Shingeki no Kyojin Season 2

Attack on Titan's first season never really sat right with me. A series more interested in cinematics (orchestrals, screaming aplenty) than it did in conveying a message or allowing its audience to care for the characters beyond whatever grisly death they inevitably succumb to. It was loud, its presence ever more so, and so I distanced myself from what seemed standard action movie cuisine.

After over three years of silence, its second season comes as something a bit more surprising. It trims away its grimy, cacophonous exterior and presents something, somewhat, more refined. The killing has found a purpose. The world the characters inhabit possesses some ... semblance of depth. There exists a story with a direction, which is exactly why it will disappoint fans who were expecting it to perpetually wander amidst blood and steel.

To be sure, Eren and crew killing (and conversely being killed) is a formula that proved moderately entertaining in the first season, if only mindlessly so. But a second season? A third? Would it still be exciting, or would people begin to tire of it? I was in the latter camp, and so I find myself glad the goalposts were changed altogether.

That's not to imply that all of AoT's flaws have been erased. The characterisation remains a sore spot for the series, with Eren continuing to scream nonsense at the top of his lungs, incapable of anything but being a hot-blooded child who is somehow the centrepiece of everything in the world. There's nothing to his character except his being angry all the time, which is why I make no intentions of defending his presence.

So who is there to defend instead? Mikasa and Armin, the two other primary characters, while less frustrating and less offensive to listen to, don't possess much that wasn't already immediately apparent. They are flat, as are the side characters, so numerous and disposable that I found myself Googling the name of one of the story's new villains because I couldn't for the life of me remember who they even were. Other characters-- Sasha-- are so devoid of character that the only thing they are defined by is the quantity of food they eat. And while the second season gives you marginally more reason to empathise with them throughout their numerous backstory scenes, it still remains difficult to care much about the fates of any of them - a significant issue in a story centred upon war. It is why I never thought much other than "ew, gross" and "wow, that sucks" when any of the characters (of which there were dozens) were chewed, dismembered, and/or squished by abhorrent-looking humanoids.

This is why I think the best way to appreciate Attack on Titan is to focus less on the pieces, and more on the board itself. Attack on Titan's setting is genuinely fascinating, and uncovering its secrets is likely to be the greatest delight for viewers unsatisfied with mere violence. While walled-off communities on the verge of extinction isn't entirely new to anime (Space Battleship Yamato went there in 1974, and Macross in 1982), the massive scale of the cities behind the walls creates ample room for an animated (yet ever so bleak) world to exist. Discovering how the world's agriculture functions, its geography, the state of politics within the Castle, the cultists' activities, and the design of the soldiers' Vertical Manoeuvring Equipment is some of the most fun I've had with an anime in this year or last. More Attack on Titan isn't exactly a proposition that gives me thrills and tingles, but books and other media focusing on its world is something I would absolutely be interested in. A rich setting it is, and with the scale of the world now extending far beyond the walls, there is almost limitless potential. Potential, I suppose, which will probably never extend into its largely mediocre story.

A mediocre story is still a step up from last season, perhaps. The violence is now more of an accessory to the plot, rather than the inverse, which allows things to follow down a more linear road instead of one winding and circling around ad infinitum. Eren and his allies, as well as his enemies, now have a mission that extends beyond survival. There are antagonists excluding the Titans mindlessly chewing every fleshy thing in sight, which creates a more interesting dynamic, certainly, as the villains are treated as human beings rather than mindless lunatics bent on world destruction, as is seemingly the case in nearly every anime that has ever existed. Some fans may be disappointed that they aren't given a villain to detest, but I've always been of the opinion that a conflict in which no true 'good' and 'bad' side exists is a more compelling tale to tell.

The second season's highlight is no doubt its halfway point, a twist so suddenly and casually revealed that it is natural to doubt one's ears, provided you hadn't already guessed one of their blatantly obvious identities well-beforehand. The ensuing fight scene is neat, as it carries a level of emotional weight so lacking in anything that existed previous. But the extent to which some people have been praising the scene, as though it is the craziest and most "epic" thing that has ever appeared in anime, is certainly without much merit.

(It also deserves to be mentioned how downright silly some scenes can be, such as when Armin and Mikasa 'emotionally' eat their rations upon the wall. Moments like this make it considerably harder to take everything else seriously.)

The production quality of Attack on Titan's second season is a minor downgrade from the first's, a fairly disappointing detail when considering the three-year wait and shorter-than-expected episode count. The aforementioned reveal doesn't hit as hard as it should when one of the villains, who is supposed to be menacing, is suddenly given the cheap CGI treatment. The fight scene fares better, with its eyes moving and monstrous fist pausing in slow-motion, but by that point the damage the first impression has created is irreversible. Mediocre animation for AoT may very well be stellar in contrast to the average seasonal anime, but standards are different here, and the ballpark much larger.

If loud orchestrals are your jam, then things have not changed all too much between 2013 and 2017. The music is still loud and climactic, and the opening, while not quite as memorable as the first two, is a solid addition to the series from both a visual and musical standpoint. But if you're a bit like me, and don't exactly enjoy noise constantly pumping into your eardrums, then Attack on Titan can be a great way to receive a headache. And this is coming from someone who listens to The Money Store on occasion.

It would be a lie to claim I didn't enjoy my time with Attack on Titan. But I am uncertain how much of that is a result of my fascination with the setting, and what, if any of my enjoyment pertains to the actual anime. To claim Attack on Titan is something of great critical merit isn't something I could do without being disingenuous. Decent? Certainly, and a noticeable step above the turgid Hollywood fare its first season was, with the introduction of new antagonists and an actual, tangible story. But for those who waited years for more Titan slaying, I do start to wonder: were they ever really giving the rest of the medium a look?

Anticipation.


Blistered, sunburnt skin adorns them, the lumbering thud of footsteps echoes louder with each passing second, their eyes set on a village lying dormant up ahead. Exposed flesh shifting between the woods, no expressed interest for the plant life or animals grazing at their feet. Warped facial expressions, a thousand-yard stare, distorted features, twisted limbs; an ungodly creature, a true force of nature. Deformed giants with one thing in mind.

Beady eyes stare back at the impending danger, irises frantically shifting from each other to the threat slowly approaching with each step, the military cradled behind stone walls planning their first strike. In the dead of ... silence, every sound amplified. Every second longer than the last. A cacophonous mixture of bated breath, the clanking of metal harnesses strapped to their bodies, housing blades and gas canisters that will eventually propel them towards the enemy. Cold sweat rolls down their cheek, hanging off the chin with nervous anticipation. Faces to the left and right, the unspoken acknowledgment made by brothers-in-arms that this will probably be their final resting place. Too late to back down, too late to think about it. The giants draw near, young scouts fall into dead silence, the slightest whimper exposing their position, sweaty palms firmly gripping their weaponry's handles, blades erected waiting for the signal to go. The longest minute of their lives.

Action.


The signal is given, piston-propelled grappling-hooks pierces its way through a firm surface, a loud unified roar ushering them into battle — "Attack!" — Humanity's final defense catapulting through the sky, wings of freedom crest embroid on their backs, as they stare down the mass collection of imposing figures. The battle begins, blades being embedded into the necks of targets as they fall to their knees. Men carelessly swinging into the jaws of another, blindsided in the fray as the Titan crunches down, blood confetti sprays out, showering the field with the unholy reality of the situation at hand. Human debris piles up next to the simmering sounds of corroding titan flesh. Steam billowing out bloated corpses as it blankets the field, men and Titan alike stuck in the disarray of a free-for-all. Fear and adrenaline push men forward where their bodies refuse to budge, while others cower in defeat, accepting the grim outcome of their faith. An insatiable desire to consume keep Titans swarming where an absence of "self" resides. The fight rages on.

There's no chess game at play here. No battle of wits. No war cry to rally any remaining fighting spirit. All that's left in the midst of chaos is an animalistic drive to kill or be killed. Men swinging their blades frantically, bodies jettisoned by wire towards the unknown hidden behind plumes of smoke. Uncaring giants solely driven by a gluttonous appetite, grabbing at any signs of human life, unfazed by the burning ash of their reduced numbers laid to waste by the prey they feast on. All concerns are eclipsed, all formalities discarded, idealism abandoned, time holds still, the nightmare stretches on endlessly... until there's no one left to keep it alive.

Aftermath.


Scattered limbs litter the ground with no owners to claim them. The earth soaks up the battered dregs of human remains, leaving only remnants to be discovered by those unfortunate enough to stumble upon it. Regurgitated balls of bodily fluids perched on top fallen victims, disfigured men trapped inside, destined to stay nameless. Steam gently ascends to the sky, departing from the mass graveyard positioned below. Men on horseback approach the sorrowful sight, disgusted but desensitized to what's become far too common of an occurrence in their day to day lives. A ghoulish figure hunched over, tearing into the flesh of a nameless scout, unconcerned with the men gathering around it. Quickly being dispatched by them, they see no triumph in their action, only another hopeless notch under humanity's belt. Their time for peace has long departed, leaving it its place a constant dread of the unknown. From the sporadic home invasions of Titans to even the secrets concerning the walls themselves. Things that were once thought of as reassurances now only add to the anxiety pending up with each violent encounter.

When your home turf is compromised, where else can you turn? When your overseers keep potentially harmful secrets from you, who can you trust? The mystery compounded, the fights more brutal, and the stakes set higher than ever. This is the kind of world Attack on Titan gives birth to. A place dictated by stonefaced laws of Darwinism in every regard. A place that's adored the world over by the audiences that flock to it.

Reception.


Attack on Titan left big shoes to fill since its 2013 debut. Almost overnight, it became one of the most popular anime titles of all time, effectively surpassing the glass ceiling set over the medium at large to become a noticeable player in the stratosphere of everyday pop culture. Even if that success was to a lesser degree when compared to the likes of "the big 3" and the Dragon Ball franchise that made its way out as well, its impact was still noticeable, both domestically and overseas. This, alongside works like Sword Art Online, has positioned it as one of the poster-child images of what "anime" is to non-anime fans of the 2010s. Occupying shelf space in your local Hot Topic, being mentioned in passing by those oblivious to the entire culture at large, a conversation starter to introduce others to an active community that bubbles on the surface but never making enough big waves to become acknowledged on a mainstream level. The show's relevance in recent years cannot be understated.

