Shingeki no Kyojin Season 2

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the Earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

- Isaiah 40:28-31

The second coming of Christ hath solemnly smiled upon us and ... I am very passionate about this. The plot thickens, although not really. The series is kicked off with some pretentious monologue by Armin reminding us of what the general outline of the show looked like, probably either because the producers have little to no faith in their audience's mental capacity and just assume everyone has forgotten the plot over the span of 4 years or they just didn't have an episode's worth of material. Titan appears out of nowhere, titan eats human. Good? Good. Annie Leon-who? In case anyone does remember, last's season finale left off with a completely unnecessary cliffhanger that only put even more expectations on this season to deliver. tl;dr IT DOESNNNNNNNNNN'T

Among monkeys, loose plot threads and other things, the big focus of this season seems to be on the titan shapeshifters. A mechanic that was first introduced to the series when everyone's second favorite main character got swallowed whole (deadweight Armin at it again), before being resurrected in full, non-CGI titan glory. Fastforward 20 something episodes later, and it is a technique utilized by literally half of the 104th Trainees Squad members. Despite losing its initial charm, the colossal and armored titan have been presented since the very first episode while the series was at its peak and thus still managing to retain a candle of relevancy.

Colossal Titan : Begins breach of Shiganshina first episode, catalyst of all destruction, all-around menacing presence
Armored Titan : Unstoppable force, mows down the gate of Wall Maria causing impending doom upon thousands, exhales steam
Ymir/Ymir Titan : Dyke, ???

What a revelation, seriously. I wholeheartedly wonder if the atrocious lack of screen time and presence of her character during the entirety of the series prior to the reveal are to be attributed to the author wanting her to remain a mysterious figure or downright not giving a shit. But wait, they showed us that 12 minute flashback between her and Historia to showcase just how powerful their relationship was, talk about depth. That's another thing, as soon as there's some groundbreaking reveal it is either cut short by a flashback or even cliffhanger (which are proven to be able to last up to a grand total of 4 years). Both reveals this season start off at an alright pace before being brushed off to the side because of Muh explanations. When half of episode 5 after Ymir's big reveal proves to be a boring flashback that realistically correlates to nothing of substance regarding our current situation apart from some meager hints regarding Historia (this is Ymir's big moment, mind you), SOME VIEWERS MIGHT GET DISENGAGED. WHOOP DE FUCKING DO. Now imagine if the finale of first season's episode 5 were cut short by a cliffhanger, and rather than Eren jumping into a titan's mouth to save Armin the episode was proceeded by a whopping half an episode's worth of some "mandatory" flashback dating back to that one schooltrip they held in 5th grade. Just for brevity's sake, you know? Because who wants non-meandering content anyway.

I also love how the meeting to discuss whether Ymir's a titan and where her loyalties lie was essentially the exact same as the one in season one regarding Annie. Eren is always shoved into this role of the dumbass optimist who's like "B-but, muh friends.." while he sits in disbelief as everyone else clobbers him with facts and it's pretty funny, if nothing else. It's really just used as a tool to make certain characters like Hanji stand out as great strategists and/or intellectually-capable, when in reality it just makes Eren seem like a stupid brat who's constantly in denial even when the obvious is made obvious. But Anni--I mean Ymir's a friend, how could she?! After Ymir helps saves the lives of countless soldiers, she is then briefly treated to a life of imprisonment, just before being swallowed whole by the Colossal titan. But it's Ymir, so you don't care. Connie titan when?

Obviously, the big selling point of these 12 episodes is supposed to be Eren's grandiose throwdown versus Reiner and Bertholdt, friends who he once looked up to turned enemies, for reasons.. unbeknownst. What carries this plotpoint is the fact that Eren never needed to have a fleshed out relationship with either Reiner or especially Bertholdt for it to work, which he didn't. The mystery behind both the Colossal and Armored titans was present from the first day whilst the Attack on Titan was at its highpoint. I would've walked out a happy man, had, you know, the actual revelation not been so piss poor. The way the reveal was handled holds complete contrast over anything the show's director, Tetsuou Araki is actually good at. The whole subtle and unconventional tone I imagine Isayama was building toward missed its mark entirely and assigning it to a man who's literally built his entire career off of making overblown and adrenaline inducing scenes and series surely isn't a good starting point. So far I have encountered not a single criticism as the people who are proclaiming it to be some nonchalant masterpiece of delivery and storytelling are running rampant. It's mere misjudgment over subtlety, but I digress.

First off, the Armored Titan has an uncanny resemblance to Reiner Braun. While this idea seems to have been entirely scrapped in Berthold's case for some reason, they went to insane lengths to mimic Reiner's look to the itty bitty details in correlation to the Armored titan: the minimal contrast between white and blonde, the exact same cleancut hairstyle, a body physique that can hardly be attributed back to anyone in the show but him, and even the trademark glowy yellow eyes shared only with Pixies. The exact same problem plagued the first season in the shape of Annie; the hair length, color and eyes would already have drastically decreased the amount of possible suspects by tenfold, but the genius of Hajime Isayama even bothered drawing in her god damn crooked fucking nose. He clearly has either no faith in his audience's mental capacity or simply doesn't understand that the point of mystery is supposed to be withholding information until a given point rather than violently shoving it down the viewer's windpipe. Okay, fine. They physically resemble each other, what else? Bertholdt. While Reiner actually attempts giving off a faint sense of dread while some eerie music is playing in the background, Bertholdt just completely ruins it. Despite for once not resembling his titan counterpart, when the man is not looking constipated, he is completely sealing off any potential doubts in anyone's mind about any other possibilities about the situation. "Could Reiner possibly have lost his mind..?" Obviously not, because Bertholdt is just fucking screaming in his ear 24/7, "NO REINER DON'T TELL HIM NOOOO". Well, I guess that's cleared up. They're gonna transform now, right? Any minute now. This is kinda dragging on.. OH WAIT IS THAT MIKASA HOLY FUCK 10/10 WHAT A REVELATION.

