The cast, unfortunately, fails to rise above the mire of one-dimensionality packed with edgy shonan tropes, such as the angsty, "TATAKAE"-screaming protagonist together with the stoic mentor and the cutesy cheerleader. Which their interactions, fueled by melodramatic pronouncements causing it fall short of having genuine engagement. the only thing saving is the character development, but those ones are just an illusion as they got reverted back to their original form. l have also herd some talking about a "nuzlocke"-style. however that is only reserved for secondary characters that do nothing but scream about friend stuff whilst watching a stage play . This disconnect between stakes and storytelling destroys any emotional core that it could present.
There are many interesting worldbuilding presented in its concept that was immediately slashed because they assume people only care about how cool the screaming cardboard cutout and friends is. then leave a few breadcrumbs for the people who do care to dig inside the kiddie sandpit so they could make more cash from the second season.
While the animation undeniably possesses technical powers that still holds really well to this day, I assume that is the only area that is made by people who at least got their deserved position, but even those ones relies on a lot of copy pasting so yay. The music too is pretty decent, if not overdramatic in some cases.
This leaves with the action, which is I would even call it that because it ISN'T even written properly, a good action should have bring up the stakes and putting the characters into their very edge, which if its done right it would make for a decent casual entertaining show at the very least, but in this case because its easy mode, I mean yeah, they still do get hurt, but the problem is that they just spam plot armor as soon as they can, so now they just automatically win. so all the potentially emotional moments or accomplishments felt completely undeserved and forced. Very brutal and not for the faint of heart.
Ultimately, Aot emerges as a frustrating exercise in trashed potential. where the initial promise of a complex and engaging narrative was murdered immediately, leaving behind a shallow spectacle propped up by tired tropes and superficial emotional appeals. While its popularity may spark debate, l cannot deny the existence of superior works that explore similar themes with far greater depth and edge factor but the only difference is that you never herd of them because the people who reviewed it saw more then 3 shows in their life.
