What do I have to say about my experience with this show? You are here probably because you wanted to read a review that would convince you one way or another to watch. Right away, I'll concede that my own impression whether to keep watching was shaky during the first arc or so. So let's huddle up together and break down why.
The year... I can't remember the year. Its like just after the dark ages in technology - that's the more important setting information. You have canon's and sophisticated muskets. You have giant walls. These walls are there to keep out the greatest enemy of man kind: The Titans. The Titans, in their various shapes and sizes, have decimated the worlds population and forced the remaining survivors behind three walls. Our show opens after 100 years of peace - within those walls. Humanity has become corralled cattle to an enemy of unknown motivation and origin. But they are surviving.
Eren is angry at his people's plight. We see immediately that he is going to be the single track protagonist hero. The set up is perfect. We know Eren wants to become part of the expeditionary Scout Regiment that struggles (and fails) to take the fight outside the walls. The series sets the tone and what we can expect from our heroes and then...
Everyone dies. Horrifically and in small bite size pieces. The juxtaposition of Eren's ferociously generated hope against the tragic hopelessness of the reality of the setting is to put it mildly jarring. I'm going to swing and judge something I don't usually comment on - the art. Because it fills out my point. The art is beautiful. Its both at once anime and very different from anime. The backgrounds are lush, the cityscapes are a bit repetitive, but in the way a mountain range painted gorgeously would be repetitive and stunning. Eren and Mikasa are the most anime looking (big eyes small mouth) of the troupe. Everyone else has non traditionally Caucasian noses and facial features. When I say that everyone dies in bloody messes, they are beautifully rendered, gross, almost too realistic pieces of human meat sticks.
I'm feeing a little wordy, overly descriptive. I mean you would think that painting a war - whether between humans and titans, or nation against nation - as the bloody mess it really is, would be good thing right? And there have been movies and literature that do just that. Its just in this case that the art and Eren makes us believe that we are watching a different story - a story of hope and triumph. Of sheer force of will conquering any foe. If that's the story you want, I'm not sure if you'll get it here.
The mystery of the Titans, and humanity's desperate attempt to over come those mysteries drags the show forward. I found myself dragged into each episode by clever cliff hangers and plot devices. Not that the plot was overly original. We've seen giants attack before in Neon Genesis Evangelion - a similar theme set in a different time. Whereas NGE focused more on Shinji's internal struggles against the backdrop of apocalypse, Eren's struggle isn't the main focus. Eren is used only to give you a main hero and a way to drive the plot forward.
Suspension of disbelief is important to become immersed in a show of this magnitude. There is all this mystery and a fictitious world that has been crafted. Mostly in an attempt that author can make some kind of allegorical statement about the real world. The last thing we want is to be distracted by little inconsistencies. Unfortunately - it feels like there are a few glaring items throughout. And they can't be explained away with the inherent mystery of the show. My first gripe is the 3D (or Omni depending on the subtitles) Directional Movement Gear. This technology was developed to counter the Titan's height. It is a grapple system that yanks the user up similar to the way Spiderman or Batman gets around the city. It's fast, and while the how makes it sound fairly difficult to use - its not like any of the soldiers truly have a hard time at t. My problem is the technology scale. This is some really sophisticated and accurate stuff here. It uses complex pulley systems, air pressure and comfortably houses it all in a light package that can be carried around with minimal effort. It felt like it only existed so you could get these really cool visual effects. But how else would you fight Titans that only have one weak spot? Ah yes, my second gripe - the weak spot. A specific chunk of neck has to be cut from the back. It must be a certain depth and width. This is the only weak spot of the titans. I'm not so much worried about why that is the weak spot, but how this decimated overly taxed humanity discovered it. You see Titan's regenerate. And in the show, prior to the 3D gear, the soldiers used canons which only succeed in slowing Titans down. They can completely grow back heads given enough time. So what's the deal? Who made the discovery and how was it made? These are just two, and I'll leave it here. But given the setting of the show and what we know, there are elements that aren't as well thought out that nip at everything else the show is attempting. I've mostly talked about the negatives, but I did watch every episode, and I'm looking forward to the next season. Short of learning more Japanese and picking up the light novel, its the only way I'm going to get all these mysteries in the show solved. It's the world and it's mysteries, and wondering if Eren's over the top desire to kill all the Titan's and free Humanity that drives my interest. And while Eren as a hero is my favorite character plot, there are some well thought out characters that act as foils against Eren. Each hero that survives more than a few episodes has their backstory and fleshes out the themes of war and how you deal with it. Here in the US we've never been faced with Genocide or any war that has threatened our very existence. I read on Wikipedia, that there are cultures that were drawing parallels between their plight and this show, so I imagine, some of these themes were better executed but lost on me. I should probably fact check Wikipedia, but if you watch the show, its not hard to see the leap.
Overall, I'd say Attack on Titan is entertaining. With the hype around the show you would think it was the best anime of its time, but I'm not sure if I'd go quite that far. It's good. I want to watch more, but I've seen others that hit me harder, were better thought out, and more original.
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