My initial comments on the first few episodes of the frenzied madness that is Attack on Titan can be found here, if you haven't read them already. This is going to be a shorter reflection on the series as a whole and what I think of it. If you've not watched Attack on Titan, you should. It's on Netflix currently and is 25 episodes of sheer awesomeness that you really should indulge in. (Go on. You know you want to.) There's a live action film coming out later this year, a Western film adaptation (possibly) in the works and the titans even turned up in the recent Secret Wars FCBD issue in a back up strip in which they take on the Avengers. The show is rather good. Below, I'll tell you why...
Those first few episodes really are the key to why the show is so successful. They establish the relentlessness of the titans, the sheer terror of their physical presence and the abject helplessness of anyone going up against them who isn't either part of a much larger team and/or possessed of incredible luck. As I've already mentioned, the ODM gear of the human soldiers gives the opportunity for some breathtakingly fluid action sequences and these continue throughout the show. (If you're a dedicated cosplayer, you can now buy officially licensed ODM gear, apparently. Just don't, you know, go jumping out of windows and try to swoop across rooftops in them...)
What has impressed me most about the show, though, is just how labyrinthine and genuinely surprising the overall plot of the series is. At the heart of the series is the fundamental question of how all this came about. The walled cities, the quite frankly bonkers way of fighting titans, the origins of the titans themselves: all of these are important mysteries that the show slowly unravels in as circuitous, frenetic and horrifying a way as is humanly possible.
SPOILER COMING UP!
The middle section of the series deals with the implications of Eren Jaeger’s
The politics between the different branches of the human military come into play here in a rather dramatically effective way. The only group prepared to take him on is the Scout Corps (well, of course they are – they’ve already been shown to be comprised of people who are at the ‘dangerously crazy’ end of the sanity spectrum) and, even then, they have to play some quite serious – and dramatic – political hardball to get him.
The final third of the series is taken up with an expedition into titan-infested territory. The leader of the Scout Corps has an ulterior motive, though, and, well, I’m not going to spoil it for you, but there are some genuinely edge-of-your-seat moments involving the female titan, who displays a keen tactical intelligence (not to mention mastery of her titan form) in a succession of increasingly tense and brutal encounters.
Nothing, though, can quite prepare you for the final climactic confrontation that takes place over the last two episodes. And this is my last point about the show. I’ve been watching anime for a while. I’m not as much of a fan as some members here, so what I’m about to say should be taken under advisement. It is entirely possible that there is an anime that does fight scenes between giant naked flesh-mecha as well as Attack on Titan, but if there is I’ve not seen it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show where the fluidity and dynamic of the combat sequences is matched with their sheer ground-shaking brutality quite so effectively. Watching a titan battle is an intoxicating mix of animation expertise and sheer physical power. You feel each blow, each kick. You wince at each bite and cut and gouge. That these sequences take place in the context of a show unafraid to explore issues of faith, heroism, pragmatism and politics – and one that has an intriguing set of mysteries at its heart – cements the show’s reputation as one of the best animes of recent years, if not of all time.
Roll on season 2!