Shingeki no Kyojin

There’s a current trend that favors dark and edgy stories such as Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and so on. Anime, being no different, saw the much anticipated release of Attack on Titan which is based on the manga of the same name. Given the astronomical amount of hype behind the series it certainly had a lot to live up to. That said, the hype was understandable as Attack on Titan seemed to have everything going for it, being produced by Production I.G., having top notch production values, and a promising premise.

Attack on Titan follows the story of Eren and the Survey Corps ... as they fight for survival in a world where monstrous beings known as titans terrorize humanity.

I was very intrigued by the premise of Attack on Titan. It’s definitely something that stands out and is at least somewhat unique in a sea of all too similar anime. That’s unfortunately where my praise ends for the series. Unfortunately the execution does not live up to the premise and it's not long before the show turns into glorified torture porn.

The majority of the characters are bland and pretty cookie cutter. This is a huge problem in a series where death and survival are the main aspects, and a character’s death has no impact unless the viewer is attached to them. Without spoiling too much there are one or more important characters that are introduced and die within the span of a single episode. The scenes are supposed to be impactful, yet these characters are barely shown in the one episode they are in creating little emotional payoff.

Eren has one emotion- anger, and only one way of expressing himself- yelling. Combined with his naive and arrogant attitude and inability to back much of it up, Eren can be a very annoying character. He never really learns from his mistakes nor do other characters react appropriately to it to any meaningful degree. Something that also shatters the illusion of suspense in the series is Eren's ability to shounen his way out of death avarious other situations because writing is hard to do.

Mikasa is Eren’s sister and plays the part of the cool heroine of few words. She succeeds at everything she does because she has a nice ass and is cute despite her manly abs. One could argue her weird and unhealthy obsession with her brother Eren is a flaw, but like most things out of Japan I just assume it's the creators fetish. I guess it's okay though since she does look good in those tight pants.

The rest of the main cast consists of various other trainees and the Survey Corps. They aren’t really memorable and I couldn’t name more than a handful of them even if my life depended on it. There’s Armin, he’s not so good at fighting but he’s smart or so I'm told. There’s Levi, he’s kind of like Eren's mentor and a male version of Mikasa except for the part about wanting to bang Eren. Well, unless the shipping community has anything to say about it.

There are a few characters that I felt were somewhat more interesting. Sasha probably has the best characterization out of all the characters, or maybe I just like her potatoes. There is also Hange who has an obsession with studying the titans who also adds much needed personality to series. I think they provide the right amount of levity for the series. The other humor in the show doesn't work as well. It's a bit silly and contrived and interferes with the otherwise grim atmosphere and just makes things feel tonally inconsistent. Most stories do benefit from some type of levity and contrast, but it should be appropriate to tone and not take the viewer out of the story. A good example would be Paranoia Agent, there is an episode dedicated to three people trying to commit suicide that is quite humorous but stays in tune with the show's dark tone while also making for interesting social commentary on Japan's high suicide rate in real life, playing into the overarching themes of the series. It is natural and fits the show with its dry humor, in comparison Attack on Titan literally pulls you out of an serious scene for a cheap laugh, like Armin and Reiner gawking at a pretty blonde girl while they are running for their lives.

There are some other problems, such as pacing issues where the series just grinds to a screeching halt and drags on for a fair bit. A lot of other parts of the story dip into shounen levels of silliness and predictability. I’m still not entirely sure how the transformation aspect of the show works either, besides something about biting your thumb while you have some kind of goal in mind or something very ill thought out. I suppose these are things that aren’t meant to be looked into too deeply. The dialogue is also bad with the characters having to explain every little thing they do or have an internal monologue every five seconds for exposition's sake.

The production values of this show are good. The art and animation are nice and fluid, with the art style itself being very distinctive. The characters have an unusually thick border that outlines that's kind of unique. Character design is pretty good for what the show is trying to do, being more grounded and what not. The technology is pretty neat looking as well, from the 3D maneuver gear to the box cutter swords. The music doesn't thrill me as much as most but has some noteworthy pieces. It’s all fittingly high energy and I don’t have a problem with it.

By now it’s no secret that both the anime and manga versions of Attack on Titan are sweeping successes. Nearly everyone remotely interested in media has watched or has heard of it, including people that weren’t particularly big on anime to begin with. While its success with the mainstream market is commendable I can’t help but feel disappointed with the actual content. I can see Attack on Titan riding the hype wave with the support of the casual market for as long as it can. It doesn’t help that the creator is prostituting the series with several spinoffs, a live action movie, and even going as far as to change the original ending to pander to fans. It’s a shame really, I had high hopes for Attack on Titan but a few big missteps crushed those. Regrettably Attack on Titan will be a story of what could have been instead of what was.

Shingeki no Kyojin, the anime that has brought forth a new wave of anime fans and stormed the anime world when it debuted in spring of 2013. An anime that was quickly subbed and added to Netflix after it's airing, that has gained the attention of thousands of people who normally do not watch anime. It has sold extremely well in Japan and the manga has profited well in the States as well. This must mean the series is something revolutionary and a game changer for all anime after it correct? After all it can't all be hype, there has to be some serious substance ... behind all of this right?

