Soul Eater Not! stops trying to be its parent show the moment it commits to being a slice-of-life comedy about misfits finding their footing. The tonal whiplash kills it for people expecting action, but fans who surrender to the school hijinks find something genuinely charming in watching Tsugumi stumble toward confidence alongside her ridiculous classmates. It's a spinoff that works only if you stop comparing it to what came before.

Set one year before the original Soul Eater, this spin-off follows Tsugumi Harudori, a new student at Death Weapon Meister Academy who can transform into a halberd. She joins the NOT class, where less gifted weapons and meisters learn to control their powers so they can live normal lives without hurting anyone, unlike the combat-focused EAT class of Maka, Soul and their friends. Tsugumi soon befriends two meisters, Meme Tatane and Anya Hepburn, and cannot decide which of them should become her partner. The result is a mix of action, comedy and supernatural fantasy set in a school that is anything but ordinary.