It's a new footnote that continues the narrative, helping push the medium and partakers of it a step closer to accessibility in other avenues of a broader mainstream culture. Because of its exposure, for many, Attack on Titan became their initial gateway title into the anime medium. And as such, a milestone entry when searching for that same thrill that it offered up on its initial encounter. For better or for worse, AoT shaped the landscape of future anime entries, many of which seeking to retain the newfound fanbases that sprouted because of it. And while there was a sleuth of cheap knock-offs offered up to keep the flame burning since then, nothing was capable of whetting the appetite in the same way it did.

4-years and many cheap imitations later, AoT has reemerged once again! But the question is, is it 4-years too late? 4-years may not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but for media, it's practically a millennium. A lot could happen in 4-years. New emerging trends develop, talented figures could make their debut appearance, a shift in the landscape in favor of real-world sociopolitical events could occur, and most importantly, the demands of people can evolve as they foster different tastes and interests.

You don't have to look far to see these occurrences happening. In the movie industry, more specifically, tentpole blockbusters, superhero films have effectively become the new age westerns, to the point where watching them becomes a ritualistic event shared by a mass majority, making those that don't participate outsiders to watercooler conversations. In music, the new "wave" in the past few years has been trap-inspired production and dancehall-influenced rhythms, a transition that's proven to be so successful that even megastars that dominate the pop charts are flocking to get in on the action. Even in our own backyard, in the world of anime, creating "subversions" or reimaginings of established formulas, from the likes of MMO-inspired premises to superhero stories, is the popular thing to do at the moment, with many recent hits owing their success, to some degree or another, to that directional push.

Media is a beast that's constantly shifting in order to appease the masses, unless the pedigree of the product in question is of a high caliber, expecting it to stay still until your return is foolhardy, and from a marketing standpoint, a huge risk to take.

So, did Attack on Titan's gamble pay off? Well, it all depends on where you stand as a viewer.

Fortunately for Attack on Titan, the efforts of its bottom-rung imitators served a purpose. Like the MMO and superhero shows that dominate the current landscape in anime, post-apocalyptic stories are still in high demand as well. The manner in which it is received, however, is a completely separate issue. You see, within that 4-year period, those rose-colored lenses that many fans may have had during its initial run may no longer be there, or at the very least, those "lenses" have since been washed out to something closer to transparency, as it usually does when someone grows older and become accustomed to certain things. Where they could have been hoodwinked with a few plot twists and shocking moments before, the chances of that level of susceptibility dwindles as time passes. With every encounter made with something employing the same general gimmick, the magic is now met with a response succumbed to apathy. Each time something that appears novel makes itself known, the next encounter of the same content slowly morphs into a future cliche in the making. It's the gift and the curse that comes with transitioning oneself towards a more seasoned mindset. There still may be an eager audience waiting to see the story unfold but that's usually accompanied with a higher level of skepticism, making the work of any follow-up season that much harder to live up to the initial "hype" that came with its debut. It's for that reason that the infamy of the "sophomore slump" exists, and to no one's surprise, Attack on Titan's 2nd season is met with a divisive mixture of applauds and woes.

So, reader, do you gawk at the attempts made by the 2nd season to employ the same bag of tricks, or do you approach in a way that many veteran viewers do when watching something as flamboyant as Attack on Titan? If you're reading this review, I'm going to make the assumption that you're not comprised of the mass majority that doesn't care either way. As far as your viewpoint goes when discussing AoT after finishing this review, I leave that bit of trivializing up for you to decide. Everything moving forward is just me pleading my case and my stance on the matter, so take from it what you will.

The reception I have for AoT's 2nd season is pretty straightforward, I love every minute of it! It's just as nutty, over-the-top and gratuitously violent as I remembered. It's a show that brings me back to a simpler time in my life, where excessive violence and theatrics were the only things that stimulated my viewing habits. A time in my life where movies like The Matrix and Equilibrium were as coveted as holy scripture and any verbal disapproval of it was treated like sacrilegious acts.

Attack on Titan 2nd season is just awesome! Schlocky, cumbersome, inconsistent, poorly-written, overacted, exploitative, childish, melodramatic, hammy, riddled with plotting and tonal issues... BUT still fucking awesome! And while I do love it wholeheartedly, those issues I mentioned don't just magically go away, and seeing that this is a review and not a drunken get-together with friends where we scream "FUCK YEAH!!!" at the top of our lungs, as we view the poor inhabitants of AoT being chomped in half by giant nake people, I will judge it accordingly.

Fidelity.


What a pleasant surprise. I think I express the sentiments of many when I say that I approach most sequels with a great deal of apprehension. More often than not, sequels tend to disappoint and for understandable reasons when examined. If it follows the 1st installment verbatim, it's simply seen as a rehash, if it veers off course too much then it runs the risk of not capturing the essence that made the 1st great. It's that old adage expressed by many “You’ve got your whole life to write your first record, and only a few years to write the second.” So when I sat down to be immediately met with the familiarity of AoT's flare for the dramatic still intact, I was more than pleased. Even after the first season, where I felt that the show may have exhausted every possible gruesome fatality or creative action scene in its arsenal, this follow-up season somehow managed to ratchet up the stakes and tension, while keeping the locations and bloodbath battles fresh and exciting.

The spirit of AoT was carried over seamlessly and with its usual offering of plot twists and shock factor moments being placed center-stage, there was never an episode that passed where I wasn't enjoying myself.

This consistency stood true for the art and animation as well. With new locations and settings being introduced, the expansion that was already given from season one is further complimented here. Employing the same European-like building structures and familiar environments, marathoning both seasons would yield very little in the way of distracting changes. It's fresh but familiar. Changing things up when necessary but never to the point of alienation. Although, there was an issue present that might turn some people off. The usage of CGI is far more prevalent this time around, and admittedly, lazily implemented at times as well. For example, there are scenes of men on horseback at some point, during which, when the camera pulled back for an aerial shot, you could see them galloping above the surface of the ground, giving this look of a 3D rendered image being dragged across a landscape in post-production. This hovering effect is amateurish for a studio that's usually praised for doing above average in the visual department. Where it set the standard in season one, in season two, it's barely maintaining it. The CGI used for the giant titan was also distracting. Not for the actual look of the Titan itself but for the framerate, which wasn't succinct with the animated shots of characters around it.

Other than the issues found with the CGI, the rest of the production was very appealing. I am slightly disappointed though, knowing that with 4-years given to create a stellar product, Wit Studio ended up shortchanging themselves. And it's not like they had to touch up on their skills in this department, they've already proven that they're capable of meshing CGI with 2D animation just fine with their bootleg Titan show, Kabaneri, of last year. So to give their main cash-cow second-class treatment seemed like a huge disservice. Whatever the reason behind the copout service may be, here's hoping it doesn't continue with future installments.

Thankfully, everything else was up to snuff, making those blemishes far more palatable than it would have been otherwise.

Content.


The story continues off with the discovery of new mysterious events that slowly makes itself known to the viewer. Everything has been called into question, as the Titan face exposed from within the wall at the end of season one plunges everyone into deeper secrets surrounding the church and the following occurrences that led up to the aftermath of Annie's capture. Tensions rise, as paranoia slowly seeps into the Scout regiments. No one could be fully trusted. With Annie being a Titan, the possibility of more traitors in the mix becomes a high possibility. The war has shifted on both sides now, with Titans moving in headfirst and the fear of more enemies hidden within the ranks just lurking out of focus.
And the rest of the story effectively follows a barrage of plot twists one after the other, of which, any type of hints would effectively spoil the surprise, so I'll leave that bit of discovery up for you to witness yourself. AoT does what it's best known for, delivering on nail-biting cliffhanger moments one after another. There's never a shortage of reveals being discovered here. Some that's a bit obvious for those paying attention and others that are completely left-field if the anime is your only exposure to the material at hand.

Accompanying men into battle, we're given a fantastic musical backing, with thunderous drums, booming brass sections, and blood-curdling violin chords, all being wrapped up and carried off by the unified echo of a haunting studio choir; all of this crashing headfirst with electrifying musical underpinnings, creating a futuristic orchestric sound. And in the heat of battle, this soundtrack does an amazing job at giving everything a vintage feel while positioning it firmly in the 21st century. It's a clash of classical meets new that's unified under the sound of constant dread and ascension.

This makes it one of AoT's best highlights. Despite the shortcomings of the show's characters and storytelling, this aspect remains a spotless feature, something destined to age incredibly well for years to come.

And since I just mentioned it, and there's only so long that I could dance around the subject matter before pointing at obvious pressing issues, time to discuss the aspects that constantly keeps AoT from reaching the ambitious heights that its universe desperately attempts to cling to.

Sloppy.


First and foremost, Attack on Titan's screenplay is written as if the Caps Lock key was left on the entire time.

If this review was written in the way the characters were made to emote, EVERYTHING WOULD JUST BE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS JUST LIKE THIS SENTENCE. And I'm sure I don't need to express just how distracting or ridiculous that could get for those wanting something a bit more serious. Couple that constant barking with some overexaggerated facial expressions, where the characters are given their best "rape face" expressions, and you will be none the wiser had you just seen a clip and thought you were looking at an anime parody of shounens. Truth be told, part of the reason why I enjoy AoT has to do with this very feature. That schmaltzy level of overacting has always been something I found amusing, but unfortunately, that's not the show's intent, as it displays no comedic bone in its body for any of these exaggerated scenes. This isn't Jojo's Bizarre Adventure where everything hints towards a tinge of comedic self-awareness—no, in Attack on Titan, everything is played seriously, causing it to come off like a circus performance where everyone is dressed in all leather.

This can make some dramatic moments hard to invest into. And it's for that reason that I ask how you're consuming Attack on Titan. Because if your approach demands no room for levity or laughter, chances are, many scenes here may make you want to gouge your eyes out. Anyone that could view an armless Eren beating the living snot out of someone with his arm stumps, while foaming at the mouth like a rabid animal, rapey-face set to maximum, and STILL take it seriously, despite all this, has my admiration. I keel over in laughter seeing moments like that. It's a show that can't escape the innate hilarity of some of its content. For me, part of the fun of AoT is seeing that constant struggle to capture authenticity and seriousness, despite the content suggesting otherwise. Viewing it in this way may not be the original intent of the staff and creators, but it's entertainment at the end of the day, how I choose to enjoy it is entirely up to me.

Which brings me to the other issue that the show can't shake: poorly written characters.

Armin is the only character in all of Attack on Titan with a proper character arc. There's no arguing this, no IFs ANDs or BUTs, this is just a fact. Out of everyone presented, he remains the only member of AoT's cast that was given any sort malleable personality, an internal reflection, and eventual growth that STAYED that way. For everyone else, Eren included, there's only a phantom resemblance of a character arc, but in reality, their constant dominating character traits actually cause them to have the adverse effect. Instead of showing character development, they end up going through character regression instead. For the easiest example, let's take a look at Eren.

