Review of Attack on Titan

I'll be honest, I had SNK on my backlog for quite some time, and probably a good chance of it remaining on there for quite a while had not someone offered watching it together with me. I didn't know if I would really get into it as much as a lot (and I mean a LOT) of people have over the past year, and given how much I frequent tumblr where massive spoilers are essentially unavoidable, i was worried that there wouldn't be much to salvage for myself to figure out instead of the internet handing it out for me. The minute I saw the firstepisode though, I was hooked. What I planned on turning into 2 episodes a day quickly shifted into marathons of 8 episodes a day. When I tried to tell myself to stop and make absorbing all the information from the show easier, my curiosity at just what the hell would happen next got the better of me. I couldn't stop watching it, I couldn't prioritize any other shows I was watching concurrently because I was just so engulfed into it. It shocked me honestly; I never expected this show to be as engaging as it was. It fascinated me about the world of SNK, the characters living in it, the struggle they have to put up with every day of their lives (fighting titans or otherwise), the determination, fear, ingeniousness, sacrifice... all of it entranced me and made me feel like I was really there and that I could connect with all the characters.

Story: 7

The story is pretty well done with a pretty diverse cast of characters and welcoming setting, as well as a lot of plot twists that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. I won't exactly negate points for it ending somewhat on a cliffhanger, because for the most part it does the cliffhanger job well. The biggest problem though that I had with SNK is its pacing. The first few episodes were remarkable in keeping a very fast pace while at the same time not rushing it either, which is a really hard task to accomplish in any story. However by about the midway point I couldn't help but notice things slow down to a incredibly slow crawl and not much tending to happen in each episode. While it does try and get back to the original pace in the beginning after that, it felt way more rushed and hard to swallow all the info, and it switches back and forth between those two paces pretty much until the end; it's just jarring. The other major problem I have is character involvement throughout the show. There are plenty of characters who are given the spotlight for 2-3 or so episodes, and then are quickly forgotten about and have no relevance anymore to the story the episode right after. This is very noticeable especially at the last 3 episodes with one particular character (that I won't spoil), and while I can probably learn more about the character whenever the next season comes out, as of right now I could not connect at all with the them; their reasons, motivation, nothing. They made an appearance at the beginning for a bit and practically nothing else until the end; I had no idea what to think when they showed up again, and honestly I didn't care either. Because I never got the chance to really care about the character, because they got very little attention as a whole, I was thoroughly uninterested in them. With all that said, the amount of times that happens is pretty sparse, and most of the other characters do get plenty of air time to keep most people interested in them.

I should also point this out even though it's really minor (and pretty infamous at this point unless you live under a rock), this show has a very bad tendency of swinging the tone around really fucking fast and just as fast returning to the previous mood it was at. Most of the time this seems to be used for comedy, but other times it can really just make a scene way more melodramatic than it honestly had to be.

Art: 8

I'm not really one to judge art styles in anime unless it's excruciatingly bad (giant bulbous alien eyes anyone?), and SNK is definitely a pretty looking piece of animation. Lots of well drawn scenery and pretty good character designs. No complaints really.

Sound: 10

I'd easily call the sound department the best part of SNK. The OP/ED's are insanely catchy and all of the music pieces played during the show capture the mood perfectly. The tense parts are tense, action parts are actiony, horror parts have a solemn note being played... it's some really good stuff here.

Character: 8

Generally lovable cast of characters that most people should find at least more than one person they especially admire. While I did mention earlier that I wish some characters weren't completely abandoned, most of them are still pretty memorable regardless.

Enjoyment: 8

There's not much to say that I haven't already said; it was very engaging and I enjoyed every episode that I watched. Definitely felt worth my time to start up and finish the show.

Overall: 8

SNK is one of those anime's that just does a marvelous job of appealing to a lot of people right from the get-go and staying incredibly addictive from beginning to end. For that fact alone I would definitely recommend it to people to try out, and preferably not be like me and let it sit in a backlog for months upon months; believe me it's definitely worth watching if you need a good meaty show to chew into. It's got its flaws of course, but they can be easily overlooked by all the positives it has going for it, and I have high hopes for the second season when it comes out.