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OT- Anime

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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1401 » by Kevin Willis » Sat Sep 7, 2013 11:29 pm

Actually I forgot about the full bringers. There a few separate story lines so I want to see where it goes. Should be good.

Titan I will look at when some of the others I am looking at are over.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1402 » by spaceballer » Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:49 pm

I finally caught up on Attack on Titan. The first episode or two were kind of hamfisted with the way they portrayed the protagonist's earnestness and I almost stopped watching, but then it picked up after that. It has a lot of potential. Some of the revelations and developments in the manga do seem somewhat hard to square, but maybe they'll fill in the blanks.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1403 » by Nazrmohamed » Fri Sep 20, 2013 2:43 pm

I got into a series called Claymore. Try it out, pretty cool
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1404 » by KnicksGadfly » Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:29 pm

spaceballer wrote:I finally caught up on Attack on Titan. The first episode or two were kind of hamfisted with the way they portrayed the protagonist's earnestness and I almost stopped watching, but then it picked up after that. It has a lot of potential. Some of the revelations and developments in the manga do seem somewhat hard to square, but maybe they'll fill in the blanks.


Yea, I'm getting my friends hooked on that right now.

Attack on Titan and One Piece are my top animes right now. I've actually rewatched them a few times (crazy with One Piece), but what gets me is that these episodes are clearly planned out from the beginning by their authors. The authors drop hints everywhere about what's to come, and it's pretty impressive. On the other hand, Naruto is disappointing me heavily. I'm watching it because I've stuck with it for so long, but it's really not good anymore, and if all the main characters died, I really wouldn't care, and that's a shame.

If I had to recommend a manga to any basketball junkies, I would recommend Slam Dunk, which is a classic. It's about this guy who gets into basketball to impress a girl, but the main character is clearly based off Dennis Rodman, and is hilarious. I think the anime might be a little too slow for new viewers, though, so I recommend reading the manga instead. The anime kind of feels like Dragon Ball Z sometimes, the way they stretch it out. I've heard a lot of good things about another basketball manga, Kuroko no Basket, but when I read some of the manga, it didn't seem any good to me.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1405 » by Guano » Sun Sep 22, 2013 12:04 am

LLJ wrote:
Guano wrote:

Also, I know everyone loves Cowboy Bebop, but I couldn't finish it. It actually turned me off to Anime for awhile. I had to quit it, and fire up something new. I made it through most of it, and enjoyed some of the episodes, but it felt stale and bland. I like the third or so episode with the green bird song. Would of enjoyed the show if they would've focused on that conflict. The episodic format of the show was a huge turn off for me. I'm not entirely against episodic anime as I liked Mushishi. I just couldn't get into it.


I've always felt Cowboy Bebop was a gateway anime rather than one for established fans. It's got great style, and a pretty coherent story, and it has many elements that don't require a newbie to stretch too far out of their comfort zone. But at times the stories can be a little TOO simple.

I wonder what you would think of Samurai Champloo? Same creators, but I felt the writing in that show was a lot more sophisticated.


I haven't got around to watching Samurai Champloo yet. It is in my backlog, but I just haven't got around to watching it yet.

Finished watching Stein's Gate and Berserk recently. Liked SG a lot, struggled through Berserk. Liked the minimalist style of berserk, but the graphics were too outdated, and the dialogue was poor. The premise was solid the delivery was poor. It struggled to keep my interest through the whole thing.

SG was just solid all around.

I'm currently 5 episodes into Death Note. Seems like this will be a journey with an anti-hero. So far so good. Ryuk the Shinigami is a really interesting character. It is keeping me interested.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1406 » by Kevin Willis » Sun Sep 22, 2013 2:22 am

spaceballer wrote:I finally caught up on Attack on Titan. The first episode or two were kind of hamfisted with the way they portrayed the protagonist's earnestness and I almost stopped watching, but then it picked up after that. It has a lot of potential. Some of the revelations and developments in the manga do seem somewhat hard to square, but maybe they'll fill in the blanks.


