Attack On Titan (Anime Review)

So, now for my anime reviews, we move onto one of the most popular anime's of the 2010's, Attack On Titan. I only got into this series almost two months ago and I'm already well caught up with the series. I've seen the first three seasons and I'm waiting for the fourth season to end. I heard it's on hiatus at the moment, so I'm hoping it'll be finished soon at some point. Not only that, but I've also been collecting the mangas as well as I currently have up to volume 15 at the moment. I'd been hearing about the show's extreme popularity for a long time and even my sister really likes it, so I decided I wanted to get into it myself and see what all the hype was about. And, so far, form what I'm seeing, this is a really, really good show. I've been hearing lately that the fourth season is kinda disappointing, but so far, everything I've seen has been really excellent, and that's a credit to the person who created the manga itself, Hajime Isayama. Also, like always, this will have all the spoilers for the first three seasons, so keep that in mind. Anyway, the plot of this series is that it's set in a world where there are these giant monsters called Titans who do nothing but hunt for people and eat them. So, humanity is mostly inside a gigantic walled town for their protection while there are people inside called the Survey Corps that try to kill Titans. And, one day, a ginormous titan called the Colossal Titan and another one called the Armored Titan break through the wall which causes a bunch of people to get killed. One of which is the mother of a boy named Eren Yeager who, after seeing his mother get killed, vows to kill every single Titan. Years later, he and his friends, Mikasa and Armin join the Survey Corp along with other characters to kill all the Titans, but, along the way, they discover different twists and learn more about the world. Again, I'm gonna stop there for the story. So, clearly, you would think that the main reason everyone really gets into this series is because of the fights against the Titans, and that is definitely a big reason, but there's a whole lot more to it than that. In fact, there's a whole lot more I didn't even expect when I started. So, the first season, in my opinion, does a really good job of setting up this world. We understand that this is a cruel world with it feeling like it's not safe anywhere and they do a great job with that. And Isayama's writing it really good so that we understand a lot of these characters' motivations. And, I love how not only is there danger with whole Titan aspect, but there's also some problems inside the walls with some things feeling wrong and people doing horrible and selfish things and not caring for others. But, beyond that, the actual action scenes are absolutely incredible. This was done by WIT Studio, who have done an incredible job with these scenes. My favourite kind of action scene is when they're zipping around with their ODM Gear and slicing through Titans. Those scenes are so cool. Also, this show is R rated and it's extremely brutal. There are some really horrifying things to see in this. Obviously with the whole Titan eating people, but even just other things and the way these characters gets killed is extremely disturbing. However, what makes the story even more interesting is when we learn about the fact that some humans can become Titans like Eren. We learn how later on, but it's awesome when we see these things because it's so cool. And a lot of these characters are really cool too. Personally, my favourite character is Levi, this captain who's really broody a lot of the time and can act really cold a lot but you can tell he cares for everyone and he's so awesome in the action scenes. And my second favourite is probably Erwin, who's a commander in the Survey Corp and is really awesome and really likeable too. And, we keep learning more an more and getting more battles all leading up to an incredible final battle for this season when Eren fights Annie, this Survey Corp member who can also become a Titan and is one of the ones trying to get everyone killed. It's an incredible action scene and really exciting. And then we learn a bit more like when we see that some Titans are actually built inside the walls and it was being kept a secret and the series has some really hateable characters who are doing horrible things or not telling people what they're doing and putting everyone in danger just for their own benefit. And the ending of this season does leave a great setup for the next season. Although, I will say though, I do have some problems with the series and I'll get them out the way first. For starters, some of the characters can sometimes feel kinda generic or boring. The biggest example I can think of in terms of who's kinda generic is Eren himself because sometimes he just seems like a guy who's had a hard life and kinda hates everything. It's not that exactly, but it's close enough and sometimes, that did feel a bit repetitive. He does still have cool moments, but I couldn't not feel that way when watching him sometimes. The other one who sorta felt a little annoying at points was Mikasa, Eren's friend. Mostly because she has an extreme obsession with him with really wanting to protect him at all times and just thinking of him. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense and can get kinda annoying at point. But that's not to say she's a bad character. She still has a lot of incredible moments and is one of the best members of the Survey Corp. And, a lot of the other characters are great too like Armin, Historia, Hange, Reiner, Bertholdt. It's really cool just watching these characters doing what their doing and they all work off each other really well. Plus, like I said, Levi and Erwin ae my two favourite characters in the show and I like their connection with each other. Plus, I like when the main characters get involved in something important like when Eren has to use his Titan form to plug up a hole in the wall with a giant boulder and everyone has to help him. Anyway, the second season is where some of the most iconic scenes in the show happen. The first big thing is that we're introduced to the Beast Titan, this huge furry Titan who can talk and is causing a lot of damage. And we get more of selfish characters doing horrible things like when Levi and Hange interrogate one guy who's keeping the identity of the real royal family and they're trying to find out the truth. And, honestly, the best part of this entire season is my opinion is the reveal of the Colossal and Armored Titans being Reiner and Bertholdt.

