I have been aware of the existence of a God Eater TV series for some time, but never actually considered watching it. It is a 2015 anime adaptation of the first God Eater video game. A 12 minute anime promo released in 2009 is sometimes considered a prologue to the 2015 show because they were both made by Ufotable, the same company that does the opening movies and cutscenes for the video games. The anime was also released as part of the franchise's fifth anniversary and probably as promotional material for God Eater Resurrection, a remastered version of the first game.
Most episodes include a unique song by the band "Ghost Oracle Drive" (G.O.D). I have included links to the songs in the episodes where they are first heard.
Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis of each episode and my opinions at the very end. If you plan on watching the anime spoiler free, do so now. Its 13 episodes long.
Prologue
This was made years before the show, so the quality isn't the best. It is only 12 minutes long, so I am going to skip over this one. The full episode is below for anyone who is interested.
The very first episode opens with a man hiding from "Aragami" (roughly "impetuous gods" or monsters) in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The scene then cuts to the Fenrir Far East Branch. For anyone who hasn't played the video games, Fenrir is an organization dedicated to fighting the Aragami using "God Eaters" - people bonded to a living "God Arc" weapon that literally consumes the Aragami. The man from before is revealed to be Lenka Utsugi, a stand-in for the blank slate video game protagonist. Like in the games, the protagonist is a New-Type God Eater - someone who can switch between blade and gun God Arc forms.
Lenka retrieves his God Arc from the maintenance gal Licca and undergoes training with his fellow God Eater in-training Kota. It isn't long before the walls surrounding the Fenrir facility come under attack, prompting Lenka to disobey orders and break out of Fenrir. Naturally, a rookie like Lenka proves no match for the low level Zygotes, Ogretails, and Kongous attacking the walls. Queue the dramatic entrance of the video game's main team: Lindow, Sakuya, and Soma. Episode one moves fast; its basically one huge info dump that anyone unfamiliar with the source material will probably struggle to keep up with. I like the glimpses of injured God Eaters throughout the episode that highlight what a dangerous profession it is. Really this episode is just laying the groundwork for whats to come.
Just as Lindow's team arrives to save Lenka from his current predicament, a Vajra appears and zaps Lenka unconscious. Eric dies protecting Lenka's body and the fiasco puts Lindow's team under intense pressure until the secondary cast of video game characters arrive: Tatsumi, Shun, Gina, Brendan, Kanon, and Karel.
We get a few quick glimpses of Alisa, a New-Type God Eater en route to the Far East Branch from Russia. Her plane is attacked by a swarm of freeze(?) type Fallen Zygote, which gives Lenka the chance to prove to the Fenrir board that he shouldn't have his New-Type status revoked. There are a lot of new characters being introduced at a rapid pace and I'd honestly be surprised if anyone remembered them. Heck, I played the video games and I barely remember them. Eric's death scene was a highlight though. Significantly better than the one in the game.
The group's orders are to retrieve Alisa from the besieged plane but their plans change when she refuses to abandon the wounded civilians onboard. Lenka takes a few cues from Alisa, a new type who actually knows how to use her weapon, and we see the first instance of a God Arc devouring an Aragami. The episode starts and ends with an Ouroboros tease but we unfortunately never get to see a fight against one or learn that Lindow is the only God Eater to have taken one down solo. The episode also touches a tiny bit on resonance and Aragami metamorphosis; things that only really become important in God Eater 2 onwards. Alisa is a fan favorite character and this episode highlights why.
What is an Ouroboros doing in the clouds? How did it get up there?
Lenka, Alisa, and Kota join the 1st unit with Lindow and take a day to themselves. Hints are dropped at something amiss with Alisa and her creepy, pill-pushing doctor. Meanwhile Lenka and Kota visit the slums. Coming from the outside, Lenka learns a little about how civilian life works within Fenrir's walls and how only those compatible with a God Arc are allowed in. The Far East Branch's "Aegis Project" is meant to address the issue by confining all of humanity to an island where the Aragami supposedly wont be able to reach them. Up to this point the show has been action heavy, so "Aegis" is a nice reprieve from that.
How did they expect to keep the flying and swimming Aragami away from their island project? We're never told.
Episode 05: An Eye For An Eye / All In Vain | Song: Human After All
A little more character background is given on Sakuya and Lindow, namely that they are both from outside the walls, same as Lenka, and emphasize with the people who aren't let in. With the "Aegis Project" at only 0.06% completion Sakuya, Alisa, Kota and Lenka decide to take down a Vajra for the materials it will provide. During the mission, a Dyaus Pita attacks and Lenka is left seriously wounded. "An Eye For An Eye" is a surprisingly bleak and eerie episode. Easily the most straight forward so far and the bloodiest. At this point the show has gotten most of the exposition out of the way and is starting to feel a lot less dense.
Hello my world. Every nightmare call on me... - Human After All
Stranded after the battle without her God Arc weapon and fresh out of prescription drugs from her shady doctor, Alisa's PTSD kicks in hard. Long suppressed memories of a Pita killing her parents surface, causing Alisa to ball up and cower in fear at any perceived threat. Despite the injury Lenka sustained, he is up and moving around like there isn't a giant hole through his gut. And even without his God Arc, which died, he manages to protect Alisa until help arrives. There is not a lot to say about this one. Its simply meant to introduce the deeper anxieties Alisa keeps hidden.
Episode 07: A Flower in Bloom
Lindow takes Alisa and Lenka to a settlement created by the people rejected by Fenrir, and the place is somehow better looking than the buildings within Fenrir's walls. Lindow even single-handedly supplied them with a warehouse's worth of supplies... somehow. And figured out how to raise Aragami trees that attack other Aragami but not people. The anime is really pushing my suspension of disbelief in regards to how much Lindow can accomplish on his own and in secret.
