Review of Attack on Titan

Note: This is a review for the series (or at least the first 3 seasons) as a whole rather than just for the first season. Before I begin, I'll just say what everybody already thinks: Attack on Titan is a clumsy translation of the title that would have been forgiven if it wasn't for the fact that the title gains significance much, much later in the story. This show centers itself around a unique take on military combat combining medieval, modern, and even futuristic aspects and pitting them against monsters that are both disturbingly-human and very much not human at the same time. Surrounding this skeleton arethe multiple mysteries that make up the bulk of the plot, as well as a splash of suspense and political intrigue. To further heighten the suspense, this anime is willing to kill off basically any character at any time, no matter who it is. Some threads of the plot are solved in just a few episodes, some take multiple seasons to resolve, and others you barely realize are mysteries until they get solved and all the pieces suddenly click together. Tying all the pieces together is a very basic plot: kill a bunch of man-eating giants. Visually, the action is gorgeous, but it can get rather repetitive and mostly serves as a backdrop for the rest of the plot.

The real attraction of the series, however, is neither the breathtaking action nor the myriad of mysteries, but the characters. Almost nobody is really one-dimensional in this series. Once you get past the first few episodes, almost everybody will leave an impression on you. This makes all of the death scenes all that more impactful. The further into the anime you get, the fewer characters from the main cast remain. This allows the anime to further focus in on each one of them, fleshing them out further and further until their likely death.

The most shocking thing, however, is that this is an anime that does equality right! Out of the top 10 of the class, 4 are girls, including the top cadet, but it's definitely not a case of "girls are just better at everything" either. The top two cadets at hand-to-hand combat are both girls, not just because of raw talent but because both of them are willing to work their asses off for a skill that's inherently useless for fighting titans. The head of research and one of the top-3 commanders and all-around badass is openly agender. There's even a lesbian couple in the second season, and a guy that's implied to hide his homosexuality as a way of dissociating himself from the horrors around him.

Again, none of this is to say that women are automatically better, either. The top commander and ultimate badass of the show is a straight man. The 2nd-best commander is a man. The catalysts of the story are almost all men. The two mysterious titans that show up and break through the supposedly-unbreakable wall are both masculine. Eren's mother dies and it makes him want to kill every titan, but Eren's father disappears years before and it sets off the longest-running mystery in the series that drives a significant part of the plot. Still, no character is looked down on for their gender. There is no, "She's so badass, even though she's a girl!", it's just, "She's so badass!" Nobody points it out. Nobody draws attention to it. Nobody really cares. When it's a war with the existence of humanity at stake, nobody gives a fuck what's between your legs as long as you can kill the monsters.

Does this anime live up to its hype? No. No anime could ever live up to the hype this anime has had. To me, the first season dragged on a bit at times. After the group is significantly thinned and the plot shifts more toward the characters, I feel like it significantly improves. Overall, it's a pretty solid anime that's much more than the simple "Fly around and kill giant monsters!" anime it looks like at first. If you can stick through the first season, you should be good for the rest of the series.