Audience reviews
13 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
robicha
From its very first episodes, The SoulTaker clearly intends to distance itself from conventional anime. Its use of religious symbolism, aggressive visual composition, lighting, and framing aim for a strong and unmistakable aesthetic. Unfortunately, this isn't matched by its narrative and storytelling.
The series attempts to cover multiple themes in a very short time, confusing ambiguity with complexity, striving for a profound impact it ultimately fails to achieve. There's no clear hierarchy among all these elements, resulting in narrative saturation where ideas never fully develop.
This approach suggests an intention to emulate the impact of works that managed to establish themselves as cultural phenomena through a combination of initial accessibility and progressive complexity. Unlike…
Read at the sourceUnemployed-Sama
The one word I would use to sum up SoulTaker would be cool. Why does this happen? Because it's cool. Why is so much focus on style over substance?? Because it's cool. Why does each episode feel like a free-for-all mad-libs filled in by an edgy middle-school boy who just watched Evangelion??? Because it's COOL.
Ultimately one's enjoyment will come from how much they care about episode to episode consistency and overall messaging/plotlines. If you're into early 2000s colorful digital animation, stylish/surreal visuals, Watanabe Akio's character designs, and/or crazy capitol A anime plotlines then I can't recommend ST enough, I kind of loved it by the end.
The animation definitely shows its' troubled development at times, but I think it does a good job keeping color and scene composition…
Read at the sourceMoiraCarey
Alternative title: 20 Wallpapers / Second
The Bible of Shinbou-ism, an intimate brainstorm from the Master. The references to Christian iconography is no coincidence. The visuals of The SoulTaker don't capture a moment, but a state of being; the goal isn't spatial realism but meaning—hierarchy, spiritual focus—and, of course, beauty. Every shot is an independent visual statement; instead of "scenes," it might be more accurate to speak of ritualistic tableaux.
A certain "humble reductionism" characterizes the director: he explains his auteur choices through the needs of the audience and the animators. The static, "flat plane" composition-centric style was necessary—according to him—to avoid visual and production inconsistencies. If perspective is limited, for instance, the flaws of a weake…
Read at the sourcedivine1gore
I had the nostalgia lenses on when I decided to re-watch this show recently, but unfortunately it doesn't hold up to my childhood memory, except for the ending which I remembered as disappointing. I experienced a lot of push-back for the treatment that writers gave this story, it could have been much better if there wasn't the drive to push in more fight scenes near the end. As others have pointed out the good fight scenes occur early on in the show. Character say things that they expect the viewer to take on oath, but really it just left me scratching my head: i.e. that Kyosuke is the taker of souls but what evidence did they even have to support that claim, why is he called the Soul Taker? Referring to earlier parts of the show we conclude that this was a code name given to him by the Ki…
Read at the sourceHellishSnowball
When someone tells me Evangelion is a good anime. Or worth watching. I tell them to watch Soultaker. Seldom have I seen such a perfect EVA parody. It's so meta, so self-aware. It's literally the perfect insult to EVA fangays. Watching it after having seen EVA really adds a whole other layer I feel like is easily missed if going into this blindly.
I'm eagerly awaiting the four recap movies coming over the next 20 years. The brilliant Christian symbolism and everyone wanting your dick regardless of being an insufferable bland main character is what we all love about Soul Taker. It's simply divine.
Read at the sourceBiogundam
Soul taker anime review.
Warning this review may contain spoilers.
first impression, so we have a future world with mutants and evil corporations. With a rescue, the girl plot going on seems interesting enough. And considering I checked this out in my rookie days. This was more enough to get my interest and see what’s up.
Story, 5/10
So are story with main character kyosuke who was living with his mom in some sort of cathedral and one day they get Attacked and before she dies she stabs kyosuke and days later he wakes up alive and meets a girl who claims to be his twin sister Runa this girl is then kidnapped by the Kirihara corporation who want to capture Runa for some possibly evil reason and After that he meets a middle-aged man named Shiro who helps him get his sister back.
But it t…
Read at the sourceLuquillo
How often does an anime successfully combine a highly stylish atmosphere containing an intricate storyline, that is packed with character development and metaphors without turning into complete mush by the end? I can't exactly recall many, but The Soul Taker happens to be a diamond in the rough which succeeds in pulling off the almost impossible. However, it doesn't reach its climax completely unscathed because it certainly has those rough moments. Still, truth be told, I was very satisfied with it and this is still a series I can watch from beginning to end.
