Review of Attack on Titan
Deep, dark and properly epic, Attack on Titan is as wildly popular as it is for good reason. While not without minor, nitpicky flaws, Attack on Titan is nonetheless an exceptional anime and will go down as one of the very best of all time. Art- The production values here are very high and it shows. This is a very mainstream, popular anime with a huge fanbase and they're not pinching pennies. There are very few moments that visually absolutely blew my mind, but the quality is very high and very consistent throughout. Sound- "Bird in a Cage" is one of my two favorite anime songs of all timeand I've listened to it, quite literally, over one thousand times. Beyond that one clear standout, the soundtrack is solid overall and fits the tone of the anime very well, and since that tone is largely dark, dangerous, a sense of urgency, tragic, etc you're in for an exciting listen.
The voice acting here is the real deal, with established and respected industry veterans all over this anime. Again, the production values are very high here and they're not pinching pennies.
Character/Story-
Once this anime gets rolling it is epic and amazing, period. However, it does take a bit to get to that point. The first episode is simply a masterpiece and contains one of the best and most emotionally powerful moments in the entire series. However, after that, you'll go a good five or six episodes or so without a whole lot of action or excitement. That said, once it hits the gas pedal again it never lets off it.
My other nitpick is despite all the violence and death this anime is so well known for, very few important characters actually die. Reading the Wikipedia or any of the various fan sites will show you an astronomically high death count for this show, which is technically true, but it's very deceiving and misleading because many of these characters are random and unimportant and had an extremely small role, if any role, in the show. Like I said, very few characters that you actually care about end up dead, which perhaps takes away from the emotional impact of certain scenes. There are two major scenes in this season in which characters you may care about are killed on screen, but beyond that it's largely deaths of unnamed or minor characters that won't force you to grab a tissue.
Enjoyment-
Like I said, the early going is a bit slow and during my first watch for the first five or six episodes I was not yet captivated and I was feeling like perhaps this show is wildly overrated. But, alas, when you do eventually get to the good stuff it stays good from there on out and you won't be able to stop watching. This is one of a very small handful of anime I've watched over and over again and I never get bored. It almost feels like it gets better and better every time I rewatch. I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of this show.
Overall-
High quality production values, epic, dark and a story that you'll want to see through to the end, Attack on Titan Season 1 is a sheer masterpiece that we'll all look back on twenty years after its release and still view it as, without a doubt, one of the very best ever.
+High quality production values in every aspect of its presentation
+EPIC in every sense of the word
+Action, thrills and excitement in spades
+Main characters and a main story you'll truly care about
+Emotionally powerful
-Nitpicks and nothing more- this show simply has zero major flaws
OBJECTIVE RATING- 10
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 10
One of the greatest of all time.