God Eater

Episode 12

Last week's episode of God Eater left us on a cliffhanger, and this week was no different. It's clear that as God Eater ramps up to its final episode, there's no time to step on the brakes. This episode lent a heightened tension and terror to the show's alternating beauty and horror, and with the ending so near in sight, nobody's survival is guaranteed. It's a fast-paced, thrilling half hour. By itself, the episode features tense moments and gripping action, but as part of a whole, I had some plot concerns that showed through the cracks.

The penultimate episode is the perfect time to unveil an ultimate weapon, so that's exactly what Lenka does today. This God Arc is massive, at least four times the size of Lenka himself, and it is definitely alive. It's impressive to watch Lenka, who found himself completely defenseless against a pair of medium-sized Ogretail Aragami in episode six, now able to mow multiple Vajras down. As usual, I'm a sucker for God Eater's visual storytelling, slow motion cuts, electronic dance music, and just how cool Lenka looks here in general.

A weaker storyline would have seen Lenka overcome his deficiencies then and there, but God Eater made us wait, and the payoff is all the more rewarding. On the other hand, there's certainly a concern that, amidst all its transformative abilities, Lenka's God Eater has become a Deus Ex Machina for the conclusion. We don't know what it can or can't do, so if it has the power to suddenly annihilate all the monsters that have been plaguing these characters for their entire lives, I'll be very disappointed—the same way I would have been disappointed if Lenka had readily overcome his problems in episode six.

Despite Lenka's shiny new toy, he's not the star of the show today. That honor falls to Deus Pita, the most interesting antagonist of God Eater. It was frustrating in the beginning that the opponents humanity faces are dumb beasts with no will of their own (and things got infinitely much more interesting when we realized the Aragami were a human creation). However, Deus Pita is different. It's not only this Aragami's striking character design that seems to emanate evil, but also its clear intelligence. I'm still not sure if it actually spoke to Alisa when she was a child, but it's certainly smart enough to do so. That moment when Lindow matches wits with Deus Pita and manages to trick it, you can see Deus Pita actually smirk. Before the show revealed that the mission's tampering was an inside job, I thought Deus Pita might be just capable enough of critical thinking to manage that sabotage by itself.

Deus Pita's black box of undiscovered abilities is why I've always sympathized with Alisa, even when I felt her post-traumatic stress story arc dragged on too long, like the show was relishing in her vulnerability. There was a little of that in this episode, too. Combined with her barely there costume, Alisa's brainwashing makes her completely exposed, defenseless where a fighter of her caliber ought to be stronger, and I worry that she's been turned into a plot device to give protagonist Lenka somebody to fight for. I was disappointed that it was Lindow, not Alisa, who decided to face Deus Pita, since I'm pretty sure Alisa has been swearing vengeance for years, completely neglecting the opportunity in her confusion.

People created the Aragami threat and, by the end of the episode, it's clearly people that we need to worry about the most. It was a person who brainwashed Alisa with the order to kill Lindow. It was a person that hacked the Aragami attracting device and planted another near Asyl, the town Lindow has worked so hard to protect. This episode showed some cracks in the veneer, but next episode will show us what these characters are truly made of.

Rating: B+

God Eater is currently streaming on Daisuki.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.