What Happened to Soul Eater's Art Style?

Discussing the specific changes made to Soul Eater's art style.
#souleater #fireforce #manga
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I do not own Soul Eater, the Soul Eater manga or the Soul Eater anime.
© Atsushi Ohkubo / SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

[@ShonenOuji]

How would you describe Soul Eater’s art style? How does it compare to other manga?

[@hollowify_tensa_zangetsu]

The designs feel like early kubo with Tim Burton.

[@Nblezz]

do Ikemoto next please.

[@rhinuu045]

its pog

[@SaffronRice]

I like the improvement and added wackiness. However, I cannot get myself to like the perfect edition covers. Volume 5 kid looks like he has a broken jaw, dislocated fingers, and scoliosis worse than a jojo character.

[@elivcdxv1852]

@@SaffronRice reminds me of iggy

[@stovespiegel]

As an artist, I think the part you consider "downhill" is pretty obviously where he switched from traditional to digital.

[@MistyLose]

Some people just draw better on their original way of drawing. And sometimes people takes a few years to even Get the level they where from their original way of drawing to their newer way.

[@Hello-hello-hello456]

True, adjusting to digital tools takes a while coming from traditional, and some people never quite reach the same level.

[@DakotaBroskie]

I love the difference, the homie learned how to draw a right angle

[@Nowaness]

Kid must be proud

[@caveirainvocada9438]

By the end of Soul Eater Okubo became one of my favorite mangaka in artstyle. Up there with Kouta Hirano and Takehiko Inoue. I just think it balances its cartoony proportions and shapes with the anime aesthethic and the more sinister elements so well. Insane Maka looking like a freaking evil mickey mouse? Iconic. Maka's black blood dress? Terrific.

[@stoneocean0065]

You know what the simple answer is and this is just a observation from soul eater to fire force he started relying more on digital tools Sound odd but often when artists styles shift it usually means there using a new tool or in the process it's just a theory though

[@Tama死]

That one panel of Black⭐️Star shows it best. The imperfections of drawing physical versus digital means the ink is no longer a heavy additional part of the art after the shift. Yes, the mangaka went bolder for lines and shading but the value difference between a real pen and digital is key here.

[@mango_c00kie67]

i love how whacky ohkubo's style is especially the more recent stuff you see him pot on twitter every once in a while another great artist similar-ish to ohkubo i hope gets a video is his former assistant Kei Urana who is the mangaka of "Gachiakuta"

[@OniyunYun]

love gachiakuta!

[@Grayson-Winchester]

Great of you to dig up such a hidden gem

[@ShonenOuji]

Thanks! It’s been sitting on my shelf forever so I was so glad to finally binge it.

[@Grayson-Winchester]

@@ShonenOuji would you like it to have a anime reboot?

[@FoamBanana]

​@@Grayson-Winchester personally i wouldn't and i dont know why so many people want it really.. i really love the anime and it is still my favorite. Besides i wouldnt trust newer animation styles or different voice actors since the original just fit so well

[@madhukarg8052]

there is only one word to describe Soul Eater - Goth punk

[@jesterdays]

Those are two words

[@Lord_Maraptor]

@@jesterdays Gothpunk.

[@Chibikurokun]

I hate so much when mangaka modernize and change what made their art style unique, I totally get evolving and maybe I'm biased towards older manga styles but I just hate change. The author of Saiyuki Minekura Kazuya actually evolved her style is a really good way she kept what made her style unique and improved upon it.

[@bioy2646]

prob because older art styles has this aura which dosent interest certain readers nowaday? (just my guess)

[@TheMasterfulEmerld]

Rui Araizumi kinda kept it consistently. (Sorry folks the muskrat wont let me show what his current art style is on twitter) He was however trying to experiment on somethings that... well...

