Soul Eater/Characters/Shibusen

Expect lots of Badass Tropes.

Beware of Unmarked Spoilers!

Shinigami-sama/Lord Death

Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (JP), John Swasey (EN)

The Grim Reaper and head of Shibusen. Most of the time he behaves like a complete goofball, but he can be a terrifyingly powerful fighting force when things get serious. His soul wavelength is so large that it covers all of Shibusen. Spirit Albarn is Shinigami-sama's current partner, much to the latter's constant annoyance.

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• A Form You Are Comfortable With: He didn't make too many changes, but yes, originally a lot meaner looking. Then he decided to raise a school; and that involved human children. So he came up with a goofy face and persona so that DEATH would not be scary.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Shini = death, Gami = god.
  • That's a name he uses, but it's really not clear whether he's actually the embodiment of death, though the way souls reflect a person's nature suggests this could be the case.
    • An massive, inky thing' sealed within the Book of Eibon has called him a fellow "Great Old One", the "Madness of Law". So yeah, him being an Anthropomorphic Personification is looking more likely.
    • Further supported by his full English title: "Lord Death, the Grim Reaper Himself"
• Badass
  • Badass Baritone: When things get serious he voice deepens.
• Big Good: You can arguably call him this.
• Barrier Maiden: Limited to the foundations of Shibusen for the purposes of sealing the first Kishin. Asura got out, Shinigami-sama did not.
  • Has something of Barrier Warrior too, as he tries to crush Asura with a shield.
• Beware the Silly Ones: His reaction to Asura's escape, after spending the series to date happily goofy and mostly harmless.
• Bumbling Dad: At least as a façade. However, Kid clearly respects him.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Highly unpredictable and eccentric, capable of switching between absurdly daft and effectively dangerous very quickly.
• Cloudcuckoolander: "Mandolin?"
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's incredibly powerful, and hell, downright terrifying when he gets serious. However his playful side is genuine.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: Done deliberately so he could start a school without children being afraid of him.
• Eccentric Mentor
• Eldritch Abomination: A fairly benevolent one but still.
• Good Father
• Grim Reaper
• Let's Get Dangerous: When Asura is released, his dopey round eyes turn triangular and angry, and his comedic karate chop creates shockwaves and leaves a crater upon impact.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Depending on how far his current persona is a pretence. He might really have 'gotten used' to it.
• Odd Friendship: Him and Spirit. Teasing, arguments, impatience, odd moments of concern for one another. Pretty much like any other meister/Weapon pair, in fact.
• Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: "It's time for you to die again."
• Shinigami

Staff

Sid Barett

Voiced by: Masafumi Kimura (JP), Kent Williams (EN)

A zombie who was once a teacher and meister at Shibusen. Post-mortem, he still serves Shinigami-sama faithfully, and he partners with Nygus in battle. He is named after Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd.

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• Amazing Technicolor Population: He's undead so that's probably a good enough excuse for being blue.
• Badass
• Bilingual Bonus: His name is spelled Shido in Japanese which means dead person.
• Catch Phrase: "That's the kind of man I was."
  • The anime version even gives him a brief pre-zombification cameo where he says "That's the man I am," instead.
• Glowing Eyelights of Undeath
• Improbable Weapon User: Ordinarily battles with his Weapon, a knife type, but is just as handy wielding his own tombstone.
• I Would Say If I Could Say: His catch phrase counts for this frequently.
• Knife Nut
• Ninja: He's Black?Star's teacher, making him a Ninja as well.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: An undead teacher ninja.
• Our Zombies Are Different
• Power Strain Blackout: He collapses after using his powers to assist the main trio, their weapons, and Stein to get outside the witch's trap before it closed.
• Promotion to Parent: He raised Black?Star after the death of his clan.
• Stealth Mentor: Because he's, ya know, a Ninja.
• The Undead: He's a zombie. Apart from looking like a corpse and giving him a catchphrase it doesn't make much difference.

Mira Nygus

Voiced by: Junko Noda (JP), Shay Moore (EN)

Sid's Demon Weapon partner, who took over as the school nurse after Medusa left. In keeping with her partner's undead theme, she looks like an Egyptian mummy. Her weapon form is a combat knife. Is revealed to have met Sid by being the prize of a lottery for partner-less meister.

