HUGE REVIEW INCOMING.
Before I start writing this review there's a few disclaimers and notes I'd write
This review contains spoilers for Season 1,2,3 and Part 2 of season 3.
I will be reviewing the AOT Series till this point, since I have not watched Season 4, and was suggested by some of my fellow weeb friends to review it separately.
With that being said I will be reviewing the series as a whole, but will also offer my thoughts on the individual seasons and keep referencing them to support my points.
Finally, this is not a review that is criticizing a series simply because it's popular. So this is no elitist rant, but just an honest part-analysis and part review of the series till this point.
With all the Disclaimers being given out it's time to delve deep into my thoughts regarding the most popular anime on the planet.
1.
Characters-
Arguably Attack on Titan's weakest element. AOT's characters are either overused tropes or totally out-there characters with minimal characterization
Let's tackle them all separately-
a. Eren Jaegar- The main protagonist of the series, he is like any other shounen protagonist. Compared to the whole cast of the show he is the least interesting and has all the common MC troupes in him. However, that doesn't necessarily make him intolerable, because, unlike Mikasa, he does have some interesting elements to him, and while his character growth was minimal in the third season, it was just done well enough for him to not seem two-dimensional and likeable, even though his characterization was extremely minuscule.
b. Armin Arlert- Armin is probably my favourite character in the series. because he grows on the viewers gradually as the series progresses and he is written to be the most likeable one. He fits into the smart but weak archetype, but his nature and personality are the best explored out of the main trio, and his objectives, strengths, weaknesses, traits, beliefs, objectives etc are explored far more. That doesn't mean his character writing is flawless, but what trying to get to is that his character writing is far better compared to the rest of the cast of AOT. He is not likeable because he is the "good guy", he is likeable because he is decently written and more compelling to follow.
c. Mikasa Ackerman- Boring and Bland. Even after 59 episodes, there's nothing to her, other than the fact that she is damn strong and well likes Eren. Her entire appeal narrows down to her being pretty and strong. Her character is never explored, there is very little to her. We do get some backstory to understand why she acts the way she does in the first season. But AOT often tries to supplement characterization with Backstories, sometimes it works, in the case of Mikasa, it doesn't. She is still barebones.
d. Levi Ackerman- The crux of Levi's character is that he doesn't know. His tendency to admit that his and his comrade's decisions are neither right nor wrong. That's all I got from his character. Other than that, he is a cold-badass, whose appeal relies on his coldness and badassery. He is fun to follow but he is just okay. He does have an interesting belief he holds, but other than that I feel he is unexplored and hollow.
e. Erwin Smith- Despite coming off bland at times, S3 P2 did enough for me to get his character and added some dimension to him. His nature, desire and personal conflicts were portrayed neatly, and for me, he was the most interesting to follow while he was still there. Although I would still argue, that his character exploration was lacking, that's the reason why he comes of as being bland, despite having some interesting elements to him.
f. Historia- It's unclear as to why she makes certain decisions in the third season, which kind of renders her character inconsistent. But since she gets enough screentime and attention, and her internal conflict is thoroughly explored, her character writing seems pretty decent, despite there being holes in it.
g. Side Characters- The side characters are like chess pawns, and they have very little to them apart from a few personality traits and the fact that they are "good guys" so we should root for them. I do like them, however, none of them is memorable. Jean, has a small character arc in the first season and probably is the best-written side character. Sasha while coming off as being a comic effect tool, does have a backstory to her, which explained her character to a certain extent. Connie on the other hand was just there. Hange is eccentric and badass, but she is still more of comic relief than a complex character. That, Kind of wraps it up.
e. Antagonists- The series antagonists are the most difficult ones to analyze and criticize since from what it seems, Reiner and Berthold have a dissociative personality disorder since they tend to act very contradictorily, and every single time they appear, there's something different about their character. Whatever it is they are pretty interesting to follow. It is just evident when their dialogue is taken into consideration. However, the part I'm conflicted on, is whether they actually are complex characters (since they are unpredictable) or the writers are just looking for a convenient excuse to write them as plot devices and keep them inconsistent. Annie, as I remember was pretty barebones as well, and there is very little viewers got to know of her besides, her backstory. Zeke is too early to judge for now. And he may have more room for potential development, as the series progresses.
