Is Attack on Titan a joke?

It's pretty dumb, but they lampshade it many many times over the course of the show. Characters think the main character's an exhibitionist while she absolutely hates wearing the thing. I'll clarify though that the youtube video you posted was the antagonist transforming, a woman who is in at least her twenties.

It's not just a "Here we'll parade the characters around in thongs and bare midriffs and then act like that's normal" thing. It actually has some cool ramifications on the arc of the plot, and they mention it all the time. But whatever, the show is still only a kind-of-good action-comedy with some amazing visuals. Criticising an outfit (rarely) worn by only two characters just seems like a pretty shallow way of judging the series.

According to Wikipedia the protagonist is 17 and the antagonist 18 but it's anime so honestly who cares, they all look like they're either 25 or 14 depending on if they're supposed to be sexy, cute or tough - and thats not really a criticism it's just how a lot of anime's roll.

I don't want to come off as though I hate the show, in fact I'm somewhat intrigued and I like the animation so I was thinking of giving this a go. I haven't watched any anime in two years or however long since I last broke that dry spell by watching Lagann and thoroughly enjoying it.

I'm simply saying, the whole outfits thing is a little lame. They look cool, but the boobies flailing around wildly during transformations and whatnot are a bit much I think at least that much we can agree on. The show could have done without it and still probably gotten the message across - or not, I full-heartedly admit to not having seen a single episode yet. I'll tell you what, I'll watch however much is out there available to watch and I'll get back to you with a more informed opinion.

It's the new "grimdark" flavour of the month anime. This time next year, nobody will remember what it is.

Stuff like Kite are a whole different thing. for example the pedophilia scenes with his 14 year old daughter also help to characterize her father and I think it is totally ok. Animes are made for everyone and it is just an art form. And stuff like that is really totally normal. sexualisation in Japn is something totally normal and I see really nothing wrong with that. You do not have to apologize or hide behind some stuff. Take fairy tail for example a show for aimed at kids and the usual shounen crowd.

Imagine this in a kids show in the US XD

As for Kill la kill: Everything about this anime is ridiculous and it actually fits into this series and a bit of fan service is never wrong if you want to be successful and that goes for male and female characters in Animes^^

@darji: Thanks Darji. I'll keep an open mind in the future.

@evilsbane: give kill la kill a try. Its a million miles over the top and I haven't watched anything quite like it. The animation and pacing is relentless. They are also completely honest about any sexualisation of the characters. Often I get put off by an anime series when it gets creepy, but I would compare kill la kill to the 2000 ad comics. It has an exaggerated sense of style that is appealing and often very funny.

Watch Panty and Stockings it is the same style and all. PErosnally I do not like his style at all but that is just a taste thing^^

Attack on Titan is shonen, just a little darker and with good production values behind it. It's not revolutionary or ground-breaking except that it doesn't do a lot of the tropes that people are sick of in most anime, preferring to do tropes that people *were* sick of before we got fanservice tropes. I went in expecting to be indifferent cos it was overhyped and the Titans look fucking ridiculous but it won me over. The characters that they bother to spend time on are interesting and I like the setting. Although the Titans still look fucking ridiculous and the 'twist' after episode 7 or whatever was dumb and I would've immensely preferred it if they'd kept it away from the transformation crap (and kept Eren dead, the little pissant). Calling it the best anime in however long is an entirely personal statement but it's not revolutionary by any means.

@neurotic: Yea hcalling any anime best anime ever is always a stretch since there are soooooooooooooo many great ones fir for every taste as well.

Panty and Stocking is NOT the same style as Kill la Kill. The artstyle in P&S was intentionally crude and the whole thing was purposefully over-the-top vulgar. Outside of the transformation scenes, P&S actually lacked any kind of fanservice despite numerous sexual innuendos and references.

Kill la Kill, on the other hand, is chock full of unappealing fanservice and giving it a reason like "oh, she's embarrassed by her outfit", "oh, it's just Mako being silly" or any of that kind of crap does not help in any way. I tried to last through 4 episodes, but I had to give it up because I'm really not into constantly seeing teenage girls get disrobed or having them parade around scantily clad. It's not funny.

