Soul Eatober - Episodes 37-38

I'll be honest, consider the stupid day I had, coupled with thoughts of planning for AkiCon this weekend, I don't really feel like writing this. So if this comes off a bit snippy, that would be why. I'm also pretty damn tired.

"The Detective's First Case"

Everyone seems to be depressed about their supposedly failed mission. Death the Kid continues to snoop around for information about what his father is planning, and confronts and obviously unhinged Dr. Stein about it. Near the end of the episode, they begin to wax philosophical and it's pretty interesting to listen to. Meanwhile, Maka asks Lord Death about the special move that she did in battle called "Genie Hunter", and is told that one other meister has managed to pull it off (her mother a.k.a. Lady Hasn't-Yet-Appeared-In-This-Show). So she and Soul go practice for a while. Yeah. Oh, and Death calls in a technical guy at the end.

I can remember if it was in this one or the next one that Crona finally shows up again. Honestly, this plot thread is either gonna hurt or just be irritating. Not really up to the "He's Not One of Us" spiel, if that's where they're going with it.

"Asura's Temptation"

I have no idea why that's the title.

So Joe, the technical guy is called in to help Death with his magic tools or something like that. This episode mostly focused on Black Star and his decreasing confidence. It was pretty interesting, even if most of his deal is explained by Sid while a fight is going on.

That's one thing that really makes me wonder: Is the info dumping of backstory or outright explaining of things about characters make good writing? Most of what comes from Sid's mouth about Black Star seems like something a devoted fan would write on Tumblr in the alternate universe where the story in the show was more subtle. When it comes to writing, how does one choose what should be left for subtext and what should be explained in dialogue? Or maybe this was aimed at a certain young audience and they thought they might not get it, so they just explain everything? Is that why?

Whatever, time for bed.