If you thought the "Humanity is at the brink of extinction" storyline is the weak link, think again. The cast of Attack on Titan is so evidently plagued by cliches and dumb action series tropes that you could pretty much associate any major character with a single adjective if you really wanted to. Calling my assessment here redundant would almost be a fair criticism considering that a similar point can be made in regards to arguably any popular seasonal anime born and molded by hype culture in recent memory. However, what makes AoT stick out like a sore thumb and possibly make it the biggest offender of this near-archetype turd is the broad scale of characters it decides to play the story out with. Operating on such vast cast of notable proportion can oftentimes lead to success (insert pseudo-elitist LotGH shoutout), but it can also damage a series by making it loose focus on primary objective. In this specific case when deciding to roll with a huge cast, you can choose from either 2 routes:

- Put in a conscious amount of time and effort into character development and have an actual go at fleshing them out (talk about boring)

or

- Treat your entire cast as human cattle, excusing any lack of potential depth with pitiful sob stories. When midnight comes around, murder them for SHOCK FACTOR !!! (hell yeah)

I realize that the line is very blurred in this case so feel free to take your time pondering which one we've been stuck with for a consecutive 37 episodes. As you may or may not already know, the story primarily revolves around an edge-riddled brat that is fueled by teenage angst as without it he loses all self and intrinsic meaning in this world. In the second season, he makes many a guest apearences throughout half of the season that he is in. All Eren Jaeger wishes for in life is to fulfill his petty vendetta by exterminating an entire species, and if that doesn't sound like a ludicrous pipedream of an egocentric teenager, I don't know what does. You would assume that being the protagonist of the story, he would have something worth noting in regards to his character, but he really doesn't. The entire backbone of his character lies the fundamentals of being dumb, bratty and angsty coupled with a motivation that stem from the final five, and it especially shows when he's even overshadowed by lifeless ragdolls such as Mikasa. There is nothing about Eren that makes him an interesting, distinct or compelling main character in the slightest. He is an angst powered locomotive; equipped with a smidgen of brash "personality", a petty sob story that's supposed to make you sympathize with him and of course, his desire for vengeance being placed on a pedestal above all else.

That in mind, you sure as hell wouldn't be able to spell Eren without spelling Mikasa first, so give it up for arguably the best girl in the series by sheer process of elimination - Mikasa Ackerman. Mikasa is just the perfect recipe for success. She has the looks, the smarts, the skills. Everything. She can't grow or develop because she is already a God put upon this green earth. Most people excuse her lifelessness as compelling because she too has a sad backstory. Mommy and daddy got lynched, there goes my personality and compassion as a human being, boo fucking hoo. Despite being completely devoid of any human emotion what so ever, she still harbors a deeply-rooted love and respect for her not-so-related-by-blood brother, Eren. Although Eren admittedly arrived a bit late to the party, he made up for it by giving her some rugged old scarf. This admiration for Eren arouses a multitude of paradoxes. Can a person void of any underlying emotion really learn to love someone, if even themselves? Is it incest? The fundamental flaw of Mikasa's character is perfection and it works because people tend to drool over this type of shit all the time. Especially in the case of Attack on Titan, where it's not even far-fetched to call the show a global epidemic where people who don't even watch anime regularly tune in to see cartoons battling it out because, hype. No such person cares seeing a complex or relatable cast over unrealistic, Superman-esque characters like Mikasa kicking ass. The most the writer could've hoped to achieve with Mikasa was to use her as a tool for spreading some noble-like message such as female empowerment. Even then -- tough luck little girly, you're never going to be like Mikasa. Mikasa is God.

What happens when you're a realistic character in the Attack on Titan universe? You either get friendzoned because the girl you're into has an incestuous crush on her half-brother, or you're just a total loser who cannot accomplish anything on their own apart from cuddle up in a blanket like the deadweight that you naturally are. Enter Armin, everyone's favorite punching bag. As stated, Armin suffers from the severe deformity known only as "Realism", making him a rather niche and tough character to support in or indulge in. Rather than being portrayed like a constant beacon of light and glamour as say Mikasa, he is instead shown to be a cowardly, weak-willed and frail kid. W-wow, c-c-could it be.. an actual human being? Burn the witch!! While Armin does not represent your wildest power fantasy, he is instead a connoisseur of humanity, a drop of realism and a look at what would have been. Despite proving a much needed breath of fresh air, his character is definitely far from revolutionary. The "weak boy gradually turns strong over time" formula has been done in a multitude of ways, a lot of which proving to be superior than in the case of Armin. However, I've really got no major complaints about his character. Cliche as it may, his development is infinitely more gradual and downright sublime when compared to most everyone else in the show and is probably only hindered by sometimes being overly smart for the sake of it and a lack of screen time. In other news, we also live in a world in which a character that is solely defined for eating potatoes is more universally liked than Armin by the community. Sometimes she eats a boiled potato, sometimes she settles for raw. Bravo, writers. You've really outdone yourselves with that one.

