Reviews & Features Discussion

[Foggle]

Very good and detailed blog! I would definitely like to read this series sometime in the future.

[Avaitor]

Glad to hear it! I'm also curious to hear your opinion on the art-work. It's very Tezuka-like with the simplistic designs and very fluid style of line-drawing, and last I recall I remember you saying that you liked that style with Black Jack (unless I'm confusing you for someone else). Either way it's a type of art design that you just don't see in manga anymore, and IMO it holds up extremely well. It's something that I wish I had praised more in my write-up, looking back at it, now.

Yeah, I got a bit of a Tezuka vibe from the art style, and I do very much like his stuff, even if I'm far from an expert.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I'm hardly an expert either, but I just love that classic art style.

Very good and detailed blog! I would definitely like to read this series sometime in the future.

Thanks!

[LumRanmaYasha]

The resemblance to Tezuka's art style was actually one of the first things that struck me reading the series. What I love about Tezuka and Chiba is that though their artwork is simplified, it ends up being much more energetic and expressive than I think most mangaka are capable of in the more contemporary, anime-ready styles nowadays.  It's a cartoonish style, but perfect for manga like this, allowing a better sense of speed and a wider contrast of exaggerated and subtle emotions.  I think the body language in Chiba's drawings is especially incredible.

Great article, E-K! That was a perfect summation of what makes the series so fascinating and why it's one of the finest character-driven mangas in existence.  Since you've covered the basics of why people need to read the series in this article, I assume that the articles you want me to help out with will be more in depth stuff like character analyses or breakdowns of the story? I'm certainly game for that. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks! And yes, that's precisely it. I kind of want to do multiple articles covering the whole series, but I haven't figured out how to organize it yet. But your help, whenever you can afford to spend the time, would be extremely useful.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The Wind Rises was cool.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Ah, forgot to comment on this before~

The Wind Rises was cool.

It certainly was! Great review, Doc. 

I have to agree that this felt like Miyazaki's most personal film to me. Considering his tremendous love for both aviation and invention, it felt like an apropos, sincere film to close his film making career on, and it still does which is why I'm perplexed as to his decision to continue making more. Well, at least The Wind Rises was made and he didn't end up going with Ponyo 2 like he originally wanted instead. 

[Dr. Insomniac]

Miyazaki will keep fake-retiring even after he's dead.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Haha, that's true, but it's still hard for me to fathom how he can top Wind Rises.

I expect he will get to make Ponyo 2 now, though...

[Dr. Insomniac]

Attack on Attack on Titan.

[Daxdiv]

So would the statement that AoT is like Japan's version of The Walking Dead still apply? But then again, at least most chapters I've read, the characters in The Walking Dead are more hopeful than the cast of Attack on Titan. Provided, I've only started to watch this series over Netflix.

[Dr. Insomniac]

The Walking Dead does have Michonne. Then again, Attack on Titan has Mikasa.

[Rynnec]

I've only seen a bit of AoT, but I do agree that it does seem like something that would benefit from having a dark, sardonic sense of humour to lighten things up. The bit with the sex traffickers was really out of the blue and clashed with what we knew of the setting. Then there was the fifth episode which I'm positive was there mostly for shock value. In this sense, it's no surprise that teenagers and young adults are eating this up, especially in a generation defined by Modern Warfare, The Hunger Games, and Zombie Apocalypse stories.

So would the statement that AoT is like Japan's version of The Walking Dead still apply? But then again, at least most chapters I've read, the characters in The Walking Dead are more hopeful than the cast of Attack on Titan. Provided, I've only started to watch this series over Netflix.

That does sound like an appropriate comparison. Given both have similar themes about bleakness and hope and whatnot.

The Walking Dead does have Michonne. Then again, Attack on Titan has Mikasa.

TWD had a Motorhead song play for like 30 seconds in one episode, so it's slightly above AoT by default, at least until the second season plays its own metal song.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Brilliant write-up. I agree with it 100%. I mean, I'll admit that I find the series to be entertaining for at least the first 30+ chapters, but I also fully acknowledge that it is poorly written. I think the main appeal is how this series fits in line with the whole zombie craze (the Titans are basically just giant zombies) but the best of these types of stories know that in order to make characters that you care about, they first have to take the time to establish those characters. To do thatyou need to give them some room to be themselves and establish relationships with one another. Its the very thing that made Dawn of the Dead the cclassic that it is. And, I can't believe I'm saying this (because wuite frankly thisseries is a POS way worse than AOT), but even fucking High School of the Dead got at least that part right. Granted that, when we did get downtime with the characters in that series, we realized that we wanted them dead more than when we barely knew them.

As for AOT, it's not a terrible series, but it's certainly not a good one by any stretch.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Part of the problem is that it tries to be edgy to the point where it stops being horrifying or exciting and just becomes kinda silly. Repeated ideas like "humanity is it's own enemy" and political corruption and whatnot are so beaten with such frequency that they become tedious and dull concepts to consider. Worse is the lack of consistent character development, much less strong, enjoyable characterization that should endear me to them and make me want to see them survive. I was very invested in the series for the first 35 chapters, to the end of the Female Titan arc, but I've soon come to realize I remember less than half of these characters name and not a smidgen of interesting features about a lot of them, and I can't be invested in the story if I am so uninterested in the characters. I get the craze behind the series, but I really don't think it's very smart, nor does it have a strong emotional center and fun, interesting characters to make me overlook it's weaknesses. The characters aren't developed or established enough for the various twists about them to have much impact, and the twists themselves are so frequent that at some point they feel expected. I dunno, it stopped being an interesting series for me a while ago and reached a new low for me in the latest, dull and repetitive chapter. It has neat ideas, but hasn't executed them well, and that's whats really holding it back. Maybe it can improve as it moves forward, but right now I'm more entertained by just about everything else I'm reading, even shit like Bleach.