God Eater

Episode 4

I'd ask if anyone wants to place bets on why God Eater's 4th episode was delayed an extra week, but one look at this visual feast erases the guesswork. This week's God Eater is preternaturally gorgeous as usual, but paired with its darkest plotline yet. A beautiful setting combines with an ominous story to make for the most successful episode yet.

Some anime based on video games fail to recreate the original's graphic quality. God Eater is the opposite. After getting a chance to view some of the source gameplay, it seems apparent to me that God Eater has visually leveled up in anime form. We see two different sunsets this episode, each more breathtaking than the last. As the characters talk, the sunsets progress from pink and coral to dusky violet. They must have brought on a special animator to get the airy clouds to float so realistically and the water to glisten in the light so well. Even the slums of Fenrir and the ruins on the outside are jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

God Eater would be a good painting, but it's the animation that brings it up a notch. The cinematography is partial to symmetrical shots (like a Wes Anderson film) and slow motion sequences at key emotional times. The battle sequences resemble gameplay and although the stakes are low while Lenka and the others merely train, the fluidity of their movements makes it deeply satisfying to watch. As the camera panned over an ocean or deserted ruins, the Linkin Park-esque soundtrack came in timed and toned well to the visuals.

I'd probably watch this even if it had a deeply unsatisfying plot—which it did until very recently. I couldn't get over the early “Attack on Titan but worse” parallels or the many cheesy lines characters would utter with straight faces. There's still quite a few clichés evident—does anyone doubt that Kota is going to die soon, now that we've met his mother and established that he'll be missed?—but this episode also revealed a deeply disturbing new twist to pull viewers in. Lenka, Alisa, and Kota are now training with the First Unit. On the way back from a mission, they pick up some survivors of an Aragami attack. However, these survivors are turned away because they don't have the potential to be God Eaters, and are exiled to certain doom outside the walls. A little girl gives Lenka a look as she is banished, and the gorgeous animation imbues so much meaning into that one long glance.

This is a deeply unfair society. You'd think there would be so few humans left that it's in everyone's best interest to keep them safe in the walled citadel, but former scientist Johannes is calling the shots. One of the three scientists who created the Aragami currently annihilating humanity gets to decide who lives and who dies, a very dystopic detail. Finally, this show has a character I can truly oppose—because the Aragami never asked to be here. They are simply the consequences of his actions.

If you weren't into God Eater at the beginning, I'd encourage you to give it another try. In the breadth of four episodes, it's gone from nonsensical Attack on Titan copycat to an original, beautiful show in its own right.

Rating: A

God Eater is currently streaming on Daisuki.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.