With an increased focus on the supporting cast, you'd think there would be someone worth noting, but there really isn't. We get absolutely no concise development for any of the shapeshifters, nor do we get any clarification as to what their motivates could be. How does Ymir's story intervene with Reiner's? Is Bertholdt even a character? Lastly, this whole "Anyone can die at any given point" gimmick is so untrue and falls completely flat when you realize that not once did a main character die and legitimately stay dead at any given point in the series. It is among the most substanceless claims someone can make about this show. Sure, fodder are often killed. Should you care? No. For a show that tackles a storyline of humanity at the brink of extinction, it sure is unrealistic for none of the main characters to ever actually die. The furthest the show has been willing to go up to this point was Marco, who was in essence a mere stepping stone for Jean throughout the 5 episodes he was in. I hope this false notion of AoT not being scared to kill anyone off disappears soon, because it is easily one of the most backwards things I've ever heard someone say about the show. More on Levi : The show's rising superstar isn't so rising anymore as he is down in the dumps and doesn't seem to be getting up anytime soon. Please check in later. Fin.

While the first season of Attack on Titan had many a gems like "Reluctant Heroes", "Vogel im Käfig" and the Armored Titan theme, this season has.. a remixed version of Vogel im Käfig? I'm gonna be blunt and say that the OST is underwhelming at best and a complete and utter rehash of its predecessor. Not once did I hear a song play and go "Woah! That's a really good song that I just cannot wait to illegally download, awesome!!" like with the first season. I saw the fine folk over at Reddit praising it so maybe I'm just dead wrong, who knows. For argument's sake let's assume that I am 100% in the right and the OST sucks dick and is the most overrated thing since Rem. Anyone with differing opinions may be burned at the stake. DAT VOGEL IM KAFIG REMIX THOOO. I was sold on every performance apart from Kamiya Hiroshi's Levi, because God damn, that man just has no range at all. Good thing he got barely any screentime this time around because honestly, no one wants to hear a brooding Araragi. Coincidentally, I would also argue for this being Yuki Kaji's best performance to date by a longshot, so good on him. Too bad the guy is like the arbiter of bad roles which becomes painfully noticeable once you realize Koichi was the probably the best he's ever been involved in. The ending is quite nice but the opening is very visually questionable, seeing as you have like dinosaurs running around and stuff. If they're so keen on regurgitating songs, maybe they should've just stuck with Guren no Yumiya.

As disappointing as the music is, it completely flails in comparison to the animation. The last thing I would've expected AoT not to deliver on is the production value, but alas, here we are. After an upheaval of 4 years, Wit Studio has repeatedly been milking the saggy tit of this shriveled old cow, and shamelessly so. Even Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress who many, including myself had considered to be Attack on Titan's proudly retarded brother, still proved to be a commercial success within Japan. However, due to the low salary and therefore shortage of animators as well as a scary deadline or some stupid shit, we are left with no one to turn to but CGI. 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘴

Now, this wouldn't have been so bad if it had been reduced to merely a couple of horses running about, but the Colossal titan? The biggest titan known to man looking like he came straight out of a Playstation game? They try covering it up pretty desperately by some cool 3D maneuver gear stunts, but whenever that giant red thing just pops up in the frame it takes me out of the moment entirely whilst completely ruining any immersion that might have previously been had, simultaneously leaving me mesmerized and ashamed to be part of the human race. Lowkey hyperbole aside, it was quite nice to see not as many individual still shots just placed randomly throughout like last season, which is pretty much the only improvement I can name. The titan designs still look as.. "original" as ever, ranging all the way from borderline creepy to mildly autistic, with few and far between.

Attack on Titan used to and still does hold a very special place in a lot of people's hearts for being that one big gateway show. Having watched it right after it finished airing, I still vivdly remember the passion and excitement I once felt towards it oozing out of every single pore of my body. Despite the numerous impressive feats it has managed to accumulate within the industry in terms of both financial value and Westernized viewership, the fact still remains that it is easily one of, if not the single most overrated anime of the past decade. Content-wise it is an absolute shitstain that treats itself way too seriously for its' own good when in reality is nothing more than an inconsistently entertaining dumb turd of an action series. The story is plagued by the author's raging boner for mysteries and unsolved plotpoints combined with annoying and overused distasteful flashbacks and especially cliffhangers that occur every single episode for the majority of the latter half of the season and exist solely to spray perfume over said previously aforementioned smelly turd in hopes of making an abundantly lackluster product seem a bit more refined. A cast of caricatures that by merely existing take a big gnarly dump all over the very concept of character development, with the typical consumer's reaction being, "Man, did you see that? Levi just took out a QUADRILLION titans in the span of 5 seconds, I'm favoriting that man right this very instant !!! Oh, why is Armin scared?" It's a failed rehash of the first season in every way imaginable and doesn't even compare to it in terms of hype or shock factor, the elements that initially gave the series limbs to stand on. Reiner is armored titen cuz he big and Bert is colossal cuz he tall, hurr durr. All in all, disappointing, but not unexpected. Fingers crossed that 2021 will be a better year for anime!

Its actually painful how bad this series, and especially this season, is. I know a lot of people think I'm just being ridiculous and overreacting with a score of 1/10, but lets break this down and look at it piece by piece.

First off, the characters. Honestly how could anyone think any of these central characters are good? Eren is a whiny child who just screams for no reason the entire series, Armin is just unbearable, Mikasa was ok at first but immediately grew dull and boring, both her and Levi are Mary Sues who are inexplicably overpowered for no reason(other than being Asian... yeah that's ... some inexcusably horrible writing right there). You know a series has massive issues when the only semi-likeable character is known for eating potatoes.

Next lets take a look at the concept and plot. The concept by itself isn't terrible, its similar to the beginning of some very good series like Gurren Lagann and Xenoblade Chronicles, but the author doesn't really develop anything from there. Now onto the plot.... It doesn't really have one. I know that seems like an exaggeration but it really isn't. In the first season the only events that pertain even remotely to any kind of central story was that Eren can turn into a titan, and so could others. That's it, that's literally it. That's unacceptable for a 25 episode season. If it had an arc-based story structure like Hunter x Hunter then that would be one thing, but it doesn't. Now in the 2nd season we're getting into all this political bullshit that still has nothing to do with any sort of central story, and even completely caught up in the manga it STILL doesn't have anything close to a central plot yet. I'm sorry but that's just terrible no matter how you look at it. Strangely enough, a large number of fans have told me that the plot is "monsters are eating people"... that's not a plot, that's a concept.

