Current Events > Attack on titan is one of the best anime and shows ever (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

It has amazing gripping pacing where you just can't wait to see what happens next.

The plot is overall interesting. When they kill characters off, you know the titans mean business, this is not some happy anime world, this is survival of the fittest.

Cool characters like Mikasa and Levi.

A well built out world and lore.

Just overall a top notch show and anime.
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reeee
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Zero_Destroyer posted...

reeee

you are missing two letters

a

g

agreeee
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Attack on Titan is the Skyrim of anime

Attack on Titan is a great example of why most anime is awful.
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TheMarthKoopa posted...

Attack on Titan is the Skyrim of anime

Skyrim is one of the greatest games of all time so I am ok with this
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Imo that show jumped the shark 6 episodes in
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It absolutely has the potential to be amazing but, for me, it's really slow moving and I feel the writers don't know where they're going with the plot.

I'll keep watching it but each week I get a little more uninterested in it.
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For real, though. The pacing is pretty bad - it spends around 6 episode per arc when the arcs in question don't have the content to fill the episodes, meaning you get a lot of meandering and useless/filler content that adds nothing to the story or characters. It's not the biggest issue with the show, but I've never heard even fans of the show call the pacing good. It's generally acknowledged to be pretty poor - especially the Trost arc due to how much it drags things out.

The reason it retains popularity in spite of its bad pacing is the (corporately) intelligent move of placing the big events on the end of episodes. It's not good for the story, but it does ensure it'll keep an audience by using constant cliffhangers as a crutch to mitigate its bad dialogue.

The plot is overall interesting. When they kill characters off, you know the titans mean business, this is not some happy anime world, this is survival of the fittest.

The audience doesn't need this constantly re-established, and that's the biggest issue at hand. The first two episodes actually laid this point out really well. A good story doesn't need to re-iterate a basic worldbuilding concept like this ad nauseum just for the sake of re-iteration. That's the problem. It isn't naturally killing characters off - it's setting up contrived scenarios or just shoehorning areas in where characters die just to establish ideas conveyed already. That's objectively poor writing by pretty much any standard.

Cool characters like Mikasa and Levi.

Mikasa is a satellite character. I'm on the U.S. timeline of episode releases, but I doubt anything has changed in the 4-5 episode gap between the U.S & Japan. Her very existence as a character, what little there is, is completely tied to Eren.

I guess this doesn't refute the shallow concept of "coolness", but my generation also thought Shadow from Sonic the Hedgehog was cool, so the statement "x character is cool" is pretty meaningless. It's just based on a shallow demeanor, look, and the fact that X character can kill bad guys. But the fact that Levi can make the Titans fodder effectively ruins the tone because their status as a threat is now at the whim of the writer.

Just overall a top notch show and anime.

no
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That series has the biggest genre confusion ever

It wants to be a military-focused anime like Code Geass or FMP and yet it also wants to be all fantasy styled like FMA and full of stupid gags like a comedy/slice of life

And it fails at all 3
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Twinmold posted...

Attack on Titan is a great example of why most anime is awful.

It's really not typical in its badness. It has a good premise (that Evangelion already did better but whatever nothing is original now so it's fine) and its faults are largely cast on it not succeeding in using its good ideas. Most typically bad anime I can think of suffer from being too derivative or generic. The main bad factor AoT shares with some modern anime is its penchant for treating meme-tier edginess as good storytelling, but this isn't universal since that formula isn't hugely successful outside of AoT.
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Zero_Destroyer posted...

For real, though. The pacing is pretty bad - it spends around 6 episode per arc when the arcs in question don't have the content to fill the episodes, meaning you get a lot of meandering and useless/filler content that adds nothing to the story or characters.

incorrect

I read the manga before I watch season 2 and there is ZERO filler

all you see in the anime is straight out of the manga


this is why it took 2 years to get season 2

because unlike other anime they aren't putting in filler


look at one piece, they purporsely draw out certain scenes to save time to catch up with the manga

attack on titan DOES NOT do thisZero_Destroyer posted...

The audience doesn't need this constantly re-established, and that's the biggest issue at hand. The first two episodes actually laid this point out really well. A good story doesn't need to re-iterate a basic worldbuilding concept like this ad nauseum just for the sake of re-iteration. That's the problem. It isn't naturally killing characters off - it's setting up contrived scenarios or just shoehorning areas in where characters die just to establish ideas conveyed already. That's objectively poor writing by pretty much any standard.

Except they don't do this.

The titans are a real threat so when you fight them people will die.
Unlike other anime where zombies are a threat and yet they fight them over and over without deaths or even substantial wounds.

