Set in a world where unintelligent, man-eating titans suddenly appeared one day and snacked humans almost to extinction, the story picks up with Eren, who lives in an outlying city on the edge of a civilization protected by colossal walls that could make Trump envious. The walls have kept the residents safe for a hundred years. But one day, a titan several times the normal size appears out of nowhere and kicks a hole in the wall. With the walls breached, titans flood into the city and Eren's life is thrown into chaos.
While the whole unintelligent human-eating-humanoids idea isn't exactly fresh - the zombie apocalypse scene having been done to death already (or should I say undeath har har) - "Attack on Titan" adds a twist to the formula: it made the humanoids huge. The change seems stupidly simple but the effect is drastic; all of a sudden, the odds become so much more stacked against humans: this is not a case of buffaloes being hunted by lions, but of mice hunted by cats. The size mismatch naturally makes the titans formidable, and "Attack on Titan" hammers this home right from episode one by graphically capturing the result of titans descending upon a human settlement. In addition, the titans' appearances, humanish but with creepy facial expressions and strange skin tones (the latter of which might be the unintended result of subpar CG but it works), serves to make them even more unnerving in an uncanny-valley-esq way.
So how do humans fight back against these grotesque mountains of flesh? One of the main methods involve "vertical manoeuvring equipment" which, via some gas-powered piston-shot grappling hooks, essentially allows humans wearing them to move around like Spiderman swinging through a city. This in turn gives them the ability to evade titans and attack their weak point on the back of the neck. It's a pretty cool concept that lends itself to some spectacular battle choreography.
Despite being a shounen, "Attack on Titan" immediately distinguished itself in both its brutality and pacing. The action often feels raw and gory in its violence, even though it often doesn't display everything in full graphic detail. One gruesome scene might be animated in shadowy outline, another might cut away in a shower of blood just as someone gets pulverised underneath a giant stomping foot. The anime shows and implies enough to achieve a stronger effect than what could be done through fully animating the violence. That said, the early episodes contain a few odd scenes where the action cuts-away in unexpected places (and in a way that left me confused over what happened) and inserting in its place a few seconds of jarringly placid scenery. It makes me wonder whether these were production fuck ups or whether the scenes were censored (which would be strange given seemingly more horrific sequences were animated to some extent).
The plot of "Attack on Titan" rarely stands still, with events constantly unfolding and bombshell twists exploding with regularity. While there's a good amount of lore and background information woven into the world, the show is economical with its world building. It does a good job of not letting exposition drag down the plot, and uses opportunities like commercial bumpers to convey across tidbits of info that enriches the world. (Though it's worth noting that the last commercial bumper info dump was like a whole essay so I've no idea what those who are watching it live on TV without the benefit of a pause button was supposed to get out of it.)
Despite the fast pace, "Attack on Titan" doesn't feel hurried for the most part. The training arc is exemplary: occupying just a single episode, it conveys across the difficulties of using the vertical maneuvering gear, then uses that as a representative for the rest of the training and moves on without dragging the whole event out. Contrast this to the likes of "Girls und Panzer" where the training feels too easy and other shounens where training could take up most of a seasonal arc.
Still, the minor characters do suffer a little from the pacing. With the show being so ruthless, characters often drop like flies around a toxic turd but it's not always easy to give a fuck. Or even remember who they are. As "Attack on Titan" goes on, the show does get better at juggling the character development while driving the plot at a clip, and the later deaths do feel like they hold more weight.
If I have one main complaint about the story, it would be that some of the scheming isn't entirely believable. The overarching plot often has a battle of wits feel where a few players are manipulating events far above the ground level that we see. But it's as though some of them cheats on occasion by reading the script a few pages in advance before making their move. Superhuman levels of deductive reasoning often possessed by fictional characters doesn't need to be realistic, but it does need to come off as believable, and "Attack on Titan" doesn't always manage to sell its leaps of logic to me as convincingly as, say, "Death Note".
Thematically, "Attack on Titan" ends up on a path well-trodden by shows involving humans vs monsters. To quote Nietzsche: "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." Like "The Walking Dead", "Shiki" etc, the more you watch the more you start to question: who are the real monsters here? The show's emphasis on the needs of the characters to make sacrifices and become monsters aren't exactly unique, but the ideas are naturally compelling enough to not wear out their welcome. It's rather fitting that the show's main character is in his own way a bit of a monster. At first Eren comes across like a typical shounen protagonist: a screechy, spunky try-hard who's rather annoying. As the show continues though, it becomes increasingly clear something’s not quite right about the boy; he's a bit unhinged, a bit too much on edge, and I find him kinda fascinating to watch as I'm never quite sure when and how he'll snap.
Given the story of "Attack on Titan" is so full of tragedy and twists, the dramatisation pretty much handles itself. For the most part, the series also does a good job on the executing the drama. I particularly liked the music production. "Epic" is an overused word, but the music of "Attack on Titan" fits the bill. Choral heavy and possessing an exotic, middle-eastern twist, the music would ebb and flow, swell and diminish around the events happening on screen, complementing story tension and release with melodic counterparts.
However, "Attack on Titan" also makes a few mis-steps when it comes to dramatisation, and those often devastate the grim atmosphere. A few moments in the story seems contrived purely for the sake of laying on more drama and as a result come across as silly and unnecessary. Some of the art style of "Attack on Titan" also doesn't sit well with me. The show frequently uses shading and parallel hatching on characters' faces to convey dark moods, and, combined with the ultra-serious facial expressions this often yields an accidental comedic effect of similar style to "Cromartie High School". And there's also this wonderfully animated sequence of Eren swinging through the air, dual wielding blades and yelling out battle commands, then executing an epic aerial spin as though about to unleash a climactic whirlwind of attacks. Alas, the dramatic weight attached to the scene was not matched by the actual ending which saw Eren simply land on top of a wall.
Additionally, I also found the series' comedic sensibilities rather dubious. Not that the comedy isn't funny (although it is hit and miss), but the show likes to peddle in a sort of dumb humour that does not mesh with the more sombre parts. I mean, some of the characters feels like they're auditioning for Wacky Races or something.
These problems are a bit too numerous for "Attack on Titan" to hold a spot on my personal favourites list - for now at least. I also wonder how much of my enjoyment got hampered by having the first major plot twist spoilt for me. Still, in its finest moments, this series blazes on all cylinders, and can certainly make a passable impression at being on par with the all-time greats. It's not hard to see why it whipped the fandom into a frenzy back when it aired. It's still early days in terms of the overarching story though, and this first season has, for all its plot twists and reveals, left me with more questions than answers. Will the the myriad mysteries of the plot click together and resolve into a triumphant conclusion? I don't know, but "Attack on Titan" has certainly launched into a solid start.
Personal rating: +1.5 (very good)