Lets take a look at the actual writing quality. Now this part is mostly subjective but I might as well at least talk about it a little. The dialogue between characters is often incredibly bland and boring, but that pretty much goes along with the before mentioned bad characters. The writing for the plot is practically nonexistent as mentioned before, and the one time the author actually tried to advance the plot, it was done extremely poorly. I’m talking about when a certain someone decided to say “Oh hey btw I’m the armored titan, just thought you should know. Anyways I’m gonna go kill some people now, wanna come?” I’m not exaggerating when I say this is hands down the most horrendously written reveal I’ve ever seen in any form of media. Where was the motivation? Where was the build up? It honestly baffles me that fans are willing to defend this level of writing.

Furthermore, lets look at the method of combat for the series, even though there actually isn't much action throughout most of the series. The grappling hooks and duel wielding swords, admittedly an interesting concept at first glance, but in practice as an anime it just feels so repetitive after the first one or two times its done. They just zip around and go for the neck, zip around and go for the neck again, just the same thing over and over again. Its not clever, its not well written, its just boring. Now as bad as that was, the fact that Eren has the ability to turn into a titan actually makes it much worse. This completely erased the significance of the only decent arc in the entire series, the training camp. This arc was the only time Eren was even a remotely good and interesting protagonist. He struggled in a way that people can relate to, and he worked hard to improve himself when it came to mastering the gear. Then the moment he turned into a titan, all that just got thrown out the window and he's been his old annoying self ever since.

Everyone salivates about the animation quality and soundtrack of the series, particularly from the first season, but animation quality doesn't mean anything when nothing of interest ever happens during the series, and not to mention there has been a pretty sharp decline in animation quality this season. The AoT OST isn't bad in the sense that it created appealing music, but the composer did a horrible job creating music that fits well with the series. I'm convinced the only reason people like this series as much as they do is because of the openings, which make it feel like its an intense action-packed series, when in reality its nothing but a poorly written drama with horrible characters. Seriously, the OST would be better suited for a video of a guy eating hotdogs than AoT itself.

A review of Shingeki no Kyojin S2: We talk too much edition

Some spoilers ahead - either cherish the memory of SnK and remember it as a good anime or watch S2 and be dissatisfied (disappointment levels may wary)

SnK2 is like the anime version of last year's game No Man's Sky, but not in the sense that the game didn't deliver the promises, but in that it was such a huge letdown. Both products were dragged and produced for a long time, both of them were hyped to the next level and both of them disappointed. 1st season of SnK was great - it had a ... very good balance of story, character development and action. SnK2, on the other hand, has failed in all of these aspects. It's a huge mess and it doesn't deliver.

Every story has main points, where it's already decided, what's going to happen at those very points. Everything in-between is filler, not the Naruto type of filler, but the one that expands and branches out the story, further developing it. SnK main points were obvious - Titans suddenly attack, Erin's and Mikasa's mother is killed, they join the army, and so on. Filler tells us about their backgrounds, stories, feelings, adding extra spice to the story (Erin's hate for the Titans, Mikasa's overprotectiveness, etc.). SnK2 has barely any main points, therefore getting these huge gaps, which have to be filled, and boy does the filling stink. We keep all these new facts and information randomly being thrown at us, without the show expanding on them. Oh, there are Titans IN THE DAMN WALL?! No, have this sudden Titan attack, the wall will never get mentioned again. There might be another hole in the wall? Na, we will mention it once it's irrelevant, have this unnecessarily long background story of Sasha which you will forget anyway. This keeps going on for the rest of show, barely any answers are given to various questions from the first season and another 100 is thrown at us in the second. The pacing and random story cuts add even more salt to this, making the narrative very unenjoyable.

So the story is a mess, maybe characters can compensate for this? Nope, everyone just talks a lot. Multiple episodes has everyone talking endlessly until finally we're woken up by a potential action sequence, which then cuts into credits, leaving us confused. And since everyone talks so much, you'd think it's about something important, but trust me, you'll catch yourself skipping through their dialogues because they don't say anything. At first you'll care about what everyone's saying, but later on you'll realize you heard this many times already. Unlike in SnK, SnK2 character development is horrid, filled with tons of unnecessary dialogue and very random background information, which instead of evolving personalities, ruins them.

Appreciate those few action sequences you'll get, because they get replaced by sputter real fast.

So is there anything good about this show? Yes, the art is same as it was in SnK, which is liked by many. Can't say I enjoyed the "Sound" aspect of this show, because it was all just talking.

In conclusion, SnK2 is a huge disappointment, failing to continue the story and further character developement of the first season miserably. If SnK was a well balanced sandwich, SnK2 is a rotten delivery from the start.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS

Well, following my previous review, it's time to make the analysis of the plot holes and other retarded aspects that this season had. So let's go:

1. Kidnapping: At this point, more titan users are revealed. Why didn't these users show their powers or some anticipation about that in the previous season? No fucking idea. The funniest part is that they revealed this detail by themselves, so what was the point of hide this fact? The writer justified this with a double personality of the traitors. This was a fucking nonsense. Also, it seemed that the kidnapped group had super sharpened sense. ... In other words, it is as if they have read the script in advance and know what is going on in the surroundings. How is this possible? Mystery. In addition, the titans had the ability to regenerate, and wait, this concept gonna get worse with certain character that I'm gonna mention later.