[@sofarsogood8680]

Nah, even at his amateurish early part, he was much better than new nowadays mangaka. And i believe in mid part, he took Kubo's route (bleach mangaka) to left out background and emphasize more on the characters as to cope time constraint of weekly release manga. So he can focus all the details of characters and they will be stand out more especially in terms of revealing transformation, suprised , action scenes battle and so on. Also in later part , obviously he changed into digital drawing , just like hiro mashima (fairy tail mangaka) , to ease the drawing process . Cause traditional way is very tedious and time consuming process

[@MrStrawbcheesecake]

In the later style (fire force/end stage soul eater), he seems to have a stricter formula for the face, the features fitting around a 'flatter' construction line. There is less depth and angle, with features being more uniform and adhering to a certain physiological limits instead of being 'bent' and 'deformed' as they once were. It loses it's cartooniness and becomes more anime, if that makes sense. In my opinion, it was the anime which hit okubos style right in the sweet spot. I actually explored the manga afterwards and was a little disappointed to find there are only a limited amount of chapters that mirror the characters drawn in this form. His style has since lost it's 'warmth', becoming much more clinical and cold. Very well drawn regardless! But it just lost something somewhere for me personally.

[@jjcandelabra6164]

these vids are much better than Ouji's actual anime/manga takes, glad he stuck to wat he actually knows

[@SamTheGumMan117]

Oh man, a 14 min chonker, let's go and on Soul Eater. Hell yeah, Ouji also never read the manga but love the look and designs in anime.

[@InfamyOrDeath-__-]

I stopped reading the manga at vol 8 of the perfect editions, I’m going to wait till I have them all and then finish it. I absolutely love the art style.

[@scrims5971]

Would love if you would make a vid about medaka box’s artistic evolution, because barely anyone talks about its art style.

[@zuezienne7694]

i really enjoy witnessing how an artist slowly change or find their style thru time and practice. im sticking to anime's artstyle (the one midway in the manga?).. but im still staying for ookubo's overall artstyle.. the character designs, exaggerated facial expressions and action frames is just so sick another example for such drastic artstyle change is sakurai norio. i was so late realizing that the mangas BokuYaba and Mitsudomoe are drawn by the same artist

[@sober_katz]

soul eater was my favorite anime when i was a toddler, my brother and i would watch it so often together in his room. :] i'm nearing 16 years old now and i've been trying to improve my art quite a bit lately. i wanna learn how to replicate it's artstyle because it's one of my favorites

[@AubreyTheKing]

SOUL EATER IS MY FAVORITE MANGA! Ohkubo is a fantastic artist! A great story teller, awesome memorable character designs and all around a great atmosphere! The man has talent! I have never been this drawn to a Manga series THIS tight before! With the re-release of his Soul Eater Perfect Editions, I'm reading the series all over again. After Fire Force's adaption is completed, it's time for Soul Eater to get it's second chance of it's adaption more faithfully. Ohkubo's Soul Eater series deserves to be retold property!

[@TheOneTrueErica]

While I didn't stick with either series (sadly due to the way Ohkubo portrays fanservice), I'd describe his overall style as angular and stylized, with his shading techniques leaning into a combination of hatching, scumbling, and ink shading not unlike what's used in some American comic books.

[@Mr2dmonkey]

I love the character designs of Soul Eater and Fire Force.

[@cobyphantom4447]

Soul eater video let's go

[@TheDubbedCasual]

I have been loving this series going into different evolutions of style! I have such a intense response to seeing soul eater's art. It really just drips with style and even though I like the look of Fire Force I find it such a downgrade. I think if they came out in the opposite order people would talk about Soul Eater as this brave and stylish upgrade over Fire Force's more basic look. Fire Force sometimes frustrates me like it's so close to being almost brutalist and that would be cool but instead it leaves me feeling like something is missing... Instead of a talented artist breaking through conventions and finding his voice (if Soul Eater came after Fire Force) it almost feels like they've lost their edge and returned to something more watered down :/

[@nickschaffner7562]

The last style, to me, had most differences in the hair. Like, I look at DtK throughout, and it’s more noticeable too maybe because of the lines of sanzu, but hair and hair strands become more defined ig? Like, I see more hair strands and tendrils, little flyaways and stuff. Prior to this, the hair didn’t really move too much beyond basic outlined shapes.

[@Wotta97-uq3vl]

Ohkubo has gotta be one of my favorite manga authors because his work is just brimming with creativity. I love his artwork and his storytelling is so good.

