Review of Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan is the closest thing anime has to Game of Thrones, for better and worse. In terms of overall quality, both shows start out a bit rough as they try to lore-dump the setting in a few short episodes. For AoT there was also bit too much torture porn at the beginning with plenty of crying (in the overdramatic anime wailing fashion) that got pretty annoying. Furthermore, it didn't help that the 3 main characters weren't much fun to watch. Mikasa is alright -- who wouldn't want an utterly dedicated ninja girl to watch over them -- but is otherwise one-note. Eren isan *excessively* angsty and outraged teenager whose only solution to problems is to try screaming at them. And Armin is the typical anime crybaby with crippling self-doubt issues that would usually be the main character in any other Japanese show.

Thankfully, the show rapidly improves. Other, less-annoying characters are introduced to even things out, and Eren and Armin develop a bit to be less awful. The show also moves quite briskly from one plot point to the next. The actions scenes are some of the best I've seen in anime. I'm grading on a fairly generous curve here -- they still have the issue that all animated action scenes have where everything feels somewhat plastic -- but they're much better here than they are in, say, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. This show is also not shy about killing characters off, which I appreciated. It doesn't have anything to the level of the Red Wedding, but it's more than enough to build tension. Minor characters I liked didn't feel like they had invincible plot armor.

The show still wasn't perfect, though. The fact that the smart titans very obviously didn't want to kill Eren when trying to kidnap him, and only wanted to capture him, made the overarching point of many of the fights feel fake. With so many mysteries, I figured that they just wanted to talk to him or even make him their king for as-of-yet unexplained reasons, so to me it never really felt like Eren was in any real danger. Other characters might not have had plot armor, but he certainly seemed to. After watching further into the series it's clear he actually *was* in danger, and this really ought to have been communicated in some way. I think this is one of the inherent downsides of trying to mix action shows with mystery-thrillers. Furthermore, there's a big shonen power creep problem especially early on where characters will just arbitrarily manifest new abilities to avoid death. This further deflates the tension for the most important characters like Armin and Eren. Even some other characters get it, like one character getting his head chopped off, but not dying by "transferring his consciousness" to his pinky toe.

Attack on Titan is at its absolute best in season 3. It's here where major mysteries are revealed and the scope of the plot expands significantly. I've never seen another film or tv series (including Western ones!) expand the scope of the world this much, and AoT handles it quite well for the most part. It's clear they were building to the major reveals, and the way they're pulled off makes this show truly unforgettable.

Unfortunately, good things can never last, and AoT suffers a decline in quality like GoT did in its final seasons. The downward spiral is nowhere near as sharp as Game of Thrones', but its definitely still noticeable. It starts slow at first, with the cast ossifying and minor characters no longer dying at nearly the same rate they did before. One of them dies on the airship, and it's treated as a major loss when previously these deaths were a dime-a-dozen. Then, towards the end, things start happening so quickly that they became almost inscrutable. In TV and film there's always a delicate balance between overexplaining and underexplaining. Anime typically veers towards overexplaining which can feel a bit patronizing, but Attack on Titan struck a good balance until the end, when much of the final plot points became a jumbled mess that was way too hard to follow. Fake betrayals, hidden motivations, pseudo time travel, the concept of "royal blood", the requirement (or not?) of holding hands with a monkey, glowing centipedes, etc etc. I still only have a vague understanding of why Eren did what he did. After searching what other people thought his goals were, it seems like others who watched the show just choose whichever of the half-dozen possible motivations they like the most and cherrypick evidence to support their claim.

I was never bored while watching Attack on Titan. Even though it has a rough beginning and a confusing ending it was well worth my time to watch it.