Review of Attack on Titan

Initially, when the hype train was in full effect, I stood back and ignored all the "normies" telling me how good it was. Boy, those normies were right! The first season of Attack on Titan ("AoT") is an anime often described as "a roller coaster of emotions", and their definitely right about that! Who's think a tale of titans, gobbling up child soldiers could be soo...thrilling...? Yeah that sounded pretty bad! Anyways, that roller coast I was talking about early, the first arc is one giant roller coaster, from its start to its finish, and even a few twists here and there, with many ups anddowns, which just destroy your level of hope for the characters. I will say however, it could grow a little tiresome after a few episodes, if you're not into those type of stories. Yet for me, it never really hurt my enjoyment. In fact in many ways, it only enhanced my experience, as I started to understand more and more how some of the characters may have been feeling.

The second arc is something different entirely. Some might say this hurts the overall flow of the narrative and story, but I completely disagree. It gives the characters, primarily the main lead Eren Jager, the motivation to move forward. In doing so, Eren begins to understand how futile that desire for vengeance actually is, as he slowly turns from the "Protagonist of Narrative", and becomes the "Slave to the Narrative", following along the "Bird in a Cage" theme from the beginning to the ending. The change of scenery (the woodlands) is welcomed; showing just how dangerous it is outside the walls and adding more questions and surprises for an already eager audience, now with more reason to keep on watching (including future seasons or even the manga).

Unlike Eren, who I think is meant to be somewhat a 2-dimensional character, some of the other main characters, I found annoying or just plain boring! Mikasa is one of those people, she's a bland OP character created for commercial purposes of 'coolness' or 'eye-candy', rather than exploring a type of MC in anime/manga! If she were, it went WAY over my head. Another problem I had with AoT was the pacing, each episode either speed through too much plot or slowed it way~ down for exposition or chatter.

Rapid fire: The art, man Isayama-sensei, sometimes you're art sucks! Studio Wix did a good job in (keeping the style) cleaning it up, and making it the look good, doing a great job with the colors and lighting, and they did an excellent job with cinematography and animation, but some character designs were just straight-up ugly! Also, Hiroyuki Sawano's soundtrack is just perfect in every scene. It fits perfectly, and to those who know anything about anime production, that's no easy task!

Overall, I enjoyed it. It's not exactly perfect but if it's anything like manga, it just get's better and better from here-on-out. I give it a 7/10 (it's closer to an 8/10 than a 6/10).

Thank you.