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Soul Eater, Vol. 2 |  | Creator: Atsushi Ohkubo
Publisher: Yen Press
Category: Book
List Price: $10.99
Buy New: $7.91
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Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 69477
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0759530483
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5952
EAN: 9780759530485
ASIN: 0759530483
Publication Date: February 23, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The remedial assignment continues as Soul and Maka confront Dr. Franken Stein, the man behind Sid-sensei's unfortunate transformation and the strongest meister ever to graduate from Death Weapon Meister Academy. Even without a weapon, his massive soul dwarfs them all-even big shot Black*Star! Can Maka rally her strength to face Stein in battle, or will despair be her downfall?
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| Customer Reviews:
 The stitch doctor February 12, 2010
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The first volume of "Soul Eater" was all about introducing the meisters and their weapons -- but "Soul Eater Volume 2" dives headfirst into the plot and never comes up. Atsushi Ohkubo's story gets a lot more violent and twisty with the advent of the deliciously nasty Franken Stein, and, but there's still a heavy dose of comic relief and kitschy artwork.
The gang encounters Dr. Franken Stein, a dissection-happy mad scientist with stitches all over.... well, everything. However, his creepy habits are not the only terrifying thing about him -- he's also powerful enough to battle all four teenagers at the same time, and this realization throws Maka into a panic. Can she and Soul's souls resonate enough for them to defeat Stein? And if they don't, what will happen?
And when both Soul and BlackStar skip class, they encounter the newest students: Death the Kid, Liz and Patty. BlackStar is determined to kill the guy who's gotten more attention than him, and Death the Kid is determined to kill the guy who ruined the building's perfect symmetry. The problem is, BlackStar and Soul might not be the perfect team they think they are.
Finally, while Soul and Maka are on a mission they sense a meister and weapon inside a church. When they investigate, they encounter a bizarre, androgynous meister who carries a blood weapon -- a demonic blade of devastating power (and really loud screams).
"Soul Eater" really didn't take long to take off -- the second volume is faster, bloodier and more polished than the introductory chapters, and it also introduces a bunch of brilliant new characters. The middle story is kind of fluffy (the whole thing is basically a big student brawl between Death the Kid, Soul and BlackStar), but the beginning and ending ones are really astounding.
And there's a lot more action and gore here --Ohkubo packs it with a trio of solid fight scenes, including Death the Kid's acrobatic gunslinging prowess and Stein's mixture of soul-jarring combat and psychological warfare. But the best is the fight between Chrona and Maka -- not only is it bloody and genuinely frightening, but those giant freaky eyes add an extra dimension of horror to the story. Fortunately, all this is leavened by a dose of comic relief, usually from Stein's chair falling over.
Ohkubo also introduces a trio of new characters, all of whom are pretty eerie -- there's the witch Medusa (those toes freak me out!), the crazy-eyed Crona, and finally Franken Stein himself. Stein pretty much steals the show in these chapters -- he's a mad scientist with a sadistic streak a mile wide, but he's also strangely endearing just because he's so COOL. And, well, his sense of humor (usually used to torment Maka's dad) is hilarious.
"Soul Eater Volume 2" is a little more of everything -- more blood, more action, more horror and more humor. Here's hoping Ohkubo keeps on improving.
 soul eater April 26, 2010
Eduardo Duarte (san francisco, ca)
black star is one of the best character in manga.
if you like naruto, then you are going to like this manga.
99 problems but a witch ain't one March 8, 2010
Zack Davisson (Seattle, WA, USA)
"Soul Eater" is a comic with such a bizarre premise that I am still surprised it is as entertaining as it is. A bunch of young kids are training at the Death Weapon Meister Academy (which is located in Nevada, USA for some reason...), in pairs of "meister" and "demon weapon." The "demon weapon" kid transforms into a weapon that is wielded by the "meister," who hopes to collect the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch in order to transform their "demon weapons" into powerful weapons known as "Death Scythes" capable of being wielded by the Grim Reaper himself.
The series began when creator Atsushi Okubo drew the one-shot story "Soul Eater" for in Monthly Shônen Gangan in 2003, which was popular enough to be followed up by two more short-stories in the same universe, "Black Star" and "Death the Kid." Response was good enough that Okubo was asked to create an ongoing series in 2004. The three short stories and the first chapter in the ongoing series were collected in Soul Eater, Vol. 1.
Because volume 2 is really where the ongoing series begins, there is a lot more story here and less character introduction. We are thrown into the action with the first few pages as Maka and her demon weapon Soul Eater and Black Star and his demon weapon Tsubaki are sent to collect the soul of Franken Stein, a mad scientist obsessed with operations. Franken Stein's soul is so powerful that everyone considers this a suicide mission, but the four kids are determined to pull it off.
Later, Black Soul and Soul Eater are convinced they would become more powerful if they teamed up instead of working with the girls Maka and Tsubaki, so they challenge Death the Kid and his twin Thompson girls to a duel. Finally, a new and dangerous threat arises with the appearance of the witch Medusa and her son the meister Crona and his demon weapon Ragnarok. Crona is a rouge meister, collecting the souls of non-evil humans to feed his demon weapon, and must be brought down.
Things move along at a quick pace in "Soul Eater," which works well because it keeps you from realizing how silly the whole thing is. The whole "kids transforming into weapons" -thing is pretty weird, and you can't help but think that they get the raw end of the meister/demon weapon deal. But Okabo manages to infuse some login into this, talking about the resonance between a meister and his/her weapon, especially in the story with Black Star and Soul Eater attempting to form a team.
The art and character designs in "Soul Eater" are very much in the Square Enix style, with Cloud Strike hair-dos popping up. Some of the characters, like Soul Eater himself, are hip-hop style while his meister Maka is a pure Japanese school girl complete with plaid mini-skirt and pigtails. This isn't a fan-service heavy series, but it doesn't shy away from it either with some of the girls, particularly Tsubaki and one of the Thompson twins, being quite top-heavy.
"Soul Eater" is still ongoing in Japan, and is currently up to volume sixteen. Even though the series is downright bizarre to the core, I have the feeling that Okubo will keep it exciting enough that I will enjoy the ride.
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