First Impressions – God Eater

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Delayed a week, was God Eater worth the buildup?

God Eater was a series where the peripherals interested me more than the story itself.  Frankly, it sounded pretty much like a generic game adaptation – dystopian future (2071) with mysterious monsters wiping out humanity, new technology that lets teens act as the savior of the species.  But it’s ufotable, which is always interesting when they’re branching out from the Fate universe, so it was a series that merited a check-in for sure.

Some parts of this premiere met expectations and some defied them, but not in the way I might have hoped.  The story was every bit as tired as I feared it might be, but the visuals were rather less impressive than I’d hoped.  I’m not sure exactly what ufotable was going for here, but I assume it’s some kind of CGI cel shading that’s designed to be a sort of visual hybrid.  For my money it doesn’t really work – it makes the end result look something like a bustier Kingdom Hearts.

I acknowledge fully that I’m not the intended audience for this sort of show, but that said, I can’t say it did a whole lot for me.  The character interactions were stiff and there was nothing in the premise that seemed in any way fresh.  In fact the most interesting element of the show for me is that it was the first Daisuki stream I’ve watched, and that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of the content.  There’s nothing really wrong or offensive with God Eater, it’s just not for me.

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4 comments

  1. P

    I couldn't even finish it, it was pretty boring. But like you said, maybe it's just not for me *shrugs*

  2. D

    It certainly wasn't for fans of the game like me either. I've seen nothing but complaining on the internet and with some justification to it. I'm just gonna flat out say Ufotable screwed up and made God Eater look as boring, generic, and uninteresting as possible.

  3. R

    I keep forgetting it was delayed since I watched the premiere screening at AX. I'm actually in the opposite boat from you regarding the look of the show. There was a moment of "wait what" to get used to the stylistic change, but after that I consider it quite impressive. I say that partially because I've seen others (only games so far though, this is the first anime I can distinctly remember going for this look) try to use the CG-hand drawn hybrid style and it never looked that good or natural.

    Also, shading aside their actually animation is as stellar as ever. Not a single off model in sight.

    I love God Eater as a game, but honestly that was for the same reason as I like Monster Hunter. I just like taking down giant, overpowered creatures. The storyline was definitely rather impressive given the genre we're talking about, especially the latter parts. But it definitely needs some flair to transition to anime form and on that front UFOtable didn't really do well

  4. C

    It was indeed a very slow first-half, but in the end I enjoyed it. The visuals were very good, I applaud ufo for trying something new, and even if it's received mixed opinions, I like it. The action was very nice, and obviously the main reason why anyone's watching.

    The MC barely felt like an entity but he was not annoying, and for that he gets some points.

    Now what really bothered me was all the slow-mo, like, really? Overusing that gimmick already got old in the very first episode.

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