Same here. I saw the first few episodes of Attack on Titan and it seemed like a Nakama style / Naruto one man's will can save everyone. Then when he was eaten I thought - what's going on here. WTH was that? That's where I am now with no clue where it's going to go.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1407 » by Busch Legion » Thu Sep 26, 2013 3:03 am

Anyone watch Sword Art Online?
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1408 » by Hangtime84 » Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:15 pm

Kobe>Jordan>God wrote:This fall season looks to be the best one in a while.

planning to watch:
Kyokai no Kanata (A girl who can manipulate blood + it's by KyoAni!)
Kuroko no Basuke Second Season
Freezing Vibration
KILL la KILL
Tokyo Ravens

may check out:
Log Horizon (looks like the first of many Sword Art Online clones)
Sekai de ichiban tsuyoku naritai (let's just say the trailer caught my eye)
Kikou Shoujo wa Kizutsukanai
Non Non Biyori

how are the ones u've seen so far?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSEw3RT0dFE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVC-aro_BBs[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3EMc5EFUYo[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsModToD1u0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kCFtL-kfXU[/youtube] <---NSFW
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1409 » by ReturnofFlash » Fri Nov 29, 2013 4:16 am

just wanted to revive this thread to say..Attack on Titan is amazing!
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1410 » by spaceballer » Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:32 am

Miami4Life wrote:just wanted to revive this thread to say..Attack on Titan is amazing!


Not really, I'm having second (third) thoughts on it. I didn't like it for the first couple of episodes, then I loved it. But now that I've caught up on all the anime and caught up on the manga, I'm feeling a bit more "meh". Especially after I came across a very insightful review on aniDB that was rather damning and found myself agreeing with it.

AniDB wrote:PROPER MINDSET

Attack on Titan (AOT hereon) is obviously going to be the most overhyped title of the year, pretty much like Madoka Magica and Sword Art Online (SAO) were in previous years. And just like those, it is not going to live up to the hype as pretty much no show ever does. It will end up being just like SAO; a high seller that will be talked about for some time but will otherwise be nothing but a big disappointment. And yes, I have read the manga so I know what I am talking about regarding later plot points.

Just like with all overhyped mediocrities the thing that made it so famous is mostly the premise. It has a setting where mankind is almost wiped out by giant monstrosities and gets cornered behind huge walls. They thought they were safe there until a giant manages to break down their fortifications and lets the monsters into civilian areas. Terror and death spread as people die defenceless by the thousands and the rest need to retreat to other fortified lands where they work almost as slaves to support the overpopulation and the lack of food. From this description you are presented with a most interesting action / survival / horror, which is very graphical and doesn’t hold back to depict gore as the giants chew and swallow people. You are really intrigued to find out how they can possibly survive against these monsters.

Sounds amazing enough for anyone to jump into the show but surely not because it is original. It is actually quite basic and overdone; there have been several similar stories over the years, from Blue Gender to Claymore. It just came out in an era where 90% of anime are effortless softporn and moe; so it sticks out easily. If it was made along with Death Note or Code Geass, it would get a fraction of the hype it has today. Also, it is not a harem with schools that pretends to be deep and serious by having an apocalyptic story that is there as nothing but unused backdrop, like in the cases of Chrome Shelled Regios or Total Eclipse. The main problem is still present though; the anime belongs to the shonen demographic and that translates to lots of eye-rolling moments.

1. Characterization is quite basic and even laughable at points despite the attempts to make the cast mature and serious.

Take the protagonist for example. So obnoxious! Remember Naruto and how he always screams “I WILL SAVE SASUKE DATEBAYO!” every 5 minutes to the point you want to strangle him? Well this one here is not any better since all he does is yelling “I WILL DEFEAT ALL THE GIANTS DATEBAYO!” It has that irritating always-angry, totally-stupid shonen thing you find pretty much everywhere and no amount of dramatic backdrop manages to make him anything more than that. This guy was BORN angry; not became because of the titans. And just like all typical shonen heroes he has special powers, special family, special friends, is plot armoured, and in general has everything working to his favour despite being nothing but yet another ill-mannered youth. But hey, we gotta pamper our main audience somehow and this effortless stereotype works just fine; so why try harder?

