The SoulTaker, as it is spelled in the English lettering of the opening, was a thirteen-episode anime series that ran in 2001, created by Tatsunoko Productions. The director was the devout Gundam fan Akiyuki Shinbo, who would later on direct the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha which would later prove to be ridiculously popular in spite of her fairly niche origins.
SoulTaker is, well, it is a very unusual horror story that begins in a deserted church, with our young hero Kyosuke Date rushing to his mother Mio's aid after she has been critically injured by unseen attackers. Fearing for his mother's life, Kyosuke flees to find help only to be called back to his mother's side, where she promptly plants a dagger in his heart and kills him.
Yep. Our first scene with our hero and he's dead. And this isn't one of those "in media res" stories either. Nope, it's complicated enough.
Before long however, Kyosuke is dug up from a coffin and rescued by a girl named Maya. He has no memory of what happened or why he's still alive, and the only momento he got from the experience was a scar on his chest. Returning to the graveyard to try to find out the truth, he is accosted by a man and a young woman dressed up like a doctor and a nurse, claiming to be from "The Hospital" and out for his blood. Kyosuke is rescued by resident badass Shiro Mibu, who begins explaining things to Kyosuke. It turns out that there are two villainous organizations out there, each with their own interests in Kyosuke's missing sister Runa -a sister he has no memory of-, and the Hospital was one of them. The other was the Kirihara Group, a powerful corporation whose president is a mere figurehead, while vice president and heiress to the company Yui pulls the strings. Although it is never explained how per-se, it is revealed Maya is in fact a "Flicker", a fragment of Runa's Soul given form and a mind of its own.
Before long, Shiro swoops Kyosuke away to rescue Maya, battling bizarre monsters of both the Kirihara Group and "doctors" of the Hospital, only for Kyosuke to seemingly die again but then transform into the demonic creature the Kirihara Group would dub "The SoulTaker". Finding out Maya is in another lab, Kyosuke resolves, with the help of Shiro, to track down and save not just her and his sister Runa, but
all the Flickers so they can live in peace.
The next few episodes serve to introduce us to the main cast, including the mysterious traveling doctor Richard Vincent and the Hospital nurse Komugi, who provides much of the humor in this series. Kyosuke during this time finds several Flickers, saving their live... and then...
Episode six happens.
Episode six is the first of the WHAM Episodes of the series, which turns many premises on their head and it's not the last either. The story is very surprising at points and you can't really see the plot twists coming, simply because it keeps revealing more information about the world of SoulTaker to you as time goes on. From there on out there's a great deal of surprising battles, with Kyosuke struggling against stronger enemies and finding out the reason he revived himself, along with reasons for both the Hospital and the Kirihara Group's interest in Runa. Shiro did not stumble into this story either... in fact, nobody did.
SoulTaker is a visually unique series as well, using a variety of weird angles and metaphors through its story. The image of individuals weeping blood or standing in front of large stain glassed windows occurs a lot, for instance. This is also a series you REALLY need to pay attention in. The series is crazy enough and you need to understand very little of this series is filler. Nearly every character, every scene, every line, is crucial to the plot and many events only become more confusing if you don't pay attention.
That being said, the series is quite pleasing aesthetically, with some solid character designs, a good line-up of voice actors. The series is thankfully very short and there really isn't a series out there like it. Some have compared it to "Devilman Meets Evangelion", except Devilman was straight-up horror/anti-war, while Evangelion was an adventure determined by the whims of a depressed man who decided to screw over viewers with a lot of confusing imagery and not explaining stuff. SoulTaker, at any rate, DOES give us a fairly concise ending that, even if you don't understand what exactly happened, you know things will be alright.
It's a great series, really, and I highly advise it to anyone with four and a half hours to spend one lazy afternoon. It's easy enough to find online, and you won't be disappointed.
This post has been edited by MorriganAensland: Jul 25 2009, 2:16 AM
The SoulTaker, An anime I love so very, very much
Jul 24 2009, 2:40 AM
