or Yaoi without being considered part of the “genre”.  Unless a series focuses on romance and features a canon, homosexual relationship involving a main character, it won’t be classified as Yuri or Yaoi.  Yuri and Yaoi are also used as general terms to describe girl-on-girl and guy-on-guy relationships or romantic moments.

Mecha/Real Robot/Super Robot

Mecha is one of the better-known genres exclusive to anime, featuring (usually) giant robots that are usually piloted by humans (or aliens, depending on the story).  Mecha anime is usually dramatic in nature, but can veer into comedy on occasion, and can pretty target any Demographic.  Mecha series tend to fall into one of two sub-categories: Real Robot or Super Robot.  Real Robot series focus on the hard specs and science involved in piloting robots, and more often than not will use realistic designs, and sometimes feature more vehicle-like battle machines.  Super Robot series, on the other hand, embrace Shonen tropes, featuring “cooler” robot designs that ignore hard science and technology in favor of over-the-top Science Fiction elements and intense space battles, in which the pilots prevail through sheer force of will.  Mazinger Z was the first series to really popularize Mecha (specifically the Super Robot category) in the mid-70s.  The long-running Gundam franchise was responsible for inventing and popularizing Real Robot series, and also created a popular Super Robot series with G Gundam.

Magical Girl

You’d think that this term simply refers to girls that can use magic, but it is more specific than that.  A Magical Girl receives some form of magical powers via various means (they do NOT learn how to use magic by themselves or in a school of some sort), and focus on how said powers affect their lives, and usually feature some dark and threatening antagonists that the Magical Girl(s) have to fight to save the world.  Thus, the Magical Girl term can refer to both the anime genre and to the actual girls themselves.  The Japanese word for Magical Girl is “Mahou Shoujo”, and appropriately enough, most Magical Girl series target the Shojo Demographic.  That said, there are plenty of series in the genre that target Shonen or even Seinen audiences.  Seinen Magical Girl series are quite rare, and tend to be darker than other examples.  Recently however, a Seinen Magical Girl series by the name of Puella Magi Madoka Magica has become incredibly popular in both Japan and English markets.

Appearance/Art Tropes

Anime Hair (from TVtropes)

It’s no secret that many, many anime characters have impossible hair.  It’s one thing for a character to have pink or blue hair, but others sport impossibly long hair spikes or flat-out gravity defying hairdos.  Look no further than Yu-gi-oh’s Yugi for an example of both unnatural hair color(s) and impossible hairdos.  The trend with this trope is to give the most outlandish hair to main protagonists and other important characters, though this has become less common in recent series.  I’d say that anime hair is actually more common in JRPGs than it is in anime.

Super-deformed/Chibi

A specific art style that depicts characters in a very exaggerated, cutesy manner, complete with giant heads, short bodies and large mouths.  This is typically used in Shonen or general comedy series to show characters’ antics in a more amusing manner, or to lighten the mood in the midst of dramatic events.  The chibi art style is sometimes used as the default style in shows such as Shin-chan, and in non-canon comedic shorts from otherwise serious shows like Shakugan no Shana.  Anime-style video games and even some American cartoons utilize this style as well.

Bishonen

Put simply, this is a male character with very feminine features: a slender body with a lack of muscle, well-kept and often longer hair, and soft facial features.  Such a character is easily mistaken for a girl as a result.  This is extremely common among anime and anime-style video games, in order to make the characters appeal to female viewers/players.  If the series in question specifically targets females, you can expect the vast majority of the male characters to be Bishonen (or bishie for short).  There’s also the “bishie sparkle”: a cloud of twinkling stars that surround a Bishonen to humorously exaggerate their bishie-ness.  This is occasionally used with very un-bishonen characters for the irony and laugh factor.