Its insanity and crazy style/pacing doesn't help things either for me; it's the reason I disliked FLCL.

Yeah neither do I usually. I have stopped watching certain animes quite early in because the sexualisation just makes me uncomfortable. I think what Kill la Kill has done to skimpy anime girls is what Superjail, which I think it has a lot in common with, has done to violence The context is so bizarre and the situations so impossible that I move from uncomfortable to amused. Indeed, they make jokes all the time that her super powered uniform is basically underwear. I showed a friend the first episode and he laughed all the way through. In the end he reckoned it was something he would try to get his girlfriend to watch with him, who isn't really into anime but would enjoy certain movies or the odd series like GITS.

How about watching the other 24 episodes, then create a topic about the show.

You can always check out the classic Project A-ko. It had that original idea of girls in power suits and fan service except a lot more toned down.

Isn't this the case with most animes with fanservice like that? For example freezing the way how often they are losing their clothes in battle is just ridiculous or a Manga example is strongest disciple Kenichi which always ends in women losing their clothes in a battle they are fighting just naked except for covered nipples and crotch era but only one little bit. It is just how crazy animes are.At least some of the

or take something like that. it is just ridiculous just like Kill la kill^^

.

How so? Doesn't make sense to me.

I think that anime is not that great, the only reason why people watch it is becaue of half naked women fighting. If that kinda stuff gets you hooked, whatever.

Lead writer on jojo's bizzare adventure also lead on titan....

yes

You're a joke. Attack on Titan is freaking awesome.

Stick to Hentai

Ok well I've watched the first 5 episodes so here are my thoughts: the skimpy-ness of the special Kamui outfits is still just there for fan service. Thus far it has not been explained as to why they look the way they do apart from two lines of dialog - one mentioning that Matoi's father wanted it that way and another by the main antagonist stating they achieve maximum power that way. It's not like the outfits are even the only issue as the show goes to great lengths to present the viewer with numerous cheap "fan service" shots. It's not the first time and it's not the last that anime has centered around panty shots or underboob but it does cheapen the experience a tad.

That said the show is extremely goofy without a doubt, so it's hard to really talk about how the plot is being ruined with these lucrative upskirts all the time. While the first 3 episodes were a bit bumpy but interesting in their own way, episode 4 was a train wreck. Not sure what happened there - I'm guessing they made the first three episodes to get picked up and then didn't have time to make a 4th one proper? Episode 5 picks back up with the same quality as the initial three but the story is starting to clearly suffer. Pacing is quite terrible in this show with either lengthy speeches that spoon feed you plot exposition by the bowl full to long bouts of nothing intermittently filled with upskirts or fight scenes.

Overall, the show is much worse than Gurren Lagann but at least it is trying something different. After having watched it up to ep.5 I still stand by my original "judgement" based on those original transformation videos (although I did actually go online and read plot synopsis and a lot more into it; I didn't simply "judge" it based on the transformations alone) Not that anyone really cares anymore but I am a man of my word and I said I'd watch it as to not be "cynical" and disrespectful to the creators - and yup, it's just silly goofs and panties all around so no disrespect was had.

EDIT: There is actually a pretty strong SCRYED vibe coming from it. I wouldn't be surprised if both of the main characters outfits evolved to secondary forms, although I don't see how they could become even less clothed than now.

Oh yeah, like I said I don't think the show's amazing, I haven't really even bothered to keep up with it after sort of watching episode 4. But it does some cool things and the flaws it does have are much more notable and significant to the overall quality of the show than "Sometimes they wear a weird fanservice outfit".

I started watching this show after reading this thread last week and now I'm hooked. Getting a very similar feeling with this show, the same kind I got when 8 year old me watched Dragon Ball Z for the first time or 13 year old me watched Cowboy Bebop for the first time. What I'm getting at is this is becoming one of my favorite animes. Yes it can be really melodramatic at times, cheesy at others, but man. That whole story had my jaw dropped more than a few times. Dark, depressing, then hilarious and charming. Great stuff.

its an army of spidermans fighting giant naked businessmen who eat people this is very very serious okay

10 eps in and you'll be all about this shit tho

oh nevermind this topic is pervs defending pervy shit now for some reason Im out

As someone who does not care for watching anime, I can verify that this statement is very fucking accurate.

