| Synopsis |
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| Death recalls to Death City all of the world's Death Scythes to discuss the impending events that may unfold from Asura's resurrection. Meanwhile, Maka and her friends decide to regain some normalcy by playing a game of basketball. |
Normalcy is the twenty-third chapter of Soul Eater and was reprinted in tankōbon form in Volume 7. Episode 25 was adapted from this chapter.
Featured Appearances[]
Characters[]
the DWMA Students
the DWMA Staff and Teachers
- Death
- Spirit Albarn
- Franken Stein
- Marie Mjolnir (first appearance)
- Azusa Yumi (first appearance)
- Justin Law (first appearance)
- Sid Barrett
Enemies
Location[]
- Basketball Court
- Death Weapon Meister Academy
- Death Room
- DWMA Women's Bathroom
Plot[]
Outside Death City[]
Justin Law arrives in Death City.
Justin Law, the Death Scythe in charge of Western Europe, arrives at Death City and remarks on how it's been a long time since he's been in Death City and cites a prayer.
Death Room[]
In the Death Room, Shinigami-sama questions Sid on how the gathering of the death scythes are going. Sid informs the headmaster that Justin Law and that means so far only, four out of the eight death scythes are present in Death City. However, he also informs him that the death weapons in Central Europe and West Asia are unable to make it because they're currently on an assignment while South America's language barrier prevent communication with them and Africa rejected their call. However...Shinigami-sama is pleased, citing "Well! Four out of eight isn't too bad, I guess."
DWMA Women's Bathroom[]
While Marie feels weird not being married and working, Azusa finds it admirable.
Both Death Scythes Azusa Yumi and Marie Mjolnir converse in the bathroom, as Marie is having issues with being in the DWMA. When Azusa reminds her that the Kishin has been revived and nothing isn't more important than that, Marie tells Azusa that she's still young and doesn't really understand. She tells Azusa that she wants to get married and retire straight away, but finds it weird that she's still working. She asks Azusa if that was weird, and she replies by saying it's incredible.
She also starts to recount her unlucky streak with dating men. Despite doing whatever she could to make them happy, they always ended up leaving her, and she questions why. Azusa points out that men aren't different from women, and that when someone tries to hard to please, they feel pressured and want to escape. Marie replies with punching her in the face, stating "HOW THE HELL AM I S'PPOSED TO KNOW HOW MUCH LOVE TO GIVE?!". This causes Azusa to nosebleed profusely, for which Marie promptly apologises. Azusa forgives her and alerts that the idea of marriage being the epitome of a woman's epitome is an obsolete idea.
Marie decides she wants to marry a toilet.
Marie then stares at the toilet, and Azusa asks what she is staring at. Marie decides that she wants to marry a toilet since it will happily accept anything she gives the toilet. Azusa then tries to talk Marie out of it, pulling up its foibles such as when the toilet seat is up in the girl's bathroom, that the toilet "might not take the shit you give him" and choke from time to time, even possibly leaking fluids at any given time. Marie gets angry, calling the toilet a "cheating bastard" and destroys it. She then heads towards the Death Room. Azusa muses from the destroyed toilets, saying she expects Marie to be on the job for a while.
DWMA Hallways[]
Spirit polishes the Candlesticks.
Spirit is next seen polishing the candlesticks in the hallways. When Stein comes around, Spirit ask what can he help him with. Stein tells Spirit that both of them need to go see Shinigami-sama immediately. Spirit tells Stein that he isn't going and asks does he know why he called all the Death Scythes? When Stein tells Spirit that Shinigami-sama intends to formulate a counter strategy, Spirit denies that and assumes he will get demoted on account that the Kishin was resurrected and he failed at his duty as Death Scythe to stay around his meister and could of stopped Asura had he been there with his meister instead of Stein. He also tells Stein that his ex-wife has already taken custody of Maka and that If he was transferred, he'd no longer be around Maka and cannot be there to support her as her father, though Stein remarks that Maka's acceptance of him his pretty thin as it is.
Azusa makes everyone line up, much to Spirit's chargin.
