Soul Eater Chapter 98: Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the ninja jumped over the moon.

[nenena]

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.

Comments

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

Looks like I got into a new fandom at just the right time haha. I was worried SE would start getting amazing awesome as soon as I started obsessing over something else D: I dont think ill bother even looking for scans this month.

I read your other entry too though, I hope you're doing okay ;-; and I hope no one gives you shit for not recapping when you're obviously in a lot of pain.

(and if they do, let me know and ill come punch them in the ovaries)

[8bribee8]

Where can I read this? I Can't find it ANYWHERE.

[nenena]

Google "Soul Eater 98."

[nenena]

I also really didn't get the Kim butt dance (aside from the obvious fanservice reason). Was it really necessary for her to LIFT UP HER SKIRT to shake her butt? Was the fabric of her skirt blocking off her magic but her underwear didn't? I cannot think of a single reason that logically makes sense as to why she needs to do that other than fanservice. :(

THIS. Exactly this.

Also... Could we please not repeat specific, personal information from my flocked posts in the comments on a public post? Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with you.
Actually it's long time that Soul Eater has lost its charm,i'm still reading it waiting for Crona,waiting for it be resolved,but every month all we get it's just unfunny fanservice with the plot staying still.
I'm fine with fanservice and all but Soul Eater is becoming very creepy,i thought Ohkubo could just express his creepy fetish in SoulEater Not and leaving Soul Eater free of that,but apparently he just can't.

[nenena]

Actually it's long time that Soul Eater has lost its charm

I definitely disagree with that. I mean, the last couple chapters have been pretty awesome, especially chapter 96, even if the moon battle did drag out into repetitive boringness.

But then this chapter. Well. They can't all be winners.

[naoto_fuyumine]

Ah, it's sad to hear that this month's chapter isn't any good. I saw the raws and thought that Kid negotiating with the witches might be interesting, but I guess it's not? :(

[nenena]

IT'S REALLY NOT. It's just both Kid and the witches pointing out the obvious over and over again. (Witches: Why should we help you when you kill us? Kid: But witches kill Shibusen kids all the time and THE KISHIN IS STILL WORSE. Witches: Oh yeah.) And then Kid convinces the witches to help by pointing out that a) witches value rules and order too, even if it's their own rules and order, ergo the kishin destroying all order would be a bad thing for them too, and also b) witch's power makes them pretty. The last bit is played more for laughs than anything else.

The entire 14-page sequence doesn't reveal a single bit of new information or new worldbuilding. It isn't even interesting to read the argument between Kid and the witches, because the witches don't make any good points and the only things that Kid says are really, really obvious and really, really true. At one point the pipe-smoking witch tries to claim that Shibusen will "never understand" the witch's "suffering" but that whole angle is a non-argument when its pointed out that Shibusen never tries to harm a witch until she does something terrible first. The witches don't have much of a claim to suffering/misunderstanding/oppression when they're the ones running around fucking up innocent humans just because. So it's basically reading a "debate" where one side is obviously right, one side is obviously wrong, there's absolutely nothing complex or interesting going on in the dialogue, and at the end you just kind of want to smack everybody involved, including Kid.

[nenena]

Edit: Okay, there is one tiny new bit of information. It's confirmed that Risa's real name is Tabasa Butterfly and Arisa's real name is Taruho Firefly. Possibly Talho Firefly, I dunno. Because katakana. So they're the butterfly and the firefly witches, respectively. I think that most of fandom already guessed that, though.

ETA much after the fact and after some brain-clearing meds have been taken: Nope, it's definitely "Taruho," not Talho. In keeping with the tradition of some minor witches having names that are anagrams of animal names: Eruka being an anagram of kaeru (frog), Mizune being an anagram of nezumi (mouse), Taruho being an anagram of hotaru (firefly), and Tabasa being an anagram of... well, fucked if I know, because that's one that I'm still trying to figure out. I tried every possible recombination of the characters (tasaba, sabata, sataba, basata, and batasa) but none of those are actual words in Japanese. One of those might be a butterfly-related word in another language, though. I dunno. The best guess that I could come up with is that Tabasa might be an anagram of Sabata, a legendary orchestra conductor who directed and conducted one of the most famous recordings of "Madame Butterfly." But even though Ohkubo is definitely a music nerd, that might really be grasping at straws. And of course it's possible that Tabasa is one of the witches who just doesn't have an anagram name (i.e. Medusa, Arachne, Shaula, Samantha, Angela, Kimial) but given that the other half of her name is "Butterfly" I thought she would fit the pattern.

Sorry to comment-jack.

[seraphin]

Hey.

You had me very interested in all those references.
I did a bit of google hunting and stumbled upon that character from a Capcom video game named Tabasa (in the japanese version). "A female "sorcerologist" who studies the scientific aspects of magic", not really the Risa we know but close enough. I like your theory better though.


