"Attack on Titan" was one of the first anime I ever watched, and to this day it still stands as one of my favourites. It's really hard to say just how much I love it, because there are so many reasons it stands out that they're very hard to choose from. Whether it's the show's emotion-filled story, amazing animation, incredible music or fantastic characters, "Attack on Titan" succeeds in being an outstanding series in just about everything it does. In short, "Attack on Titan" is a masterpiece and I consider it to be by no means a stretch to call it one of (if not the) best anime of this decade.
Story & World (10/10):
"Attack on Titan" is set in a dystopia where humans constantly live in fear of the titular Titans, giant humanoid creatures who drove them to extinction practically overnight and forced them to live behind enormous walls. These creatures are monsters. That really is the only way I can describe them, they're monsters! There's no rhyme or reason to anything they do. They appear to have no intelligence, don't even seem to be properly alive, devour humans by the dozens out of sheer pleasure rather than hunger and some of them even have their faces locked in permanent hideous smiles which makes them all the more terrifying. After a century of being separated from humanity by the walls, the Titans finally break through and our main character, Eren Yeager, is forced to watch helplessly as his mother gets brutally devoured by one of the behemoths. Plagued with anger and regret, Eren makes a solemn vow to exterminate the entire lot and win a new future for humanity and so decides to enlist in the army (specifically the Scout Regiment) in order to do so, with his childhood friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert joining him, albeit for different reasons.
This is definitely far from your average military story. Soldiers in this series are viewed as anything but pawns. The people view every single one of them as nothing less than a human being and so view every death as tragic and important, which only makes sense considering how few humans there are left. It's at the point where they can't even call victory an accomplishment if they have to endure so many sacrifices in order to achieve it. This is all made clear by the speech of a single supporting character in one episode, and it does an amazing job at fleshing out the world these people live in.
The pacing of the story is overall really good, with one notable exception, and the amount of suspense and massive surprises made me almost forget how to breathe several times. There are a lot of things that go unexplained in the first season, but the second delivers with a bunch of shocking revelations, with a third season on the way soon. Ultimately, an emotional, very deep and brilliantly well-thought-out story.
Art and Animation (10/10):
The animation is near-flawless. I don't think I can name a better looking anime because the amount of detail in everything is astonishing. As I said before, the Titans are absolutely terrifying, no small thanks to their fantastic design. In fact, everything looks incredible, from the humans to the environments to the equipment, with an interesting combination of traditional Japan animation and computer-generated images. The animations are all flawless and, almost uniquely, the fanservice is non-existent, which is a good thing as it really wouldn't fit with this type of show.
Sound & Dialogue (10/10):
I really don't think 10 does this justice. The soundtrack is THAT good. Practically every track is both noteworthy and memorable and they always play at exactly the right time. The openings are both amazing and the ending themes aren't bad either. I would definitely recommend you look up "Vogel I'm Kafig", "E.M.A" and "Call Your Name" just to see how fantastic they are. This is quite possibly the best soundtrack for an anime I've ever heard. The voice acting is fantastic too. This is one of the few instances where I would recommend the sub over the dub, as Yuki Kaiji, Yui Ishikawa and Marina Inoue all deliver fantastic performance as the lead trio, complimented by a strong supporting cast including Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Ono. Of course, good voice acting is nothing without good dialogue and this series has no shortage of that. In fact, it's really hard to pick the lines that stand out because there are just so many to choose from. They really do an amazing job at subtly fleshing out both the world and the characters.
Characters (9.5/10):
On the surface, Eren seems like your typical shonen protagonist but there's far more to him than a guy who wants to kill Titans and save the human race. He wanted to join the Scout Regiment even before his mother's death, as he wants to see the outside world as he hates the idea of being confined in what's basically a cage. Killing Titans just became another reason for him. We also learn that he's not only angry that he couldn't save his mother, but that he argued with her to the bitter end and didn't even realise how much she meant to him until she was gone. Through conversations with others, we also learn that Eren is among the small minority of people who can witness the horrors of the Titans and turn that experience into a desire to fight them, which disgusts him as he believes the fight isn't over until the last human gets killed. And let's not even get started on his will. Seriously, at times his determination could put even the likes of Goku to shame. Unfortunately, this is a world where charging in on determination alone will just get you killed, and so Eren needs a lot of support from allies to really accomplish anything and, even then, he still makes a lot of mistakes along the way that haunt him for long after.
