Why you should watch "Attack on Titan"

Well, okay, maybe some of you shouldn't. It's not for the faint of heart. This is a very intense show, and at some points it can be a little gory. Not like The Walking Dead where they smear zombie goo all over them (heh...he was an organ donor) or anything like that, but, it's what you would expect out of an anime.

"ANIME?!" *leaves blog post, moves to Carribean islands*

"Halt citizen!" I shout as I rope you in with my Lasso of Truth. "Anime is good, it's better than most live-action television, but that is for another day!"

"It's a cartoon and they don't even speak English!" *struggles*

"It's not a cartoon! You spoke no language until you were three!" I shout, tugging on the Lasso.

*stops struggling* "Fair enough. Explain to me this...'anime'...you so seem to enjoy."

"Thank you," I say, releasing you from my Lasso of Truth I have to give back to Wonder Woman.



As I was saying, there is nothing out of the norm when it comes to graphic displays in Attack on Titan. Some things here and there, but for the most part, you'll be expierencing psychological trauma over the exuberant amounts of drama, suspense, horror, and utter shock you'll be feeling...in just five episodes! :D

So let's get started.

Attack on Titan (or, as it was created, Shingeki no Kyojin) is an anime based off of the manga created by Hajime Isayama, and received huge praise and a big following once it hit screens around the world. And I'm here to convince you why you should join us in watching it instead of something like the Bachelor! Because that show is dumb. Just saying.

Attack on Titan takes place in an unknown time (at least, I was never able to figure it out), but the premise is that one hundred years ago these massive creatures known as Titans appeared seemingly out of nowhere and humanity faced extinction against them. They hid behind three walls ruled by a kingdom to protect themselves from the Titans.

"Psh...Titans. Whatever. They can't be that great of a fo--"



"--ooookay wow."

Yeah. Wow. Be afraid. Because those things are immortal, basically. They feed off of nothing but humans, yet they seemingly cannot travel at night (read the manga to find out why I say "seemingly"). Nobody really knows how many Titans there are, but, it can be assumed that there are well over thousands of Titans since they were able to crush humanity in basically a single stroke.

Our main protagonist is Eren Yaegar (pronounced yay-gar, by the way), the son of a well-known doctor who we think knows something about the Titans. Anyway, certain events happen where Eren gets displaced from his home and he has to return to his house's basement, where the secret to the Titans lies. The only problem?



Well...the Titans are really big. At their smallest size, they are still triple our height. Luckily there are few of those behemoths, the 60 m class Titans. Most of the Titans are 15m and for we Americans that translates to about 50 ft tall. Yay!

Not interested yet? You don't even want to know where the Titans came from, why they only hunt humans (it's been shown for them to not mess with other animals), where the walls suddenly sprung from or how the heck little 10-year old Eren is going to, as he promises, "kill all the Titans?"

Yes you are. So let us continue, with, our plot.

Plot:

Like I've already explained, Attack on Titan is what it sounds like. Humanity fighting Titans. But in one hundred years, they've never won a battle. They have two pieces of weaponry that seem effective against the Titans: cannons atop the walls and this really interesting 3D maneuver gear that kind of makes them like Spider-Man but they don't shoot webs, it's cables, and the gear gives them six blades--two for use and for two reload them, since the blades can become dull against the hot Titan skin.

The plot behind this show is fantastic, though. It's surrounded by mystery, there's always a new question popping up. And it does what no plot dares do in any TV show. I can't tell you what that is, though, because it's a huge spoiler. Just keep your eye out for episodes 1-5. That stuff hurts every time, man.

It also has something for everyone. People who love to make theories about TV shows will have a field day with this show, since major characters don't always appear who they are. People who love shipping will also have a field day because there is about an equal amount of boy-girl main characters in the show. People who love action will feel right at home, because there are three arcs over the course of 25 episodes about fighting the Titans. People who love horror might see this as a little childish, but, you simply cannot deny the suspense it brings.

