Well, I suppose you could consider this more of a personal exercise. Attack on Titan was the first anime I ever saw. Long before I got into anime, long before I even had a conception of what "anime" was, a friend of mine showed me the first episode of this crazy Japanese tv show. And it was animated, but it sure as heck wasn't a kid's show. There was swearing, and blood, and it was intense as all heck, even though the protagonist was just a kid. It was like a window into another world, a world where the the rules I'd grown up with didn't apply anymore and anything was possible. A couple years later, I buckled down and watched the whole first season and, well, it blew my mind all over again. I wouldn't really start watching anime for quite a few years after that, but Attack on Titan stuck with me.
So, five years later, what do I make of the anime that introduced me to anime? Well, while it's far from flawless, I believe that Attack on Titan truly deserves the ludicrous amount of hype and praise it's received over the years. As an introduction to the medium for me, it was game-changing. And as a show in its own right, it's no less magical.
For the few weirdos among you who haven't seen it yet, Attack on Titan is set in an alternate-history medieval Germany, in which humanity is no longer at the top of the food chain. Preyed upon by the mysterious titans, colossal humanoid monsters, mankind retreats into a massive walled city the size of a country, living out their lives caged like birds. Our protagonist is Eren Yeager, a kid who wants to exterminate the scourge of titans from the earth and see the outside world with his own eyes, free and unchained. To do so, he joins the military's scouting corps and starts training to fight titans and carry out expeditions outside the walls, all while titans start knocking at the great city's doors. From there on, all sorts of insanity goes down.
The appeal of this show can be summed up in one word: hype. Let's not mince words, Attack on Titan is the single biggest adrenaline rush in all of anime, possibly in all media ever. Watching it is the equivalent of riding a massive roller coaster with fifteen loops, twenty corkscrews, and several abrupt stops and starts. Director Tetsuo Araki is famous for his ability to make anything kinetic and intense, and his skills have never been put to better use than here.
The action scenes deserve special mention for this, because they are truly something of wonder. Perhaps this show's most ingenious gimmick is how the humans are able to combat the titans: with the use of 3-D maneuver gear, a device that allows them to swing and rocket between buildings on gas-propelled wires, like an army of steampunk spider-men. Whenever the action kicks up and the camera follows the soldiers as they hurtle across city rooftops and barrel through thick forests, backed by an epic soundtrack by Hiroyuki Sawono, you feel like you need to be strapped to your chair with a harness, lest you tumble off and get swept away. It is truly epic, in every sense of the word.
But it isn't just the bloody, explosive action that makes Attack on Titan such a roller coaster. The plot and the speed at which it unfolds is just as breakneck and exciting. I won't spoil anything that happens, but suffice to say, the strength of its plot is its ability to completely throw you for a loop over and over again. Calling it full of twists feels like an understatement; there's a massive, status-quo reshaping shock almost every episode. There are so many moments where a big reveal left me staring slack-jawed at the show's audacity, only for that moment to be topped just a couple of episodes later. In Attack on Titan, there is no ground zero. The world is always changing, the story and its implications are always evolving, and just when you think you've got a handle on what's going on, the show flashes an evil grin your way just before it yanks the rug out from under you once again. Even upon rewatch, the impact and shock of these crazy plot swerves still hits just as hard.
That said, this crazy, constantly moving plot does bring me to my one major criticism of Attack on Titan; it's a lot weaker when it slows down. Because once it can't rely on its insane action and plot progression to keep you glued to the screen, it has to rely on its characters and their development to keep you invested. And its characters aren't bad; far from it, actually. Eren is a criminally underrated character in my opinion, a deconstruction of the classic shonen hero who never gives up. His kind-of adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman is a badass of the highest caliber, and their friend Armin Artlett's struggle to accept himself and overcome his fear forms the strongest emotional arc of the series so far. They're all good characters who play off each other, and the wide supporting cast, well. But they're just not strong or nuanced enough, at least at first, to completely fill the void that the action leaves behind.
Thankfully, the show is definitely aware of this, so it keeps its slow moments to a minimum, preferring to develop its characters and plot in the context of its action scenes, and doing so quite well. But there's a definite drag in the second half of Attack on Titan, where we spend a good six episodes in the same basic area, doing the same basic thing, building to a twist that pretty much everyone could see coming. It's not awful, but it definitely lacks the propulsion and drive of the series' first cours, which was pretty much perfectly paced, in my opinion. It's a good thing, then, that it pulls itself back out of this rut just in time to deliver a finale showdown for the ages, capping things off nicely while leaving us excited for whatever comes next, even if we have to wait 4 years for a second season.
Attack on Titan is a true landmark, and I feel its many strengths are often overshadowed by criticism of it not living up to the hype surrounding it. And true, this series definitely is inescapable, even today, which can be draining if you're not on board with it. But that shouldn't take away from what a genuinely excellent show it is. It's popcorn entertainment at its highest possible level, broad enough to appeal to people even outside of the anime community, yet made with the kind of skill, craft, and genuine passion that makes it stick in your mind long after you finish it. So put on your 3-D maneuver gear, eat your potatoes, scream "JEAGER" at the top of your lungs, look forward to the third season this summer, and don't be ashamed about any of it. Attack on Titan is a classic for a reason, and I expect we'll still be talking about it for many long years to come.
