Story (5/10) - The story honestly wasn't that special. It isn't anything we haven't seen before, just your standard monster apocalypse type fair. It didn't fail particularly at anything, but didn't do anything exceptional either; it just served as a familiar spring board for the viewer to get into the action. I did really appreciate all the flashback scenes and explanations how how this all came about and the description of the monsters (Aragami?). It is something this show actually did really well that many other apocalypse shows either ignore or stumble on inelegantly. It almost makes me want to bump up the story score... almost. There is one minor quibble I have in the 2nd last episode about Alisa, but the action pulls you along quickly enough that I could ignore it and continue to enjoy the show.
Art (10/10) - Hoooooooolllyyyyy shit... is quite frankly the only way I can truly express how ridiculously beautiful the art and animation is for God Eater. Outside of a few hiccups that are fixed in the blu-rays, the visuals are just absolutely stunning, as is to be expected from Studio Ufotable. The lighting, the particle/water effects, the characters, the monsters, just absolutely top notch work. This is the kind of stuff you expect to see out of a movie budget. Everything was fluid and distinct, even in busy light-show scenes, and the animation really managed to bring things to life. It made horrifying scenes all the more horrifying and pleasant scenes absolutely delightful.
Sound (10/10) - Another stand-out category for this show. The OP is great and gets you super pumped, the ED is fantastic closure, and the insert songs in this show were just on a whole other level. "Human After All" might be one of my favourite all time insert songs, and I look forward to the OST release with great enthusiasm. The Foley in this show was also pretty top notch as well, with just fantastic sound effects permeating every scene without overbearing the voice work, which itself was also exceptional. Really, really top notch sound work. An absolute joy to listen to.
Characters (6/10) - Most of the characters, like the story, are kind of your standard archetypes. You have the strong-silent Soma, the impulsive and heroic Lenka, the psychologically traumatized girl that tries to hide her emotions, etc. Part of the problem this show had is that a lot of the character development came in the latter half of the show, with one notable exception. So you spent a good 1/2 of the show just thinking everyone is a stoic champion cut-out. By the time all the character complexity came up, you were nearly at the climax already. If it wasn't for this fact, I could have easily given it a higher score, as the characters themselves are quite interesting. That being said, there are a couple stand out character moments in the show. I won't spoil them here as they are important to the story, but they are moments where the character development is leagues above what you'd expect from it, moments that earnestly brought tears to my eyes, so that raises the score a bit.
Enjoyment (9/10) - This is a hard one because early on (the first 3-4 episodes) the show wasn't very engaging. It was just kind of laying the world-building ground work and introducing a large cast. Once it hit episodes 4/5 though, it really took off at a frantic pace that didn't stop right up until the end. Thankfully the gamble paid off and the latter 2/3 of the show became very, very enjoyable for me. Despite all the archetypal characters and standard storyline, the direction was solid enough that it was still very fun to watch, and obviously the top tier animation/music helped prop it up a little bit as well. Nonetheless, it was a quite fun bombastic action series with the occasional fantastic character scene. I also have to give credit to the show for going darker and grittier and punishing characters for their mistakes. Yeah, there was still plot armour, but the characters still suffered when they fucked up, and they suffered badly (I wish I could bold/italicize "badly" here, some of it it was frankly horrifying). It really gave a lot more weight to their actions and made such a standard apocalyptic story more easy to suspend disbelief for and pull you in.
Overall score: 8/10
God Eater is a really interesting show. It face a lot of hurdles throughout its run from the production delays attempting a whole new and beautiful animation style. This probably lost a lot of viewers and quite frankly hurt the show rather badly due to the fact that some of its best work was presented in the remaining 4 episodes a full season after the original run began. It also has some problems with its story/characters. It is an adaptation of a game with a self-insert protagonist you play with zero background story, so expecting miracles from the story and characters isn't going to serve you well. Honestly though, they did a fairly good job coming up with a proper background story for Lenka, one with meaning behind it. It is worth a watch, if for nothing else other than the breathtaking animation and spine-tingling music. The characters eventually do become interesting by the end, and it really lifts the show out of how mediocre it could have been and breathes life into the story. If you want a super deep story and unique, multifaceted characters, God Eater wont be your thing, but if you just want a dark and gritty action show romp with best-in-industry aesthetics and the occasional heartfelt moment, then God Eater will be right up your alley. If you do give it a shot, I really suggest sticking around until at least episode 5 before deciding on whether or not to keep going.
