Broken Anime

“Maka… that’s my boob.”

Episode 12 “Courage that is not Lost to Fear〜Maka=Albarn’s One Large Determination?〜” at a glance:

At a witches convention, held in secrecy, it becomes clear that a couple of the other witches don’t trust Medusa or her unusual dealings with the to-be demon god, Chrona. To mouse and frog witches that confronted Medusa seem to fear her power on top of the obvious tension between them. Back at Shibusen, Soul’s wounds are progressing towards full recovery, however, he keeps having a repeating nightmare where he gets offered power by this red imp while sitting in a room listening to a skipping record player. Once he leaves the room with the imp, he always heads towards a light in a world of darkness where he ends up coming out of Maka’s stomach like he did in the previous dreams.

Although Black Star is taking huge leaps in progressing his training to be able to handle Tsubaki’s Fey Blade form, Maka’s training from Stein is being postponed until she comes to a realization about what she’s missing. Although Soul’s wounds are healing, her expression shows how guilty she feels for his injuries. Meanwhile, the two witches from before corner Medusa in an alleyway, planning to kill her while shes immobilized, unable to soul release with all the meisters around. However, she uses the snakes (her tattoos) that she planted inside of the witches earlier to kill the mouse and blackmail the frog to do her a very particular favor. Medusa wants her to release prisoner number 13 from the witches prisons… the prisoner that cut out the head witch’s eye to test Soul Eater’s progression as her test subject. At the end, Maka realizes that instead of feeling guilty, she has to become stronger in order to protect Soul, and finally Stein is ready to give her the training.

Plenty of witches for all the Shibusen students!

Beware my stick.

“I wear fine suits with messy hair”

Still need an explanation on this little red guy…

Getting the soul sucked out of you hurts…

“Oh Blair, you’re actually going to be in an episode this time?”

Yessirrr… it’s been too long!

Are those tadpoles?

Stick what in where!?

I wish I had a tatoo like that…

We all know what’s on Stein’s mind…

The bad guy’s eyes are always red…

What did I tell you… Even the head witch’s last eye is red.

This could be interesting… I’m assuming he has the “demon eyes” mentioned in the next episode.

Review: A lot of new plot elements coming into play in this episode.

Not only did we have the most grotesque death (in my opinion) thus far in Soul Eater when Medusas snakes tore the mouse girl from the inside out, but we also got introduced to some characters that look like they’re going to be main characters in the future (the prisoner, witches, imp in Soul’s dream). The meeting of witches, where we once again see the young witch and her sword-wielding human partner that we met in episode 2, opens up a possibility for Shinigami-witch related mass-conflicts. I only hope that all these new issues are taken into a greater depth and not forgotten in the midst of plot progression.

Also, who can resist Blair fanservice for the first time since episode… 4 (I can’t remember, but it’s been too long)?

Preview:

In the next episode, Maka and Soul go under Steins myserious training for them… probably to learn to control their resonance of souls, a feat that they have yet to fully master. Also, with Medusa on the move, hopefully we’ll get to see more of Soul’s unknown condition and what it means for the future of our heroes. Stay tuned for Soul Eater episode 13 “Man’s Demon Eyes〜 Soul and Maka, the Gap of the Soul’s Wavelength？〜”!!!

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