I’ve been watching anime for a minute now. I started with Dragon Ball Z and other modest shonen titles to go along with a healthy serving of Gundam thanks to Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming block back in the day. Years later, after removing myself from the anime closet and sharing my interest with people, I found myself piercing the Shōnen barrier.

Now, being a bit longer in the tooth, I’ve realized that while Nisekoi was very much a shōnen romp, it definitely conditioned me for what was to come. I was ready for the Anohanas, the Clannads and the Angel Beats of the world. I’ve come to have a small appreciation for cute girls doing cute things, hot-springs episodes, and even the absolute-zone. Dozens of shows removed from DBZ, I’ve found my horizons expanded and myself enriched. I still have never been to a con, but I’m working on it!

The Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya series is a good example of something I would NOT have taken a shot on a couple of years ago.

I’ve never been one to read anime reviews, so usually I go with my gut. That being said, I’ve taken some shots on some shows that were, in my honest opinion, old dirty hot dog water. I’ve lost some time, and seen some things that I cannot wipe from memory (looking at you, K: Return of Kings.) Some of these time losses led me to establishing a three-episode guideline for myself: If i’m not “engaged,” within three episodes, the anime is dropped, and I move on to the next. It’s proved fruitful, and rarely have I found cases where I obviously missed out on something magical. I just don’t think I missed out on a damn thing dropping Samurai Flamenco, debate ya mom.

Did I miss something? Is Samurai Flamenco worth finishing? I just don’t think so…

Then, along came Soul Eater. The concept was right up my alley, so I gave it a shot shortly after seeing someone recommend it on Reddit. To my surprise, I found the first 3 episodes incredibly boring and could not help but develop a strong distaste for the characters, other than Soul Eater himself. In fact, I started zoning out mid-way through the second episode because of how utterly obnoxious BlackStar was. The art style was jarring, and I was completely disturbed by that goofy ass living sun that hung in the sky all the time. Dropped it right after episode 3 and didn’t think a thing of it.

Between Kid’s symmetry gags and the Thompson sisters (a coward and an idiot), I felt like this show had no intent on doing anything but tell jokes after 3 episodes.

Then ANOTHER Soul Eater recommendation came in, this time from a co-worker. “Did I miss something?” “Is something going over my head here?” I asked. “Just watch, man.” So I bit. I threw Soul Eater the phoenix down and gave episodes 1-3 another run, only to find myself EQUALLY annoyed with this show. I then began to unfairly question my co-worker’s tastes. You recommend a shitshow, you have shit tastes. This was my belief.

BlackStar’s battles with the swordsman Mifune are must-see T.V.

I no longer talk to that co-worker, but if she ends up reading this, I’d like to apologize. Not because there are different strokes for different folks, and everyone has a different criteria for what constitutes a fire show and a trash show. No, I’d like to apologize because Soul Eater was fucking great, and it just needed one or two more episodes to shine. I can honestly say that the show was hilarious, and seriously made me put my three-episode rule on the backburner. The lore, and backstory behind the characters doesn’t truly start to flow until halfway through Part I, but when it does, It flows like buy 1 get 1 free drafts at Bar Louie. The stakes begin to rise early, but the humor remains consistent, which leads to some incredible moments of comic relief. I started out seriously annoyed with Maka’s suicidal, but classic, shōnen recklessness, BlackStar’s yelling, and Kid’s hard-on symmetry. Ultimately, those same qualities begin to endear these characters to you. I found BlackStar’s development particularly inspiring. This is a kid that seriously believes he will transcend God, and you begin to believe him; he’s never too big for the situation, but the situation is never bigger than him. BlackStar’s battles with the swordsman Mifune are must-see T.V. As a former athlete, I appreciate BlackStar’s reaction to Mifune taking it easy on him, and then throughly defeating him. When so much of your confidence, pride, and self is based on your ability to perform, you become fragile. You become scared of defeat, and that is the ultimate handicap. It ultimately weakens you.

Soul Eater turned up for ya boy. Maybe it’s time to give Samurai Flamenco a second chance too.

This doesn’t even begin to touch on the wealth of different weapons that appear in the show and the entertaining fights that they are featured in. I’m partial to scythe-users in video games and anime, so you can imagine how hype I became upon seeing how prominently the weapon was featured. I even came around to the weird ass sun and moon, along with the rest of the art direction. Three episodes in, I’m calling it SLAW; five episodes in, and all of a sudden, I’m committed. Fifty one episodes in, and I’m calling it one of the best shōnen anime we’ve seen since the turn of the millennium. Rules are meant to be broken, even your own!