SOUL EATER – 09
Inside a dark place, Soul finds himself in pain, but he then hears Maka’s voice and sees a light, so he heads for it. He’s shocked when he emerges from Maka’s body – still attached to her physically – but he then wakes up from what was just a nightmare. Seeing Maka worried at his bedside, Soul claims that he’s okay, but what he doesn’t realize is that Ragnarok’s blood is taking effect and that Medusa intends to use him as a research subject. Regardless, he tries to keep Maka from feeling depressed about him, yet that just causes her to think that she’s making him worry. Black*Star meanwhile is tasked with cleaning the library by Sid. Instead of doing the work though, he starts reading manga, and that’s what he’s still doing when Death the Kid finds him there. Death the Kid is at the library to borrow books, and he’s particularly interested in the one about the holy sword Excalibur. Legend states that the person who is able to pull it out of the ground becomes the Hero, and and this promise of fame excites Black*Star. Their interest is piqued further after they hear from Stein that Excalibur was impossible even for him, and so the two head to the cave where Excalibur resides. When they get there, Kid forces Black*Star to carry him inside because he doesn’t want to get his pants wet, and the pair pass by a fairy who makes a disgusted face after she hears them say the name Excalibur. The two soon reach the sword’s cavern and are impressed at the sight it, but to their surprise, both of them are easily able to pull it from the ground. Excalibur then begins talking to them and changes into his other form: a small gentlemanly-looking creature with a top hat and cane.
Back at the school, Maka’s father is trying to cheer her up, but he tries too hard and keeps saying the wrong things. She eventually asks him how he feels about her mother, and when he answers that he loves her, Maka questions why he keeps fooling around with other women. Despite telling himself not to run away from the subject, Maka’s father attempts to do exactly that, but Maka doesn’t let him. Though pissed off at his antics, Maka changes the subject to Ragnarok, so her father launches into an explanation about how Meisters and weapons used to protect the order of the world and were not allowed to take human souls. Human souls would allow a weapon to improve its abilities, but it was at the cost of the weapon’s human heart. That rule was broken when one Meister went after a human soul during a battle, and this Meister secretly let his weapon continue eating them. That led to the birth of a Kishin (demon god), and one of the purposes of their current school is to train the students so that a second Kishin is never created. Maka’s father thinks that Ragnarok is the closest to becoming a Kishin out of the entire world, but what he doesn’t tell his daughter is that there are others who could become one, including Soul.
Kid and Black*Star are meanwhile snickering to themselves over how ridiculous Excalibur’s other form looks, but Excalibur quickly takes control of the conversation and, though he asks the boys some questions, he doesn’t give them time to respond. The way Excalibur keeps waving his cane around and referring to his own legend quickly pisses Black*Star off, and he gets even angrier when he realizes that the book that brought them here was written by Excalibur himself. The final straw comes when Excalibur gives them a stack of papers that specify the 1000 things he wants them to do in order for them to use him – including coming to his five-hour recital – so right after Excalibur formally chooses Kid and Black*Star, the two put him back into the ground and leave in disgust. The following day, Black*Star and Kid run into each other in the hallway of the school and shake hands because of their good partnership. Black*Star is also happy to see that Soul has recovered, but Kid then notices that some of the other students are laughing at them. The reason, as the two quickly find out, is because Excalibur has sent a pair of giant easels to their classroom adorned with pink flowers and the message “I’ll always be waiting for you.”
You know, they managed to give all that background information on the Kishin thing, yet they didn’t really answer any of the important questions (like what Kishin can do, who was the first one, and how he/she was stopped). I think there’s a lot of story potential there, especially if it could have built off the revelation last week that Medusa is actually a teacher at Shibusen, but that was largely absent here. That’s not to say that the Excalibur stuff wasn’t interesting – I just would have preferred to see more about Medusa and the Kishin.
As for Excalibur, since he’s a the holy sword and all, I wonder if that makes him the direct counter to/antithesis of Ragnarok. Maybe they could annoy each other to death. For all its supposed incredible power though, I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to see any of that this episode. Perhaps in the near future…(I’m assuming here that this isn’t just a wasted story and that Excalibur actually will play a part in the story). Actually, now that I think about it, this is the first episode of the series without a major battle – or in fact, any fighting at all. It was still a good watch since I rather like the Black*Star and Kid combo, but like I said above, there are other things that I think would have been more interesting to focus on.
And since this week was about Excalibur, it’s only fair that next week be about Masamune. They’ve got a legendary sword thing going I see…