so lately, i've been revisiting both the Soul Eater anime and manga in tandem with each other, and i've noticed some pretty interesting and significant changes between both adaptations, even before the major infamous part where the anime and manga completely diverge.
apart from minor dialogue/translation changes and little bits of lore and exposition that were left out, here are a couple of the significant differences i've noticed:
1. In the fight against Free on the London Bridge, Maka and Soul are having trouble resonating and this causes Maka to be unable to wield Soul without burning her hands. in the manga, Tsubaki insists that Maka wield her while Black Star is knocked out, and Maka fights with her until the boys are ready to join the fight again. The anime completely leaves this part out, but i think it's a small, but necessary example of Maka and Tsubaki's friendship that we really needed more of.
2. In Crona's backstory, Medusa forces them to kill an innocent creature as a major part of their abusive childhood. In the manga, it was three baby bunnies, but for some unclear reason in the anime, it's a baby dragon. this also changes Crona's nickname for Maka based on their association of her with said innocent creature, in the manga they call her a rabbit, and in the anime they refer to her as 'the little one'.
3. The events where Kid throws a party for Crona and the others at his manor and goes after the runaway train in search of the first magic tool are more closely intertwined in the manga. In the manga, the party comes first and Kid, Liz, and Patty are forced to leave prematurely by Lord Death in order to take on this mission, but in the anime, these events are seperated into two standalone episodes.
Some other details surrounding the house party are excluded too, such as Kid's offer to be in charge of the party planning being met with collective disarray due to his intense perfectionism, as well as a funny scene during the party where Liz's attempts at flirting with a guy get sabotaged by Patty and Black Star pretending to be her overly clingy kids.
just to be clear, these observations aren't necessarily scathing criticisms of the anime, i adore Soul Eater in both forms and i get that some details have to get cut to fit the standard length of a 20-something minute episode, i just thought these were intriguing enough differences and changes to shed some light on, because i haven't really seen a whole lot of people mention them outside of discussing the more obvious ways the anime departed from the original material.
just wanted to share! please feel free to share your own thoughts about these scenes in the comments and reblogs, or bring up some other less talked about changes between the anime and manga! i'd love to engage more with the fandom and have a lively discussion with y'all!
(be nice though, i'm not interested in hearing how much you hate either adaptation, this post isn't about that. if you wanna rant, please make your own post.)
baratheonpilled
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
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