In the 1st season, they made it a point to show that he's a hardheaded young man who's willing to throw himself into the heat of battle whenever someone or something agitates him. Constantly short-tempered and outspoken, he's made out to be a very unlikable person to many around him. His hostile behavior usually led to him getting into physical brawls with older authority figures and even his fellow peers. Understandably, at first, he only had a few friends that took to his side, those being Mikasa and Armin respectively. And even then, it could be argued that during that time, those two friends were only earned due to certain circumstances. Because of Eren's pivotal role in Mikasa's past when they first met, she felt a sense of obligation and appreciation for his actions, which eventually led to an appreciation for him as a person as a result. And after being placed under the same roof, it was easy to nurture a relationship, given that they got time to know each other on a day-to-day basis. In Armin's case, Eren represented the bravery he lacked in himself, as he constantly stood up for him when he couldn't bring himself to do anything but cower at any bully that enters his space. He basically saw him as the big brother he never had. In both cases, Eren's pigheaded resilience and loyalty to those he cares for were what won them over. And so, a rebellious character trait was quickly established. One that led to positive outcomes in very limited situations.

Later on, as the series progressed, he was placed in circumstances where that very personality was used as a catalyst for his growth, more specifically, when he was placed in situations where his pigheaded attitude endangered the lives of people around him. The biggest highlight of this comes with the time he spent under Levi's camp, as well as his transformational moments as a Titan. long story short, his outbursts began to affect more than just his pride, it caused several irreversible incidents where his actions were directly connected to the issue at hand. This eventually culminated, to what looked at the time, like Eren turning a new chapter in his life. He's now more calm, even mindful of the ones around him. He understood that his behavior isn't doing anyone any good. And as his bandaged body sat upright in bed with Mikasa staying by his side comforting him, Eren's journey in the first season came to a reasonable point of conclusion.

Fast forward to the second season and all of that was immediately flushed down the toilet for an instant character reset. Any semblance of growth shown was immediately replaced back with the same hot-blooded behavior and hammy overacting he was notoriously known for. This form of character regression isn't excused as someone stuck in their old ways, it's the act of behind-the-scene creators understanding Eren's marketability as an angry youth. People are weary of any kind of change and so Eren was forced to remain two-dimensional, regardless of any personal revelations he may have had.

And before there's confusion on what qualifies as growth, no, receiving a backstory isn't it. A backstory only helps when the character in question grows further from the present day acquaintance with which we first encountered them.

The rest of the characters can effectively be boxed into neurotic personality traits or future cannon fodder. It's the type of show that relies on the ensemble cast to carry the personality that any given individual may lack. Think of it like colors in a rainbow, everyone involved is basically an individual color, making them basic when alone but exciting when placed together. It's a common trick to use when there are too many characters involved and not enough time dedicated to any of them.

And speaking of the narrative, possibly the biggest complaint launched at Attack on Titan ties into this.

Honestly speaking, AoT has very little in the way of a well-written story. It's a show that's overly reliant on over-the-top plot twists, mystifying everything as to appear purposeful, and a gratuitous about of shocking deaths and revelations made at the drop of a hat to keep audience attentiveness. And as it is in the case of the overacting, this too is something I enjoy about the show. It's like a constant wack at a visual piñata, with each hit revealing something unknown inside. To me, that's the reason AoT is such an entertaining piece of media, it's its ability to constantly unveil new, and often ridiculous, plot revelations. Each time you return, it has something new to offer, regardless of how familiar it may get to other moments prior.

But again, that's just the way I choose to consume and enjoy the show. As for the pedigree of writing on display, it's absolutely abysmal. It's a show that's reliant on your acceptance to a myriad of plotting inconsistencies, excessive mental gymnastics in regards to many of its plot twists, and a high suspension of disbelief for the mechanics of its universe. If you're an astute viewer, there would be many times when you're forced to call into question the validity of the events playing out. And if you choose to take the show seriously and hate it as a result, you would completely be entitled to do just that.

Contention.


I usually distance myself from the community and their consensus in regards to any show when I'm working on a think-piece about it, but with Attack on Titan, that's proven to be virtually impossible, especially for someone like myself that's made it a habit to publicly airing out my opinions. Several people approached me with their thoughts on the show and after awhile, I began to notice the thread of a narrative taking form, which admittedly, affected the way I approached this review as a result. And for the sake of bringing clarity to what I think has become a misinformed argument that's been generated towards this second season, I will address that general complaint here and now.

If you felt like the quality of this season has significantly dipped since the debut of the 1st, please rest assured that it haven't, it's you as a viewer who's grown beyond the content at hand. All these complaints launched at the show now are just as applicable to what was given from the very beginning in 2013. Season one had just as much diluted plotting, expository verbal dumps, long periods of substance-less content and character victimizing. It's only now that you're older does those issues become more apparent. 4-years is a long time, and in that time, you're bound to grow up as a viewer, even if you still find yourself indulging in the same kind of content. Your awareness of it has simply matured since then. Quality-wise, both seasons of Attack on Titan are on the same level. The only difference found are minor and not worth elevating the first installment leagues ahead of this follow-up.

And with that being addressed, it's time I wrap this review up.

Conclusion.


If you were to ask me what my favorite anime viewing experiences were based solely off of entertainment value and absolutely nothing else, Attack on Titan would easily rank up there with Death Note and Kaiji. As an overblown piece of media, the show is a constant roller coaster ride of violence and plot twists, all beautifully set to a great soundtrack and nice visuals. Content-wise, it has very little to offer, and honestly, without the constant barrage of bloody fatalities and sensationalized violence, I would probably get bored with it. But as it stands, this anime represents "hype-inducing" content for me in the truest sense of the term.

It's a hammy, grindhouse-inspired work of artistically shot ultraviolence. Like a big lovable oaf, a show oblivious to just how ridiculous every situation presented is. It's pure spectacle, plain and simple. It's one of my favorite pieces of schlock of all time and a show I will revisit many times to come because of that.

Updated version of my previous top review:

SnK season 2 has been a rough ride. As a fan of season 1, I really wanted this season to be good. On one hand, the latter half of the season was action packed and full of great development - just what I wanted. On the other, the first half of the season was extremely poorly written.

So I'll separate this review into two halves.

1st half (ep 1-6)

First of all, don't expect the world to be well built or realistic. After all, there are absolutely no men guarding the wall, as the entire ordeal within the first few episodes ... revolves around them trying to find a hole in the wall, even though there should be men constantly guarding the wall in case of a surprise titan invasion. If there weren't men guarding the wall, then that would mean that they thought it was impossible for the titans to break through the wall - which would mean their first thoughts shouldn't have been that the titans just broke straight through the wall with a huge hole. In fact, the only men you really get to see this season are those from the recon corps. I, personally, like to believe that everyone else has been wiped out by some sort of plague or meteor shower. The plot progresses so messily this season that it's certainly possible; but I'll cover that later.

For the first time we also get to explore the land outside of the enclosed town districts, and it isn't really what you'd expect. Do you remember that food shortage from season 1? Well, rest assured, it makes perfect sense - considering there is absolutely NO farmland present at all; so of course they wouldn't be able to get food. You'd imagine that inside the walls, with such limited space that the humans have, there would be loads of farms and towns - but you're wrong. There are no towns, or cities, and the only places we do see are remote villages for some reason. In addition, the only time farmland is actually addressed is when Sasha's village forest is going to be destroyed and replaced with farmland, because apparently no one can use the wide open fields with absolutely NOTHING on them.

Speaking of Sasha, prepare for a bunch of random background character backstories to be thrown in for no reason. I watched the entire second season and I still don't know what the purpose of Sasha's backstory was, and I don't know what an entire episode was dedicated just to focus on her. Actually, to be honest, I don't even know why Sasha exists as a character. The constantly-eating gimmick isn't even funny.

I've heard a lot of people talk about how they enjoyed the fact that more of the background characters were focused on this season - mostly because they hate Eren as a protagonist. First of all, to those types, I recommend you abandon the show all together because Eren will never develop as a protagonist. The entire season 2 went by and Eren received no character development as far as I could tell. He's still the same "kill all titans!" kinda guy he was last season.

The side characters aren't any better though. If you expect proper character development, suspense, and gradually building up towards climactic scenes full of emotion, then throw your dreams out the window. Character development is done almost exclusively through flashbacks, and those flashbacks happen right during the most important reveals and climactic scenes they could manage. There are quite a few times where entire scenes will be ruined by an disruptive flashback or "12 hours ago" message because the writers seemingly FORGOT to develop the characters or information leading up to the scenes. Reveals lack any subtlety or suspense in this show. They throw information at you in an extremely rushed and disorderly fashion. Also, you end up feeling nothing towards the side characters because the only time they're developed is through very unoriginal events like a FLASHBACK TO TRAINING CAMP WHERE TWO GIRLS GOT LOST IN A BLIZZARD. You DEFINITELY haven't heard of something like that before.

Oh, by the way, for all of you who took an interest in Annie - forget about her. They do nothing with her the entire season and just forget about her.

So, yeah, for the first six episodes the story is a complete mess.
There's a concerning absence of people in the universe and the flow of the story has killed all momentum. Don't expect any of the good aspects of season 1 to be present.


Now, as for the rest of the season? Well, it gets a lot better. Suddenly the authors remember how to do unobtrusive flashbacks and character development. The characters are cool and a lot of the nice aspects from season one are able to be seen, along with a new mix of more fleshed out side characters.

Plus, the art is WAY upgraded. There has been some great scenes in this show.

As for the sound? The opening isn't actually good, though you get used to it after a while. The ED, which I accidentally ended up listening to when I forgot to click onto the next episode, was terrible. The regular OST is cool as usual.

So, yeah, season 2 had a really disappointing first half and a decent second half. Nonetheless, the unforgivable start makes me have to leave this on a 6/10.

Attack on Titan has an unfortunate truth surrounding it. Critics and fanboys surmise their opinions, incessantly hurling them at each other in hopes of smothering people into submission. One thing not present enough with this anime is a middle ground. In Season 2 we saw a surprising 12 episodes, a missing producer and a far different plot direction. The question is, did these things work for or against the franchise, and is it still the same old AoT that millions of viewers addictively engulfed several years ago? I feel it’s time to address the elephant in the room and provide a brutally honest review of ... the anime, and stop populating MAL with reviews embellished with buzzworthy absolutes like “the show is shit” or “arguably the best written series of all time”.

