Category: Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

So yeah, the spring season is the worst spring season we’ve had in a decade when you look at the overall amount of series and the diversity. However, there IS definitely something interesting going on here, and that is how much praise I notice on Shingeki no Kyojin. I mean, it really stands head and shoulders above all other series that are even remotely action-oriented this season, and really: I believe that this series both gives a new spin to the action genre, and most importantly: it’s a great series to introduce people new to anime with. I feel that this is the type of series that really gives anime its good name, and shows what can be possible in this medium.

This was the episode that I had been waiting for since the start of the series. What happened in this episode really made me a fan of Shingeki no Kyojin in the manga, and I’m excited to see how right they got it! I mean blahblah, it was to be expected that Eren wasn’t dead and all, but that’s not the point. What was so amazing here is how this series developed its atmosphere. Up till the previous episode, the characters looked completely screwed. There was no hope. And then that giant started fighting back. This episode developed what that meant: if used properly, this would be the only chance for humanity to actually survive. The delivery would have been everything: the atmosphere needed to be tight, the action needed to be awesome. Otherwise these emotions would just come off as shallow, since Shingeki no Kyojin basically is about a bunch of characters, struggling for their lives against almost certain death.

The start of Shingeki no Kyojin indeed is a bit bland, mostly due to the characters only having one side when they start out. Here though, with every episode this show starts to push the boundaries of them (Jean in particular was hit hard in this episode). That’s another big part of what made this so addictive.

One detail also that stands out here: the giants don’t make any sounds, aside from that Eren-giant. It did not stand out at all in the manga, but obviously a very important detail in the anime. And really, I am glad that they didn’t try to give most of the giants a voice. It makes them all the more creepier.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

Yes! This would be the chapter for the anime where it had to boil down to whether the creators knew what they were doing or not. If they didn’t get this part right, then I had to question whether they knew what they were doing with this adaptation. But they nailed it! They actually made a smashing episode here.

This episode really meant to drive home that the characters are just completely screwed. Everyone gets slaughtered, the main character is death, the only way to escape only leads to even more giants. It’s hopeless. Even the ever-strong Mikasa gave up and just lead all of the survivors on a suicide mission. It all was meant to build up to that one giant who started to fight back.

The atmosphere was very different from the manga, but it worked! This entire episode just had me on the edge of my seat, and the characterization was great. That’s what lacked in the start of this series: it’s really good, but the characters are very one-sided. Here is where they lose all that and get multiple sides.

And the choices behind the music and animation: they really work. The style of the manga made it impossible to animate directly, but the movements here have their own styles and they were awesome! Especially near the end of this episode.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)

While watching this anime, I realize how devious it can be to compare the anime and manga adaptations to each other. They may have the same story, but the anime and manga of Shingeki no Kyojin are completely different in terms of atmosphere and pacing. The manga moves ridiculously fast. The anime on the other hand takes its time. At the beginning of this series, I made the mistake of expecting the exact same feeling as what I got in the manga. No. That’s impossible to create. The anime just needs to shine in its own way!

And it does, actually. This episode was nearly entirely dedicated to Mikasa and Eren’s past (although the prelude about Armin was also really good). This is the sign that the two of them are very much not normal. Especially Eren: what other kid just straight up murders people by pretending to be innocent? At first he was just your regular bratty kid who wants to fight, but with this, he became more than just that. An extreme version of that trope.

Another big theme here is: people in power are assholes. The question is what this show will do with it. At the moment it feels a bit typical, but this series can really shine by pushing this into the extreme: what if that extreme bigotry of the elite would really get tons and tons of people in trouble and killed? More often than not this trope is used to create cheap drama (because hey, we hate rich people being an ass!), but there is some gold lurking underneath that crap.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

When I read the first chapters of Shingeki no Kyojin, it really struck to me that this would be impossible to animate. Thankfully Production IG got Tetsuro Araki to make up for a lot there, but even with him behind the reigns there are scenes that just are so difficult to translate right. The biggest example of that is at the end of the episode.