Most fans will tell you off the bat that it is not like other series, that it is heavily violent, shocking, and sometimes horrifying. That it is a world full of interesting characters and sudden death at every turn. And all of that is true...for the first five episodes. After an introductory which I would say is worthy of the praise it gets, the series seems to fall apart extremely quickly and after it's smash beginning has so substance left to support itself afterwards.

I'll spare a summary of the story as it's almost hard not to know what the story is about by this point. I'll give you my thoughts on it in one word: Horrendous. To call the story mediocre would be too much praise. Out of the three main characters only one stands out as anything special, that being the character of Armin Arlert. However as interesting as he is compared to his two other mains, he is given significantly less time on screen to showcase this than the other two. The characters of Eren and Mikasa are without a doubt two of the worst characters ever conceived in any work of fiction. I would attempt to discuss their personalities but there is little to nothing to discuss. A standard cardboard box has more depth to it than those two, and would probably make a better lead character as well.

Ignoring the horrific set of main characters, the supporting cast is dotted with traces of what could be interesting characters, but there is never enough time given to them to let that shine through. They glimmer with hope that Isayama's writing could be something other than pathetic and are one of the only things keeping SnK afloat in an ocean of fecal matter.

The story itself must have been written by a fourth grader at best. The "plot twists" (even calling them that is a stretch) and sudden character death are all presented in such a shallow way it is often hard to care about any character that dies or any new plot development (hint: there are none, the manga is good at one thing and that is providing hundreds of questions and not a single answer). The entire pacing of the series itself is some of the worst I have had the displeasure of experiencing in years. The plot itself goes from moving at a sluggish pace and solving nothing, to a break neck speed where a character is introduced one chapter only to be killed off in the next one.

The art and animation jump between not bad and hard to even look at. The character designs suffer an often same-face syndrome worse than Araki's recent style and excluding background shots, the art is subpar at most and there is much more to be expected from a studio like IG Production. Their is a constant reuse of animations and scenes to such an extent that anyone would has this displeasure of watching more than one episode in a day would find incredibly bothersome. Reusing an animation once or twice is forgivable and almost expected, but to the extent they are reused in SnK there is absolutely no excuse.

The sound design is the only thing I can find hard to complain about, in a series where everything is so awful it is hard to even say something comforting about one of it's only good points. Which is an absolute shame as I can say the OST is probably the only thing to ever get from the anime at all.

My final verdict on SnK will be a series of questions to ask yourself before watching it. Do you enjoy awful characters that have no depth and lack the personality of even a desk chair? Do you enjoy wallowing in absolute shit? Do you have any other reason to watch this other than to laugh at how utterly irredeemable it is? There is not a single good thing to say about the series other than that the first few episodes are "not bad", apart from that it would hurt to attempt to say anything good about this series.

If you still believe you should watch this show, may God have mercy on your soul, for you are going to need it.

The fact that so many bloggers still name Shingeki no Kyogin “the greatest or most significant or most influential" anime series of 2013 only tells you how anime still is from becoming a serious art. Anime critics have long recognized that the greatest anime series of all times are Neon Genesis Evangelion and CardCaptor Sakura, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Other critics rank the highly controversial Aku no Hana over classic anime who were highly popular in courts around Japan. Teenage bloggers are still blinded by commercial success: Shingeki no Kyojin ... sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. True anime critics grow up watching a lot of anime of the past. Shingeki no Kyojin fans are often totally ignorant of the anime of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that Shingeki no Kyojin did anything worth of being saved.

In a sense Shingeki no Kyojin are emblematic of the status of modern anime criticism as a whole: too much attention to commercial phenomena and too little attention to the merits of real anime. If somebody composes the most divine anime seires but Crunchyroll refuses to hype it up and stream it around the world, a lot of bloggers will ignore it. If every teenager on MAL hype up an anime series which is as stereotyped as one can be but launches it worldwide, your average critic will waste rivers of ink on said series. This is the sad status of modern anime criticism.

Shingeki no Kyjin sells not because it's the greatest anime series of the decade but simply because it is easy to sell to the masses: it has no difficult content, it has no technical innovations, it has no creative depth. It's just a bunch of gritty 3-minute action scenes which teenagers like to overhype and rave about how "epic" it was. If somebody had not invented "Shingeki no Hype" in 2013, you would not have wasted five minutes of your time to read a page about such a trivial anime which is mediocre at best.

this anime is fascist. it tries using allegories to depict it and at some point, attemps to make anti-fascists and anti-militarism remarks in it's story. fails miserably. the only thing this anime succesfully achieves by the end is depicting a genocide.

if you still want to watch this hot piece of garbage, you'll probably stay due to the art style and action scenes being fun to watch. if you leave your political side behind, this is actually a fun experience. nothing magical, something that will change your life forever, but a little fun thing to watch before you go to sleep or anything like that.

or you ... can just skip the ending. the first two seasons are actually decent, the characters are fresh, the story is somewhat interesting. the anime has actual historical subtext akin to real life, too bad it doesn't even once attempt to dive into the seas of critique and just uses it as drive to the plot because "well its realistic because it has already happened in real life!!1!". realism doesn't necessarily mean good writing, but it's tolerable.

anyways, not-so-brilliant work but that was reasonably enjoyable until the worst ending i've seen in my entire life and this includes all forms of media i consume. definitely a pity, but you might enjoy it more than i did.

