Attack on Titan

[Daikun]

How has there been no thread for this all this time?

Anyway, the dub is coming.

[LumRanmaYasha]

There wasn't a thread for it before probably because not many people here seem to be that into it, tbh.

I think it's a good series. Definitely has some of the finest production values of any anime in recent memory, at least for the first half (barring some errors here and there). I just am not into the characters much. I liked Eren, Armin, and Mikasa at first during the Trost arc and such, but after that they really don't develop much. Mikasa is basically reduced to yelling Eren's name every time she opens her mouth by the last episode, which particularly pissed me off because she was set up as a more complicated, interesting character during the Trost arc. As for the side characters, I barely even remember their names. I can't really care when any of them die because I barely know them. If anything, I'm more amused. I suppose Levi is kinda cool and I guess Sasha and Annie at least made an impression on me, but that's only because of their quirks/role in the story and not really as characters themselves. I will say that the anime does at least adapt the best parts of the manga so far quite well. The pacing sometimes dragged watching it weekly rather than in chunks of episodes, but the series barely adapted more than a chapter an episode anyway and the manga is a monthly series so that was to be expected. It's easy to see why the anime became so popular, since it's dark, full of unexpected twists, has high and energetic action scenes, and a stellar ost. Oh, and the memorable and amazing opening sequences, of course. I don't think it's necessarily that well-written nor do I find the characters very interesting, and that's what killed my enjoyment for me more than anything. It's a good show, but I'd say it's rather overrated as well. Course I'm in the minority in that opinion, if the manga's freaking amazing sales and the anime's obviously huge popularity are any indication.

As for the dub, it's FUNi. They'll do a great job, as they always do. Right now I'm more interested in seeing if they'll announce it for Toonami at Anime Boston, as Aniplex did the same for Sword Art there last year (iirc). That would be cool, though Titan airing on the block is inevitable even if they don't anyways (or, at least, I'd hope it was...).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The part of the manga that this anime adapts is basically the best stuff it has to offer. I think it's a legitimately entertaining series, and I'd actually give the characters and writing just a little bit more credit than Cartoon X since I do think that the first season generally hassomegood character moments. That said, the latter. Parts of the manga are convoluted and stupid, and sometimes are unintentionally hilarious for how absurdly over the top some scenes are (even by this show's standards). So on that end I'd say that the first season picked a good place to leave things off at. I enjoyed watching it but I can't say that it's the type of series that I'd feel compelled to watch again (or read again for that matter). I also can't say that I'm looking forward to the second season, for obvious reasons.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I didn't mean to come off too harsh on the early stuff, as I do think the series has good character moments early on, particularly Armin and Mikasa in the Trost arc, and then Eren has some good moments in the Female Titan arc as well. It's just after that the series drops the ball on their development and, of course, the story in the manga becomes more absurd and over the top in a more ridiculous way, and that has soured my opinion on even the early parts I admit (a less extreme version of my changed feelings on series like Bleach and Fairy Tail, where I enjoyed them a lot once upon a time but they became so awful I can't stomach any of them now).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, JO did an in-depth character analysis thing on AOT. While I did know about the body, mind, and spirit thing from before in regard to Mikasa, Armin, and Erin, she brings some interesting insite into it. My problem is that she overblows this one feature to make it seem like it's deeper than it really is, and talks about essentially just that for 30 minutes. The fact that she ends up essentially hammering the same points in over and over kind of shows how lacking this show is in other areas. I will give her some credit for pointing out the reverse trio, though. For some reason I never actually put that together (most likely because I was too busy finding the actual story-telling of the post-Female Titan arc to be pretty fucking stupid to notice some of those details). Still, while the analysis of what the characters stand for and the general themes of AOT are nice analysis points, I feel that, taking a step back and looking at the series from a point of face-value, a lot of it still isn't executed that well, at lest not past a certain point in the manga. Just my opinion.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, this is a thing.

[LumRanmaYasha]

You just now found out about this? 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm pretty slow to catch onto these sorts of trivial things.

[Lord Dalek]

From the same people who brought you this.

[Lord Il]

Probably not such a bad thing to have a late Attack on Titan thread considering how crazy-hyped this series was when it first came out. I'd be interested if opinions of it has swayed one way or the other since the anime first aired.

[Souther]

I liked the concept, but felt they pulled their punches a little too quickly and now are trapped in a situation where nobody truly important can die or else the fans will riot.

It's really just standard shounen stuff dressed up in a more grimdark coat though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I liked the concept, but felt they pulled their punches a little too quickly and now are trapped in a situation where nobody truly important can die or else the fans will riot.

It's really just standard shounen stuff dressed up in a more grimdark coat though.

Yeah, pretty much my sentiments. It's kind of fun for what it is, but I can't understand why people treat it like something highly profound and worthy of analysis. It's really much simpler of a series than what the premise probably makes it out to be.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's like how people think of Death Note as some deep masterwork, when it was just a well-written and addicting noir. The difference between Death Note and AOT is that DN knew what it was and what it's strengths were and told and an effective and focused story, whereas AOT has reacted to the popularity it has gotten and lost sight of what made it interesting to read in the first place, know focusing on ideas that it can't explore properly and story elements that detract from what people actually want to see and what would benefit it's development.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I guess they could do a 13-episode season or something, but there really isn't enough material to make a two cours season with a good stopping point, yet. Though I guess they could drag things out...

[Lord Il]

Though I guess they could drag things out...

ugh... dear god no
Season one was enough of having stuff dragged out.