Soul Eater
Atsushi Ookubo
2003
117
Synopsis
Death City, Nevada. The Death Weapon Meister Academy trains students in pairs — Meisters who wield bonded partners who transform into weapons — in pursuit of a single goal: collect 99 evil human souls and one witch's soul to forge a Death Scythe worthy of the death god himself. Maka Albarn and Soul Evans are the central pair in this gleefully absurd supernatural action manga that builds genuine emotional depth underneath its consistently excellent fight choreography. Soul Eater (Atsushi Ohnuma) ran 113 chapters in Monthly Shonen GFantasy and is one of the defining manga of its era — the anime adaptation (Bones, 2008) remains one of the most beloved action anime of its decade even though it diverged from the manga's ending. The manga's complete ending is deeply recommended.