Other characters include:
- An aloof girl who loves potatoes and talks like a (Please Use More Appropriate Word); because all shows need a comic relief idiot.
- A local aristocrat who exists to show what a selfish **** he is, letting everyone die just so he can escape with his money and not thinking about it twice; since as well all know adults in shonen are all **** and only teenagers are the goodhearted folks who do all the work and save the day.
- Kidnapers who kill and sell people for prostitutes, just so we can hate them and wish them dead 10 seconds after they are introduced.
- Some scaredy cat boy to be always crying and panicked just to show how cool is everyone else. Worthless and irritating as Reki from Claymore and yet another proof of why this show is not better than Claymore. They pretend he is a mastermind when it comes to planning ahead but in reality he is the only one who sometimes think while everyone else is an oblivious idiot. So technically he is a normal guy amongst retards.
- And let’s not forget the protagonist’s “not-blood-related-sister” who seems WAY too interested in him to the point she can’t exist without being his pet. How else would we have the obligatory brother-sister love thingy going on?

You can literally describe most of them in 10 words as the way they talk and act will border a slapstick comedy half the time. Everything they need to express, they do it by yelling or crying like maniacs, even when the situation hardly calls for them to act as such. I mean you see a guy in the first episode giving the severed hand of a dead soldier to his crying mother and saying with a serious face “This is all we could salvage. And by the way, your son died for nothing. HERP!” Lol man, what kind of a military leader is this guy? Was that supposed to make me feel sad? I am laughing at it. The show is filled with such scenes where you are supposed to take them seriously when they are completely (Please Use More Appropriate Word). You may be fooled to think they have depth since most of them get flashbacks full of tragic childhood moments and stuff; but let’s be honest, all secondary characters in shows like Naruto and Bleach have those too and they are still nothing but cardboards to the story and eventually one dimensional archetypes instead of real people. AOT is not any different, as each of them is there just to cry in a corner, show us his tragic past and then go to fight the giants until he realizes he is completely worthless before the hax skills of the main characters and simply stops caring afterwards. Literally all secondary characters are neglected and forgotten a few episodes after they are introduced.

2. SHHHHOOOOOCK FACTOOOOORRRR

If there is something quite un-shonen in AOT for the time it came out, that would be the numerous deaths of secondary characters. Not many convenient survivals and resurrections here; if you are caught by a giant, he is going to rip you to pieces and eat you while you are still alive and screaming. That makes the tension ten-fold compared to the average of its kind. That still doesn’t save it in the longrun of course since it is nothing but SHOCK FACTOR to make the audience gasp with blood and violence and not some actually tragic death of important characters you will never forget. You only notice the gore and not the people experiencing it. I will never forget the Nanto fighters in Hokuto no Ken because they were part of the plot and did far more than being emo in a corner before kicking the bucket. These here? Who are they? You will forget them 5 seconds after they are dead.

3. Plot Armoured (Titan?)

And I must point out the word “secondary” since major characters are plot armoured and have hax powers which dwarf everybody else in importance. You see, secondary characters serve only as cannon fodder in this show; they exist just to cry in corners, die miserably, and fool the unexpected to think no one is safe in this story. That is soooo not true. Main characters have Wolverine’s super fast regeneration and Spiderman’s super fast agility to forever survive any giant attack. They are oozing with the rule of cool and the audience is supposed to cheer for them as they wipe out armies of undefeatable (for everybody else) giants. So much for tension; it is still all about who is more overpowered and cool. You will eventually realize there is no actual tragedy and survival; it is all about magic superpowers like in the case of any run of the mill action shonen. And that is why AOT is yet another SAO.

4. AOT is a SHONEN oozing with coolness and not a mature or sensible SEINEN

That means it is NOT a mature story despite having mature themes; and if some think otherwise they are simply ignorant. I had a really hard time to keep going with all the cheesy dialogue, the 1 dimensional characterization, and the overused shonen shenanigans. And BOY are there lots of those and BOY do they ruin all attempts at having a serious survival or psychological story. You think the setting is serious? The enemy seems undefeatable at first but then some obnoxious emo teenagers get convenient superpowers and defeat them by the dozens. That’s right; everyone has jutsus and hidden evil powers inside them, just like in Naruto. And don’t give me any excuses of the sort “There is no other way such a story could be told.” I have read manga such as Biomeat Nectar, Parasyte, and Dragon Head, where you have a pretty similar situation and they didn’t have any of the crap that happens every 5 minutes in this show.

