I say now because, yeah, what the hell… it’s been over two years since it aired. In fact, I actually saw it summertime last year. Which means, yes, I’ve procrastinated over another year before writing about it. Not a great track record, mine, but… well, you can leave at any time you know?
Anyway, what could I say at this point? It’s been reviewed to death and by much better folks than I. Chances are you’ve likely seen it or already made up your mind about it. And that’s actually fine, really. But I guess if you so desperately wanna hear my take, I’ll do a condensed version. The tl;dr? AoT is quite good, possibly great, but not flawless and definitely not for everyone. Here goes… I won’t bother with a plot synopsis this time, as you can easily find that elsewhere.
Attack on Titan is above all, for good or ill, striking, boasting some incredible production values, which it flaunts at most turns. It is epic in delivery and proportions and it never winks at the viewer. I do not say it revels in its stylistic choices because that would be happiness and that has no place in this world. Expect no joy, only suffering and things to always get worse, but the first episode alone should clue you into this very quickly.
The world is richly detailed with tons of attention to how the gear works, how the titans work, how the walls and society works. In fact, it loves its world so much that it frequently pauses things to give you a National Geographic style explanation with flybys, diagrams, and narration. It’s never jarring but it does happen a fair bit, especially when you add in that every commercial break has more diagrams and every episode begins with a combination of story recap as well as world history recap. It's a very intelligent and well-developed fantasy world, to be sure, but it can be overbearing a bit, especially if all you came for was the titans and action.
Speaking of which: the titans and action are truly awesome. The 3D-gear they wear allows them to zip around cities and dense forest and the sense of speed, movement, and urgency is raw. It’s definitely stand out, you’ll not see any other anime with action this nice looking and this, well, original. I’ve seen car chases, kung-fu fights, Gundams punching and shooting shit, you name it… but nothing quite like what AoT delivers. When shit gets real they really turn up the wow-factor.
That is, when shit gets real. You see, the other major problem is the glacial pace. Despite time skipping a few times the story is ponderous and deliberate. There are large stretches of Very Important Dialogue scenes, training montages, struggles, team bonding, and internal conflicts. It’s never bad, it’s even done well, but man… despite a full two-cour season not much is actually revealed much less resolved, leaving you with a ton of questions and the sense that this might drag on for a very long time. I have no knowledge of the manga but I know it isn’t far ahead, which is partly why the second season of AoT isn’t out already knowing the kind of money they’d be able to make on it. It’s an intriguing story and world, sure, but man it takes its time and I’m not so sure it uses that time as wisely as it could. There’s a lot of fluff that seems important but rarely has any payoff.
It also has a Game of Thrones thing going on in that it loves to kill characters left and right with only a very small handful that make it to the end alive. Other than if you just can't stand this genre I dunno much else to complain about other than the lack of any conclusion. As long as you're okay with having a ton of loose ends left dangling then by all means give it a shot. There’s plenty of crying, screaming, blood, and generally depressing things, but it’s in a very striking and overall enjoyable package, but you better like the grimdark, the apocalyptic, the fantasy world, and/or all the talking.
As of this writing, you can watch Attack on Titan for free on Crunchyroll.
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