Review of Attack on Titan

Despite doing action very well and trying harder than anything at dark and creepy, it's not as good as what people say. That's the gist of this long review, so if you don't want to waste your time, just take that. SNK begins with a thunderous roar and somewhere along the first 6 episodes I thought it might even touch that fairly elusive 9/10, but it fell so far down the poop chute that I'm still hesitating on giving it a 7 or an 8. Which is still fair, but for something hailed so highly, I'm sorry to say, how weak. Before anything in detail, I must concurwith a lot of people and say that a lot of the problems in SNK stem from its pacing and terrible, abysmal amount of nothing really happening in certain arcs.

However that could've been overlooked if not for the other problems SNK has:

- First off, I'm gonna repeat exactly what I said with Youjo Senki, SNK is about war, about life in war, about war in war, about how to war the war in the war for war. Well unlike YS, it's not so much a war than a one-sided slaughter, but the problem stands nonetheless. SNK loves to throw its cruel and brutal deaths at you, sometimes about characters that had more than two lines in the entire show, even! But pointless slaughter is enjoyable for a time, and after that you need an actual plot to move towards.

- Then there's the part about trying too hard with the gritty, dark and gloomy, which is definitely supposed to support the first problem about having no plot, and definitely doesn't help it at all. In short, it's pretty much a given by half-season that no matter who I'm introduced to or what new place we're going to, a lot of people will die, scream, kill or suffer. And it's past the point where I want to care.

- Then there's the SUDDENLY I AM A SHONEN moments. Those really annoyed me over time. Essentially, in this anime that is mostly a giant world-sized Ant Simulator where you play at not getting crushed, where everyone is angry, or afraid, or envious, or has just abandoned all feelings because it hurts too much to try anymore, we get our cast(even the serious ones) to stop in the middle of a fight to talk about their feelings and explain the situation for the 3rd time this episode. It's not all the time, but it really is a mood killer when it happens.

- And lastly, it might be a wierd statement but SNK feels like a european comic rather than a manga. There are a few core differences between franco-belgian bande dessinée, american comics and japanese manga, but one I affectionate a lot with manga is the philosophical side of it. Even in cheap shonens with no thoughts to it, catering to early teenagers, you always have some kind of message, a purpose, that writes the manga down with some greater cause. Naruto or One Piece are about loneliness and exclusion, or adventure and freedom. This side of manga always makes it more interesting because it makes you feel like you are not just having fun, but also observing some great cause being served. SNK just...doesn't have that. If it does, I never noticed it. It feels very much like a good BD, it's enthralling and fun and emotionally involving, but there is no "manga-type" message. It's not about "what would life be if we were ants and another species dominated the Earth", it's not even trying to explore that question. If humans are the dominant species, they grow and progress technologically and socially. If humans are being crushed by Titans, they do the exact same except the Titans block them. There is no big societal change or great questions about life and death, there is no purpose in SNK's story or cast, it's just a war for survival and there are no big questions about anything. A simple example: women are allowed into the army in SNK, fine by me, but shouldn't able bodied women who aren't in the army essentially be forced to have more children for war? Or less children to avoid starvation? Such questions just don't exist, for all intents and purposes, SNK offers a generic late european medieval society with Titans trying to destroy it, and that's it. Characters don't make any big philosophies about what life is as a bird in a cage, afraid to be eaten, they just get scared about it or get angry about it, and that's it. It never leaves emotional storytelling to go into any kind of message, and that's what I mean by "feeling like a BD". It feels like something that should've been in a Fluide Glacial collection, not a japanese manga, due to this weak point.

Besides that, honestly it is pretty good.

Plot: 3 : The entire plot is that the Titans win. Then a good twist happens around episode 8 or so. A really great twist actually. Too bad one twist cannot hold your plot running for the next 15 or so episodes! Seriously, nothing happens that shakes the situation at all. You meet new characters and new situations and everything, but ultimately, you come to that disappointing moment where you realise you're bored because none of the new characters or situations even remotely change anything. In the long run, the Titans win, there's the great twist, and then...nothing. The Titans keep winning. FOR THE WHOLE SEASON. The main plot advances so slowly on some that I fell out of the anime entirely several times.

Art: 9 : It's an 8 overall, but I bump it to a 9 for a wonderful use of 3D mixed with drawings. Titans look creepy as hell, characters look quite nice and the rest is overall really good quality, but the thing that struck me really was the visual quality of the fights, it wasn't necessarily technically good(I.E. I didn't always feel or understand what was going on) but it was certainly very well done visually, moreso than 98% of anime.

Sound : 10 : Hiroyuki Sawano, the same composer as Kill la Kill's, and a generally truly awesome voice cast and sound direction. I could hardly expect better.

Characters : 5 : It's not like SNK doesn't have good characters, it's just that every character is just a tool in this war, and apart the Qt pie that is Mikasa, I really, really don't care if anyone dies here. Mikasa herself gets a pass because she seems to be the only character who has genuine feelings in the whole anime. The others all range from scared, to angry, to furious, to devastated, to angry, to sad, to devastated. I wouldn't say that the characters are bad, but it's definitely a fact that they're here as tools for the action or tools for the gloom. And since they exist just as that, few of them ever have any really good lines or epic moments, few of them feel like genuine people, they all feel like giant punching bags for Titans, here just to squeal, or like angry or gloomy people who want to kill Titans. Apart from Mikasa's affection for Eren, there is pretty much zero emotion that isn't a direct reaction to Titans attacking, whether it's anger, fear, or despair. It's a little weak.

Enjoyment : 9 : Now while the characters are mostly only tools and feel fake, it doesn't in any way harm the action, on the contrary. It's a glee to see the fights and the slaughter, to see everything flying all over the place. It's a little harmed by trying too hard to be dark and sad however. But between glorious 3D battles, epic moves and numerous grand scale battles, it's one of the most enjoyable watches there is.

Overall: 8 : It barely passes 8, but it does it. Again, I think that if the characters weren't just tools for the slaughter to go on, and if it had a more developped plot, SNK would reach the heights. It's got a strong premise, it has some good characters, it certainly flies the flag of Seinen most of the time, and it's serving us delicious action in a dark fantasy setting. There's nothing to dislike here, but the complete lack of proper characterisation that isn't just a reaction to the word "TITANS", the very small plot and the Shonenisation of some action parts really bring it down. Still, I'll give a shot at Season 2 for sure.