I could not stop watching this show when I started. I picked it up from the manga, because I wasn't sure where to find it online (it's on Netflix, you have no excuse now), and wow. I was absolutely blown away. There were moments where I had to put the book on the shelf, do a few laps around the bookstore, and come back. That was the first volume.

The anime comprises of nine volumes (well...eight and three-fourths but whose counting?) and stays true to it in almost every way. Yeah, some of it is filler, but it's really cool. Like when Squad Leader Hange is talking about Sonny and Bean (Hange is nuts, you gotta love her), it may have been sort of filler, but it was actually informative and helpful stuff, so it doesn't feel like filler.

The show constantly keeps you guessing, though. Things just keep on rolling, yet it makes it so it is not hard to keep track of everything. It also ends on a humongous cliffhanger (this is actually the biggest difference from the manga, because in the manga Mikasa is in that scene and in the anime she's not, which I found a little weird but whatever).

And this show is incredibly dramatic. The animation is done beautifully here, one of the most beautiful animes I've ever seen, and it perfectly captures the essence of every character in every scene. The voice acting also helps out a lot. I'll talk more about the factors of drama soon, but, I was just pointing out how the drama helps the plot.

But what's a plot without it's characters?

Characters:

As I mentioned before, you've got your main character, Eren Yaegar (or, as I like to call him, Yaegar Bomb-bastic...thank you TeamFourStar!). His two main pals are the super badass Mikasa Ackerman and the "holy crap you've had a lot of character development" Armin Arlert. These three are actually not together a lot after the midpoint in the series, which only goes to build more suspense. I won't say you feel safer when they're all around each other, nobody is safe in this show, but it just feels more at home because they only have each other. Though really Mikasa can kill anything that moves so maybe I would feel safer around her...

Then you've got your other characters, like Jean Kirstein, who originally wants to join the Military Police.



Haha, yes I do Mr. Meme!

Jean's cool, and also gets a lot of interesting character growth following the Battle of Trost arc. I kind of want to just toss him to the side because it's tough to talk about Jean and his growth and his story without ruining a huge moment in the Trost arc, so, I'll let you figure that out when you watch the show.

You've also got Connie Springer, who at first is sort of an "eh" character before becoming a "oh cool" character. Sasha Brause, aka "Potato Girl" is a good comic relief for the first part of the show, but, she also exemplifies the feelings of the humans in the Survey Corps when things are not looking well.

Other characters splashed around are Krista Lentz, Ymir, Reiner Braun, and Bertholt Huber. Bertholt you don't really see much of, Ymir you will be seeing a lot of whenever season 2 rolls around. Krista is the girl that every guy wants to marry because she's seen as a goddess (hehe) and Reiner is the big tough guy that's always there to help!

For those of you Attack on Titan fans reading this, I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, "Um...why isn't he talking about basically everyone's favorite character? DID HE FORGET?"

No, I didn't forget. How can you forget about the guy who took out two Titans in the blink of an eye? How can you forget about the little man that could? How can you forget about THIS MAN?!




Er, I mean...



Captain Levi from Squad Levi! (no he's not a princess but if you're a fan of the show you know why that's actually really funny)

Yes, he is awesome. Yes, he is short. Yes he has the coolest method of killing a Titan besides Eren (for reasons you must watch yourself). Levi does not really experience much growth over the show, however that is not to say he doesn't learn anything. Plus, he is not as he comes off as when you first meet him. Keep in mind that first picture. You germaphobes would love this guy.

Other members of the Survey Corps are its leader Erwin Smith (such a unique last name) and Hange. Erwin is, I believe, the most mysterious character of the entire show just by the way he is portrayed. And Hange is the most psychotic. She loves Titans, it's so weird!

Okay, enough about character profiles. Time to talk about why these are some really awesome people. First, they are some of the most driven characters on any show I have ever seen. They never give up, and even if they want to, they won't. There's a fantastic moment just after the midpoint where they have to make a choice and it's just so intense to see what they do, even though they are scared out of their minds to do it.

