Review of Attack on Titan

Depicting a world in which the remaining human population seals itself into giant walls to protect against the giant Titans, Attack on Titan focuses on the exploits of young hero Eren Yaeger desiring to destroy the giants to avenge the slaughter of his parents by them. Early episodes of the series are solid in setting up the show's premise as they explore the pasts of Eren and Mikasa and elements to the world of the series such as the importance of the Walls and the harsh training and physical conditioning that those in the Recon Corp armies go through in order to fight the Titans.Also in many instances throughout the first half, the series was effective in setting up tension and suspense from humans whenever the thought of their survival or a Titan encounter had them fearing for their lives. Titan's first half set up some engaging plot twists, such as a shocking development with Eren, that would have you believe that this would be an epic of a series.

Sadly as the show shifted into its second half, things start to go downhill with the plotting quality of the series and much of this has to do with the fact that the manga source material of this series is still ongoing. Much of the second half of the series focuses on matters concerning the Female Titan and the series started getting into the bad habit of slowing things to a halt with its pacing. The effective use of mood conveyed from earlier episodes in the series becomes greatly exaggerated here as humans scared witless of the Titans or a certain major character angsting over internal conflict over a revelation with the Female Titan became irksome at many points for my enjoyment of the series and seemed to only be implanted to drag the series out. Worst of all, the series left plenty of questions unanswered concerning the motives of certain characters and factions, as well as elements to the world of the series that Titan alluded to yet never bothered answering. This, again, comes from the manga source material of Attack on Titan still being incomplete. Also while Eren and Mikasa get decently fleshed out, much of the cast to Titan are sadly underdeveloped in background and personality beyond whatever eccentric or stale personalities they are shown to have throughout the TV anime's run.

For visuals, Titan was pleasing for the most part. Scenery shots sported vivid color and plenty of detail, with human character designs given similar treatment. The designs of the Titans are perhaps the visual highlight of the series being grotesque and well-detailed in their massive designs. The animation features nicely animated battle scenes involving the Recon Corps use of their Maneuver Gear as they move through closed-in areas like forests and towns while battling Titans, with the occasional clashes between Titans tossed in as well. Such scsnes serve as the animated highlight for this series as 3D animation and camera movement is used to depict the fluid movement of Titans and human soldiers moving about using their Maneuver Gear. This nice animation does come at a price as moments outside of these animated sequences feature still shots, speed stripes, characters moving while background movement is still and other animation shortcuts to conserve on budget for the more visually intense moments of the series.

Overall, I must admit that Titan is perhaps my biggest disappointment of a series thus far this year. While having a nice start in setting up its premise and having many nicely animated sequences with Titans and soldiers moving via their Maneuver Gear, the series suffers greatly in its second half with dragged out developments and unanswered questions over the bigger picture of things over how and why things were taking place in the world of the series. Had this been animated close to or well after this title's manga source material was complete, then Attack on Titan could have been better in its quality and not leave you hanging over what was going on.