Attack on Titan got a stellar blu ray release this week. Read our review.
I have been out of the anime game for a spell, mostly
because way too many new shows were coming out and I couldn’t keep up with the
onslaught. Attack on Titan had been
blowing up on the internet and when the whole series was available on Netflix,
I decided to take the plunge. From the second the opening animation started
this show had me absolutely hooked. It made me remember why I became enthralled
with the world of anime in the first place.
Anime can be very
derivative and cliché but Attack on Titan takes every opportunity to present
its ideas in a fresh and engaging manner. All of humanity lives in a city that
is encased in huge walls to protect them from giant monsters: Titans. Titans
are gargantuan humanoid beings that look like naked people and have an
insatiable hunger for human flesh. They are not unlike zombies, in a way, but
don’t adhere to the normal undead conventions. The main protagonist, a young
boy named Eren Yeager, witnesses a horrible act that changes the course of his
and his friend’s lives forever.
Now, this series could have taken the normal Shōnen route and had epic battles and
speeches about loyalty and trying your best, which it does, but it takes a
darker and more tragic path than others in its genre. The first six episodes of
this show has some of the most harrowing and upsetting things I have ever seen
portrayed in an anime series. It plays with convention and takes you places you
don’t expect to go. Don’t get me wrong, the action is spectacular, and the
battles have incredible animation and choreography.
The humans form a task force known as the Survey Corps to
attack the Titans. Since the Titans are huge, the soldiers have a personal
rappel system called Vertical Maneuvering Equipment that lets them zip around
the buildings and move around three dimensionally high up in the air. It makes
for fast-paced and kinetic fights with everybody catapulting themselves around
to get to better battle positions. The high quality animation makes watching these
scenes absolutely exhilarating and I loved every second of it. Unfortunately,
the animation does dip in quality during the story segments of the episodes but
that happens in pretty much every anime TV series to save money. The look of
the show is somewhat gothic with steampunk trappings; it fits the overall
aesthetic and somber feel of the show perfectly.
If I can gush for a moment, Attack on Titan has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard. The
music is an interesting mix of church hymn style choir singing and heavy metal
inspired guitar riffs. It reminds me of
the bad ass music on Revolutionary Girl
Utena. It’s quite effective at establishing the mood of any particular
scene and makes the action even more intense. The opening theme, Guren no Yumiy, is incredibly catchy and
one of the most memorable I have heard in ages. It’s definitely worth picking up a copy of the
soundtrack if you can find it.
Attack on Titan does
have one major flaw: the pacing. It has some of the worst pacing I have EVER
seen in an anime. Everything starts out
with a bang, goes along at a breakneck pace then screeches to a halt midway
through the season. I have no problem with exposition or character development
but it’s obvious that these interludes are just stalling for time. There is
absolutely no excuse for filler in a 26 episode TV series. Every single episode
should move the plot along but we get side stories about minor characters that
don’t matter and lengthy drawn out discussions about trivial matters. It really
drags the entire series down. Luckily, the pace picks up again towards the end
and it regains the quality of the early episodes. It doesn’t ruin the series but can make for
frustrating viewing.
If you are looking for a new anime to sink your teeth into, Attack on Titan is a good place to spend
your time. Even though it drags its feet
at some points, the majority of it is so outstanding that it doesn’t matter. The
entire series is currently available for streaming on Netflix and the first 13
episodes have been released on Blu-ray (with an English dub) by Funimation.
-Michelle Kisner