5. The mystery aspect is quite weak

At first you are thrilled to find out why the giants are eating people. They don’t need food to sustain themselves. They don’t have a personality or even intelligence which makes them grotesque and terrifying for not understanding their motivations. Well, as those are revealed later on, you realize there wasn’t much to it. Half the interest most will show in this anime derives from the gore (which is cheap and eventually shallow) and the other half is the mystery of the unworldly enemies (which will fade away as soon as it is eventually revealed). So even if you are watching this for the thrilling emotion, you are bound to hate it after you realize it wasn’t that good to begin with. It pretends to be far more than it actually is; and that is a most basic zombie apocalypse scenario. The city is the mall, the titans are the undead, and the steampunk spidermen are the people trying to survive.

6. Weak world-building

It is full of interesting ideas as far as the setting goes, from detailed maps of how the human lands are run, to blueprints of how their cannons and steam engines that make them fly work. Later on you get even basic politics and religious fanatism as the people react to the new giant attacks and all of a sudden some kids get hax powers. It makes it far more interesting than some generic RPG world full of fortified cities and wilderness crawling with monsters. It’s not TOO detailed though and the truth is most of them are there for show since they don’t matter much in the longrun. You think those rotating cannons, the titanium swords, or the steampunk spidermen do **** against the giants? All you need is a few angsty teens with hax superpowers nobody else can get even if they wish it all their lives and you are set. And even if you just stick to the setting itself, it is quite simple despite its secondary details. The whole world is basically either houses where people live in or wilderness where titans roam around. Many claim that since the story is a mystery you are supposed to slowly reveal, it is aexcused for everything to be so basic. That still doesn’t change the fact that all you know about the setting is that there are some giants surrounding a city that looks like 3 perfectly drawn homocentric circles. Even a baby can do better than this.

7. Slow pacing

The early episodes have extremely fast pacing but then it snails down to almost a halt. The first five minutes go wasted on summaries of things we saw just in the previous episode, and there are even recap episodes for events that don’t need more than a few minutes to describe. In a way this is a positive trait since it invests time into getting absorbed in the mood of the show. Much better to running through the events while leaving everyone and everything unfocused or not looked into. Sadly the mood is the only thing they focus on. Not much time is used to flesh out the characters or the setting, and in the longrun all secondary cast and the funky steampunk technologies are meaningless, neglected, and completely forgotten.

8. Overused tension gimmicks

The script heads for a constant thrill that because of the slow pacing makes every major event to last for several episodes, constantly ending with a cliffhanger. Although this can be a nice motivation for the audience to anticipate the next episode, they do it so many times and for events that could practically fit only one episode. Tension loses its meaning if it happens all the time without proper relaxation points and after awhile you no longer find it exciting or edgy exactly because it is always like. You get used to it, it doesn’t look awesome anymore, and because most of whatever happens in it is about people you don’t care about, it becomes boring.

9. Plot Driven

Although this is not an issue with everyone, it is still a problem. The characters have no control over the events of the show; they are just reacting to them. No matter what happens, they will never choose what to do next; the plot is going to force them into what to do next. It makes sense for that to happen in stories that have to do with death and survival but it sure makes them pass as drones and unable to progress or develop further on their own will, despite their hax superpowers. This takes away their significance, which is already very thin since you forget them 5 seconds after they die.

10. Incomplete

You don’t even get a resolution to all this mess, since the manga is still ongoing, far from over, and with an equally slow progress. You won’t get any reward at the end and you will have to wait years for a second season.

11. It looks nice but that is all

As far as the artwork goes, there are big aesthetic differences between the manga and the anime adaptation. The manga feels very crude when it comes to proportions and perspective. It has very rough outlines to the most part and it feels incompletely drawn at points or even with blunders in anatomy. I can’t say it was very annoying; it sort of improves later on and it fits in such a story that is based on crazy stuff. The anime has improved considerably these minor issues and even included a catchy chorus OST to make it even more intriguing. At the same time it censors most of the disgusting scenes where the giants are chewing people and replaced them with blood spills falling while the gore is left out of screen. If there is something I didn’t like, that would be the body figures. All giants seem to be randomly drawn and all human soldiers look like they have the exact same body figure AND uniform. It’s not like big boobs for girls or huge biceps for men would make it better but it sure feels weird to have everybody being skinny and flat-chested. The only thing that differs is the face and occasionally some rosy lips to point out THAT PERSON IS A GIRL. Furthermore, there are major quality drops throughout the show, since at some parts you get fluent animation and detailed artwork which make it look amazing, while in others you get static images and crude character figures which makes it look lame.

