Feb 15, 2021
Spoilers ahead for Attack on Titan, and I have not read the manga.
Story: 10
Attack on Titan started of as a simple yet intriguing story of a dystopian society in which humanities last survivors are forced to live inside of walls due to a larger predator, titans. The first season serves the purpose of introducing the world and its mysteries, and after that what seems to be a zombie story with a slight twist, becomes a complex story with political conflict both internal and external, developing interesting themes throughout, such as freedom, facism (particularly the friend and enemy distinction), racism and others. In the beggining, our
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protagonists fight for survival, a straightforward idea, that by most peoples standards is totally correct from a moral perspective. Not only that, but the government also uses this enemy as a means to ensure peace within the walls, preventing fighting between humans, since they are united towards this common foe. But, as the show progressess, the line between friend and enemy, good and evil, becomes indistinguishable, you find out humans can turn into titans, the government is keeping secrets from the people, and stoping their attempts at true freedom, and finally, you find out titans are actually inocent people, who had a cruel fate because of their human oppressors. Not only is the story interesting in itself, it is also executed to perfection through the use of foreshadowing and parallels. If you look back on the show, there is a lot of foreshadowing that most viewers probably missed on their first watch. Events that happened in season 4 were being hinted at in the first episode, this subtle foreshadowing is great for the show, since it is not enough to completely give away future events. but it isn't too little that it makes major plot twists seem cheap or "asspulls". Furthermore, parallels are used to show the moral ambiguity of the whole situation, without the need of the characters needing to say that, or getting exposition dumps and lectures on ethics.
Art: 9
The 2d scenes are amazing, they are fluid and the color palette helps the tone and atmosphere the show tries to convey. On the other hand, while the 3d animation isn't perfect, it is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, it's true that on ep 6 the warhammer and attack titans looked slightly off, but this is fixed in ep 7. The jaw, cart and armored titans have looked great throughout, and the little we have seen of the colossal looks better than wits colossal (not to say wits animation was bad by any means, it was also great).
Characters: 10
Seeing the growth of the main cast throughout the seasons has been great. You can definately see how everything they have gone through has changed them. Reiner serves as an amazing foil to Eren, as they have both been changed by the blurring lines between friends and enemies, albeit in completely opposite ways. Characters that had been fairly stagnant, such as Hange and Conny, are finally starting to develop more. Also, the interactions between characters have been amazing. This tough situation that our protagonists have been put through have really pushed their respective development, highliting everyones ideals, it has been extremely interesting to see everyones thoughts on the cycle of violence, and the nuances of the outside world.
Soundtrack: 10
The same bangers from the first 3 seasons, plus the new track "ashes on the fire". Each track does an excellent job at provoking the emotion it wants to, and setting the correct tone, furthermore, the timing at which each song has been played is impecable, and the selections have been just as good.
Tone: 10
Unlike other anime, AoT does a fantastic job at separating its serious sceanes from the lighthearted ones, the tone of the show becoming darker has not meant that funny interactions between characters have been comletely scraped, but they are moderate, and well placed, which serves to remind us that our protagonists, and the warriors/ candidates are all human, and that they want to be happy just as much as everyone. But, when the tone needs to be darker, it is executed perfectly, through dialogue, visuals, and music.
Overall, AoT is an anime that has just gotten better, a gift that keeps on giving, and it will definately not go down as a legendary modern classic just because of popularity, but also because of its amazing quality in every aspect, it is an amazing epic tale, with a sublime execution, as long as it sticks the landing in the final episodes of course. We will have to wait and see.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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