As they conversate, Marie and Azusa run into the pair. Azusa warns her that Stein is here, citing that he was Marie's first love though Marie pushes it aside, as it is "ancient history". The male pair spot Marie and Azusa. Both Stein and Spirit reminiscent of how much of a tattle tale she was. She then speaks of Spirit, asking If the Kishin's revival was on account of both their scew-ups. Spirit, stunned, asks Azusa to not tell Shinigami-sama that, though Azusa remarks that she's just stating her honest opinion. As they argue, Stein questions Marie on her goal of retiring after becoming a death scythe, but tells Stein not to remind her. Azusa then orders all of them to stop chit-chatting and tells everyone to line up.
The Meeting[]
Azusa correctly guesses the effects of the Madness Wavelength.
Meanwhile, Justin Law preaches to Shinigami-sama, though is unable to hear anything he says because of his mask and is unable to read his lips. Spirit then appears, kicking the younger death weapon and tells him to take off the earphones. The meeting then starts, Shinigami-sama establishing the subject of the meeting is to discuss what to do now that the kishin has been revived. The shinigami notes that while Asura is stark mad, he's also a suspicious and easily scared individual and will most likely not make any moves anytime soon to regain his strength. However, he notes that need to come up with a counter strategy for Asura's madness wavelength. Azusa questions If the madness wavelength is that of Asura's own, in which Stein confirms, but also notes that it is the kishin's soul wavelength at a godly level.
Azusa asks Shinigami-sama on his thought about the conduct.
He also tells them that his madness wavelength could arouse the insanity within a person and that everyone has a little bit of madness within him, especially for him. He also notes that madness itself is contagious. Azusa questions If that can happen to anyway, in which Stein replies that a clergyman like Justin Law is least likely to be affected. He further hypothesizes that the human populance wouldn't be affected in the present stage. Justin questions how the madness wavelength could cause problems and Azusa correctly guesses that the madness wavelength could either awaken the evil within a person or boost it's hold on him, a guess that amuses Stein and even remarked he'd be interested in dissecting her while the two exchanged glares. Stein then continues, remarking also that the madness could do any number of things like awaken sleeping witches or even give rise to Atlantis. Azusa then interrupts, claiming that the entire problem now is because of their conduct and questions the shinigami on his thoughts.
Spirit is stopped by Shinigami-sama.
He then proposes that they show rearrange their personelle. Spirit assumes he's being relocated, though Shinigami-sama tells him that's not the case because he's the only Death Weapon worthy of having the "Death Scythe" title and tells him to have a little more pride. He reassigns Marie to be Stein's meister and for Azusa to take over Marie's responsibilities as a head of the Oceania division. He also tells that Spirit must remain on the DWMA campus more and keeps Justin in the reserve. He then ends the meeting though wants Spirit to stay Behind.
Basketball Court[]
Later, the main cast is playing basketball (though Liz is absent because she decided to go shopping instead of playing.). Black Star approaches Maka and asks her to play with them. She retorts with that he said it was okay for her to read and stay in the sidelines. When he revealed he lied, she throws a book at him.
The main cast as they are about to play basketball.
Noting that the absence of Liz has them stuck at an uneven number, Maka is forced to join, though she reminds them that she's suppose to take it easy due to her injuries under Sid's orders and also reveals she doensn't know the rules of basketball. Soul then decides to make the game more interesting by placing bets in the interest of messing with the team's captain. If the Kid's team (Soul, Tsubaki, and Kid) loses, they must move all the picture frames in Kid's house an inch. If Maka's team (Black Star, Patty, Maka) lose, Maka must go on a play date.
Marie and Stein walk in Death City, Marie wondering how she'll ever find a husband in a city in which is filled with kids. Both teachers catch the students playing basketball. Maka herself is confused and doesn't understand how to play basketball. When Kid makes a shot, Stein is impressed. When Marie questions If they're academy students, he tells her that they are and will be her pupils also in the next day. Maka then accidentally performs double dribble, in which she is utterly confused in what it is. The sight of seeing them play makes Marie smile. She muses that while she may not have a boyfriend, she is satisfied with having a job to do in the meantime. Marie then asks to stay with Stein, having yet to find a flat for her. Stein agrees. Spirit arrives, deep in thought of his conversatioin with Death, in which the shinigami asks him to keep an eye on Stein due to his sensitivity to madness.
Maka asks to hang out with her father.
Having caught up to his friends, Spirit greets Stein and Marie. He questions on what the kids were doing and remarked he insisted that he told them to go home and keep quiet, though Stein finds it nice they are being kids and being carefree. Spirit them tells Stein it's not them being carefree, it's them trying to reclaim some sense of normalcy. Having lost the game, Maka then asks her father to "go out" with her. Surging with happiness of spending quality father/daughter time with his daughter, he pukes. Though Maka mistakens him to be sick and says she'll go get some stomach medicine. Stein, having witnessed Spirit's "happy puke" says "I don't get that either".
