Reviews Manga / Attack On Titan

"All he had was a basic concept: what if giants were eating people? This is not exactly a new concept; you can find plenty of this in "The Odyssey"."

- Oh yeah....The Odyssey...that piece of garbage book....(sorry I don't really like it)

"For example, the Titans show every indication of being massive, and massive humanoids would not be able to run or jump as the female Titan does in episode 17. So...in episode 15 Hange claims that Titans are actually very light. This is an explanation that an 8 year old might have thought up but it doesn't work since the Titans clearly are not light. There is no explanation of how a huge body can just appear out of thin air when one of them transforms. Given the author's limitations, this probably would have worked better as fantasy with a magical explanation."

- Usually, I would claim your looking too deep into this....but you're right there. Researching to build your setting is essential to making a good story.

"The character development is bad."

- For Jean and Armin it's ok but everyone else....yeah...

"The colossal Titan and armored Titan tear down the outer wall. Now, in a rational world, they would have shown up the next day and broken down both inner walls and everyone would have been killed. But, that didn't happen because...apparently the author wanted to continue with the story and couldn't figure out this detail. And, yes, it is sad that Eren's mother gets killed...but, in the context of the extinction of humanity, this is not such a big plot point. The author clearly does not comprehend the scale."

- For this part I have to say, wait and see. I not as far as some of the other fans but we know too little to make assumptions on why they didn't make rational decisions. If you thought this was bad, wait until you see the "titan in the walls" bullshit that had ZERO Foreshadowing. Something this huge needs some kind of foreshadowing.

"This is nothing more than an author's attempt to have a trendy, zombie/steam-punk take on fighting giants and he couldn't pull it off."

- True. Especially with the amount of forgettable characters, bad Foreshadowing, and pretty bad character development.

But I don't think that this series is awful though. Certainly not as bad as Shit Farts Online. It has its good merits in my opinion.

>both seasons

Whoa, season 2 came out already?

>Unfortunately, his understanding of 1800s science and technology is lacking so his explanations contradict each other.

...1800s? It's a definite that the story takes place in an alternate timeline, and highly likely that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Just the fact that 3DMG exists should be indicative of that. I'm not even sure of where you'd get your claim of this being the 1800s, since the dating involves the 800s.

>For example, the Titans show every indication of being massive, and massive humanoids would not be able to run or jump as the female Titan does in episode 17. So...in episode 15 Hange claims that Titans are actually very light.

And in episode 13 where Annie more or less standing or lightly on a Titan hurdling towards Jean, mouth open, sends it down. So, the fact itself existed prior to Hanji talking about her observations in episode 15. This paradox— a blatant violation of the Square/Cube Law— seems intentional because it's perplexing to the characters themselves. To your statement itself, the Titans are presented as massive, and yet, are also presented as nimble when they want to be. They move their limbs with facile, and that's always been constant since their first appearance— not just at the appearance of the Female Titan. Discounting the regular Titans, Eren in his Titan form demonstrated facile movement in his first appearance himself. And even then, I don't know how— if your statements were correct— would be examples of them contradicting an understanding of 1800s science and tech. You can't make something like 3DMG and possibly INTEND for it to be— assuming that it IS the 1800s we're operating in here— chronologically adherent.

>There is no explanation of how a huge body can just appear out of thin air when one of them transforms. Given the author's limitations, this probably would have worked better as fantasy with a magical explanation.

There's no explanation because there hasn't yet been an explanation given. Given the nature of shifting, there probably IS some magic kind of explanation. Or, it may not operate on OUR kind of conventional science. And...

>this probably would have worked better as fantasy

...eh? But it is. Dark fantasy, to be exact.

>The character development is bad.

I'm not going to sit down here and try to talk to you about how Attack on Titan has the best character development this side of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Because it doesn't. In fact, I'd say that its weakest point is, in fact, it's characters. I will, however, say, that characterization in this story is very much decent in most parts. For the characters that deserve distinct characterization (and that is most of them), they get it. There are characters that have distinct character DEVELOPMENT, and that's good. But given a lot of the characters are somewhere on the spectrum of Crazy Sane, there's a problem in asking for "character development".

Bluntly speaking, I think calling out "no character development" or "bad character development" shows a lack of knowledge of writing when you can't even talk about WHY. To begin with, it's an overused statement— flat and static characters are not necessarily bad things. Secondly, character development is a REACTION. There HAS to be a reason to change before someone CAN change. (Before we go any further, I'd like to say that Eren actually HAS developed in the sense that he became less reckless since he got ate and emerged from his first shifting— it's just that this isn't very pronounced. I'm not using him as an example.) Let's try Mikasa— she's well characterized, but at the end of the anime, and even up to this point, I don't think she has much in line of character development.

But why would she need to develop? What would she be learning? In the kind of world that they live in, the best mindset is Crazy Sane, and she's Crazy Sane, so there's not much as far as development goes. And you could now say that she's a Mary Sue, except that the primary issue with Mary Sues is that they INSTANTLY eliminate conflict and thus do not develop because meaningful character development arises out of compelling conflict, be that interpersonal, internal, or external, in addition to the fact that there's nary an undesirable trait to be found in them. Even when there are opportunities under which they— or any character, for that matter— COULD develop. She has NO REASON to develop, being that she's the kind of person that the military NEEDS— there's no situation in this story thus far that could prompt significant development. She can't quite be the Mary Sue because A) she's not the main character, and most are the main characters because Mary Sue creation is often Wish Fulfillment and Escapism gone wrong, and B) she has actually fucked up before.