Sera

[nenena]

You mean this character?

Given Ohkubo's love of video game references I think that's a pretty good guess!

[seraphin]

Yes !
And according to this, she owns many pets, including a frog and a cat =)
I see what you did there, Ohkubo.

[titangirl161.livejournal.com]

O_O Sorry to hear about the medical emergency...hope everything's ok and you feel better soon.

No recap? *puppy eyes* Oh well...seeing as nothing seems to be happening and/or only the usual seems to be happening (Kid being Kid, and having to eat his words for being Kid). But uh...shower scene and flashing? (I'm sorry to put it like this, but everything else I seem to think up sounds about 500X worse...it's terrible that I have trouble staying up this late anymore). I mean, Ohkubo can't be THAT desperate for fan service, can he? He had a pretty much naked clown up on the moon...also I don't know if I should be concerned or not about Ohkubo's love of drawing underage girls...(preference?)

Well, thanks for that much anyway...now I least know what to expect instead of opening it seeing it having this reaction: o_o o_O O_O >_< -_- T_T in that order and then having my eyes bleed (there is no emoticon that correcting depicts that).

[nenena]

Yeah Kaguya was fanservice for the sake of fanservice, but at least a) she wasn't A TEENAGE GIRL and b) her nudity was part of a running gag about her self-delusions. YMMV on whether you found the joke actually funny or not (I didn't), but again, at least there was an attempt to have some entertainment value with the boobariffic fanservice. Neither can be said for the Kim Pantydance Page, though.

also I don't know if I should be concerned or not about Ohkubo's love of drawing underage girls...

No, you can be concerned. It's okay to judge somebody for being so open and public about the fact that they love to draw fourteen-year-old booty. Really. It's okay to judge somebody for that.

[(Anonymous)]

That dance thing... no, just no Ohkubo, I know your trying to pander to your male fanbase, but I'm a guy and that was, just no Ohkubo.

But aside from that moment of whatdafuckokhubo, I will say at least the conversation with the witches looks interesting, from what you said though it's completely pointless retelling of what we already know, but at least it's kind of cool to see where the witches live.

That and we got to see Black Star try to reach the moon with Tsubaki's scarf thing.

Also one more thing, did Free have any reason to tag along? Cause it seems just a tad completely moronic to bring along someone who stole the eye of the leader of the witches directly into the witches home.

[nenena]

lol nope, and yes. Yes, it is.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, I hope things go well with your medical emergency. :c

It's a shame to read that this chapter is one big, unfunny disappointment. I was really hoping that Asura's appearance would be the moment of awesome this chapter desperately needed to up the quality but sadly Ohkubo postponed his appearance yet again. I can only wonder what exactly Asura is doing the whole time this moon battle is going on.

Also, feel free to ignore me if this request is too bothersome, but is there, like, an actual plot reason to why Kim does the whole butt thing? I'm just going through the raws and suddenly Kim's butt is in my face. Sure I found the shower fanservice to be pretty sudden too but the butt scene... She's in the Death Room at the time with other people around and I'm just wondering what in the world in the name of plot could bring her to do that in public.

Again, I wish you the best of luck with your medical problems!

[nenena]

Thank you! Things are looking up already health-wise, so I'm good. :)

As for Kim's butt-dance... On the preceding page Eruka says that the youngest witch has to be the one to open up the portal. Apparently this is a rule. Kim tries to say that three of them can do it together to make it faster (we'll see why this is true on the next page), but Risa counters that nope, it has to be done by one witch, and it has to be the youngest.

So then Kim does her butt dance and it turns out that the way to open the portal to the witch world is writing the characters "ma-ji-yo" (which, when the last two characters are combined, spells "majo" or witch) with one's butt. There are three characters so I guess that's why Kim thought that three of them could do it together. In Kim's thought-bubble on that page she thinks that Grandmother Witch must be losing her mind in her old age. (Implied: This whole butt-writing thing was Grandmother Witch's rule/idea in the first place.)

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for explanation! I'm glad to hear that you're doing well too. c:

And wow. I question what in the world would make Ohkubo think that something like butt writing is a good idea because that plot excuse is just so stupid that there's not enough face palms in the world to express how I am feeling right now. Just, oh Ohkubo.

But it is hilarious to think that Medusa had to do that to go to the witch meeting several thousand chapters ago.

[(Anonymous)]

It'll all be wotrth it when 100 comes out....... I hope. I believe there's a cover and color pages plus the announcement of the second character popularity poll. I hope you feel better and thanks for the recap!

[nenena]

Yep, I am definitely looking forward to chapter 100 and all of the color illustrations. Only two more months to wait!

Oh, and uh, I didn't recap anything, but... you're welcome? Thank you for the well-wishes, though. :)