Anime: The SoulTaker

This is the second most undermined series I know of, right after Brigadoon Marin to Melan. Practically everybody I know of consider it ugly and weird to the point they hate it. Well, I personally liked it a lot.

Soul Taker is in effect a very dark and mysterious approach to superheroes, blending a futuristic dystopia with mystery, religion, aliens and conspiracies, all in just a half season show. It is also a somewhat tribute to Devilman and Gatchaman because of the hero’s outfit but it takes the premise far further by not making it easy to follow. It overdoes it unfortunately as the first episode is made to be as confusing as possible, with very trippy colors and animation and with the plot making no sense. It is all supposed to reflect the mentality of the protagonis, as he wakes up after being seemingly murdered by his mother and has no idea of what is happening to the world. He suddenly has superpowers, his sister is missing, and everybody is out to kill him, while the world is on the brink of destruction by a virus as well as the first alien encounter. Bizarre? Wait, it becomes more later on.

From the second episode and onwards, the animation becomes a bit more easy to understand, although it still looks weird, as the colors remain too antithetic or pitch black, and the backgrounds are static pictures with religious motives to the most part, scrolling through the screen. Many claim that this is cheap, and yet most of the same people worship it when SHAFT is doing the exact same thing. Why? Because SHAFT has moe girls that make you think it’s better than it really is. Hypocrites! And I mention that studio in specific, because it so happens that the director of this series is none other than Shimbo Akiyuki, the man who practically made SHAFT the colossus it is today. This is one of his works before he moves there.

Anyways, even Soul Taker has some of that; a cute little nurse witch named Komugi. She feels totally out of place with her cheery personality and bright colored outfits, yet at the same time she is part of the story. You could see her as the mascot of the series or even as pedo-bait; whatever, I liked her seemingly useless role for most of the show and then how she was actually important in some way. I also liked the very unorthodox visuals; which although they do seem cheap and crude, they also give the show a very uncommon style that makes it stand out from the bulk of anime.

Speaking of useless, the first half of the show will indeed feel like that, as the hero is roaming around the world looking for his sister and fighting random mutants and other freaks of nature. It is very easy for the average viewer to be bored or confused enough with it because the battles aren’t made to be cool and the bits of the mystery provided are still confusing as hell. It is only during the second half, where revelations come one after the other and you are constantly going WTF with what is going on. I must say that I was amazed how they made it look so complicating without feeling like it has significant plot holes. They also threw in allusions to religion, science, philosophy, and made the whole thing look far more interesting.

Speaking of interesting, the main music theme is simply amazing. I must have heard it in repeat at least two hundred times so far; it is one of the most powerful metal pieces I have ever encountered in anime. As for the rest of the sounds, the sound effects are average and the characters sound cryptic and rather monotonic, fitting the mood of the story. And as expected, Komugi has a naive high pitched voice but it is one of the few cases I didn’t find that irritating. She is clearly much smarter than she looks; she just plays it dumb.

All the characters besides Komugi will probably feel like stock material for most viewers. In reality they are given more immersion and development than in most series but the weird presentation of the series will probably not allow their charisma to shine. The atmosphere of the setting and the mystery behind the story end up being more imposing than the characters interacting in them; a thing not so good when you are supposed to care about the characters.

If you look the series as a whole it looks much better than when you try to see it as separate elements. The first half is indeed rather uneventful and a slow build up towards a confusing second half, where the action doesn’t really help you keep looking. The characters do look great in the end, and so does the story, which indeed seems to be twice as long as it needed to be but still excused somewhat as means to help you familiarize with the world. It takes effort but it can be rewarding.

SoulTaker is definitely one of a kind, both in its a/v design and its plot.

Animation (9):
SoulTaker's animators employed an avant garde animation method, using psychedelic color schemes that shift between near-monochromatic to rainbow spectrum to realistic, depending on the scene.
They also made use of unconventional geometric designs.
The only reason I withheld a 10 here is that I wasn't crazy about how some of the characters look.

Sound (10):
An asolutely marvelous use of sound devices.
The OP kicks off with a dynamic rock'n'roll musical score, featuring excellent guitar riffs and fast paced singing, which sets the pace and mood for the anime.
The BGM was also top notch, adding that extra "oomph" to both drama and actions scenes.

Story (7):
SoulTaker's basic plot is about Kyoske Date, a lad of 17 who, after being stabbed by his mother (who was dying as a result of being assaulted), goes out into the world in search for the truth behind who (and what) he truly is.
This is all I can say without giving anything away, and considering how many plot twists this story has, I've really told you almost nothing.
Suffice it to say that you'll be changing your assumption concerning the situation Kyoske's involved with several times during the course of the show.