I'm sorry— I just think that this whole "there's no character development" complaint is empty by itself because certain types of characters (especially side characters) don't NEED character development, but every character of value DOES need characterIZATION. And you can't pull off good character development for even most of your characters when you're working with an Ensemble Cast and a narrative that is capable of spending an arc off the main character and deuteragonists. When you make that complaint, you have to back it up by explaining WHY this is a bad thing in its own case and why what it does instead is bad. Actually, this most likely means that you CAN'T say "the character development is bad"

>Back when people wrote bad mysteries, they resorted to "the butler did it" to try to have a surprise. This plot does "your own teammates did it". The female Titan spares Armin but kills Petra and this makes sense because...well, actually it doesn't make sense.

Because the Female Titan didn't know Petra or the rest of Squad Levi. She had no qualms about killing Squad Levi because she didn't have any kind of attachment to them, but did about killing Armin because she did to him and the rest of her training corps.

>Now, in a rational world, they would have shown up the next day and broken down both inner walls and everyone would have been killed. But, that didn't happen because...apparently the author wanted to continue with the story and couldn't figure out this detail.

Someone forgot the part where Armin actually internally monologued at length about the motives of the Titans, particularly those of the Colossal, Armored, and Female. I could go ahead and talk about how the manga expanded on this and is actually long past the point where they explain the motives of the enemy Titan shifters, but even then, without having read the manga, it's clear that it's a question that the story is aware needs addressing and DOES have something to address it with but hasn't yet because one of its central themes is Ontological Mystery.

At least, I'm very sure that monologue was in the anime. In any case, you're assuming that the Titans WANT to kill humanity. This would imply that they some sort of higher thought, but that's unknown and unlikely except in the case of the Shifters. The motives of the regular Titans has been a point of pondering in the story, though, partly because of the pondering of the motives of the Shifters, partly because they don't NEED nutrition from humans (and their ignoring of animals for a source of nutrition in the case that they would have a need) and partly because even though they can struggle to deduce that they do this for sport, they don't know who they're working for or where they come from, and thus they can't come up with any viable conclusion of their motives. On top of that, "Ilse's Notebook" sort of throws a wrench into what little we know of the Titans (and this is not only manga canon, it's written pretty early in the narrative).

>And, yes, it is sad that Eren's mother gets killed...but, in the context of the extinction of humanity, this is not such a big plot point. The author clearly does not comprehend the scale.

As exemplified by what? If Eren is the protagonist, then the fact that his mother got killed bears some importance, especially since it IS what shapes his resolve. It IS going to be referenced when it becomes relevant, but it NEVER overshadows the fact that an entire wall fell and most of its inhabitants got killed. It never becomes an overshadowing point after the time skip— in fact, it's barely mentioned after the time skip except through implied speech and a flashback that Eren has that spurs him to confront the Colossal Titan.

Wrapping up, I've noted that you've assumed twice things that have actually been brought into question. That by itself puts a dent into the credibility of your review. I've noticed that there are things that are spelled out black-and-white, plain as day, clear as crystal for the viewer that you didn't pick up and thus made complaints about. Same deal— puts a dent into your credibility. There are things that you have said that are flat out WRONG— big dent there. There's even a point where you don't use basic reasoning. And you don't seem to have a good grasp on what character development is, nor its merits, reasons, purposes, and modes of execution. Because Attack on Titan is mostly Ontological Mystery, this'd be the part where I say "the manga has actually cashed in that question" because it's hard to adapt a flowing narrative that has a central mystery that's approached slowly but surely.

But I can't. Because it seems like you don't even understand what the anime gives you. I'm personally of the opinion that Attack on Titan is a solid series overall with a good bit that takes it out of passable and into exceptional, but how great you think it is depends on the individual. It has never posed questions thus far without the intention to answer— it has answered a fair deal of questions involving the mystery of the Titans thus far in the manga. The only actual asspull that seems like an asspull thus far has been Eren being the Coordinate and it stuck out because otherwise, the story's meticulous in its foreshadowing (to Ryochi, in the first episode, the Wallists that considered the walls sacred were already established; in the last episode [and I'm not sure if this only happened in the manga] Pastor Nick very much does not want the Female Titan to touch the walls— the fact that they turned out to be a cult that was trying to protect the secret of those walls actually seems pretty plausible.) But it has never posed questions openly without delivering yet, and it openly poses a lot of questions, and you don't seem to get the significance of that.

I'm all for dissent, because not everybody's going to like the same thing. Someone might not find X engaging, and another can find something wrong with X. That's fine. I also understand that you were pressed with a word limit. But these seem to be your complaints in their entirety, and I have seen better and more compelling arguments against some of the happenings of this series, and thus, I don't think your review is all that credible.

(And, dear Lord, is this comment long.)

Annie spared Armin because they knew each other personally. Did you skip some episodes, or...?

Armored and Colossal have more agendas than just \"kill humanity\". It\'s one of their goals, sure, but there\'s things they want to accomplish. I won\'t go into details for the sake of manga spoilers.

As for Titan physics up the wazoo, the only explanation I can offer is that Titans are incredibly fragile (their limbs and heads can easily be blown off with cannonfire) hence the \"lightness\".