And these are deep characters. They have so much emotion it evokes emotion out of you. They make you feel for them even in the early-goings of the show. They all have interesting characteristics that make them who they are, too. It makes you wonder how these people could survive and then they show you how they can live in a hopeless world through both action and emotion.

But perhaps the most important thing that this show does with it's characters is make them human. Most TV shows falter in this aspect. They make the characters almost unrelatable, or they make them too tough for the situation. In Attack on Titan, this does not occur. You know they're afraid. You know they know that they are up against hopeless odds. They have aspects in people you probably know because they are just people. There isn't anything super or extraordinary about their characteristics. Most of these characters are damaged, too, which really shows in the way that they fight or the way that they carry themselves as the show goes on.

And great characters make for both a great plot and great dramatic effect!

Drama:

When this show wants you to feel, oh my goodness, it makes you feel. First five episodes, I'm telling you, you will feel like you've been struck by lightning. Scratch that.

FIRST episode. Relatively speaking, the most horrifying/ terrible event to happen in the entire show occurs in the first like five seconds.

"And on that day, humanity received a grim reminder:"

Those are the very first words you hear (or, see, since it's only got an English-subbed version out so far) from the show. WHAT. Yes.

"we lived in fear of the Titans and were disgraced to live in these cages we called walls."

That sets the tone for everything that occurs in the show. Like I said, though, this show makes you feel. Really, it does that a lot. Because almost every moment is impactful on your emotions. The show knows how to masterfully play on your emotions to the point where you want to break the show in half but you have to keep watching to know if it gets better for the characters. There are so many hopeless situations where you will be almost leaning into your laptop to find out what happens next.

Which is also called suspense, folks. One could consider Attack on Titan to be a horror show. Sort of, I don't know. It's definitely fantasy (if you read one of my earlier blogs, then it's sort of dark fantasy) to say the least just because giant Titans aren't roaming around the Earth (knock on wood) nor does humanity have 3D maneuver gear (pray for that, people, that would be legit as heck).

The suspense in this show makes it feel like so much more than just a 25 episode series (just like the first part of SAO felt like more than just thirteen episodes, what). Luckily, we're getting a season 2 and (hopefully) a good live action adaptation for the movie. There's a video of what the Titans might look like that they look scary real...like scary and real, which is good (it was made by the same guy who is creating the Titans for the movie, so, hopefully they look the same).

But overall, the show has just one feeling that keeps the suspense and drama rolling: hopelessness. Yes, that does not seem like a good thing, but you just feel like there is no way to win. I hate to compare Attack on Titan to Sword Art Online because, personally, I feel like they are vastly different shows, but I have to do it again: In Sword Art Online the situation, in the back of your mind, also feels hopeless yet the epic love story unfolding before you makes you feel better. In Attack on Titan, there is no epic love story, there are epic battles and events unfolding that have never been seen before in humanity's century of torture against the Titans, which is super interesting to watch.

Now onto possibly my favorite part of the entire anime, even more than the plot and characters:

The music:

What can I say about the music? I'm listening to it right now! It's my favorite soundtrack of all time from anything: movie, TV show, videogame, you name it, the Attack on Titan OST has it beat. You can listen to it outside of the show and make almost anything epic or dramatic.

We'll start with where the music for the show does start, though, the opening.



It's true. You can't just skip "Guren no Yumiya" (or as it translates, "Crimson Bow and Arrow") by Linked Horizon because it is my favorite anime opening of all time. Maybe not the animation, because that's just usual anime stuff, but the song is what's important. It is super epic, really there is no way to describe it without you listening to it. It sets up the intensity that the show is going to bring to you. The opening changes, as it always does, halfway through the show to "Jiyu no Tsubasa" (translated to "Wings of Freedom") which is still cool and is more fast-paced to go along with the fact that there are a whole lot of chase scenes in the second part of the season.

