While this review might be a couple years late considering when Shingeki no Kyojin (often referred to as Attack on Titan), I think with the delays of season 2’s production and such, this isn’t a bad time to look at the first season.
Summary (or way too long, don’t want to read that wall of text):
The biggest anime of its season, while having excellent technical (sound and animation) execution and overall world building, falls flat in characterization and making you care for the humans being killed. It needed more character depth so that when a character dies, you really felt the emotional weight rather than saying: “Wait, who was that again? Oh yeah, that person. Alright then…” It also slightly suffers from a premise that isn’t entirely original and doesn’t prove to be much more interesting than your average high school harem anime. While some may think it’s a good place to start watching anime from, I’d argue that other anime like FMA (either one) or Code Geass are better starting points, personally. Overall Score: 6/10 (Passable).
Background:
Even if you weren’t an otaku or avid anime fan, chances are that you heard about Attack on Titan when it first aired. The internet was enamored with this festival of blood, guts and giant naked monsters ripping apart humanity limb from limb. It was inescapable and filled discussion boards with fans and people who hated it, though the general otaku consensus (even the consensus of casual anime fans) was that this was a good anime.
Plot/Story:
So by the premise, this seems rather original and refreshing break from animes being strictly in high school or such. In some ways, it is. The world building demonstrated in AoT is one of the strong points in the series, setting up the often grim atmosphere and explaining the mechanics of how equipment works in this world. It also sets up a disheartening tone and some of the twists can lead to interesting developments. However, the plot is far from perfect. The biggest problems I had with the story it’s often glacial pacing, premise that starts out promising but ends up leaving a sour taste in my mouth after all is said and done. I won’t delve into spoilers, but they could have done a lot more with the story that was there. Score: 7/10.
Characters:
Oh boy… am I not going to make friends in this section. Up to now, it may seem like things have been rather positive. However, this is my biggest problem with Attack on Titan. Simply put: 90% of the characters in this anime are boring, one-note, and worse case: just titan chow. Before you send me all your hate and scorn filled PM’s or replies, this is simply a subjective opinion and I am sorry in advance if I seem rude or overly harsh. These are just my feelings on the characters of AoT.
With that out of the way… yeah. The side characters are largely forgettable. Jean is too stiff and uninteresting, Sasha is often just identified as potato girl, Levi is easily the biggest bore in the entire anime in my opinion, and the leads sadly don’t nullify these problems. Eren is also rather one note, with an understandably massive prejudice against the titans. The prejudice itself wasn’t the issue but more: “Yes, we know. You hate titans. Isn’t there anything else to your character?” Mikasa suffers even more, despite having a backstory that wasn’t too bad. Her biggest problem is that her strong and silent persona only goes so far, leaving the other half to being a Shinigami Beyblade of destruction along with Levi. Armin is the slight saving grace as a character, being a smart, yet nervous and emotional teenager. While some may see him as one note, I thought that he had more dimension to him and was one of the very few characters I was rooting for to make it out alive. The reason I am critiquing the anime so heavily here is because this is a show where we should feel that every life matters. Every person dying has a deep impact on not only the characters, but on the audience as well. Sadly, it only did the former slightly and at least for me, left no impression of sadness after seeing characters dying left and right. Score: 4/10
Sound:
On an audio level, this anime has to be appreciated and celebrated. The score, done by noted composer Hiroyuki Sawano, was great. I may not be a big fan of electronic elements in anime scores but this soundtrack has everything form the somber, emotional tracks to the hard hitting and dramatic ones that emphasize what was on screen. One slight negative is that the score often had the potato chip problem. What’s the potato chip problem? In an anime called Death Note, it had a scene where the main character Light Yagami said: “I’ll take a potato chip… and eat it!” being played amongst overly dramatic music for that scene. Even with context, that score was a bit much and overly dramatic. This anime also has a similar problem. While most of it was deserved, some (like moving a boulder for what seemed like an eternity) got a little ridiculous and highlighted the fact that what was happening didn’t need the epic flourish it got. Score: 7/10
Animation:
In terms of animation, this anime also deserves high praise in that aspect. The relatively new production studio Wit (along with I.G) did a fantastic job, creating an artistically grim and dark theme, while knowing when to bring light in to contrast the fighting and the bloodshed. You could easily feel the movements the characters were pulling off (most of the time) and the budget must have been hefty. It also has a distinct art style, adding in dark, thicker lines around the characters to make them stand out against the background. Any complaints about the designs of the titans themselves is more or less a problem of the source material, so I won’t bring that up as an issue here. Overall, the animation was excellent and always was a marvel to see. Score: 8.5/10
Overall:
So… yeah. I will admit that I didn’t rewatch the show from when I first did a couple years ago, but this is how I remembered AoT. I can imagine I’ll get blasted from making mistakes on who did what or such, but my point still stands.
Attack on Titan is excellent from a TECHNICAL standpoint. The music and score are great overall and despite a few hiccups, performs admirably well. The problem is that it also highlights the lack of character depth and story. I understand that no anime is perfect, but for one as hyped and beloved as this, I think there are much better starting points for watching anime other than this show. While I see where people are coming from with this anime, I think it’s overhyped and disappointing, despite impressing me in a lot in small doses. My score is 6/10.