DISCLAIMER- This is a very honest review. You’ve been warned.

Right off the bat, the viewers are thrown into the second season with one of the worst transitions I can remember. I actually went back and watched the final episode of Season 1 followed by the first of Season 2 and was blown away by how disjointed it flows. So many unanswered questions (the walls, what exactly happened to Annie, how Eren feels about the whole thing) filled the air that I honestly couldn’t keep up with them all. It was a complete trainwreck. Possibly part of the issue is due to some changes in staffing regarding the anime, but it’s evident something went wrong. In this season, the viewers experience some short, but detailed backstory on Connie, Sasha, Ymir and others. Unfortunately, with the evident time pressure, it detracted largely from the story. The pacing is lethargic, often focusing on key battle scenes in order to create the facade that the plot is moving forward. It’s extremely hard to tell how much time is elapsing between various events, and as the final episode concluded, to have waited 4 years for what we got is embarrassing.

Possibly the most glaring inadequacy is the truncated 12 episodes this season. In an anime with such a large cast as this, it really isn't enough time to get the job done. For the sake of metaphoric comparisons I could equate Attack on Titan’s short run time to my own high school reunion. In essence you have two hours to talk to about 50 people, and before you know it you've relinquished a bulk of your time catching up with one or two people. This results in a speedy greeting for the remainder, or you possibly not talking to them at all. This is precisely what the writers were forced to do with much of the anime’s cast. Characters like Levi and Armin make mere cameos, and the season spends most of its time progressing a short amount of actual story. The plot also suffers, as events can’t be properly explained within the amount of time 12 episodes allots.

WARNING- SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH

The one aspect I can’t forgive from a writing perspective is how sloppy the Bertolt and Reiner reveal was. Similar to some complaints I had about Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, it seemed to come so far out of left field that it felt reactionary. I understand the manga already contained this part of the story, but the appearance in the anime seemed sporadic and unexplained. It’s one thing to leave your audience questioning and on suspense, but another to come off as contrived or “simply doing things because the manga had it here in the timeline”. I felt much more surprised at Ymir’s titan introduction since I completely forgot she even existed. She was made to be a one-off character in my eyes, but as she transformed, her relationship with Krista and ghostly appearances all started to click. Bertolt and Reiner just doesn’t make sense to me. Hopefully, this gets cleaned up in Season 3 but it would’ve been a lot more cohesive without as much perceived randomness.

OKAY, NO MORE SPOILERS! YOU’RE SAFE NOW!

The more Attack on Titan progresses, the bigger issues I develop for Eren. In the anime’s infancy I thought Eren could become more than the trope he seems to currently be fitting. Ah, the revenge-blinded hero that will do anything to stop his foes… I can’t say I’ve ever heard of this before! He’s transforming into an angstier version of Kirito. Instead of just being the best at everything he does, Eren often gets beat, whines about it, recovers and then Leroy Jenkins’ his way back into combat again. There’s no internal dilemmas, no monologues about how he’s feeling (sans one instance in this seasons when everyone’s getting attacked at the end), just a vanilla-scripted MC. At least Mikasa maintains some enigmatic qualities by not continuously shooting her mouth off with an angry case of tourettes.

If there is one thing the producer got right, it’s the action. Attack on Titan features some of the best choreographed fight scenes in anime, and Season 2 dials up the gore to 11. The emotions of the characters in battle are raw and realistic, with each spurt of adrenaline properly conveyed to the viewer. However, by saying this I also acknowledge how much the series is lacking in almost every other facet. It’s becoming that flashy toy kids play with for 5 minutes until they realize it only does about one thing. There’s no thinking involved, the foreshadowing is haphazard or non-existent, and it’s really unfortunate to see. With the budget this franchise has, it could easily hold the same uniform public praise as a show like Game of Thrones. The animation, story and characters COULD ALL BE EXCELLENT. But alas, we are left with luke-warm excitement and thoughts of how it could be better.

I hope I’m not the only one that noticed the cringeworthy CGI involving the colossal titan during the 5th or 6th episode. Certainly an example of CG done wrong. However, while omitting this error, the anime’s art style seems relatively intact. The color palette still consists of opaque shades of brown, gray and green, with special attention given to character expressions and action scenes. The shots of a parade of Survey Corps members stampeding on horseback, or the ominous backdrop of roaming titans still launches AoT into a league of its own in the art direction category. Action scenes are fluid and suspenseful, and the gore is still as ubiquitous as the first season. I can only hope that as the series continues and media technology advances, the art directors stay true to their roots in this series, because a style that so accurately emulates its subject matter can be hard to come by.

The music is epic once again. Linked Horizon returns to delight us with their fanfarish ballad to open the anime. “Sasageyo, sasageyo!” The remaining OST is fitting and seeks to emphasize the emotion present within its corresponding scene. Though, I will admit that I didn’t get the same sense of urgency or fear the background music portrayed during some of the more chaotic instances in Season 1. Nothing extremely offputting, but noticeable nonetheless. AoT’s seiyuus continue to impress with their grit and raw, emotional talent. Yuki Kaji’s resounding screams as Eren are evidence of his talent, and Hiroshi Kamiya is always smug and serious as Levi. I can only imagine how much fun the actors had when making this series, in terms of being able to use their full abilities.

With any anime, my level of enjoyment is the most important factor when determining whether or not I’d recommend something. For the bulk of AoT fans, the second season will “partially” fill the void that the last 4 years since the anime’s debut has left. For some of you, possibly the more analytical types, the flaws begin to pile up. An extremely short runtime, half-assed character development and transition issues from the first season all work against AoT in this installment. Personally I enjoy the series, the world it exists in and the action, but Studio Wit is going to have to give the next season a much better effort if it wants to ensure its fans stay hungry for more, and have a more consistent adaptation schedule. Delaying one of the most popular anime in history for the trainwreck (pun intended) Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress in 2016 isn’t a good place to start. AoT always gets my blood pumping with its suspense and enthralling fight scenes, but can it keep the consistency? Hopefully Season 2 is not a precursor for things to come...

Story-3
Characters-4
Art-8
Sound-10
Enjoyment-7
Overall-6.0

I'll definitely make a full review once the show has finished airing but Shingeki No Kyojin is a type of anime that expects you to be hyped, too much hype based ,after reading the Manga which is more interesting then the anime itself, i barely saw any of these scenes in the Manga for season 2 , Shingeki No Kyojin was a let down for me and had a significant impact on the way I'd enjoy the anime, hence the reason I'm not excited for the anime but will end up completing it.

The first season was off edged on the performance of each episode , ... did not show it's potential and flaws it could of had , with only showing that Humanity had Humans who could transform into titans which was a good flaw.

The Second season however is still in continuity of following season one , but has progressed through the current episodes which show new encounters of particular scenes and chasing towards a more loss of hope for Humanity in Shingeki No Kyojin.

The Story is slowly getting more disappointing each episode , there is no plot twist yet after 29 episodes including the first season , just the same of titans eating people ,i dislike this because nothing is getting more interesting besides character (Eren Yeagar) doing nothing but seeking attention and screaming half of the time during the anime.

In Shingeki no Kyojin it's basically a maze not just a picture of maze and think someone is lost in the maze , but Character wise and their choices , they're lost they dont even know who built their castle walls , they look at the world as in a kid version still knowing nothing but killing titans and hiding from them.

SnK is one of those animes that seem like there is no hope in that world and they know it yet continue to fight but only to be eaten by titans.

Characters: 5

Eren Yeagar hasn't developed as much as i'd expected from being a wuss , he's still being dependent, has the ability still to help his friends , can be stubborn and continuity of change
throughout his story.

Armin Arlert still reluctant from season 1 but improving with his skills to help Eren , he has potential to become a good character in time of Shingeki no Kyojin.

Mikasa Ackerman is a continuation of becoming boring each episode from not showing her potential but to follow Eren and Scout corps, besides in season one was quite interesting to look at , i do not find her any worth this season so far.

Overall:
There are quite some good genre moments from what I've seen my enjoyment is in the average category, i hope this anime will improve one day, for attack on titans (Shingeki) i lack the past of what has happened as i didn't enjoy Shingeki no Kyojin as much as i thought i would.

~Watched up to episode 10, opinions haven't changed for the most part~

So far season 2 of Attack on Titan has been a very mixed bag.

On the one hand the animation and visual style of the show is very appealing to look at (its been that way since season 1). It manages to diversify the generic anime style just enough to stand out, but not too much that it may look jarring/too stylised, which could turn some people off.

The world building is very impressive too. Season 1 did a good job of establishing the environment the series takes place in, as well as the way ... the society within the walls functions. There were also plenty of interesting secrets left unanswered like the basement and the origins of the titans, as well as the purpose of the titan shifters.

Music is another strong point of Attack on Titan. The soundtrack does a very good job of driving in a feeling about what's happening. There could be something epic and grand, sombre and foreboding, or fast-paced and intense. Whatever the situation, the music accompanying it is incredible.

The characters unfortunately are fairly hit and miss. Disappointingly enough the main protagonist Eren is still very one note and predictable. His dead parent backstory is very mundane and generic by anime standards and season 2 isn't much different. While his attitude does a good job of pushing the action forward when it needs to, theres been such little focus on the main survey corps group, who were the main focus of the first season. The constant switching back and forth of the focus between different people means it feels like nothing is ever able to settle on what the current topic is. One second there's heart stopping tension and action keeping you on the edge of your seat and the next you have people spouting exposition from a carriage while everyone else in attendance listens silently.

~Not going to talk about plot details, but I will be mentioning a general opinions of certain episodes/the type of episode (e.g. this episode had lots of action/was slow/was boring). If you want to experience that for yourself then watch them and come back~

The biggest problem from my own and other people's view is the general pacing of the show and how it has been split up into the various episodes. For the most part of episodes 1 and 2, nothing happens. I honestly don't know how else to describe it. There's some development/backstory for side characters which is nice and all, as well as the introduction of something very ominous and mysterious, but no real action is taken. To be fair I have read the manga up to a certain point so I was already aware of some of the twists/reveals, but it should at least be decently entertaining. Even by the time episode 3 rolls around, it waits until the VERY end to ramp up the tension with a threat, only to instantly kill all of that momentum by ending the episode. Put it this way. If you watch this series completely blind, don't get excited when something happens. It's going to get cut off by the end of the episode and you'll have to wait another week to see how it plays out.

Binge watching the entire season once it's finished may fix this issue of pacing but even still I feel the way each episode is divided up based on the content of the manga could have been handled a lot better. It's a cheap and easy way to try and drum up excitement by cutting every intense scene in half between episodes. After a while it becomes more frustrating than anything.

