SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin
MANGA ActionShingeki no Kyojin Gaiden: Kuinaki Sentaku
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin Zenpen: Guren no Yumiya
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin Kouhen: Jiyuu no Tsubasa
MANGA ComedyShingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou
NOVEL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: LOST GIRLS
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin Season 2: Kakusei no Houkou
ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin 2
ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin 3
NOVEL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: Kakuzetsu Toshi no Joou
ONE SHOT ActionShingeki no Kyojin Volume 0
MANGA ActionSungeki no Kyojin
ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin 3 Part 2
MANGA ComedyShingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou: Seishun! Tonari no Marley Gakuen
OVA ActionShingeki no Kyojin OVA
ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season
NOVEL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: Before the fall
ANIME ActionShingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 2
MOVIE ActionShingeki no Kyojin: Chronicle
SPECIAL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season - Kanketsu-hen Zenpen
SPECIAL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season - Kanketsu-hen Kouhen

REVIEWS

• 

  ArminandDangerous

  60/100
  A decent story, but doesn't deserve the hype its receiving.

  Shingeki no Kyojin (referred to as SnK from hereon out): you see it everywhere—conventions, online, the book store, etc. So, for those fortunate enough to have missed the hype train by a few years, here is a review to help you decide whether or not you want to get on. This may be a long review, so please, bear with me. There may be spoilers as well; they will be marked.

  Story (70/100): What gets most interested is the story. In a world, set in what is presumed to be that of steampunk, is full of mysteries and horrors as the characters are caged in enormous walls that protect them from one enemy: the titans. Just a gist of what goes on mostly throughout the story. What I enjoy about the story is that it focuses on one enemy, unlike many other shows of the same genre, where they fight one enemy for three chapters, then move on into a power-up party.

  However, the execution of this seemingly interesting plot is sadly, sub-par. Like many others, the first few episodes/chapters can be exciting, with the action and introduction of the world and characters. While I read reviews of people getting the shakes, crying, and covering their mouths in horror over the anime, I decided to read the manga—it seemed to be right up my alley. Sadly, it didn't deliver. My face was about as blank as a clean slate while reading, and it still is after over a half a hundred chapters.

  SnK is an action-oriented, plot-driven story. A plot-driven story is as its name suggests: focusing on the plot moving forward, and toward the main goal. Characters can be given little light to shine in these kinds of stories. However, what this show does wrong is it tries to not only be plot-driven, but character-driven as well. Character-driven is when the story focuses more on the development of the characters in order to have you attached to them, you know, just in case something happens that will make you wish the author was dead. Isayama (the author) tries hard to focus on both themes, and I applaud him for that. A good story has both, but it can also go wrong.

  The story begins to go downhill after the "Clash of Titans" arc. It becomes very political-heavy—don't get me wrong—I love me some good Game of Thrones-style politics where humans are pitted against each other—but this just doesn't fit with this story. It is long, dragged out, and quite frankly, a bit boring. There are revelations, but some of them many fans may have already guessed in the the beginning.

  Another thing I would like to finalize about the story is the mysteries—I love world-building mysteries. Where did the Titans come from? Are the natural? What are they? But when my then-7 year old brother could understand the mysteries you are putting on the table, something is off. Well, either that, or it may because he's gifted with intelligence and caught on early. Not only this, but I was enjoying this up until superpowers became prominent. Having the protagonist become the ultimate enemy just to let him see their side of their story is a bit of a cop-out to flesh out the enemy.
  
  Art (60/100): I love me some good art. But SnK does not have good art. In the beginning, it looked like my 5 year old sister drew it with her eyes closed. A very major turn-off for many, including me, who tends to look at aesthetics after story. If a story has below sub-par art, it makes it hard for to get through. SnK does just that. The art is atrocious, but gets better over time. Not Touya Mikanagi good, but OK. You can see what's going on, because it's clearer than before, however, often times, it suffers a bad case of BLEACH—so much ink you don't know if that's a character, or a bush.

  Character (60/100): The characters. Oh, the characters. I have been in so many arguments about the characters, its not even funny anymore. Cringe-worthy? Some. Archetypal? Some. Underdeveloped? Most of them.

  The characters, without a doubt, are memorable. Not because of how good they are, but because of their names, and appearances.

  • Eren—I have not much to say about Eren. At times, he is the typical shounen main character who screams a lot, to a depressing, suicidal idiot. I never really enjoyed his character , and with the direction he is going, I dislike him even further.

