Now for the review: The story is first up. To describe it as forced would be kind. The drama is 'heightened' by deaths of characters and not much else. This would be a good tactic if the viewer is drawn into their stories. However, excessive fatalism, over-hyped fear by characters, what can only be described as deliberate blindness to the obvious by characters and there's not much to keep the viewer on board. The drip-feed of the story is also maddeningly slow - all the action in an episode could be condensed down to half the time if the repetitive action sequences weren't so incredibly drawn out.
Characters are next. Eren Yeager our protagonist (Pronounced Jaeger like the hunter - Chekhov's gun anyone?) Switches from whiny kid, moron, fatalistic moron, universal soldier wanna-be, and drill sergeant wanna-be. The rest seem to be either titan chow or natural-born killers. You can immediately tell who's who by how much you're pushed to like them. Hate them, they'll see the who series through. Love them, they'll die - usually by being eaten that episode.
Animation. This is actually good, for the most part. Some scenes are overworked but mostly well done. If only they didn't fill up so much of each episode with recaps and intros and end credits. All in all, AoT is not bad has massive problems that can't be brushed over by manipulative drama.
(Full disclosure - This review is copied from my IMBd account with edits for clarity)