[REUPLOAD]

"I'm going to kill all the Titans!"

Why, of course you are.



"Zombie" is a genre. It's not survival horror, it's "Zombie" respectively. This is because Zombie follows a completely different set of rules, tropes and clichés, while survival horror is a vague category that could really be much broader. Shingeki no Kyojin is not a horror show, not a serious Seinen, or a well written show. It's a disappointing mess of a Shounen zombie show.

To qualify as a Zombie show, several plot points are required. You need a menace/zombies, the survivors/prey of the menace, as well as a location where supplies are limited or scarce. ... The Titans, humans, and the 3 walls fit under these points. Congratulations, SnK qualifies in the preliminaries. But does it hold up?

Absolutely not; SnK completely lacks the themes that make a Zombie media good, or at least entertaining. It's predictable with a lack of tension thanks to plot holes, Gary Stu protagonists who for some reason can't die, and no direct relation to what’s happening to the characters on the screen. The main selling of a Zombie media is emotions akin to fear or anxiety. Basically never knowing who's going to die, or how and when people do die, it should mean something, since you as the viewer feel a connection as if you were surviving with that person all along the stories direction.

Now you'll say, "But people die in SnK all the time! Have you even seen the show?!?!?”

People don't die in SnK, cardboard backgrounds SHAPED like people die in SnK. These "people" have no memorable names or development going for them, just one trait that you remember them by; like black kid or short kid. These "people" die like frogs in a grinder, for nothing more than mere shock value, which is an ironic saying because there is no value in it at all.

The main characters that have names, but not any actual depth mind you; don't die at all. They are beaten, eaten, and torn, yet they still live. Why?

Because Eren is Naruto. He's going to save the day, defeat the enemy, keep his friends alive, and obtain a secret power that makes him near invincible (a terrible shounen trope). He's a bland and unlikable shounen protagonist straight from the box o' clichés, written by a third grader in purple crayon. He also has his girlfriend who is super strong, and together they can take on entire titan armies. This reincarnation of Jesus is what breaks the whole atmosphere of a Zombie show. Zombie shows are supposed to bring out the human aspects of its inhabitants, mortality being a major theme. Having a Gary Stu with more plot armor than a castle has bricks, breaks the human formula.

My biggest problem with SnK is that it has the nerves to use the, "IT HAPPENED OFF SCREEN" tactic. 5 years of training that's supposed to make everyone stronger? Skipped, and even with this aforementioned training, hundreds die on the FIRST mission. 20% of the population dying? Skipped dawg. Titan behavior observation? Haven't seen him. All these plot points could be used for character development, a concept unknown in SnK.

And don't talk to me about the pacing. This show takes its god damn time on absolutely the most irritatingly absurd predicaments. Eren and friends spend an entire episode (That takes an eternity mind you) about to be fired upon from his allies, all for them finally to come to the conclusion that they should ask their allies not to fire. What?!?! Anyone could have done that without a second thought, and it wouldn't take them Armin's "special tacticool talent", which by the way, doesn't exist. He's just a useless whiny annoyance, but at least he's under human restrictions, unlike Mr. KILLALLTITANS.

The menace of a Zombie show usually has a set of rules that are observed by the characters and then exploited in order to survive. Example, zombies are attracted to humans to eat. While a few general rules are known about the Titans, every different Titan acts randomly. Some Titans are slow, sluggish and easily killed; while others jump super high and grab you lightning fast with their mouths. Some Titans can run faster than humans with gear, and then again some can't even walk properly. The only explanations we ever get, is that any Titan that acts differently is an “abnormal." Thanks to this asinine bullshit, not only are the humans broken, but the menaces are as well!

On Music and Animation…
A very solid sound track; all that can be said is that it's wasted on SnK. The animation is poor quality with 50 million stills in every episode. No such praise is deserved in this category.

As a reminder, SnK is a SHOUNEN, when it could very easily be a quality Seinen with its original exposition. It’s majorly disappointing that all this potential is to go to waste. SnK might look good in comparison to other shows it’s competing with, but a rock isn’t a diamond just because it’s surrounded by dirtier rocks.

Pop quiz. What do we do with poor Shounen?
We forget about them.