  • Mikasa—the stoic, raven-haired beauty who happens to be one of the strongest soldiers. I get Isayama wanted strong female characters, but sometimes he goes overboard. With Mikasa especially. He goes to great lengths to show she is stronger than everyone else. She can do things Eren for some reason can't do, Even though he is pretty much capable of doing. Carrying crates? Who can't carry crates, Eren? Another flaw is that she focuses too much on Eren. She hasn't really developed. I would like for her to care for others, not just ask if they are OK. That's not development. That's just asking if they are OK. If she was done better, I could see myself liking her, but she's too far gone.

  • Armin—I love, love, love Armin. At first, I was a bit iffy about him, because he was the intelligent-info dumper, and I don't like those. However, he began to grow on me, and voila! He was one of the first to develop! I love the direction he's going. From the cowardly kid he was in the beginning, to the calculating, decent manipulator like Erwin.

  The rest of the characters have been decently fleshed out, but more and more of them are becoming prominent, and are lacking in the development department big time.

  Overall (60/100)Overall, it is decent story, but definitely doesn't deserve the hype its receiving. However, if you like a shounen that is a bit different in some areas, than this is the manga for you.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  PraiseTheSun123

  100/100
  A masterpiece of our times. A story that everyone should read if they could.

  What does a series needs to become a masterpiece? To answer that question, look no further than Shingeki no Kyojin, also know as Attack on Titan.
  Shingeki no Kyojin is a series that needs no introduction, since its anime adaptation in 2013 it became one of the most popular and acclaimed series of all time, among the likes of Evangelion or Berserk. Such impact on the industry would make you feel that it's indeed underserved, but make no mistake, all the hype around this series is completely deserved, or I would say that it even deserves more.

  But let's get to the review, shall we?

  Settled in a post-apocaliptic world where most of it is inhabitated by human-eating giants (named as "Titans"), making humanity barricade themselves within large walls in order to survive. Shingeki no Kyojin tells the story of how Eren Yeager makes his way in this cruel world, with the goal of erradicating all the titans of the world.

  The premise may indeed sound silly for some, as it could make you remember of a generic zombie story about survival, but Shingeki no Kyojin is much more than that, it's an mistery, the enmacipation of a people, a war story about the price of living free and the clash between ideologies, a story that deals with the hipocrisy of society and rascim.

  One the most prominent thoughts you will have when reading this work at the beggining is about the mere existence of the titans and all the mistery that surrounds them, incluiding the walls where our protagonists live; Why are there titans? What do they want? How could humanity build those wall? What's wrong with the govermment? Why is Levi so freaking perfect?

  And it doesn't end there.

  There's constant mistery surrounding the plot of the series, plot twist are left and right, making it seems that everything makes no sense at all, but in the end, it does really make sense. One of the strongest aspect of the story is the superb worldbuilding and all the foreshadowing around of it. There are no unnecessary plot points, everything that happens, as much as imposible that it seems, has a coherent explanation and moves foward the plot, and more importantly, has foreshadowing.

  Everything that happens, in a way or another was already foreshadowed, even in the first chapters, but this can also be a downside to some viewers, as Shingeki no Kyojin is a work that doesn't insults the readers's intelligence and it's mostly slow placed, never being too obvious about the reveals and everything has a proper build-up. And you may ask; Why is that a bad thing? Well, as you see, there're some readers that like the answers spoon feeded to them (Steins;Gate would be a series that also suffers from a similar problem). And I don't blame them, there are a lot of scenes in the first chapters that doesn't make much sense at all, heck, you could even read about the first 50 chapters and a lot of things would still make no sense.

  So, in situation like this comes a question, was Shingeki no Kyojin able to sucessfully answer all these misteries and "unexplained plot point" in a sastifying manner? Short answer: Yes.

  I like to think of Shingeki no Kyojin as wine, as the first chapters gets better when you read them after reading the currently released chapters. You can see how everything, no matter how subtle it is, is inherently connected with everything that happens in the later arcs. In other words, Hajime Isayama (the author of the series) wrote everything with a clear goal and ending in sight.

  With that said, I would like to talk about the worldbuilding, which it is, surprise, excellent.

  There are constantly new concepts added to the plot, which none of it feels unnecessary, you can see how much thought effort Isayama has putted into the worldbuilding, wheter of it can be military formations and tactics, organizations within the walls, the hierarchy of the society and military, geography and design of the cities, the vertical maneuvering equipment and the weapons, and that's just to name a few.

