Review of Attack on Titan

*NOT a franchise review* How should someone approach a show as legendary and well-received as Attack on Titan? Simple: go in with the same expectations as one would with any other show. Beyond the fog of hype created by countless fans, lies a show that seems quite plain at first glance. Just a young boy with great power, fighting for freedom. Upon completing the show, it should be easy to see that it truly is just an ordinary show. Below is a tour through the museum of mediocrity that is Attack on Titan. Art and Animation - 9/10 Attack on Titan made use of a fairly unique artstyle featuring thick outlines on the characters. It helped place the focus of the viewer on characters over their surroundings, as well as creating a clean overall look. Another prominent feature is the use of vertical lines and dark shading on characters’ faces - a method commonly seen in manga. This animation choice boosted facial expressions by making full use of every part of the face in extracting the feelings of frustration, darkness, and lost hope felt by the characters. This anime did not shy away from using less popular art and animation techniques to tell a story to its fullest.

More great design decisions were shown in the moderate and sensible use of CGI. While CG usage can often be distracting or hurt the artistic unity of the animation, this anime used it in a way that maintained the flow of the show. For example, many of the scenes where a character is flying down a built-up street have backgrounds filled in using CG buildings. Being the focus of the scene, the characters themselves maintained their usual looks, while the backgrounds were free to stray slightly from the typical style. This sparing and out-of-the-way CGI usage preserves the show’s aesthetic integrity while still easing the amount of animation effort.

Plot Development - 5/10
One scene towards the end perfectly concluded the events of this season. As Eren returned from the first big expedition with the new recruits, he saw something that brought everything full circle. Two kids standing on crates, smiling and cheering for the Survey Corps, just as Eren had done so many years ago. Unknown to the kids, Eren had just witnessed the slaughter of possibly hundreds of Survey Corps members, some not even leaving behind a body. This one moment highlighted the stark differences between the expectations and the reality of venturing beyond the walls, clearly marking the growth in Eren’s set of experiences. Just as Eren was given this opportunity to reflect on his journey, this scene also offered viewers a moment to think about how the plot had progressed so far. Unfortunately, scenes like this were few in this season, with much content left shrouded in mystery for what will probably be a cheap reveal later in the series.

This lack of creativity in plot development is one of many factors contributing to this show’s massive success and equal negative response. An unforgivable number of the events in this show fit the usual shounen anime tropes. So much so, this show could be said to be the defining example for generic shounen anime. A main character discovers an ability with limitless potential, a secretive group that wants to restrict the freedoms of others, reminiscing about friendships in order to gain inexplicable boosts in power. All overused and tired tricks. While this plainness and predictability makes the show more palatable for new anime watchers, each trope-fulfilling event is another painful stab for anyone who has seen more than a few shows of this genre.

While being unimaginative can be chalked up to making a show more accessible, the issue of negligence exists too. Pacing and ordering of events appears to be quite the struggle for Attack on Titan. The flashback- and recount-driven nature of the show can be taken as either lazy daydreaming or genius storytelling. However, this is sometimes just not the case. There are many instances where it is obvious to the viewer that little thought was put into pacing, one such scene being the reunion of Eren and the members of the 104th that chose the Survey Corps. One minute they are mourning the death of a friend, the next, they are celebrating the arrival of their new uniforms. Such a sudden flip, with no transition at all, is appalling. Even worse, this was the moment that the new recruits earned the Wings of Liberty, a symbol of freedom and unity that would be seen time and time again throughout the rest of the series. It is a shame that such a central moment of the show was mishandled.

Character Progression - 6/10
For anime of the military genre, it is expected that characters are introduced and killed off frequently - quick character turnover. Attack on Titan is aware of this, and tries its best to give each character a story before their tragic yet predictable deaths. Using flashbacks ranging from a few seconds to half an episode, every character is given something for the viewers to remember them by. For watchers paying close attention to each and every detail of the show, this provides little bits of information from which predictions can be made. For those re-watching the show, these flashbacks act as convenient recaps of past and future events, allowing for more focus on the present.

While it is understandable that the short-lived characters do not get much development, it is unacceptable that the main character is treated the same. Eren does not learn anything, ever. Witnessing many deaths, going through years of military training, being publicly humiliated during a trial, Eren is expected to show some change in character. Unfortunately for the viewer, Eren displays zero evidence of any growth in maturity. He demonstrates a complete lack of logical reasoning, instead continuing to be the protagonist acting on pure instinct and emotion. In the end, he was still as irrational and arrogant as he was in the very first episode. An entire season passed with minimal advancement in Eren’s character.

General Enjoyment - 7/10
In this first season, one scene that stuck out as having a strong impact was Armin’s salute. Armin’s scene applied special visuals, including heavier-than-usual shading and line art, and even using a distinct colour palette created for scenes like these. As he shouted out his defense for Eren, any viewer would have been able to feel the trust he had in his childhood friend, as well as the desperation from having half the military’s guns pointed at him. This one scene cemented Armin as a valuable main character and completed the show’s big trio.

For characters who do not make it through the duration of a series, a common end is death. Being the final stage of a person’s life, it is often associated with a final push towards a goal. Yet in this anime, characters are killed and vanish from the screen in mere seconds. They are lucky to even be mentioned in passing many episodes down the line. What was once a living, breathing character with so much potential is wiped from the show for painfully little plot or character development, or even just a sad moment. Even as filler deaths, the show could have increased the in-the-moment impact using details like larger blood sprays or the sound of bones being munched on. These characters were objectively useless, neither carrying the plot nor supporting others who could. Was there even any point in introducing such characters in the first place?

Conclusion
Building up the plot and characters for later seasons is fine. It is an essential part of storytelling. But on its own, this season lacked substance. It is clear that this season was mainly an information dump. So much information, yet so little was constructed from it. While plot and character development in this season left much to be desired, it was all animated beautifully. Again, the focus of this review is only the first season, and not the whole series. This season was not something that could stand on its own, and this fact is reflected in its rating. Attack on Titan’s first season failed to explore deeper themes, failed to give life to its characters, and failed to satisfy its audience. An anime that does not differentiate itself is an average anime, and an average anime deserves an average score.