A couple of months ago, I teased my friend who is an anime freak until he managed to get me to watch Kimetsuno Yaiba (Demon Slayer) one time. I’m a lot of things but not a lier so I admit it was a great anime too and it kind of sparked my interest in anime.
From there I watched I think it was Jujutsu Kaisen. Gojo definitely impressed me and their fight scenes and animations were good too. But if Tiktok comments has taught me anything about anime it’s that some of the best anime with crazy-budgeted animations can have the shittiest plots so I watch what I watch.
At the moment, I’m watching Attack on Titan. I just saw Eren march the Collosal Titan army he awoke in the wall towards Paradis island. The rumbling just began. I have to admit, mass genocide is not the path I anticipated he would ever take. That doesn’t sound like the sweet Eren that grew up in Wall Maria. This Eren kinda reminds me of Danaerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.
About The Anime
Attack on Titan tells the story of the people of the walls and their history with titans. The people of the walls live inside 3 giant walls that protect them from Giant human eaters called titans. For 100 years, the people of the wall have lived in peace inside the walls with no Titan crossing over. There are 9 original Titans. The Founding Titan, Colossal Titan, Beast Titan, Attack Titan, Female Titan, Armored Titan, The War Hammer Titan, The Jaw Titan and the Cart Titan.
The movie opens when some kids, Eren(the main character) and his friends Armin and Mikasa are playing in their town inside Wall Maria(The name of one of the walls) and out of no where, they see a titans hand over the wall. This is a big ass wall and not just any type of type can stand with their hand reaching the top. Only one type of titan called the Colossal Titan(because of how big it is) can reach the top standing. The Colossal Titan together with another titan titan called the Armored Titan take down the wall allowing smaller titans to enter.
In the heat of the action, Eren’s mother is eaten by a Titan. This is where Eren’s villain arc begins and he swears revenge on the Titans that did this. Eren’s father who posses the Attack Titan passes it on to Eren and once the people inside the walls discover that Eren has the power of the titans, they make it their mission to study on him and train him as their weapon against the other titans. Eren fights and defeats most of the other 9 original titans with the help of the Survey Corps, and acquires the founding Titan. However, he goes all Thanos and chooses mass genocide in the end when he really awakens the 1000s of Colossal Titans sleeping inside the wall and launches an attack on the rest of the world to protect his people. Even his own people disagree with his methods at the end and try to stop. Do they succeed and how do they do it?
“Why are the Colossal and Armored Titan breaking the wall”? Well I’ll tell you why. They’re testing the king inside the walls who controls the most superior Titan, the founding Titan. The Founding Titan has the power to awaken several Colossal Titan that were sealed into the wall protecting the people inside the walls. The Colossal and Armored Titan are trying to see whether the king inside the walls can and will actually use his Founding Titan.
It is later discovered that the two Titans(Colossal and Armored) are actually controlled by two imposters who infiltrate the Survey Cops as soldiers.
Last Season Plot Twists and Surprises
Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan are the only two shows I’ve seen that has managed to truly fuck with my expectations. They made an uno reverse on my expectations and took a complete left turn. I’m not really sure whether that is so bad though because the shocking ending for some reason seems to have played out better than the sweet one I had wanted.
Talk about surprises, I like how they take their time to reveal the plot twists and showing which character is actually a titan. Annie, Bertholdt and Reinner’s reveals shocked me the most. Especially that part where they tried to get Annie into an enclosed space where she couldn’t transform so they could capture. She knew better. Oh yes, and where Reiner point blank tells Eren he is the armored titan and he and Bertholdt transforms and they go to battle right there on top of the wall.
And boy was I shocked when I found out Eren was the manipulative mastermind behind his dad murdering the original owner of the founding Titan. The reveal that his titan had the power to not only see the memories of it’s past holders but it’s future ones opened my mind to a whole different plain and array of questions.
Fight Scenes
In my opinion, the fight scenes are pretty good but I think they could be better. I haven’t seen that much anime yet so I can’t really rate it. This is all I can say for now.
I think anyone that has seen Attack on Titan loved Levi and Mikasa for their outstanding swordsmanship. Levi particularly. I had to sit up just to see the scenes where he fights the Beast titan and cuts Zeke out. He is the perfect blend of wit and combat.
As for the fights among the titans themselves, I see as mere boxing because they’re just throwing hands at each other. Except for titans with specialized powers powers like the War Hammer that can spawn weapons out of it’s hardened armor.
Opening Song
This might not be considered a very important detail to many, but I very much liked the opening for the Pilot season than the one they changed to in the later seasons.
I don’t know if the song plays in English for the dubbed versions but I’m talking about the song in the original Japanese version. The song is very good. I liked it even more when the subtitles translated into English and I got the message in the message in the song.
Minor Plot Critic
I get that it’s just part of the story, but I would’ve loved to see somewhere around the last season for someone controlling a titan to be able to transform on command without having to cut themselves. I think they could’ve given Eren that power to show his superiority over the other titans. You might not agree but that’s okay.
I don’t know what I’m going to be doing or watching once I’m done with Attack on Titan. You can leave me recommendations in the comments about similar-themed anime. Ones with both a combo of good plot and animation would be best, but if my 2 cents won’t be able to get me that much, I’ll settle for the next best thing. Maybe good plot and a not too bad animation? I’d much rather the plot be good and the animation be a little bad.
A friend recommended Bleach to me. I started it but I’m not really getting the kick I need. Maybe it’s because it’s just starting. I want to start One Piece too, but the length of the series wouldn’t be advisable for a final year student doing their project and with a huge pile of academic work on their plate.
If you haven’t seen Attack on Titan yet…wait what am I saying? Everyone here has seen Attack on Titan. You must have. But if you still haven’t, you should find out why I think everyone has seen it. It’s worth a watch.