Open the table of contents, and you see every chapter is titled “Operation Baba Yaga Castle”, starting with Part 3 and ending with Part 10. So anyone who was hoping to see anything but the invasion of the castle may be turned off from continuing with Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition volume 9. Especially since it’s clear by the end there will be at least a Part 11!
However, despite the repetitive name, author Ohkubo does include a bit more content than the teams breaking locks.
Plenty of shounen action series have long battle arcs made up of mini-arcs, and when you think of series like that, it’s probably a Jump title like Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho. But Soul Eater was a monthly serialization, and while this volume in particular has much of that Jump feel, the chapters here seem quite huge compared to the weekly works. Case in point: Part 4, the first chapter of this book. In it, Black*Star shows up unexpectedly at the castle, we see a flashback showing his training with Tsubaki, and the two have a rematch with Mifune. It isn’t until the in-between art and the next chapter splash page (which is usually in color) that I realize wow, I haven’t read that much after all! Granted, this is an omnibus and longer than a standard manga volume, but chapters are rather bulky with plenty of story content in each.
Still, as often happens with group adventures when the heroes are separated, there’s still a bit of a round-robin aspect to the story, and readers may be left waiting for their favorite characters/storylines to appear. Black*Star’s section is another perfect example, as while he kicks off volume 9, he is absent for the rest of the volume. I’m sure this is still better than the original release since we get to see just about every group, but I don’t know how many readers are invested into, say, Ox and Kim’s relationship versus the main three meisters and their weapons.
However, even if your interest level dips with the secondary characters or you find yourself being a little impatient, Soul Eater will soon win you back. Seeing Soul, Maka, and Medusa suddenly turn into marionettes is a great cliffhanger, and it makes you so excited to flip the page and see what the heck is happening. Kid’s battle is also great, and while seeing him power up is exciting, his story provides some intrigue about his lineage. Ohkubo also works in some funny moments beyond the eye-rolling cringe of Kid crying about symmetry — weapon dance party, anyone?
So despite the repetitive, rather uninspiring chapter names, this arc, while taking up quite a bit of time (especially considering Soul Eater: The Perfect Edition volumes are on the thick side) is well worth reading.