Review of Attack on Titan

The more i heard about Attack on Titan, the more i wanted to watch it. Most of my friends praised it for "how good it was." Of course this was on my list, and after i finished "Shiki" I knew i couldn't put it off anymore. Did it live up to it's hype? In a word, Yes. First off, the animation is spot on gorgeous. From the opening to the end, everything looks beautiful. This is possibly the best animation i've seen yet, the CGI effects work good with the animation and it doesn't stand out as looking out of place. All the character designsare unique and well animated. During action scenes, it doesn't lose quality and each action sequence can look different from the last. The sounds are on point as well...the music goes well with the parts they're put in and the music isn't overused. From the sounds of Titans stomping, to soldiers drawing their swords everything sounds crisp and clean. The show is set in the year 845-850, everything has an old-timy look, while having its own unique aesthetic. While the show is set far in the past the weapons or tools have a semi-modern look to them while keeping their own unique design and not being out of place. Every scene is shot very well, rarely there will be a dull scene. Even scenes containing mainly dialogue are executed very well.

On to the characters...The cast of this show have amazing and interesting personalities which were showcased very well and not over done. They were all very interesting and entertaining to watch. While the show has a fairly large cast of characters, it doesn't fall into the trap of having too much, some characters do get more screen time than others which is a bit disappointing but that's a small complaint. The main cast of characters; Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are characterized very well and as the story carries on you grow attached to them and the supporting characters as well. Some of the support cast such as Levi are awesome characters, and while they are show stealers they don't totally eclipse the main cast which is good. One group of four characters in particular, i found myself caring deeply about them only after 2-3 episodes of being introduced to them. Like i said before, all their personalities are fleshed out well and they are all unique and interesting characters. Sasha, Reiner and Jean were some of my favorites aside from Levi and Mikasa being the best in my opinion. The show does a good job of showing growth as well, in the beginning i found Armin whiney and rather annoying, but towards the end i actually liked him. Jean started out as an arrogant selfish jerk, and towards the end i liked him as well. In terms of characterization, this show delivered perfectly.

The story was very good as well, sometimes i will admit i found myself a bit bored more in the beginning. Once the story picked up however, i was much more interested and my desire to watch grew. The show didn't have cliffhanger endings to most of the episodes, but i was still eager to watch which is impressive how the show had that effect on me. The story took quite a few twists and turns, and was written very well with no plot holes and no wasted time on filler like episodes. Flashbacks were only used when necessary, which was seldom. When the anime started, it was a pretty simple premise. As the story progressed, it evolved far past that and became something very unique and interesting, with obvious room for continuation by the end. Certain episodes would focus on specific characters which i liked alot. The story was centralized around Eren mainly and the rest of the army, but certain episodes and parts of episodes would zero in on specific events which was done well and kept me entertained. The ending gave plenty of closure with obvious room for season 2 (which is coming.)

In all this was an amazing anime, the only cons are things you have to sit down and nitpick. Attack on Titan was a very solid, consistent and unique anime all the way through. It was interesting, entertaining and delivered a good story which evolved past what it was made to look like from the beginning. I enjoyed watching it alot and i'd definitely watch it again. To anyone thinking about giving this a chance i highly recommend it if you like dark fantasy or action genre anime.

Hope this review helped (: