Review of Attack on Titan
Shingeki no Kyojin , probably the most hyped up series of 2013 and I will have to agree that it's worth the hype. For those whom managed to avoid spoilers and have not watch it yet , oh what are the chances.. Watch it. Yes, trust me, it's worth it. I will try not to include too many spoilers but it's sort of hard to do so when reviewing one of the greatest anime series of all times ( at least in my books it is). Disclaimer : All of this are my personal opinion and is not intended to offend anyone by any means. Story :7/10
The story is basic and follows a linear storyline of.. Wait , I guess the series title pretty much said it all. Yes , it's that simple. I will just do a TLDR in order not to spoil. The main protagonist - Eren Jaeger vows to destroy all the titans after a fateful incident that happened when he was young which changed his life completely and because of that , he enlisted in the military in order to fight these supernatural beings known as the Titans in which humanity had lost against for the past ??? years. The story pretty much revolve around that with some twists here and there.
Art : 9/10
The art style is comparable to One Piece's , not in terms of simplicity but rather, it's uniqueness. Each character are outlined beautifully to make them stand out from the beautifully drawn landscape and all the minor details were beautifully drawn out , combined with excellent animation. It also refrained from censoring too much which is unconventional compared to other series who likes to tone down the violence and gore (with the exception of Berserk I guess ?)
The characters' expressions are very well-depicted in the art style and you could really feel what they're feeling at times which had me bawling at episode 22. (again , no spoilers) For those whom had seen this series , you probably know what I'm referring to.
The animation itself is praise-worthy , however. I only have one tiny bit of irritation which is why the heck does these terrifying man-eating titans have to look like.. retards. This is the reason that refrained me from giving it full marks. And PS : the 3D maneuver gear looks bad ass as hell.
Sound :
Oh yes , this is definitely the key highlight to this show. For people like me who is simply an orchestra-music-junkie , THIS IS THE SHOW FOR YOU. YES , NOTE THE EMPHASIS. I have to really bow down to the composer for composing such great soundtracks for a great series. Shingeki no Kyojin would never be the same without these soundtracks and because of the soundtracks , I like the anime much more than the manga which is really rare.
Most of the soundtracks are mediocre or above average but a few really stands out from the rest as excellent soundtracks. Maybe it's just me because I really like orchestra music but trust me , it really do sound awesome and makes the scene so much more dramatic and epic. Honourable mentions are Vogel im Kafig (duh).
What makes it even more amazing is the way the soundtracks sync with the scene as though they created the scene before composing the perfect music to go with it instead of the other way around. Shingeki no Kyojin definitely has the BEST soundtracks I have ever heard , and yes it's even better than B13A from bleach.
The openings and endings.. Well.. The first opening had me hooked right in the FIRST episode. Yes , it's that catchy and the CGI is awesome. I'm not a big fan of the second opening though which is the main problem with most animes that they have to switch out the awesome opening with a normal-mehhish one. The endings are above average.
As for voice acting..
The honourable mention : Eren Jaeger. Bam! No surprises here.
For those who keep tracks of which seiyuu is doing which character in which animes, you would have known that Eren's seiyuu , Yuki Kaji, almost voices other characters but the difference is that, those characters are barely as serious as Eren and are most of the time, goofy.
Yes , compare Eren with Hyoudou Issei from Highschool DxD. You would already know and Yuki Kaji still did an excellent job voicing Eren. You will know why when you hear his voice acting especially when he needed to depict anger and rage.
Character : 8/10
Shingeki no Kyojin have a huge cast of characters which sadly , most of them either being transparent in the anime series (which they would play a part in the upcoming season 2) or wind up DEAD. Yes , dead. All I can say without spoiling is that , DO NOT LIKE ANY CHARACTER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. The series is notorious for killing off it's characters for character development or plot progression which is the reason I highly advise you not to play favouritism and like any characters , for they might end up dying in the next episode.
The character development is there and you can see as the series progress. One honourable mention would be Armin whom started off as a wimp that could do nothing but cry and after the timeskip , he's still the same old crybaby. He then matures into the squad's essential tactician.
Enjoyment : 9/10
I have enjoyed this series very much , with much credits to the soundtracks and beautiful animations but I have to say. Like most animes , the pacing is a problem as some episodes' pacing is really.. You would probably want to knock your head on a wall because it's slow compared to other episodes. However , most of the episodes are pretty well-paced save for a few.
This series definitely deserves it's hype.
Overall : 9/10
Taking into account that this series is only season one and there are many things still left unanswered , I would have to give this series a 9/10. I'm just that much of a sucker for it's soundtrack.
For each review that I do , I would usually compare the series to it's manga/anime counterpart and for Shingeki no Kyojin , no doubt that the anime far surpasses the manga. I would advise people to wait for the season 2 instead of continuing from the manga. Not because the manga is bad or anything but I definitely think that this anime's season 2 deserves the wait.