Soul Eater Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Soul Eater Wiki
Wikipedia small logo rounded This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).
Photo-episodereally22
Watch Online

Funimation (Sub and Dub)
Funimation's YouTube Channel (Sub)

Episode Name
English Title

The Seal Shrine – The Immortal Man's Tricks?

Kanji Title

封印の社~不死身の男が仕掛けたからくり?~

Rōmaji Title

Fūin no Yashiro 〜Fujimi no Otoko ga Shikaketa Karakuri?

Episode Data Report
Airing Date(s)

September 1, 2008

Running Time

23:50

TV Rating

TV-14

Story Arc

Fight to the Death Arc

Episode Guide
Episode 21 Episode 23
List of Episodes |Image Gallery

The Seal Shrine – The Immortal Man's Tricks? is the twenty-second episode of Soul Eater.

After Maka Albarn stabilizes them with surprising wavelength, Crona offers to hold back the now shrunken Ragnarok while she and Soul Eater catch up to their teammates. While Franken Stein and Spirit Albarn wait for an opportunity to attack Medusa, Black Star and Death the Kid are distracted, allowing Free and Eruka to discover firsthand the awesome madness of the Kishin.

Featured Appearances[]

Plot[]

Death City Underground (Flashback)[]

As Crona's body rejects the Black Blood, needles form along their body, piercing into Maka Albarn. But somehow Maka can still move towards Crona and reassure them with a hug. Something within Maka's wavelength brings some sanity to Crona's mind, as Maka explains that it is not that Crona cannot deal with others but that no one has taken the time to be there for them. Maka removes her glove to offer her hand in friendship, which drives Crona to tears.

Black Room[]

As Soul Eater smiles in appreciation of his meister's accomplishment, the record has come to a stop, indicating the Little Ogre's control over him and Maka through the Black Blood has been suppressed. As Soul departs, he adds that music is hardly a suitable hobby for the Ogre.

As the door shuts on its own, the Ogre expresses some potentially insincere disappointment that Soul has departed. As the Ogre twirls a key in the shape of his own head, he reassures himself that the door back into madness is always open to Soul. Yet he cannot help but be surprised how Maka's wavelength acted as "an exorcism wavelength."

Death City Underground[]

Medusa realizes the Black Blood has stopped. Franken Stein senses that Maka and Crona's souls have relaxed from the madness and that the fight has ended, as he reassures Spirit Albarn that Maka is safe, grasping Crona's wavelength to stabilize it.

Elsewhere, Crona complains that they cannot stop crying. Maka kneels before them while Soul stands, ready to follow Death the Kid and Black☆Star to stop the Kishin's revival. But Maka is worried about leaving Crona behind.

"Screw you guys!" someone with a high-pitched voice shouts. It is Ragnarok, who emerges from Crona's back, slapping a hand over Maka's mouth and beating her head with his other fist—which barely hurts because the weapon is now tiny! Somehow, Maka's wavelength reduced Ragnarok. As Ragnarok lunges further at Maka, dragging Crona with him, Soul tries to push Ragnarok away from his meister. Ragnarok persists, confused why Maka would befriend someone as pathetic and "not fun" as Crona. Ragnarok assumes Maka desires Crona only to use as a punching bag to relieve stress, but as that is how he uses Crona, Ragnarok refuses to give them up.

Upset, Crona yells for Ragnarok to stop, throwing up a fist that punches Ragnarok in the chin. Ragnarok, as well as Maka and Soul, are stunned. Then Ragnarok bellows and tugs at Crona, furious to be punched and asking whether the meister has any idea what that feels like to be punched by Crona—which, of course, Crona does not know. Ragnarok compares the punch to the feeling "when you haven't crapped for three days and three nights and then get a toilet water splash-back bonus when you unload it all!" Maka and Soul look suitably disgusted as Crona fails to understand the crude comparison. Ragnarok then tugs on the bottom of Crona's outfit, exposing their legs as they struggle to cover their body.