[@DrawingfriendSs]

Had no idea it was the same idea

[@hollowify_tensa_zangetsu]

Dr.stein goated a very "kisuke urahara " character and I'm here for

[@Sonicfalcon16]

The soul eater art is the perfect example of "You're old art looked better" My old art looked worse "no you're wrong!"

[@RegstarRogstar]

i have to ask, who made your sprites? the drawings are really nice

[@guilhermeteodosio40]

I love Soul Eater

[@HaxlSoSilly]

SOUL EATER VIDEO‼️

[@blockshift758]

Maka is love

[@granolwad]

He has more of a graffiti style now. its cool

[@jester6789]

You should do a d gray man video

[@hollowify_tensa_zangetsu]

*i am sorry,everything always leads Me to Kubo ..sorry* I NEVER search soul eater and maka......I CANT LET THOSE WEIRDEOS FUCK, with my innocent and brilliant adorable maka...very under-rated MC and she is like rukia and orihime

[@schminke89]

At 4:12 the guy holding the two guns has two left hands.

[@guilhermeteodosio40]

His holding the trigger with his pinky to look cooler

[@Re_V]

You might as well ask "What Happened to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Art Style" too while we're at it 😂

[@Angel_Rin]

Curious if anyone else feels this about his later stuff but, there are a number of things etarting in the '4th era' that i don't like, and to me it felt like a decline :/ his characters become very 'loose' in a way that starts to feel messy. Characters limbs, faces and hands etc. Playing with perspective but not as successfully. The width of characters faces gets rlly weird and flat in side profiles. Crona's hair peices on the top of their head in the later portion bug me for some reason, the shapes all feel wrong. Theres alot of cool experimentation and creativity with the panels and big highly detailed panels, but theyre sandwiched inbetween other panels that I think look too rushed and loose compared to even his early early stuff. I still enjoyed it but while reading I kept noticing that things werent working as well as they had before.

[@MollyDollyy774]

I've never really been a fan of Shonen, but Soul Eater is an exception, I like the more emotional parts and Relate to Crona, and Crona is my favourite Soul Eater character. My favourite Anime is Madoka Magica, and in that my favourite characters are: Mami, Madoka, Sayaka, I love comfort and care, also the Artstyle of Soul Eater is nice, very Gothic and cool, I usually hate Emo stuff, I mean I hate: Rock, Emo, Punk, Metal, and Love songs {Those are all Creepy and Triggering to me} I hate MCR and Green Day, those bands Trigger me, I also hate the song _"Mr. Brightside"_ that song Triggers me Anyway my point is, I'm not usually a fan of Shonen, but Soul Eater has alot of Charm

[@Roge9]

I just watched the anime and thought it captured the manga artstyle well tbh. Heard the manga ending sucked but never read much of it.

[@Wotta97-uq3vl]

I read the manga pretty recently and the ending was honestly really good imo. It’s a bit of an “open” ending, but I think it nicely concludes every plotline. Though comparing it to the anime, the characters in the manga definitely get way more development, but that’s to be expected since the anime doesn’t adapt over half of the manga.

[@Roge9]

@@Wotta97-uq3vl hmm tbh they should give another anime a try now that the manga is finished.

[@SizzlingSocks]

SOUL EATER HAS THE MOST EATABLE ARTSTYLE EVER

[@motokavsvlog7737]

29K 2mo 19.3K subs

[@Yaboieddi3]

W video

[@anuragdas4605]

Pls Make a video about One piece art evolution and SD please please please please please please 🥺🥺 🥺🥺🥺

[@hollowify_tensa_zangetsu]

I have just thought. Did ohkubo design "the gorillaz " because you watch ANY videos.."Clint eastwood"

[@madhukarg8052]

I really think it is similar to Bleach, in terms of art style

[@asmako]

what happened is he lost his swag

[@asmako]

the biggest proof of this is naigus, look at how he used to draw naigus in the beginning versus how he draws her in soul eater not. never seen a worse downgrade in my life. she was perfect and now she's boring and has zero swag. even her nicely detailed 3 dimensional locks became flat and ugly

[@Hi_Im_Zo]

Does bro not know what an "art development" is?

[@IriaChannel]

lol...

[@acacacacacacaccaca7666]

Never liked soul eater, no idea why

[@zelispeak]

L taste then