Anime Review: Attack on Titan Season 1
Known in Japan as Shingeki no Kyojin, many years ago, the last remnants of humanity were forced to retreat behind the towering walls of a fortified city to escape the massive, man-eating Titans that roamed the land outside their fortress. Only the heroic members of the Scouting Legion dared to stray beyond the safety of the walls — but even those brave warriors seldom returned alive. Those within the city clung to the illusion of a peaceful existence until the day that dream was shattered, and their slim chance at survival was reduced to one horrifying choice: kill — or be devoured!
After his hometown is destroyed and his mother is killed, young Eren Yeager vows to cleanse the earth of the giant humanoid Titans that have brought humanity to the brink of extinction.
Japanese Title: Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin
- Release Date: April 2013
- Number of Episodes: 25
My Spoiler-Free Review
This show really lived up to the hype.
I’m always hesitant about starting shows with masses of hype around them. Attack on Titan is a very popular anime, and I tried to go into it with reserved expectations so I wasn’t disappointed if it didn’t live up to the hype, but oh boy, it surpassed my expectations by miles.
The show sets the tone of the series within the first episode. Action, horror, heartbreak. You get stabbed in the heart straight off the bat as you experience the beginning of the main character, Eren’s, journey with his mother being eaten by a giant titan, and then having to run for his life to avoid being eaten himself. He’s a character full of pain and anger that boils within him, and he joins an elite group of soldiers within the military, determined to put an end to the creatures that destroyed his peaceful life.
It’s one thing after another with this show. Plot twists, epic fights, people-eating titans, you name it. Betrayal, blossoming friendships, huge battles, epic powers, politics, and more. It has a bit of everything in it.
Attack on Titan is so intense and unpredictable, with a great cast of characters that you grow to love (or hate), all with their own personalities and goals that sometimes conflict with one another as they try to survive in this post-apocalyptic style world. My personal favourites are Armin, Levi, and Jean.
This is a show that has you ride an emotional roller-coaster with every episode. Sometimes you’ll want to cry, or you’ll rage, and sometimes you’ll laugh out loud. There are huge plot twists that’ll leave your jaw hanging on the floor and render you unable to trust anyone. There’s powerful and epic moments, dark and gruesome ones, and heartfelt and sweet ones sprinkled in to a very intriguing plotline. At the very heart of it, its about a flawed humanity beating almost-impossible odds to defend the last of their kin from man-eating monsters they know next to nothing about.
What are these giant people-eating beings they call titans? Where did they come from? Can they be stopped? As humanity’s numbers dwindle, is the fight against them as hopeless as it seems? The protagonist, Eren, despite being blinded by rage and hatred towards the titans that destroyed his old life, unintentionally sheds some light into these beings and provides the military with a way to fight back.
The animation and art style is beautiful, and the soundtrack is amazing. It may not be as colourful as other anime, as it’s a pretty unhappy and dreary world to live in — humanity is hiding behind several giant, stone walls that keep out the masses of titans that want to eat them — but it’s amazing all the same. The music sucks you in too, and really makes you feel all the emotions of each scene.
Overall, this was such a great watch. The first season was amazing, and I’m very much looking forward to (but also dreading) starting season 2. Season 1 was left on a ‘this changes everything’ note with what they knew previously about the titan situation being shattered, and the danger being revealed to be closer to home than humanity originally thought. It has a little something for everyone, so I’d highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it already.
