Soul Eater (ソウルイーター) is a 2008 television anime series based on Atsushi Ōkubo’s manga series. The series was produced by studio Bones, and the staff credits include director Takuya Igarashi, writer Akatsuki Yamatoya, character designer Yoshiyuki Ito, and music composed by Taku Iwasaki. The series was first aired in Japan on April 2008 during its Spring 2008 season, and published by Kadokawa Pictures (initially Media Factory).
Note: This post has been updated in August 2023 to reflect the current blog layout and some minor tweaks to the original write-up.
Background:
“Maka is a Meister and Soul is her Weapon. As students at the Grim Reaper’s Death Weapon Meister Academy, their study habits couldn’t be more different. But in battle against the supernatural forces of evil, they’re a freakin’ lethal team. That’s when Soul transforms – literally – into a razor-sharp scythe, and every defeated wicked soul he sucks down makes him more deadly. That’s when Maka unleashes the merciless slayer within, wielding her partner and dropping monsters. Seriously. Monsters. Like the witches, werewolves, and zombies that lurk in the shadows and feed on the souls of the innocent. Every freakish ghoul Maka and Soul take out strengthens their bond, and fighting alongside their fellow Meister/Weapon classmates, Maka and Soul are the world’s last line of defense against evil.”
Plot Synopsis via Manga Entertainment, December 2019.
Back in the 2000s era, Soul Eater was among the most popular shows that had aired and I remember it being one of the first big shows to start watching alongside Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist. While I did rent the first nine episodes in disc form when I first started getting into anime, back in 2012-2013, I never continued Soul Eater for two reasons.
The first was that Soul Eater was not legally available for streaming in the United Kingdom, and the second reason is that Manga Entertainment had only released the series on DVD only, despite a Blu-ray release available in North America under Funimation so if I wanted to own it on the right format I had to import it (plus the discs were also Region A only which adds more challenges).
Now as you had probably guessed, Soul Eater was licensed by Funimation for the United States and Canada and it seems they had the rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland considering their logo is on the packaging (and therefore the license that Manga Entertainment had was in fact a sub-license). As mentioned, Manga Entertainment released the series on DVD first, but in recent years they had been putting more focus on Blu-ray due to the change in market (which Anime Limited probably helped contribute) and and it took many years until 2019 where they had finally released Soul Eater on Blu-ray for the United Kingdom.
Regular Edition & On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Manga Entertainment
Released: 2nd December 2019
This regular edition release for Soul Eater contains the entire series (51 episodes) across six Blu-ray discs, which were encoded and authored by Funimation. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the disc region is locked to B for Blu-ray players.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 6 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Episode 7 English Audio Commentary
Disc 3:
- Soul Eater Late Show
- Episode 23 English Audio Commentary
- Textless Opening Song “Resonance”
- Textless Closing Song “I Wanna Be”
- Textless Closing Song “Style” Versions 1 & 2
Disc 4:
- Episode 30 English Audio Commentary
Disc 5:
- Episode 44 English Audio Commentary
Disc 6:
- Soul Eater Late Show
- Textless Opening Song “Resonance”
- Textless Opening Song “Papermoon”
- Textless Closing Song “Strength”
- Textless Closing Song “Bakusou Yumeuta”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Soul Eater is available to own on Blu-ray & DVD from Manga Entertainment. You can order the complete series on Blu-ray and DVD on Amazon UK.
The Normanic Vault 
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