2.Flashbacks: Why did the writer put this flashbacks, most of the times, in the middle of the fights? I don't know. It's too anticlimatic. The worst part is that this show, or at least I think, that it had the objective of shock the audience and making things like that is really contradictory. Why they put flashbacks inside the flashbacks? No fucking idea. But it was really fun.

3. Erwin's horse: How it's possible that this little horse was more fast that the titans? I don't know. This challenges the physical laws and logic established in the previous season.

4. Eren being a titan: By far, the worst plot hole of this season. This one alone created several additional plot holes. In my previous review, I've mentioned that were innecesaries deaths during the Levi's Squad appearance. If Eren would have turned into a Titan in that moment, no one would have died, so why didn't do that? I don't know, because according to the established rules of the transformation into a titan, the user needs to be fully regenerated in order to do the transformation and Eren was at his 100% all this time, even in the moment that he made the transformation the first time in the show, it wasn't like some part of his body appeared magically and with that he was just able to make the transformation since that moment. Many people can justify this by saying that Eren was a rookie in the transformation, however the tension and context with the squad was similar, so why here and not in the previous season? Additionally, in the next season, there will be another plot hole that 100% confirmes this one. Also, Eren had the ability to control other titans. Despite that the reason of this was explained in the next season, what prevented them from explaining it in this one? Mystery. It's like the author invented this power up outta nowhere and, later, he had the idea of how justify this when the hype about it have already ended. Talking to the transformation scene, how is it possible that the titan's drastic juices didn't do the least damage to Eren? No fucking idea. How it's possible that Eren, in his human form, was able to open a titan's mouth? I don't know. Another funny aspect was the training before this moment. What was the point to create these strategies if, at the end, the power ups would make the job? Mystery. The writer was able to skip that training and go through the transformation of Eren.

5. Main characters forces: Like the case of Eren, why only him, Mikasa and Levi can defeat other titans without problems? What make them more special than the other characters? Mystery. This trope is classic in other shonen, however, in this one, the author does not even try to justify this and, if he does, it is when this fact no longer has any importance in the plot.

6. The ending: Why didn't the Colossal and/or the Armored appear to stop Eren to put the rock in the wall? I don't know. What a coincidence that the stone was right there so that they can put it on the wall and it is also pure concidience that the stone is just the appropriate size to be able to close the wall. It's crazy how convenient this whole part was.

And that's it for this season. And it's going to get better with more retarded plot holes, more revelations, and more anticlimactic moments. See you in the next season.

The attack on Titans is probably the one of the most famous anime in the history of Anime, the popularity of it cannot be underestimated and just like the Shonen of the old days, attack on Titans provided multiple people a get way into anime, it is a go to anime for many newbies. And with the end of the second season, it is time to reevaluate this anime.

Note: This post may have some spoilers, reader’s discretion is advised.

As a typical Shonen, attack on Titans follows the path of a hero trying to save the whole world with his friends. And unlike a typical Shonen ... attack on Titans uses a reality-based approach to its storytelling, at least until plot demands some Miracle. However, this approach to storytelling is not new to Shonen anime, but it is more refined and mature in the attack on titans than any other shounen anime, well except for hunter x hunter. The Attack on Titan uses the gore and its environment as a tension building equipment, giving the viewer both excitement and suspense at the same time. However, this storytelling method has some shortcomings, it is mainly due to Eren surviving a deadly situation with some stupid super powers and did I tell you that he can now also control Titans, It is so OP that it would put even Madara to shame. This not only breaks the belief of an unforgiving world but also reduces the tension which was build up to this point in the series, with any sense of danger for our heroes gone. This was truly a turning point for the series, as it transitioned from a unique shounen anime to a typical shounen anime where main characters have the power of plot armor and they cannot die. By my view, the story could have continued where Eren’s friends could have continued the fight and rather than using the muscle of Titans they could have used the muscle of their brains at least for once, but no matter it is what it is. This part did not reduce the enjoyment of the series as much as it reduced its uniqueness in my eyes.

Characters in Attack on Titans are quite supportive and rigid, they are there to support the hero, in this case, Eren. It is like that they do not have any personalities but their personalities are lines of supporting Eren in every circumstance. Most of the time it is understandable, but seeing as every character has these characteristics, make those characters bland and boring. It seems like the whole world revolves around Eren which is normally not a bad thing but seeing people supporting him without any consideration of his nature makes me question the logicality of nearly every character in Attack on Titans. As for Eren, he is very typical Shonen Hero, dedicated to his friends, comrades, and to the cause, which he thinks is just but as usual unable to see the bigger picture. After watching so many Shonen anime, at least for me these characteristics of the Hero has become annoying and Eren is no exception to that. Nearly every character well except for potato girl seems bland and nonunique, no characters are genre breaking and lovable at least for me, maybe it is because I watched too much Shonen anime in past which makes me sick of these stereotypes. But for anyone who is new to anime, these characters might be gold. However as Attack on Titans is not a character-centric show these flaws doesn’t affect it as much as it will any other anime.

Well choreographed action and thrill are what makes Attack on Titan good. It is very hard to find a well-choreographed Shonen show as Attack on Titans and mixing it with unique concepts or at least art style and Titan(kind of like Zombies) will put most of the thriller anime to Shame. Fluid actions and unique art style make Attack on Titan very enjoyable show to watch, Attack on Titans may be lackluster in other departments but it is very strong where it should be and that what makes it special. The attack on Titans stays constantly active, moving like a river never giving you chance to be bored, it is attention grabbing and it is very powerful in its visual aspects.