Despite all this, Eren is not my favourite character in the series. That honour goes to Mikasa, who besides being one of Eren's childhood friends is also his adoptive sister, taken in by Eren's family one year before the beginning of the story. At first, Mikasa comes off as an overprotective sister, insisting on accompanying Eren practically everywhere he goes, an habit he generally views as annoying. In fact, she joined the military solely because of him, knowing he wouldn't last a single fight without her. However, her motivations become clear in episode 6 and this and the following two episodes do a brilliant job at fleshing out her character. Her reasons only make more sense if you've done your research on Japanese culture. The Japanese moral character is built upon four subjects: reciprocity, piety, duty and compassion, and I won't spoil why, but Mikasa is largely driven by the former two. However, she's the only Asian in an otherwise Western setting so it's only natural that Eren and the other characters would find her devotion so strange, which I must admit is pretty damn ingenious. As for her talents, well, she makes the other soldiers look borderline useless, taking down multiple Titans completely by herself while others have struggled to take down even one. That's not to say she's perfect. She's far from it, in fact. Whenever Eren is in danger, she frequently loses all sense of reason and attacks the ones responsible in a panicked rage, which is saying a lot considering she's disturbingly calm in every other situation. All in all, she is not only my favourite character in the series, but also one of my favourite animated characters of all time.
Rounding up the main cast is Armin, Eren and Mikasa's best friend. While Eren and Mikasa had a hard time in the past and became who they are now, Armin grew up weak, cowardly and having a very low opinion of himself, believing he's just a burden. Needless to say, much of his development revolves around him overcoming this and gaining more self-confidence, though ultimately he's more of a strategist than a fighter. While I didn't like him nearly as much as Mikasa or Eren, he's still a very good character, as well as proof that you don't have to be a badass to be useful.
The supporting cast is very strong as well. There's Captain Levi, one of the leaders of the Scout Regiment who is viewed as humanity's strongest soldier, but is also a neatfreak and brutally honest. There's also Jean, who is introduced as arrogant and cowardly (he's established as telling Eren that fighting the Titans is suicide) but gradually develops into an honourable man through personal tragedy, Sasha, who's pretty air-headed but also one of the nicest characters as well as one of the few sources of comic relief in the series, Hanji, who is a serious oddball and enthusiastic about Titans. and numerous others who are best left unmentioned. What stops this category from getting full marks is that it tends to focus on a select few while leaving everyone else in the dust. Overall, however, the characters are brilliant with very interesting and believable personalities.
Enjoyment (9/10):
Word to the wise: this is an extremely hard-going series. If the concept alone isn't proof that this series isn't for the faint of heart, the enormous amount of deaths (a lot of which are established characters) definitely is. While the battles are nothing if not entertaining, we are pretty much talking about a hopeless battle, which only gets slightly less hopeless later on. Too much for you? If so, then you're probably not going to like this series. If you can get past this, however, then it is very enjoyable with plenty of twists and turns and some truly glorious and memorable battles
Overall:
"Attack on Titan" is an incredible, deep series with an amazing soundtrack, great characters and a strong plot. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind having their feelings played with, particularly anyone who likes dark fantasies and dystopias. In fact, I would say that everyone should at least try this series if they haven't already, just so they can see why it's so popular. It's hard to believe that the series is far from over. If it keeps up the quality for the next season and the possible ones that follow, it could very well be this decade's answer to "Fullmetal Alchemist". In short, one of the greatest anime ever made in my opinion
Score:
10+10+10+9.5+9=48.5/50=9.7/10