Manga and Anime Differences[]
- Episode 25 begins with Maka Albarn saddened in her living room over Crona's imprisonment in the DWMA, before Soul Eater literally drags his book-reading meister down the street, complaining that if she sulks all day indoors, then mushrooms will grow on her head. This scene is exclusive to the anime and not included in this chapter. Instead, when introduced, Maka is already at the basketball court.
- As well, in this chapter, Maka is first seen with a straw or lollipop in her mouth, whereas this object is not in her mouth in Episode 25.
- In this chapter, when Maka throws her book at Black Star's head, his facial expression remains neutral. In Episode 25, however, Maka's book throw is so hard that the spine of the books indents into Black Star's face.
- The flashbacks in the manga in which showcases Stein dissecting a chicken and Spirit in his childhood flirting who'm might be his future wife is not present in the anime.
- Though the Atlantis reference isn't spoken in the anime and replaced with mentioning of terribly weather disasters, images of the sunken city is seen in the anime instead.
- In Episode 25, when Maka asks Spirit for a father-daughter date, his head explodes in confetti, then in his over-excitement, a skull-shaped censor image appears over where he vomited. In this chapter, Spirit's head does not explode into confetti, while his body looks more jagged from the shock of hearing his daughter's request. As well in this chapter, no censor image appears over Spirit's vomiting, although the actual vomiting is not seen either.
Trivia[]
- Chapter 23 confirms that Death City is located in Nevada.[1]
- When Sid informs Death that the Death Scythe from South America will not be attending the meeting, he claims he heard only "crazy howlin' gibberish" and complains of a "language barrier." This dialogue foreshadows that Enrique, the meister for South America's Death Scythe Tezca Tlipoca, is a monkey, whose dialogue seems to be comprehended by only Tezca himself.
- Although Stein assumes "a very devout clergyman" such as Justin Law is less affected by Madness, later chapters imply that actually Justin had been mad prior to this chapter's events, likely acting as a spy for Asura. Hence, Stein may not have realized Justin's devoutness was to a different god, the Kishin.
- In Chapter 31, after departing Death City, Medusa looks back and senses Madness circling the city, implying someone within is already under the sway of Asura.
- Justin is confirmed to have still been in Death City at the time Medusa senses this madness: it was not until Chapter 32 that Death assigned Justin to leave Death City to search the world for Asura's location. This confirmation, however, overlooks the possibility that Justin was out of the city on missions elsewhere, similar to his earlier mission to Loew Village to rescue Maka Albarn's team from Arachne.
- In Chapter 38, Medusa tells Crona about the events of Chapter 31, confirming that she did sense Madness--"the kind only others with madness can feel." This remark also would clarify why many people even within the DWMA failed to recognize Justin's Madness, although Medusa's comment does lead to a question why Stein, who experiences Madness, did not seem to notice the similar condition with Justin.
- In Chapter 41, The Clown and the Flying Dutchman, both of whom serve Asura, discuss a plan to turn Maka towards madness similar to how they did so to "the other one."
- In Chapter 61, Justin is confirmed as "the other one," when he accompanies The Clown to invite Giriko to join Noah's gang. This chapter also has Justin confirm to Stein and Marie Mjolnir that he killed Joe Buttataki because his advanced Soul Perception could locate Asura, and that he intended to kill Maka for the same reason.
- While Chapter 23 implies Madness is Asura's wavelength, later chapters reveal that there are multiple forms of Madness, one associated with each of the Great Old Ones and shinigami: therefore, the Madness which Asura releases is the Madness of Fear.
- Atlantis seems to have existences in some format in the Soul Eater universe, though was described as a fortress and was not known for being a sort of utopia in the making, in which contrasts to it's usual reference in other literature.
- Soul's shirt is revealed to have the word "EATER" and the same symbol that appears on his previous headband. This symbol will appear on Soul's the DWMA hallway locker in a later chapter.
- The shirts that Spirit imagines Maka choosing have the words "Gorilla" and "Buffalo!" on them. He also imagines her choosing between strawberry and banana desserts.
References[]
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 7 Yen Press English translation: Chapter 23, Page 5