Spoiler free, although you should know the story by now.
Coming from such an intense and thrilling manga series, the anime adaptation for Shingeki no Kyojin had quite a lot of expectations to live up to. I believe that it has met them in high standards.
Story: 9/10
What I admire most about SnK is its ability to successfully and carefully demonstrate the notions of war and conflict. SnK is able to portray the many aspects and themes of war and conflict such as futility of war, human sacrifice (by this, I mean sending countless men and women to battle only leading to their inevitable death in the front lines), glorification and romanticisation of war by those who know nothing of the harsh realities of it, personal battles of the individual (this especially evident in Eren's development throughout the series), ethics and morality, as well as the negative consequences of war on the lifestyle in the home fronts. All of this set in a fictional Western European world. I recommend reading the poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon to further appreciate the brilliance SnK has achieved to explore the previously listed themes.
Art: 9/10
The art was definitely candy to the eyes. It was satisfying to see incredible battle sequences between the army and the titans. I particularly loved the attention to detail in animation of the 3D Manoeuvre Gear. Character designs were also to be applauded for.
Sound: 10/10
The voice acting cast are to be commended. Being a big fan of the manga, I was impressed with how fitting the voice actors were for their characters, especially for Eren and Hanji.
The soundtrack to this anime is brilliant, one of my favourites. Hiroyuki Sawano does an excellent job to just intensify any scene. A few tracks in the German language just add onto the atmosphere to the setting of the anime, giving the audience a more thrilling experience.
Also, both opening sequences (especially Guren no Yumiya) by Linked Horizon may be one of the best opening sequences ever. The songs were so catchy and while I usually watch through all OPs of any anime I watch, it should be illegal to skip SnK's openings (and endings).
Character: 10/10
Similar to the story section of my review, I admire how SnK has been able to successfully show how war and conflict impacts the individual, in more ways than one. It was interesting to see how the events of the story affected each character and how it adds to their development. You have someone who struggles to find what is right and what is wrong as well as having an enormous amount of responsibility on their shoulders. You have someone who excels in learning and sensibly adapts to any situation. You have a strong willed, stereotype breaking, and brave female who is able to find strength in the worst of times. Then you have a few characters who lose their humanity, in order to save humanity altogether. As well as the relationship of the characters amongst each other, the titans, the townspeople and the mysterious father, it is a well-balanced group of characters.
Enjoyment: 10/10
I thoroughly enjoyed this, more than I thought I would. Each episode leaves me emotional and wanting more. The pace of the story, especially in the second arc, was done well.
Overall: 10/10
I can't say anymore for this anime. It was just brilliant. That's all there is to it.
Personally, I'm a big history buff and because of that, the whole notion of war and conflict in this anime was very pleasing and satisfying. SnK achieves so much in such little time it has and I commend it for that. Depending on how the series will end on Sunday (I have a few guesses), it has a lot of space and opportunity to continue onto a second season which I have no doubt would be as astonishing as the first.
I definitely recommend this series to anyone and everyone!