Crona grows determined, telling Maka and Soul to depart while they hold back Ragnarok from following. Yet as Crona still yells for help against Ragnarok, Soul and Maka look less than convinced, hoping Crona does not die.

After Soul transforms into a weapon, Maka runs, hoping her teammates stopped Eruka Frog and Free from arriving at the Kishin's Seal Shrine. Soul asks whether Maka's wounds are healing, and she is surprised to find the Black Blood inside her has formed black scabs over her neck's wound to stop the bleeding. Soul is confused why the Black Blood is still in him while disappeared in Maka, which prompts her to stop running and consider. She then notices she is at the stairway further underground. Maka tightens her tie, tightens her grip, and descends the stairs—but jumping from the first step down to the bottom one.

Further ahead, Black☆Star stops upon finding smoldering ruins. Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, still in weapon form, reasons that Kid must have fought here. While Tsubaki hopes their friends are safe, Black☆Star is upset that Kid did not leave anyone or anything behind to beat up so he could stand out, as he kicks a nearby rock—which ricochets along the ruins and smacks him in the head. As Black☆Star is fallen on the floor, Tsubaki chides him that yelling will certainly make him stand up, then orders him to get up and catch up to Kid.

As Black☆Star leaps to catch up, Death the Kid continues to skate upon Beelzebub.

Kid complains how everything in this area leading to the Kishin Shrine is in ruins, prompting Liz and Patty Thompson to tell him to focus on symmetrical items, such as butterflies and the number eight. But then Kid senses the Kishin's wavelength, causing him to stop and sweat nervously. From the darkness, hands wrap around Kid's body before he sees three yes, undulating. The Thompsons awaken him from this momentary madness. Kid repeats to the Thompsons what his father told him: due to Asura's strength, Death needed a sturdy material to trap his soul, body, and madness, and as Asura's skin was the only such material to make such a seal, Death flayed Asura and made a sealed bag from his skin to trap the Kishin. Liz is surprised how terrifying Death was. Death then removed all the blood from Asura, leaving his body and soul withered, which is why Medusa intends to feed him the Black Blood.

Patty interrupts, detecting heat ahead.. Sure enough, cannon fire approaches Kid. As the fireball tears up the tile floor, Kid dodges, but the impact of the fireball against the tunnel behind him knocks down Kid. He sees the source of this Magic Eye Cannon: his Magic Eye burning red and smoke coming from his mouth, Free in his Wolfman form is ready to battle. Kid chastises himself for allowing Asura's madness to distract him, as he fires shots at Free—that seem to sail through his body. Kid therefore realizes fighting Free directly will be pointless, so he must knock the Wolfman off balance and run past him, and as Kid is already so swift, Free will not catch up.

Free dashes to swipe at Kid's feet to reduce his speed, but the shinigami leaps above, dodging an overhead swing by Free's arm as well. Mid-air, Kid fires again at Free, and again the shots all pass through Free. Kid therefore begins Soul Resonance, Execution Mode, to transforms his Demon Pistols into Death Cannons. Upon stabilizing their energy, Kid aims the Thompsons. His eyes form something like a scope, targeting Free to fire twin blasts directly at the Wolfman. Kid reverts the Thompsons to their pistol form, but as the smoke clears, Free is before him, about to knock the shinigami down. Kid barely dodges the attacks and flips back to put distance between himself and his opponent.

Free stays where he was, not inching towards Kid. Kid realizes that Free is not going to approach because his goal is to push Kid back: so long as Free stands where he is, Kid cannot pass him without being tripped by the Wolfman's force. Kid thinks, his eyes looking at his setting as he tries to "connect" what he sees, seemingly to find a way to bypass Free—but once he makes his realization, it is shown he actually was connecting these ruins of pillars so as to imagine their previous symmetrical totality before they were made into ruins. But still overwhelmed by this asymmetrical setting, Kid collapses. Liz begs Kid to focus, while Free assumes Kid is playing a puzzle game and desires to join in. Angered by this mockery, Kid lifts his head—but notices that the broken statue is missing its arms and the elephant statue's broken "trunk is junk," and even then such a jokey rhyme annoys even Kid.

