Person A: You haven’t watch Attack of Titan? What’s wrong with you?
Person B: It’s totally crap, don’t even bother. It’s like Claymore, except shitier like Bleach.
Me: *Say something generic like* I’m going to watch it later.
…
A year later.
I FUCKING LOVE IT! Now, I’m not going become a fanboi or whatever people do these days. And it’s not even going be on my top 10 list. But I really genuinely like the show. It was riveting, motivating, emotional, and most importantly entertaining. From the second I turn it on to the last min of the show, it was great. I was the edge of my seat for every surprised attacked, I was fascinate by the giants and their movements, I was emotional during army’s speeches, and I never once get bored.
I’m not going talk what’s the show is about because I assume everybody know what it is by now. So let me get to the point why I like the show.
First, it doesn’t waste any time. Each ep is filled up with either great thriller action, or great emotional background stories. It never leaves me hanging. Each conversation has a meaning and each encounter has a place in the anime. Everything and everyone you’ve met will come around and play a role in the story. Just look at the last arc, it was something that brew up from the beginning. I just appreciate a show that bring character around to a full circle.
Second, giant human is so FREAKING COOL! I mean, just look at those Colossal Titan, and armored Titan. That’s like a giant human body figure you’ve seen in science room except this one can bash your head off. HELL YEA! I admit that the reason sounds childish, but it was so damn cool! And to make it better, there are so many variety of the monsters. I never get bored looking at these freak of nature.
Third is the fight scenes. Obviously this is the bread and butter of the show. Mostly the fight will be between human and giants. To me the fight looks like a bunch of ninjas fighting a dinosaur. And who doesn’t love ninja and dinosaur. In each fight, you can expect good camera fx like slo-mo and 360 circle. The swordsmanship itself isn’t spectacular but it was enough for entertaining. Most of the hype were generated from fighter’s emotional war cry and thrilling soundtrack. Later battles involve a calculated plan and intelligence tactics. Human use brain, monster use power.
What make these fight scenes so good is that these fighting scenes never stop moving. It just keep on going until someone won. No stagger scene, no staring contest, no prolonging fight.
Giant vs. Giant is a whole another story though. This one feel like Godzilla vs. naked Ultraman. That shet was epic! You could feel the whole place shaking. Right now they’re using basic close quarter combats which I love, but I can see them advance to using special attack and whatnot. No ridiculous attack please.
Directing is a mixed bag at times, but I think I’m ok with it. The first half was truly addicting and exhilarating to watch. The moment that Colossal giant appeared, your jaw dropped and stayed in an awe for a while. Throughout the anime, they create a very good atmosphere of fears, panics, and devastation. You could feel their emotions. And you can clearly see why they are so afraid of these creatures.
Next is the element of surprise, you never know what’s going happen in this anime. Something always suddenly show up or change its direction. Once you thought the fight is over, think again. Anyone can get killed at any time. It’s not your carebare shonen show.
They also make it very dramatic for every time they had to make a life or death decision. You could feel their level of will and their determination. Soliders in the show often feel shaken and desperate when encounter tragedy. But after a motivational speech, their spirit raise up and took on the challenge. These ‘harsh reality’ speeches are well written and make you think twice.
I also like how they did flashback for each character. It added depth and meaning to character’s decision. Sadly, it’s becoming a formula. Key moment > flashback > tragedy in flashback > convincing audience to accept decision > rationalize the decision > act upon it. Good thing they kept these flashbacks short.
The bad part is when the show start to have a larger cast. Sometime the tragedy or the plot twist are not so clear thus decreasing the effectiveness of certain scenes. Take Marco character for example. I don’t even remember when he dies lol. But for some reason, his death has a role in the bigger plot. Another example is the end plot with Annie. Although I didn’t see it coming, it wasn’t surprising at all. I think that’s because she doesn’t leave enough impression. Oh well, now I’m just nit-picking.
The world setting feels pretty good consider the actual town is not really interesting. They try hard to make it epic. Think about it, it’s simply a big ass town with a bunch of walls between. And what else do they do? FARM? Ok, how about their weapon? CANNON? You’ve got to be joking. They have been fighting these giants for over a hundred years and all you come up with is cannon? SMH Just imagine this, had they got any type of flying mechanics, they would have won the war by now. OH SNAP! Now now, the reason I find it ‘pretty good’ because they did a good job covering these flaws. Like how they keep showing you the bird view of the town because it looks epic. Or that boat that can only travel in one direction. Or the railroad that move cannon on the wall. These gimmicks work wonder. It creates an illusion of a grander and detailed world. And if you don’t think about it too much, you can accept their primitive society and their world setting.
Characters. The main group is decent. We finally got a girl who can actually do something in shonen show. The problem is, if you think it hard enough, she doesn’t make any impact AT ALL. It’s either Eren, Armin, or Levi flying in to save the day. Mikasa have nice personality though. And I’m glad that she can go into psycho mode when cornered. I just hope they’ll do an arc for her. Finger crossed.
Other characters that worth mentioning are Levi and …, just Levi. The guy is such a badass, so badass that they have to keep him away from fights. Just think, if they kept this guy as a wall protector, no giant could have gotten in for sure.
Oh! Sasha and Krista got interesting voice actresses. Kobayashi Yuu has this crazy voices and when Sasha is panicing, it’s just sound otherworldly. Krista was voiced by Mikami Shiori who also voiced Akari in Yuriyuri. Their character kinda have same personality which is honest and kind to the point of being revered. One time there was a scene where her character shines like a Buddha just like in Yuriyuri. It was funny as hell. AKARI WAS HERE baby!
Other anime would’ve use 3D for crowd.
All these would be nothing without an amazing animation. I don’t usually talk much about this category because I believe that if you have MONEY, the animation will come. And obviously they got boatload of money to do this anime. Still, it deserved the loved for not taking shortcut and for put the effort into the right places. What I’m saying is, NO CHEAP 3-D. And fight scenes are fast and fluid. The animation never miss a beat.
Lastly,while the story wasn’t anything special and some could even argue that it wasn’t original, it was way better than you could ask for in a shonen show. The story never stuck, reset, or deus ex machina. And although it is stepping dangerously close into being a cheap shonen show by having human control the giant, it hasn’t gone over the edge just yet. Hopefully the show will not turn into stupid battles between human controlled giants for all the marbles. Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it.
One thing I like though is when they solve population problem by sending them to fight giants. It was a nice trick to introduce the real villain, human. Because I think that will be the true boss. Once again the plot is not new, but I like how they are setting it up.
As for the op/ed. I don’t think I like any of them. Gonna have to check each song individually because I skip them most of the times. I’m past the age where I listen to each op/ed and sing it along. Now I just skipping chapter to save time.