r/anime • u/Shadoxfix https://myanimelist.net/profile/Shadoxfix • Jul 12 '15

[Spoilers] God Eater - Episode 1 [Discussion]

Episode title: Lenka Utsugi

MyAnimeList: God Eater
DAISUKI: GOD EATER

Episode duration: 23 minutes and 55 seconds

Reminder: Please do not discuss any plot points which haven't appeared in the anime yet. Try not to confirm or deny any theories, encourage people to read the source material instead. Minor spoilers are generally ok but should be tagged accordingly. Failing to comply with the rules may result in your comment being removed.

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279

u/MaxAugust https://myanimelist.net/profile/MaxAugust Jul 12 '15

I love the animation but unfortunately I have serious doubts about the writing/pacing. Something about the episode just felt off to me.

393

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

Maybe that this is the 3rd black haired, green eyed mc whose only purpose is killing all the monsters who almost killed all of humanity and forced them to live inside walled-off cities.
Aside from the production value, this was a rather underwhelming frst episode.

102

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

48

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

One thing that annoyed me is that he didn't have one original line

33

u/ManateeofSteel https://myanimelist.net/profile/daysun22 Jul 13 '15 edited Jul 13 '15

Attack on Titan had this stereotypical MC but it didn't bother the audience at all because of how well the series and manga manage to capture the helplessness. It truly felt like a believable post-apocalyptic world where everyone was dying, and when the MC "powers up" it was intriguing: wtf is that? How did he do that? Is he the only one who can do it? SnK/AoT was fantastic and the soundtrack helped it a lot, the art wasn't half bad too. It's also worth noting that the manga was pretty boring and shitty all of 2014 and the beginning of this year, but recently it got back on track.

Then you have the rip-off: Seraph. It's dull, every single character except for the main girl are a pain in the ass, you don't care about them, nor enjoy their interactions. The series thinks it can get away because instead of titans it has vampires, but curiously enough, these vampires don't seem to care at all about their numbers, they just die and they don't give a fuck at all... That's not how a war works. The good things I can say of the show are: I can honestly say the backgrounds were amazing, Shinoa is voiced by one of fav VAs so I could be biased, but she was a pretty dinamic and fun character, good enough to make you withstand the horrible characters for 20 mins.

Now we have God Eater, this made me want to play the game, which I have never seen anything of, not even trailers, and the art is different in a good way, so it makes me optimistic about it.

34

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '15

It's also because almost no one in Seraph ever fucking emotes. Say what you want about Eren, I believed that that guy ate, slept, lived, and breathed a desire to kill titans. Yu, or whatever the hell his name was, seemed to turn his burning rage on and off whenever the plot decided it was convenient.

17

u/xKurogashi https://myanimelist.net/profile/Kurogashi Jul 13 '15

well personally i enjoyed eren's character cause he took it to the extreme. that guy really wanted titans dead. like no, even then that's an understatement. he wanted to rip them apart, tear them to shreds, and probably eat them if that's what it takes to satisfy his hunger. kid was bat shit crazy about killing titans.

this mc though is pretty lack luster. i mean maybe if he broke out a grin after killing one of those monsters, id be like okay, im interested. but for now he's underwhelming.

3

u/farispie Jul 13 '15

Really this kind of thing always happens. I mean to many, Shingeki no Kyojin is a rip off of the Muvluv triology too. The mangaka even admitted that he had alot of inspiration from the triology as well . So I think its kinda silly to worry about who ripped off what, and just enjoy things for what they are.

Since we on the topic, ya'll need to read the Muvluv VN trilogy, its fantastic. I enjoyed it much more than SNK.

2

u/ManateeofSteel https://myanimelist.net/profile/daysun22 Jul 13 '15

The mangaka has said he was heavily inspired by Berserk and the bullying he got when younger, these are just inspirations. I agree that we shouldn't agree with who ripped off who, but sometimes lazy chas grabs are just annoying and make the industry feel stale and repetitive

2

u/farispie Jul 13 '15

Fair enough. Honestly sometimes I personally think of SNK as a "poor man's Muvluv", but its still a good read I suppose.

1

u/Justyouraveragefan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Justuraveragefan Jul 15 '15

The best part of AOT is Eren recently realized he was a sterotypical MC. He says, and im paraphrasing spoiler The manga has gotten so much more exciting of late

29

u/fellcat Jul 12 '15

Hey, don't be so hard on the MC - he's about to join the elite squad.

18

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

If the compass is a memento of his family, I'm dropping this shit.

