TL;DR: watch it if you like shounen-style action series
Synopsis: group of friends are trained at an academy that teaches people how to kill people with evil souls.
Soul Eater first premiered in 2008, a time that was dominated by One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto. Famous for its Burton-esque aesthetics, it managed to carve out a respectably large niche in what I would consider the most competitive time period in terms of anime quality.
The series itself is banal in nature — it’s about a bunch of teenagers who are learning to be demon killers at an academy. It’s what Soul Eater does with this mediocre premise that really matters. It has a very creative fighting system: people can turn into a weapon who is paired with a meister who need to be spiritually in touch with each other to succeed. In this respect, the power of friendship does actually mean something, instead of being some deus ex machina bullshit.
Soul Eater is a character driven series — there isn’t an overarching plot or story, and the anime was given an anime original ending because it surpassed the manga. The ending itself wasn’t particularly good, though it was difficult to give the anime an ending at that point because of the way the anime had progressed until that point.
It also has charming visuals, some people say it’s what anime would look like if Tim Burton made it.
The theme of the series is fear, seeing fear as something that is negative or obstructive, rather something that is very human and useful. Which is true, and the theme of fear also meshes well with the art.
Overall, soul eater is one of the better battle shounen out there, largely due to its production value and thematic elements. Most of the other elements are simply good (the characters) or just passable (the story).
Scoring:
Design (11/15):
Distinguishment: (5/5) - unique art, fighting, and character designs
Animation: (1/2)
Sound: (1/2)
OST: (2/2) - instrumentals are fantastic, vocal tracks are kind of off
Character designs: (1/2) noses look kind of weird?
Backgrounds: (1/2)
Script (38/50):
Character Investment: (9/10)
Character Realism: (1/2)
Character Complexity: (3/3)
Plot solidness: (4/5)
Plot complexity: (6/10) - straightforward, but not bad
Ending: (3/5)
Pacing: (4/5) - didn’t notice it for better or worse
Stakes: (8/10)
Value (13/15):
Thematic elements: (5/5)
Skill: (3/5)
Originality: (5/5)
Enjoyment (15/20):
Did I like it: (15/20)
I think that "pacing" quality can be evaluated rather mechanically. If you push through too fast that you can't properly flesh out plot points or tie up loose ends or skip enormous sections of the source material like in the first half a season of SAO, then it's too fast paced. If on the other hand, you spend a lot of time meandering without doing anything like in Naruto, especially if you have a lot of filler, then you're too slow paced. 5/5 means perfect balance while anything else means different magnitudes of either problem, though I normally think that being too fast paced is a much better problem to have than being too slow paced. Soul Eater I'd give a 4/5 on pacing, being slightly on the slow side, even despite me wishing there was more to watch.
Objective qualities aside however, personally one of my favorite shows. 17/20.