God Eater (Season One)

God Eater Title

Strange beasts called the Aragami have appeared across the globe. They eat all everything and are able to evolve and adapt at terrifying speeds. On the brink of extinction, humanity’s only hope rests with the God Eaters!

What did you watch?

A while back I put out a post with seven anime gifs that caught my attention. I had no idea where they were from or even what was going on in. Thankfully, I got lots of responses and at long last, I have followed up one of those gifs and can confirm it was from God Eater. I’m sure no one needed me to confirm that, but I watched it off the back of this gif. So, I watched it, now what did I think? As usual, there will be spoilers in this post. Proceed with care!

Sunday Sevens Name That Anime Stare Off

What happened?

The world has been ravaged by the Aragami and only small pockets of humanity have survived. One such area is a walled city run by the Fenrir Organisation. However, they only accept survivors with the potential to become God Eaters. A God Eater is a warrior that has been augmented with Aragami DNA and is able to wield weapons called God Arcs. These are the only thing that can stop the Aragami. Lenka had survived outside of the wall for his entire life and could become humanities greatest weapon!

He is one of the new types and is able to use a special God Arc that can function as a sword and a gun, making him the ultimate Aragami killing machine. Before completing his training, he makes a rash decision to attempt to stop an Aragami incursion all on his own. He manages to help, but is ultimately not strong enough and doesn’t fully understand his God Arc. Thrown into a cell for disobeying orders, his lifeline comes in the form of a captain that sees a little of himself in Lenka and wants to use him on the latest mission.

God Eater Lenka Utsugi

What did you think?

Seriously, why did no one tell me about God Eater? I mean people told me where the gif was from, but no one told me to go watch it right now. This series is basically my perfect story. It’s dark and terrifying, has hope and anguish, huge monsters, warriors with massive swords, and set in a post-apocalyptic world. If that sounds like something you’d like, do not delay. God Eater is incredible and I gutted that there isn’t more than one season. It came out in 2015 and no doubt ties into the video game, so it seems unlikely there will be more, but I really hope there will be. I loved this series.

God Eater Alisa Illinichina Amiella attacking

What was your favourite moment?

I was in love with this series pretty much from the first scene, but I remember the exact moment that gave me the “woah” feeling. Lenka was on a mission to rescue an asset from a plane that was being attacked by flying Aragami. However, when they arrived they found the asset to be running around on top of the plane attacking the massive swarm of Aragami. She too had a new God Arc and was clearly much better at using it that Lenka. However, as he watched her, things started to click for him. Basically, they were fighting these monsters from the top of a flying plane and it was amazing.

It was also where the scene from the gif took place. All of this was pretty epic, but then after they defeated the swarm. There was something else on the radar. Sakuya abandoned the helicopter and jumped to the plane, allowing the helicopter to drift off as a decoy. The team stood there in silence as this enormous Aragami came out of the clouds and followed the helicopter. Woah! Epic!

God Eater Giant Aragami

What was your least favourite moment?

I feel like I should point out the animation style which is entirely CGI. It is great but takes a little while to get used to. Once you’re settled, however, you barely notice it. Other than that, and this will be a massive cop-out from me, we got a flashback to Lenka and how he was found as a baby and taken in by another family. They discovered that Lenka was compatible with the God Eater and as such could go and live in the walled city. However, as they adopted him and weren’t blood relatives they would not be allowed to enter.

What followed from this point on was dark and tragic and haunting. The worst part was when his sister who had been hurt and was unable to keep going took Lenka’s knife and slit her own throat so that he wouldn’t stay with her and die with her. It was heartbreaking, especially when she started to black out and say Lenka in her dream. She obviously loved him and that made it all that much harder to watch. It was incredibly powerful and not something I was expecting from a series like this. Did I say that this series is amazing?


Who was your favourite character?

There were so many great characters and they followed some pretty interesting character arcs. Lenka’s journey of discovery and realising that he needed to work as a team was a lot of fun, especially when Rindou showed him some of the realities that he was not ready for. Rindou himself was awesome and played the mentor role incredibly well. I liked Sakuya too, although I think Alisa was possibly the most interesting. She suffered from post-traumatic stress from seeing her parents killed by an evil and sadistic Aragami. She’s spent the rest of her life preparing for the chance to avenge them, but it’s harder than it looks. This monster is a beast!

God Eater Alisa Illinichina Amiella

Who was your least favourite character?

It was pretty obvious from the beginning with the flashbacks to the scientists that they would ultimately be responsible for the entire state of the world. While they may not have done it themselves they certainly paved the way for military applications of the god cell that went haywire and destroyed the Earth. As such I am going to give this section to Johannes von Schicksal who went full Bond villain and was planning on fleeing the Earth with a select few and wait for the Aragami to just wander off!

God Eater Johannes von Shicksal

Would you like some more?

I am dying to find out what happens next, so yes, I need more. One thing that I have found to be rather entertaining is the number of comments on MAL calling this a rip-off of Attack on Titan… because of walled cities and monsters… Ah, yes. I forgot that Attack on Titan invented walled cities to keep out monsters… Seriously, this is the most absurd and deranged idea possible. I don’t know how to respond to that other than to say – “No! You’re wrong. Try again.” Without getting too into it, there is no such thing as an original idea anymore and a story is more than just a couple of ideas mashed together.

God Eater Tsubaki Amamiya

What have you learnt?

One of the things I really enjoyed with this series was how the gave the characters some real flaws that weren’t instantly overcome. Lenka took a while to realise that he needed to work with a team and couldn’t do everything on his own. That stemmed from being alone and not wanting to lose anyone else the way he lost his family. Then, you had Alisa who was filled with ideas of revenge but crumbled once the reality became a possibility or not… Dyaus Pita was insane. I don’t think it can be said enough, but characters need to have goals and flaws. They need to be relatable and I think God Eater did that very well.

God Eater Dyaus Pita


Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header

6 Comments

    • I always find CGI anime hair to be a little off putting. It was definitely one of the better examples though. I loved the story and need more like it.

  1. If I had known you hadn’t been recommended God Eater, I would have told you. This is one of my personal favorites. I am glad you discovered it!

    My favorite scene of the series is Alisa and Lenka fighting on top of the military cargo plane. Probably one of my top fight scenes for me in anime.

    • Yeah, it has everything I love and more. I’m so glad I got around to watching it. That scene on the plane was awesome.

    • Yeah. It’s like someone recorded my dreams for a year and then mashed all the beats into an anime series and called if God Eater! Now, I just need to find more like it.

What did you think?