If you're reading this, you're probably madly in love with Attack on Titan, and you already hate this review for not giving it five stars. Otherwise:
Generally, this show is just as much of a pandering-fest as a plot-free moe fanservice romp, with the cute girls replaced by gratuitous violence. This is painfully ironic (many fans of AoT and other violent shows complain perpetually about how moe
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If you're reading this, you're probably madly in love with Attack on Titan, and you already hate this review for not giving it five stars. Otherwise:
Generally, this show is just as much of a pandering-fest as a plot-free moe fanservice romp, with the cute girls replaced by gratuitous violence. This is painfully ironic (many fans of AoT and other violent shows complain perpetually about how moe is ruining anime) but it doesn't make the show bad; in fact, the great animation and battle scenes--what little we've seen in the first 3 episodes--are what save it from being a complete waste of time. Still, there's more than enough negatives here to drag it down to mediocre.
The problems mostly come from the show taking itself far too seriously, despite the lack of any clear purpose beyond gorn and epic battle sequences, and the silly premise of humanity being terrorized by "Titans," i.e. giant naked cannibals...let's call them "GNCs". On the surface, the GNCs are like something out of a weird dark comedy, but this is supposed to be a weird dark drama, so they try to make them scary in various unsubtle ways: giving them exaggerated creepy grins, ripping all their skin off, or, of course, having them messily eat someone, spewing buckets of blood everywhere. For the most part, it seems forced, and just makes them seem even sillier. The frequent melodramatic scenery-chewing by the voice actors sometimes works as intended; but just as often, it adds to the unintentionally goofy atmosphere.
The whole situation feels very contrived, as can be seen in the first episode with how the GNCs get past the wall. Do they exploit a weakness that the apathetic humans failed to notice? Do they show unexpected cleverness, by lifting each other over the wall or something? Nah. A lightning bolt magically creates a supersized GNC, who proceeds to rip the wall down so the gorn party can begin. Similar arbitrary things will most likely occur whenever additional tragedy is desired. The universe bends over backwards to make humanity's plight seem as hopeless as possible; but we all know that the humans will eventually conquer the GNCs and save the world, or what's left of it, because nobody really wants an ending where every character is eaten alive. At least, I hope no one wants that. So what's the point of having random deus-ex-machina disasters?
This being a shonen fighting anime, the universe also bends over backwards to make the protagonist a superhero. The third episode has Eren fail spectacularly at balancing in the grappling-hook harness, and he's ridiculed for acting tough when he's so incompetent. Is he going to actually have to work to become awesome? Ha ha, don't be silly! Turns out his belt was defective--broken by one of those bully types, no doubt--and his partial success with the broken one reveals his innate talent. Aesop averted! Wait, wasn't this setting supposed to be gritty and realistic...?
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Later, there will be the bizarre revelation that some humans, including Eren, are actually GNCs in disguise...somehow. Eren learns to transform into a GNC so he can beat up the evil GNCs more effectively. And the walls are full of sleeping GNCs for some reason. So, yes, there are plot twists, but nothing especially meaningful or original.
Despite it all, I don't think it's awful. If the campy shonen concept of sword-slinging Batmen fighting ginormous zombie nudists without a hint of self-awareness doesn't bother you, you'll probably enjoy it. If it does bother you, but you aren't put off by violence, it's still fun as accidental comedy. But please don't start hailing this as the paragon of...well, anything, really.
Edit: Ep. 4-6, there's a bunch of exposition in lieu of character development, and finally an actual battle, in which Mikasa is apparently the only competent fighter. We also get her backstory, where it turns out that she's a badass entirely because of Eren...yeah. I guess we can legitimately call this an EVA / SAO crossover, now.
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