Soul Eater Vol. 1
- ISBN
- 9780759530010
- Publisher
- Yen Press
- English release
- Pages
- 208
- Chapters
- 1
Soul Eater 1 is Yen Press's first paperback of the series, in which Maka wields Soul, a scythe who usually takes human form. The contents page in Yen Press's preview lists three prologues and starts Chapter 1 on page 135. Square Enix's Perfect Edition 1 is a different book: its contents page lists three opening stories under the same titles, without the prologue label, and then Chapters 1 to 3, and Square Enix advertises an updated translation and lettering. The two first books do not end on the same chapter, so compare chapters before mixing editions. The analysis below covers only the opening of the first prologue, as far as Yen Press's free Look Inside preview goes; that preview shows its digital edition of this volume and stops partway through the story. Nothing here is a reading of the whole book.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
Yen Press's synopsis promises a quota: 99 human souls and one witch. The first prologue opens with the quota nearly spent, and its argument is about labels. Maka asks whether the first opponent, captioned Bloodthirsty Killer Jack the Ripper, is human. Soul says yes and adds his slogan: looks and form do not matter, the soul does. Jack the Ripper's soul is the 99th, and Maka reports to Shinigami-sama that only a witch remains. Shinigami-sama warns that he has seen more scythe-meisters die fighting witches than he cares to recall. At a pumpkin house a caption names the bather Witch Blair, and the synopsis calls her a cat witch. Soul calls sneaking in unmanly, Maka tells him this fight is not like the others, and he goes in head-on anyway, into the bath. By then a caption and a synopsis have each told the reader what a figure is, while the slogan says looks and form do not settle it. The preview stops in the middle of the fight, so which of those holds is left to the pages after it.
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