Moe

Pronounced “moh-eh”, is a term used to describe all things cute and adorable, mostly female anime characters.  Moe characters are typically drawn with soft facial features and very large eyes, and appear innocent and youthful in comparison to other characters (even if they are an adult in age).  They usually have an innocent outlook on life to match, and tend to be quiet and submissive in personality.  It is also common for Moe characters to have some sort of charming quirk, ranging from strange hobbies to unique speech patterns or wearing costumes.  However, the cute appearance is the only requirement for Moe: even some male characters can be considered Moe (usually kids).  Moe characters are very common in Ecchi series, and in series that target the Shojo Demographic.

Personality Tropes

Tsundere

The Tsundere is an extremely common character type, used in all types of anime genre.  A Tsundere is a (usually female) character, whose personality and general behavior ranges from sweet and kind to incredibly irritable and often violent on a daily basis.  The sweet part of a tsundere is referred to as “dere dere” while the irritable part is called “tsun tsun”.  This obviously allows for a huge amount of variation when it comes to how often a tsundere spends in dere dere mode as opposed to tsun tsun.  However, most tsundere characters can be split into two categories: a Type A tsundere has the irritable “tsun tsun” as his/her default personality, and a Type B has “dere dere” as their default.  Some characters switch between Type A and Type B depending on plot developments and character interactions.

The majority of romantic comedy and harem series feature female tsunderes, often as the love interest of the male lead.  This sets up a scenario in which the tsundere will frequently abuse their love interest and deny being interested in them at all if they are a Type A, or shower them with kindness if Type B, only bringing out tsun tsun behavior if provoked.  Sometimes they will only direct abuse towards their love interest, which is especially common with the Type B tsundere.  While the tsundere trope is associated strongly with females, male tsunderes are not uncommon.

There even exist offshoots of the tsundere trope such as the Kuudere: a Type A tsundere who acts cold towards others, sometimes peppering their speech with snarky comments and thinly-veiled insults.  Their dere dere side is typically reserved for their family and/or love interest.  Another one of these offshoots, the Yandere, even gets its own section.

Yandere

A Yandere is a character that is very kind and sweet on the outside, especially to one specific loved one.  But in contrast to a tsundere, who is kind on the inside, a Yandere is a PSYCHO on the inside.  They are obsessed with a love interest or other loved one, to the point where they may violently attack or kill anyone they perceive as a “rival” to the affections of their love interest.  In extreme cases, they will even attack said love interest if they feel that they’re going to lose him/her.  Yandere characters are usually female, with male examples being much less common but existing nonetheless.  The popular image of a Yandere is a younger girl with a Moe appearance, who uses their sharp object of choice to attack their “rivals”.

Idiot Hero (from TVtropes)

Even those whose only experience with anime comes from Pokemon or Dragonball Z should be familiar with this character type: it’s pretty self-explanatory anyway.  An Idiot Hero often shows up as the main character of Shonen anime series, and is incredibly simple-minded and idealistic in comparison to others.  However, the Idiot Hero is often an incredibly powerful fighter, who enjoys fighting for the fun of it (but NEVER enjoys killing).  The Idiot Hero inspires their allies with their pure fighting spirit and never-give-up attitude, and is usually so thickheaded as to be incorruptible.  The intelligence of the Idiot Hero can range from slightly dim-witted to a complete moron who can barely comprehend basic math.  It should also be noted that this trope does not apply to characters who are generally of average intellect, or those who fake stupidity in order to trick enemies.

Idiot Heroes are usually male, and are almost as common in non-Japanese animation as they are in anime.

Other

Visual Novel

Imagine a combination of books, anime and video games: this is essentially what a Visual Novel is.  It is a story told using anime-style still images, text and sound, that usually presents the player with choices at key moments in the story.  The story will then progress in a different manner depending on their choices, similar to a choose-your-own-adventure book.  Some Visual Novels focus on telling a compelling story, others demand a larger amount of participation from the player, ranging from solving mysteries or puzzles to segments of fighting game gameplay.  One specific genre of Visual Novel is the dating sim: which features two or more love interests that the player can pursue based on their choices.  Many Visual Novels that are not pure dating sims may contain elements of them.  Many dating sim-type VNs also contain full-on hentai scenes, making them suitable only for adults.  Visual Novels that contain such content are branded as “eroge” or “h-games”, which stands for hentai-game.