I want to praise this more, I really do. Season 1 showed off a really cool concept with a fleshed out world and kept up the tension very well. At the moment however, I just can't say anything too wild.

I'll probably be coming back to this later on, depending on how the later episodes go. As of episode 6 it seems like things are finally happening and a central antagonist/conflict has been introduced. Hopefully this keeps going full steam until the end.

[5.0/10]
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

For a series that's all about a plethora of characters yelling loudly, Attack on Titan definitely finds itself whining a lot this season. Even with the aptly titled final episode, "Scream", AoT rarely finds breathing room to develop its scenario or characters past bluntly exposited backstory or nauseatingly boring dialogue. For everything it lacks in subtlety, it thankfully makes up for in bravado, as this season, even in its shorter length, is louder, dumber, and more abrasive than the last.

Don't get me wrong, I actually prefer shorter seasons in anime and I was happy to see that we won't be sitting through twenty ... four episodes of Attack on Titan. Especially if Season 1 is any example, there would most likely be a very tedious air about it all. With a shorter, more compact season, AoT had the opportunity to tell a more impactful story with better animation, presentation, and a tighter narrative.

Unfortunately, I can't say that it succeeded. Much like the first season, Attack on Titan feels incredibly inconsistent in presentation and narrative. One episode feels like it is totally inconsequential while another feels like everything is moving by at lightning pace. I rather have the pacing be fast, rather than crawling to the finish line like some abnormal titan, but this constant rubber-banding can become tedious. Season 2's shortened length definitely proves beneficial to the short narrative being told.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Story, character, and resolution]

There is a distant focus on our protagonist as the writers adapt a more wide scope of characters onto the screen, trying their best to create sympathetic and morally intriguing humans that pepper this sprawling landscape. I very much enjoyed this change, since our protagonists, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin aren't very interesting or charismatic. There's a squeaky blond kid who shouts a lot, the main protagonist Eren, fueled by revenge, who shouts a lot, and Mikasa, who's soft spoken but also totally insipid as a character. They're a complete bore.

Although the first half of the season really struggled to maintain my interest, I still appreciated them trying to develop a vast array of characters. I will unfortunately say that they don't do this too well. A lot of the episodes focused on certain characters, especially our favorite potato-lover, Sasha, feel totally redundant and misplaced. Her conflict or specific idiosyncrasies don't come off as clear or well-thought out and she gets completely sidelined as the season continues.

On the other hand, Reiner and Bernholdt get a lot more attention and end up providing much of the shows fast-paced narrative, which is welcome. Although their characters and motivations are left so vague that it often feels stilted, as in, I don't find the way they speak to be realistic of the situation they are in. They purposefully keep things vague which makes it sound like they are hiding from the viewer, rather than the characters.

The last group of characters that gets the most focus is Christa and Ymir, who are responsible for probably the most compelling, albeit cheesy story of the season. Spurned lovers and the like. Some of their choices made them seem stupider than what the writers may have wanted, however, in the end, at least there was some emotion there. Comparing that to our protagonist and their motivations, that is a major positive.

...

As the season progresses, there is an obvious escalation happening, and Erin is unfortunately at the center of it. While I will say that the latter half of the season is more entertaining from a popcorn fun perspective, it is also where the show becomes completely off the rails as a story. More on that in later sections.

There are constant monologues during the fights, which create for tension-less encounters that are often back-ended by meaningless cliffhangers that lead to nothing. Each episode ends on a cliffhanger and each cliffhanger rings less and less true or interesting. It's a crutch that most Shounen action series have.

Erin is often praised by the characters, however, I never felt as though he should be. He is painted as completely bullheaded, yet that is a positive. In one scene one character monologues to another about how Erin would charge into a fight against five people all stronger than him and risk his life, but that's a good thing, apparently. To me, it just comes off as stupid. It doesn't make me like this already shallow, revenge-driven character more.

Mikasa is virtually just the girl who's a badass during the inconsequential action scenes and then is reserved to just yelling "Erin" really loudly during the parts that yield narrative results. Of course during the climax she gets sidelined because god forbid these characters ever work together. The entire climax felt cheap.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Presentation]

I'm getting the boring parts out of the way before I talk about some of the more interesting elements of the series and what comparisons I can draw from it. The presentation here is fine. Much like the rest of the series it is horribly uneven, drifting from impressive animation to some really hokey and pathetic CG filler scenes that pepper most of the series. Every episode we got one or two filler cuts where a bunch of characters ride their horses along a texture wrap, and they're horses look really stiff and lifeless. The entire thing gives me flashbacks to Berserk(2016). It looks awful.

On the other hand, when WIT decides to put in some time there are some pretty engaging and fun action scenes, albeit poorly choreographed, as most of the time I really didn't understand the distance between objects. Coming off the heels of Kabaneri, I really was hoping for more in terms of animated fidelity here. Kabaneri, the last, and probably equally mediocre series that WIT worked on had significantly more impressive animation, character design, and set pieces, which made Attack on Titan feel like a pale imitation, which is all the more strange since Kabaneri was the actual imitation.

It was really clear that most of the effort was put into the first episode and the last few, since those are the episodes with the most consistent level of animation. As I said, when WIT decides to put that work in, it looks great. There are plenty of spectacularly designed and perhaps unintentionally hilarious Titans that waddle about on screen, and I maintain the notion that the titans are perhaps one of the coolest baddies I've seen. There are some genuinely fun designs here and those are often backed up by funny animation cycles which makes some of these abnormal creatures more memorable than many of the human characters.

...

The music is about as solid as ever. The OP is a shadow of season 1's initial opening, but it is still fine. The ED is better, and I appreciate that these openings and ending credits are actually attempting to be relevant, rather than just a super-cut of the characters flying through the air and posing.

The musical cues are amazing. From the electric guitar riffs to the awesome distorted violins, each one is memorable and never fails to bring your attention back to what is happening on screen. The shift into the orchestral themes of the series are alright, although I can't say they are as engaging.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Character death and you]

Oh man, I remember having an argument with someone on reddit about the character deaths in the series. They, for some absurd reason were set on the notion that Attack on Titan was successful due to its characters being in constant threat of dying. He compared it to the likes of Game of Thrones, which I found preposterous since I don't believe Attack on Titan's characters are under any threat whatsoever.

Game of Thrones has revolutionary narrative structure, visuals, and compelling character motivations, dialogue, and so on. Attack on Titan doesn't really have any of that, but more important, GoT truly excels with keeping you on the edge of your seat with character deaths solely because it lacks a protagonist. There is no "plot armor" here because there is no main character. Attack on Titan obviously has main characters which are obviously in no real danger, so that fear is coming from nowhere but from the viewers mind.

So with this in mind, none of that concept ends up ringing true. Characters in Attack on Titan do die, and I appreciate the length of which the director and animators go to show that death in this show is brutal. But it really doesn't feel as though everyone is at risk. With that being said, the violence here is actually pretty entertaining. I say that with the idea that violence in television and film is inherently entertaining and anime really kind of sucks at violence.

Attack on Titan is far from what I'd call a "gory" series, however, it is definitely a few nice steps above what I'd say is a "regularly bloody anime". The censorship rules in Japanese television, which are unfortunately in affect for most anime, are really disheartening, since nothing really feels spectacularly gory. All the blood here looks like ketchup and there are no guts or bones or anything like that. All the humans can get dismembered with a spurt of ketchup and that's that. This is surprising to me since Japan is definitely a body-horror oriented audience, with the "horror" genre being huge in Manga and some of the greatest horror films in Japan having these elements.

But that's a problem for another day. Attack on Titan at least tries to shock its audience with the horrors transpiring, and while they aren't really that effective when compared to the likes of, once again Game of Thrones, or even a significantly inferior and somewhat awful series like The Walking Dead. Even through all these unfortunate restrictions I still found myself enjoying some of the more horrific elements in the series, which is definitely a positive since not many anime really impress me in that aspect.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Shounen action cliches]

Inevitably, we have to touch on Shounen action shows and the cliches that come with them. Attack on Titan is undoubtedly a Shounen action series with the target demographic of boys ages thirteen through seventeen. Which is expected, as by definition Shounen is a teenage-oriented show. With that said, Attack on Titan is far from a mature series, despite it's 17+ rating. Sure there is blood and a hint of moral gray, but it really never strays any further than that.

The themes are blunt, the story is clear, and there isn't much depth beyond man-eating titans and the crazy plot-twists that end up coming with that. Which leads me to my next point, and a trope of Shounen action that I call "escalation". Where the show starts at one point in terms of situation and narrative, and then as the story progresses it escalates the drama and action to the point of absurdity.

When Attack on Titan started it was a series oriented around survival. Man versus beast, and that was the show at its best. For the first five episodes of the series, I really loved it. However, as it progressed and that escalation started occurring it shifted from survival to flat-out action and became more of a flesh-mecha. That unfortunately cheapened a lot of elements from the show, and I personally just don't find that concept all too interesting. It continued like this and as the season 2 finale shows, it really isn't stopping this escalation. I'm convinced that in a few seasons we'll have the moon reveal itself to be a titan and crash down into the earth as Eren becomes an amalgamation of all the titans to fight it. Or something like that.

It really could go anywhere, and that escalation unfortunately ruined a lot of potentially good shows. For example, Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood became absurd towards the end, breaking any and all verisimilitude and left me disappointed. As the series progresses, AoT feels as though it will begin to do the same. The plot developments are all either really obvious or so hilarious ridiculous that you can't help but laugh at them. Which isn't a big positive for a show that is incredibly devoid of humor through much of its run-time.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Conclusion]

I have a natural bias against superhero programming. I'm going to be honest here. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy some or fully avoid others, it just means that by concept, superhero shows rarely interest me in concept. The idea that some random kid gets insane powers without even trying is lame to me. I much rather see people work to get where they are. Attack on Titan became a superhero show the second Erin got this ridiculous power out of nowhere and now is, as plenty of characters made it clear, the "last hope of humanity." It really plays as generic and uninteresting. Even the moral conflicts are all just cliches at this point.

So with Erin inhabiting this role, I find myself with a blase ideology when watching this series. I have absolutely no interest in this escalation specifically because I know it will escalate. However, Attack on Titan still manages to keep things fresh by throwing some decently engaging fight scenes and some characters that I find myself a little more interested in than our protagonists. Christa and Ymir's story this season was definitely cheesy, but it was a nice kind of cheese, like a fine a ricotta, rather than the stale american that this show often forces down my throat.