The shinigami struggles to regain his composure but is still distracted by the ruins. Liz is impressed could handle this setting as long as he could, but she is fearful that the asymmetry will drive him into madness. Kid begins scratching his head quickly, and while the Thompsons want to help, they do not know how to distract him. Such a distraction comes in the form of Black☆Star—who kicks Kid down in celebration at having caught up with his colleague and even mistakes him for being the person carrying the Black Blood. Tsubaki apologizes for their lateness while Liz appreciates that Black☆Star distracted Kid from the ruins, even if her meister is now furious at Black☆Star.

As Liz realizes Black☆Star can help fight Free, she points out to Kid that Free is asymmetrical, wearing his ball and chain on his left foot only. Disgusted, Kid fires upon Free while Black☆Star approaches the Wolfman to fight hand-to-hand. But Free worries that Black☆Star's close-up fight will ruin his strategy, as he can barely dodge the ninja's Speed☆Star attack as he slices through Free's body. Yet Free is not injured, and Black☆Star is too engaged in his theatrics to fight more directly and with less flair. Kid therefore realizes something is wrong with his fight: why is the Wolfman dodging Black☆Star but never dodged Kid's attack?

Realizing what is wrong, Kid marches towards Free, standing between him and Black☆Star, daring the Wolfman to slice him into eight pieces. Realizing his ruse is revealed, Free returns to his human form—only to have Kid walk through him, the shinigami's face appears in his back. Free explains he has used the Spatial Magic of Forwarding Vision: while he stands atop Tadpole Jackson so as to focus on the fight (while the annoyed Eruka has to carry the Black Blood case itself and worry how Free's weight injures Jackson), he can create a live image of himself further away where Kid arrives. As Kid realizes the initial Magic Eye Cannon blast came from behind the Forwarding Vision and hence further away, and Free must have counted on his opponents refusing to attack an immortal in close-range combat. Kid then directs his fury at Black☆Star and Tsubaki for not noticing Free's immateriality: Black☆Star assumes his attacks were so quick and powerful that he himself would not feel anything, while Tsubaki thought Black☆Star had improved. Kid complains of Tsubaki's "blind weapon love" as he retrieves Beelzebub to follow Free.

As Free dissolves his spell, Medusa chuckles, impressed that these students passed her "assignments," yet noticing Stein too can feel the madness of Asura overflowing. Stein tells Spirit to prepare to renew their fight, but Medusa plants one of her Vector Arrows into the floor so she may sit upon it and tease the men, asking for advice on raising a good child.

Up ahead, Tadpole Jackson crashes to the floor, while Free notices the seals along the floor, leading to the Kishin Shrine's entrance.

As soon as Eruka and Free enter the Shrine, they can feel Asura's soul wavelength. Both of them feel Asura's wrath before they realize it comes from the madness of the first Kishin. As they approach the Kishin Shrine, Eruka expresses fear while Free persists before the Shibusen students catch up to them. Free pushes open the doors to the shrine, and Asura's madness wavelength blows past the two, even provoking a nervous sweat in Free. Still the two walk inside the dark room, its pillars covered in numerous seals. As they walk past some pillars, Eruka can sense something behind her, barely noticing a multi-colored bit of magic, forming the shape of the Kishin's three eyes with small hands grasping around itself. Having stopped, Free is far from her; she runs to catch up, yet she still can sense that magic, hearing its sound that is like a scittering animal. She hesitates to turn to face what is behind her, and upon turning she finds nothing. She sighs in relief. Upon turning to follow Free, she encounters him: Asura, the Kishin himself, decked in his suit and his face wrapped in scarves. Eruka tenses as Asura's scarves wrap around her neck, restricting her voice as she calls to the departing Free. Asura's scarves lift Eruka, causing her hat to fall. He reaches to the scarves around his neck, tugging them upward to reveal his drooling mouth, full of discolored teeth. Tears form in Eruka's eyes before Asura's jaw practically unhinges—then he bites into Eruka's face, ripping off her skin as if it is like the fabric of his own scarves.

