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Reviews Manga / Attack On Titan

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ZangotheChua Since: Aug, 2014
11/25/2014 07:48:10 •••

Interesting and Inventive but not without Flaws

Attack on Titan is what I would call an All-or-Nothing show. It has that odd way about it where being indifferent is an odd occurrence. It's either engaging or exhausting and there isn't much middle ground.

There's a lot nice that can be said about Attack on Titan, chief of which being that it isn't inclined to pull common punches with the audience. I'll start by simply saying this: people die. A LOT. I wouldn't call that a spoiler because it's pretty much the first thing you'll notice about the show. The common fighting style in the series used by the human characters is clever and engaging to watch, which is essential in a shonen series where there's going to be quite a bit of that. Monster designs are interestingly jarring and manage to be unsettling without trying too hard. It's a series I caught myself grinding through despite struggling to pin one element as 'great' and maybe that kind of ambient draw is the testament to a good series.

If the series has one real flaw to note it would be the pacing. There's no getting around the fact that the series, especially at the outset, is a slog. If you're someone who can't stand when anime fills time using copious amounts of sepia flashbacks to clips from last episode this might be a deal-breaker. Sadly this isn't helped by sheer repetition: those inclined to tell their liver they're done with it can probably make a vicious drinking game of just people looking scared and screaming. Mix in some hard liquor for every flashback to a certain scene in the first episode (you'll know the one) and you'll probably be at your intervention before the plot kicks in. It's a kind of inherent flaw really: when 95% of your cast is running around in the exact same outfit, in very similar scenery, even if things are progressing it feels slow. There's also a slight issue (varies by customer it seems) that the sheer amount of horrible stuff happening just starts to cheapen each occurrence.

In short, grit your teeth and bear through the first couple of events. If your still engaged then you'll find a series that's probably to your liking. If you're wincing every time the episode title card is formatted "[Event Title]: Part x++" by then, it's probably best to jump off.

Kajin Since: Feb, 2012
11/09/2014 00:00:00

My friends and I joked about the pacing a bit.

Last episode: they went to the boulder. This episode: they're at the boulder. Next episode: they move the boulder.

It's the one bad thing about this show. I enjoyed the rest of it immensely, though. Dove straight into the manga right after I finished the anime.

Austin Since: Jan, 2001
11/25/2014 00:00:00

I haven't watched the show, but I have a question. The manga also gets criticism for pacing. How much of that comes from the writing, and how much comes from the fact that it's a monthly manga? I imagine fans of really popular mangas would suffer from Awesomeness Withdrawl pretty easily, but most of the other monthly mangas I can think of don't get the same criticism for feeling too slow.


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