Attack on titan is good in this. You should expect people to die if fighting a real threat.
It is like real life. You have a skirmish with US forces and some rebel group, not all the US soldiers are going to make it out.

Zero_Destroyer posted...

Mikasa is a satellite character. I'm on the U.S. timeline of episode releases, but I doubt anything has changed in the 4-5 episode gap between the U.S & Japan. Her very existence as a character, what little there is, is completely tied to Eren.

I guess this doesn't refute the shallow concept of "coolness", but my generation also thought Shadow from Sonic the Hedgehog was cool, so the statement "x character is cool" is pretty meaningless. It's just based on a shallow demeanor, look, and the fact that X character can kill bad guys. But the fact that Levi can make the Titans fodder effectively ruins the tone because their status as a threat is now at the whim of the writer.

She is awesome.
Nothing personnel kid.
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It's pretty terrible

Attack on Titan is definitely a classic, one of the best manga series to come out this decade. The show's usage of foreshadowing is unparalleled in its genre. When a big twist is revealed and you go back, those little subtle details become readily apparent make give a lot of scenes a different perspective.

I feel like the last two episodes out for Japan for S2 would be much more appreciated by a manga reader due to knowing the characters' motivations as opposed it not really making much sense since you only have Eren's perspective on the event.
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Mikasa is the least interest of the girls but all the other girls are GOAT
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kewldude475 posted...

I agree TC, I thought the series got especially good when They left the walls for the first time and the female titan arc. The action is especially well choreographed and I personally really enjoy the story and characters. Need to get into the new season

Thanks and I agree :)

Kanaya413 posted...

Mikasa is the least interest of the girls but all the other girls are GOAT

She reminds me of Rukia but much better than Rukia.
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The main problem with Attack on Titan is that it's really a series best left to binge watch/read. Waiting weekly or monthly makes it all a snail's crawl, but back-to-back flows very nicely.
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Kanaya413 posted...

Mikasa is the least interest of the girls but all the other girls are GOAT

The main trio are definitely the least interesting of the cast.
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I'd like to think Jean is an audience surrogate lol
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M-Watcher posted...

The main problem with Attack on Titan is that it's really a series best left to binge watch/read. Waiting weekly or monthly makes it all a snail's crawl, but back-to-back flows very nicely.

this is problem with any good show

if a show is good you can't wait


so the main problem is that....it is a good show
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it's pretty average. the actions the only good part about it.

Except they don't do this.

Oh, they absolutely do. One of the best examples of this was in the second season where 2 tertiary characters die in overdone deaths that border of being comedic, monty-python tier parodies because of how oversold they are, and the only reason they're oversold is because the director/writer are attempting to re-iterate the established concept of "muh death" and "muh edge" that was already shown immediately as the whole story began.

If these had been well-developed or interesting characters that died in ways appropriate to their arcs, then it wouldn't be an issue. It'd be the natural progression of the story that was built from day 1. The problem is that it's constructing entire scenarios rather than real plots or characters.

The titans are a real threat so when you fight them people will die.
Unlike other anime where zombies are a threat and yet they fight them over and over without deaths or even substantial wounds.

They aren't believable as a real threat. Their strength is at the convenience of the plot and new rules are made up to save the main characters when they're in danger.

Attack on titan is good in this. You should expect people to die if fighting a real threat.
It is like real life. You have a skirmish with US forces and some rebel group, not all the US soldiers are going to make it out.

The interesting thing here is that we have a wealth of military movies to choose from when examining this idea - of soldiers dying in war - and the common trait among most of the best regarded military & war films is that they are character focused, meaning the deaths that occur in them typically have thematic meaning or impact because the character feels like a real person through a combination of good acting, screenwriting, and directing.

So yeah, the idea of conveying impact with death is important, but there's no reason to care about death in Attack on Titan. The main characters have plot armor, meaning the whole concept of "anyone can die" is an illusion that's reserved for fodder, secondary, and tertiary characters that receive very little focus.

Or, the focus that they receive - in a move similar to the more recent seasons of The Walking Dead - is reserved until the episodes where a character dies, resulting in a "GOT TWO WEEKS TILL' RETIREMENT" effect where it becomes predictable.
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^ so basically they have to literally kill of Eren and Mikasa or you aren't happy and will call it a trash anime

then go watch you other anime where no one dies and think that is superior?
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darkphoenix181 posted...

