Soul Eater introduces a type of shnen full of satire and self awareness while also giving depth to the three main characters with their sidekicks/weapons introduced separately in each of the first three episodes: Maka Death the Kid and Black Star. The premise of the show given in the 1st episode is an intriguing one. Collect 99 souls of evil humans and 1 witchs soul so that their weapon can become a death scythe which is to be used by Death. Too bad they completely forgot about that idea as the show continued. As the show goes on it falls into the cliche shnen tropes it was making fun of in the 1st half of the show. The tropes or setbacks they gave to the main characters were actually very funny. Maka and her weapon Souls constant arguments with each other Kids obsession with symmetry and Black Stars arrogance were used perfectly. It didnt feel like it was forced nor was it annoying or used as a cheap gag which it would be later in the series. The tone of the series shifts from satirical while telling a story I was invested in to a straight shonen cliche and all the intelligence that I felt was behind the first half of the show was left behind by the second half. Shrouded in seriousness and dread with cheap comedic relief in moments Soul Eater felt like a drag to get through. The characters were the most annoying part of the series for me especially since they started off as the best part of the series in the first half. Death the Kids OCD was completely forgotten about unless they need some comedic relief Maka became a spoiled brat and Black Stars charm was wasted by not being given proper development to his character in the second half of the show. A lot of topics teased on the show were completely forgotten or werent properly explored. For example: Makas relationship with her father and mother Black Stars relationship with his clan and his progression to mastering his weapon. A lot of characters werent given arcs that i think they deserved such as Spirit Albarn Franken Stein Makas scythe Soul Eater. They only glossed over Soul not liking his family name I definitely would have liked his origins to have been explored. Plus Makas mother was foreshadowed as this mysterious but incredibly powerful meister but she wasnt even shown once in the show. If she was such an important character in terms of power why didnt she come to help when the world was being destroyed? SIDE NOTE: the voice acting in this show I didnt watch the English dub was incredible. Kudos to the actors. The visuals are one thing I can commend the show wholeheartedly on. Soul Eater was animated beautifully and the fight scenes were spectacular. Though there werent many long ones in this show. Black Star wasnt given enough battle scenes in 51 episodes when he was the one could have had the most stunning fights visually. The show only gives glimpses of the heights they could reach in a Black Star fight but doesnt fully invest in them in terms of screen time. The only fight that gave my eyes what they wanted was the fight between Black Star and Asura. Though when he was getting ready to fight Asura after he got decreased from his giant monster form the show cuts to Makas uninteresting journey to save Soul from the demon. When they cut to Asura we see Black Star defeated. The fact that they didnt show the fight was very disappointing because it could have given Black Star his proper light. Soul Eater isnt the worst show out there. Its far from it. My disappointment lies in the potential promise and intelligence it had in the first half which all got reduced down to a mediocre shonen anime.