Character (10):
The characters are where this anime really shines.
The tertiary characters are a rather inconsequential bunch, but the support cast is quite involving, so it's quite likely you'll end up having some feeling for them.
The story's hero, Kyoske, is where the writers really outdid themselves in terms of character development; with every step of the way you can see how he is affected by all that he experiences and discovers, bearing the scars (both physical and emotional) of his arduous journey.

Enjoyment (7):
I liked it just fine, it never loses its pace and never gets boring. Although, at the same time, it never wowed me.

Summary:
Like I said in the beginning, this anime is one of a kind and is definitely worth watching at least once. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes anime in general, but not to anybody who's unfamiliar with this medium, since its highly unusual.

Note: This review is based on Anime-MX fansubs, which are pretty good both quality and subtitles wise.



Everything starts in a post-apocalyptic world when Date Kyousuke, the would be main character, gets stabbed and killed on the spot by his mother, only to revive after being dug up from a grave by a mysterious girl. I know... What the hell?. Yes, Soul Taker is certainly confusing and certainly crazy, but it is cool, and the stuff falls into a logical sequence of events after the ending of the show. Though you are the one who has to piece those weird events together. Anyway, the story kicks in once the main character realizes he has a sister who has, for a particular reason, spawned hundreds of flickers all over the world, who act and think like humans, but possess only a single part of her soul, or whatever what makes human a human. And so Date Kyousuke decides to embark on a quest to find his sister, only to learn dark history behind both himself and his family.

Directed by Shinbo Akiyuki (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), the Soul Taker proved to be a much better show than I had originally expected. While the beginning might be slightly slow, the later half is brilliant. At first sight you'll think that characters can't really be good in the confusing mishmash of symbols this show presents, however, soon you'll notice that characters not only are good, but develop as well.

Animation: 7/10

Originally animation's quality is lower than its score. However, I add an extra point for all the visual imagery, weird colors and messed up camera angles. After watching hundreds of usual shows this kind of style was certainly refreshing. You have to actually pay close attention to every detail to make out what the hell what is, really helps to concentrate. From a more technical perspective, character designs when not masked by weird colors are average at best. Especially Kyousuke, the main character, looks pretty lame. Also, for some reason, one of the most important characters - Runa, has the least detailed design. Devils, too, look lame, rather than cool, when not hidden by weird colors (most of the time they are hidden). As for backgrounds... Well, it's hard to talk about backgrounds when they are warped enough to show church's stained glass as a background (?), then jump to post apocalyptic city shot the next second and, well, whatever, detailed or not there is little time for you to even comprehend what the hell is that stuff there on your screen. But those "real world" shots look pretty good for the most part, though show spends a lot of time on backgrounds like, well, blue color something, which engulfs everything in blue. Movement of stuff looks mostly realistic, nothing much to comment on that. Anyway, thumbs up for Junichi Higashi the art director of this show.

Sound: 6/10

Composer Otani Ko (Shakugan no Shana) does a plausible job with music in this show. It suits the fight scenes, it suits the sad scenes, it's good for atmosphere. However, it lacks a distinctive feel, so, apart from the cool opening song you will probably wont remember a single track from this show. Ending song is a slow, soothing piece of music, it stimulates the viewers to relax and think for awhile, works pretty well accompanied by those stained glass like backgrounds. Sound effects don't fail either, everything sounds as it's supposed to sound.

Saiga Mitsuki (.hack//Sign as Tsukasa), experienced in voicing male characters voices Date Kyousuke, the SoulTaker, in here, and does a pretty decent job. Even though other experienced seiyuu like Onosaka Masaya (Trigun as Vash Stampede, Bobobo as Don Pachi!!!) and Neya Michiko (Full Metal Alchemist as Riza Hawkeyes) act in this show, they don't really steal the stage with their performances. The only voice-actress I reacted to with "Hey, she sounds cool" reaction was Ohtani Ikue and guess what, she is experienced enough to have had voiced Pikachu in Pokemon, heh. She gets a very minor role here, but performs very well. Overall, despite having a lot of experienced, almost star like seiyuu in the cast, Soul Taker fails to make its voice-acting distinctive in any way... Wait, maybe overly experienced, old-school voice-actors are exactly the reason. -_-

Story: 8/10

SoulTaker starts slow, at the beginning I even wondered if it's really as intelligent as it implies. I mean, at first it looked like everything is just an episodic monster fighting show with a lot of pointless allegorical details. However, when it kicks in, it kicks in. Soon deep psychological themes, like problems of extreme guilt, obsession or warped self perception are introduced. Hell, the later half of the show is brilliant. I really wish I paid more attention at the beginning of the show, there are some vital clues there for sure. Don't repeat my mistake.

Been awhile since I've seen a story this confusing. Symbols, symbols, symbols - they even use Da Vinci's "Last Supper" as a symbol in the show. And, of course, lots of crosses, and crucifying, the usual. Either way, all of those symbols work pretty well to inspire your imagination. While it's not done as craftily as in, let's say Neon Genesis Evangelion, the symbolism is a pretty good addition to this anime.