12. It is still a fun show to watch just for the excitement, instead of yet another moe school life thingy

I do agree though that as a whole AOT manages to build up tension right away. Even if you are aware of how corny it plays out it is still not holding back in violence; the average Narutard is definitely going to like it. It is also refreshing to see a show that is not about high school club ecchi comedies for once, as is the canon for almost all modern anime. As for me? After truly good manga such as Battle Angel Alita and Battle Royale, this was unintentional satire than tragic or scary. This is why no veteran reader or viewer is going to give it anything more than a good time waster status. Why? Because it is a silly shonen when it could easily be much better as a mature seinen.

As for the hype considering this show? In one year from now some other anime will come out to blow your brains out and people will be saying “That is truly awesome, unlike AOT.” Meaning, history will repeat and AOT will join the ranks of SAO.

And now for some excused scorings.

http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?sh ... t&aid=9541


Unfortunately, I think there's some truth to that review.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1411 » by kblo247 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 2:05 am

If you don't mind some classics, I'd say give a look at the Tenchi OvA and Tenchi Universe. Ronin Warriors is also good
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1412 » by Hangtime84 » Sat Nov 30, 2013 2:12 am

Watching at least 8 shows this season off the top of my head my feelings

Freezing - Semi Interesting
Machine Doll - Really fun anime
Strike the Blood - Enjoying
BlazeBlu - disappointing
Valvrave - Best Anime so far (Guy who wrote Code Geass did this one)
Magi - Enjoying
Kill La Kill - Enjoying
Log Horizon - Interesting
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1413 » by ReturnofFlash » Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:38 am

spaceballer wrote:
Miami4Life wrote:just wanted to revive this thread to say..Attack on Titan is amazing!


Not really, I'm having second (third) thoughts on it. I didn't like it for the first couple of episodes, then I loved it. But now that I've caught up on all the anime and caught up on the manga, I'm feeling a bit more "meh". Especially after I came across a very insightful review on aniDB that was rather damning and found myself agreeing with it.

AniDB wrote:PROPER MINDSET

Attack on Titan (AOT hereon) is obviously going to be the most overhyped title of the year, pretty much like Madoka Magica and Sword Art Online (SAO) were in previous years. And just like those, it is not going to live up to the hype as pretty much no show ever does. It will end up being just like SAO; a high seller that will be talked about for some time but will otherwise be nothing but a big disappointment. And yes, I have read the manga so I know what I am talking about regarding later plot points.

Just like with all overhyped mediocrities the thing that made it so famous is mostly the premise. It has a setting where mankind is almost wiped out by giant monstrosities and gets cornered behind huge walls. They thought they were safe there until a giant manages to break down their fortifications and lets the monsters into civilian areas. Terror and death spread as people die defenceless by the thousands and the rest need to retreat to other fortified lands where they work almost as slaves to support the overpopulation and the lack of food. From this description you are presented with a most interesting action / survival / horror, which is very graphical and doesn’t hold back to depict gore as the giants chew and swallow people. You are really intrigued to find out how they can possibly survive against these monsters.

Sounds amazing enough for anyone to jump into the show but surely not because it is original. It is actually quite basic and overdone; there have been several similar stories over the years, from Blue Gender to Claymore. It just came out in an era where 90% of anime are effortless softporn and moe; so it sticks out easily. If it was made along with Death Note or Code Geass, it would get a fraction of the hype it has today. Also, it is not a harem with schools that pretends to be deep and serious by having an apocalyptic story that is there as nothing but unused backdrop, like in the cases of Chrome Shelled Regios or Total Eclipse. The main problem is still present though; the anime belongs to the shonen demographic and that translates to lots of eye-rolling moments.

