No recap this month because a) I am dealing with a major medical emergency and b) this month's chapter was so painfully unfunny and boring that I can't. I just can't.
But a couple of things to get out of the way right now:
Like Soul, Clay is fully clothed in his weapon form. Dumb sexism at its finest.
I've got no problem with the shower scene because it was actually funny. As in, literally the only truly funny part of the entire chapter. Of course it's creepy that Ohkubo is digging around for excuses to draw 14-year-old girls naked, but as long as Ohkubo is going to keep coming up with excuses to draw 14-year-old girls naked he might as well give those scenes some entertainment value for the rest of us. Kid being Kid and then getting his comeuppance for being Kid was a beautiful moment.
There is no defending the full-page sequence of Kim pulling up her skirt and bouncing around in her panties, though. There's especially no defending the cameltoe that we got right in the middle of that page. It's creepy and disgusting, the same way that the shower fanservice is creepy and disgusting, but without the extra flavor of self-aware humor that makes the shower scene so much easier to swallow. Nope, this is just a fourteen-year-old shaking her ass at the reader because Ohkubo likes to draw fourteen-year-old ass. Nothing more and nothing less. And that's precisely what makes it so eyeroll-inducing.
And I've seen plenty of people attempting to defend the Pantydance Page already, including trotting out the usual bingo square arguments: It's Ohkubo, so this shouldn't be surprising! (I don't think anybody is surprised by this, but we also know that Ohkubo can do better so of course people are going to express disappointment every time that he pulls this crap.) But the manga has always had lots of panty shots! (No, it had a lot of panty shots in the beginning, which is one of the major reasons why a lot of people consider the early parts of the manga to be kind of terrible, and also one of the reasons why those of us who are fans of the manga keep finding ourselves in the position of having to tell new fans put off by the fanservice in the early chapters that "it gets better, no really!" Except for when it doesn't.) It could be worse, at least Ohkubo isn't Ritz Kobayashi! (How do I logic fallacy.) What do have against porn?! (Nothing. But Soul Eater isn't porn.)
And again, Soul Eater being what it is, I'm willing to forgive a lot of its fails with regards to fanservice of underage characters and/or sexism in the story as long as it, you know, provides enough of a measure of awesome in every chapter to balance out the inevitable bits of suck. This chapter didn't have any awesome, though. It just didn't. I'd say this is easily one of the worst chapters we've had since the end of the Salvage arc, and that's saying something. And no, it's not a terrible chapter because of the underage nudity or the underage cameltoe. It's a terrible chapter because it's boring and unfunny and my god even the artwork looks phoned in this month. It's pretty clear to me that this was supposed to be a comic-relief chapter, the same way that chapter 12 (once upon a time and many years ago) was a comic-relief chapter. It's just that this month's chapter failed miserably to deliver on the "comedy" part of "comic-relief" and was flavored with creepy sexualization of teenage girls throughout. Ugh on every level.
Well, here's hoping next month's chapter will be better.
ETA: Translations of new name reveals. Pretty much the only interesting new information in this chapter. Considering that over half of the chapter was spent in the Witch World, that's pretty pathetic.
ETA again: Translation of the Pantydance Page.
But a couple of things to get out of the way right now:
Like Soul, Clay is fully clothed in his weapon form. Dumb sexism at its finest.
I've got no problem with the shower scene because it was actually funny. As in, literally the only truly funny part of the entire chapter. Of course it's creepy that Ohkubo is digging around for excuses to draw 14-year-old girls naked, but as long as Ohkubo is going to keep coming up with excuses to draw 14-year-old girls naked he might as well give those scenes some entertainment value for the rest of us. Kid being Kid and then getting his comeuppance for being Kid was a beautiful moment.
There is no defending the full-page sequence of Kim pulling up her skirt and bouncing around in her panties, though. There's especially no defending the cameltoe that we got right in the middle of that page. It's creepy and disgusting, the same way that the shower fanservice is creepy and disgusting, but without the extra flavor of self-aware humor that makes the shower scene so much easier to swallow. Nope, this is just a fourteen-year-old shaking her ass at the reader because Ohkubo likes to draw fourteen-year-old ass. Nothing more and nothing less. And that's precisely what makes it so eyeroll-inducing.
And I've seen plenty of people attempting to defend the Pantydance Page already, including trotting out the usual bingo square arguments: It's Ohkubo, so this shouldn't be surprising! (I don't think anybody is surprised by this, but we also know that Ohkubo can do better so of course people are going to express disappointment every time that he pulls this crap.) But the manga has always had lots of panty shots! (No, it had a lot of panty shots in the beginning, which is one of the major reasons why a lot of people consider the early parts of the manga to be kind of terrible, and also one of the reasons why those of us who are fans of the manga keep finding ourselves in the position of having to tell new fans put off by the fanservice in the early chapters that "it gets better, no really!" Except for when it doesn't.) It could be worse, at least Ohkubo isn't Ritz Kobayashi! (How do I logic fallacy.) What do have against porn?! (Nothing. But Soul Eater isn't porn.)
And again, Soul Eater being what it is, I'm willing to forgive a lot of its fails with regards to fanservice of underage characters and/or sexism in the story as long as it, you know, provides enough of a measure of awesome in every chapter to balance out the inevitable bits of suck. This chapter didn't have any awesome, though. It just didn't. I'd say this is easily one of the worst chapters we've had since the end of the Salvage arc, and that's saying something. And no, it's not a terrible chapter because of the underage nudity or the underage cameltoe. It's a terrible chapter because it's boring and unfunny and my god even the artwork looks phoned in this month. It's pretty clear to me that this was supposed to be a comic-relief chapter, the same way that chapter 12 (once upon a time and many years ago) was a comic-relief chapter. It's just that this month's chapter failed miserably to deliver on the "comedy" part of "comic-relief" and was flavored with creepy sexualization of teenage girls throughout. Ugh on every level.
Well, here's hoping next month's chapter will be better.
ETA: Translations of new name reveals. Pretty much the only interesting new information in this chapter. Considering that over half of the chapter was spent in the Witch World, that's pretty pathetic.
ETA again: Translation of the Pantydance Page.