Plot itself doesn't lack in fantasy either. Weird mutants, post apocalyptic world, mentally imbalanced characters and finally lots of mysteries, most of which you have to find answers yourself. Episodes are actually so detailed that watching one or two in a day was enough for me, in spite of my usual six episodes per day routine.

Characters: 7/10

The show doesn't really spend much time on portraying its characters, you actually have to pay close attention to everything, to see through their personalities. However, after you do, you will get surprised at how good those characters can actually become. All the black holes not shown in the show are to be filled by your imagination and, of course, imagination tunes characters to your liking.

I wasn't a fan of the main character, however, during the course of the series he managed to mature from a genuine simpleton to a somewhat respectable person. While I'm not cheering for him, I must agree that he is a satisfying character. Other characters were pretty good too, be it a brother longing for a bloody revenge against his sister, a mutant traitor nurse, or even flickers who survive for the length of one episode at best. I mean, I actually felt the trauma of the main character when the first flicker was lost, she had that much of an impact.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:



Value: 7/10

It's confusing, so it's compelling to watch it again. You can't know what you might have missed during the first ride. If just the first few episodes were more interesting...

1. Conclusion: If you want something new, try SoulTaker, doubtless you haven't seen a show like it before. Don't expect too much though, even though its original and deliberately confusing, it lacks both in intelligence and pleasure in comparison to other dementia shows, like Serial Experiments Lain or Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The animation is fluid. But the quick change of perspective is just annoying. The colours are well chosen, in my opinion beautiful. The art-style is also great. I like the scenery.

The sound is well done, the voices match. I don't personally like the OP but it's not bad. The ED is an interesting choice and sounds good.

The story just plain sucks. It tries to be mysterious and interesting. But it just plain isn't.

The characters are annoying, especially the pinkhaired girl. The characters have something interesting in them, but it isn't worked out well.

I personally would re-watch it again after 10 years.. Not any sooner.

I enjoyed the scenery, the artstyle, the voices, the music. The story sucks, nice concept but it is made uninteresting. The characters could be great, but aren't.

It could have been much better.

Animation: There are no bright colors, it has a very drab look. Kind of like Serial Experiments Lain or Gungrave. The fight scenes are fluid and varied. The character designs were interesting.

Sound: I liked the music for this anime. The music in the fight scenes was very appropriate and sets the mood well and I liked the beginning and ending songs. I also liked the voice actors.

Story: The story was interesting with a few twists. It's a little confusing at first but it all gets wrapped up well in the end. It is different from the typical hero must save the world story. It builds tension well but doesn't let things drag on too long.

Character: The characters were the only thing that were not too well done in this anime. It is hard to understand most of their motivations. The only character that really gets developed is Kyosuke. The two main side characters don't get much development and for the most part, I don't understand their motivations. Also, there are too many different people introduced that just leave or disappear without really getting any development. The flickers that Kyosuke is looking for that may lead him to his sister. They usually only appear for one or two episodes then are gone. Only one really interested me and seemed to get some development but she only appeared for two episodes.

Value: I like the fight scenes and the rewatch value for this is high for me just for that reason.

Enjoyment: This was a very enjoyable anime and I would rewatch it over watching some of the new stuff they have been coming out with.

As start I was given SoulTaker by a friend who called it the "worst anime ever"(?) but I can ensure you it isn't. Yet according to his warnings my expectation was very low and therefore my decription may be quite cynical. So here I go:


The animation is quite diffrent from the average action - scifi anime style. Wether you like it or hate it is up to you. I even call it in a way revolutionary: Lots of fast changes of the perspective, unnatural colours are commonly used thoughout the story (e.g. a red sky, silhouettes are violet, even green... and so on) altogether trying to show the instable psyche of characters as well as their inability to realize what's going on. It's a pitty but these unexpected scenes abate in the later episodes, where the animation turns into the average action - scifi style we all know (tons of explosions and so on).

SoulTaker turned out to be a anime with a surprisingly well done sound - intro and outro are both really good the voices are all beautiful and the music is always fitting - but with a poor story.
Well it may sound a bit harsh but the dircetor couldn't decide wheter this anime belongs to the mystery or scifi genre. The story starts as a mystery but the more it develops the less of the mystery parts remain.

Along with the animation and the genre the characters are supposed to change, but none of the main ones does. They seemed plain from the beginning to the very end. The only interesting characters "the Flickers" change every episode which is quite annoying. I couldn't identify with any of the characters which may be the reason why i didn't enjoy this anime as much as others.

As for the rewatch aspect: The mysterious story in the beginning was the only reason for me to keep watching the show but once it is revealed it's not worth watching SoulTaker again and I doubt anyone will.