| “ | Sitting there in the Dark, I had the chance to think about a lot of things, including the nature about the world itself. And after lengthy consideration, I realized something: When all is said and done, this world is an unknowable place. On the surface, all appears rational, orderly. But what lies beyond that thin veneer of reason? Stability and reality? Or chaos and madness? What are we really made of in the end? Is there truly any meaning to the lives we lead? Or are we nothing more than hollow vessels? There are questions we can never answer because we cannot hope to see beyond the world’s fragile layer of skin. So we live our lives filled with uncertainty, never knowing who or what we truly are or what the future will bring. All we can do is imagine. Life becomes an unsolvable mystery with any number of twists and turns awaiting us. And that’s enough to fill any soul with terror. | ” |
| ~ Kishin Asura about his view on the world, and as well as his view on fear and madness. |
Asura or better known as Kishin Asura or simply the Kishin is the main antagonist of the Soul Eater manga and anime series.
He was a originally a former trusted member of Lord Death and his eight guardians, but he was a rather fearful man until one day, he let his paranoia got the better of him and turned his back on Lord Death and his guardians, by feeding his former partner Vajira innocent souls and would betray him to become the first Kishin in history, plunging the world into sanity by using his Madness Wavelength. Locked away in the depths of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, his actions caused a domino effect of Archne and her group of Archnophobia, resulting in her vengeance against DWMA and Lord Death. He is the archnemesis of Maka Albarn and the Death Weapon Meister Academy‘s archenemy.
He is voiced by Toshio Furukawa in Japanese version and Chris Patton in the English Dubbed version.
Actions & Characteristics[]
- He is the embodiment of madness and fear that is impossible to be destroyed, but despite this, he has a detestable and wicked personality, showing himself to be an completely remorseless and narcissistic monster who is aware of all the pain he is causing and simply doesn’t care as long as he can reign superiority over those with his fear.
- He is easily the most heinous villain in the whole franchise, as he would feed his former partner innocent souls to turn himself into the first Kishin in history, which he would do by betraying him. He would use his newfound powers to initiate his Madness Wavelength, which would lead to numerous people going insane by hallucinations and his ultimate goal is to spread madness around the world, causing endless suffering for his own callous pleasure and destroy the world along with it. Even after his imprisonment, Archne and her sister alongside the Pure Evil Medusa and Shaula Gorgon would plan to use him to cause their own plans of dominating the world and those under them through fear, making him responsble for all their heinous crimes, including Shaula’s horrible experiments and Medusa’s horrifying abuse of her daughter Crona.
- He directly kickstarted the events of the entire series, as before the series began, he was the first Kishin in history, whose existence was hidden underneath the grounds of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, which his legacy of his reign of fear and madness as the first Kishin makes him responsible for Lord Death’s founding of the school, and as well as creation of the main cast, even it’s main protagonist Maka Albarn. His first Madness Wavelength also released the witch Arachne Gorgon and her group of Archnophobia from their imprisonment, which makes him responsible for their deep vengeance against the DWMA and Lord Death, leading to the actions of Medusa and Shaula Gorgon and as well as their horrible actions, such as Medusa’s psychological abuse of Crona, in which she plans to turn her into the ultimate living weapon and free the Kishin for her own gain, with her hiding away to manipulate the violent conflict to further her own goals. In short, If something ever happens in the world of Soul Eater, it’s most likely Asura’s fault.
- He is easily the most powerful character to grace the whole franchise, as he was described as the strongest and most feared member of the Eight Shingami Legions, he holds vastly goldlike power that surpasses even others of his similar godlike status, such as Excalibur, the Great One of Power and Eibon, with him being perhaps the second strongest character in the entire Soul Eater series, being able to be a powerful and malevolent force of evil and fear that would almost beat up an destroy anyone in his way, even almost killing off the main cast. Even his own former superior Lord Death has a hard time defeating him. Upon becoming a Kishin, he wields a godly power over paranoia and fear, having the power of the Madness Wavelength, that can drive anyone exposed to it into insanity, by warping their perception. He can also produce Clowns that help spread his madness further, and also being infused with Black Blood, Asura has proven himself to be nearly immortal by healing any injury that comes his way and even using a empathic link to fuse with and possess Crona.
- While he has multiple Laughably Evil moments and other mitigating factors like his love for Arachne and his impaired moral agency, he is still taken as a seriously and none of them make him more or less the evil threat he is to the entire world.
- He is built up to be the most dangerous and powerful villain the series, as even Crona states that as long as there is fear, he will manage to come back stronger, even his former superior has way more trouble dealing with him than other characters and he even managed to nearly kill the rest of the main cast, only Maka overcoming the fear he has with her bravery was able to stop him for good.
- He is the equivalent of Satan in the Soul Eater universe as he is a demon god who influences and ruins people by using his power of fear and even after his imprisonment, he still is influencing most of the antagonists by driving their evil with his fear and seeks to plunge the whole world into darkness and despair and betrays Death to gain the power so he wouldn’t fear anything even again and he is taken down by the goodness of bravery by Maka Albarn.