Attack on Titan is a shounen through and through, and that occasionally prevents me from really just enjoying it for its action. It is the little things, here. For example, when a character is in a scary situation with Titans piling on top of them and then another character tries to speak to them, all the titans just kind of stop moving to let them finish talking. These blatant over-sites aren't as innocuous as you may think, since each moment that rips you out of the scene adds up to you not treating this show with any respect or care, making for a fake experience.

The finale continues to elevate the series' stakes without managing to create a world in which those stakes feel feasible. The twist was obvious, however, the implications of it are yet to be explained and I'm sure they'll need another thirteen episodes of the already announced third season to do so. A lot was supposedly happening this season, and some of it was pretty fun, however, the plethora of honestly disorienting flashbacks and blunt, repetitive dialogue created a lack of interest that continued through the season. This made the entire experience feel grand, yet completely mediocre at the same time.

Unless it really fumbles, I feel like this is the kind of attitude Attack on Titan will have for its run-time. It is undoubtedly carried by its genuinely creative premise and spectacular monsters, however, it falls short in the narrative and dialogue, making the entire experience palatable, but not something you'd want to eat every day.

Season 2 of Attack on Titan is a mess. I'm tempted to say, "this is where the show jumps the shark", but I have not yet experienced the later seasons. I guess, season 2 is about that point in the story where the creator decided that his story should have some more twists to it. Unfortunately, Attack on Titan seems to only be able to pull off two kinds of twists:
Type A) The twists that are painfully obvious.
Type B) The twists that end up deflating the weight of the story and almost ruin the wonderful setting of the show.

The writing in general seems awfully sloppy ... here and very much gives off the feel of "just making shit up as I go". Lots of "do you remember that one life defining moment we had? Here's a flashback sequence of it, because we haven't actually established it (aka the writer only just now came up with it)". The lack of patience and proper buildup is astounding. If a thing is set up, it will either pay off immediately during the span of one episode or it will be brushed aside and left unresolved for the rest of the season.

I wonder why the story went out of it's way to prevent Annie from acting as the source of our exposition by having her encased in crystal. It basically made the victory at the end of season 1 feel hollow and bitter. But the exposition Annie could have organically delivered gets dumped on us very soon afterwards (in manga release timeframe anyways) by other characters, so her whole cocoon maneuver seems like a net negative for the flow of the story. At the time, I thought the Season 1 ending was bold. "There are no real victories in war" -kinda thing. Now, I think it's painfully obvious that it was just the writer stalling for some more time to scramble together some sort of plan.

I am almost certain that Rainer's split personality was an afterthought that had to be worked into the story in order for the character's actions to make any kind of sense in hindsight. Ymir turns her coat so many times in such a short period of time that the coat is basically just flickering on her. I suppose she is supposed to come off as volatile, to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, but it just comes across illogical and frustrating instead.

Attack on Titan still has a lot of great things going for it. The art style and animation is still gorgeous and the Hiroyuki Sawano soundtrack is still A+ quality. The setting, despite season 2's best efforts, is still excellent and the titans are still one of the most horrific monsters I've ever seen in any media. All of this the show still has. But what is actually happening on the screen, in the present, is so tremendously stupid at times that the positive qualities almost don't matter. That is what makes AOT season 2 so frustrating, it completely fumbles with handling the fantastic framework for an epic story that it built for itself during season 1.

Contains spoilers from Season 1 and Season 2

Pls send feedback if you have any

So after four years of waiting, we finally get our Season 2 for Attack on Titan. Whoopee Yahoo, we've been waiting for so long for this. Now was it worth the wait? ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

We start the season right after Annie Leonhart is captured and frozen in her Titan crystal, and we see all the rookie scouts sitting in a base away from the cities and towns. After that things get pretty nuts. New Beast Titan, another wall supposedly broken, and people dying left and right. Classic AoT, bringing back everything we loved about ... it. Now, this is where it start to go downhill, as we soon get hit with various plot twists and drama. Here's the issue. Overexaggeration of situations. It's hard to be invested in anything when it just starts to get too ridiculous. Throwing whatever you can into your anime worked for Keijo, but for something that's supposed to be serious and dark, it just doesn't fit in. All the plot twists are obvious but they still try to make it a massive revealment, and the drama's impact is lessened with annoying dialogue that makes it more amusing the more it tries to be intense.

The action and deaths are still great though. Scouts flying around ripping apart Titan napes, Titan flailing about munching on scouts, and a bunch of new Titan shifters going ham on each other. Each and every scene of this bloodfest is such a joy to watch, as the animation is superb when it comes to depicting the ferocity of the whole ordeal. Although every once in a while we get some annoying dialogue or flashback interrupting the action and ruining the flow of the scenes, and the CGI Colossal Titan does need a little getting used to, it's all well and good as AoT does what AoT does best.

Some of the supporting cast get some limelight as well, but it still neglects a lot of the rest and leaves them in the background. We get a few new titan shifters, some characters get some backstory of them, and a few meet their family and some other people from their hometown. (Although I don't think Conny was too happy about it) It's all nice and all to see the supporting cast pushed forward, but then we get others that are pushed back to make room. It's just so unbalanced with the way it wants to portray their cast, swapping them back and forth frantically trying to keep them all relevant as we start to lose more and more interest.

Now, the thing that irks me the most is the unanswered questions. Annie? Still in the Titan crystal. Secrets of the walls? Barely touched on. Basement? What's that? In fact, instead of answering all our various thoughts on AoT, it provides us with even more questions to ponder. Who or what is the Beast Titan? What's the dark past of Historia? What are the goals of the new Titan shifters? What happened to that one village? Sure it answers some stuff, but we're left with so many untouched plot points that it gets frustrating to continuously catch up to each ep.

Attack on Titan was a slight disappointment. I was hoping to get what I wanted from the series, but the 12 eps decided I should wait for next year cause fuck me. If you're a massive fan of AoT, go ahead, watch it to your heart's content. For anyone else, I would proceed with caution as this show is just a mix of exciting action and lacklustre story and characters.

Just before we begin i'd like to warn people that mature language WILL be used extensively throughout the review so brace yourselves.

Took me a while to watch this and for a very good reason.I want the hype dust to settle down and i also want some days off to see if my initial thoughts still hold up...And boy am i gonna get some shit for this review.

First off i think i have spotted a problem with anime in general in recent years and one that plagues this one as well.With such a huge number of animes every season you must ensure your creation will get ... as much attention as possible and very quickly.That's more or less the reason you don't see animes 20 eps and over.Almost every anime has to do with 12 eps at best and in that space and time information,plot,characters have to be interesting and grab your full attention.

Now this wasn't the case with AoT.It had 25 eps to do the fucking job at hand.And you know what?As first seasons go it faired pretty well.But i think everyone,including the writers,forgot that a season 2 might be coming or they weren't even sure about a 2nd installment and tried their best only in the 1st one.The 1st one had many issues but as an overall experience it was bloody good.

Which brings me to this one.And i'm not gonna beat around the bush guys and gals.It's stupidly horrid.I think my ratings were very generous here.For starters while the 1st did a good job introducing us to this world and its' characters and all,focused too much on some characters and this was its' downfall.Cause come season 2 was time to focus on other characters......And oh boy..Oh boy indeed..The anime shifts focus faster than fucking electricity and onto characters i didn't even remember where in the anime and honestly couldn't give a shit about since in season 1 they were almost non existent.I wonder if they have ever heard of something called continuity..Guess not by the looks of things.

I honestly can't tell what was their endgame here.4 fucking years for 12 eps in total and that's the best they could come up with?Or maybe they were so blinded by the success of the 1st one,they thought they could afford a bad job this time and because they had 3rd one in the pocket they couldn't be bothered.

Look i get these characters play a huge role in the bigger scheme of things but bringing them in the spotlight out of the blue or in some cases for no apparent reason other than...Fuck off and give us your money you suckers..If only they spent some time in season 1 to pave the way for these characters,this season would make so much more sense.Or even better if they ACTUALLY made fucking use of this 4 long years to make it a 25 eps one...But they didn't...And that was the final nail in its' coffin.Too much time spent on characters that are crucial but you have no idea why,except if you read the manga.But i don't want to read the manga,i want to watch the anime that's why i'm here.

Also when you have established some characters as the main core don't push them aside for half the season.And what was with these fucking flashback moments every now and then?I swear i haven't seen so many flashbacks since the Bold and the Beautiful was airing in the 90's.

Yeah i like backstory too,who doesn't?But not in that way.Almost the entirety of this season was full of "oh they're gonna eat me now,i'm gonna die" and "oh i'm gonna die here's some flashback to show you some scene which is supposed to be important but is or isn't at all"..That's fucking lazy.And lazy is the perfect word to summarise the writing in this season.

Apart from that we got to see the new Yeti-like titan whose intelligence is far above the rest of them.You could sit down and talk about existentialism with this guy.

But bad news keep on coming and this time it was the animation that got the treatment.No it wasn't all bad but it was those moments(and trust me there were many of them)where the use of some primitive CG was used.For example when they rode their horses they looked like fucking legos.I get CG saves time but come on,you made so much money off the 1st season you could afford to spend some more on 2d rather than this hideous thing that looked like a child's painting.And worst of all all those brilliant spidermanish moments now are almost gone and when we do get to see some action it feels so underwhelming it beggars belief.

Which brings me sadly to talk about the overall feel of the thing.The whole the world is about to end sense is nowhere to be found.Even with the new ape titan things just don't roll.Where's that sense of fear the first one had?

VA's did their part,not that they had much to do anyways since most of the anime was either searching a hole in the wall.As for songs....Not good,not good at all.

Now to end this,if you're a fanboy or fangirl this will be heaven on earth and you won't give a single fuck about anything i talked about.If you're not though you'll be very dissapointed.

Much shorter and less epic than the first season, Attack on Titan Season 2 has the single best and most epic moment in the series up to this point but is otherwise worse than its predecessor in almost every way.

Art-

The production values, quality animation and effects present in the first season are still here. Nothing has changed or gotten worse in that regard. The problem lies elsewhere...

Sound-

The voice acting hasn't changed for any of the main characters and it didn't need to, as it was quite good to begin with. I absolutely hate the voice of an important new character introduced in the first episode ... of this season. Otherwise, high production values etc etc and the overall quality is fine.

The soundtrack is a letdown. I don't feel there is a single track that truly stands out to me that is unique to this season. Even in the most epic moment of the show they merely remix and essentially reuse an already established song from the previous season. Perhaps the fact that there are only 12 episodes and therefore fewer opportunities for epic moments in need of epic songs contributes to this, but overall I can't help but feel disappointed by the soundtrack this time around.

