Review of Attack on Titan

Before snk haters start clicking on not helpful, plz maintain dignity by at least reading the review first. What does a genre mean? Generally, it is a class on which the author wants to focus on. But there is one more genre which we as viewers create, which I nomenclate as the epicness genre. It is a genre which can include animes from any other genres, may be from rom com, to horror to psychology. It is a genre reserved for the best of best animes we have watched till date, and is obviously not the same for everyone. Still there are numerous animes which haveuniversal appeal and get into this genre in everyone's list, a few eg. would(could) be death note, or code geass, or hxh. So is Shingeki no Kyojin probably the vest anime 2013 one of them? If yes its incredible, if no then what did it lack? A good start is half done, but that also means half is remaining to be done.

So is there anything that makes it different from other animes? Snk is set in a medieval period, where titans attack the humans or may be the other way around. Humans use weapons like cannons, guns and 3D gear, to fight against them. Obviously our protagonist losses people precious to him and wants revenge. That is what I originally thought, and it is probably a stagnated thought in many minds, but the fact is that the protagonist EREN fights for a broad goal like freedom, not for a narrow minded aim as revenge. So he trains himself and tries to fight. The action scenes are decent and nicely animated, and are added with the best osts. Apart from this there is one more thing that this anime has and that is REALISM. Action, shounen anime and realism can't go hand in hand, but this anime manages the impossible. Ok so are titans real? Answer is yes and no. No for obvious reasons. Yes from a very scientific point of view, I am not a biology student, but I do know there existed dinosaurs, and consider titans to be dinosaurs with brains and human faces we are done. And let them be a hybrid between a dinosaur and a regenerative animal, so they can regenerate. Moreover there is the 3D gear, and in between the episodes, on screenshots, there is a whole description on how it works, and it is very scientific, and needs skilled users to handle it. And the feeling of despair, and the reactions of common people under this, and the psychology behind their actions is also well explored. Above all it removes many side characters very easily, which is a rarity in many current shounen animes, in fact they resurrect the dead. All this simply adds to the realism factor.

Animation 9/10, Sound 11/10
Production IG maintained good visuals, with incredible animations, except for a few parts where they used the same picture again and again. But still on the whole it sets a fairly decent mark on its animation due to incredible action scenes, and some cool characters (Mikasa is a beauty dont disagree on that now). The medieval period is shown nicley, the scenery and backgrounds all add to the decent animation. The exact reactions and facial descriptions when the characters suffered from despairity, were very well animated. Sound and music are one of the best of all the anime osts I have listened to. The osts are godly epic, and this ain't any exaggeration and it is probably the osts that make even simple scenes, so lively that the viewer is glued to the screens. It emphasizes that incredible osts can literally lift the enjoyment to another level. Moreover the voice acting is fabulous. Sorry Kaji Yukii haters, but his role as Eren is the one of the best voice acting.

Story 8/10 Minor spoilers
Story is fairly simple, titans attack humans attack titans some get killed, some get injured ,some live some die in the name of a soldier (this is quoted from samurai champloo opening, samurai is replaced by soldier). But all that is for the first arc. The second arc delves into mystery too. It is strictly not classified as a mystery genre, but it still has fair amount of it but it is mostly implicative. The story has some distinct features absent from many of its counterparts. Most people believe that the story is partly new and stuff, but its most distinctive characteristics is that it brings out the filth within the humans. It also questions things such as right to freedom, and the need for power, and the ability to make precise decisions. The main story follows Eren and his friends who strive to survive (or may be not?). One of the strongest points of the story is that it is able to remove any side characters who are not needed without any second thought, so plz dont get to like nay side character, else u will be largely disappointed.