Outside of the opening, though, which is one of my favorite songs to always listen to, the music that plays throughout the show stirs emotion and sets tone, as music is meant to. But it is so good. I can't actually list the song names because they are really weird named, like just a random assortment of numbers and letters, but if you YouTube it I'm sure you could listen. Or just watch the show, imagine that!

When the characters are fighting, there is good fight music. When they are talking, which is always going to be about something cool and dramatic, there is dramatic music. When they are trying to escape the Titans, there is quality escape music. Unlike most shows, though, there isn't just that one song that every other song seems to play off of. It seems like each song was composed, and composed well, for its own purpose. "E.M.A." (hey, look, a song title, I lied sorry) is good for when they are approaching battle or when the characters are in battle. "Attack on Titan" (yes, it is a song title, and yes, it is my favorite) works well for when the characters have some big revelation or when there is a big fight (such as the climactic battle at the end, where this song is perfectly placed).

Boundaries

This show goes where few shows dare to go. Though I wouldn't consider them leaps of faith. Having read/watched it myself, going into it hearing about all of this hype like you have if you know anything about anime or go on Tumblr at all you think it's going to be the greatest thing that came out of 2013. And you would be right, it is one of the best things of 2013 (yeah, not you Red Wedding, you sucked).

As a fan watching the events unfold, I had no idea where the show was going. Nothing I expected happened. The villain at the end of the season blind-sides you, and what they do in that battle shocks you even more. Even in the show they question the actions that are going on. And at that point, you are both numbed to it and shocked by it. You've seen so much by the time you get to the end that you may have the same reaction to the news as Commander Erwin does.

The first five episodes braces you, I cannot stress this enough to you. You will be crying like a baby. Okay maybe not like a baby but you will the feels will at the very least choke you up. Or you'll have a Red Wedding-like reaction.

To be honest, I think that the first five episodes are the most dramatic first episodes  of a television series that I have ever seen. Even The Walking Dead, for all of its trauma, did not have that much drama because The Walking Dead makes you care too much about Rick at the beginning and not all of the other characters that you get the change to grow with in a quick amount of time. The music helps with the emotions, too, because sometimes it can be fun and light-hearted when they go into battle! Yeah! GO TEAM! *cries*

So that's why you should watch Attack on Titan. Despite most of you turning it off because it is an anime, it has a better story than most anything else on television has right now because it's not a cop drama like almost everything else and Arrow is just in a league of its own right now for supernatural shows. The characters are, I guess, relatable, but they are human and are not your standard line-up. The music is top of the class, the best music of an anime, in my opinion.

And for those of you wondering "what the heck is SAO," don't worry, I'll tackle my thoughts on Sword Art Online next week, because by then I'll have finished watching the first part of it and I'll want to talk about it.

See you next time!

Links to images:
Colossal Titan vs Eren picture: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSP9A-oFl96v2kVNWGy71V2S0UDSU-LbY-VfxbH2xexos90m6F9

Titan size picture: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhHQ9s8aIRwC2kByAqyXReyyLwkT6yYfS0J3KJrVr0rhoz66nfOnUjNbqU6tfPmyhzFXWuVF6XFfp040Aca9evuJ7Km46kpxBpUQOsUJvWw470a1HjNPnSz96KxpSvsHAoHwFsqHNzjBjkByMumun13rrOfmjQS4yoKlBTup6FK24sars6EDMNuVXIovzENSDoPIDmIv0y6rS8kCQ=

Military Police meme: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcEqK0Nhfaaf_6aP4wJ3PXSJ4g5acS1eUnJmi2l8ytQ3hoOmTN

Levi cleaning picture: http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Spring%2BCleaning%2Bwith%2BLevi_a47c15_4707266.jpg

Real Levi picture: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ9bboazzhmG72lrP2wHKXv9g4DGyoVmV_pF4XPm7kzHEDU_wH9

"One does not simply" meme: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTXBL2HeyHEvyDyXx8dzkuEv5pVYgI07DY4k6-daLebiV-KXclNlw