Ask John: Could Soul Eater Get a Remake?

Question:
Even though the Soul Eater anime was extremely faithful to the manga in it’s beginnings, it abruptly changed and ended rather uneventfully. The latest chapter release has made me wonder if perhaps Soul Eater could take a cue from the Full Metal Alchemist series and begin again where it shifted from the manga. How likely do you think this is?

Answer:
Most knowledgeable anime fans are aware that remakes are fairly common. Series including Fullmetal Alchemist, Hellsing, and Negima have been remade recently. A handful of anime series, including Himitsu no Akko-chan, Tetsujin 28-gou, and Tetsuwan Atom have been remade twice. I’m referring to literal remakes, not sequels or revivals. For example, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro has five television series in five different decades, but they’re not literal remakes. The Bones anime studio is presently animating a remake of its own earlier Fullmetal Alchemist anime series. I don’t anticipate Soul Eater getting the same treatment, although I can’t exclude the possibility entirely. If Soul Eater gets a second anime adaptation, I think that a sequel is more likely. However, I’m not even confident of that possibility.

I’m not very familiar with Atsushi Ohkubo’s original Soul Eater manga series, so I don’t know when the TV anime adaptation begins to significantly diverge nor how far the anime treads into original material. While I’m pleased that the TV anime did, eventually, come back around to concluding the conflict it introduced early in its development, I agree that the series’ climax is typified by poorly implemented revelations and underwhelming action. While not a bad show, the entire Soul Eater anime seemed to never consistently meet its kinetic and narrative potential. Unlike most anime created for niche audiences and designed for a short broadcast run, Soul Eater is an adaptation of a relatively high profile shounen manga series and one of the rare shows intended to be a tentpole franchise, thus its length – double that of most anime TV series. Fullmetal Alchemist was produced under similar auspices. However, the difference is that Fullmetal Alchemist became a massive commercial hit, spinning off a feature film and special event OVAs and short movies. The Soul Eater anime has clearly not proven as successful, judging from the fact that it doesn’t have a massive merchandising campaign nor spin-off anime.

Simply because the Soul Eater anime was a heavily promoted, high profile production there has to be some chance of it getting approved for new animation. However, my instinct urges me to believe that a sequel is more likely than a remake. Shaft’s remake of Negima has become many times more popular and successful than Xebec’s original series. On the other hand, Bones’ current Fullmetal Alchemist remake isn’t going over nearly as well with Japanese viewers and consumers as the earlier, original series did. In effect, remakes are typically granted to titles that were initially tremendously successful and shows that warrant a remake due to viewer interest and demand – either because the original production was unsatisfying or because viewers still crave more. Neither situation seems to apply to Soul Eater. Rather than being a blockbuster hit like Fullmetal Alchemist or Hellsing and thereby earning a remake, Soul Eater seems to fall into the category of high profile shounen manga adaptations like Groove Adventure Rave, Black Cat, Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, Buso Renkin, D.Gray-man, Ninku, Houshin Engi, and To Love-Ru that didn’t quite reach the breakthrough hit status of productions like Fullmetal Alchemist, Hunter x Hunter, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. Just because Soul Eater is a relatively high profile shounen franchise, it will always have the potential to be revived, continued, or remade. But my feeling is that the Soul Eater anime had its shot and performed respectably, but not well enough to earn a second anime production.