DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionShingeki no Kyojin
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin Zenpen: Guren no Yumiya
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin Kouhen: Jiyuu no Tsubasa
ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin 2
ANIME ComedyShingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou
OVA ActionShingeki no Kyojin OVA
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin: Chronicle
OVA ActionShingeki no Kyojin Gaiden: Kuinaki Sentaku
OVA ActionShingeki no Kyojin: LOST GIRLS
SPECIAL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: Chimi Kyara Gekijou - Tondeke! Kunren Heidan
ONA Slice of LifeChiyuki no Fashion Check

REVIEWS

• 

  ReBuggy

  55/100
  Attack on Titan is eight of the best episodes of anime I've ever watched, followed by the betrayal of utter mediocrity.

  Shingeki no Kyoujin, AKA Attack on Titan, is an absolutely fantastic anime. It’s the tale of a small faction of humanity fighting a hopeless battle against an overwhelming force that can and will kill each and every last one of them. And yet, despite being on the bottom of the food chain, faced with a natural predator that will drive them to extinction, they fight back. They rebel against nature itself, despite the fact that the battle seems hopeless. “Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind der Jaeger!” “Are you the food? No, we are the hunters!” I thought the show was grim, it was painful, it was depressing, and I loved every second of it.

  And then we got into the ninth episode.

  Attack on Titan is eight of the best episodes of anime I have ever watched, followed by the deepest betrayal I have ever experienced. Because after those first eight episodes, the show decides that it wants to completely ignore all the themes it’s built up and go a completely different direction with it. Suddenly, it’s not the story of a desperate struggle of humanity to survive. Now it’s part action, part mystery, and part political intrigue. This wouldn't necessarily be bad, but the mystery and political intrigue are, unfortunately, painfully mediocre and bring the show to a screeching halt.

  Let's talk about the good first. The technical aspects of the show are all incredible. The direction is fantastic, the music is fantastic, and while the art style isn't one that personally jives with me (the thick outlines throw me off a bit), it's distinct and I can see how many people would love it. Sure, it's a bit on the brown side, but it fits the tone and brown is in with the show's target demographic anyway. The setup, world, and overall aesthetic are all strong, and between all of these things, the show becomes instantly captivating. It's grimdark and edgy, but it's grimdark and edgy in a way that doesn't feel like it's insulting the viewers' intelligence. The violence and desperation are all a result of the world and the premise, and both of those are strong enough to work. It's dark to the point of being hard to watch at times, but in a way that kept me coming back, at least at the start. It got me invested in what happened to the characters and whether or not they could overcome these insurmountable odds. I actually cared about and became invested in them--again, at least at the start.

  Okay, now that I've gotten the praise out of the way, let me launch into why this show is a massive disappointment.

  One of the largest issues with the show is the pacing. The first eight episodes move at a very quick pace as the world and premise are set up, the characters are introduced, and mysteries begin getting introduced. After that, a huge bombshell gets dropped on the audience, opening the door to many more mysteries. However, instead of addressing the how or why, the show instead spends five episodes establishing that yes, this did indeed happen, freaking out over the lack of information regarding it, and moving a boulder. This would be frustrating even if it weren't delaying the answer to questions we desperately want, because it takes up roughly 1/5 of the story and it builds up to a halfway-point climax that ultimately isn't particularly enthralling.

  This issue with preserving mystery at the cost of killing momentum is something that happens continually throughout the series. Plot points are raised and consequently abandoned in favor of pursuing plot points we don't care about. We've just seen something that turns everything that has been established upside down! Do we really need to have a court session? When Eren joins the survey corps, why do we need scenes of them cleaning up their base? When it's established that there's probably something of very great importance in Eren's basement, shouldn't there be at least some form of payoff for that instead of launching into the Female Titan arc? These issues only grow more pronounced in the manga, where several arcs are started, then cut short because following through on them would result in mysteries being answered, and apparently the author believes that as soon as someone gets answers they're going to stop reading.