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• Bandage Babe
• Bare Your Midriff
• Blue Eyes: Of the cold and piercing variety.
• Booby Trap: Quite skilled at setting them, as Mifune found out.
• Combat Medic
• Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Pretty and dark-skinned lady covered in bandages including a Sarashi who is also a Hospital Hottie complete with uniform. Yes, please.
• Hospital Hottie: She's the school nurse and she's actually quite pretty underneath the bandages.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: If you don't count the bandages, the only clothes she wears most of the time are a pair of fatigues.
• Meaningful Name: Her name (pronounced as "mee-ruh") means "mummy" in Japanese.
• Mummy Ninja
• Ninja
• Sarashi
• Spell My Name with an "S": Nygus or Naigus?
  • A certain sub rendered it as "Kniges", somewhat fitting given her weapon form.
• The Stoic
  • Kuudere
• Talking Weapon

Dr. Franken Stein

Voiced by: Yuya Uchida (JP), Mitsuru Miyamoto (JP - CD dramas), Chuck Huber (EN)

Dr. Franken Stein is a teacher at Shibusen and the most powerful meister to ever graduate from the school. Memorable for being a textbook Mad Scientist, albeit a heroic one. He was Spirit Albarn's first meister, until Spirit was driven off by Stein's obsession with dissecting anything and everything, including Spirit himself.

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• A Father to His Men: Beneath his dissection-obsessed Mad Scientist exterior, he's a good man whose students love him.
• Awesome By Analysis
• Ax Crazy: Noted in chapter 93 when Spirit compares him to the Kishin.
• Badass
  • Badass Bookworm
  • Badass Labcoat
• Barehanded Blade Block
• Clear My Name: Is accused of murdering Joe Buttataki and ends up disappearing for awhile as result.
• Combat Medic
• The Corruptible: In the anime, especially. The closest to insanity of all in Shibusen, and the bad guys notice.
• Creepy Good: To put this into perspective, he routinely 'experiments on people' and told his partner he switched two of his toes when he was sleeping. He didn't; he was just screwing with him, but the fact that everyone found this a believable thing for him to have done really says it all.
• Creepy Monotone: In the English dub. It's subtle, but it's there.
• Deadly Doctor
• Expy: Bears a strong resemblance to Faust VIII, at least personality-wise.
  • He's a(n arguably) crazier, less visibly modified Karl Kroenen who's on the side of good... for now.
• Freudian Excuse: He claims he doesn't have one. He tells Medusa of the doctors who wanted to find out what traumatic event could have caused him to act so violently towards others ( with a flashback to a young Stein beating up someone random for no clear reason), and Franken just wanted to cut them up.
• Genius Bruiser
• Good Old Fisticuffs: He doesn't need a weapon to kick ass.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: He first appears as a Stealth Mentor, reveals he's really a teacher then later goes completly nuts and defects to Medusa's side. He gets better.
  • Only the first two apply in the manga.
• Hidden Depths: Obviously an unrepentent Mad Scientist, but clearly one of the most complex characters in the show.
• Hot Scientist: It's not on purpose. Not that it really matters.
• Ki Attacks: The fact that he can do this without a weapon is one the things that makes him so dangerous,
• Lack of Empathy: He's certainly not dead inside but it's pointed out that he's not quite capable of love.
  • The latter is Nygus' opinion, and valid given his history, but worth noting Stein's reaction to Marie which immediately follows this claim.
• Lightning Bruiser
• Mad Doctor
• Mad Scientist
• Madness Montage
• Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate
• Oral Fixation Fixation: His signature imported cigarettes...
• Obfuscating Stupidity
• Professor Guinea Pig
• Punny Name: Obviously a Shout-Out to Frankenstein.
• Reluctant Psycho: He is trying to fight the Madness.
• Sadist Teacher
• Sanity Slippage: Exactly how tight can he wind that screw in his head?
• Scary Shiny Glasses
• Science-Related Memetic Disorder
• Ship Tease: Gets quite a bit with Marie.
  • Medusa as well, but that's mostly in the anime.
• Smoking Is Cool
• Sociopathic Hero
• Specs of Awesome
• Stealth Mentor
• Stealth Pun: He's got a screw loose.
  • Also, he's loose at the seams.
• Swivel Chair Antics: initially on a swivel chair performing things for Rule of Funny.
• Team Dad: Weirdly enough.
  • Accepted as such by Maka who frequently goes to him for advice and is very happy to see him when he returns in the manga.
• Token Chaotic Teammate: He's crazier than the rest of the DWMA combined, and by far the most susceptible to Asura's madness.
• Visual Pun: He's constantly tightening the screw in his head. Meaning he's got a screw loose.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy