Review of Attack on Titan

How does one review an entity such as Attack on Titan? It has gathered a massive following had has taken the anime community by storm. Anyone who calls themselves an anime fan has undoubtedly heard of the show and even those who aren't anime fans probably have seen some kind of merchandise floating around wore by someone... someone like me who has a Attack on Titan backpack. But just because something is popular doesn't make it good. PLOT: So humans are now no longer at the top of the food chain and were nearly wiped out 100 years ago of 1000ish years ago (they neverreally explained what time period it it) so humanity is forced to lived behind massive walls to protect themselves from the Titans, these massive naked human looking monsters that eat humans. We start of to see a young trio of children going about their daily life and thinking about what all kids think of, what life is like outside the walls. More frolicking about happens and sudden a massive titan appears and breaks down the wall. Dozens of Titans invaded kill people and we get treated to one of the most emotionally gripping scenes I've every seen in a show.

So now our main protagonist Eren and his buddies Armin and Mikasa enlist in the army and go on their journey to kill all titans. This sounds bland but the story is going at a lightning pace that things change very fast and you can expect a twist and turn all throughout the show that it will keep you on your seats begging for more, or for my case, marathoning 10 episodes in a row. The story breaks the mold of generic revenge story and adds things like conspiracy and thriller aspects that propels the experience. However there are some points in the show were you can so glaringly seen them going all like "This person is TOTALLY normal wink wink" and the foreshadowing alarms go off, but that never distracted from the overall presentation of the story. Also there is lots of action and fighting stuff which I'll get too later...

CHARACTERS:
Our main hero/protagonist is Eren Yeager, a young solider who enlist because he watched his mother get eaten by a titan and wants revenge. He is hot blooded and won't take no for an answer. There's Mikasa who is Eren's stalker/adopted sister/baddass. Then there is Armin who is there to cry, get in the way and make plans for battle situations. Eren is too me at least in the beginning kind of a bland generic character. I've seen these kind of super angry main leads before and most of them aren't interesting. Eren evolves just enough to keep him from being bland. Mikasa is a character that I think is a bit overrated. Before going into this show I read everywhere how Mikasa is the best character ever created and I just don't see it. OK sure is ridiculously talented in combat. OK she isn't a generic tsundere. What stands out to me is here wanting to protect Eren which makes for a lot of speculation as too what their relationship actually is, but Eren is more or less an ass to Mikasa in those situations even though Eren does care for her just not in the same way she does. I'm am really glad that the writers didn't make these two characters love birds as that shtick has been used over and over and over. Armin is the only main character that seems to have a working brain as he doesn't go on titan murdering rampages. He is also practically useless in combat. He comes up with ridiculously complicated battle strategies that seem too always go as planned or at least achieve the objective even after a major fault happens that ends up killing half the squad. Yes this show has the Tomino "kill em all" approach to characters. Everyone in this show you like will probably die, that sounds like a spoiler but its not. I had to start telling myself not to like characters because I feared that they would get eaten five minutes later. Having characters that don't have plot armor makes the show fell more action packed that it already is.... and it is. The interaction between the characters is good and a shout-out to Levi.

ART/ANIMATION:
Well... My word who is funding these people the Brooklyn Nets? The budget for this show must be endless as I never recall a time when this show didn't look like pure awesome. The animation for this show is simply outstanding, the actions scenes are breathtaking, and when they used the 3D movement gear my God does it look stunning. The art style is rather unique too with thick black borders around the characters and the Titans (some of them) look very disturbing. The scenery is gorgeous and those action scenes.... just so good.

SOUND:
THAT OPENING!!! Yea the first opening for this show is amazing. So is the second one. So is the fight music, and so is the dub and yes I said DUB. DUB! I can already see people moving their mouse to "Not helpful" before going onto the next review but the dub for this show was done by Funimation and such is of the up most quality. Bryce Papenbrook is great as Eren because no one can scream like him, Trina Nishimura fits Mikasa almost freakishly well and Josh Grelle does a great job making Armin sound like a wimp because that's exactly what he is. Oh and Matthew Mercer is just silky smooth as Levi. Great job Funimation for getting a good cast.

ENDING (NO SPOILERS)
The ending is paramount. This story is incomplete but there is a second season coming sometime soon so that makes this section pointless, if it were too end right now it wound be terrible but it doesn't so yea.

OVERALL:
Attack on Titan has been the only show that has made me impatient enough to go out and read ahead in the manga. This first season was extremely well done and the series as a whole has tremendous potential to be something very special indeed. I give this a strong recommendation too anyone that likes a good story driven high action series. Attack on Titan is a great watch.