Soul Eater, Vol. 1 Add a review

Soul Eater (Japanese: ソウルイーター, Hepburn: Sōru Ītā) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Atsushi Ohkubo. Set at the "Death Weapon Meister Academy", the series revolves around three teams, each consisting of a weapon meister and at least one human that can transform into a weapon. Trying to make the latter a "Death Scythe" and thus fit for use by the academy's headmaster Shinigami, the personification of death, they must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and one witch, in that order; otherwise, they will have to start all over again.

The manga was preceded by three separate one-shots published by Square Enix in 2003; the first two published in two Gangan Powered special editions and the last one in Gangan Wing. Soul Eater was regularly serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine from May 2004 to August 2013. Its chapters were collected in 25 tankōbon volumes. A 51-episode anime television series adaptation produced by Bones was broadcast on TV Tokyo from April 2008 to March 2009. The series has also spawned a drama CD, an art book, and three video games. A spin-off manga series, titled Soul Eater Not!, was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan from January 2011 to November 2014. Soul Eater was licensed for distribution in North America by Yen Press; it was serialized in Yen Press' Yen Plus manga anthology starting in July 2008, and the first manga volume was released in October 2009. The anime series has been licensed in English by Funimation (later Crunchyroll).

The Soul Eater manga had 20.4 million copies in circulation by February 2022. The manga and anime have garnered positive reception for their distinctive Gothic aesthetic—frequently likened to Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas—though some critics have noted excessive fanservice and conventional shōnen tropes.