SwordAcolyte

Attack on Titan-This is what happens when you mix DBZ with Starship Troopers

- Slight spoilers

I have to admit I was surprised seeing the universal 9-10 reviews this anime was getting, because while not the worst anime, it is very far from perfect, its failed premise stopping it from getting a 9 or 10 and its flaws taking it down to a mediocre level, which leaves it ultimately not recommendable despite every episode seeming like this would be the one to turn it all around, namely because this anime is unfinished even by the end and no one seems bothered by this.  I went into this anime knowing nearly nothing about it, and I wished someone had told me of the unfinished mess it was.

Attack on Titan starts with a fairly interesting premise, despite the inherent stupidity contained within.  Humans are now nearly extinct, hiding behind some walls that keep out giant humans that nearly killed them off.  This is actually kind of intriguing, other than the fact the obvious lack of realism of huge humans, and the stupid idea you have to accept to proceed in the anime.  The first few episodes are very good, as humanity is now suddenly under attack by titans once again who break down the walls., we are also greeted with this awesome opening song, with a wall breaking down and waves of humans jumping out to fight the titans.  Notably, if humans were able to repel the titans at least once, we must have some degree of competency, but this competency is never seen of again as the episodes wear on.

Now, here is where some significant problems become manifest.  First, we admit huge humans as enemies is pretty stupid, but we give the show creative leeway and proceed on, and early it does not disappoint us as it seems believable with anyone and everyone dying to the titans.  It is an example of good story telling where it shows the characters caring about what happens, because as utterly stupid as the titans look at least the characters are scared of them.  Further, we are engrained with a fairly high level of ‘realism’ (using it loosely obviously) where even soldiers are dying indiscriminately to these monsters.  Action happens fast, and you want to watch the next episodes.

But then there are little things that seem kind of off about this anime, things that don’t sit right, like one mission where they are just supposed to lure the titans to a corner, and it should be easy, just hang off the wall, but for some reason vast numbers of soldiers are in the streets dying.  Why?  I don’t know, so we can see more people die really.  Then one thing happens that completely ruins any sense of realism and forever distances the viewer from being engaged in this anime.

First, let’s go over what this anime promises early: we are intrigued by perhaps a deep world with backstory (such as how were those walls made?  How did we stop them before?), we are shown anyone can die with a major character dying in the first episode, the titans are generally mindless and slow but unstoppable, all humans can do it slowly fall back as we get extinguished, the pace is fast and furious.  Further, every commercial break we are greeted with a ‘what we can share so far’ slight blurbs that give the illusion that some great tale of epic proportions is waiting for us.  All of these are lies.

At this point let me state to any haters reading this, I do not ‘hate’ this anime, I am just extremely disappointed by it, for it could have been so, so, good, and instead it is not recommendable.

Let me get to the largest problem first: plot armor and selective invincibility.  The lack of these was what made this anime so intriguing, oh my god, that guy just died!?  She just died!?  But around Ep 6 a certain main character dies, and I was like ‘wow, this might be one of the most shocking animes ever’ but what happens?  He comes back.  In an anime BASED ON MASS PEOPLE DYING a character comes back.  I liked the character actually, which makes this criticism carry more weight and also more painful to state.

The anime did not start realistic, but within the rules established early, I did not have a problem within its own framework before it began violating itself. Huge humans that kill us easily, got it.  We use advanced cable-suits and sharp swords to fight back, we can kill them, but often at high numbers of deaths.  Ok got that to.  This sets a very good premise, it reverses a lot of tropes about humans vs monsters, where suddenly humans are the ones ‘zerg rushing’ the enemy.  It was awesome, it was cool, it was bloody and visceral, and…wth why is this guy back alive!?

It is hard to not understate how much of an utter mistake this direction of plot was they embarked upon.  Before I continue with the way the actual anime went, let us instead imagine the plot-armor more and more people get equipped with, and imagine that when this guy died, HE DIED.  First, it would be consistent with the prior 5ish episodes, and add to the terror of the show, that really anyone really COULD die.  It would be an awesome chance for character development (which is utterly lacking) in the survivors, bemoaning how their friend is yet another in a long list of deaths.  The show could continue with its ‘zerg rush’ premise and be fairly original as human’s numbers drop and we fight on as we are slowly ground down.

In a fitting irony, this character has a line about ‘will all the prior casualties be in vain!?’ and unfortunately, his living makes them all in vain.  Because, now what forever happens in this anime is characters are now divided into those ‘plot armored’ and those not, and those armored can get hit, bashed, stomped, crushed, and still be alive no matter how stupid or how close they came.  But then we have nameless hordes who are supposed to be ‘the best’ routinely killed with about 5 seconds of screen time of even brilliantly laid plans.  You have these slow lumbering titans suddenly turn lightening fast to catch some no-name even with their jetpack on, but then plot armors can survive simply by running on foot.  It is tragic, and not in the sense they might have gone for, that all these deaths now are meaningless because it does not happen to the hero and his friends.  Death is no longer real, it is just some guy who explodes while the hero and his happy friends continue living on.

