Review : Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan has become one of the biggest anime, over the past few years. I watched it episodically when it was airing, but recently I re-watched it so that I can write a review on it and I also noted a lot of things while I was watching it so probably this will be a long review as I've a lot of things to tell you!

Story

This anime does not have a complex or complicated story and if I had to describe it in one word it would be "epic". Its just that it had a very gripping and intense story-line which had me going back to it week after week for more. Now for the actual story, Humanity has been pushed behind 3 walls which protects them from the monster or predators outside called "Titans". These Titans are giant docile humanoids that eat humans and they range in classes of size, with some being only 5 meters tall and some special and rare ones like Colossal and Armored Titan being 60 meters tall. But, One day, the special titans ; Colossal Titan and Armored Titan appear from nowhere and destroy the wall guarding our MC Eren Jaeger's City. From here on the show focuses on him and his two other friends Mikasa and Armin who join the military and train in order to destroy the titans.

Characters

There are many characters in the anime, and surprisingly they all are well-developed and have motives behind their actions. For Eg. In the starting I thought that Mikasa's sole purpose of protecting Eren was just her feelings for him but as the show progressed I found out that I was totally wrong and I won't talk about it much because of some spoilers. Our MC, Eren Jaeger seemed to be a little irresponsible and an intolerable whiny in the beginning but he matured halfway through and developed a strong passion to destroy every single titan. Our other leads and Eren's friends, Mikasa and Armin may appear to be a little clingy to Eren at times, but the trio spends much time apart in the second half. Mikasa Ackerman, is a master in combats and she is fearless and presents major attraction with her swift moves. Armin Arlert, starts out as a coward who totally doesn't want to fight and joins military just to be with his friends, but comes to strategize to protect his friends, despite his fear. He is quite the genius, who also contributes to resolving various mysteries of the titans. All the other characters, have different personalities and also distinguish from each other in terms of combat ability, experience and leadership qualities. The anime also goes into the past of some of the important characters and highlight relationships between them. This allowed me to understand all the characters better.

Animation and Sound

The animation and artwork were amazing. The backgrounds were very rich of colors, especially the landscapes and building, they were also very detailed.  The animation was smooth and fluid especially at the times of fighting with titans in the city and by looking at the buildings, it gave me some sort of magical medieval-time look. The character-designs were excellent, and what I liked the most about them were the thick black outlines. Overall, the artwork and animation was unique and it was noticeable that a lot of effort has been put into it. 

Sound is one of the best parts about the show, All the opening(s) and ending(s) were great and I never skipped them. The first OP "Guren no Yumiya" was pretty amazing and promising and the mix of Japan and Germany at the start of this OP made it unique. All the soundtracks and background musics were great and suited the theme of the show perfectly. The voice acting was top-notch and I don't think it could have possibly been any better. All the voices suited their characters perfectly and also displayed their personalities pretty good. 

Enjoyment

I definitely enjoyed watching and re-watching Attack on Titan. The anime grabs you from the reality and puts you into a desperate world where humanity fights for it's very own survival. "If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. And If you don’t fight, you can’t win!" So, If you're looking for an action anime with a strong plot you should definitely watch this.

Overall, Attack on Titan is a masterpiece and is well worth your time. While I don't think that the characters will find their own space in your heart, I do believe you will have a great time with this show, especially if you are an action lover. I myself am incredibly excited for season 2 and severely hope that they fix up some of the issues in it! And If you are going to watch the season 2, avoid the manga spoilers like a plague!

5 STAR ANIME.

Click to view my ratings guide.