Attack on Titan (season 1) anime review (Part 1)

Attack on Titan review

Hey guys, hope that you all have been well.

Today, I am going to review a very famous anime called “Attack on Titan (Season 1)”. I am going to try not to spoil too much.
So let’s begin!

1- What is Attack on Titan?

Attack on Titan is a very famous manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama, that began in 2009 [1]. The manga was a tremendous success and thus got adapted as an anime in 2013 by Wit Studio. Episodes of the season 3 are currently being released every week as I speak (I watch them on Hulu).

(Hajime Isayama, the mastermind behind Attack on Titan)

2- The Plot

Attack on Titan begins in a world were humanity lives in cities/regions surrounded by gigantic walls in fear of being attacked by some powerful giants called “Titans”. However, at the beginning of the anime no Titan had broken into any city for a 100 years. This is because the walls were made too high for the regular Titan to climb or even attempt to break it, and also thanks to the work of the military. Eren Yeager and his childhood friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlelt were living normal lives within the walls. However, Eren and Armin dreamed of being able to explore the world outside of the walls once they would become adults. This was a very taboo topic as everyone really feared for the power of the Titans. One day, out of nowhere two abnormal Titans ( Armor Titan and Colossal Titan) were able to break into the Wall and allow the regular Titans to destroy the city. A huge amount of people died during the Titan attack, including Eren’s mom. Eren and his friends survived the attack. This event really increased Eren’s hatred towards the Titans and he swore to kill all of them [2]. A few years later, him and his friends successfully joined the Scout military regiment following a very bloody battle in the Wall Rose southern district.

(Erin, fighting the Colossal Titan)

3- Discussion

There are so many things that can be discussed when it comes to Attack on Titans, so many philosophical topics, so many strategies. I am going to only discuss a very few in this post. Let me give you an overview on how the society is organized in the anime. Geographically speaking there are 3 major Walls: Wall Sheena, Wall Rose and Wall Maria [3]. Wall Maria is the outermost wall, which makes it the most dangerous region for people to live within. Each Wall has four towns on their periphery a.k.a “districts” for strategic reasons in the event Titans would attempt to break in. Districts are the worst out of the worst places for humans to live in due to their geographical location. At the beginning of the anime, Eren and his friends were living in Shinganshina district (Wall Maria).

There are three main military regimens: the Scouts, the Garrison and the Military Police. The Scouts do the most dangerous job by far, as they constantly travel outside of the Walls to try to regain human territory from the Titans. They have an extremely high sense of courage and are constantly fighting for the good of humankind. The Garrison also have a very dangerous job as they have have to protect the Walls from the Titans and maintain orders within the cities. The Military Police regimen however does not have a very risky job at all. They live in the innermost Wall and they really don’t do much during the day except for drinking and harassing people (since they are highly corrupt). They also are not very good at combat. Strangely, they have the best reputation and are really close to the most powerful organizations: the Royal government and the Church. Now that I have given a little bit of context, let me expand on the discussion.

(Some attack on Titans fans dressed as military)

• Inequality

One of the things that strikes in the anime is the extreme cast system. Very ordinary people live in the outermost Wall (sometimes districts for the most unlucky) while the royal government , the church and the military Police live in the innermost Wall. Also, the scout regimen has the worst reputation, even though they do by far the most dangerous job for the sake of humankind. On the opposite side, the Military Police is constantly praised while they do nothing and they are highly corrupt.

• The taboo.

There are a few taboos in the anime, one of them is speaking about the life outside of the Walls. It is almost as if every regular citizen had been brainwashed not to even think about what would be the life outside of the Walls.

• Graphics and architecture

The graphics and visuals are very well made. An anime like this which has a huge amount of combat scenes requires a lot of work and I think that Isayama’s team and the Wit Studio definitely nailed it. The architecture is very beautiful and resembles the European architecture from the 19th century, I would say. Many characters hold European last names, especially German last names.

• Social stability

It seems that the social stability is only maintained because all the people within the Walls have a common enemy (the Titans) and as a result are constantly maintained in fear. The reason why I am saying this is because it is mentioned somewhere at the beginning of the anime that before the Titans era, humans of different race and creed were living more spread out and were in constant conflicts.

• The Scouts and the Garrison regimen

You learn a lot watching those regimens. They have a very high sense of responsibility towards humankind. They fight for what they believe is good for humankind and they have a high sense of courage. The other thing that strikes is that everyone always has to give everything at the battle to even hope to survive from the Titans. Put it simply, the anime emphasizes the law of nature: they are constantly trying to improve themselves on the battlefield knowing that only the stronger (not the better) species/person will survive/win.

(Levi Ackerman, squad captain of the special operations squad of the Scout regimen)

(Some Attack on Titan fans dressed as the Scout Regimen of the military)

Ok that was it for today guys. I really hope that I did not spoil it too much. Personally, Attack on Titan to me is a masterpiece. In fact I think it is now my favorite anime. I have never watched an anime that challenges so many philosophical concepts and that makes you going through all kinds of different emotions (happiness, sadness, anger etc …). It is a definitely must-watch, even if you are not into anime (in my humble opinion). Note that I only covered, a very tiny amount of what I could have covered. I will of course write more in-depth posts about this anime in the future.

Thank you very much guys for reading this post! :)

Reference

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan#Anime

[2] http://attackontitan.wikia.com/wiki/Eren_Jaeger_(Anime)

[3]http://attackontitan.wikia.com/wiki/Walls

Pictures

Picture 1 was taken from https://goo.gl/yQwvH8

Picture 2 was taken from https://goo.gl/R9Czwi

Picture 3 was taken from https://goo.gl/G18DZt

Picture 4 was taken from https://goo.gl/Y6cQBE

Picture 5 was taken from https://goo.gl/RYdppe

Picture 6 was taken from https://goo.gl/CRho46

Picture 7 was taken from https://goo.gl/ukgrJw

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