^ so basically they have to literally kill of Eren and Mikasa or you aren't happy and will call it a trash anime

then go watch you other anime where no one dies and think that is superior?

not sure how this was your takeaway
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Zero_Destroyer posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

^ so basically they have to literally kill of Eren and Mikasa or you aren't happy and will call it a trash anime

then go watch you other anime where no one dies and think that is superior?

not sure how this was your takeaway

you complain about them killing tertiary characters

but truth is no one is safe but the three: Eren, Armin and Mikasa

so your complaint is invalid
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The pacing is one of the biggest reasons I dislike the anime adaption. The manga is much better, you just have to get used to the art style however. I will say this though once the manga does the big basement reveal, it gets good... like REALLY good! Everything starts to make sense and you start getting a bigger understanding of the whole picture and why certain characters act the way they do. But bad news is, it took them +85 chapters to get to this point and by then I can definitely see why people dropped the series as a whole.
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I haven't been watching the new stuff but I guess the anime hasn't gotten to Attack on Politics yet?
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That's not even my complaint. My complaints are:

A: That they use characters they don't develop to re-iterate repetitive ideas by killing them off in ways that ultimately amount to padding the clock out. Killing off tertiary characters in and of itself isn't the problem, it's the purpose, and it's the fact that the writer puts enough emphasis on it that they expect the audience to care.

B: Attempt to use it to "darken" the world when they're not even able to commit since they're unwilling to kill protagonists to give a real sense of danger or urgency, instead folding that role to tertiary characters even though that has no actual impact.

It's context-dependent to how this show just mismanages everything. Something like Game of Thrones is a good example when it comes to killing off characters at a whim since the context usually services the arc or the story.
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voldothegr8 posted...

I haven't been watching the new stuff but I guess the anime hasn't gotten to Attack on Politics yet?

Not until Season 3, I suspect. If they ever do make a third season.
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voldothegr8 posted...

I haven't been watching the new stuff but I guess the anime hasn't gotten to Attack on Politics yet?

It's getting there and I expect a lot of people to hate it.
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Zero_Destroyer posted...

That's not even my complaint. My complaints are:

A: That they use characters they don't develop to re-iterate repetitive ideas by killing them off in ways that ultimately amount to padding the clock out. Killing off tertiary characters in and of itself isn't the problem, it's the purpose, and it's the fact that the writer puts enough emphasis on it that they expect the audience to care.

B: Attempt to use it to "darken" the world when they're not even able to commit since they're unwilling to kill protagonists to give a real sense of danger or urgency, instead folding that role to tertiary characters even though that has no actual impact.

It's context-dependent to how this show just mismanages everything. Something like Game of Thrones is a good example when it comes to killing off characters at a whim since the context usually services the arc or the story.

Even though the manga tends to avoid killing the main cast for the most part, what I like about it is that the effect of those fodder characters influence other characters in how they view the survey corps and how they view X characters of the main cast. When the survey corps arrive back to the walls with a wagon of dead bodies, while you may not care, the populace cares. When Eren gets special treatment and unfair preferences, other soldiers notice. The subsequent arcs are affected by this.

And I fail to understand what you mean by show failing to give the cast a real sense of danger. Disregarding the current point in the manga where the sense of hopelessness and despair has been exacerbated, they have had only 2 wins so far in the anime, preventing the loss of the 2nd Wall and defeating the Female titan. But now they've identified potentially 4 threats. How are they supposed to beat them? Is it really a win if everyone but the main cast dies?
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Sad_Face posted...

Zero_Destroyer posted...

That's not even my complaint. My complaints are:

A: That they use characters they don't develop to re-iterate repetitive ideas by killing them off in ways that ultimately amount to padding the clock out. Killing off tertiary characters in and of itself isn't the problem, it's the purpose, and it's the fact that the writer puts enough emphasis on it that they expect the audience to care.

B: Attempt to use it to "darken" the world when they're not even able to commit since they're unwilling to kill protagonists to give a real sense of danger or urgency, instead folding that role to tertiary characters even though that has no actual impact.

It's context-dependent to how this show just mismanages everything. Something like Game of Thrones is a good example when it comes to killing off characters at a whim since the context usually services the arc or the story.

Even though the manga tends to avoid killing the main cast for the most part, what I like about it is that the effect of those fodder characters influence other characters in how they view the survey corps and how they view X characters of the main cast. When the survey corps arrive back to the walls with a wagon of dead bodies, while you may not care, the populace cares. When Eren gets special treatment and unfair preferences, other soldiers notice. The subsequent arcs are affected by this.

And I fail to understand what you mean by show failing to give the cast a real sense of danger. Disregarding the current point in the manga where the sense of hopelessness and despair has been exacerbated, they have had only 2 wins so far in the anime, preventing the loss of the 2nd Wall and defeating the Female titan. But now they've identified potentially 4 threats. How are they supposed to beat them? Is it really a win if everyone but the main cast dies?

not only this but even the god tier character Levi got his leg broke and it didn't heal super fast

he is rendered useless for quite awhile
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