Now let’s talk about the second season a bit, every problem in the first season was transferred to the second season and every strength in the first season was removed from the second season. The first season fails to explain many things and it ended in mystery, the second season tries to alleviate that problem but it fails to do so. The second season is nothing but a massive badly done plot dump and nothing more. The second season also tries to invest in its empty characters, however, there is literally no connection between viewers and characters, there is no reason for you to feel emphatic towards them. I can understand why Mikasa is so obsessed with Eren because of flashback which was given to us, but I can’t understand why in the hell Ymir is so obsessed with Krista. Their character motivation is a just mess, without understanding the past I can’t connect and can’t feel sympathy for either of them. Problems with the second season don’t stop there, while whole season feels like a huge plot dump and boring one at that, they had given 12 episode for explaining the world of Attack on Titan and they couldn’t even manage to do that. It is ridiculous that they had 12 episodes to explain everything and at the end of the series you only manage to answer one question that humans are Titans and which was quite obvious from the start of the series, because what would they be? if not glorified Zombies. Which takes me to the next point.

The concept of Attack on Titans may that be the world, the Titans, 3d maneuver gear, unique art style, fluid fights and detail that they put into every scene is incredible at least in the first season, there is so much potential to be had in the concept of Attack on Titans and not to mention its high budget and truly all these things outmaneuver all these flaws exceptionally, yet I feel that so much potential has been lost in this series and especially in the second season where both action and visuals feel bland. There is not a good amount of thrill like the first season, nither there is incredible detail in the second season and there are no memorable character movements like the in the first season. The attack on Titans just like Sword Art Online took off based on its visuals, action, and concept and this just further proves again how powerful a concept can be to make a anime feel good even when its execution was rubbish.

In the end, Attack on Titans is an average Shonen anime. However, Attack on Titans was able to distinguish itself from your run of the mill Shonen anime with its great visuals, concept, art styles, an unending thrill. In my opinion, it could have been much better if it was able to address these issues which I stated in this post. For me, Attack on Titans is nothing but a Titan in the chain.

By seeing the rating I’ve gave this show with such praise beyond the anime community, I’m sure many must think I’m just another “mainstream anime hater”. I assure you that I have a good reason for giving this show the rating of 3.

First of all, I’m going to be talking about the series as a whole (from season 1-3 part 1(ep 1)) because though I’ve only seen one ep of this season, i still want to cover this anime.

Let’s begin, I’ve seen so many people say that this anime is great and that it really has nothing wrong with it but I honestly hate ... this anime. When watching it, I couldn’t even bare to watch it, I was getting distracted because I found it extremely boring. Weird,huh? An anime with such heavy action and I find it boring? I honestly think that there’s way tooo much action, that when it come to the dialogue or just scenes where they’re not fighting titans or people aren’t dying, I get extremely bored and just get distracted. Which I completely hate since then I won’t be able to know what’s going on in the anime. Long story short, this anime has a horrible time trying to balance action and dialogue.

Also, the characters are nothing special. We have a guy who yells, a “badass”, another “badass female”, a shy dude.. you basically see my point by now, the characters are something you can see in every.single.anime. At this point it’s getting annoying. Especially since yet again, they’re so highly praised.

Alright, I’m gonna end my review here.. I understand if you love/like this anime, that’s completely fine. Just wanted to say my opinion, hopefully no ones butthurt but yeah- have a nice day

P.S. sorry if any of my spelling, grammar or anything else is horrible. I’m not used to writing reviews and I’m improving on that fact. Hopefully you understand

P.P.S. This review was initially going to be for season 3 part 1 but I was critiquing it based on one episode, which I found wasn’t fair.

My review: 3/10

I highly enjoyed the first season of AoT -- I felt it started stronger than it finished but it was still quite good.

I was looking forward to the second season, but it felt lacking most of the time. Some plot twists were interesting, but could've been executed better. I didn't remember half the characters from the first season (to my own fault), so some of their interactions left me feel a bit out of the loop. There were a few engaging scenes, particularly the fight sequences, and I'm a fan of the art style as ever. Hype intro song.

Overall the main issue is that I ... just felt very little attachment to anything going on in the story; characters had iffy motives that I couldn't really sympathize with. It wasn't quite the "pageturner" that the first season was. Wasn't worth the wait. :P Though I'm still invested enough to watch the eventual Season 3, you could say I wasn't a GIANT fan of season 2. :P

First off, let me say, I'm not ripping on the second because it "didn't live up". The review is simply based on the overall, actual mechanics and execution which I felt was extremely poor; especially compared to the first season. I was a huge fan of the first season, mainly because the production was of such high quality. Regarding the second season, that quality simply isn't there. I will explain in detail in each subsection while keeping it spoiler free.

Story:
The first half of season 2 has no consistent sense of time; the narrative jumps all over the place leaving the viewer confused and agitated. Essentially, ... I felt like the beginning half was just a series of subplots stitched together haphazardly. I have never felt more agitated and irritated watching an anime. The root cause of this agitation was simply because the narrative refuses to give you any relief of anticipation. It just keeps building tension and more tension without giving the viewer any release or even any expectation of a release. After about the halfway point, the plot finally starts unfolding but honestly, not even in an interesting way. Literally, the least interesting way possible (you'll know what I mean). As a result, it felt like the action sequences had no sense of purpose anymore. Also, any sense of character unity that was prevalent in the first season starts crumbling apart. In short, the second season has some serious pacing problems coupled with uninteresting plot development. It's like the writers were trying to make the plot interesting by artificially injecting a sense of anticipation and the result is just a viewer who gets let down.

