Confession: This is not the first time I’ve watched Season 1 of Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin). It’s not even the second.
This is watch #3, friends!
And I gotta say, I was every bit as riveted as I was the first time through. Why three watches, you might ask? Because the boyfriend and I are finally gearing up to TOTALLY AND LEGALLY stream Season 2 – and it’s been forever since we last watched Season 1.
Anyway, if you haven’t seen this anime yet, stop right here and GO AND WATCH IT NOW. This is not a request. No matter what direction this series takes, it’s gonna be one of the all-time greatest. So heed the words of a longtime, closeted otaku: Check. That shit. Out. (Side note: If you happen to have Netflix, Season 1 is there in all its commercial-free glory!)
For those of you who haven’t watched the anime but have read the manga, Season 1 of Attack on Titan covers approximately chapters 1 through 33, and it’s a pretty faithful rendering. There are a few divergences that I’ve noticed, kind of like there are between (early) Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. But nothing major.
Being the first in a series and all, Season 1 introduces us to a world were human-eating Titans rule, and for about a century or so, the last of mankind has been forced to live barricaded behind a series of walls which are tall enough to keep the Titans out. How the walls or even the Titans came to be is unknown to these trapped survivors. But with the Titans being seemingly immortal and near invincible, the outlook is pretty grim for humankind–especially when, at the start of the story, a colossal Titan breaches one of the three protective walls, allowing these monsters to invade humanity’s last stronghold.
It really is a unique and deeply terrifying premise. Honestly, I haven’t come across an anime/manga storyline this original and compelling since Full Metal Alchemist. You can really sympathize with the helplessness and fear the protagonists feel as they struggle to survive against such titanic odds.
Speaking of the protagonists, they are as awesome as the story itself. The main characters are childhood friends Eren, Mikasa, and Armin–and all three of them are the sort of people you can really get behind. Strong, passionate and principled, Eren is the central character, possessing the previously unheard-of ability to transform into a Titan himself. Eren’s devoted adopted sister Mikasa is a fighting genius with perfect self-control and almost unparalleled Titan-slaying abilities, and Armin, though weak physically, is a brilliant strategist and incredible friend. All three have experienced unspeakable tragedy in their young lives, and it’s really satisfying to watch their transformation from naive children in Episode 1 to bonafide Scout legion badasses by the end of Episode 25.
The supporting cast are great too. In fact, there’s not a single character that I hate–which, trust me, is really saying something because I can almost always find SOMEBODY to hate in a work of fiction. Maybe it’s because I’m kind of an asshole. But at any rate, the rest of Eren’s fellow cadets are cool kids with interesting backstories of their own, although Season 1 only hints at this. I feel like the manga does a better job of developing them at this early stage, but I anticipate the anime will explore these kids in better detail in Season 2. The experienced Scout commanders are also pretty dope individuals, particularly Captain Levi–cold and inscrutable, he’s the #1 Titan slayer and #1 bishounen of Season 1 (and as far as I recall from the manga, the entire series).
With such a huge cast, the ship potential of this anime is great–which is a major plus for fanfic addicts like yours truly. My favorite ship so far is Levi x Mikasa. They’re both kickass Titan killers, of course, but that aside, they definitely have an opposites-attract dynamic to them that’s positively scintillating. Not to mention the fact that Mikasa hates him in Season 1, which only adds more fuel to the fanfiction fire for us dirty scheming minds out there.
Anyway, there’s a fantastic amount of action in Season 1–from human on Titan to Titan on Titan, the fight scenes definitely get you amped up. The combat system the humans use of basically sling-shotting themselves around in midair and slashing at the Titans with pseudo-gunblades is super fun to watch. Although it is kind of frustrating how little you still know about the universe by the end of Season 1, I’ll concede that the main point of a first entry in a series is to draw you into this brave new world and the plight of its even braver characters, and I feel like the first season does a bang-up job of that.
Onward, to Season 2!