A lot of weird stuff happens in this one. Lenka's God Arc miraculously revives itself just in time to save the settlement from a Borg Camlann. Alisa takes a bath and then hides in a closet. This is probably my least favorite episode. It diverged from the video game's narrative and introduced too much anime melodrama and "we can do anything if we just believe in ourselves" type stuff for my liking.
Powerful
Aragami are seen gathering near the Far East Branch, seemingly in
response to the Aegis Project's island. Lenka and Alisa are put on
medical leave while Licca and Dr. Paylor try to assess why Lenka's God
Arc snapped, something that shouldn't happen, and discover he is dying.
Meanwhile, Lenka proves himself to the Combat Unit leader Tsubaki by
guiding Sakuya, Soma, Kota, Tatsumi, Brendan, and Kanon through a
mission via radio.
Episode 09: Soma Schicksal
Johannes,
the director and founder of Fenrir, lays out plans for an "Operation
Meteorite", an attempt to lure large numbers of Aragami into an area for
extermination. The episode jumps between flashbacks of Soma's past and
present day Lenka and Soma out on a mission fighting Chi-Yous. The
memory segments reveal Soma was used in an experiment by his mother
Aisha and father Johannes that eventually gave rise to the God Eaters.
The episode concludes with Alisa's doctor conditioning her to see Lindow
as an enemy.
Episode 10: Scattered Petals
"Scattered
Petals" is a Lenka prologue. We discover he was abandoned as a baby,
adopted by some random people, and met Lindow once before as a child.
Lenka's adopted mother died from illness, his dad was taken by Aragami,
and his sister slit her own throat so that he would seek out Fenrir and
stop worrying about her. There is also some weird, incestuous stuff
between Lenka and his sister that is far too common in anime.
"Prayers are useless in a world without gods." - Lenka's Mother
Episode 11: Operation Meteorite
"Operation
Meteorite" commences, luring massive numbers of Aragami to beacons. The
beacons mysteriously fail mid-battle, causing the Aragami to turn their
attention toward Lindow and the settlement from episode 7. This is
another light episode with a few nods to the video game sprinkled in,
like the mention of custom bullets. I also saw Geese from the light
novel and Haruomi and Kate from God Eater 2 make an appearance as
background characters. There are possibly more cameos but none that I
could identify.
"What if this is the hand of god." -Dr. Paylor
Episode 12: United They Stand/The First Unit
Lenka
gets a God Arc upgrade that would give Cloud's buster sword a run for
its money. I mean video game swords are usually freakishly oversized,
but this is ridiculous. Lenka then single-handedly annihilates a horde
of Vajra with God Arc flamethrowers and chainsaws. It's kinda
entertaining in its absurdity. Lindow, Lenka, Sakuya, Alisa, Soma, and
Kota gang up on the Dyaus Pita from before, and back at Fenrir's base
the receptionist Hibari, Dr. Paylor, and Tsubaki discover a mole in
their midst tampering with the beacons - Alisa's creepy doctor Daigo.
Lenko
kills the Dyaus Pita, but not before it kills Lindow. Johanne's "Aegis
project" is revealed to actually be a spacecraft, not an island. The
true purpose of the project was to keep a select few humans safe until
Earth could be reclaimed. Among the humans with a place on the "Ark" is
Daigo, who sicked Alisa and the Aragami on Lindow via the hacked
beacons. Lindow was close to uncovering the truth behind the "Aegis
project" and Johannes couldn't have that. Dr. Paylor vows to find a way
to save all of humanity and believes a future is not far off when
human's will one day be able to communicate with the Aragami. The series
ends with a Shio (human Aragami) tease.
Final Thoughts
The
God Eater anime isn't anything special; not great, not bad, just
average. I was impressed by how much it resembled the art style from the
games, but given that its the same studio I really shouldn't have been.
The animation always looked good in motion, but was a bit off when
idle. There were also a lot of unnecessary slow mos and awkward pauses
that were phased out over time, replaced with unnecessary angst and edge
that I didn't care for. The show had a lot of lore to establish early
on, which lead to some dense episodes near the beginning that were tough
to digest. It got easier to watch once most of the terminology and
world building had been established. But boy... those first few episodes
can be hard to sit through.
My
immediate reaction to Lenka as the protagonist instead of Yuu Kanagi
was that I didn't like him. He was stupidly irrational, loud, and
reckless. It was nice to see him brought more in-line with the video
game protagonist over time. The backstory they gave him was cliché but
still a step up from the blank slate that was in the video game. Its
just a shame that they ended the show right where things started to pick
up. I can't say that I'm surprised though. The anime is basically a
promo for the video games.
For
anyone interested in what happens after episode 13, but doesn't want to
play God Eater Burst to find out, here is a list of all the major story
events (highlight to read):
Shio becomes friends with Unit 1 and goes out on missions with them. She becomes especially close to Soma; inseparable really.
Johannes tries to use Shio as part of his Aegis project but is killed by Soma. Shio is then left forever stranded on the moon.
Lindow
is alive, but has transformed into an Aragami - a Hannibal; it happens
when a God Eater's armband is damaged. He cracked Pita's wing for Lenka,
let Pita take his right arm so that HQ would think he is dead, and in
the process made room for Lenka to take over as the new Unit 1 leader.
The
protagonist is one of only two God Eaters with the ultra rare ability
to use other people's God Arcs without being consumed. They use this
ability to communicate with Ren, Lindow's God Arc.
The
protagonist uses Ren to reverse most of the Aragami mutation Lindow has
undergone, but one arm is left as an Aragami claw. Lindow marries
Sakuya and they name their future child after Ren.
Have you seen the God Eater anime? What were your thoughts on the show? If you haven't seen it, do you plan to?
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