Some of the most recognized Visual Novels include Capcom’s popular Ace Attorney series and Type-Moon’s Fate/Stay Night.  Many games in other genres also contain elements of Visual Novels or dating sims, such as Persona 4 and Blazblue.  Visual Novels are almost exclusively developed in Japan, and the few Western examples are modeled after Japanese VNs.  I will typically not post reviews for Visual Novels on this blog, but I will be reviewing one of the few Western examples in the future.

Adaptation Decay (from TVtropes)

This trope is more of a universal media issue than one that only relates to anime, but it is nonetheless very widespread in anime.  Whenever a book is turned into a movie, or a manga or video game turned into an anime, some things will more than likely be changed.  Sometimes they have to cut out scenes so the series or movie won’t drag on, other times they’ll flat out add or remove characters or change the ending.  And in the worst case, they’ll just throw away the original plot entirely and make up a new one in the name of making money.  Sometimes movies or series are made better due to these changes, but this trope is specifically about when they end up worse.

When dealing with anime specifically, the fact is that most anime is adapted from manga, light novels, Visual Novels or video games.  When anime adaptations are made of manga or light novel series that are still ongoing, the writers will often have to come up with an ending of their own, or simply have the series end without a conclusion.  Either way, the quality of the anime will likely suffer as a result.  For Visual Novels, writers often have to combine the multiple paths that the story can take based off of player choices, sometimes resulting in a muddled plot.  The translation of anime series into other languages can result in decay as well, especially if dialogue is heavily changed or if it is edited to target a younger audience.

The fact that most anime series are adapted from written works, and typically have a set amount of episodes, actually gives it an advantage over other narrative television shows.  Even if a series gets popular enough to last multiple seasons, it can only go on for as long as its source material does.  Live-action dramas, sitcoms and non-Japanese animated series tend to either disappear after one season due to lack of interest, or they run for so long that the plot drags along at a snails pace or the series becomes stale and gets cancelled before it can get a proper conclusion.

A Defense: Anime and Animation

Don’t fight! You need to work together!

This article will be more of a personal one than others, covering my thoughts on anime and a defense of anime (and animation in general) as an important and respectable medium.  This will probably turn into more of a half-hearted rant and a stream of consciousness-style piece, so bear with me if you will.  Shortly following this will be another article featuring a short list of anime-related terms and tropes along with definitions, which I will be referring to in many of my upcoming anime reviews.

Anime has always been a touchy subject since the industry expanded beyond Japan’s borders.  I personally love anime, for its diverse methods of storytelling and the fact that most series actually end.  When compared to live-action TV shows, which are typically cancelled before their time or far overstay their welcome, anime is generally planned much better.  I am not an avid watcher of American cartoons, but I also will not proclaim anime as the better medium or vise versa.

Whether it’s a series, film or anime-styled video game, there are those who will immediately dismiss it as low-brow, fanservice-filled crap based on the anime art style.  Or even worse, they will assume its kiddy fare, based solely on the fact that it is ANIMATION AT ALL.  This kind of thinking is quite infuriating to me, but has a legitimate source in common misconceptions that popular media and culture have drilled into their heads.

The first misconception is quite rampant, despite being defied repeatedly.  It is the idea that all animation, regardless of content, is and should be targeted towards children.  In North America and a host of other countries, that idea is unfortunately reinforced by most of the animation produced there.  Shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy, and (somewhat) more mature animated films such as Rango have stood against this misconception, but have ultimately done little to change it.  The problem is that even adult-oriented animation tends to be comedic in nature: rarely is an American cartoon both serious AND mature, mainly due to the bottom line of cost versus risk.  Producers are simply unwilling to make mature content, sticking to the safer option of children’s programming that MIGHT throw in a couple jokes for the parents so they don’t get bored.

