REVIEW: Attack on Titan (Anime/Manga)

When something becomes popular, inevitably there are people who become "hipsters" about whether it's any good or not. The new hotness in anime is 'Shingeki no Kyojin' or to give it its international name, Attack on Titan, and there are plenty of people to tell you how over-hyped it is, etc, etc. They're basically idiots!! While I was visiting Japan earlier this year (2014 at the time of writing), you couldn't go into a convenience store without running into something Attack on Titan related, and it was this prevalence of "stuff" that made me interested in checking out the anime series when I got home; it was hopeless in Japan as nothing on TV is English subtitled. So, after binge-watching it over the internet on the 'Crunchyroll' streaming service it is almost ready for Blu-ray and DVD release here in the UK, and I thought I'd take this opportunity for a brief review of both the anime series and the manga original.

The plot of Attack on Titan concerns itself with a kind of post-apocalyptic scenario. It is some undetermined time in the future, and mankind has previously been driven to the brink of extinction by large humanoid creatures known as Titans, who wander the earth feasting on living human flesh. The last hope mankind has is by eking out a meager existence behind huge concentric walls, and the level of technology and social structure has been consequently thrown back to a feudal middle-ages equivalent. Titans themselves are nearly immortal, as they don't actually need to eat for sustenance (it's suggested that they're powered by the sun) and can regenerate nearly any amount of damage done to them as long as the nape of their neck is not cut out. Our protagonist for the story of Attack on Titan is Eren Jaeger, who during the opening attack upon his hometown behind the wall is forced to watch his mother ripped apart and devoured by Titans. He swears revenge on the creatures and joins the military with his childhood (and similarly orphaned) friends, who make up the other main characters, hence begins the onslaught.

The story arcs, and the way that they develop, are fantastic and easily some of the best and most compelling television you'll watch all year; there are two reasons for this. Firstly, the damn cliffhangers!! Attack on Titan drip-feeds its story to you, and while intense action make up the bulk of the time on-screen, the final few minutes of each episode usually give you just enough information to satisfy your desire to piece together the many mysteries (what are the Titans? where did they come from? etc.) and also usually end on a *massive* *MASSIVE* cliffhanger. Because of this, the show is almost un-put-down-able, and there really is no good opportune time to stop watching, you just have to tear yourself away! The second thing that makes the series so nail-biting to watch is the complete disregard it has for it's characters safety; and I mean all characters not just ancillary ones. Someone once commented in another review that if Joss Whedon and George RR Martin got together and watched Attack on Titan they would tell the shows producers to "slow the f**k down" with the amount of character deaths, which is saying something. But of course, this is brilliant as it gives situations a real sense of peril and danger that is missing from most television series, especially anime.

Hopefully the accompanying pictures illustrate this, but Attack on Titan looks incredible, especially for an anime series and not a feature film. Animation is fluid, looks absolutely gorgeous in high definition, and the character designs are great and help everyone stand out; which is important with such a large supporting cast. Action sequences in particular, the meat and bones of the show, are extremely exciting and well done... which makes it so much crueler when they end in a cliffhanger! AARGH! Special mention must go to the soundtrack too, especially the awesome as hell opening themes, which are *epic* and awesome; I've even seen silly chibi versions and spoof cartoons of Attack on Titan that use the same soundtrack and still seem epic as a result. In summary, basically everything about this anime series is amazing and exceptional, well deserving of all the hype and popularity that it has received, and I can only see it gaining more avid fans once it becomes officially available here.

MANGA: About the only real negative that can be said about Attack on Titan is the lack of closure. This is because it's only the first of two (or more) series based on the original manga, and really leaves a lot of plot threads up in the air; especially the central mystery of Eren's key hanging around his neck. While it is pretty much guaranteed there will be a second series based solely on how well it's done, at the time of writing there is no confirmed release date or even confirmation that they're even making the thing! This is probably because the series caught up with the manga pretty damn fast and there isn't enough material yet to fill another 26 episodes. So, in the meantime, if you want to uncover some of the buried strands of plot or you simply want to carry on the story the solution is to pick up and read the manga, or read it online via a manga reader like I did, and you *will* want to carry on at least a while.

Unfortunately, while I've enjoyed reading through a fair chunk of the remaining current manga to uncover a few more of the mysteries, I've not found it to be as awesome to read as something like Berserk. The main reason is that Attack on Titan is primarily an action-packed show of fights and intense violence, and this is not as kinetic or punchy in the original manga; especially compared to the excellent anime. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the anime of Attack on Titan is superior in almost every way and therefore feel free to completely skip most of the volumes and start from the middle of volume eight, which is where the anime ends. Also, while the art style is decent and often looks really good, it is not a patch on the television series; compare the above panel of the Colossal Titan with the one near the start of this article to see what I'm saying. I've read far enough into the manga to satisfy some of my curiosity about where the next series will go, uncover some *massive* mysteries and plotlines, and stoke my enthusiasm for watching the anime series again, this time forearmed with new knowledge about certain characters and events... but I think I'll stop reading for now. It'll be good to keep some things fresh for Attack on Titan Series 2 when it eventually rolls 'round sometime (hopefully) in 2015.