(Warning! This review contains some spoilers for Attack on Titan. You have been warned.)
So, it's the night before exams at school. I'm done studying and I'm lying in bed, unable to sleep due to nervousness and insomnia. I wonder about what I should do and then reach out and turn on my i-pod and my Crunchyroll app. I scan through the top titles for anything that might be on my 'want-to-watch' list or anything that caught my eye. Eventually my eyes settled upon Attack on Titan. I stared at the screen for a few minutes debating whether or not I should open it and finally watch it like my friends had insisted for the past few months. I knew the show had been overhyped out the wazoo, just like a lot of other popular shows such as Sword Art Online or Full Metal Alchemist. I'm not saying I thought it was going to be bad, as some shows are popular with good reason, but I was worried about sitting here and writting a review if, in my opinion, it was not worth the perfect ten that everyone claims it deserves. Tens have always been rare from me, especially as I delve deeper into the world of anime and find more repeating cliches and themes that tend to drag shows down. So I sat for a moment, debating whether or not to watch the show or hug my Roxas plushie and try to get some sleep. What did I do? I stayed up all night watching the entire show so I could review it, of course.
Let's get down to business. Was it good? Was it bad? Chances are, if you read the score by the review, you can already tell.
Story (8/10):
Before anyone bites my head off like a viscious titan, let me preface this with one statement: I do love the story in this show and find it to be an intriguing concept. Ever since I was little I always wondered how ants feel. We must seem so huge, and then we go around crushing them mercilously or in some cases burning them alive. So what if a huge race of giants came and started crushing people? Instantly I was interested. I wanted to understand the titans, to see what they were and how they worked. Well, there's one of the shows flaws right off the bat. It presents a problem(with a predictible solution, mind you) in the case of the Titans, giant monsters that eat human beings, and never really solves it. It also makes the Titans not make much biological sense. If they don't eat to nourish themselves then how do they function? How does a creature maintain homeostasis without food? Do they photosynthesize light similar to plants? Maybe it has to do with the way they regenerate themselves... Who knows? The show never really explains it, anyway. It's not too big of a problem, but it's still annoying. Maybe they mean for the show to have another season, maybe it's meant to be a mystery forever. There are a frustrating ammount of unsolved mysteries in this show, and to an extent I like that and to an extent it annoys me.
Before I get too sidetracked again as usual, I'm going to talk about the basic plot. So there are the people. They nearly got completely wiped out by the titans a hundred years prior to the show because titans like to eat people. Ouch. Sounds gross and painful. Imagine being ripped in half in the saliva filled mouth of a titan. It's sticky toungue up against your back as you heard your bones crack and the agonizing sound of a swallow as you were tossed roughly into the belly of the beast. Well, that's what you'd expect anyway. So these three kids Eren, Mikasa and Armin live in the city of Shiganshina(odd name) where the human's have built a set of three 50 meter high stone walls in an attempt to keep the titans out. A hundred years have passed since the last titan invasion, and therefore people believe they will be forever safe behind the walls. Squads going out to fight the titans commonly end up decimated because of their lack of advanced weaponry. One day, after some obvious foreshadowing, a collosal 60 meter titan breaks through the wall, allowing others to enter and begin massacaring the people there. Because Shiganshina is the outermost part of the outer wall(Rose), it isn't too big of a threat for the people in the center. A titan kills and eats Eren and Mikasa's mother and Eren plots revenge by planning to kill all titans. If that sounds good, it's because it is. The main story is quite fabulous, really. Even if it's a simple revenge plot at it's core, it manages to build around it quite well. Most of the time.
This brings me to another issue. The show feels like the length is wrong. I'm dead serious. It feels like it should either be extended to be a much longer series, or shortened to cut out some of the superflous feeling episodes and times, like having three episodes where they're in school or when it spends a whole episode on the trial. That's great and all, but I came here to see monsters having their heads ripped off as the crush the bones of humans in their teeth. Yeah... I really let my mind run wild while watching this... and that's a fantastic thing.