  In addition, Attack on Titan quickly introduces more characters than it knows how to handle. In the first episodes we begin to get a handle on who Erin, Mikasa, and Armin are, but only Mikasa gets any sort of backstory and after those initial episodes, she's mostly just relegated to a background character as well. Erin is full of passion, but in a way that makes him two-dimensional, and I expected Armin's story arc to actually go somewhere. I honestly thought that the story would be about them beginning to step out of his shadow, but again, that damn ninth episode happened and ruined any hope of that happening. The rest of the recruits are similarly bland. Jean gets something resembling a character arc and a few other characters suddenly become really important (most of them only in the manga), but others serve little to no purpose. Viewers know who Sasha is because she ate a potato in a funny scene. But that's literally all there is to remember about her character. She likes food. That's all she does. Her only purpose in the story is to like food. And Connie? Who even knows what purpose Connie serves.

  After the first eight episodes, the show starts to become a drag, with the plot beginning to go in multiple directions. The pacing slows down, but the slower pace isn't the main issue. It's that, instead of slower-paced forward motion, it becomes slower-paced sideways motion. What was once exciting suddenly becomes tedious to get through. Things begin to pick up again towards the end, with the climax of the Female Titan arc, when the titan's identity is revealed and there's a big battle that answers a few questions but raises more. Unfortunately, those questions aren't going to be answered anytime soon. I've read the manga, and at this point, I know that these mysteries are just going to be left unanswered until there's no way the answers we eventually get will be anything less than an anticlimax. I'd rate the manga a bit lower for that reason, but I guess in this first season there's still the hope that a second season will bring something resembling resolution to the series, so I'll account for that in the score. If all you're looking for is action or good production values, you'll probably enjoy it, and if you NEED to know about the biggest, most hyped shows around it's a must-watch. But if you're looking for something satisfying and conclusive with good characters, skip it. Three stars.

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• 

  CryingLad

  92/100
  An amazing start to an amazing series filled with grief, hype, and sheer will power.

  [This review will contain Spoilers for the show!]()

  
  
  At first I did not understand the hype surrounding this series. Yeah the plot and everything sounded nice but why did it get so popular?
  Well I learned that when I finally decided to watch this series and fall in love with it.

  [(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD) STORY:]()
  Season 1 of Attack on Titan is a nice introduction to the universe of the show. It tells us everything we need to know and it lays it out in such a way that is nice and comfortable to watch.

  Summary of the story for anyone that has forgotten:
  To start us off. Humanity has enclosed its self within walls to keep out the "Titans", creatures which (as the name suggests) are much larger and stronger than Humans. They possess a great threat to the survival of humanity.

  The show focuses on a group of friends: Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. Although the show does focus more heavily on Eren all of the characters present have a huge role in the plot. They're living their lives quite calmly... until one day, two Titans manage to break the gates to the outer wall in which our heroes live. With no way of beating the numerous titans pouring in the City the retreat. Eren in the process loses his mother due to a Titan, this is a vital part of the story as it build Eren with unspeakable hatred towards these creatures.

  Ever since that moment Eren and the rest have been training to join the "Scout Regiment" and defeat the Titans.
  After intensive training they manage to get to the top leads in the training group and join the Regiment. Filled with passion Eren tries his best to kill as many Titans during the new found invasion...he dies...but not really.

  It is later revelead that our boy Eren Yeager has the ability to turn into a Titan. Now he can trully be useful, he can plug the Walls and even venture to his old house to find out the secret his father left him...

  All in all the way the story builds up along with the character, and even how the atmosphere changes is trully magnificent.
  From the get-go this has managed to capture my interest and made me fall in love with the series. I cannot express enough just how much I love this show.

  

  
  

  [CHARACTERS:]()
  The character we get to see in Attack on Titan are very interesting and work really well in the atmosphere of the show. We have:
  Eren, a young lad, he is basically the focus of the show due to his powers. Though he mostly cries and gets kidnapped.
  His character is great, he is very determined and tries his best which is something that I admire. The sheer will power he has is incredible.
  Mikasa, a young gal, she doesn't speak much apart from screaing "EREN" every now and then to check up on him.
  She is one of my favourite characters in the show, she is the pure defenition of badass. The way she sets her eyes on a target and smoothly completes her task is to be awed.
  Lastly I'll be talking about Armin, the character which does not really build much hype within me but still is an important part of the series as a whole. He is the brains of the whole show. Without him we wouldn't get as much plans. Despite his lack of strength I still do like him, he is very determined on helping people as much as he can which always is a plus in my book!