1. Characterization is quite basic and even laughable at points despite the attempts to make the cast mature and serious.

Take the protagonist for example. So obnoxious! Remember Naruto and how he always screams “I WILL SAVE SASUKE DATEBAYO!” every 5 minutes to the point you want to strangle him? Well this one here is not any better since all he does is yelling “I WILL DEFEAT ALL THE GIANTS DATEBAYO!” It has that irritating always-angry, totally-stupid shonen thing you find pretty much everywhere and no amount of dramatic backdrop manages to make him anything more than that. This guy was BORN angry; not became because of the titans. And just like all typical shonen heroes he has special powers, special family, special friends, is plot armoured, and in general has everything working to his favour despite being nothing but yet another ill-mannered youth. But hey, we gotta pamper our main audience somehow and this effortless stereotype works just fine; so why try harder?

Other characters include:
- An aloof girl who loves potatoes and talks like a (Please Use More Appropriate Word); because all shows need a comic relief idiot.
- A local aristocrat who exists to show what a selfish **** he is, letting everyone die just so he can escape with his money and not thinking about it twice; since as well all know adults in shonen are all **** and only teenagers are the goodhearted folks who do all the work and save the day.
- Kidnapers who kill and sell people for prostitutes, just so we can hate them and wish them dead 10 seconds after they are introduced.
- Some scaredy cat boy to be always crying and panicked just to show how cool is everyone else. Worthless and irritating as Reki from Claymore and yet another proof of why this show is not better than Claymore. They pretend he is a mastermind when it comes to planning ahead but in reality he is the only one who sometimes think while everyone else is an oblivious idiot. So technically he is a normal guy amongst retards.
- And let’s not forget the protagonist’s “not-blood-related-sister” who seems WAY too interested in him to the point she can’t exist without being his pet. How else would we have the obligatory brother-sister love thingy going on?

You can literally describe most of them in 10 words as the way they talk and act will border a slapstick comedy half the time. Everything they need to express, they do it by yelling or crying like maniacs, even when the situation hardly calls for them to act as such. I mean you see a guy in the first episode giving the severed hand of a dead soldier to his crying mother and saying with a serious face “This is all we could salvage. And by the way, your son died for nothing. HERP!” Lol man, what kind of a military leader is this guy? Was that supposed to make me feel sad? I am laughing at it. The show is filled with such scenes where you are supposed to take them seriously when they are completely (Please Use More Appropriate Word). You may be fooled to think they have depth since most of them get flashbacks full of tragic childhood moments and stuff; but let’s be honest, all secondary characters in shows like Naruto and Bleach have those too and they are still nothing but cardboards to the story and eventually one dimensional archetypes instead of real people. AOT is not any different, as each of them is there just to cry in a corner, show us his tragic past and then go to fight the giants until he realizes he is completely worthless before the hax skills of the main characters and simply stops caring afterwards. Literally all secondary characters are neglected and forgotten a few episodes after they are introduced.

2. SHHHHOOOOOCK FACTOOOOORRRR

If there is something quite un-shonen in AOT for the time it came out, that would be the numerous deaths of secondary characters. Not many convenient survivals and resurrections here; if you are caught by a giant, he is going to rip you to pieces and eat you while you are still alive and screaming. That makes the tension ten-fold compared to the average of its kind. That still doesn’t save it in the longrun of course since it is nothing but SHOCK FACTOR to make the audience gasp with blood and violence and not some actually tragic death of important characters you will never forget. You only notice the gore and not the people experiencing it. I will never forget the Nanto fighters in Hokuto no Ken because they were part of the plot and did far more than being emo in a corner before kicking the bucket. These here? Who are they? You will forget them 5 seconds after they are dead.

3. Plot Armoured (Titan?)

And I must point out the word “secondary” since major characters are plot armoured and have hax powers which dwarf everybody else in importance. You see, secondary characters serve only as cannon fodder in this show; they exist just to cry in corners, die miserably, and fool the unexpected to think no one is safe in this story. That is soooo not true. Main characters have Wolverine’s super fast regeneration and Spiderman’s super fast agility to forever survive any giant attack. They are oozing with the rule of cool and the audience is supposed to cheer for them as they wipe out armies of undefeatable (for everybody else) giants. So much for tension; it is still all about who is more overpowered and cool. You will eventually realize there is no actual tragedy and survival; it is all about magic superpowers like in the case of any run of the mill action shonen. And that is why AOT is yet another SAO.

