The Soul Eater anime is already 16 years old, but to this day MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen counts it as one of the best anime of all time. For them it is always worth watching this series. It’s particularly appropriate on Halloween.
Although Halloween is one of the most exciting holidays of the year for me, I hate horror and scary films. I despise jump scares because they offer no value to me and I jump out of my skin every time I get scared.
Unfortunately, many films and series these days use such elements to scare, even though they don’t need to. I’m even happier when I discover a series or film that’s in the direction of horror and Halloween, but isn’t scary at all.
The anime Soul Eater is one such anime that conveys a dark mood without incorporating any jump scares. I’ll tell you why the series is still one of the best anime for me today and is worth a rewatch, especially on Halloween.
You can find the trailer for Soul Eater here:
The Soul Eater anime is perfect for Halloween
Soul Eater was one of the first anime I watched after my RTL2 anime time. It stood out from the previous series like Pokémon or Sailor Moon that I watched on the afternoon television program.
Soul Eater is about life at Shibusen, an academy in Death City where the death god Shinigami trains his students to become weapon masters.
Characters that I associate with Halloween keep popping up throughout their adventures. For example, a teacher at Shibusen is called Franken Stein and is also visually reminiscent of the monster. Zombies, spiders, and demons are also creatures that appear in the anime.
The dark and threatening atmosphere that the anime continually creates is in keeping with the many creatures that create a Halloween atmosphere. He never relies on the jump scares that I hate, but rather on dark themes and an oppressive atmosphere.
The demon god hovers over everything as a great threat. There are several parties trying to free him. With the safety of the entire world hanging in the balance, a constant tension is present in the anime.
One of the characters that stuck with me the most and added to the depressing mood is Chrona. The character appears weak, pale and anything but evil. Nevertheless, he confronts the troops as one of the first antagonists and does not act as one would expect of him.
But it later turns out that Chrona was used by his own mother for evil experiments. Chrona therefore constantly struggles with self-doubt. The character regrets being born and has recurring depressive and dark thoughts. Without spoiling too much, the transformation this character undergoes over the course of the anime is one of the most emotional I’ve ever seen in anime.
In addition to the atmosphere and dark mood, Maka and Soul Eater’s relationship is another highlight of the anime. Their bond with each other is always a central theme, but the anime manages to keep it from drifting into romance.
Even though Maka and her weapon partner are not a couple, you can often feel how close the two are and how blindly they trust each other. The fact that the mangaka was able to create such a bond on a friendly level still impresses me to this day. That’s why the anime doesn’t drift too much into the romance direction, but remains a great anime that fits Halloween.
If you’re more into real horror, Uzumaki could be something for you:
Uzumaki: The horror anime shows its 2nd trailer
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So if you’re looking for a dark anime around Halloween that isn’t too scary, I can only recommend Soul Eater to you. The anime has many aspects that make a rewatch (or a first time) worthwhile.
By the way: With Soul Eater Not! a spin-off to the anime. However, I can only advise you not to watch the anime if you like the Halloween elements of Soul Eater. The spin-off is more of a cute girly anime about a cringy love triangle between schoolgirls.
If you’re looking for something scary on Halloween that will make your blood run cold, we have something for you. MyMMO demon Cortyn has picked out several horror animes that would be a scarier alternative to Soul Eater: The best horror anime if you want to get really scared