Okay I am a fan of some giant comics and films. I was disappointed when i saw this series. I take a look at things from episode 1. If its not interesting at that first episode the anime show is not good. This anime show went beyond that. It was boring, and i seriously wanted to smack myself for wasting 20 minutes even scanning through this. The plot to this show is also rediculous, and the characters within the show do some of the most idiotic things imaginable. Like building a city and staying in it for 100 ... years, and not preparing for things incase it does happen. No they panic instead of being prepared for war, and do things too late. Anyways also for this show to be "gory," and "graphica"l it sure as hell takes too long to kill someone. Seriously it takes 20 minutes for a giant monster to kill a human being. Seriously the show would have been good, had it not started off with some of the most dumbest things imagineable. On top of it all it spends too much of its time talking. This is like watching those boring marvel movies, and people consider this nonsense epic or badass. For a giant show, you would expect atleast human bodies or a darker setting, but you just get this boring plot which i am more bored than scared. This is coming from a guy who loves the giant films. Giant females as well which the show seemed to lack, but once they include her into the series, and while reading the manga because i cannot take looking at 20 minutes boring, they made the whole series into a big joke. I kid you not i am changing my view of things about this anime now, because of the giant woman being introduced. And this is a shame, how she can come in and make the manga literally funny, but the show a complete mess and waste of time that you can use to watch something else. I seriously recommend the manga vs the anime. The anime is a complete waste, while the manga is just funny as hell and interesting. Its just a shame the woman acts more like a giant would in these fanmade comics, vs how a male giant would act lol. This also proves once again, how manga will always defeat anime. Not because of how anime always censors somethings, but because you get more content in a stand still comic vs a moving motion picture.

Aot was hailed to be one of the best animes to have ever came out, which for the first few episodes initially captivates viewers with its dynamic animation, fluid action and premise brimming with intriguing potential. However soon after that the entire writing staff seemingly got replaced with edgy 12 year olds probably because its cheaper to hire and then falls into an onslaught of narrative inconsistencies, predictable character cliches, and hollow worldbuilding that wants you to dig deeper into an empty cavern. The level of quality I'd see people bashing about for 5 hours but I guess the probably 100 million+ people who saw ... this are also 12 and edgy.



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.

Remember this is opinion I'm going to be blunt and to the point.
Story:
The story while being unique in it's own little way is pretty generic shounen absolutely no surprises.
Art:
Have to give it credit it's unique it's not good but not bad.
Sound:
None of the music really got me in the mood you know what I mean if you've watched an actual good anime before.
Characters:
Okay here's my problem right here, there's little to no character development there are relationships (friends) but everyone is so bland SO BLAND!
Enjoyment:
... It was okay I kinda liked it the action was real nice ya know?
Overall:
It's decent I would not give this anime any higher or any lower than a 4

So, Shingeki no Kyojin was like the most hyped anime in the last season. Yeah, why not? There were good basics, survival horror and action, mixed with an interesting setting. These are usually conditions for a good anime.
But instead of that you get offered a bad production, logical issues and incredible weak characters.
The only reason why I finished this show is that I usually never drop any anime.

Story: The story is like 'end time survival-action', really exciting and it gets the interest of the viewer in an instant. All in all the story was quite good, almost amazing. BUT: there are so many logical ... issues, unnecessary plot twists and stupid filler episodes that it dragged down the whole overall picture of the story.

Art/Graphics: Second worst point. Frankly, they did almost nothing right at this point. The facial expressions and emotions are awful, they totally don't look like they're supposed to.
That's why many scenes just lose their exciting or dramatical effect because due to the named problems the scenes appear just weird.

Sound: All right, a good point again. The openings and endings are good, soundtracks are fitting. In my opinion the second opening is very catchy, I like it the most.

Character: *Sigh* Let's get over with this.
The worst point, in my opinion, are the characters. They are totally flat and queasy. You can't produce an anime of this sort with these bad characters. The figures are just too inconspicuous and odd, which is an absolutely defect for survival-action.

Enjoyment: Oh well, I didn't really enjoy watching this, I just watched it, 'cause I don't wanna have any dropped anime in my list. Some episodes were quite okay, some others weren't. But to be honest, I was never looking forward to the next episodes.

Overall: This anime was clearly overhyped; the result was bad. Everyone their own cup of tea, but I recommend you to not watch this series. It's not worth your time.

Well, I'll admit that it's been a while since I tried to sit through this...

Where do I begin? Well, first of all, this anime is ridiculously overrated. I began watching it when a friend of mine was obsessed, and I have to say I was vastly disappointed. I knew that both online and in real life, people were mass-talking about SnK, so I guess I was expected more than what it was giving me.

Story - 3/10
We've all already heard the one about the angry, slightly crazy main male protagonist who has some sort of weird connection to the antagonist/ism in the show, and the protagonist's ... best friend is always the overly emotionless girl who has crazy feelings. Okay, we get it! Pick something else!

The plot was interesting, but not very original. The titans could have been anything - wolves, a rebel group out in the woods, unicorns - and I'm not going to rate the unoriginal plot higher just because there's cool humanoid things that eat people alive. It's easy to guess what's going to happen next.

I'll admit, since I was not planning on finishing the series, I read the entire plot and the ending of the show. And my first reaction was, "what? are you serious right now?"

Art - 10/10
I would not consider the character's art very stand-outish, but the animation for the movement, blood and overall outfits the characters wear is gorgeous. The titans' designs are also interesting.

Sound - 9/10
I had no problem hearing what was happening.

Character - 4/10
As I said above, I think Eren and Mikasa's character arcs are wildly overused, and many of the characters only seemed to be put there to move along the story, without ever really getting much out of them. Also, Eren's feelings about things don't match up with the ending at all.

Enjoyment - 3/10
Although story and art are both extremely important to me, above all else I need to enjoy it. Whether it makes me laugh or cry, I need to feel something. SnK just did not do it for me. I was constantly bored, and there was nothing particularly exciting about the series. I did not jump, or cry, or smile. I think the only time it triggered an emotion is when I covered my eyes once at a bloody scene, but other than that, nothing.

