Soul Eatober - Episodes 10-11

"The Enchanted Sword Masamune"

Black Star and Tsubaki travel to a town in search for the Enchanted Sword Masamune, a weapon able to possess souls. The villagers become hostile when they realize that Black Star is part of the infamous Star Clan. When the duo finds shelter outside the village, Black Star explains his backstory, that the Star Clan were infamous assassins who weren't satisfied with being only rewarded with money and starting hunting human souls. Because of this, all of their souls were taken by Lord Death; all except Black Star's, leaving him as the last of the Star Clan.

And as it turns out, Tsubaki has her own baggage with the Masamune.

Always good to see Black Star be more reserved and/or serious.

"Tsubaki, the Camellia Blossom"

So Masamune is Tsubaki's older brother. Tsubaki goes inside the sword Masamune in order for them to duke it out for each other's souls.

As they explain, "Tsubaki" is the Japanese word for the Camellia flower, "a flower with no fragrance that when it falls is said to be beautiful and tragic" or something like that. To be honest, the type of dialogue that results from this comes off as awkward and stilted. I'm not really sure how this would've been received in the original Japanese, mostly because I'm not familiar with Japanese societal culture, and because I'm watching the English dub, but I don't think declaring a certain flower having a fragrance in the heat of a battle really fits all that well in terms of "cinematic storytelling". I get what they're doing, but it's still pretty awkward. It clashes a bit.

But then again, I really like Tsubaki, so getting her backstory is pretty fun.

Though it did bug me that the villagers took to beating the hell out of Black Star when he was basically doing nothing, but hey perspective I guess.

One thing about this show that doesn't necessarily bug me, but it might in the future: The Mood Whiplash. Sometimes, when there's a serious moment, they immediately throw in a ridiculous display of slapstick comedy. It doesn't make me laugh, because I'm usually in the middle of tearing up, so when it happens I just go back to neutral. I know that Joss Whedon once said “Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”, but that really only works when you show enough of the serious moment to get a reaction, and when the 'joke' perfectly balances with the serious moment it follows. They don't here. The serious moments are too short and the 'jokes' are too exaggerated.

Like I said, it hasn't started really bothering me yet, but I'm afraid it might. Here's hoping it doesn't.