  AoT has many more characters, all of which have important parts in the development of the story. Some have much bigger impact and some are just one off characters. Each and every one of them have their own personalities and back stories. With most of the characters we get to know their backstory which further cements their part in the show and in our hearts and thus makes the whole experience of watching much more enjoyable.

  

  
  

  [ART/ANIMATION:]()
  This show has great art and animation. It does improve throughout the various seasons but the one we see in Season 1 is also quite a sight to behold.
  In my opinion I'd have to rate it above the average. The animations too, they are very smooth and fluid. Well that is expected since a lot of the combat scenes have the character move in very agile and fickle ways which require such smooth animations.

  

  
  

  [MUSIC:]()
  Attack on Titan, man it has a banger of an OST. Each and every song that plays throughout the show is so fitting for the scene which it resides in. They fill the viewer with the right kind of emotion for the scene that is about to unveil, may it be sadness, anticipation, or even sheer HYPE
  The OPs, too, are bangers. They are up there with the Steins;Gate OP, which always manages to build up hype and nostalgia within me.
  The EDs, too, had (and still do) a huge impact on me when re-listening to them. Much hype to be had.

  

  
  

  [OVERALL OPINION:]()
  All in all Attack on Titan is a series with amazing combat and story.
  Like with Steins;Gate (going back to comparing this to Steins;Gate xd) I do try to get people to watch this since it is such a great show.

  As I said in the very first sentence:

  I did not understand the hype surrounding this series.

  But after watching it I understood why, the story and characters, just the whole show in general fit together so well.
  Though I did give it 92/100, reason for that is...Season 3 is soooo good compared to this season.

  (Note - Tried changing up my style of writing a little bit. Hopefully it turned out alright!)

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• 

  Yonism

  97/100
  Amazing first season. Lives up to its hype.

  Attack on Titan. An anime i watched 3 years ago and never finished. I probably reached at least 20 episodes until i decided to drop it since at the time (around 20 eps) mostly because of my laziness. But after actually rewatching the first 20 eps I've watched years ago and continued on, i have to say i don't regret a single thing in finishing it.

  Attack on Titan really is deserving of the hype and praise it has. The story is hardcore, as well as the anime openings. The opening song for this season really does get stuck in your head for a while too. I was literally knocked off my seat at the first episode because of the intense and emotional feelings i had from watching Erens mom die because the titans have attacked. What broke my heart the most in this scene is the fact that she didn't really wanted to be left behind.. but of course had to make the necessary sacrifice (since Hannes was too weak to fight against the smiling titan). The other episodes built up adequately, going through training, backstory, more characters introduced etc. and then skipping to when Eren and the crew are about to graduate from their military training as the top of the class. The fast-paced buildup was great, leaving no room for fillers, and everything exploded again in episode 5. By the time episode 5 came around, I was completely hooked. I, like everyone else, usually skip anime openings after watching once or twice just because it gets tedious, but I've seen the opening to this anime every single new episode that came out because A) it has a great soundtrack and B) it hypes me up lol. But yeah, episode 5 gave the audience a sense of, "Eren and these guys are going to completely kick some Titan ass and shit's gonna go down." To be honest, I was completely expecting him to. Then out of nowhere, like in episode 1, AGAIN the enemies seem impossible to beat. When Eren rushed into that Grandpa Titan's mouth to save useless Armin, I didn't feel like he was actually in any danger despite losing a leg and w/e just because the protagonist always winning has become the accepted norm. But NOPE!@%! When Grandpa closed his mouth it was gg. That was by far the best anime moment of 2013, probably even 2012 just because it felt so unexpected. Props to the original creator for not being afraid to be different and step out of the bubble. At the same time, I was worried for how the series would progress from such a dramatic change but some people who have read the manga told me they either loved the progression or hated it so we'll see...

  Overall, the first season was great. The main character was kind of meh in my opinion but other supporting characters really help in making the story interesting. You could see the different character developments they all go through as the episodes go on and the action scenes really . This is surely a season i will re-watch someday.

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