Overall - 3/10
I would not recommend this to any of my friends who haven't seen it. Like most quickly-popular anime, this is nothing to lose your mind over. It's another overrated piece that quickly bores you and leaves you with nothing to think about afterward.

I feel almost obligated to begin my review with this simple statement: Attack on Titan is absurdly overrated. There, it’s done, and now I can get on to explaining the very many reasons why.

Art/Animation: – So the animation is top notch. Yay 2013. Definitely this anime’s strong suit, probably this anime’s only strong suit. The characters were well drawn, and well proportioned. It is worth noting that even secondary, and tertiary characters appeared well designed (as opposed to some anime’s where the character’s detail is a direct correlation with the size of their role). The city was amazingly ... well drawn, too. The backgrounds were rich, the monsters were well done, and the animation was crisp. While I have no complaints here, it occurs to me that decent animation should be expected at this point. That, and animation alone does not make a story. This category is not weighted as heavily.

Sound: – For the most part, I enjoyed the OT’s, and the BGM. I would like to point out that the BGM seemed overly dramatic at times, especially during the very many deaths of characters you care nothing about. Additionally, the voice acting/dialogue was subpar: Mikasa sounded like a drone. Eren was a excruciatingly screamy and ragey. Armin was a whiny bitch. And that’s our three main characters.

Synopsis: - While AOT certainly doesn’t invent the wheel here, the story does have a fairly interesting premise. Humanity is on the brink of extinction, resulting from these nearly invincible monsters who inhabit the planet, sans for one giant, walled city. I feel this is about the full extent of this story’s interest, and the reasons are as follows:

1. Even assuming they’re going to pick this story back up for another season, you learn absolutely nothing about the titans in the first 25 episodes.

2. The extent to which humanity is useless and powerless (sans for a couple of the main protagonists) is painstakingly overblown. The first question that struck me, was “where did these walls come from?” The wall struck me as damn near the only thing they did right in the last hundred years. The walls had me begging the question of why the Recon corps weren’t guarding constructive expeditions to continually extend the city… …that would have seemed to make sense to me. In fact, what it was that the Recon corps really did during their expeditions never seemed explained at all. All you know is that lots of people died every time… for apparently nothing.

3. The story is almost entirely plot driven, not character driven. Sometimes plot drives can be exciting and unexpected. But AOT, as it seems, is a one-trick-pony. It repeatedly followed the formula of creating these trite calms, to suddenly everything going wrong in the matter of seconds. The characters scarcely made any decisions that advanced the plot, rather we spent the entire 25 episodes watching them react (or rather try to react) to disaster. The series seems very fatalistic in that sense.

4. The pacing is utterly horrible. In the first episode, 100 years of peace are brutally broken, as monsters overrun the outer city, killing thousands of people, including the main character’s mother. Flash forward a mere few episodes, to waste an entire episode of the main character continually failing to pass his military test, just to simply be concluded that his gear was broken… They almost allowed for some character development… Almost. Then you’ll spend half the anime watching them feebly attempt to retake the city, just for that to be neatly concluded with Eren’s super powers. Then the final half of the anime on a failed mission where you learn nothing about the Titans, or the main character’s superpowers for that matter.

5. The less perceptive viewer might have identified all the on-screen deaths as shocking, or as keeping the watcher on the edge of their seat. But the fact is, the main characters are invincible. They tried so hard to convince the viewer that the main character was killed early on, but the fact is, it was painfully obvious that he wasn’t. After learning of his superpowers, and healing abilities, it was easy to discern he was immortal. The show did well to kill very many tertiary characters, but that was about it. The main characters were invincible. Even the secondary characters (Jean, Annie, Connie, Potato Girl, etc.. etc..) were safe. The fact is, they did not kill any character that you had any connection with whatsoever. Instead they continually introduced new characters who weren't even likable in the first place, to use as fodder. By the time the series was over, the formula was tired, and the viewer was desensitized.

6. It was also terribly corny the way most classes and factions were portrayed (save for the recon corps). Let’s take the wall worshippers, for instance. They were fanatical, but served virtually no purpose to bolster the story. The military police felt this way, too. Even assuming that the aristocracy was corrupt to the core, it did not seem plausible that the MP, their personal protectors, would be allowed to be as lazy, and useless as they appeared. It occurs to me, that those people would be punished. The upperclass and the merchants were way overblown as well. When the guy blocked the gate with his carriage, and literally told people that it was the poor and the military’s job to die protecting his wealth, it was so corny and implausible I thought about stopping right there. I was face-palming. Even if that was what that character was thinking, it made no sense he would say that aloud.

Characters: 2/10 - This series’ glaring weakness. The characters, quite frankly, sucked. They were painfully one-dimensional, their dialogues were boring, their abilities (for some) were implausible, and their ojbectives were unfounded and unrealistic. This show seemed to be geared towards immature audiences, because rather than demonstrating the character’s persona through actions and development, their chief (and often singular) definable trait was instead just repeatedly slammed over our heads. Let’s break some of the big ones down, shall we?

