The plot is essentially everything changed when the firenation attacked. Be prepared for time skips that are pretty irrelevant and could have been summed up within a five minute prequel at the beginning of the first episode. They seem to have taken manga to anime to heart in its entirety, and so pacing that worked well in the manga doesn't work as well in the anime and tends to drag it along.
The art is rather sub-par at some points and great at others. Its a weird blend of 3d animation and 2d, but it tends to work nicely in most scenes. However, when characters are standing there and the thick lines contrast against the nicely fine lined backgrounds, it tends to be a distraction. The titans are probably what stands out the most as something really well developed in this anime. They look grotesque, you don't want to look at them because they are so uncomfortable, and that's AOTs main saving grace.
The characters are a mix of good and bland. The main character is a typical naruto-type trope, dim witted and pretty useless until they've written themselves into a corner and then he's just the man you need. His two best friends, sakura(armin) and sasuke(mikasa), are also pretty just as stereotypical. A lot of characters they dont really develop and then end up having something awful happen to them a few episodes later, leaving the audience really confused with how they're supposed to feel. Its like an action anime trying to become a drama and its doing so very clumsily.
The pacing is also rather interesting. Minus the unnessecary time skips, you also have a lot of black and white in one episode. Characters will gain courage, something happens, characters lose courage and everything is back to point a. In an episode this will happen about two or three times, which is odd considering how short the episode lengths are.
Another small saving grace is the fact that what's going to happen in the end is pretty obscure. You can't figure it out exactly just by watching the anime, even though im 90% sure its going to be the colossal titan appears again and then ~*~something really cool happens~*~ but because its so hard to guess, it makes watching somewhat worth it.