Art:
Given the spectacular art in the first season, I did NOT think the second season would pull some of the s*!t it did. Excessive use 3D models with terrible motion on top of it. Dark, muddled environments gave it a medieval look... but honestly, RuneScape did it better.
Parts of the anime are gorgeous while other parts look worse than a video game from the late 1990s. The colossal titan was modeled and animated fully in 3D at one point and it looked terrible; my jaw dropped. This is not even close to the same quality of art as in the first season. The 2D art maintained its look but I could see that they did their best to cut corners. Less landscapes, less close ups, less color contrast and just less complex 2D animation overall. Towards the end of the season, that began to change but for 3/4ths of the season it's pretty obvious.

Sound:
This is the one area that kept up well and probably actually outperformed the first season in my honest opinion. The beautiful piano etudes during emotional (and action) scenes, the clever use of shepard tones to build tension and anticipation during down time, the music kicking in right at the perfect moment of action; the type that gives you goose bumps. Attack on Titan 2's music and sound team pulled off a great feat and honestly, it's one of the only reasons it kept this anime in the "epic" category for me.

Character:
As I mentioned in the story part above, the one of the biggest downfalls in the plot is the lack of character unity and character purpose. Only a few supporting characters really get developed while the rest are forgotten about and get barely any screen time. The whole aspect of a character using their "cleverness" or "what makes them unique" is thrown away for a titan brawling s%^t-show. It's the same trap that many shonen series find themselves in as their plots progress. It goes from being "weak character(s) using clever, interesting solutions" to "ridiculous OP characters using raw power and all the useless, supporting characters watching in awe".

Enjoyment:
I enjoyed watching it. I wasn't particularly upset with the overall plot. I just wasn't expecting the series to turn out the way it did and it didn't have the same animation and story telling quality I was expecting from the first season.

Overall:
Fun to watch and glad to get more of the story. It has it's disappointments being plagued with pacing problems, bad art direction, and lackluster character development. It it makes up for it with the epic nature of the plot and with some seriously fantastic sound and music design/execution. As such, i'll give it an overall rating of 4 (Decent).

I loved season 1 but season 2 of Attack on titan was really bad. I do not recommend anyone wasting time watching season 2.
I was always waiting for the hype of Eren that never came.
The season was just about some drama/lesbian love romance that never came to anything. The intro was showing monsters that never came in the season and compared to season 1 that I would give 9/10, I give this season 2/10 score because it just sucked.
I think the makers of Attack on titan should try to improve the story, not making the story about some new lesbian characters.

My season 2 ... expectations were that it would be very dark and about surviving in a unknown world of titans, were Eren would play the main role and try to save his friends by fighting off titans from other parts of the world and gain more power, getting more clues about what is actually happening in that world and how mankind will survive.

Shingeki no Kyojin is one those success that I really don't understand. I feel like it is popular only because it is ruthless with its characters (which I also enjoy).
But aside from that, this anime (along with its original manga) is full of flaws which I simply can't ignore.


STORY
The story keeps changing its course. It first starts as a fight for survival, as the rest of humanity has been surrounded by cruel Titans. They can live only thanks to miraculous walls, but even these can't stand forever.
But then, the MC, Eren, suddenly gets the power of a powerful Titan ; the story then becomes a ... fight to rescue the princess (because yes, Eren is like Princess Peach : he keeps getting abducted and the others have to save him).
And now in the manga, the story changed its course again...
This is the very first problem of the story of SNK. But this is not the worst.

Then, there is the narration. There are WAYS to tell a story. For example, when you start a plot, you don't press pause on it for an entire season. Or, when you use flashbacks or timelapses, you don't do it just randomly.

Basically, there are some mistakes to avoid so that the told story doesn't come out as confuse and out of the place. Sadly, SNK made ALL of those mistakes. Flashbacks and timelapses are used randomly. Many plots are left aside for a while (hey, remember Annie?). Revelations are not put in evidence.

In the end, this is the true face of SNK : a confused story which keeps changing its course and is narrated in the most horrendous way (=randomly).


ART
On this point, there would be a lot to tell.
- First, the environments are stunning. Probably the best we can see in current anime.
- Too bad the environments are not what we focus on. The focus is on the characters, and sadly, the chara-design is horrendous. The outline is TOTALLY IRREGULAR, as if the characters were cut and paste by 5-years old. This really destroys the visuals, as it feels more like characters paste ON the environment instead of characters INSIDE the said environment. Basically, that one problem destroys the immersion.
- Then, the light effects are awesome, nothing to blame here.
- Finally, the animation is on top! The action scenes are great... BUT... way too rare. And this is the main problem in the whole anime industry : most of the time, when the animation is great, there are actually VERY FEW animated scenes. SNK is no exception, as we have to wait for 5 episodes to get 5 minutes of awesome fights. The rest is almost just still pictures.

Overall, the light effects and environments are stunning, but the rest is full of flaws.


SOUND
The OST is great, and the openings are legendary.


CHARACTER
This is by far the worst aspect of this anime. The characters have barely known any sort of progress except for Eren which does get through a lot of different emotional states. The rest is just blend.
Mikasa and Livai are often treated as awesome, but let's be honest : their ONLY trait is that they're badass. Aside from that, they're empty OP characters. Mikasa even gets annoying with all her "Eren! Eren! Eren!".


ENJOYMENT
I'm sure many people think I overreacted. That may be true, but for my defense, they themselves have also overreacted. SNK is nothing special. Its being ruthless is great, but it is so full of flaws that we can't simply ignore. The story is a huge mess and the chara-design is terrible.
I don't understand how it could be so popular except for the constant violence.

I’m sad. I thought that this season opened well with the first episode. The different titan that shows up in the beginning is mysterious and interesting. But I got more and more bored (and disappointed) as it went on. At the end we still don’t know any more about him. Let’s hope this changes in the next season.