We see Eren lie on one roof. Across the street there is a giant who swallows Armin whole and closes his mouth after that. The next scene Eren suddenly is on top of that giant’s mouth pulling Armin out of it. That scene is so complex, but it worked in the manga because there was no animation, so also no real timeframe in which everything happened. I see no way in which this anime would have been able to do that scene right, while also keeping as true to the manga as possible. The solution would have been to just rewrite it to make sure that it works.

Nitpicking aside though, the rest of this episode was just wonderful. I mean, the other scenes in which the giants just completely slaughtered Eren’s team were done brilliantly. It was a total chaos, and yet the giants just kept appearing from out of nowhere to crush everyone. It was so different from normal anime that also feature battles against really big things, that just stand around doing nothing and waiting for the heroes to make their move.

And don’t get me wrong here: the end of this episode was the point at which I only really got addicted to the manga. Before that it was also just building up and I wasn’t really sure what to think of it. And Eren becoming lunch for that giant, it worked really well. That was one heck of a cliff-hanger that you really don’t see often!
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Okay, so for clarity: the creators are pulling some of the later build-up chapters right to the beginning. I like that though, because even though I know the storyline, I really got startled there by the sudden appearance of that really big giant again.

Having the build-up chapters scattered through the story, or just having one big build-up arc at the beginning: there is no right way. Both have their merits. The former is more varied and has material to vary with during the heavy scenes, while the latter has a solid character base to start off with. We can only wait and see which is the best for this kind of story. Either way though, this episode did what it was supposed to do: take the characters and add to them. They had to do this with more than 10 characters, and they actually succeeded very well there. I especially like how it highlighted the paradox that the better you become, the less likely it is that you’ll fight the titans.

Also, thank god! Tetsurou Araki got some freedom again, compared to Guilty Crown in which I just couldn’t detect his influence at all. During the heavy scenes you could really see hints of Death Note and Kurozuka. I really encourage anime creators to put something of themselves into their adaptations. It makes them more unique. Especially if it adds something good.

Shingeki no Kyojin has this unique way of shading is characters during the heavy scenes (lots of shadows around the eyes). Strangely this was also played for laughs (Sasha…). It’ll be interesting whether they will keep that up or not.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

I already know what’s going to happen for the first couple of episodes in this series, but this episode was a bit of an exception, in which the creators went into far more detail during the training arc. I guess that in that way, I still prefer anime over manga. It’s probably something really personal, but in animated form, I can get a better feel of who the characters are, making them easier to relate to. Eren really benefitted from that in particular.

On the other hand, the creators did spent an entire episode training, which is not the most interesting practice to watch. This episode was really interesting for the character building. It made characters stand out without using cliches, and showed a good combination of characters who were just there to live the easy life, to do something exciting, or determined to exterminate the titans. The cast is large, but everyone has his own identity. We’re going to have to wait a bit longer to find out whether the creators nailed the big strength of this series though.

This is the balance between build-up and delivery that you need to strike right. I think that that will be a very big challenge for this series: getting the pacing right to fit the story into 25 episodes. With this episode they chose for a solid base on the characters, at the expense of taking a bit of a step back. Now let’s see whether the animators can make the wait pay off!
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

So I think that it was obvious that I was going to blog this series. It is undoubtedly the epic of the season, not to mention that it feels so unique. I know what will happen up to a chapter or ten or so, but even then these first episodes had me fired up. The thing with the manga is that I only got invested with the story at the point of episode three, at which it gets really, really good. The anime really put in some effort to make the build up very detailed and engaging.

What matters the most is the next few episodes. This series is incredibly polished. But the manga was more than that. It had something extra with its presentation. Let’s now see whether the creators can capture that as well.

This episode mostly stood out with how dark and grim it was about the consequences of the outer Rose Wall being breached: there just was not enough food for everyone. People were abandoned and eaten, but on top of that people were now in a situation in which the entire population just would not be able to survive. It only adds up more to how incredibly screwed humanity is, and I really like that.

Then the presentation: the creators really gave a very worthy attempt to bring life to the titans. The big titan that breached the gate in this episode really had presence thanks to some very good animation and direction. It’s because of scenes like this that I called this series nearly impossible to translate well to animation: The giant designs are really detailed and they all just look incredibly intimidating. You need to keep this up consistently if you want to be able to retain the same epic atmosphere.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)