The first arc mainly depends on action scenes, with few unpredictable situations. It mainly depended on the cliffhangers. In fact the first arc had a lot many cliffhangers, and I was unable to sleep for two nights after one of the cliffhangers. So this mostly had a universal appeal. It has overall a very dark atmosphere and the author displays the despair within humans in an indigenous manner. As such the first arc deserves easy 10/10.
The second arc was entirely different. With many new characters, it also started to have a mystery tone to it. And this probably backfired for many viewers as they started pointing out that the mystery was lame, whereas the real fact is that it was never meant to create any mystery, it was just to add suspense, and more importantly create tension for the climax. The author cleverly laid down facts so that the viewer knows the answer to the puzzle and just waits for the characters to understand and play it, but unfortunately it was misunderstood by many of us. Another aspect of this arc was irregular pacing, it would have been better to delete or merge one or two episodes and the let the climax reached earlier, and this followed by speculations to the next arc.

Characters 9/10
Since the anime follows the life of soldiers it is obvious that it will cover many characters. So firstly the trio Eren, Mikasa, Armin. At first Eren is showed to be fighting for revenge, but then he develops into a character who puts freedom first, and that is what fuels his ambition. Later in the story he mostly develops into a cliche character of a regular shounen anime, but that is a law rather than exception. His development is done most intricately, and his experiences fuel this. Mikasa, the adoptive sister of eren, the star of the academy, is shown to be overly possesive about eren, but once her backstory is shown, it becomes completely understandable. She is shown to be superskilled, and is one of my favourite characters. Armin a kid, who becomes an incredible character later. He gets an awesome character development, and also plays the role of a narrator. He is a keen observant, and he is the one who makes many statements, which lead the viewers to a definite conclusion. He also quotes cool lines and was very impressive and bold in the latter half. Apart for the trio, there are MC's friends who are typical of a shounen anime. And the boss of all characters LEVI, who becomes a very important part in second arc, is mostly supported by his reputation, and his character is well defined and needs no further development.

Enjoyment 11/10
For me enjoyment is measured at two levels. First, general satisfaction. Second, my reactions to cliffhangers. I heavily enjoyed the anime and the sole reason for this is that I watched it as an ongoing anime. Other reason would be the first impression of the anime, and second reason would be awesome osts. Third and the most important reason would be a completely different class of shounen. In which shounen anime have we ever seen people getting eaten up and actually dying, I. Fact I wonder whether this should be classified as a shounen. I attribute its success to the incredible tension.
Most SNK haters comprise of people who either marathoned the series in a day or two, or may be week at its most. The whole of the second arc depends upon the tension created in 4-5 eps, and the climax at its peak. Many lost the vast tension because it takes time for the intense pressure created to be fitted into viwers mind. In fact they lost the most crucial part. So I honestly suggest one to watch the anime in regular gaps. For me it was one week, which is impossible because u will most probably surrender to ur conscience to watch what happens next, but still I would suggest at least a gap of three days between any two episodes, to gain maximum enjoyment. The brain dissects all facts carefully and this is the path for full enjoyment.

Another trick is to watch the anime in HD, it looks as if the Titan came out of the screen. HD rocks.

Overall 9/10
So the question still bugs did this get into everyone list of epicness genre? The answer is yes and no. For me it did, for others it might not. I was forced to watch this on a weekly basis, and with no new eps, I irrationally rewatched the previous episodes. In fact I watched the first arc probably 3 times. With each new episode, there was a general satisfaction. All the episodes served a purpose and rarely any episode was wasted. The author has carefully planned the outline, and the anime adheres very much to the manga. But as I already mentioned, the problem which occurrs when u marathon a series, u dissolve and nullify the huge tension, leaving a dull taste.

Cons : On complete objective viewing, there are few plot holes in the story, but this can be easily overlooked, and these will be probably covered in the later chapters of the manga. Animation though consistent, had a few backdrops, but on the whole it is at a very good level. Characters like erens mom and dad, and his friends could have got a bit more development with their back stories. As for the episodes, one or two scenes could have been deleted or fast forwarded to reach the climax early, leaving us with speculations of what's next. Given all these cons I can at most kill up one point leaving a close masterpiece at 9/10.

As a side note: I never intended to write a review on SNK, for I assumed that this would get plenty of 10s as it's review, but the hell, it barely got 9. What is to happen of the next generation of anime viewers if they were to miss out on this epic shit.