I feel like a lot of stupid things happen in this season. The first one is that when they have to explore the wall they “don’t have time” to put on their gear. They are potentially going on a mission involving lots of dangerous Titans without their ... regular equipment? This is basically suicide and is soely done to increase the drama later on.

The second thing is that the people responsible for destroying the wall in the first place simply confess. It’s shown that one of them has gone somewhat insane but it’s no excuse. The reveal, of the culprits of the infamous first episode in the first season, is lame. A big disappointment. And we still don’t know exactly why they did it.

The third thing is what happens to Erwin in the second to last episode. This comes out of nowhere, serves no purpose and is, you guessed it, stupid. Why? To make him seem courageous? To make him seem heroic? He looked dumb. It is a wonder it hasn’t happened earlier if he was this incompetent.

This season also suffers from slow pacing. Not that many things happen. As opposed to the first season (where the slow pacing was due to mood), the fault lies in backstories. There are backstories for a few different characters. And they are explained just in time before the information conveyed in them becomes relevant. An example is in the middle where Eren is fighting one of the Titans and suddenly remembers a move he learned while in training. We have never seen this before and it feels like a deus ex machina. Although it doesn’t help him in the end, its backstory is shoehorned in just before it becomes relevant.

This last point is a nitpick, but why switch up the recap and intro order? The first season did this well. It always had recap in the beginning, then intro and then the new episode began. Perfect. How is this season doing it? It is different every episode. Sometimes there is new material in the beginning, followed by an intro and then recap. Sometimes new and old is mixed up before the intro. Why force me to struggle through the beginning every episode?

So I mostly dislike this season more than the first. But the animation and sound (especially the opening) are still great. I’m also still anticipating how everything is going to be explained and tied together later. That’s something that both this and the previous season lacks. Motivations and explanations.

i was really looking forward to the second season of Shingeki no Kyojin, however i was in an unpleasant surprise because i was disappointed in the lack of fighting scenes and well executed combat scene, as shown in the last season.
The Plot was balanced around their politics and was well executed in this section.
Shingeki no Kyojin
The second season of Shingeki no Kyojin is nothing for me and if you are into fighting animes, its nothing for you either. The production quality of Attack on Titan's second season is a major downgrade from the first's. I really did not enjoy watching the second season compared to ... the exitement i felt when i watched the first season.
To sum it all up nothing was particularly well done. The story and execution was decent and sometimes underperforming.

As I really enjoyed the first season of AoT, I was really looking forward to season 2.
All the characters involved were kind of interesting. Except of Eren.
This continues. As a person Eren is one of the most useless guys ever be on screen. He has Titan superpowers. That`s his only reason that he must live.

INstead of forcing the main story, get more background of the TItans, the city, the conspiracy, history of all, etc.

No! We are forced to watch the story of Ymir and Christa. Damn it! That`s one bunch of crap!
Yes, No, I can`t, is this the truth, I lied to me, ... to everybody bla bla....

Reiner and Berthold have potential, but at least one of them should have died, and some more story to them would have been helpful.

The whole season felt like a huge filler episode. The main red-line is still interesting and hopefully well crafted next season.

In fact it`s very clever. Season 2 was so bad that season 3 can only be amazing. The open story lines can only get good with teh 3rd one.

Other than the male x male shipping, I am not finding many reasons to like this show anymore.

Half of the season is practically a collection of cliche action scenes. People teleport from the sky to save the day, others swing in the sky with spider-man gears, evil people sit on the face of someone just to prove that they indeed evil, Levi declares he is an insane badass by committing an act that distantly resembles the twisting of an arm. So fucked up! I am scared, literally how can man be this insane. Please, no, not the arm.

The other half is practically a parody of ... politics except the narrative itself doesn't recognize this lameness as a parody. People with might and power declare a thing, but another thing happens -- much like with the teleporting nakama in the action side -- other big guys teleport whenever important decisions are supposed to be made. Essentially every part of the politics is so one-dimensional it hurts and serves as an excuse to create more bullshit to fill the story with. These vary from random kidnapping incidents to people thinking one of their nakama dies if they don't hurry up. I am not sure how exactly am I supposed to be fooled by this when it is clear plot-armors in the series are thicker than the walls itself.

The best part of this show are the supposedly evil people and "our" enemies. Whenever our main squad gets called subhumen or pseudo-soldiers by them, I agree whole-heartedly. The opposing party did nothing wrong when looking down on our plebeian children at arms. Which this show really is all about. Some kids acting like they matter, fighting against titans or being titans or hiding from titans behind walls made of titans. At least the first season was fun to watch because it was a complete disaster and so overboard idiotic. This isn't even ironically fun anymore. More meaningless events one after another.

This season doesn't achieve anything. It's just Eren being chained half the time + farming, characters pondering over some action for half an episode each episode just to see the thing itself never happening. It's all false tension, all words no reward, no payout. Boring substance that is repetition of the same over and over while the fallacy that something might actually happen being there to fool those who are still buying this. Oh no, titan appears for the 700th millionth time, what a shock, I wonder which one of the two things that ever happen when a titan appear, happens this time around. Literally can't wait for the next cour.

most overrated show ever. one of the worst i have watched.
the only good thing about this show is perhaps the animation style, drawings, and OSTs but that’s about it.
i finished an entire season and a half and the characters are as interesting as a brick wall. it’s one thing to not know much about a character’s history or background (totally understandable especially if there aren’t too many episodes) but it’s another when you aren’t able to describe your main character’s’ personalities into any characteristics: only meaningful scenes we have of scenes relating to this is of eren screaming and crying uselessly, mikasa saving him, levi’s ... monotone face other than that? not much.
another thing i didn’t like is how gloomy this show is. it’s incredibly depressing and dark, which might be important considering the plot but holy does it make it unbearable to keep up with.