The first season was arguably the weakest. While the first arc of the season was pretty well-executed, an extremely skyrocketing amount of shock value was used to give the series a dark flair, and to convey the idea that the show wasn't messing around. However, this approach didn't work, since AOT didn't take its premise seriously and relied overly on comic relief, shock value and didn't try to flesh out its world. As I remember, the first appearance of politics in the series was so childishly written (The court scene where Levi beats Eren), so much so that I was left wondering if the series was actually dealing with a premise reminiscent of Lovecraftian Horror. The tone was mostly chilled out until the series was like hey, don't forget this show is DARK. It was an issue I had with the first season. But it was still a decent season because Jean and Armin had their own character arcs, and there was enough action in the series for me to like it. But considering the fact that this season was arguably the most popular anime when it aired, I have to say, it was a weak start to a series with such a grand concept.
The Second Season was pretty much a rehash of the first season, but the pacing was better, the tone was slightly darker, and the unnecessary shock value was erased. Not to mention the number of plot twists that were introduced. I believe that AOT's twist writing is really decent, and the twists do seem to appear out of nowhere and are shocking. A lot of them do lack buildup since AOT throws one twist after another, but I believe they are laid out really pretty well through the use of foreshadowing and are overall really entertaining. S2 was mainly comprised of them and they were quite impactful, however, my biggest gripe with the second season was its over-reliance on AOT's twist factor. It was made clear in this season that this anime is and will be focusing on building high stakes rather than giving attention to other aspects a story should have. While it's always encouraged to write cliffhangers and build high stake scenarios to keep the viewer entertained, such a fast-paced plot, often sacrifices other elements a story has, and renders it hollow and makes it seem substanceless. I'm mentioning this particular aspect of AOT here because it's at this point, where AOT starts to rely on this formula. Build stakes, make plans, fight and then rinse and repeat. Simply having multiple twists and reveals set up is not good writing especially if the world is that of AOT where meticulous worldbuilding, characterization and thematic execution is needed. Am I saying I was not entertained? No, I was- but did this formula get old? Yes. It's this delicate balance where AOT rests, it can either be entertaining and extremely fast-paced (it works if you are a seasonal watcher) or try to explore its premise by taking it slow, but the immediate entertainment value is lost.
The Third Season is my favourite because it tries its hand at worldbuilding and doesn't make it seem overly skittish and actually does a decent job at it. The Coup d'etat sub-plot while not being entirely realistic is still written really well, there is an active effort made to humanize the characters and unlike S2, the twist writing in S3 is much better and AOT in this season starts getting more serious as more lore is revealed and there is even less shock value. However, the start of the season is really cartoonish, especially with the way how Kenny was introduced and the whole sub-plot with him was to ensure that AOT will have some action, and it felt out of place. However he was not entirely useless as he did serve some purpose, and the brief amount of time, we actually got to know him, gave us a lot about AOT's world and he himself. There was still a lack of thematic exploration I wanted from AOT, essentially the central theme of this season was "human vs human conflict is the root of destruction". I wanted more focus to be given to this theme, but in AOT fashion It was wrapped very quickly. But still, the decently laid out reveals and the politics compensated for the lack of thematic attention.
