Review of Attack on Titan

No doubt the biggest anime of the year, it's essentially this years Sword Art Online, the biggest question to answer is "Does It live up to the hype?". The answer is yes and no. There is a really high chance that there will be a second season of attack on titan and that is where this anime will shine at it's brightest without a doubt. It needs another season to develop in my opinion and to start to truly shine, it definitely has the most potential out of any anime to come out in the past few years that's for sure. Story- The story in Attackon Titan is a very well thought out and realized one, even if it is a bit on the generic side. Generic in the form of "We are humans fighting against a stronger force than us, but our tenacity will allow us to defeat them" kind of way. It's definitely unique in the way that it tells it's story though, it kind of baffles me that nobody has thought of titans before as an enemy in anime. It's a very weird, yet terrifying enemy, they are kind of like over sized zombies, which is something that would scare the shit out of anyone. Anyway, humanity has built 3 gigantic walls that shield them from the titans, these walls are practically un-breachable and have kept the titans at bay for many years, until one day a gigantic titan that can peer over the walls appears and takes out the gate which lets in all of the other titans to flood into the city and start destroying it. The story revolves around three main characters, Mikasa, Eren, and Armin all of which were great friends as children and even better friends at later ages. These 3 kids have been through a tremendous amount their entire lifes, so much torture and pain, and yet they can have such a positive outlook on life still, it's no doubt a powerful anime that will really speak to you and definitely keep you interested the entire way through. It has one of the strongest opening episodes out of any anime I've ever watched, I would even dare to put it on par with elfen lied's opening episode, which I thought I would never say about any anime. It almost had me on the verge of tears in one episode, they're definitely onto something here, you can tell how much work was put into Attack On Titan. Does that mean that it's perfect? Of course not, but it can be a masterpiece because of it's flaws right? Sure, but it's not. The story does have some problems. The first half or so of the anime has a pretty good pace and really ramps up, but it kind of slacks off some in the middle to end, on top of that there are alot of story elements missing that are fairly important. Alot of stuff is kind of left in the dark and makes the anime has this sort of "gap" in it. The very end of the anime is extremely climatic, this anime does some really fucking amazing fight scenes, the titan fights are especially jaw dropping. On top of that it does some of it's other scenes equally as well. It's a very well made anime with an excellent story, but it was definitely drawn out in some parts and kind of stretched out so that they would be able to make another season. With everything left as it was I would hope the second season won't be so "drawn out". it should be fairly meaty in the second season and that's what i'm looking forward to the most. The first season was amazing though, definitely one of the biggest surprises this season and this year hands down. Even with all of it's flaws the story is still a rock solid 9/10.

Art- The art style is different in this than in most anime, it has a more "drawn" kind of style that actually fits the anime really well. It also has some very berserk-esq scenes in it that are amazing. The 3d maneuver gear and the titan concepts are unique to this anime and are pretty badass in my opinion. One of the few animes to come out recently that has some unique art styles of it's own, which is nice to see. The animation quality is extremely good in this anime as well. It's very fluid and some of the scenes in particular are quite amazing to watch, some of which were so good that they will be forever engraved in my memory.

Sound- The sound assests I feel where nothing special in the anime, it doesn't stick out in the same way that the animation or story does, it doesn't really have any defining moment where it really makes the scene that much better, it does it's job, but doesn't do anything more than that. It has solid sound assets and solid op/ed, but nothing too memorable imo, doesn't mean that they're bad, far from it, but they aren't on the same level as the story or art.

Character- The characters are another very strong point for this anime. You have 3 main characters, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. All of which have something unique about them that breaks the certain stereotypes that they fit into. By this point in anime pretty much every character fits into a certain "stereotype", but they can still do stuff to differentiate themselves from being just that stereotype. For example, Eren fits the "badass" role pretty well, but he's not as badass as he might seem at times, he has his own tendencies that make him unique from just being a "badass" character, which is awesome. Same with Mikasa, she is also very "unique" in her own ways, as for Armin though, he feels like more of a side character than a main character. I like the whole idea behind Armin and who he is, but he isn't as fleshed out as Mikasa and Eren. He feels more like an important side character, which is sad because I really like Armin. Hopefully he gets more fleshed out in the second season if there is one. That's actually quite the problem, because all of the side characters in Attack on Titan aren't that well fleshed out at all, they're all really just kind of there, they're not as "important" as say some of the side characters in Claymore. The main characters Mikasa and Eren pick up most of the slack though, they're very interesting characters so you don't really notice most of the other characters to begin with.

Enjoyment- Attack on Titan was highly enjoyable, despite some key flaws that it had, there was never a dull moment. Anybody that decides to sit down and watch this will enjoy it, no doubt about that. Whether you are crying, being terrified, or getting super hyped you will be enjoying it, and not many anime does that.

Overall- Overall Attack on Titan lives up to the hype and at the same time falls a little bit short of the hype. It's kind of the same deal with sword art online, it was so good, but there was a design choice that they made that kind of held it back from being as good as it could have been. Anybody that watches this will enjoy it and will probably call it a masterpiece, it could have been a masterpiece, and it may even become one with a second season, but as for now it's a really solid anime that should be watched by everyone, even if it falls a bit short of it's hype in some areas.