Hearing Eruka's screams, Free finally turns, seeing her far away from him—on her knees, her hands covering her faces, her hat back on her head, and the Black Blood case on the floor to her left. After running to her, Free kneels before her as she shouts she wants to go home and hibernate. Eruka screams in pain over her face, but Free is confused. He asks her to calm down as he pulls up her hat to examine her—to see her face is now that of Asura, wearing his scarves across her eyes and her own mouth formed into that same disgusting one of the Kishin. Free stares in shock—then cringes as he coughs up blood, Eruka's bare hand having pierced his chest. Eruka's mouth opens wider as she bites into Free's neck and, as was done to her, pulls off his skin like it is fabric. Her head continues to twist, pulling more of the skin off as he, the man with the words "No Future" over his eye, pondering how an immortal like he could now be dying.

Eruka and Free awaken from this madness. She has a large nail pointed at herself, its tip ready to penetrate her neck and kill her. Free has almost killed himself, holding over his shoulders a blade as wide as his torso is tall and having already sliced it almost halfway through his neck. The two quickly toss the deadly instruments to the floor, realizing these illusions were created from the Kishin's madness. They then hear a creaking sound in the shadows. Chains rattle, and they are attached to a bag of skin, decorated with three eyes—and it is undulating, bouncing in place so that its bottom comes closer to the floor.

Manga and Anime Differences[]

  • Although in both the manga and the anime Ragnarok shrinks, the reasons differ. In Episode 22, Maka's Anti-Demon Wavelength purified Crona, causing Ragnarok to shrink in size. In the manga, although Maka's Anti-Demon Wavelength does purify Crona, it does not shrink Ragnarok, hence he is at his full size when he torments Crona as Maka and Soul escape. Ragnarok's first shrunken appearance occurs later in Chapter 24, as a result of Death removing all the souls he had consumed through Crona.
  • In Episode 22, Maka and Soul express some confusion why the Black Blood has left their body, while in Chapter 20 she largely only announces that the Black Blood has left without expressing much surprise.
  • In Episode 22, Free threatened to rip Kid apart, with Kid calling Free's bluff by asking that he at least tear him into eight pieces. In Chapter 20, it is actually Free who suggests ripping Kid into eight pieces.

Trivia[]

  • Liz worries that the asymmetry of this setting will drive Kid into madness. In the manga's Salvage Arc, Kid is revealed to be the son of the Madness of Order itself, Death, and later succumbs to the madness of power due in part to his difficulty coping with the asymmetry of the world, giving way to his brief consideration for producing trans-symmetrical unity through nothingness.
  • In this episode, Free imagines Eruka, assuming the form of Asura, stabbing her bare hand through his chest and out his back, which he thinks will kill him. In Chapter 110 and Chapter 111, Asura performs a similar technique upon Maka Albarn, who thought she was going to die. Whereas Free was only hallucinating, Maka really was stabbed, saved by her Black Blood resonance with Soul Eater.
  • In the post-credits preview for the next episode, Stein prepares to finish his fight with Medusa, but Spirit wants to know how he intends to "cook her goose." Stein explains: "Chop up Chinese pork, scallions, naruto, onions, and green peppers, and then place a beaten egg into a well-heated wok," then serve with stir-fry rice. Spirit is suitably annoyed. Spirit then says his daughter's line, "Your soul is mine!" Finally, Stein claims he just explained his recipe for Special Tuna and Tomato Chilled Pasta, which only confuses Spirit more.

References[]


Navigation[]

v  d  e
Episodes
Advertisement