Review of Attack on Titan

Okay, the rating on animelist for this one is pretty high-and that's fine, because out of recent animes to come out, I can definitely see some of the hype behind this one. The story/Enjoyment (8,7): It's good! From the very first episode, the ball starts rolling, and you're left in a lot of suspense as to what the hell happens next. There's plenty of mysteries, and it's an intruiging plot line: titans-where'd they come from? What's Eren's relation to them? What's with the walls? WHAT THE HELL IS IN THE BASEMENT? The problem is, there's twists and turns, and some of them are definitely more expected,but the overall plot line after the first few episodes starts to unravel agonizingly slowly. For people who tend to be more impatient (like me) you're left unsatisfied that for every explanation that's given in this show, there's a ton more questions left unanswered. It's the main criticism I have of this anime. All episodes into it and caught up on the manga alike, I still don't have any real clue what's going on, and in that sense it does detract from how much I enjoyed it.

That being said, Art is fantastic, a solid 9. The character designs are cute, the uniforms pretty cool, and the backdrops are stunning. The lighting, the action-these are all top notch.
When the heroes are swinging around in their 3-D maneuver gear, the perspective shots are amazing.
Likewise for the sound. In my opinion, it's a 10. The music is absolutely wonderful. The first opening sounds great, and the soundtrack is flawless. The Reluctant Heroes and Counterattack of Mankind made me have to download the songs after I heard them. There's some really hair-raising tracks in this anime.

Character: It's funny because so many of the side characters take the spotlight that you want them to have more screentime than Eren.
Not that Eren isn't likable. He is, but out of everyone, I find that I don't care about him half as much as the others.
Sasha is a doll. She's supposed to be comic relief-and she is, she's funny-but there's something so refreshing and charming about her character, and I really enjoyed watching whenever she was onscreen.
Mikasa's good too, but in a more stereotypical way. Stoic, scary past, amazing skill-her and Levi seem to be made from the same stuff, and they're a good parallel of each other and their roles in Eren's life.
Speaking of which-that's one thing that I'm definitely a little iffy about. There's a lot of argument on ships and whatever, but I want to point out that adoption still is family. Siblings who aren't related by blood are in no way less siblings than people who are. And I DO consider Mikasa as part of Eren's family. Where this fits into the romance is up to you-if you see romance in there in the fist place-but meh.
Armin is cute and well written, Annie is extremely complex, and so are a lot of the other characters: Jean, Ymir, Connie, Hanji-they're all not only likable and worth routing for, but they have so much to them. They're well written and well fleshed out.
There's plenty of great action scenes, great emotional moments-and if you're into representation, there's definitely plenty of interesting female characters who are just as important as the male.
So yes.
Attack on Titan looks at pretty solid 8.