Now, some folks claim the visuals take getting use to and it's also original. Well, I was hooked to the visuals immediately, and the originality claim may be valid but I have some doubt. It's still very difficult for me to shake off…
Read at the sourceHybridMedia
So……Shinbo……you are a tough egg to crack. No, really, I think he’s that one anime director that I just don’t get. I mean, as you all know one of the series he directed and I liked was Madoka Magica but then again, it’s more of the writing of Madoka I liked than the direction. Other Shinbo works……they either seem too tough to grasp at first glance (any of the Monogatari series) or confusing as all hell (recently Mekaku City Actors) or just stuff that seems very creepy (Dance in the Vampire Bund) and he does have this style of his that is similar to Tim Burton (at least that’s what I think) and it has been since he started doing more of his work with SHAFT after this particular anime.
After being stabbed in the chest by his mother, Kyosuke Date returns from the dead to find out he has a tw…
Read at the sourcedakotasapphire
This has got to be the most underrated animes of all time. I had a heck of a time watching this one. It had beautiful ways of displaying it's themes, and the stained glass art throughout the whole show seemed brilliant. It made sense at the end, and that makes up for the story at the beginning. I like animes with a good ending. You should too. The sound was pretty alright and didn't put me to sleep. Characters seem pretty good, especially the nurse, she's adorable.
Overall I gave this a 9 because it's extremely underrated and that's disappointing to me.
Read at the sourcecaptmalone
I know average score around 6.67 cant be all that good of a show, WRONG. This show surprised even me but honestly it's the best when your not expecting it.
First- the story which is nothing great at first but just wait, woo does it get interesting its my believe that a number of people vote it down, for lack of paying attention to the story witch sometimes has a complicated method of putting things. If you lack a attention span turn away if not dive right in. anime gives of a real Ergo Proxy feel at times.
Second - Music, for me i really enjoyed the music from the series. The theme "Soul Taker" comes up when he enters battle, at first i thought cheesy gave off a real superhero type of vibe but the song grows on you. Opening was great i like it personality.
Art- made in 2001 the art i fo…
Read at the sourceUndertow
The people that made this anime really tried their best to make this anime as bad as it can be, in my opinion. It's rare to run into something that ticks so many wrong boxes as this anime did with me.
I'll give you a breakdown of the scores and the reasons behind why it earned those.
Story: 1
At first glance the story seems quite interesting, however when I watched it, it quickly reminded me of several other anime and all originality of the story went completely down the drain.
It's basically an almost direct combination between Tekkaman Blade, The Guyver and the Devilman AVO. Especially when you get near the ending the similarities with Tekkaman are beyond obvious.
It does have a couple of interesting things but they are completely lost in the almost direct copying of the stories from t…
Read at the sourceladyxzeus
The one word about SoulTaker is "colours".
Colours, colours everywhere!
The art of this anime is simply astounding. It breaks all the rules about colouring patterns, uses innovative games of light and shadow and the overall achievement is a confusion of bidimensional planes: awesome!
But... While the art is original and superb, the rest is pretty much mediocre. We can't really ask too much from a plot that mixes winged monsters, aliens and shotguns, except for high doses of bloody entertainment. They give it to us and, somewhat, the amazing art is appropriated to the flow of the events. The characters don't have any especially original trait: they "work for the story".
Amazing for the eye-breaking art, you should not hold any more expectations about SoulTaker. It's still a very enjoyin…
Read at the sourceMouser888
I loved this anime. At the beginning you might have a bad view of the anime as just an all killing, no story anime. As the story moves on it becomes much deeper, so don't be too influenced by the first few eps. I recommend that you should watch this anime in segments, don't watch it all at once or you won't enjoy it. There are some that will like this style of art, it is a different, somewhat darker, little gothic style that keeps things interesting. Music's pretty good, I epecially like the opening. I really loved the characters too, each person had their story and it played out. Some people might feel that the story is a waste of time, watch and see why, but it still has a point. I'm not going to guarantee that everyone will feel the same, but if you want to watch a powerful anime you sh…
Read at the source