And considering they were some of the most likeable characters in the series, it just makes this reveal all the sadder. I already knew this from being told about it before and seeing this clip a few times, but still. And this leads to an awesome fight between Eren and them when he transforms as well. And we get an incredible sequence where all of them and more go after them which leads to Erwin losing his arm and Hannes being killed and we learn that Eren has some power to control Titans in a way when he gets upset from seeing this. It's just really awesome. It's also cool when they begin to think of a plan to expose the fake royals because the royals aren't the real ones, just people who're using the power for their own gain and it's evidenced even more when we see that the other members of the guards are doing horrible things as well like selling weapons to others or not caring for the safety of others. And then we come to Season 3, which might have the best moments in the series in my opinion. It starts off with Levi and some of the others like Mikasa, Armin and Hange hiding from the royals and the guards with them knowing the truth and now trying to expose them. All while Eren has been captured and Historia meets her dad who's trying to persuade her to become a Titan and eat Eren to absorb his power. Not only that, but we also get Levi's backstory with a guy named Kenny who's part of some other group trying to kill them. And there's a lot of things to like here like actually seeing Levi's past and seeing them devise a plan to expose the government. That whole part actually reminds me a lot Fullmetal Alchemist with the government being corrupted and the main characters being in hiding from them and trying to expose. And this series does that really well. And, again, I just love it when we get more information and things happen. I'd say my favourite segment of this season is when Eren and the others go to Wall Maria to try to recapture it and they find Reiner, Bertholdt and the Beast Titan there and we get an awesome fight been Eren and Reiner again. It's all cool and really sad at the end when Erwin dies. Like I said, he's one of the best characters in my opinion and him dying was really tragic. But it helped pave the way to an incredible moment where Levi goes up against the Beast Titan who's revealed to be a guy. And this moment helps show that I think this season has the most satisfying moments in the entire series and, honestly, some of the most satisfying anime moments I've seen in a while, like Historia defying her father or when the royals are exposed or when we see Levi fight the Beast Titan or when Armin is eventually turned into a Titan and eats Bertholdt and gains his powers. There's just so many amazing moments like that and more in this season alone and even more that we're about to get into. Something else they do in this season is they get to Eren's old house and go to the cellar because they've been building up that there's something there throughout the whole series and they finally get there with being told that from Eren because apparently his dad once told him. And then we learn even more information like we see the backstory of Eren's dad who is actually from an island away from where they are and grew up in a place with two areas and it was illegal to go to the second area but him and his sister went there when they were kids which caused his sister to be killed. And we learn other things as well like the other terrible people who treat others horribly and we get another hateable character with some officer who kills his sister as well as turns his wife into a Titan years later. And another super satisfying moment is when we see a person named Owl save Eren's dad by pushing the officer off the wall and then he gets eaten by a Titan, just another one of those super satisfying moments in this season. Though probably the most surprising part of this flashback is when we learn that the Titan who ate Eren's mom is actually Eren's dad's first wife. I didn't expect to see anything like that in here. It's also in the flashback that we learn that the Beast Titan is a guy name Zeke and it's interesting thinking back to when Levi fought it and it makes it satisfying when he fights him, but also frustrating when he gets away with Reiner. And, something else I shoulda mentioned before is that we learn how Eren has his powers. It's because of some injection his dad gave him many years ago. And, by the end of the series when they finally get to the sea, which is what Armin has talking about the whole time since no one in the wall has ever seen it. It's a really nice way to end the season and it's another cool setup for the next season because Eren knows about how across the sea is the island where his dad came from and that's where a lot of the main bad guys are. It's a really cool season finale, and that's really everything I've seen so far. I know I clearly didn't cover everything, but I think I said most of what I wanted to say. So, yeah, I'm sure I don't need to say this, but this is a really awesome show. These first three seasons have some really fantastic writing, incredible action scenes, some really awesome characters and is just a really cool show overall. The English cast is incredible as well, especially Bryce Papenbrook as Eren and Matt Mercer as Levi. There are some problems I have and some things aren't that interesting, but the majority of this stuff is phenomenal. I'm really glad with what I'm watching and I'm really excited to get the rest of the volumes and watch the series finale when it finishes. So, yeah, as always, I would recommend this if you're interested. Though I may not have to recommend it given the show's huge popularity, though I would be wary of how unpleasant some of the stuff is. So, yeah, everyone, that's my review for Attack On Titan. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.