I only dabble in anime, and I agree about the first episode. But I'm glad I gave it a chance.

It is melodrama, but you take the good with the bad.

It's really great. It has actual tension, because no character is safe. Dudes straight up die all the time.

(Also, watch Kill la Kill like mentioned.)

@humaniti

Can respect that you went through with it. The exposition problem is certainly there, but I don't think I really found it to be necessarily a huge hindrance to the pacing, the universe is definitely at least being fleshed out as they go along. They established a bit about the main villain's past, her cronies' past, the flexible potential of the kamui, the mystery behind Ryouko's father's involvement, introduced the mentor character and hinted at ulterior motives, established what the goku uniforms are made of etc. I've certainly seen shows that do it worse over the first few episodes. The only time where it seemed to me as though nothing of significance was really being established and the plot was standing still was ep. 4, which very much felt like a budget episode relative to the rest. The only parts that I think could really be called bouts of nothing outside that are when Ryouko is at the friend character's house, but those scenes don't exactly last a long time anyway.

It's not going to exactly change the world, but I do think there is some merit to this weird throwback to old-school action anime. And I still think its a shame that the choice to do bikini armor for the protagonist and the antagonist basically robs the show of all credibility in the eyes of a lot of people. Then again I suppose they did consciously make that choice, so really they can only blame themselves.

So... I will agree to disagree. We're pretty far off topic from AOT here anyway.

never seen the show but the manga is pretty good

So, I've started watching Kill la Kill because of this thread. I like it! The fanservice made me apprehensive at first, but I got used to it. I ended up seeing the show in a light similar to Bayonetta when it came to fanservice; the world is sufficiently crazy and self-aware to the point where I can laugh at and get behind the idea of the kamuis. Apart from that, likable characters, humor, killer music and solid action are making this show for me. Can't say much for the overarching plot at this point. The show feels like it's in this weirdly long setup period, but there was some decent character development in the last couple episodes, even if a lot of it was foreshadowing. I can totally understand why people wouldn't care for this show, but I'm enjoying my time watching this and trying to uncover any bits of subtext lying around.

I pretty much scoured the internet looking for an outlet for these FEELINGS INSIDE ME!!!!!!

So, as a quick note, Kill La Kill, is by far one of the better Animes I have ever seen. Just the dudes style is so off-tempo. This guy did a short anime movie called Dead Leaves... really insane, but very very cool.

So, for the reason I find myself here. Attack on Titan, is atrocious.

It is just about the most mellow-dramatic cry-fest I have ever punished myself with. If one of the main characters isn't busy giving up on life, calling themselves useless, reconciling with past tragedy, or simply picking a fight with another classmate then it's because they are probably dead or you haven't met them yet.

This anime has such a strong action potential and battle concept that it's a damn shame it surfaces for extremely brief, albeit entertaining, instances between tears and all out bouts of anxiety. These characters, every last one of them, suffer from severe multiple-personality disorder. The main character goes from brutally murdering two grown adults as a kid to crying on the back stairs because he can't stand to motivate people into killing titans. It's borderline un-watchable. I almost cried in relief when Eren finally got swallowed, only to cringe at the sound of his newly discovered squeal of anguish from inside the body of a titan.

I went into this show thinking it was going to be about killing titans.

I don't think I was wrong to assume that; the opening song is chalk full of action, flying, whizzing, titan killing energy. It's fog people; this show is about how severely disturbed children handle severely cliche emotional challenges from one minute to the next, while at the same time being entrusted with the future of humanity by laughably commonplace authorities who are, you guessed it, out to save themselves.

Now I have to finish it to episode 13.... god, if you exist... help me.

