If I had to describe Soul Eater in two words, I’d say, “Stylish madness.” And this fourth volume of The Perfect Edition is the perfect (pun intended) example of what I mean.
The main gang tries to prevent the Black Blood from being delivered to the first Kishin. Stein/Maka’s dad and Maka/Soul continue their battles against Medusa and Crona respectively as Kid and Black Star try to catch up to the frog witch and the immortal wolfman.
Oh, and Blair and Mizune end up basically mud-wrestling in front of an all-too-happy male fanbase. Thankfully, all that groping is not too much of a drag on an otherwise great volume.
Yes, fortunately, these chapters spend most of the time on Stein and Maka (with their weapons) trying to take down their powerful opponents. In both cases, madness plays a large part in their fighting. Stein, of course, has always been the mad scientist type, but he is going to unleash his madness in a way of his choosing. Maka, meanwhile, also makes a choice — a choice to use the black blood to match Crona.
Story-wise, the plot mostly takes a backseat to answer the question of will the heroes succeed or not, but the author certainly doesn’t neglect to include some great character interaction. Maka confronts Crona’s soul in the emotional climax of the volume, and opposites team up in the form of Kid and Black Star. But for me, it’s once again seeing the bond between Maka and Soul that was the best. And hey, how many manga can you witness an internal dialogue between characters, complete with dancing?
Yes, this volume is full of insane characters and even normal (or normal-ish) characters diving into insanity. But as I said earlier, Soul Eater does so with a lot of stylishness. Ok, maybe “stylish” is an odd word choice when, at one point, Maka bites her opponent’s head as if she had the head of Pac-Man. But whether it’s a metaphorical and literal line in the sand, Medusa’s arrow-snakes, or just fists a-blazin’, there’s little doubt the art won’t make an impression on you. The high-quality paper and the color pages are just the cherry on top.
Besides the forced ecchi confrontation between a cat and mouse in human forms, and maybe some of Square Enix’s translation choices over the honorifics-using Yen Press version, Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition volume 4 demonstrates all the series’ strengths in a beautiful package. And while it shows the results of Maka and the gang’s efforts, the manga ends in a way both newbies and veterans alike ready to see what comes next.