Such is Soul Eater 12

Twelve episodes in now and the art of Soul Eater continues to be outstanding. During this episode in particular, I was struck by the evocative beauty of the background art. The way the buildings, tightly knitted, are visibly cracked and decaying, covered with ripped posters and broken windows. The way the sunlight plays tricks with shadows, sometimes sinister, other times nostalgic. The way the party at Maka’s house was sparkling with such a bright and vibrant colour, filling the screen with such a warm sentimentality.

I haven’t seen such a delightful depiction of postmodernism since FLCL, like an echo of a vivid memory, so surreal and distorted by imagination, yet so interwoven by the emotion of that moment too. What we finish with is a combination of reality and imagination, an echo of something that’s so undeniably human, a shadow, or a container, of our own feelings and memories. Visual poetry, indeed.