This show does the horror aspect beautifully. Even if you're not scared by the thought of being eaten by a giant, the way it builds suspense is utter perfection. For example, when the collosal titan first breaks through Wall Rose, oh do you know it's coming and every muscle in your body tenses waiting for it to appear. When it does it's perfect. The show manages to have moments where it's terrifying, and not in a cheap, ghost/zombie/other stock monster in your face kind of way. In a bloody kind of way.
Another issue that I suppose I should tackle here is plot armor. Plot armor, plot armor, plot armor. It's like, when you're watching the show, you know Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are going to survive. You can probably tell some of the other characters will too. But the losses in each battle are enormous, even with specialized gear, professionals and cannons. Anyone could die at any moment. A titan could come crashing through a building, grab a person, crush their bones in their grasp and swallow them whole. So why on EARTH would you give someone in this show plot armor so they can't be killed? One of the main characters actually does get eaten in one of the episodes, but he comes back. It feels cheap. I know it's a story moving mechanic, but it feels so CHEAP. Why him? Why did all of the other interesting characters, and hundreds of thousands of innocent people die, but HE GETS TO LIVE? Becuase he's the main character. It's designed that way. They should've taken a page out of The Legend of the Galatic Heroes for this one and just not had plot armor at all.
Okay, I've made a lot of complaints, but overall the good overwhelmingly triumphs over the bad in this story and makes the experience of watching the show exhilerating, even if it's predictable.
The story is flawed, but spectacular and unique. That's all.
Animation (9/10):
I've heard people call this show one of the best animation fests they've seen in an anime. For me... well I suppose it's really good overall. It does something that bothers me though. It puts thick black lines around the characters, that feel too out of place... Can't they have made them thinner? I don't know. It works in a more cartoon stylised piece, but that's clearly not what this is trying to be. The rest is very realistically styled, espcially the backgrounds. So those feel out of place.
Speaking of the backgrounds: they're pretty. They have a good color pallette in the city sections, and are very realistically well done. For the most part the cg blends in with the animation where it feels less perfected and smooth, and you can tell that there was no way a person drew that.
Now for the good again.
Now for the gore. Wait, what gore? You mean the blood? It's... just blood. Sometimes it's clumpy blood, but still just blood. You'd think that if a titan just chomped down into someone there would be viscera or bones or chunks of liver and brain tossed in. There's no bone or brain or other organs mixed into the mix most of the time, especially when characters are eaten or chucked into things. The only real time you see ubber graphic gore is when a soldier blasts his own brains out in one of the episodes and in the belly of a titan.
Sound (9/10):
Music is something I hold very dear to my heart. So when I hear great music in an anime, it makes my day. Boy, is the first opening theme of this show EPIC. The first ending of the show is fine as well, but that first opening, amazing. Unfortunately, the second opening will make you miss the first one. The second ending hardly caught my attention... I can't remember much about it for the life of me, and it's the day after I stayed up all night watching this thing. The music in the show itself is fine. Though it does seem out of place at times. I'm sorry, but I want something utterly badass for my titan on titan battle.
Voice acting is quite nice. Really it is. I don't know if the show will have a dub(I'm guessing it will because it is so popular), but the sub was gorgeous.
Characters (10/10):
Now this, my friends, is truly a deserving ten. Gosh I love it when anime provides with fantastic characters(great characters and storyline are my favorite part about anything from books to movies to plays to video games to western shows to anime), and boy does this show ice off it's fantastic cake with a diverse cast. Hey, even if you hate a minor or secondary character, don't worry, odds are, in a little while they'll be titan food anyway so you don't have to worry, and on the other hand, if you like them, don't worry there'll be more reinforcements pouring in after them that are just as likeable. It may sound silly to say this, but it's a nice thing to know that you're getting a fresh cast of characters every episode or so.