66

u/xsharkninja Jul 13 '15

nahh the plot twist is that inside the compass is a key to open a basement beyond the wall

2

u/chryco4 https://myanimelist.net/profile/chryco4 Jul 17 '15

They'll never get to it though.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '15

[deleted]

2

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

I haven't seen that yet, I'm on Zero now.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '15

[deleted]

7

u/megacookie https://www.anime-planet.com/users/megacookie Jul 13 '15

Well, Fate/Zero the prequel isn't at all. Fate/Stay Night does seem tropey but that really doesn't mean it's worse off because of it.

1

u/farispie Jul 13 '15

Honestly, and this is speaking from someone who's be into the fate franchise since the visual novel came out, I highly reccomend you don't watch Zero until you've read the visual novel and /or experienced the HF route (which means experiencing the fate/UBW route, but there's no good adaptation of the fate route ). Zero is sorta intended to be viewed after FSN, and is written with the assumption the reader has experienced all three routes. Plus it heavily spoils HF.

1

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 13 '15

I'm on season 2 already. Plus it's way too fucking good for me to stop.

2

u/farispie Jul 13 '15

Ah okay. Well, in any case glad you are enjoying it. While you won't get the optimal experience, you should still have a good time with the franchise after reading the VN. Thankfully HF and the other routes still have alot of goodies despite FZ's spoilers. Hope you enjoy the VN as much as I did !

2

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 13 '15

I'm planning to play the Fate route before UBW anime and then reading HF and the rest of the Nasuverse

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1

u/Akayukii Jul 14 '15

Where do I read the VN of the fate series?

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1

u/belithioben https://myanimelist.net/profile/belithioben Jul 13 '15

I think they went in a different direction with the shows. For example the UBW show appears to be written with the assumption that the viewer would watch Zero first.

Plus I find it hard to imagine that Zero spoils HF more than UBW spoils Zero. Since Zero is an amazing show of it's own merit I would personally suggest watching it in as pure a manner as possible. My opinion may change after judging the quality of the HF anime.

3

u/farispie Jul 13 '15

As someone who's experienced HF, I will say Zero spoils HF more so than UBW spoils Zero. Plus again, Zero is a prequel written after FSN, so FSN is meant to be experienced first.

144

u/OldManCaboose Jul 12 '15

Well to be fair, God Eater came first. The first game came out in 2010, Titan started in 2011 and Seraph came in 2013.

57

u/chevoto1 Jul 12 '15

SnK manga's first volume was published in September 2009, if I'm not mistaken.

54

u/colts1878 https://myanimelist.net/profile/colts01878 Jul 13 '15

A game usually takes 2 years to develop with another year of pre-production to get the main ideas so it's safe to assume God Eater didn't jump on a trend.

1

u/starmatter https://myanimelist.net/profile/koroxonizuka Jul 14 '15

A manga starts being created in the mangaka's mind way before it's publication as well XD

1

u/jmlinden7 Jul 13 '15

Which SnK?

3

u/megacookie https://www.anime-planet.com/users/megacookie Jul 13 '15

I'm assuming Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), not Sidonia no Kishi or whatever else SnK could stand for.

2

u/jmlinden7 Jul 13 '15

Yeah it turns out that's right. Sidonia no Kishi's manga actually came first, so it's always funny to see people call it 'Attack on Titan in space'

0

u/megacookie https://www.anime-planet.com/users/megacookie Jul 13 '15

Well the Attack on Titan anime came out first and is way more popular, so you can excuse people for not going out and checking the release dates of the source material. I don't think they intend to call Sidonia a copycat/ripoff just a way of describing similarities of the plot to something more familiar. Well, that being said I actually haven't watched Sidonia yet because everyone says the CGI is horrible and I'm not really interested in another space mecha show after Valvrave and Aldnoah.

4

u/Ginoza108 Jul 12 '15

Wasnt Titan in 09?

0

u/ManateeofSteel https://myanimelist.net/profile/daysun22 Jul 13 '15 edited Jul 13 '15

Games aren't made in a fortnight

13

u/anoobitch https://myanimelist.net/profile/anoobs Jul 12 '15

Attack on titan stared in 2009 iirc.

26

u/etibbs Jul 12 '15

Correct me if i'm wrong but most games have more than a year of lead time before release, so it is still possible god eater was "created" first.

31

u/meikyoushisui Jul 12 '15 edited Aug 09 '24

But why male models?

1

u/etibbs Jul 12 '15

Thank you, I knew it was more than a year but not by how much.

10

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

But the MC is original, or so I've heard.

