Attack on Titan

**Attack on Titan** (Japanese: 進撃の巨人; Hepburn: *Shingeki no Kyojin*, lit. "Advancing Giant") is a Japanese anime

    series based on the manga of the same name by Hajime Isayama. The first season aired in Japan between April and September 2013, the second season from April to June 2015, and a third set to air in July 2018. The English dub aired from May to November 2014, with its sequel airing from April to July 2017.

## Plot

*Attack on Titan* revolves around the adventures of Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman, and their childhood friend Armin Arlert. After the wall which protects their hometown of Shinganshina is breached by the Colossal Titan leading the other Titans to enter, Eren watches in horror as a smiling Titan eats his mother. Vowing to kill all the Titans, Eren enlists in the military, along with his friends.

## Why it rocks

1. The animation and art is amazing, even better than the manga's art.
2. Powerful and emotional music, courtesy of Hiroyuki Sawano, who also did the music for *Blue Exorcist*. One might argue that *Attack on Titan* has the best music out of any TV series.
3. The Japanese voice acting is a dramatic phenomenon, with the best performance being Yuki Kaji as Eren.
4. The story and overall premise is very interesting. So interesting that *Game of Thrones* copied from it by enclosing a city in a wall and the White Walkers later breaking the wall, just like the Titans did.
5. Eren Jaeger is one of the best-written protagonists in fiction.
6. Its immense popularity led to a prequel subtitled *No Regrets*, a spin-off subtitled *Junior High*, merchandise, a two-film live-action movie series, and a slew of video games, two of which were released internationally.
7. Amazing character designs, for both humans and Titans.
8. Took liberties with its dark tone for including a lot of gore and shocking moments, more than *Tokyo Ghoul*, but not as much as *Deadman Wonderland*.
9. One of the best war dramas in film and television history, as the story involves teenagers and young adults forced to enlist in the military at such young ages and risking their lives to protect their home society.
10. Masterfully-performed intro and outro songs. All 3 intros are performed by Japanese band Linked Horizon, with the first, *Feuerotter Pfeil und Bogen* (lit. "Crimson Bow and Arrow"), being used in many videos having nothing to do with *Attack on Titan*.
11. This is one of the few modern anime that are actually completely loyal to the manga.
12. It had a crossover with *The Avengers*.
13. The English dub, contrary to popular opinion, is just as good as, if not better than the Japanese version. Bryce Papenbrook sounded more youthful as Eren than Yuki Kaji did. Trina Nishimura and Matthew Mercer showed more emotion than Yui Ishikawa and Hiroshi Kamiya did as Mikasa Ackerman and Levi respectively.

## Bad Qualities

1. The pacing of the anime, especially in the first half of Season 1, needed some work. Most episodes were just unnecessary dialogue. Luckily, the two anime films, which recap the first season, fix that by removing a lot of said dialogue.
2. The gory nature of the series can turn people away from the franchise. As expected, this show is a prime target of Moral Guardians. Most infamously, it was one of the franchises banned in China.
3. Its Junior High spin-off was disappointing to fans of the series, but was meant as a stop-gap for the first two seasons.
4. The English dub was negatively received and was declared one of the worst dubs ever made, mainly because of its voice acting took a different approach than the Japanese version and most people watched the Japanese version first.

## Reception

### Manga

*Attack on Titan* won the Kodansha Manga Award in the *shōnen* category in 2011,[136][137] was nominated for the 4th Manga Taishō Award and both the 16th and 18th annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.[138][139][140] The 2012 edition of *Kono Manga ga Sugoi!*, which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry, named *Attack on Titan* the eighth best manga series for male readers,[141] while the 2014 edition named it the sixth best.[142] *Attack on Titan* was the top favorite manga for *Yomiuri Shimbun**s Sugoi Japan Awards in 2015.[143]*****Attack on Titan*was the second highest selling manga series of 2013, with 15,933,801 copies sold in a single year.[144] In April 2014, Oricon reported that 30 million volumes of the series have been sold.[145] In the first half of 2014 it topped the chart, ending*One Piece**s five-year reign as the highest selling series in that period, with Isayama surprised about it and thanking the readers.[146] By the end of the year, it was the second best selling manga with 11,728,368 copies sold.[147] In 2015, the series sold 8,778,048 copies ranking third for the year,[148] and 6,544,081 in 2016 for the fourth rank.[149] *Attack on Titan* was the second best-selling manga of 2017 with sales of 6,622,781 copies, behind *One Piece* with 11,495,532.[150] The manga's publisher, Kodansha, credits *Attack on Titan* for the company's first revenue increase in eighteen years.[151] The anime is noted to have helped in boosting the series' sales while *Mainichi Shimbun* called it a "once-in-a-decade hit."[152]

