If Soul Eater were ever to get an anime reboot, it’s volumes like this where you hope it doesn’t go the glorified vomic route. There would be way too many scenes where it would feel like the characters are monologuing, and who needs a 1:1 ratio of squeaks-to-words. I know from earlier volumes The Perfect Edition trims some of the text fat from Yen Press’ version, but this series still tends to be rather wordy. It’s rather distracting when you try to take in a page or panel but instead see a huge block of text in a single speech bubble.
Doubly so when the story’s going great, as it is here.
Maka and Soul, like the rest of their classmates, finish up their assignments and head back to DWMA. But for the heroes (minus Black*Star, who is off training), they don’t get to stay at school very long. Someone’s been providing DWMA with some hot tips on who’s a witch and such, even naming one of the DWMA students. Then the informant shows up and wants to bargain for even more valuable intel.
That person? None other than Medusa. So it’s no surprise DWMA as a whole — particularly Maka, who wants to find Crona — is reluctant to believe her. Death himself quotes the old cliché about how an enemy of my enemy is a friend, but there is still a lot of tension as they try to give Medusa some level of trust to lead an infiltration on Arachne’s HQ while also keeping her in check.
Maka vows both to do her duty as a member of this squad while also standing up against the person who caused Crona anguish, but she’s not the only person with a lot of internal conflicts. Kim is exposed as a Witch, and we see from her scenes she really loves DWMA but flees the school in fear. Meanwhile, Ox, who has been loudly proclaiming his feelings for her, grapples with the fact he never tried to truly understand the girl he liked. Like Maka, he has both his pride as one of the top students at the academy but also the personal motivation to ensure their leader isn’t betraying them.
Volume 8 starts off with some action, but that quickly ends, to let this type of characterization drive the book. Even Medusa gets some moments, including her meeting with Death and Maka’s dad in a rare instance where Soul Eater‘s crazed, often ecchi humor actually has a purpose (throwing Medusa off-balance). But seeing more of her and characters like Ox and Kim leads to Kid/Thompsons and especially Black*Star/Tsubaki without much of a role. Even Soul, who is accompanying his Meister on the mission, cedes the spotlight to his classmates. I don’t particularly mind this break (especially since I’m hardly the world’s biggest Black*Star fan), but I do know how agonizing it can be when your favorite is hardly seen or important in a volume.
But despite those potential shortcomings and actual drawbacks like too much talking (both in terms of the packed speech bubbles and wanting a little more action), Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition volume 8 is still chock full of excellence as the long-time villainess leads the charge against the new villainess amidst doubtful eyes.