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By Atsushi Ohkubo. Released in Japan by Square Enix, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Gangan. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The high point of this volume for me was the flashback to Liz and Patti’s past, and how they met Kid. This was spoiled a bit by Soul Eater Not – which came out in Japan after this volume, but well before it here – but seeing Liz as an angry, cynical girl willing to take on the world as long as she and her sister find happiness – is striking given her current personality. The sequence of wordless panels showing the two of them working with Kid, realizing what an eccentric dork he is, and laughing at his obsessions is beautifully done, and leads to Liz realizing that Patti has gone from being merely crazed to genuinely being happy and cheerful. This causes her to have an emotional breakdown, as she realizes she may never get to thank Kid for everything he did for them. Luckily, Patti and Tsubaki are there to give out hugs.

This also ties in with what’s going on with Kid, as Liz in her Brooklyn days wished for everyone else to stop existing as long as there was just her and Patti, and Kid opened up their worldview. (This is not helping my obsession with this OT3 at all, let me tell you.) Now it’s Kid who wishes for that, longing for the symmetry of nothingness. His fight with Black*Star, though it has a few cool moves, really ends up being more Black*Star talking him down, reminding him that total annihilation is the easy way out, and that trying to create balance from what’s already there, twisted though it may be, is the duty of a true shinigami. Black*Star is uncomplicated – he wants power so he can protect and help everyone, not for any ‘take over the world’ style goal.

As for Maka and Soul, the end of their arc shows what happens to those who can’t let go of their anger, as we see Giriko literally tear himself – or herself – apart with all the rage that’s been building up inside.Maka and Soul are better than that, and can accept things and move on – which is why they’re able to get out of the Sloth chapter, where moving on is the last thing it wants anyone to do. And so all our heroes unite so that Kid, stepping up and taking the leadership role he has inherited, can finally battle Noah, who has been busy punishing all the teachers who are trying to battle him in our heroes’ place. (Poor bear guy! I’ll miss you!)

Last time we had Maka unable to really get Soul because she didn’t really like Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (she should try some of the first Quintet, such as Relaxin’). This time we have Justin’s madness work its way out by way of Radiohead songs. Ohkubo loves to bring Western music references into Soul Eater, and this one is particularly jarring – it likely just sounds like mad gibberish if you don’t know the song, but for a Radiohead fans, “Fitter, Happier” is one of the creepier songs off OK Computer, done with a ‘computer-style’ vocoder vocal. It’s a song meant to seem deeply wrong and also a bit sad, something that applies well to Justin here, who has gone into full minion mode here, determined to resurrect the evil god (even called a Great Old One here, in case the Lovecraft refs weren’t obvious enough).

Summing up: Soul Eater. Still one of the best shonen manga out there. Go get it. And it’s out digitally in 2 weeks too!

By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki. Released in Japan as “Shokugeki no Soma” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

The initial reaction to a series is very important, even if it turns out later that it changes. And just like some people read one volume of a series and can’t get over the unlikeable characters, even knowing that their development is the purpose of the narrative, so sometimes I read the start of a new Jump series and am so appalled by a piece of fanservice that I debate whether I even want to continue. I am happy I did end up continuing for the most part, as once you get past the service this is a very good start to a comedic Jump cooking manga, with an engaging male lead. But were I in a bookstore browsing, I think I’d have hit that initial two-page spread and put it right back.

For those wondering what I’m talking about, the manga stars Soma, the boy pictured on the cover. He’s worked in his father’s small local restaurant his entire life, and has inherited his father’s ability to cook yummy food… along with his desire to experiment, even if that experiment turns out to be a taste disaster. And, like a lot of cooking/foodie manga out there, there are many shots of those eating reacting to the food that they taste in a metaphorical way. Indeed, this is not the first manga to have a girl taste something and imagine herself naked. But since the food Soma made is bad, and since the food Soma made has squid as its main ingredient, we get his childhood friend (who promptly vanishes from the narrative, by the way, despite being on the cover and getting a short story at the end) envisioning herself being tentacle raped by a squid.

This really put me off. I was assured by others on Twitter that the service dies down a bit as the series goes on, but we do get at least two other shots in this volume of women basically moaning in orgasm while being sexually assaulted by food, sometimes with bonus little SD-Somas gathered around them leering lasciviously. (The real life Soma, being a Jump hero, seems to have little interest in women.) It sets a tone for the series in general that I ended up disliking. (One might argue I read a lot of series with female nudity used constantly, particularly in Shonen Magazine. But those are generally ‘tee hee, look at the naked bodies in the bath/hot springs’. The reactions here all have a flavor of assault that simply discomfits me, even if it’s all meant to be reactions to food that’s in their head.)

And I wouldn’t have been so annoyed if the series itself had not been as good otherwise. As I said, Soma makes a great protagonist, being confident but not cocky, loving his food and taking offense at those who belittle it, and being generally nice even to the arrogant, haughty girl who seems to be the series’ main female lead (though that’s not certain yet; we do get another potential female lead towards the end, the polar opposite, of course). The food preparation looks fun and completely absurd, things you want in a cooking manga. The premise involves Soma attending an elite cooking school, and I’ve no doubt that much of this will involve class wars and “how dare you speak like that to one whose plate you are not worthy to lick clean”, etc. And that egg dish does sound fantastic. (There is a recipe, of course.)

So I’ll be continuing with the series, which is getting its digital release a few months before it hits print in August. But I still feel compelled to point out it has that unpleasant ‘fanservice assault’ element to it, so I’ll be reading it while keeping a wary eye out for more. Thus, cautiously recommended to fans of Jump comedies and hardcore foodie manga people.