Story: 30/37
The actual story of Shingeki no Kyojin is... well, a lot better than it sounded to me at first. While the idea of mankind being held in check by some alien force is not in any way new, this series handles it extremely well, and really can make you paranoid at times. That is to say, the titans, for the most part, really do feel threatening. Unfortunately, there are some major pacing issues in this anime. Shingeki no Kyojin starts out pretty fast paced, while still giving you adequate information to understand what's going on. That's not easy to do, and it does that very well. However, after the first half of the “first season”, things go downhill. There are some great moments scattered throughout the episodes filling up the middle and latter sections of season one, but there just aren't enough to justify how slow some things seem to get done. Fortunately, this is remedied towards the end of season one with the introduction of a few great characters, and some key story-line points that, actually, make a lot of sense and are well done. However, season two continues this offense by starting out great, ending good, but not having good meat in between point A and point B. The idea is that all humans are confined to one massive city surrounded by three circular walls, with parts of the city in between each wall. This being said, the area of this really can't be that massive, and when, in season 2, they announce what their goal is, it feels pretty easily accomplished. However, in the remaining 10 episodes of the season, they never even get reasonably close to reaching this, and instead are sidetracked, although I will admit that at least the sidetracking is important and relatively well done. If this review is making me sound like I hate the story, I don't. I think it's one of the better stories as well as good story-telling for MOST of it, but there are just some parts that feel extremely rushed or extremely slow, for little to no reason.
Characters: 23/37
Well, here is the single reason I don't like this show that much, and it shows by how many points are being docked. I would be lying if I said there weren't any fantastic characters in Shingeki no Kyojin, because most of the side characters are good, Mikasa Ackerman, one of the three main characters, is fantastic, and everyone's favorite: Captain Levi is also a great character. Unfortunately, this possibly good total cast is absolutely ruined by the main character of the series: Eren Yeager. Now, I have watched a lot of Slice of Life genre anime, and many of those are known for having awful, dense, un-interesting male leads, but Eren Yeager is in his own league. At lesat characters like King Joffrey from Game of Thrones are fun to hate. They are genuinely amazing parts, just evil characters. Eren is not fun to hate. He's annoying, constantly feels like he needs to get angry at everything, and thinks he's just going to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. It's absolutely childish and painful to watch. To make matters worse, the third of the trio of main characters, Armin is also annoying and whiny. Granted, both of these characters get SLIGHTLY better, but I will never be able to think of either of them as anything but annoying bitches unless some serious development goes down. As if all of this isn't enough, the worst part about it all is that the third main character, the female lead is absolutely great, and always goes out of her way to help Eren out of his own messes. And what does she get? Not a SINGLE, not ONE, thank you for the entire 26 episode series. Eren just brushes it off like he's entitled to her and deserves nothing less than to be pampered by his loyal friend. Enough about Eren though, the rest of the characters are pretty good. The aforementioned Mikasa Ackerman is a very good character, as well as Levi, once he's introduced that is. There are other great ones, but none worth mentioning.
Art/Sound: 25/25
Honestly, if I put more of an emphasis on animation quality than character development (which, in my opinion, would be pretty dumb), Shingeki no Kyojin would receive a vastly different score. For every flaw in character quality, the art and sound makes up for it. This series has by far the best soundtrack in anime, and has probably the best animation I have ever seen, even trumping the June 2014 anime that I am currently watching. I cannot say enough good things about the animation quality, sound or art, so I won't, and I'll let you see how awesome it is.
Romance: 0/1
This section is basically whether or not there was a romance that I enjoyed. Sorry if this is a spoiler, but I particularly enjoy watching a romance develop, and I wished that other reviews would tell me if I was going to get to see one.
Overall: 78/100
Shingeki no Kyojin rubs me the wrong way, so take this score with a grain of salt, but I think that the show is incredibly over-rated and needs to get the Sword Art Online treatment a bit. Everything about it is so awesome... except arguably the single most important things such as good pacing, or even bearable characters. If you can get past the main character, Eren Yeager, you will most likely enjoy this show vastly, as that alone would probably add 10 points onto the score.
Deductions in points from the score are my attempt at being as objective as I can, but they will be listed here in case anyone reading this cares more or less about anything I take points away from:
-The story has some minor, but still jarring pacing issues, and there are some parts that don't feel well put together
-Eren Yeager is an atrocious character, and never should have existed let alone as a male lead.
If you have any questions about my review (or want to talk about anything at all, really), feel free to email me at: nickwillis64@gmail.com
