I mentioned last year while completing the 12 Days of Anime that I had really enjoyed writing posts focused on single characters and so I was looking to make it more of a feature in 2019. I don’t know if I’m going to do this every week or not at the moment, though I probably will for awhile just to see how it goes. Still, when thinking about what character to start with for 2019, I couldn’t go past my favourite female character, the hard working scythe-meister Maka Albarn.
Maka is one of those rare female characters who manages to be tough and yet still adorable. She’s emotionally strong and yet she isn’t emotionally shut down. She has friends, yet likes to stand on her own. In short, she’s kind of a delight to watch in action whether she’s fighting with her partner Soul (fighting using him and fighting with him), reading a book, studying, trying to pretend her father doesn’t exist, or just going about her daily life preparing breakfast and the like. When I decided to cosplay as an anime character for the very first time, it seemed obvious that Maka would be the character of choice.
Now, for those who haven’t seen Soul Eater (and why not), Maka is one of the main characters in a series that splits its focus mainly between three main pairs. Maka and Soul, Black Star and Tsubaki, and Death the Kid and Liz and Patty. Maka and Soul are my favourite of these but their interactions with the others are a large part of what makes them so fantastic.
Maka starts the anime as an already fairly determined student. She wants to reach the same heights her mother did and she’s going to work very hard to get there. In the very first episode though she suffers a little bit of a set-back but we see her continue on her path working toward making her scythe (Soul) the strongest death-scythe ever.
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Soul Eater Original Soundtrack 1
As with many characters, Maka shines most when she faces adversity and while she is awesome to watch in a fight, helped by some very flashy animation, where Maka really excelled was in the arc where she had to deal with her guilt at letting her weapon protect her and Soul getting hurt in the process. They didn’t dwell overly long on this or allow Maka’s character to stagnate, but rather she took the time to process what had happened and where to go from there. We saw that she needed Soul as well to help her overcome the trauma and that the two became stronger partners because of it.
This is one of my favourite arcs of any anime ever and I love where it leads. I just love Maka as a character and wish we had more characters like her. While I’m still not sold on the end of the Soul Eater anime series (please let it get rebooted), Maka alone makes the anime well worth the journey.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
- Maka Albarn – Soul Eater
- Kuronuma Sawako – Kimi Ni Todoke
- Yato – Noragami
- Takeo Gouda – My Love Story
- Zen Wisteria – Snow White With The Red Hair
- Yamato Kurosawa – Say I Love You
- Sebastian Michaelis – Black Butler
- Madoka – Madoka Magica
- Rimuru Tempest – That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
- Yuki Soleil – The Price of Smiles
- Emma – The Promised Neverland
- Subaru – My Roommate is a Cat
- Xianming Lin – Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
- Haruhi Fujioka – Ouran High School Host Club
- Hestia – Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon
- Haruitsuki Abeno – The Morose Mononokean
- Reiko – Natsume Yuujinchou
- Angelo Lagusa – 91 Days
- Jean Otus – ACCA
- Saitou Kazuki – Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
- Liliruca Arde – Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon
- Diamond – Land of the Lustrous
- Naofumi – The Rising of the Shield Hero
- Itsuki – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
- Ririchiyo Shirakiin – Inu X Boku SS
Maka is a great character. Glad you mentioned her fighting style. It’s the perfect of how anime people fight.
She’s just really cool to watch in action and such a great character.
Great post. I loved Maka. I preferred the manga over the anime.
I’ll have to read it some day given the terrible anime ending. I’m still just hoping for a rebooted anime.
Have you read the Soul Eater manga? I’ve heard you talk about the anime and your love for Maka a lot, but I’m curious as to whether the manga-exclusive material would change (or changed) your mind on how good Maka is, because I do remember Soul gets some serious characterisation near the end of the manga.
I haven’t read the manga. I’m about a third of the way through volume one of the manga written in Japanese because last time I was in Japan I bought it to force myself to work on reading and translating Japanese. I don’t think I’ve picked it up in nearly a year though because it takes me so long to read any of it.
She’s in my top 3 favourite girl characters 🙂
Yes! 😁
This anime is soo good but so many people dislike it. Why??
As one of my friends (who isn’t that into anime but watched a few episodes with me) put it – that’s just weird.
I love the zany humour, the energy, the characters and pretty much everything about it, but I’ll admit it isn’t to everyone’s taste. Still an anime worth trying for people who’ve never seen it though. There’s a lot to enjoy.
A Soul Eater reboot would be awesome. Maka definitely was the star of the show for me.
I also really enjoy Soul, Death the Kid, and Tsubaki but Black Star kind of annoyed. However, even amongst so many interesting characters, Maka just really stood out.
Yay! Maka is so good 😁
She doesn’t get enough attention considering how great she is.
Soul Eater was just okay for me overall, but I did really like Maka. Need more leads like her.
Soul Eater really needs a reboot with a better ending. That said, I loved watching it (admittedly I saw it when I didn’t have a lot of anime access so not sure how I’d feel about it if I watched it for the first time now). But Maka is amazing. Despite the sheer amount of anime I’ve watched since, Maka is still a great lead character.
Great characterization!