Review of Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan. One of the most overrated/overhyped anime of all time. I recently decided to get back into this series because everyone was talking about how great it's been with season three. Before watching that though, I watched the first season again since I didn't remember much from it. After completing it a second time, this series is definitely nowhere near as good as people make it out to be. It's practically a generic shounen series masquerading as a mature seinen. It's not a bad anime though, not at all. In fact, I think that this anime has many great things going for it.Unfortunately though, it has many flaws which definitely ruined my enjoyment while watching it. First I'll be talking about the story/plot, and then I'll be talking about the characters and plot holes/inconsistencies.

Firstly, the story. Well the gist of the story is that humanity has been pushed back behind their walls, and they're on the brink of extinction. The story starts off with out main protagonist talking about how he will one day join the Survey Corps. Soon after that, the titans break through wall Maria, and they begin to start a rampage eating everyone they can. Eren loses his mother, and she is eaten by a Titan. Now here's when Eren becomes a character that I really, really dislike. Like the typical shounen protagonist, Eren decides that his goal is to join the survey corps and exterminate the titans. Absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. I didn't remember this when I first started watching, but this is just really bad. It's just so cliche! So right from the start he's just your typical revenge character, but what makes him even worse than your typical revenge character is that his goal is unrealistic. Even Ymir in season 2 told him that his goals are childish and unrealistic, but I'll be delving into this later on in this review. For now though, that's the gist of the story. Humanity trying to protect themselves from titans.

Now, what makes Attack on Titan such a popular series its premise. That's not even debatable. I remember when this came out everyone was talking about how creative and unique the premise of this anime is. The same thing happened for Sword Art Online too. People were quite surprised at the unique premise in Sword Art Online. That's why both of these anime became extremely popular, to the point that they're some of the most popular anime ever made. Let me say this though. A good premise, does not mean a good story. Just because something has an interesting premise, that does not make the anime or manga good. As I previously stated Sword Art Online, take that for example. Sword Art Online is known as one of the worst and most hated anime of all time. When it comes to story telling, it's all about the execution. Now let's talk about if Attack on Titan had good execution or not.

Attack on Titan is a plot driven narrative. It obviously can't be a character driven narrative, since most of the characters had no sort of depth whatsoever. I'll get to that later though. Attack on Titan is a plot driven narrative with an actual intriguing plot that got me immersed real fast. The plot wasn't all over the place. It was well organized and the pacing was very good. It wasn't too fast, nor was it too slow. It was enough to give depth to the story. It was enough to have me immersed into the story. So I do believe that Attack on Titan was well executed in terms of plot. So that's a plus.

Now here's where I'll start to get a bit more critical. Let's talk about the characters. As I said before, Attack on Titan is a plot driven narrative because of the fact that the characters aren't really that great, which is a true statement. Character development is definitely not Attack on Titan's strong suit. The characters in Attack on Titan are mediocre at best. Starting off with the recruits. I just don't see any real reason to care for these characters. Take Connie and Sasha for example. Why should I even give a shit about these characters? They're one dimensional characters with absolutely nothing going for them. And of course, this applies to 99% of the characters as well. The only characters that you can even care about are Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Levi, Jean, and Annie. That's 6 characters out of the many that you could actually emotionally attach to. Now as we all know, many people in Attack on Titan die. Deaths everywhere. People being eaten, ripped a part. The thing is, why should I care about the people that die when they're just no name characters that are irrelevant? That's pretty much the only people that die in this anime. People that the audience doesn't care about. This is exactly why I previously stated that it's a shounen series masquerading as a seinen. In seinen anime/manga like Berserk, Vinland Saga, Monster, etc. People die. A lot of people die, and unlike Attack on Titan, it isn't just the no name irrelevant characters that die. Actual characters that are given character development and depth die in those series. It just feels like this show is trying so hard to be edgy, but then again the only ones that die are irrelevant characters. It's not a mature anime in the slightest. Oh well, time to move on to my next point.