The premise of this show carries it, and without it would be worse than it is.  There is a terrible pacing problem, because early the action happens fast, and in fact 3 whole years pass in a single episode as huge swaths of land are likewise lost.  But then from about ep 7-20 we encounter massive slowdown where very, very little happens.  As an example an entire episode is devoted to a court hearing if a character should live or die.  They have a ‘summary episode’ midway through, and its ironic that if you only watched this, you would not miss much at all, because so little actually occurs.

Another problem that pulls you out of the belief you are supposed to suspend is the prevalence of plot holes.  I am not sure if there was a quality control problem, but I have two different screen shots saved where characters have maps of territories they are supposed to attack, and the area they are to attack IS THE WRONG AREA! (Eg. They want to take back Eren’s town but have a huge X over the town Trost, which is one wall further in, a massive blunder.)

Major Spoiler regarding plot hole follows: ***

Perhaps the biggest plot hole, is if the titan-humans wanted to kill humans from the beginning (which clearly they did, given their systematic extermination of humans) why would the 2-3 of them hinted at in the anime just go to the center as humans, turn into their titans in the central city, kill all and celebrate?  There is absolutely NO reason they would not do this other than ‘the story would be over’.  There is no reason they would not just use their insane power, do the rationale thing, and kill everyone right at the start.

***End major spoiler

A major problem with this anime is the promise that something cool is always just one episode away.  From the ‘what we can reveal so far’ which started cool, then turned stupid with things like ‘they use this to preserve their bread’ to the constant toying of ‘Eren you must get to you house where ALL will be revealed’.  Of course this never happens, they never get close.  Because this anime has a total of 2 battles in it, yes they are extended over some episodes, but there is the battle for Trost, and the excursion battle/female titan.

It is disappointing, the 3d maneuver gear they use to jump around buildings is pretty cool, and it is a cool way to even the odds with the titans.  But again, we fall to the plot armor problem of it does not really matter about the soldiers anymore, because we have our invincible hero, and his happy friends that can do no wrong other than have a few minutes of panic-paralysis until some other super hero rides in to save them, then they’ll be fine again next time.  It is no longer about the gear, the soldiers, the sacrifice, it is about over-powered people fighting other over-powered people and some random people dying in the background, kind of makes it sound like DOTA.

The major girl antagonist in the 2^nd half of the show contributes to the problem of characterization this show suffers from.  She single-handedly kills at least 30 people on screen (but none of our plot armored friends!) but repeatedly when she is about to be captured they play this weird emotional and sympathy cards that we are supposed to feel sorry for her.  It is so strangely pursued, that you do almost feel sorry for her, until they have another character remind us of her vast kill count.  Again, this feeds into the problem that the people dying are just nameless, so it does not really register ‘what she has done’.

The ONLY characters in this anime that show any depth or change are two ‘evil’ characters, Jean and Levi (they both are on the human side but clearly are supposed to be rooted against).  Jean shows reflection in his actions, changing from wanting an easy job to signing up for the front line. (Good thing he has the best kind of armor a writer can give.) And Levi, ‘humanity’s best fighter’ if anyone should have armor it is him, but he actually comes a lot closer to dying than some others, regardless he shows some very good subtle reflection like handing off an emblem from a dead solider “this is how I remember they lived.”  Too bad nothing else was the subtle or good.

A final word about the characters, they are so painfully one-dimensional.  Now, this would not be a problem if anyone could die, and that any character was typically only alive for a few episodes, that would have been awesome.  But we have our hero and happy friends who are invincible, and we know very little about them.  The main girl in this Mikasa is despicable.  I know more about the guys motivation from Bad Dudes than I do about her, and she was around for 25 episodes.  If you want an example of a Mary Sue in camouflage check her out.  She is ‘silent and badass’ oh, and she is perfect at everything.  She is the last of her race, she is #1 at all she tries, she is plot armored, she can take down titans that expert soldiers die to, everyone wants her…disgusting.  Of course she starts this way, and while everyone else is dying you can only hope she will too, until the plot-armored people start rising to the surface and with horror you realize she is one as well, and you will not escape from your hatred of her until this anime has ended.

I pounded through this anime, it is rare I do that, because every episode ended with a cliff hanger (when nothing happens anytime else during the episode I suppose it is easy) and I just wanted to know what happened.  Each episode rolled on, no matter how gruesome the ‘death’ a plot armor person is exposed to, oh, he or she is actually still alive.  Oh, want to know something secret?  Do you?  Oh, well we will tell you next episode. Or maybe next.  Oh, well you are at the end of the story guess we ran out of time.  Here is one more scene to make you go ‘omg!’ and make you salivate about season 2 and rant about how this is the best series ever despite its apparent flaws, nothing happening, unstoppable characters.  I wanted to like this, but when you are faced with a fanfic of Starship Troopers X Dragon Ball Z, its really hard to get around much of anything.