Luke's Anime Reviews #1: Soul Eater NOT!

Prequels are an interesting case in any medium. Usually, they're released after an original series has had success. Sometimes they're focused on the same characters before the events of the main story, or the leads are completely different characters. Things like The Kill Order by James Dashner, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, or The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare (with more stuff from her on the way, much to everyone's joy and anger) are examples in the book world, and Fate/Zero sticks out as a primary example in anime. They seem to only attract people who have read the stuff that came before it, which seems strange to me. Wouldn't some people prefer to go into the work that takes place before the main book or series starts?

Soul Eater NOT! is another one of those special cases. First published as a spin-off to Soul Eater in January 2011, the series took place prior to the events in the first series and with different characters as the leads. The minute I saw the manga at Barnes & Noble, I knew it would eventually be adapted into an anime series, and when the announcement arrived, I wasn't surprised in the slightest. I managed to watch a couple of episodes as it was airing in the spring of 2014, but I wasn't able to finish the series until as of recently, when I got the chipboard box set for my birthday.

For some reason, people love to hate on this series, mostly because of its animation and because it's the complete opposite of Soul Eater in pretty much every aspect. I've only been able to watch 25 episodes of the original series in the past 3 years, which is really unfortunate (I mean, I got the series for Christmas 2 years ago, you would think that I would be caught up now). Alas, I still wanted to experience Soul Eater NOT!, and I knew I would be in for a fun ride.

So what happened? Did Soul Eater NOT! turn out to be fun? Or was it disappointing?

Luke's Book Reviews #7: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Complex or high fantasies are always polarizing for readers like me. On the one hand, they could have great characters and an interesting world with hidden cracks for people to discover. On the other hand, they can be incredibly slow in terms of their pacing and not have the right elements in order to really make them pop. Series like Throne of Glass or A Song of Ice and Fire are great examples of this kind of genre, and while they can draw readers in, they can also turn them away due to their lengths.

Leigh Bardugo's debut novel, Shadow and Bone, was a shorter high fantasy novel that proved to be a disappointment. While the Grisha and the setting provided some interesting imagery and characters, most of the book felt cliche and incredibly underwhelming. The writing was all right but average, the main character was annoying, and the romance/love triangle was even more frustrating (don't get me started on AlinaxMal). For me, it felt like a stereotypical YA fantasy that was perfect for a crowd who wanted the same old tropes but repackaged.

Meanwhile, Bardugo's newest book did not seem to have the same problems. Six of Crows looked exciting and thrilling based on its synopsis, but it also looked much more complex, and based on the incredibly positive reviews coming in, people were enjoying it. I had my doubts, but mostly I was excited to see if Leigh Bardugo had improved from her first work.

So, was Six of Crows a disappointment? Or was it everything I was hoping for, and maybe even a little bit more than that?