Six of the seven English volumes published in North America at the time charted on *The New York Times Manga Best Seller* list for the week of October 13, 2013,[153] and volume one was on the list for 81 weeks straight.[154] In June 2015, the first volume clocked in at its 100th week on the top 10 chart.[155] It also currently holds the title of appearing on the list for a volume with 121 weeks.[156] Volume one was also number one on Nielsen BookScan's list of top 20 graphic novels in American bookstores for October 2013,[157] and for the month of September, the series had more volumes on the list than any other series.[158] The Young Adult Library Services Association in the United States named the series one of its "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" in 2013.[159] Kodansha USA's English release won the 2014 Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.[160] *Attack on Titan*was the only manga to be nominated for the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Graphic Novel/Comic.[161]

Many have analyzed *Attack on Titan* as representing "the hopelessness felt by young people in today's society."[1] while writer Mao Yamawaki called it a "coming-of-age story of the boys and girls at its core," with a new mystery every episode. It is these mysteries that critic Tomofusa Kure says amplifies readers' expectations. The artwork of the manga has been criticized as crude by some reviewers, with Isayama himself admitting his drawings are "amateurish." However, those same critics stated that after years of serialization, the art has been improving, and Kure believes that had the illustrations been "refined", it would not have conveyed the "eeriness" that is a key characteristic of the work.[1] In a short review, Jason Thompson noted how the characters conveniently receive "power-ups" to create plot twists, but concluded that these said plot twists and the manga's post-apocalyptic world are "too good to miss."[162]

### Anime

The anime has been very successful in Japan, with average sales of 52,067 across 9 volumes, with a total of 468,603 as of August 2016.[163] It was the number one selling TV anime of 2013 in Japan[164] and is currently the eighth best selling anime of 2010's.[165] It has also been very successful in the U.S. with sales of at least 200,000.[166] It was also the number one streaming anime from Funimation in 2014[167] and the number one fan favorite Funimation home video released of 2014.[168] The anime adaptation won multiple prizes during the 3rd *Newtype* Anime Awards, including Best Director, Best Script, Best Soundtrack, Best Theme Song, Top Female Character and Title of the Year.[169] It received the award for Best TV Animation at the 2013 Animation Kobe Awards.[170] It received the award for Animation of the Year at the 2014 Tokyo Anime Award, along with, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Music.[171] It won the 2013 Digital Contents of the Year Award at Japan's 19th annual Association of Media in Digital (AMD) Awards.[172]

Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network was sharply critical of the first two episodes of the anime adaptation. He did praise the show for "[bringing] back the terror of the fee-fi-fo-fum set", but then said that it "does not a good show make". Kimlinger criticized Araki's direction, saying he "clearly intends it to be powerful and unsettling, but it's just crude and unpleasant."[173] On the other hand, other critics from Anime News Network praised much of the series. Rebecca Silverman said it "is both gorgeous and appalling in its visuals", and "an excellent mix of what 18th century Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe defined as horror versus terror: the one is physical, making you want to look away, and the other is intellectual, making you want to know what's going to happen next."[174] Though there are several apocalyptic action shows, Carlo Santos noted that "few get as close to perfection as *Attack on Titan* does". Santos described it as "a masterpiece of death and destruction" even if he only watched the first episode.[175] Theron Martin of Anime News Networkpraised the musical score and the "intense, impactful first episode" despite his feeling that it has "limited animation". Martin also compared *Attack on Titan'*s vibe and visual aesthetic to *Claymore*.[176] John Sinnott of DVD Talk called the series one of the best ones he has ever watched and one "that anime fans should not miss."[177]