4. AOT is a SHONEN oozing with coolness and not a mature or sensible SEINEN

That means it is NOT a mature story despite having mature themes; and if some think otherwise they are simply ignorant. I had a really hard time to keep going with all the cheesy dialogue, the 1 dimensional characterization, and the overused shonen shenanigans. And BOY are there lots of those and BOY do they ruin all attempts at having a serious survival or psychological story. You think the setting is serious? The enemy seems undefeatable at first but then some obnoxious emo teenagers get convenient superpowers and defeat them by the dozens. That’s right; everyone has jutsus and hidden evil powers inside them, just like in Naruto. And don’t give me any excuses of the sort “There is no other way such a story could be told.” I have read manga such as Biomeat Nectar, Parasyte, and Dragon Head, where you have a pretty similar situation and they didn’t have any of the crap that happens every 5 minutes in this show.

5. The mystery aspect is quite weak

At first you are thrilled to find out why the giants are eating people. They don’t need food to sustain themselves. They don’t have a personality or even intelligence which makes them grotesque and terrifying for not understanding their motivations. Well, as those are revealed later on, you realize there wasn’t much to it. Half the interest most will show in this anime derives from the gore (which is cheap and eventually shallow) and the other half is the mystery of the unworldly enemies (which will fade away as soon as it is eventually revealed). So even if you are watching this for the thrilling emotion, you are bound to hate it after you realize it wasn’t that good to begin with. It pretends to be far more than it actually is; and that is a most basic zombie apocalypse scenario. The city is the mall, the titans are the undead, and the steampunk spidermen are the people trying to survive.

6. Weak world-building

It is full of interesting ideas as far as the setting goes, from detailed maps of how the human lands are run, to blueprints of how their cannons and steam engines that make them fly work. Later on you get even basic politics and religious fanatism as the people react to the new giant attacks and all of a sudden some kids get hax powers. It makes it far more interesting than some generic RPG world full of fortified cities and wilderness crawling with monsters. It’s not TOO detailed though and the truth is most of them are there for show since they don’t matter much in the longrun. You think those rotating cannons, the titanium swords, or the steampunk spidermen do **** against the giants? All you need is a few angsty teens with hax superpowers nobody else can get even if they wish it all their lives and you are set. And even if you just stick to the setting itself, it is quite simple despite its secondary details. The whole world is basically either houses where people live in or wilderness where titans roam around. Many claim that since the story is a mystery you are supposed to slowly reveal, it is aexcused for everything to be so basic. That still doesn’t change the fact that all you know about the setting is that there are some giants surrounding a city that looks like 3 perfectly drawn homocentric circles. Even a baby can do better than this.

7. Slow pacing

The early episodes have extremely fast pacing but then it snails down to almost a halt. The first five minutes go wasted on summaries of things we saw just in the previous episode, and there are even recap episodes for events that don’t need more than a few minutes to describe. In a way this is a positive trait since it invests time into getting absorbed in the mood of the show. Much better to running through the events while leaving everyone and everything unfocused or not looked into. Sadly the mood is the only thing they focus on. Not much time is used to flesh out the characters or the setting, and in the longrun all secondary cast and the funky steampunk technologies are meaningless, neglected, and completely forgotten.

8. Overused tension gimmicks

The script heads for a constant thrill that because of the slow pacing makes every major event to last for several episodes, constantly ending with a cliffhanger. Although this can be a nice motivation for the audience to anticipate the next episode, they do it so many times and for events that could practically fit only one episode. Tension loses its meaning if it happens all the time without proper relaxation points and after awhile you no longer find it exciting or edgy exactly because it is always like. You get used to it, it doesn’t look awesome anymore, and because most of whatever happens in it is about people you don’t care about, it becomes boring.

