Soul Eater: Death and Kishin Asura AP Explanation

Credit to Maitreya for Asura’s part of this blog.

The purpose of this blog is to explain the current tiering of Lord Death and Kishin Asura from Soul Eater. Due to new context given by the prequel to the series, Fire Force, both characters have solid scaling to the Collective Unconsciousness/Adolla.

The “Power of God”

Chapters 296 - 302 explores the meaning of "God" as a title in relation to power in Fire Force. Haumea comments that what makes Shinrabanshoman the God of Creation is twofold, his imagination and his "Power of God". The title of God is directly correlated by Haumea with “power”, and she notes that neither herself nor the Collective Unconsciousness qualifies as God in this regard. This power allows Shinra to walk off full powered attacks from Haumea, who was fully fused with the CU/Adolla at the time.

The “Power of God” is actually a concept previously established in Soul Eater. Those with this Power are noted to have a wavelength on the level of a God, and they function to rule over the cosmos. The Soul Eater Databook also defines a being with the “Power of God” as the strongest entity in the world. This also applies to weapons of Gods, such as the spear of Poseidon, which is noted to have a godly wavelength. It's clear a being is not titled as God without being extremely powerful in their shared verse, as they have some level of power above Adolla.

The Birth of Death

In order to allow the world to move away from Despair, Shinrabanshoman rewinds time several times to recreate the planet into a “World of Death”. In doing so, Shinra lessens the value of life and empowers Death, creating it as a divine being. Given the name of “God”, Death serves to be Shinrabanshoman’s replacement as the new god for the world and was made as “absolute entity”. Death is noted to be a supreme god and takes away the power of Shinrabanshoman and all pyrokinetics on the planet. This action made those with strong souls more powerful than they were before. Death leaves to make a space where a God belongs.

Hundreds of years later with the events of Soul Eater, Death rules over the planet and the cosmos, and stands as the God of Death, Life, Souls and Order. The Soul Eater Databook confirms he holds the “Power of God”. He is known throughout the world as an “absolute being” and that he holds true power. 

Given that being a "god" within Fire Force/Soul Eater implies a range of power, with it being consistently stated/implied that "gods" are above the collective unconscious, then Death, who is stated multiple times to be a "god" and is perceived as powerful because of his title of "god", would also scale above the collective unconscious.

Kishin Asura’s True Nature

Kishin Asura’s true nature is that he is the current form of Adolla within the World of Death. 

Originally Adolla was simply “put to sleep” as Shinra describes it. Shinra destroyed the original form of Despair that was Adolla, as it didn’t belong in the new world Shinra created. However, Adolla was never indicated to have been completely destroyed by Shinra. In fact, his words of “go back to sleep” seems to indicate that he just made the being weaker and cast it off to the depths of the world, away from the new humanity. So, what happened to Adolla then?

The Kishin is madness. The madness that resides in all humans takes hold of individuals and makes them completely devoid of all emotions. But how did this madness come to be when Shinra supposedly eliminated all the despair of Adolla from the previous world?

Well, you see why Shinra may have eliminated the “despair” of the old world by making Death more intimate; he “created a world of madness” when he did so. The usage of the term “madness” is incredibly purposeful on Ohkubo’s part as it’s meant to establish the groundwork for Adolla’s future impact on the soul eater world as the Kishin.

Shinra may have eliminated “despair,” however “madness” and “fear” still remain in the hearts of man and thus the Kishin will always remain so long as life exists. It’s even confirmed in Soul Eater that the irresponsible act of cutting away fear (or eliminating Despair as was the case for Shinra) was the genesis of the world brimming with madness. Thus, making way for the Kishin to revive itself. The Kishin being “fear” itself is incredibly coinciding with Adolla who derives its power of despair through humanity's fear of death.

If that wasn’t enough, madness was one of the components making up despair in Adolla in the first place as well. So, the Kishin being remained off of “madness and fear” coincided with what we know makes up Adolla in the first place. The madness that the Kishin carries is also stated to be endless multiple times in Soul Eater which coincides with the endless amount of despair Adolla carries within it thanks to the very history of humanities despair it embodies.

The three eyes used to represent the Kishin are the same three eyes used to represent Adolla. Along with the mentions of the Kishin being “fear itself” just like Adolla is and the fact that Shinra confirmed not to have destroyed Adolla, but simply “put it to sleep” indicates a clear pathway for the Kishin to be the Adolla of the Soul Eater world. Chapter 95 of Soul Eater concludes this by establishing the Madness of The Kishin is Despair (the aspect of Adolla) and that it is the “True Evangelist of Madness”. Haumea also describes the Adolla as “sacred madness.

It’s honestly a little brilliant on Ohkubo’s part. How everything ties together to form this very narratively consistent gateway towards the Kishin being the remnants of what Adolla was in the past. It’s incredibly consistent with the narrative that the Kishin is the remnants of Adolla, brought forth due to the madness created from the new world. As well as it being consistent with the narrative’s direction of Fire Force being a total prequel to Soul Eater.

Retroactive Continuity

To close out on my end, look at how Ohkubo (the author) has handled the title of "Power of God" from a chronological standpoint of his work release. Ohkubo spends the entirety of SE associating the "Power of God' with literal power, not as a baseless title. In SE, it dictates you as the strongest, the one who rules the cosmos.

Flash forward to Fire Force. Ohkubo builds up the inclusion of elements of SE, culminating in Soul Resonance, the main mechanic of Soul Eater, resulting in Shinra becoming the strongest. This leads to Haumea soloing him out as God and being that god because of the "power of god", another carry over from Soul Eater. He makes Death, who is titled as God and referred to as an absolute entity and a supreme god. Furthermore, Death causes mankind to become stronger than they were before, even after losing their pyrokinetic abilities. Ohkubo closes out the transition to Soul Eater with this, with the notion that the new generation surpasses the old; Soul Eater has this very concept in it.

Now look at it from a retroactive viewpoint, Death has the "power of god" in Soul Eater. Furthermore, Adolla returns to the world from his very own fragment in the form of Asura. Ohkubo is super consistent on his narrative intentions between both works. Death is meant to be on the same tier as the God title. Haumea per her own words is weaker than this title, as is the Collective Unconsciousness.

Final Summary

God as a title is meant in a sense of power, and God in Fire Force means you are the strongest as you stand above the collective unconscious. Haumea explains the role of God is associated with power and states neither She nor Adolla are God. Shinra is classified as the God of Creation because of the “Power of God”. The Power of God is a classification Ohkubo repeatedly gives to Death, which makes sense. Shinra made him as his replacement and to be an absolute entity, which he is still referred to as in Soul Eater.

Asura is the current form of Adolla in the modern world. Crona, after absorbing the Kishin, stated that they'd destroy the world. This is followed up with Kid saying that "this is a battle between Order and Madness.... a war of fear and courage between two Gods!!", which refers to Death who is the God of Order, which was subsequently passed down to Kid, and Asura who is the God of Madness which was then "passed down" to Crona by eating Asura.

So, these characters with "godlike" statements or "world destroying" statements do actually scale to each other in relativity. These "Gods" in Soul Eater have power/rule over the cosmos, and as Shinrabansho-man also had the same cosmic scale powers, so should those in the same "series" that are also considered true gods (like Asura and Death).