Character-

The characters and story aren't the problem per say, but overall this anime feels very rushed out the door (even though it took years to come out, so it clearly was not...). Cutting down from 25 episodes to just 12 was absolutely a mistake. I understand the behind the scenes reasons why this decision was made, but it still really hurts the show overall.

There are hardly any truly exciting or standout moments of this season and for such a short season it has way too much filler. There is one episode, and I am not kidding or exaggerating, where the ENTIRE EPISODE is spent having a conversation in a tree. Likewise, they spent too much time dipping into the background of an only kinda sorta important character and during that sequence it felt like a whole lot of nothing occurred.

The one saving grace is that the single biggest reveal and most epic moment in the series occurs in this season, but it happens midway through as opposed to at the end, making what was supposed to be a tragic moment at the end feel like not a particularly big deal, and they even screwed up the animation in this epic reveal scene as a character has a forearm in one shot and does not have said forearm in the next. It's just sloppy and like I said it really feels rushed and understaffed.

Enjoyment-

It's Attack on Titan, and I'm a huge Attack on Titan fan, so I enjoyed it, but I definitely, without question enjoyed it less than the first season and I'm definitely disappointed that this is what I got after waiting for years for this to come out. I'm thinking, and hoping, this season will be the low point of the series when all is said and done.

Overall-

Meh...

+THE single most epic moment/reveal occurs, and it's awesome
+High production values
+Continues to develop the story and characters you cared about from Season 1

-Somehow, manages to feel super rushed in some sections and super slow/boring/too much filler in others
-Only 12 episodes as opposed to 25
-Less action/excitement/things you care about compared to Season 1

OBJECTIVE RATING- 7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7

**This review contain mid-heavy spoilers**

this is easily the worst season and arc, welli guess i'm late to party.


The 1st half plot is nonsensical, although we got a twist like jaw titan and more backstory, these characters arent developed yet, but they get a backstory instead and all of the "twist" Doesn't make sense whatsoever, itsall complete deus ex machina and plot armor, it feels like they recycle the s1 non existent plot and recycle it

The animation and sound? Check, no questions asked, wit studio is based and redpilled


The characters are the worst part, after the armored titan reveal,ymir make a stupid decision, why she ... didn't join the survey corps instead? Atleast she can be useful for humanity, and don't forget eren, he become plot device after reveal of armored titan for over 2-3 episodes, why hannes just didn't aim for the neck instead? When fighting the smiling titan that kill eren mother? The potential is wasted, but maybe for makes it extra drama i g



Thanks for reading!

In my opinion, this was the weakest of the three seasons for Attack on Titan. To articulate why this is, I’m going to start by saying that season 3 has a fairly different focus and feel than season 1. Season 1 is a striking shounen that is all about the “protagonist against the world” focus. Season 3 feels much more like a political drama that Eren is just a part of. Both seasons 1 and 3 (so far) have a very polished and succinct feeling to them, but season 2 lacks this because it is trying to make the transition, and for a while, the ... direction and focus of the anime becomes hazy which is frustrating after such a fast paced and driven first season.

I also took issue with this season’s use of cliff-hangers. Many episodes felt like no monumental action was happening during the bulk of the episode, and then bam, excitement, but no wait, we’re just going to end the episode here. The fact that this was done in almost every episode was off putting and made the season as a whole feel choppy because it seemed like climactic moments that should be allowed to flow were cut in half just to facilitate edgy cliff-hangers in an attempt to simulate the momentum the first season had.

While I enjoyed the character developments of Ymir, Christa, and others who were less prominent in the first season, I was pretty disappointed in how Mikasa was reduced to Eren’s fangirl babysitter. I know she’s always been Eren’s babysitter, but being such a badass, it seems like this Eren obessesion character development was the lamest and dullest direction she could be taken in.

Despite my complaints, season 2 is a necessary part of Attack on Titan as a whole (which I still hold in very high regard in terms of enjoyment and entertainment value) and is not by any means difficult to watch. The struggle of humanity and the examination of society in this dystopia are still poignant and the stories told in this season are still gripping. It’s just not as good as what came before or what comes after.

I'll keep this short because my keyboard has become wank.

Story -

Eren is still has a big mouth and weak swing while Blonde Jesus is all inspirational and shouty and sh*t.

The story in this season went nowhere. We learned one or two things about the Titans but that's about it. But wait... what actually consumes the 12 episodes in this series? By the time you reach the end of it, nothing is what you'll come to realize. The 12 episodes are literally a cat and mouse chase between goodies and baddies, Tom and Jerry style, where the first few episodes piggyback off of everything that happened ... in the first season and the second half beg you to "bare with us until season 3".
The end of season 2 puts us exactly in the same place that it started except now everybody is scared that they might secretly be a titan and we have King Kong prowling about the place like some kind of 80's TV presenter.
The only thing that keeps it from being worse than mediocre is the fact that the major plot points in this series are pretty f*cking major and do warrant an "oooooh shiieeettt" reaction. As much as I talk shit, you can't skip this season under and circumstances simply because there are a few sentences of significance.


Art and Sound -
This shit is pretty polished, colorful and well animated. I can see why it took half an eon to create but in all honesty, you could always have expected more.
There was this one moment towards the end of the series that was executed extremely well thanks to the art and design. Big ol' thumbs up in this department.
The sound is pretty much the same as season one except the intro doesn't sound like communist propaganda this time around.



Character -

In season one, which I just realized I haven't reviewed, there were plenty of reasons to like the characters. They had spirit, they were bad ass and they shined in certain lights. Take Erin, who has a constant drive to surpass expectations and express his determination to succeed in his life goal of killing all of the Je...Titans. That kind of carries over to this season but in a way that you will eventually get VERY sick of.
If you haven't guessed already or simply haven't watched it yet. I'm talking about monologues. EVERY F*CKING EPISODE Eren has a 5-minute long speech about how he "has to win" or "must prevail" or how "X is a traitor" and "Y must die". I sh*t you not, it happens so often that our beloved voice actor (for the dub) must have made his throat bleed by constantly doing his cringy fake anime shouty voice.
This, of course, wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't the ONLY thing that he (or many others) do. Speaking of other characters, they kind of just feel like shadows to Eren. Everybody loves sucking Eren's c*ck because "Eren is the savior". While its true that he is important the show treats everyone else like limbless pieces of flesh with no tactical significance and completely ignores the fact that Eren has practically been extra baggage for the entire fucking story up until now.



Enjoyment and Conclusion -

The constant monologues and the destination-less plot made it quite a bore for me but while I was watching it I must admit there were a few moments where I thought "Oh fuck yeah" and lost myself in the badassery of the moment. It was purely the conclusion that let me down so much.
I won't tell you not to watch it. You lonely bastards have been waiting almost 4 years for this shit. Might as well take it because you'll probably be dead by the time this thing finishes.

*DO NOT READ IF YOU IF HAVEN'T WATCHED UP TO EPISODE:33*
*SPOILERS AHEAD*








...


So....that ending of SNK Season 1 was pretty great right? Are you expecting Season 2 to be as awesome as Season 1? Well it's not. I'd have to agree with some of the other members on this site because this anime is starting to go down hill...fast.

After watching as much as I can while waiting for the new episodes to come out I'm starting to not really understand what's going on anymore first it starts talking about Ymir and Krista,two side characters who literally had almost nothing to do with the first season,then all of a sudden Ymir is a titan or some shit (albeit she's pretty fucking weak considering she's had it longer than Eren has.),Then all of a sudden we're introduced to a Beast? Titan? I don't know he can like boss around the other titans or some shit nothing really cool or new for that matter.But the worst part of this complete shit fest would probably have to be when they're on top of the wall and Reiner literally out of the blue confesses to Eren that he and Bertolt are the Armored Titan and Colossal Titan which just completely fucks up the pacing for the episode and asks Eren to come with them to their hometown while the rest of his comrades are walking away from them LIKE THEY CAN"T EVEN HEAR WHAT THE FUCK THEY'RE SAYING,They don't even notice till after they transformed into their titan forms.The biggest thing that agitates me though is the fact that it's nothing but talking for most of the season which I can understand but Season 1 had a good balance of character development as well as really awesome fight scenes (and really depressing moments too....R.I.P Petra) but it was paced well enough to where it didn't feel rushed but I digress, I hope they salvage this season I really do however I'm not the biggest fan of the beast titan (I don't know....he's just not as scary as the other titans are,maybe it's because he doesn't have a creepy ass smile on his face like the rest of the titans do.) But anyways I'm going to keep watching with faith and update my review as the season goes on.

#annieisbae

Attack On Titan season 1 was a hard flop, and I was worried going into season 2, but I can say now that I wasn’t entirely disappointed. The main characters were bland and uninteresting in season 1 and it carried on in season 2. Another thing that pissed me off is how Erren gained a powerup as he was about to get killed, there is NOTHING wrong with power-ups, but the fact that he was about to die and got a powerup to save his ass is so unrewarding and bullshit. The side characters on the other hand were given ... a lot of much-needed screen time and depth that made you see through their point of view in this crazy world. I wish there was a lot more build-up to the reveal of the armored and colossal titan.
The story was disjointed and messy, they had no clue what they wanted to do, at least season 1 had a straightforward and stable story. The world-building is actually amazing, it makes the immersive world even more immersive. The soundtrack is great just like it was in the first season no complaints there, the same can be said for the art and animation.

STORY: Season 2 has continue where they have left off. Since they are still battling the titans and save humanity... There is more mystery to be unraveled. Earlier in this season, some of the members found something that involves one of the walls. From there, it turns out that there is more stuff to be discovered beyond that. Luckily, we get to see some of the other characters and their backstories this season.

CHARACTERS: The members of the Survey Corps are back from the previous season!

OVERALL: 12 episodes can't do it justice! I assumed that it would be 25 episodes (again). It felt rushed and left ... the plot very vague and unexplained. To be honest, it kind of reminded me of how The Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga did it. (Season 1 had 25-26 episodes, while the second season has 12 episodes). On the bright side, the battle scenes and the cliffhangers are still on point!

Once again, I am going all out to bash a popular anime, just like how I did with Re:Zero. (evil laughter)

Shingeki no Kyojin Season 2, the sequel that managed to throw everything built up in season 1 into the trash bin.

