Alright I want to hit the visuals first, as I like to start with my what I enjoyed the most about the anime I am reviewing. I do give the visuals a very high 7, just short of giving it an 8 due to the fact that looking at characters that seem like they might be cardboard cut-outs makes me rather enfurated. Yes that is exactly how they look with their dark, heavy outlines and their stiff movements. Later on in the anime, whether I just got so used to it or it actually getting better, I noticed that they weren't as bad as they were in the first episodes, but still rather visible. But! As I said, this was my favorite part and there is a reason! The CGI. If you can even call it CGI. The way the motions panned out during the fighting and during moments of intensity were rather flawless and very well done. When the characters were jumping between buildings, I felt an exhilarated rush. Very well done. Coming down the effects of the blood and the smoke, which a lot of animes seem to struggle getting to work properly with the animation style they use, Attack on Titan did very well. None of the blood felt out of place and the gas always had a clean flow, not a mess of whatever was trying to be done.
Going to put the sounds here because I feel its best to get it out of the way. Starting with the intro and the outro, I did very much enjoy the thrilling start it gave you feel when it through the visuals with splendid music, the outro did a very nice job of doing its job as to settle down after an episode of iffy feelings. Now down to the part that matters here, hated the voice actors. Jean's voice I think was the ONLY voice in the entire anime that didn't make me hate it even more. Its not that I thought the voice actors were bad, no they AMAZING at playing with their voices to fill the emotion that the character was feeling and a damn wonderful job of getting a sense of feeling it was real, BUT NONE OF THEM MATCHED THEIR CHARACTERS! AT ALL! Switch them around a little and boom, perfect voice acting! That simple! And they failed! Was a total disappointment. The background music was also rather shallow. Like, I always heard it, but it just never left an impact or just didn't feel like it really did its job to involve me in the scene it was playing for. I think the only sounds that were done well in this, were the sounds of cutting the titans and the sound of blades. Not really much else.
Oooo boy, characters. Here's where I'm really gonna take a massive chunk outta this anime. There was NO character development. no visual sign that anyone was actually changing. And whenever they did, they threw it away half an episode later like it never happened. There was nothing to show that these people were learning. It was a constant stalemate in their grown. The cast of the characters was also a mess. No one really had a purpose in the way anyone was connected and made any connection someone had to another seem almost worthless. Eren's only reason for being this character that he was, was because he was mad and wanted to kill all the titans. His whole purpose was very cliche and dull. Not to mention how underly dense he was, which made him all the more terrible of a character. Arata, Eren's best friend, REALLY HAD NO PURPOSE WHAT SO EVER. He was there, he was smart, he was weak, he hated himself. He really didn't serve a purpose. Anyone really could've done the same job he did. Misaka, a girl that was taken in by Eren's parents, was there solely for Eren. Yes all MCs need their girl, that is certain and I think she did play a very strong role. Now her existence should've made Arata's nonexistent. She was already this god character at Eren's side all the time. Why would he need more? The only other person I can see being worth mention is Jean, who Eren had multiple encounters with and really should've been the one in Arata's place as well. But he was way to unstable of a character. Everytime he had a chance to be useful, he blew it. Now, I know what fear can do to a person. It'll make you think irrationally, prevent you from moving properly, all around just make it hard to function the way you want. But what I don't understand is this irrational fear these people had. Where all their courage, all their determination went EVERY damn time something happened. I guess I could understand it when it comes from the civilians, but the military regiments were despicable. I really just couldn't believe that after 4 years of this really harsh training, dealing with overcoming fear in these harsh environments, they would just be terrified each and every time. It was worthless. Getting scared after seeing your comrades eated is certainly scary, but these people grew up KNOWING this was happening for hundreds of years! And then got trained to fight against it! The emotions shown in the characters, important or not, was very terrible and I can't give it anywhere over a 1.
Now, it's rather hard for me to just attack an anime without really trying to give it some credit so I will say I did very much enjoy its story concept and the idea they put in place to give this anime life, but unfortunately, it just had too many flaws. The fact the anime's first 13 episodes took place in 5 days, 7 of those episodes being in 1 day, really bothered me. I know that that day have a VERY important meaning and was very crucial to how the anime would play out, but I feel that it would've made more sense to do this with an anime that had more episodes. So I feel that they just failed in giving it the proper girth that it should've had to make those episodes actually have a meaning. Now onto the actual fighting with titans, it was awful. There was this build up saying how strong these titans were, which was rather clear, but certain people, naming here Misaka, killed multiple titans by herself without even breaking a sweat. Now why couldn't three or four cadets, who were in the same position she was, not do what she did as a group? It just didn't add up. Either everyone died to one titan in half a second, or the titan was killed effortlessly. There was never an in between. Thus simulating a very large difference all the characters and their abilities. I did also enjoy the mystery behind the titans. I thought that the fact that nothing really ever got found out easily was very great and a big plus to the anime. I also found it a great surprise when Eren's trump card was released so early in the anime, not 20 episodes in when it just happened to be convenient for the author to change something up.
Wrapping up my review, I think a 4 is really the only way to rate this anime. Even though there was so much going on in this anime, the episodes felt too short and really not enough was ever explained. Then came all the inconsistencies with the characters' personalities and the mess of what was always going. To top it off, the scenes were never really clear either. Something would happen, have no connection to anything, throw you back into a flashback, explain its purpose, and the put you back at the beginning with something new to go off of. BUT YOU WERE STILL CONFUSED HOW TO HOW THE HELL IT WAS PLAYED OUT. Just too much of a mess in its presentation. I do give my enjoyment for this anime a 3 because it was just never there. It has too many flaws and not enough good points to balance it out. BUT! I did end up finishing the entire anime. So, with that said, there was something about it that made me want to finish it, there for, whether I like it or not, I'm still a statistic in the watched poll. Hopefully we will see a vast improvement in the second season if there is ever one to release.