1. Eren – Our Series lead, he might just be my very least favorite character on this list. I seriously hated him within minutes of watching the show. Even before the attack, he was filled with anger and hate for absolutely no apparent reason. Rage is really the only definable trait of Eren. He scantly shows and affection or otherwise positively interacts with Mikasa. Rather, he just continually rages about how he hates and wants to kill the Titans. He is very 1 dimensional, showing little change or development over the whole series. Terrible protagonist.

2. Mikasa – Our female lead, she is basically a robot. Mikasa has no goals, interests, or personality to speak of. She is just this mega-warrior-genius whose only interest in the entire universe, is Eren. She serves as his protector, and obessor. These facts are made even more boring by how brutally underdeveloped the relationship between Eren and Mikasa is. Their relationship is basically entirely non-existent, making her entire character’s existence pretty much pointless.

3. Armin – He’s probably the secondary lead. Out of the three, he was the most plausible character. I mean, at least he didn’t have superpowers like the other two, and had some capacity to fear the gigantic monsters they were contending with. Still, his character was basically one dimensional, too. They kept trying to label him a “genius” simply because unlike the other leads he had the smallest modicum of cognitive ability. Rather than charging headlong after monsters the way Eren or Mikasa would, he would form little plans that were honestly elementary, and nothing to be considered genius. Rather than showing his character’s genius, the show instead chose to remind us he was smart, via pseudo-tactical plans he made.

4. Jean – He was by far my favorite character in the show. Jean is the only dynamic character present. He is pragmatic and grounded, he actually has some sort of realistic sense of the danger they face. He served as Eren’s foil, mostly because he had the cognitive ability to think about things other than rage against Titans. He pointed out how futile most military missions were (and the show aptly demonstrated this), and focused more on self-survival. Still, he developed to stick with his comrades, despite his own desire to find safer posts. He was actually a pleasure to watch, and probably the only reason I stuck with the show.

5. Levi – Levi was your basic untouchable super hero who killed Titans, monsters that 99.9% of the soldiers couldn’t touch; and he did so more easily than a normal person could step on an ant. He had the sole quirk of being a "clean freak", which was not at all entertaining, given how trivial of a quirk it was when surrounded by the show's atmosphere.

Overall: 4/10 If you like blood of characters you care nothing for, boring immature themes and personalities, one-dimensional leads, little story development, and even less character development, decent music, and great art, well then you have yourself a show. Everyone ranted and raved about this show, which makes me even more frustrated with how truly subpar this show was. We have Jean, the music, and the animation to thank that I'm giving any points here at all. They can't all be Cowboy Bebop's I guess.

And Now here are some excused scorings (thanks to Roriconfan for the template)

ART SECTION: 9/10
General Artwork 2/2 (outstanding)
Character Figures 1/2 (kind of mundane)
Backgrounds 2/2 (incredibly detailed)
Animation 2/2 (crisp)
Visual Effects 2/2 (great for the most part)

SOUND SECTION: 5/10
Voice Acting 0/3 (insufferably bad, inexplicable screaming)
Music Themes 3/4 (OTs were great, BGM was ok)
Sound Effects 2/3 (fine)

STORY SECTION: 2/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 0/2 (erratic and slow)
Complexity 0/2 (boring and immature with nothing interesting discovered)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 0/2 (unfinished, horrible first season ending)

CHARACTER SECTION: 1/10
Presence 1/2 (weak)
Personality 0/2 (unfounded and one-dimensional)
Backdrop 0/2 (a little, and it was overblown and immature)
Development 0/2 (none, Eren was pissed at life even before bad things happened)
Catharsis 0/2 (none, though it is unfinsihed)

VALUE SECTION: 5/10
Historical Value 1/3 (I believe in time people will recognize this as mediocrity)
Rewatchability 0/3 (terrible pacing, undeveloped characters and story)
Memorability 4/4 (I've never seen more hype for a show before)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 4/10
Art 1/1 (outstanding)
Sound 1/2 (great music, horrible voice acting)
Story 1/3 (predictable, pointless shock factor)
Characters 1/4 (terrible, except for Jean)

VERDICT: 4/10

Shingeki no Kyojin was one of the top rated anime in this season and I had high expectations on this. However, it did not meet my expectations although it was a well-produced anime with realistic graphics and awesome character development.

For those who do not enjoy gore and despair in an anime, I do not recommend you this anime since you may probably end up with nightmares at night. Even I almost ended up puking in the end since humans were killed like flies without any consideration and I found it hard to accept that the lives of humans can be so easily lost.

However, I have ... to admit that the storyline was very unique and attractive since it was different from the common anime where hope was actually visible with the progress of the anime. In SnK, even with the protagonist, hope for mankind was barely visible and it was frighteningly easy for one to fall into despair just like the people within the anime. As I didn't read the manga, from the ending of the anime, I could only say that mankind was doom for destruction in the face of the ultimate enemy: titans.

As for character development, the producers did a really good job in defining the characters. For the main protagonist, Eren, his hatred towards the titans throughout the storyline is what propels the plot forward, and for me, it was tough to accept as the depth of his hatred was overwhelming. Truthfully speaking, I did not like his character, and probably he was one of my unfavored characters. On the other hand, LEVI (Rivaille) was awesome, pronto. Enough said right? He is the only reason I would say "I LOVE this anime".