The idea of animation only being for children was in fact born out of the late 1950’s, when the age of theatrical animated shorts came to a close due to the comparatively lower cost of live-action film and TV.  Animators turned to the small screen as a result, and produced lower-quality animation to cut their cost.  The success of shows like Scooby-Doo made them realize that children were their best source of income, and pandered almost exclusively to them with low-cost animation and series that amounted to 30-minute commercials for toys and related products.  Within 10 years, the idea that animation was only for kids had been driven into the mind of the public, and was there to stay.  This is despite the fact that the majority of animation up until the mid-50’s was intended for adult audiences.

Cartoons used to have class, you know.

I think that before the “animation is for kids” mindset can truly be broken down, someone has to take a risk, and try to make a big hit out of a serious, mature animated series or movie.  I think such a feat would be possible if the young adult market is targeted: series like Family Guy and FX’s Archer have proven to be successful in that regard.  Cable channels like FX and Spike boast a high young adult viewership that could prove key in making serious animation successful.  As for film, I think that filmmakers that have had previous success with animation, or popular filmmakers that are inspired by animation, such as the Wachowski Brothers, might be able to create a barrier-breaking animated film.  The problem of course would be convincing studios to take on such a project.  Another idea would be to take inspiration from the past, and create short-form animation to be shown before films like in the 30’s and 40’s.  These would be serious, mature shorts that could establish a base for a full-length feature if they become popular.  Considering the number of people who enjoy watching movie trailers in theaters, and how short-form animation could be seen as another form of trailer, I think that this could be an effective way to create more interest in adult animation.

The second misconception held by the general public directly concerns anime (which I’ve barely even talked about yet).  This is the idea that anime is full of violence and sexual content, and only for socially awkward nerds and obsessed fans with rooms full of action figures.  Now this misconception is mainly born out of the fact that most people have had very limited to no experience with anime at all, and their only knowledge of the medium comes from occasional films that manage to get released outside of Japan and throw-away jokes on sitcoms.  Thus they tend to stay away from anime in general, while silently agreeing with the mainstream’s ill-informed opinions on the medium.  Even if they DO watch anime, it will usually be one of the few dubbed series that air during the day such as Pokemon or Naruto, which are highly edited in order to target children.  So they’ll mindlessly lump anime under the first misconception of all animation being for kids.

These people are not real ninjas.

The second misconception cannot exist without the first being partially shattered: biases against animation in general and anime often relate to each other.  Assuming that the first misconception has been broken down, the second misconception could be broken if a mature anime film was released in theaters worldwide, or if a mature series was aired in primetime on American TV.  The only anime films that received wide theatrical releases in the U.S. to my knowledge have been Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away, both PG-rated films that were localized by Disney.  Many anime series that fit the “mature” moniker have in fact been aired on American TV, but they typically have been aired on channels like Cartoon Network, and are heavily edited for content.  Any mature series that are not edited for a young audience have generally aired late at night, ala Adult Swim and the Syfy channel.  Targeting an adult audience in primetime would certainly be a risk, but given the right series, could be successful.

Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Monster, Durarara!!, and Outlaw Star are just among a handful of series that could appeal to a wide audience.  They have the capability to draw in established fanbases of live-action series like CSI, Grim or science-fiction in general, which feature similar elements of action, politics and mystery.  All of these have even aired on American TV before, though Monster was only 8 episodes into its run on Syfy when they cut all their anime programming.  These types of series can allow fans of live-action programming to transition into anime that appeals directly to their love of a specific genre, and break down their expectations of the anime medium.  Any genre that exists in live-action exists in anime, thus there is an anime out there for every crime show fan, sci-fi junkie and so on.