Let's talk about the characters that were actually significant. Firstly, Eren. One of the worst protagonists in anime history. Never have I seen such garbage before in my life. So in the first two episodes, he's pretty much an extremely annoying child that yells all the time. I mean shit, remember when people were complaining about Asta from Black Clover? People were complaining about that character because that mother fucker was yelling like a bloody mad man all the time. Well Eren is pretty much the same. He continues to have the same personality from his childhood until he fucking graduates from being a recruit. That is absolutely problematic. That is absolutely terrible writing. Why is Eren in the prologue the exact same as Eren in the present story line? You see, I did previously state that trying to exterminate titans was an incredibly absurd goal. It's something that a child would say, so I wasn't bothered that someone like him being the age he was would say such a stupid thing. But the problem is that after he goes through his three years of training, there is absolutely no sort of development in his character whatsoever. He continues to be the same childish naive shounen protagonist. It's just bad writing overall.

Now let's talk about his actual character development. The only sort of character development there WAS in Eren I noticed was that instead of just rushing in like an idiot, he put his trust into his comrades. We can see this happening during the arc where the female titan was introduced. Eren trusted his fellow comrades to defeat the female titan, so he just kept running. Both of his comrades died though. So his character change is what actually caused the death of his comrades. So Eren turns back and transforms into a titan. He then realizes that he shouldn't have trusted his comrades the entire time. Not just when they told him they'd beat the female titan. But rather he eventually believes that he should've never trusted them to begin with. So this pretty much means Eren has regressed into the same idiot he was before. One second he changed his mindset, but soon after he regresses back into the same mindset he previously had. The same typical naive shounen protagonist that rushes into things. So really, I never noticed any character development from Eren. He's the same Eren he was since the start of the series.

Not only is he the same character, but there's nothing interesting about him to begin with. Why do people even like this character? There's nothing unique about Eren whatsoever. He's literally just your typical shounen protagonist you see in every battle shounen series. There's nothing about him that makes him special compared to those other shit characters. If anything, all he did was make the experience in watching this anime even worse. What makes Eren even more generic is the fact that he can turn into a titan. In the typical shounen fashion, he of course some sort of inner darkness/demon dwelling inside him. Just like how Naruto has the nine tails. Just like how in Bleach Ichigo has a hollow. Just like how Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho has a demon as well. Eren is a titan. It's just very cliche. And the funny thing is that his titan powers make no sense. It was stated that in order to transform into a Titan, Eren would need to have a goal/objective in order to even do that. He transforms into a titan by attempting to pick up a god damn spoon. That makes absolutely no sense. None whatsoever. Why can't he transform into a titan when doing any other minor thing? Brushing your teeth, combing your hair, trying to sleep, eating. If trying to pick up a fucking spoon would cause him to turn into a titan, then shouldn't those as well? Again, this is just inconsistent writing. Overall though, Eren is one of the worst characters I have ever seen in an anime or manga. No, probably in fiction.

Now let's talk about him and Annie. In case you don't remember, once Eren was told that Annie was suspected of being the female Titan, he didn't believe it. He couldn't even transform to fight Annie because he still didn't want to believe that she was the female Titan. This part never made any sense to me. I also feel that him behaving this way was forced and just ridiculous overall. The only interaction he's had with Annie is their fight when sparring. Even then, he has barely spoken any words to her in the entire anime. Maybe their fight when training was the only interaction they've had in the entire anime. I don't know. All I know is that the way he was reacting didn't make any sense, since he never had a deep relationship with Annie in the first place. If Mikasa or Armin were revealed to be titans, his type of reaction would be perfectly understandable. But why for a character that he doesn't even talk to. A character that he isn't even friends with? It's just bad writing honestly.

Want to know what makes this part even worse? If any of you people reading this have seen season two, Eren didn't even hesitate to fight Reiner! Once he found out that Reiner was the armored titan, he instantly called him a traitor and attacked him. That makes absolutely no sense...? Why in the hell did he refuse to believe that Annie is a villain when he didn't even know her that well? When he finds out that Reiner is a titan though, he doesn't even hesitate to attack him. This makes no sense because he had a much deeper relationship than Reiner than he did with Annie. He was Reiner's friend. He looked up to Reiner. If anything, things should've been the other way around. This makes no sense whatsoever and this is absolutely terrible writing.

Now speaking about Annie. Let's talk about her character. First off, Annie is my favorite character in the entire anime. She's bad ass. She's hot. She can fight. Great character design as well. What more could you want? There are some flaws though. First off, her female titan transformation. As we all know by now, it was way too obvious. In my opinion, there should've been some mystery regarding who the female titan is. There was no mystery though. It was obvious from the start, since the female titan has the same fucking face and hair style as Annie. I feel like her titan transformation shouldn't have completely resembled her in every way. It was just fucking silly.