  Also, in the first volumes at the end of some chapters there are some page that explains some of the concepts of the series, of which it helps with the worldbuilding and is always welcome, since it saves the viewers from reading huge speech bubbles with the characters explaining things and it makes thing feel more natural.

  Leaving the story aside, let's talk about the characters, of which some say is the weakest part of Shingeki no Kyojin.

  And while there's some true in that statement, I would disagree with most of it, as there's awesome character development, especially in the later parts, some characters have changed so much that's hard to even identify them.

  The protagonist of the story is Eren Yeager, a young boy with the desire of seeing outside world. He's stubborn, brave, selfish, impulsive, violent and shares some traits of what would be a sociopath, but what mostly makes his characters is his thirst of revenge against titans, wanting to kill all of them (as his mother was eaten by one in front of his eyes). He could come as bratty and even unlikable at begginning, making him one of the most undeservedly hated characters of the Shingeki no Kyojin. One of the main criticism against Eren's character is that he's bland, as he doesn't develop much more other than his desire to wipe out all titans. The main reason of this is basically because his development (at first arcs) is incredibly subtle and could be hard to notice it, his character slowly comes from a vengeful and angry edgelord to an overall a more capable and calm human being, someone who could you call a hero. Or not? Without going into spoilers too much, Eren's character development is one of the most exhilarating yet saddest things about the work, one that everyone should read and appreciate if they could.

  Shingeki no Kyojin has a pretty big character cast, but despite of that, every character has a sense of purpose to the story, never looking as unnecessary. If there's anything so remarkable about the characters, it's the fact that nobody is what you think they are, most of the character cast with the due time is properly developed and characterized, exploring their motives and backgrounds, as well their mysteries and secrets. The worst contender in this regards is Mikasa's character, as she is by far the least developed of the cast.

  One of the things I like about Shingeki no Kyojin is the absolute absence of a moral high ground (moreso in the later arcs), as every character is right and wrong in their own ways. There's no a good or a bad in Shingeki no Kyojin, as the characters fight not for what is right, but for what they only can do. This is all futher supported as how much we delve into the story, as character's motivations become more clearer and their actions understandable. Isayama has created a story with a completely gray atmosphere, and there's no more easier way to notice that other than seeing the current state of the fanbase of Shingeki no Kyojin; Completely divided and constantly arguing about who's right and who isn't.

  I would like also to add how realistically portrayed death is. If there's something prominent about anime and manga as a whole, is the romanticization of death, you can see in many other series how many character pass out with smiles in their faces, despite the fact that they're dying! It's like they are enjoying that they are dying and they want it, but Shingeki no Kyojin is different in this regard. Death is the worst thing that could happen to anyone and isn't something to be happy about it, and Shingeki no Kyojin portrays this. When a character dies, it's not with a smile on their face, but screaming and with horrifying faces, completely scared and desperately trying to fight their inevitable destiny. There's a lot of body horror and there's always a sense of danger to remind us that death is something we should be all afraid of.

  As for the art, while is mediocre as it gets in the first volumes, with a lot of inconsistencies in the character design, it was clear that Isayama wasn't extremely experienced in this regard at the beggining. But as everything, with the time he steadily improved his drawing skills making of Shingeki no Kyojin one of the better you can currently find out there in this regard. One of the things I like about art is how gritty and rough it's, as it helps to trasmist better the character's emotions and the horror of the series to the reader.

  When it comes down to sheer enjoyment, Shingeki no Kyojin (also) stands out in this regard. There is constantly something happening, never leaving the reader bored; Battles are filled with enganging strategies, deaths are left and right, revelations comes one after other. If it was just for the pure enjoyment factor without taking account the others aspect of the series, Shingeki no Kyojin would still be worth reading, that's just how entertaining it is.
  Its only downside in this aspect is that while reading the manga you are missing out on Sawano's godlike songs, so I would recommend that while you read the manga add the OST to your playlist for a better experience.

