God Eater

Episode 1

When a stoic, determined young man decides to battle the monsters that regularly breach his walled city, the Attack on Titan parallels are inevitable. That's the first episode of God Eater in a nutshell. This show so closely mirrors its more popular predecessor that the viewers' first impulse is to compare—with God Eater always coming up short. That's natural, since God Eater has had merely one episode to tell its story, while Attack on Titan has had 25. The challenge here is whether this new show can break away and make a name for itself.

Meet Utsugi Lenka, a young man who has come in from outside Fenrir, humanity's last bastion, to train in the military headquarters to fight the Aragami, this story's bad guys, who look more like irritable, overgrown Pokémon than anything else. Lenka and his one classmate, Kota, are training under the boobalicious Major Anamiya so they can join the Survey Corps—er, I mean fight Aragami with the First Unit. Instead of 3D Maneuver Gear, Kota and Lenka have trendy bracelets fused to their bodies, which sync with their “God Eater,” some sort of buster sword.

Kota has "incompetent best friend" written all over him, but our protagonist predictably shows enormous promise. Better yet, Lenka is what everyone keeps calling a Newtype, which Gundam fans know means somebody with supernatural special abilities that cannot be explained. Lenka's resolve advances even further after a chance run-in with the badass First Unit, a group of three hardened killers who bash in Aragami heads between cigarette drags. Overseeing the whole thing from the shadows is the Branch Manager, who is implied to be fully to blame for the creation of the Aragami, back in his Science Days.

Right now, the characters fulfill basic archetypes, but I'm hoping that's because this episode had to pack a lot in plotwise. When I learned that God Eater was originally an action game for the PSP, I was a little nervous. I just came out of Gunslinger Stratos limbo after all. Even a good director couldn't turn that popular arcade game into a good show. Whatever flaws God Eater may have, however, I'm happy to report that it moves quickly. In a few sweeping strokes, it paints a postwar hellscape that anyone can identify and establishes a strong, silent main character without soliloquy.

Visually, this anime is a treat. I'm all for animation that breaks the mold, and these soft, painterly backdrops and characters fit the bill. I am not sure how the animation is done—it's a little bit like watching game sprites in an extended cutscene and I'm certain that it's all CGI, but it lacks the Uncanny Valley herky-jerkiness associated with cel-shaded CG. Other times, the soft, smudged faces and the narrow depth-of-field make this look more like an art book brought to life, and I'm charmed. If only the costumes made as much sense—the only thing more ridiculous than Major Anamiya's open-chested military uniform are the obscene angles she is shot from to give us a better glimpse of how deep her cleavage goes.

God Eater has already shown so much of its hand that I wonder where it's going to find new material from here. We already know where the Aragami come from and what it takes to fight them—no "key to Eren's basement" necessary. If God Eater is going to go from OK to great, the secret won't be in the supernatural elements, but the human ones. As I continue to watch and review, I'll be waiting expectantly for snippets of personality and backstory to separate this similarly plotted show from its competition.

Rating: B

God Eater is currently streaming on Daisuki.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.