Well what about the major characters? Huh, what about them? Well, they're AMAZING. I freaking adore them so much.
Armin: Why do people not like this guy? I love him. He's definitely not as courageous as Mikasa or Eren, but that's not a problem. Not every character, even in a show like this, needs to be a badass fighter. Why would they? I mean, Armin is a character whose pure mental strength makes up for his physical inadiquatees. Yes, he may be a coward, but his brain tends to get more people out of situations alive than any other method. He can get through a battle against seven titans with no human casualties if given proper time to plan. He's good at inferring things and figuring stuff out. Things that other characters in any form of media might just ignore or not be able to figure out. He also shows that he's remarkably human by showing he has a breaking point. Think he's' a weakling? Sure he doesn't like fighting as much, but if you just saw all of your friends get EATEN right in front of you, culminating with one of your closest friends being chomped to the point where his limbs come off before he is swallowed, you'd probably be scared too.
Eren: Eren is arguably my favorite character in the show.(Yeah, yeah, I know, he's not Levi) He's driven by the classic albiet overdone force of revenge to kill all titans after one ate his mother. If he were cookiecutter from their out I would've given him a far lower score. He follows another common path of having a will that is stronger than his own physical strength in some circumstances. He has a conscience, adding another layer of depth to his character. It serves as both a strength and a weakness, as it keeps him from falling into the same pattern as the other soldiers and allows him to feel remorse and mercy, but also causes him to be off his game when he feels as though he isn't doing the right thing. You know... While his plot-armordness can be annoying at times in such an otherwise realistic and depressing show, his titan form does bring out a few new changes within himself as he turns from human into monster. It's like Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, and trust me, it's very cool.
Mikasa: She's a tough character, probably the strongest out of the main three in their human forms. That's good. Sometimes she lets her emotion cloud her judgement, which is bad, but I'll use the same thing I did for Armin here: Come on! If your only living 'family' was just murdered, would you be in your right mind? She's stoic, but she cares about the people around her, and is especially protective of Eren. This makes a lot of sense, as she states several times that he's her only family left, and clearly cares for him deeply. You can take their relationship however you'd like to. Personally I don't see them as more than brother and sister.
Secondary characters are pretty darn good, and like I said, chances are if you despise the heck out of them they'll be dead soon. They probably are resonably realistic in thier survival rates. Some live, some die. It isn't like the minor characters where you know they're titan food. That being said, they aren't plot armored at all. Watching this show is almost like watching Game of Thrones. Anyone can die at anytime.
Anyway, there's a plethora or secondary characters in the show(gotta replace the ones that get eaten), and the most regarded as the best, from what I can tell, is Levi. People treat Levi like he's some kind of god, that's how good he is... or at least that's what I heard about him. Levi isn't perfect, and while I see why one could think so, he's dark, and hard to read. He's not afraid to make sacrifices and generally keeps a level head in battle, even if his allies are killed. All in all, he's a pretty darn good character.
Sasha Braus is another character I love from the secondary character grouping. She's basically the show's comic relief, and it's done very well to show that she's capable, but just quirky enough to be hilarious. She eats a lot, and she once ate a boiled potato in a drill, granting her the name "potato girl". She's definitely one of the shows more memorable characters, and she serves to lighten up darker moods and tones. It's very well done. It doesn't kill the mood of the scene she's in, but it also doesn't underdo it. Perfectly done.
Other great secondary characters include Christa, Annie, and Conny.
Some of the other secondary characters aren't as good, like some of the members of Levi's team, but like I said, hey, if you don't like a character they're probably gonna be titan food anyway.
The minor characters are done perfectly. They hare just enough backstory to make watching them die upsetting. A perfect example of this is Franz and Hannah, who serve as great comedic relief before their sweet little love story ends in tragedy. Titans are such assholes.
Overall (9/10):
Attack on Titan is a fantastic show. Even with its flaws its still a masterpiece that lived up to my every expectation. I hope they make a second season.