  But what's does Shingeki no Kyojin want to tell us? What's the theme behind its narrative? I brieftly talked about that at the begginning of the review so let's get back to that.
  The most basic message you can see is about freedom; Are you free? Can you be free? What would you sacrifice in order to achieve freedom? Thoses are some of the most prominent questions that Shingeki no Kyojin proffer to us, but that's not everything about it.
  It's a story about a people who fights against their chains and a world that opresses them, one who wants them dead; Yet despite of this there's still a good in the opressor, as well as an evil in the victims. We see how the characters rebels against their fate, prolonging an endless circle of death and hate, and as a much as worthless it can look, they do it for the sake of a ideology, for what could the ones who left call as the future.
  It's a story about the nature of the war and the persecution it follows, of how misunderstanding is the worst aspect of human's nature. Characters are constantly pushed to their limits of their beliefs, exposing them and making the heroes looks as nothing but hypocrites.
  It's a story about fighting against ignorance and the corruption in a system, of how the consequences of the war shapes who can you be and what the world it is. It makes you wonder what do you appreciate in life. Would you prefer to stay with what you have or do you want to reach the unreacheable?
  It's a story of self-improvement and how people needs to cooperate in life in order to achieve what they strike for. But despiste of how the world is filled hate, there can be always a way to intermediate, despite how futile or hypocrite it can be.

  All in all, Shingeki no Kyojin is one of my favorites stories I've ever read, one that I love with all my heart and I beg everyone to read it.

  Thanks you for reading!

  Note: This is my first review, feedback is appreciated.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Chizuo

  86/100
  The endless cycle of hatred

  I went into Shingeki no Kyojin expecting a masterpiece, due to the show's popularity in the recent years (particularly now, with the long awaited final season.)

  I couldn't help but feel that this series was just another example of popularity purely based on its premise and dark themes, uncommon to the Shonen demography or even of what should be expected of mainstream Shonen manga in terms of violence and explicit graphic content.

  Although it surely did feel immature and too reliant on its shock value at the beginning, thanks to the countless deaths of non-important characters in gruesome ways, I can say that Shingeki no Kyojin matures along with its characters.

  Well, what do I mean by this? I'll explain by taking the main character, Eren Jaeger, as an example. At the beginning, we see the character constantly acting in a rash, impulsive and overly naïve way. The enemy, was, in some way, just as rash, irrational and more concrete: a natural predator threatens humanity. It's a purely natural struggle for survival at first glance.

  However, as the chapters and arcs go forward, we get constantly bombarbed with exceedingly complex moral dilemmas, social struggles, the nature of war and politics, and much more. As the enemies and their motivations become more abstract and idealistic, our main cast of characters (and especially Eren himself) also occupy a new space, since the past eminent survival issue has been taken care of. Now, the enemies are fellow humans, with ideologies of their own that fuel their actions in the complex and not-at-all hopeful and idealized world that the once-walled citizens thought existed.

  It's kind of funny to think how this allegory is so neatly represented by Hajime Isayama in his manga. When the natural struggle for survival is a thing of the past, humans finally start to convey moral systems, ethics and all other social struggles, such as racial, identitary and class struggles derive from a growing complexity of human society itself. Why not call the walled world of Eldia the Wall of Plato of Shingeki no Kyojin, if you will?

  Another thing that also sparked my curiosity with Shingeki no Kyojin was the constant blatter about the way it treated extremist ideologies. I think it was a good choice for the plot not to take a side on all the Eldian and Marleyan conflict, mostly serving as an exposure of their ideals, behaviors and policies, leaving it to reader to truly grasp the meaning behind any of that. It is beyond obvious that the series makes parallels with the real world, with loose ties to current and past ethnic struggles.

  Isayama cleverly takes us on a trip not to make us choose what is right or wrong, but to acknowledge the root of all the circumstances of Shingeki no Kyojin. That is, the unending cycle of hatred, a byproduct of our intrinsic fear of the unknown. How hatred comes to be, its intricacies and consequences are masterfully explored through a variety of lenses in this manga.

  Overall, Shingeki no Kyojin is a great portrait of the human condition. It is also a neat point that the author don't blatantly takes any side, but rather leaves it to the reader to figure out what was good, or bad - or even if there is such a thing. So, if I was to attribute a word to describe Shingeki no Kyojin is "human," above all else.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR MANGAS YOU MAY LIKE

• MANGA

  ActionTokyo Ghoul
• MANGA

  DramaYakusoku no Neverland
• MANGA

  ActionHagane no Renkinjutsushi
• MANGA

  ActionBerserk
• MANGA

  ActionHakaijuu
• MANGA

  ActionDolly Kill Kill
• MANGA

  ActionVinland Saga
• MANGA

  ActionHouseki no Kuni
• MANGA

  ActionOwari no Seraph
• MANGA

  ActionKoutetsujou no Kabaneri
• MANGA

  ActionCLAYMORE
• MANGA

  ActionGANTZ