I was struggling with how to describe how I felt about Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition this time around until I was suddenly struck by a single word: appetizer. Many people when they go out to eat start with an appetizer. Some people even have appetizers as their whole meal. But those who just want to get on with the main course? Those are the people going to be most disappointed in this volume. The final battles – or, rather, the things people want to see, like Maka/Soul reuniting with Crona — are still in the kitchen being cooked.
Instead, volume 11 provides a sample of showing how characters are powering up as madness is spilling out more and more into the world. Soul has become a Deathscythe, and the two practice flying. But that involves a lot of squabbling over how Scythe-Soul’s wings should look, and their being unable to sync causes an issue when one of Noah’s underlings appears on the scene. Meanwhile, Kid is still captured and facing abuse. Kirikou and his weapons, the Thompson sisters, Kim, and Yumi Azusa look into one of Medusa’s hideouts. Medusa sends out a brainwashed Crona to face Black*Star, but her science experiment is forced to end early when Justin sneaks up on her.
Even for these 1.5-in-1 omnibuses, that’s quite a list, especially when you add in Soul Eater‘s propensity to add in random moments of absurdity and/or humor even in the midst of tense scenes. And they each have their strengths: Soul and Maka’s fight is the most visually impressive; Kirikou and company involves a mix of often underutilized characters; seeing Crona agonizing from the Black Blood/Ragnarok while having no recollection of their time at DWMA can be heart-wrenching, and there’s always something exciting about an antagonist vs antagonist fight.
At the same time, though, they all lack the heartiness of a well-rounded meal. For instance, Crona vs Black*Star is rather repetitive, with it mostly being Crona shouting as the ninja yells back about the lack of power Crona gained and trying to get Crona to remember who Maka is. Soul acts even more obstinate than usual about the form the wings take. And in a volume full of Kid being brave despite his situation, the very last pages of volume 11 is Kid losing his cool in a typical facepalm way. Nothing will make you want to immediately go grab volume 12 when the third- and second-to-last pages of Soul Eater are just literal lines. (That’s sarcasm, in case it wasn’t clear.)
Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition has had a pretty strong run as of late, but this volume cools off a bit. It’s not a straight training arc, but it’s more like the characters are flexing a bit with what they can do now. But they all surely have more tricks up their sleeves — and opponents with whom they have more history with.