★★★☆
Everyone’s heard of this so I don’t have a lot to add. No snarky comments, no witty remarks. I’m sure someone wants me to tear this apart for being overrated and overhyped; that it’s actually a really terrible show like Sword Art Online, and anyone who likes it must be a goddamn commoner with shit taste. It’s so popular it’s getting a Marvel comic crossover.
It has a great premise. It’s exciting and suspenseful. It manages to make silly looking giants genuinely scary, and so it does a good job of creating tension. It gives you little bits about its world like history and how its technologies work. Though, it has two major flaws.
The characters are a little shallow, but they’re serviceable. There’s a huge cast so you’ll find someone you like even if it’s just for their quirk. The main character is annoying—which in itself isn’t bad. I’d rather have a main character that makes me feel strongly about them than a vanilla, blank slate. I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt that he purposely chose such a main character. It’s a bold move, and that’s respectable. If you do find a lot of the characters irritating then good news because they become much more tolerable later on. Plus, because the cast is so big the irritating characters are balanced out by more sane ones.
The biggest issue is the pacing. There are 25 episodes and it could’ve been cut down because there are too many slow moments for such an exciting premise. The moments that you do want to see are just glossed over, and there’s too much talking when it could’ve just been shown. Even some of the moments that are intentionally exciting feel stretched out. I’m constantly reminded of The Walking Dead TV series where parts in the comic that took a few pages are stretched out for a whole episode.
And fuck if the opening isn’t exciting.
The material is good, no arguments. If it had fixed its character and pacing issues then this seriously could’ve been a legendary show. Probably in the top 10 of all time.