This is a problem that occurs in this anime numerous times. Things are just way too obvious in. There should be a mystery aspect to this anime, otherwise it just makes for a boring reveal. When it was revealed to us that Annie is indeed the female titan, no one gave a shit because we already knew. It's boring.

Annie though is kind of a complicated character to understand. We know she isn't just a wild titan running around killing everybody for no reason. She has no problems with humans. In fact, she even pities the weak humans that go with the flow of the world, as she states in her own words. She didn't even kill Armin, and she also respected Eren for defying the order of the world. The problem though is that I never really understood her motives. It was never explained in the anime the motives behind her actions. Why does she want Eren? The only thing we got was a short flash back of her father and that's really it. I haven't caught up to the series, so maybe questions will be answered eventually though. Regardless of these flaws, Annie is my favorite character in the series, and easily one of my favorite female characters.

Now let's talk about Mikasa, aka the worst character in the series. Yes, Mikasa is even worse than Eren. I honestly can't believe that a character like this is so beloved in the anime community. It makes absolutely no sense. First off, she's a one dimensional/static character. She really is. From start to finish, from childhood to adulthood, all she ever cares about is protecting Eren and being there for him. That's literally all there is to her character. She is a female simp. I'm sure all of us know how uninteresting her dialogue is. All she does is constantly yell out "EREEEEN". And when Eren is even in the slightest bit of danger, she becomes emotional and she's filled with rage. Just way too overprotective, and way too annoying. She has no goals for herself, which makes her a boring character. Worst of all though, she gets absolutely no character development whatsoever! From episode one to episode 25, there is absolutely no change in her character. Even going past episode 25, she's still an awful character in season two as well. The only thing going for her is her appearance. That's it. I can't see any other reason for people to like this character. She's hot and she can fight. But Annie is both as well, so I really couldn't care less about this character. Hands down the most overrated female in all of anime.

Now let's talk about my second favorite character in season one; Jean. Jean is probably the most dynamic character in this season of Attack on Titan. From this season alone, he gets not only the most character development, but the best character development. He starts off being a petty and cowardly person. He wanted to join the Military Police Brigade for the sole purpose of hiding behind the walls in safety. Then as the series progresses, he becomes more and more brave. He becomes more and more like a leader, and he even joins the Survey Corps. Absolutely amazing development from the writers here. Him and Annie are the only characters in the series I actually liked. It wasn't forced development either. It was smooth and well thought out development, with Eren and the death of his comrades being the main catalyst for his development. Overall though, just a fun character.

Now I won't be talking much about the other characters like Levi and Armin. Although they are important characters and do have impact on the story, I don't want to talk about the characters for too long. I'll just make it short and quick. Both are one dimensional characters with nothing going for them. They have talents, but that's pretty much it. As characters, neither were interesting nor well developed.

One thing that a lot of people like about Attack on Titan is the music. I must admit, the music is very good. The background tracks always fit pretty well with the events that are taking place. The opening themes are some of the best opening themes in all of anime. Personally though, I liked the second opening better than the first. A very unpopular opinion definitely. Overall though, the music is pretty good.

As for the animation, that's pretty good as well. I'm assuming the reason why there was a 4 year delay between season one and two was due to the amount of money used to animate season one. Unfortunately though, this is what caused season two to not have nearly as good animation. Go back and look at season two people, because the animation fucking sucks for the most part. I'm no animation expert, but I noticed a lot of still frames and weird movements going on. About season one though, the animation is pretty good for the most part.

Animation and music aren't going to save this series from falling into the pits of mediocrity though. So I'll just summarize all of my points so far. The story of Attack on Titan is good enough, although in my opinion it's not nearly as unique as people say it is. It's pretty much the same thing as a zombie apocalypse, but difference being that there's titans. Other anime have done something like this before. Take Gurren Lagann for example. Humanity was forced to live underground in the beginning of the series because the outside world was too dangerous. Attack on Titan's story is not that unique.

The plot is intriguing. The characters are absolutely awful with the exception of a few. Both the animation and the soundtrack are very good. If you're wondering why I gave this a five, it's mainly because of the horrible characters and the numerous plot inconsistencies/nonsensical things that occur in this anime.

Well that will be it here. Overall rating: 5.5/10. Maybe even a 6.