Hello everyone and welcome The Anime Pulse: First Reaction. It is one of the most anticipated anime of the summer and when you have a company like ufotable backing it, it’s no wonder that people are excited. It started a week later than all the other shows, but now it’s here! It’s time for God Eater!
General Overview
Set in Japan in the year 2071 where the world has been mostly destroyed by mysterious monsters known as the Aragami. An organization known as Fenrir was made to exterminate Aragami using weapons called God Arcs which is made from the cells of an Aragami. Those who specialize in exterminating Aragami are known as God Eaters. Originally God Eaters had one type in which their God Arcs can only keep gun form or blade form, however a new type has been discovered that can switch between gun and blade form. Since then, they have been classified new-types and the previous as old-types.
First Episode Impressions
First off.. the artwork.. honestly… is not as good as I thought it was going to be. Yes, the anime does look gorgeous in that post-apocalyptic setting style, but Fate/Zero and even Fate/Stay NIght Unlimited Blade Works, I felt, had better, more refined visuals, but then again, I see that they are testing out a new style here. It looks like full watercolor CG which does give the show a unique look and makes the character designs pop. It’s probably due to this different style that I’m judging it incorrectly. I don’t hate it, though. It is very nice to look at.
So right away, we are introduced to Renka, our main character, and all he wants to do is go all Eren Jaeger on the Aragami. Although he is ambitious, he kind of gets shut down by Tsubaki, his commanding officer, when she says that his first mission… is to train. So he does and he trains over and over again feeling that the more time he puts in, the faster they’ll let him out into the field. Then, the inevitable happens and the Aragami break through the walls and begin invading the city. They dispatch teams to deal with them when another batch breaks through on the other side and they have no one to send there.
You can see where this is going, right? Renka disobeys Tsubaki’s orders and heads out with his newly crafted God Arc. He shows some impressive skills escaping when Tsubaki tries everything in her power to stop him, but it comes time to do the actual battle, Renka completely gets owned. So much promise and potential almost wasted right away, but thankfully there is a bit of a saving grace after the first squad shows up to save him.
Renka spots a woman about to get eaten and he picks up his God Arc and charges in. Being so far away, he won’t make it there, so Renka’s God Arc transforms into a cannon and blasts the enemy away, impressing even the first squad. Throughout the episode, they kept referring to Renka as an outside that is a prime candidate to wield a “new type.” It is here that we find out the “new type” is a God Arc that can transform. Yes, it does fall into the trope of the main character getting the special cool stuff that no one else has, but it works in this case and works rather well.
I got pumped up over this episode so much that I watched it twice. It’s just very pleasing to watch and it has all the makings of a summer blockbuster hit.
OP & ED Impressions
Opening
“Feed A” by OLDCODEX
The opening served as the ending and with the way ufotable is presenting the formatting of this show, I think that’s how it’s going to be because not even My Anime List has an ending listed for this show. OLDCODEX, speaking of summer stuff, also provided the opening to the first season of FREE! and, I have to say, that I wasn’t really impressed by this song. It just sounded like your standard mainstream rock theme that you buy a dozen of for a dime these days. It didn’t really offer anything new and exciting and just kind of felt flat.
Worth Watching?
YES – Great action even though there wasn’t a lot of world building in the first episode, but we did get introduced to just enough to keep you wondering more about the show. It has that certain hook that reels you in and I’m expecting good things from this series.