Moving onto S3 P2, I can see why this anime is ranked #2 on MAL. It is the culmination of everything put into one season. And it was a really entertaining watch, however, AOT's obsession with Pyrrhic victories is obvious at this point. And the worse thing is AOT doesn't try to make the audience feel a sense of loss, about this fact. I once again came across the obsession to create high-stakes in this season and the plot armour and the sheer heights the series would go to create cliffhangers was kind of upsetting. Letting Reiner survive all the times when he could've been killed, giving Zeke a strong plot armour, so the story can expand. I don't know what is to happen with Zeke since I'm yet to see the fourth season, but it was just so obvious that the series was giving him a heavy load of plot armour when it felt extremely unnatural. It was just frustrating. The second sub-plot of the season was "what's in the basement?" and the reveal(s) itself were great, personally I'm not heavily into expo dumps so those episodes were equally fascinating and boring. Again this is subjective. However, the positives were that the inclusion of that dilemma in the 6th episode, made Levi a bit better as a character, and Armin and Erwin shined in this season. Also, I'm really into Floch as a character, since he acts as a mean to put forth the themes of this anime. His sceptical behaviour gives the audience an insight into the situation and forces them to think. While not enough, there's at least something. The end of the season is equally promising as well as bringing a lot of doubts. AOT has turned into a grand plot, but the execution is iffy, thus my only wish is that the 4th season should compensate for what these 3 seasons lacked.
I've been whining about thematic elements in this review. Allow me to elaborate. The issue I have with AOT's thematic execution and the worldbuilding is that it often takes itself far too seriously, but remains a mere action series. For a series dealing with such a spine-chillingly nightmarish premise, there is a lack of seriousness in tone. The bigger issue is that how AOT waters down the themes it's tackling. The politics in the first season are very laughable and it's all kind of reduced "to rich are evil", obviously more nuance is added in the third season- but it's still very simplistic. Keeping the politics aside, there is a lack of character introspection. Eren only gets depressed about the situation he is in when a secondary event or force demands it. An example is when Jean, tries to make EREN understand the situation they are in or when he is trapped in the cave of Reiss. I'm not asking for an Evangelion style approach to characterization where an incessant use of monologues is made, what I'm asking for is that the characters should gradually start breaking down. Often there is no self-reflection in this anime. Also looking at AOT from a fairly analytical perspective, what's to make of it? What is the story about at its core, what ideas is it trying to convey? If this series has so many deaths, why don't the anime try to pose a moral or philosophical question about this whole tantrum? there is very little thematic execution in this anime. Are the sacrifices worth it? Who is the hero and who is the villain? What is freedom? Is it worth it?. A series like this can pose a lot of questions on the nature of humanity, war, conflict, sacrifices, heroism, duty, greed, politics etc. But the anime doesn't do it. Thinking of it carefully, there's no central theme I can find in this anime. There is very little substance. Now I know, I shouldn't judge a series for what it doesn't have and it's perfectly fair to say that. But a series as grand as this in concept should focus on its themes, worldbuilding, philosophy. There needs to be substance to it. I would also possibly ignore all this, but this anime is raised to modern masterpiece status. Coming across the whole modern classic narrative, I had high expectations that this show will deal with a lot of concepts while delivering an engaging plot, but it's fair to say that it's lacking in both atmosphere and thematic. As there is barely any exploration of it. Season 4 can change my mind on this, but as of now, I'm holding the stance that AOT is lacking in these aspects.
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4. Soundtrack and ART- The Soundtrack of AOT is both chilling and generates a lot of hype. Probably one of those few anime where all the OPs and EDs are equally good. As for the Art and animation, it's subjective, I'm not a huge fan of how the dark outline style looks, but it grew on me and I didn't mind it.
5. Enjoyment- Now that I have whined about the many flaws this series has, I would like to openly claim that this series is really fun. If it hadn't been fun to watch I wouldn't have had binged it. While AOT's motto to run on hype and stakes can be upsetting it nonetheless creates a highly enjoyable action-packed series, thus it's very exhilarating to watch. Thus on a pure enjoyment Factor, AOT Excels.
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Conclusion- Overall AOT is a very promising series, which has tons of flaws and problems. But it's still pretty fun and with more to come, I'm still excited to know where it will go with its plot. Averaging my scores from all the seasons I give AOT 76/100.
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