In season 1, we are presented with the idea of "kyojins are sent down from the heavens to punish us for our sins", and how humans sacrificed so much just to fight them back. After 25 episodes of epic-flying-all-over-the-place-like-spiderman-to-snipe-a-titan's-nape and hearing Eren screaming in almost every episode, we are finally presented with a very short and simple statement that summarizes season 1 in the best ... way ever, "Eren can become a titan". Full stop. That's all you need to know about season 1, really.

Continuing the trend of spiderman-wannabe-titan-slaying-technique-oh-no-he-grabbed-me-and-now-i-am-dead and more throat-busting yells from Eren, we are given the 12-episode sequel. Again, a very short and simple statement can summarize the entire season, and it's freaking hilarious that I can't help myself but laugh at how stupid the buildup is.

"Everyone's a titan!!"

So after spending the entirety of season 1 trapped behind walls, our dear humans, the elite of the elite, finally realized that they were mass murderers! Humans vs humans! Oh isn't it great!

How can the truth be hidden for so long from even the "strongest person in the world" is truly baffling. In the real world, the military can easily overthrow the government that relies on nothing but religion. But in the world of Shingeki no Kyojin, yes, the church rules of the entire world, and the superhuman soldiers that can fly around like spiderman had been obeying them for who knows how many years.

Forgive my insolence, but this, is extremely stupid. What governed the country is a bunch of religious old farts that has no means to protect themselves other than deceiving the only people (soldiers) that are capable to protect them. They would rather die protecting the secret and not for the sake of humanity. It’s a blatant lose-lose situation for the old farts, but anyway, something’s been tying their hands at their back.

That is what manga readers had been telling us the whole time, “there’s a lot more going on! There’s a lot more that you don’t know!” Okay, I won’t say I won’t buy this one, but for pure anime viewers, what we had been getting, is just a super-hot blooded action-pumped show that has actually makes zero sense. If anything, it’s a waste of our time. The whole season 1 is just a freaking huge introduction that the titans could be humans, which is proven in like, the minute Eren bites himself and goes all flashy and becomes a titan. Then, the 2nd season is another huge introduction that everyone is in fact, a titan, and we have some titans running another country, preparing for world war 3 in which the humans our protags are sided with, have totally no idea about anything except for the church’s old farts who only knew how to tremble in fear.

As much as a freaking huge mystery and conspiracy going on, I couldn’t fathom the fact they started the story that way. Surely there would be remnants of people who knew the truth of all things and are still alive and kicking and be living in the wall, don’t tell me they had all been reduced to old farts, or all of them had now become enemies trying to wipe out humanity. Now you see the problem? It doesn’t make any sense. Humans, trying to eradicate humans. Oh wait, let me rephrase that, humans, with abilities to turn into incredible hulks, wants to eradicate humans. Wait, that doesn’t sound too difficult to achieve, isn’t it? Imagine an army of hulks against the world, obviously the hulks would win, easily.

Now to complicate matters, these titan-humans are perfectly human when they don’t turn huge! These chaps can easily blend in and live in an only-human society, fall in love with them, and easily forget the notion of trying to eradicating them. What’s the point wiping out a species when you can just live with them in peace?

Enough with the convoluted plot, we move on to dissect the 2nd season further. First off, the stupid pacing at the first half of the show, where we are given ridiculous time-jumps just to highlight some events to “explain” why it happened, by explaining, I mean explaining the deus ex machina that happened, so that the viewers can be fooled that it isn’t a deus ex machina and is actually pre-planned or built up before it occurs. Bullshit, a good build up has no need of such cheap tricks to convince the viewers that it is good writing, what we get here, is a bunch of WTFs and a bunch of time-rewinding scenes to explain those WTFs. The writing is garbage.

Presentation-wise, there’s no doubting that Shingeki no Kyojin is one of the higher-budget productions we have currently, with superb animation and epic soundtrack.

I have major issues with the characters, MAJOR ISSUES. Everyone in SnK has mental problems! I am dead serious here. Eren only has fire in his head and the only thing he knows, is that he wants to kill all kyojins. Obviously he’s gonna get mindfucked, because kyojins are humans, so he wants to kill all humans! Yay! Suit yourself Eren. Mikasa, from season 1, we all know how much of a control freak she is, and how obsessive she is with Eren. All she wants is Eren, all she cares is Eren. Okay we get that he did great things in your past, but isn’t it pushing a little too far?

When it comes to love, people in SnK do not know how to express themselves, and become huge stalkers. Just ask Reiner and Ymir! Their overwhelming love towards Christa is simply sublime. Well to be fair to them, Christa is crafted to be the ultimate waifu material by the creators, she’s damn cute, she’s chibi, she’s very caring and loving like Mother Teresa, and most of all, she’s badass! Out of nowhere, she said she’s gained inner strength sufficient to kill titans in the most badass way that even Levi would be jelly about. I’ve never seen such blatant waifu material since Asuna and Rem. The moral of the day, all you need is the ultimate waifu material and you will have a very popular anime. Oh, husbandos work as well.

By the way, why doesn’t Ymir’s other mode have tits?

To be fair with the creators, we have yet progress the plot enough to know our major antagonists well. The only one we are presented seems to be the beast titan, which has a horrendous design, seriously. His head is as big as yours and mine, yet his entire body is as big as the colossal titan, with abs, prominent, protruding abs, in that flabby body of his. And freakishly long hands. Godzilla was a terrifying beast with a menacing look, but titans, beasts with a comical look, how can they be terrifying?? Gah, this had been one of my major issues with SnK since season 1 episode 1. If you are going to make a dark and suspenseful show, cut off all the lame jokes, proper jokes can be included as long as they do not intrude the overall theme and atmosphere of the story. Yet, over the course of 2 seasons, some titans have been elevated to meme status because how ridiculous they look.

How exactly will the plot progress, the manga readers know, and the anime-only viewers will be stuck in darkness with only their wild imaginations and speculations to guide them.

“We will run out of people before we know the truth.” This final quote from Levi cannot be any more fitting than how I feel how this plot will progress. The kyojin-less humans are in real deep shit right now, vastly overpowered in terms of power, and number as well from the look of things. To make things worse, the kyojin-humans now had infiltrated their ranks so well that they are extremely informative and knows every single nook and crook in the human military. Those old farts in the church better grow some balls or there will be no salvation to them.

Well let’s just patiently wait for season 3, we all know how hyped it will get.

The first season made for some of the most interesting developments in anime history, but where the story has gone has ruined the initial excitement and mystique of Shingeki no Kyojin.

Eren has all the trappings of a basic shounen protagonist with no real subversiveness or uniqueness to his role. Mikasa is dull. Obviously, she still needs to be developed more, which I suppose second season is doing, but i just feel like it's doing a really bad job at it.

Mikasa has more facial expressions it seems now than first season. However, it seems as though the drawers are content with her facial expressions ... being enough to convince us she has turned into a full, emotional character who has really made any real development or progress. Despite making some progress with her character, she still hasn't quite hit the third dimension. Her character hasn't committed any action to show for her development or her changing. All the show has done is have the characters reflect on their past, but again, that isn't development. More things are being revealed, but the story isn't taking those flashbacks or insights into the past to progress characters. It's merely using it to unfold the plot; and unfortunately, that's not enough to make a viewer care.

I hope the third season proves different and better than the second.

Note: This is just my personal opinion, this rating is not necessarily based on the actual quality, but more so on opinion. Also this will be a big one so I'm gonna break it down for you enjoy.

(LARGE SPOILER AT END OF STORY REVIEW)

Story-5
Now this 5 for story I can hear some of you quizzically wondering why I could ever put forth such lunacy, and the answer is its bland! There are so many holes and open questions left throughout the show that just make no sense. The entirety of season one was about getting to erens' house, where was that urgency? Where was the ... quest for answers? And what was up with the pointless flashbacks? Someone is gonna say "It makes for a deeper more clarified back story!!!!" I have news for you, not when done like this, it may as well have been naruto giving us information we already knew just minutes ago. We already know eren is a bitch who is picked on, we already know armin cries and screams for mikasas' help, we already know mikasa has a crush on eren! So what was the point? msg me cuz idk. Let me also touch on the length of this. 12 episodes? After 4 years? I just have to say that for what we got was unacceptable! If you took out the flash backs and pointless dialogue it was more like 8. "Well they need time for the manga to catch up!!!" I hear your rant, but I personally would rather them just have a larger season or beef up the story with relevant filler. And this series treats us so dumb, like how could they possibly hope we would believe there was outside civilization? Or like "man these titans sure look humanoid?" and not believe that once introduced we already knew what they were. Like I feel this whole season could disappear and season 3 comes out just put like 6 extra episodes in and that would have been all we needed. Ive talked on this long enough msg me if you wanna talk more.

Art-10
No argument, show looks great massive production value here, probably exceeds some African country GDP.

Sound-8
Again no argument, massive production value show sounds good (I personally love the intro music)

Character-5
Boom I said it. They blow ass. No character has a unique or enjoyable personality among them. They all have weak personalities with no growth over these 2 seasons. While not true for this show, but for all the other AoT ripoffs Wit studios has made. The main trio is just a generic copy paste formula for their studio. The "villains" of this series are actually more likable. Eren himself is beyond empty, he is a void that sucks away on the characters around him. Of the main trio perhaps Armin is the "best" and by that I mean most rounded and questioning. Mikasa is just an empty power house. All she does is fiend for erin and kill titans. This is not me saying I hate op characters, I don't I like them more. But what they did here was try to put in "romance"? I honestly don't know where this is going but one of the most frustrating things for me as a viewer to see is unrequited love. I hate seeing Mikasa smell erin in his sleep he wakes up walks away say i wanna kill titans? Like I have no idea what they were aiming for? Aside from the main trio you have an army of unknown names and forgettable faces. This series is known for being "gritty" "horrific" and "deep" but its hard to feel these emotions for characters who A) you have no idea who they are. B) they scream terrified all the time and just die? C) You like the titans more than the humans by the end. I found myself so disconnected from the characters solely because they were so one sided and bland. Basically the were all red shirts from star trek, like cmon no one felt bad when they died right? So then why should I care for these no name legion recruits. Again with the story there are so many flaws and holes with these bland one sided characters, if you have a gripe msg me.

Enjoyment/Overall-5
Just because of the weak story, ass characters, and just a total disconnect of emotion from a hailed "deep, gritty story" that took 4 years to make and was completely underwhelming just had me holding my head in confusion. I watched the first season and loved it but that was 4 years ago I'm not a teenager who saw blood and thought the show was deep now like many out there, I need either plot or titties and this offered neither. This left me very disappointed in Wit studios as a whole. They put so much time into their other garbage ripoffs that I believe this suffered because of that didvided focus.