Review of Attack on Titan

Shingeki no Kyojin is based on a manga by Isayama Hajime.it got adapted by Production I.G after their great adaptation of Kuroko no baske.both are among the Hyped ones in their own seasons and fortunately they both deserve it to some extent.some may rise against the hype and some of them have the rights to cause neither this or KnB are the masterpiece some claims they are but both are among great works in the industry and deserves some of the praises they get. The story is about a time when humanity is surrounded by titans and forced to cage itself in big walls for protection.oneday though after years of peace a mysterious colossal titan appears out of nowhere and attacks the humanity and their walls leading many titans inside the walls.this attack leads to an event that sets our protagonist on a revenge journey so he joins an elite group tasked to fight with the titans.that is not all of the story however and it looks good already and it also has another side.the mystery side.at the same time there are also things happening in the story that you will realize later and there are some good hints implemented about them in some parts for mystery fans.as good as the story is it is far from masterpiece though.for example Eren’s squad is filled with the key people for the future events which isn’t very realistic but still overall SnK has a very good story with good presentation although keeping it up till the end is gonna be hard.

While the story has many supporting characters sadly only a few of them are realistic.Eren the protagonist is your typical hot-headed naive brat which only do things with courage and his temper although I still like naïve characters that get to taste cruel things and grow up because of it but I don’t really support one dimensional angry kids…Mikasa is a girl that because of her hard past is apparently very powerful now and is perfect in many ways and through out the series everyone praises her until your ear bleeds. sadly having a hard past is hardly an excuse for being powerful since surely she is not the only one that suffered during those times but the creator wanted to have a powerful heroine so there you have it.at least the mangaka didn’t try to make her a beauty queen as well although in the anime they beautified everyone cause that’s a rule in animations it seems.she also doesn’t have any goal in her life so she just follows Eren cause she owes him(maybe there is a mysterious reason for that too beside her debt to eren since SnK love mystery)..sadly in the industry there is no middle ground for most of female characters,they are either too strong or too weak unless they are villains and in that case they only get good when the plot needs them to…on the other hand we have Armin,Eren’s friend that lacks the perfection and confidence but is actually a better character than both of them while ironically is not as popular and the reason for him being better is simple because he has better development through out the story and he is more real.the good thing about the three of em is that Eren is not the only one that steals the glories and the three of them helps and influence each other again and again and none of the three are useless which is a fact that I love about SnK.unfortunately the rest of the cast are usually titan food and are used for shock values except those that are important to the plot and most of them aren’t well developed although I can see their appeal for example Levi being among the strongest or Sasha being cute while hungry and weak and trying to be strong but still those doesn’t count as huge development or characterization although it is not that there is zero development here for example Jean’s growth can be easily seen through out the story or Sasha getting stronger a little later.also the characters are saved by the story and the dialogues for example I enjoy most of Reiner’s dialogues and actions cause its all misleading but at the same time it is not aiming to deceive the audience that much and its mostly aimed for deceiving the characters.you may think with yourself that screw development but sadly in these kind of stories which swing a death hammer on characters often knowing about some of them can make us care more about their death.it is true that the characters inside the story doesn’t need to know about them but the audience of the anime should know otherwise it turns into Danganroppa: The Animation.

As I said shock value plays a big part in the series that sometimes works but not always.the first reason is as mentioned above lack of development.the second is some forced ones like the first scene with the survey corp which tries to show how helpless the humans are but just doesn’t have the impact it is meant to have although it is just my opinion on the matter…also sadly being branded as shounen you will see many adults being useless or stupid while kids doing the works but since 3D gear is probably better for young ones you can justify them doing some of the fights or doing it better at least.
The art and character designs are sorta faithful to the manga but not that much which can be both good and bad since it effects presentation for example Misaka’s character in manga is presented better because of the dark impressions she gives in the manga while in the anime she is just a pretty face for viewer’s sake(first ED’s art can be considered closest to the manga’s art and design).on the other hand they did well with little details that weren’t included in the manga’s art to make it look better.while the production value is high and the animation is good when it is needs to be in some episodes you can easily see them saving budgets for big events so don’t get discouraged by those episodes although sadly many episodes feature long recap of previous events so you can be discouraged by that :D.but a good visual is not the only thing that this anime has.epic music was very helpful to the mood of the series specially with the good opening song that can give you a first impression of what kind of music you are gonna deal with through out the series.the voice acting is also strong although it cannot be considered a challenge for trained VAs.

Overall the team actually put a lot of effort into this anime it is not just some random high budget one and since the material was good to begin with they managed to succeed once again so don’t be fooled by haters and give this a try if you like action genre.lets hope they continue with another season when they got enough material.also I gave this 8.5/10 but sadly MAL’s scoring system is flawed so it turns into 8/10 here.