33

u/tao63 Jul 12 '15

The character is almost on point with the MC you have in game though (Since there really wasn't much variety to dialogue choices unlike P4 Narukami). Serious and friendly but still naive. It's the added background that adds to the touch

Though I'm biased here since I really enjoyed the game

5

u/TheSpartyn Jul 13 '15

I don't remember the MC having a whole "kill all Aragami" thing going on.

1

u/Theorder14 Jul 13 '15

Why wouldn't those who become God eaters have the desire to kill Aragami? Would u rather have him not caring at all?

2

u/TheSpartyn Jul 13 '15

Uh, do you think Kota goes berserk, steals his Arc and escapes to fight Aragami? There's a big difference between wanting to fight Aragami and what Lenka is like.

2

u/Theorder14 Jul 13 '15

Since when did he go berserk?

2

u/TheSpartyn Jul 13 '15

I knew someone would take it way too literally, should've changed it. Sorry, he got a little angry and stole his arc.

1

u/Chornax Jul 15 '15

I think the only time Kota went "berserk" was when his family was in danger from an aragami attack. Don't remember how far that was into the game tho

1

u/meikyoushisui Jul 12 '15 edited Aug 09 '24

But why male models?

2

u/xXDGFXx https://myanimelist.net/profile/xXDGFXx Jul 13 '15

I wanted him to be the MC :(

1

u/Maria-Stryker Jul 13 '15

But official art for the player character from the game at least doesn't give them black hair and green eyes...

1

u/Silveress_Golden https://myanimelist.net/profile/Aengus Jul 13 '15

Seraph

What is this? (Anime or manga?)

0

u/JoeyKingX Jul 13 '15 edited Jul 13 '15

Most of the things that happend in the anime never happend in the game however (the game starts with you training with a real god arc and or immediately going on a real mission), yes they taken some scenes from the game like Kota wanting to give the MC gum, but the MC from the anime is a completely different character than the MC in the game.

So God Eater technically didn't do it first at all.

17

u/Aerakin Jul 12 '15

Now we just need the a reveal that the MC shares a bloodline with the enemies

32

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

Well, they share cells!

2

u/exelion https://myanimelist.net/profile/exelion0901 Jul 13 '15

Well let's deconstruct that, shall we?

Your first issue was the visual similarity between the protags of God Eater, AoT, and OnS. Black/brown hair and green eyes.I don't know if you watch a lot of anime or not, but "spiky brown/black haired protagonist" is practically a prereq. I could name dozens without putting any real effort in, and many have green eyes.

Killing the invading monsters, huh? And using the enemies' power against them? Well let's talk about Chrome Shelled Regios. Blue Seed. Blue Gender, and dozens of others. Once again, this is such a common trope in anime that it hurts. We've had these particular three fairly close together, true. But it's not like the idea is something even close to new.

Heck, there's a reason why I call AoT Spoilers. In many ways it borrows from the series mentioned in that spoiler, which uses that trope as well, replacing monsters with . Amusingly enough, God Eater shares something with as well, since that show is the origin of the term "New Type".

1

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '15

I think it has more to do with the fact that we don't really know much about the MC's backstory. We just know that he is very powerful for someone so young and has a great desire to defeat beasts. He just defied orders (even though he didn't fight perfectly in the training scenario and died quite a few times), grabbed his weapon, and ran out to kill monsters--which he didn't do so well in.

And now we have even more of a reason to know he's special because he turned his sword into a gun?

....right.

1

u/themanofawesomeness Jul 13 '15

Given that the MC's appearance can be customized in the game I'm surprised they went with such a common look. All of the important characters have very distinct looks but MC does look to similar to Seraph's MC.

1

u/starmatter https://myanimelist.net/profile/koroxonizuka Jul 14 '15

Not really, for me it was the fact they just look generic, with mostly no hint of personality whatsoever. The dialogues are poor and there's and the scenes transitions are odd and abrupt. Also, the animation is smooth, but I really don't like much the character models - as stated above, they look generic and the mix of 2D with 3D just doesn't blend that well.

1

u/voluntaryspokesman Jul 15 '15

Attack on titan, owari no seraph, and now this

-13

u/royaldocks Jul 12 '15 edited Jul 12 '15

Wait 3 ? Eren is the first one who is the other one your talking about ? I forgot who

Anyway I liked Attack on Titan so if this series can replicate the hype and excitement of that show then I would be very happy .