In conclusion, I personally did not like this anime as its gore and the despair I felt while watching this anime left me feeling desperate, dark, and gloomy even after the anime ended. It certainly did not leave a good aftertaste. But just because they presented an awesome character, I rated this anime a decent 4.

P.S. If I were to live in the world of SnK, I will immediately commit suicide when facing a titan because I definitely do not want to get eaten by such a ridiculous and disgusting living thing with weird running habits and leaves you feeling extremely gross. Urgh..

Oh how I know I'm going to be going against the masses with this review. When I first watched AOT I was intrigued. What an interesting notion: the decline of humanity, being forced to live like caged animals behind massive walls to be safe from massive human-eating beings.....and that's where all of the good stopped for me.

First off, we have the three main characters: Eren, Mikasa, and Armin.
Eren (aka - mr. grumpy-pants who never stops yelling) seems to be an ideal character at the beginning, but as we move onwards through the series....where is the character development?! Come on!!

Mikasa, is literally ms. perfect in every ... way. It seems this girl can do no wrong. She can do everything without even batting an eyelash. Enough said - irritating character due to her perfection. News flash - nobody should be perfect.

Armin is the best out of the three by far. He's the classic bookworm. I don't have pretty much anything bad to say about him.


One thing that really irritated me was that this is pretty much a military anime about fighting gigantic titans. The characters are in an ARMY and yet, they're disobeying orders left and right and I don't think that they were ever punished for doing so? What BS is that? I'm sorry, but it's true. Also, if it's based on military, I'm sure there should be some military strategy - NOPE. practically nothing.

HOWEVER, all of this is not the fault of the animation team, they did the best with what they had to work with. They did a fantastic job with the animation.

Last thing in the review I was attempting to keep short: FLASHBACKS!!! WHY. SO. MANY? - I remember watching an episode that was 3/4 flashbacks. Worst episode ever because there was 5mins of new content.

My summary of AOT: Crappy storyline and characters hidden behind massive flashy battle scenes.

OVERALL RATING (for me) = 3/10
(based on all 5 sections) = 4.4/10



EDIT: I have a few people asking me about the sound rating I gave for this series. The subbed version wasn't all that good, and when I tried the dubbed I was laughing so hard at the voices that I couldn't focus on the series. The 5 is just my personal rating. I did not enjoy the opening song, however it did suit the series, so the sound probably deserves a 7 overall.

an overrated, snoozefest at best.
Many of my friends came to me saying this is one of the best anime out there, so i decided to check it out. I was extremely dissapointed.
The animation and sound was pretty good, to be fair. What i had the most problems with was the characters and the overall weird storyline. I got bored halfway through season three and really only continued watching to cross it off my list.

I can name only about two or three characters that i liked. Most of the others are either very bland, annoying, or straight up overrated. (*cough* Levi *cough)

This anime is popular for a reason, its flashy, the animation and music are great, the fight scenes are stylish and on the surface level it seems really cool. With that out of the way, I HATE this anime, when I was watching it I literally wanted to punch my screen. The First thing that pissed me of were some of the characters, most of them are mediocre to slightly interesting, but some are awful. The main character is alright, but Mikasa is a cold soulless husk created so that the writers could have someone to kill a titan if they need it. Armin is ... AWFUL, anytime anything gets even a little bit tough he literally falls on the ground and starts screaming about how he "can't do it", and ends up getting like 3 people killed in the process. This might be ok and completely believable if he did this a couple of times, but he spends the whole show doing it. I've never hated a character more. The rest of them are pretty generic tropes like most anime, but some have a couple interesting things about them. The dialogue is a joke a lot of them time, I understand that these people have seen some shit and are facing death, but COME ON. Most of it is people standing around, complaining, yelling, arguing, and accusing each other of stuff. Meanwhile, everyone around them is dying and they just start arguing about nothing. Not to mention the insane freak out moments where they streak the animation and shake the screen around. It was INFURIATING. But that's not all, next we have the story. I admit that the original premise is interesting, but they spend little time on it. Most of the story is about humans attempting to do something and then failing horribly. You know how in comics and stuff the good guy always wins, and so you never actually feel tension for the situation? This show is the exact opposite, the good guy always loses, they literally can't do anything right. If somebody gets in a bad situation then you know they are dead. Even worse, the writers pull like anti-deus ex machina stuff out of nowhere just so that the humans will lose. So even if things seem alright, nope, somebodies probably going to die. The soldiers are completely useless and die all the time, except for a few badass type characters who fly through titans like nothing. The pacing is terrible, with the first few episodes flying by and being really interesting and then nothing happens for like 7 episodes. By the end of the anime you have learned NOTHING about ANYTHING interesting in the story. They present to you a couple of mysteries in the show that you think will be interesting when they get to them, but they don't even try to progress to some and the writers come up with a way to crush any efforts to get to others. The only reason this show gets a 4 is because the production was very good, but damn this show did nothing but make me angry after the first few episodes. Proceed with caution.