9. Plot Driven

Although this is not an issue with everyone, it is still a problem. The characters have no control over the events of the show; they are just reacting to them. No matter what happens, they will never choose what to do next; the plot is going to force them into what to do next. It makes sense for that to happen in stories that have to do with death and survival but it sure makes them pass as drones and unable to progress or develop further on their own will, despite their hax superpowers. This takes away their significance, which is already very thin since you forget them 5 seconds after they die.

10. Incomplete

You don’t even get a resolution to all this mess, since the manga is still ongoing, far from over, and with an equally slow progress. You won’t get any reward at the end and you will have to wait years for a second season.

11. It looks nice but that is all

As far as the artwork goes, there are big aesthetic differences between the manga and the anime adaptation. The manga feels very crude when it comes to proportions and perspective. It has very rough outlines to the most part and it feels incompletely drawn at points or even with blunders in anatomy. I can’t say it was very annoying; it sort of improves later on and it fits in such a story that is based on crazy stuff. The anime has improved considerably these minor issues and even included a catchy chorus OST to make it even more intriguing. At the same time it censors most of the disgusting scenes where the giants are chewing people and replaced them with blood spills falling while the gore is left out of screen. If there is something I didn’t like, that would be the body figures. All giants seem to be randomly drawn and all human soldiers look like they have the exact same body figure AND uniform. It’s not like big boobs for girls or huge biceps for men would make it better but it sure feels weird to have everybody being skinny and flat-chested. The only thing that differs is the face and occasionally some rosy lips to point out THAT PERSON IS A GIRL. Furthermore, there are major quality drops throughout the show, since at some parts you get fluent animation and detailed artwork which make it look amazing, while in others you get static images and crude character figures which makes it look lame.

12. It is still a fun show to watch just for the excitement, instead of yet another moe school life thingy

I do agree though that as a whole AOT manages to build up tension right away. Even if you are aware of how corny it plays out it is still not holding back in violence; the average Narutard is definitely going to like it. It is also refreshing to see a show that is not about high school club ecchi comedies for once, as is the canon for almost all modern anime. As for me? After truly good manga such as Battle Angel Alita and Battle Royale, this was unintentional satire than tragic or scary. This is why no veteran reader or viewer is going to give it anything more than a good time waster status. Why? Because it is a silly shonen when it could easily be much better as a mature seinen.

As for the hype considering this show? In one year from now some other anime will come out to blow your brains out and people will be saying “That is truly awesome, unlike AOT.” Meaning, history will repeat and AOT will join the ranks of SAO.

And now for some excused scorings.

http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?sh ... t&aid=9541


Unfortunately, I think there's some truth to that review.


honestly yeh i guess ur right but i still like it cause it is the first action anime i am watching. Death note will always be my fav and also geass but this is primarily fighting. I'm watching sao now and maybe mirai nikki which is like death note.
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Sasaki
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1414 » by Sasaki » Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:49 am

SAO and Shingeki is one thing, but the fact that the writer went out of his way to bash Madoka as well in the process sets off giant "hipster alarm bells" for me.

That said, I'll admit that I actually am excited for the movie.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1415 » by QueenzAllDay » Sat Jan 4, 2014 7:35 am

*Much needed bump*

Not sure how many of you guys watch One Piece. I'm catching up on it after a pretty long break.

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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1416 » by JSmooth93 » Sat Jan 4, 2014 12:52 pm

Been slacking on my anime for a semester, basically only reread through YuYuHakusho.

What do I need to get into this season.

Kill La Kill seems good so far through 3 episodes.
Valvrave season 1 was good. How is season 2?

And what else in the vein of shonen and/or mystery?
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1417 » by Notanoob » Sat Jan 4, 2014 7:43 pm

I haven't read through the entirety of this massive thread, but I'm surprised that there isn't more mention of mecha and Gundam in particular in here.

Also, stunned to learn that people liked Seed/Seed Destiny. I can't say I know a soul who liked them. Much preferred Wing and 0079 etc. Even if they got a bit preachy, that's sort of their point.
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Re: OT- Anime 

Post#1418 » by kane » Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:09 am

ive not watched anime in years but i gave 'attack on titan' a shot and i loved, is there more shows like this one? that sense of mystery and fantasy but very adult

i even checked out crunchyroll on the ps4 for some more but mostly alot of comedy or teen stuff

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