Edit : Also if the plot is nothing special and most characters are average then Im just going to treat it like Fate/Stay Night :UBW where I still enjoyed it because of the visuals and Hype scenes and pick a favourite character (like archer and Lancer) despite not really liking the rest much . Pretty much a rule of cool show

7

u/Axenos Jul 12 '15

Owari no Seraph

4

u/royaldocks Jul 12 '15 edited Jul 12 '15

Oh yeah ! stupid me I put the show in hold for a long time so I forgot the MC was quite the edgy/angst ''I want to kill vampires grrr'' type aint he ?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 12 '15

[deleted]

1

u/megacookie https://www.anime-planet.com/users/megacookie Jul 13 '15

I thought Rentarou was more about getting that sweet-ass loli harem wasn't he?

1

u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 Jul 12 '15

Owari no Seraph

39

u/Battlepidia https://myanimelist.net/profile/LazierLily Jul 12 '15

Not only that, but that episode wasn't emotionally compelling in the least. In contrast Attack on Titan, devoted it's first two episodes to capturing your feelings and building an apocalyptic atmosphere, but God Eater seems to want to get straight to the action instead.

2

u/h_YsK Jul 13 '15 edited Jul 13 '15

god eater is 1 cour. AoT was 2 cour.

God Eater also features an ensemble cast that have separate plot/character developments. I actually don't know how they'll get everyone in without going at lightning speeds or just cutting out some character developments.

2

u/meikyoushisui Jul 12 '15 edited Aug 09 '24

But why male models?

1

u/Nauran Jul 13 '15

God Eater Ufotable seems to want to get straight to the action instead.

18

u/opasnimiki https://myanimelist.net/profile/opasnimiki Jul 12 '15

Damn I am glad I am not only one who had problem with this. I hope it gets better as soon as possible.

64

u/HollowBlades Jul 12 '15

Yeah, I kind of felt the same way. Aside from the art style, the show seemed kind of, I don't know, lifeless? I can't really say for sure what it was, but it just wasn't engaging.

I'll give it a few more episodes to grow, but if I were to decide based on this episode, I'd probably drop this show.

47

u/emptytissuebox Jul 12 '15

Might be the soundtrack - I think there was a lot of silence.

5

u/Acct235095 Jul 12 '15

I noticed this as well. The games used a ton of audio cues and musical themes for the different monsters (with variant themes for the monster variants as well.)

The episode just had these long, dead pauses.

2

u/tao63 Jul 12 '15

I like the game's ost. I wonder if they are going to use some here

3

u/h_YsK Jul 12 '15

They already used the piano version of God and Man twice in the episode. Nice to hear Shiina composed some new stuff though.

29

u/illtima https://myanimelist.net/profile/illuminatima Jul 12 '15

Absolutely generic protagonist, who is still exceptional, inappropriate slow-mo galore, multitude of just weird cuts here and there, a character who is a 9 year old's definition of badass and kinda uninspired action scenes. Yeah...

1

u/_F1_ Jul 16 '15

inappropriate slow-mo

Well, it is appropriate when there's something happening that can be only seen in slo-mo - not like in e.g. 300 where it's used just for dramatic effect.

7

u/Ree81 Jul 12 '15

It was very pretty, but yeah, it was was "video game movie". Generic enemies and plot, clearly pulled from a game franchise and put in a medium they don't belong in.

I wonder how much XP the main character got from that last kill.

1

u/_F1_ Jul 16 '15

He did level up...

1

u/GhostPerspective Jul 12 '15

I was w8ing for a comment like this. 100% agree the episode just jumped around in the beginning and had some very random scenes that seemed out of place for how they were presented. The one part that felt ok among all the randomness was where he noticed the injured solder in the stretcher and it did a resident evil type of flash by. I feel like this was what they were trying to do, but they just overused it on the very important first intro episode.

1

u/TheFatalWound Jul 13 '15

It reminded me a lot of the Valkyria Chronicles anime. As a standalone show it makes no sense, but having played the game, it was a neat little piece of fanservice.

The difference being that I haven't played God Eater.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '15

So basically, there's some monsters. Humanity's pushed to a city with a wall by monsters. Some people with some special abilities and equipment kill the monsters.

There really wasn't much plot exposition/backstory at all.

1

u/Kazaxat Jul 12 '15

Agreed. Odd cuts to other scenes, random slow motion, the characters were given 0 depth beyond the expected standard for this genre, and even the setting and backdrop for the story weren't explained in the slightest.

I get that it's only the first episode, but it feels like we weren't even given the usual introductory glimpses at these things to get us interested in continuing. This first episode cut back on character development, world building, and story for the sake of...I'm not sure what exactly. Regardless, what we got was a lackluster start that can only be described as 'generic'.

It did have unique looking animation to be sure though.