Animation? Great quality. Premise? Interesting and makes you want to sit and watch the rest of it. Worldbuilding? It's ok to decent. This anime would have been something I would've wanted to watch had the anime consistently been released back in the late 2010's. That being said I have somewhat kept up with the anime during the years and was eager to watch it, movies and all, when it all airs and finishes. HOWEVER, there was a certain leaked pages that spoiled the ending and everyone (including myself) were outraged at how it ended. After roughing it through the long break from season 1 to ... season 2 and waiting and waiting I will not watch this for the sake of the ending.

Story 2/10
In terms of story the only thing that'll grip you is the plot of this anime and the surreal situation around it. Giants taken over world? Live in a damn cage? Pretty interesting, but the story itself about a teenager putting so many asspulls and breaking universal laws is interesting enough for me because objectively Kyojin has a very weak story. It's dull and dead beat entertainment. Nothing about it different from anything else other than the typical revenge shonen story. No explanation or anything with asspulls, when it tries to be serious story, but hey it's a shonen. What the hell do ... you expect?

Art 10/10
Despite the story being completely half assed, the art is gorgeous and unique in its own way with very high production value. It's eye candy.

Sound 7/10
Sometimes the sound just doesn't fit the atmosphere and the OP/EDs are good, but they have nothing to do with the overall plot/story.

Character 1/10
I will say this two times that you can get it. The characters in Shingeki are uncharismatic idiots. The characters in Shingeki are uncharismatic idiots.
Motivation for most of the characters? Haha, no explanation. Development at all? Haha, none. Any depth at all? Haha, none. Dialogue is at least coherent? Haha, none. Likable characters? Haha, none.
The fact that most of the characters lack any depth due to the fact that while introducing a shit ton of characters, they don't explain anything about them either while they just die off. The only character with backstories is the hero and heroine of the show. Not surprising.

Enjoyment 4/10
After figuring out the fact that after the first 4 episodes were just carefully thought out for hype and attention grabs i quickly became disinterested as this show was turning into a shonen mish mash. I did not enjoy this anime at all. I saw potential in the anime, but they just wasted it away by having a weak story and having very weak characters.

Overall 3/10
If you are looking forward to looking at watching paint dry go ahead, but if you aren't don't.

This show is honestly the most overrated garbage I've seen. Most people who enjoy this haven't read any good manga or anime. The show has predictable plots and most of it sucks. I can't find anything in that in that's special besides the worldbuilding, which is ruined by every other aspect possible.

The worldbuilding is awesome and it reminds me of a lot of fantasy novels. The ideas and concepts are amazing but are ruined by the story and characters.

The characters in this are some of the worst characters of any mainstream anime/manga. They are horrible have nothing special, and fall into every trope possible, without ... being likeable.

After finished this series, there are a couple things that I must point out.

Lots of action, but for some reason the characters seem to need to have conversations while standing still in the middle of battle.

They tend to reiterate things over and over and over, I feel like I'm being talked down to.

There is a lot of filler in each episode, and a they go way into depth on characters that have almost no hold on the plot.

Characters seem to stand around in battle or while under attack when any normal person would be doing something, literally anything.

All of that said, the artwork is absolutely ... beautiful, the idea behind the story is great, but the writing is shit-tastic, the sound is quite enjoyable, but there seems to be an odd mix of music choices, some are epic orchestrals, while others are Japanese pop, the characters are bland with too many to care about, and these massive flaws take away from what could be a great series.

Since the hype about Shingeki no Kyojin is rather hard to escape my girlfriend decided to watch it, and so I watched along. We watched it in one go.

And to be honest it wasn't really worth the time for me and not for her either.
I partially understand what people may find awesome about this anime but all the things that felt over dramatized, unrealistic or outright stupid simply outweighed the good points for me.

Story: The story of Shingeki no Kyojin is at least rather unique and it does a lot of things right. It's not really easy to predict and it keeps luring with questions ... and raises the desire to know what's going on. Having it end in a titanical cliffhanger that feels like the whole 25 episodes were just a small beginning is not so cool though.

Art & Sound are both very good, I got nothing to complain about here.

Character though... Shingeki no Kyojin has some nice character development, and I liked how they built up a real story for most characters, with a proper past and a nice way of presenting things piece for piece to try and keep things interesting.
However Shingeki no Kyojin felt like it really chewed through every last totally overused cliche of people fucking up absolutely everything constantly. Up to the point where it felt like however evil and overpowered the titans are, the biggest enemy throughout the anime were people who failed at everything they touched, and not because the titans were oh so strong, but rather because they were oh so darn stupid.
After just 7 episodes or so I could pretty much predict every upcoming death as in: "Well, since no one get's his job done properly anyway, there is no way this operation is going to go well without all the really important people dying." and every single time I was proven right. And just watching a bunch of people fail predictably and horribly for several episodes on end just trying to get one single thing done is really no fun for me.

So all in all it was rather hard for me to enjoy watching this, as it mostly frustrated me.

Mind you though, for people that love to have protagonists failing around all the time and just barely winning by pure luck or getting their shit together in the absolutely very last second (after half the cast died of course) Shingeki no Kyojin may actually prove to be really fun to watch.