Watching AOT bummed me out. Early on it does some flat out incredible things and has some very harrowing images but around the halfway point it just turns into a very typical Anime story. Nothing wrong with that of course, in fact I'd even say it's a well done Anime story. It was just so disappointing for me compared to the direction it seemed to be hinting at towards the start.

Maybe anime isn't for you.

@raineko: Hey, maybe people like it for reasons you disagree with, as opposed to everyone liking it because their perverts? My love for that show has nothing to do with the naked women fighting, even though that is a source for a lot of the humour in the show

OK!

So, one hour later and 2 more episodes in... this must be said:

Some amazing shit happens in episode 8&9. Really... they were by far the best two episodes so far.

There are still some (many) moments when I roll my eyes and literally say to my computer screen "oh, for hell's sake...", but with what happened during the last two episodes, I can confidently see myself at least finishing this season. I know, big achievment, nobody cares.

I don't think the line "Give it to episode 8" really convinces many people to watch an anime, but for those on episode one or two and on the ropes; just know it'll be till 8... seriously.

@shortbreadtom: I agree. Sure, the first time i saw it i was a little taken aback... "Mom, dad... can you leave the room pls..." But the animation style and momentum of the story is sheer goodness; not to mention most if not all of the characters are great... Nudists ftw.

Watch Zankyou no Terror instead

There's a lot of skin, but that actually ties into the plot and theme of the show. And it ends up being pretty equal opportunity.

It's campy and silly more than anything, but not gross in the same way harem shows or ecchi battle vixen shows are gross. The series is clearly about the main (female) characters and at no point do they seem to exist for the purpose of being sexual objects for men. It can be a big turnoff for a lot of people, and that's understandable, but it's really not insidious.

And in reference to the original post, it's totally okay to laugh at Attack on Titan. The director of the series has something of a trademark of making shows that are simultaneously scary/intense and over-the-top comedically melodramatic (See: Deathnote)

I liked how Attack on Titan started. It had an interesting premise. And then it kind of turned into Evangelion to me. Your dad did something craaazy and secret and now young teenage male, you have access to a beast to fight the beasts that threaten humanity. But... BAZURKER! Also, Religious reference, just because... how mysterious!

I watched the whole series. I appreciated that it never degraded itself to Mikasa being fan serviced and I actually rather liked her as a character. It was campy, but the action was good, and at the end, I would have watched more.

My recommend list for people who are interested in anime with action in it is still: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Black Lagoon.

I don't think it's supposed to be, and it didn't come across that way to me. I don't know how it's not clear if you've watched the first episode, but there's a pretty good reason all of the characters are screaming at each other and there mouth's are a gape. There are horrible things happening all around them! Giant people are destroying their city and eating their loved ones.

Anyways, I thought it was pretty amazing overall. It actually got me back into anime.

idk if anyone reads the manga but if you think it's incomprehensible & not enough about killing titans now... hoo boy season 2 of the anime is gonna have some good times waiting for you.

I don't like anime but I liked Attack on Titan. So if the OP is looking for more animes I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't like it.

Turned into Evangelion? Religious reference? What are you even talking about? Seriously, I want to know.

Also, Mikasa is probably the most shallow character of the whole show. She's worse than Eren.

@alexandersheen: He clearly made a reference to what he was talking about, and frankly, it's not hard to see.

I have a hard time understanding how people are able to stomach this level of incomprehensible drama. You literally have a character going from "That's a terrible idea!!!" to "Well if we lure him, sure!" to "You're going to get us all killed!!!" to "Today's a good day to die!" in the same conversation.

What I personally can't stand is that the characters honestly don't even listen to each other; I don't think they listen to themselves half the time. I laughed out loud today when one of the characters was straight up like, "Don't say that to me" and then the guy said it to him and he listened intently. It's so chalk full of people repeating themselves I almost think I'm going crazy sometimes.

"If you don't tell me I'll kill you!"

"What?"

"Say something or I'll kill you!"

"I'm confused."

"I must kill you."

"Someone talk to me!"

"It's my responsibility to kill you now!"

I don't know if I'd call it a bad show but I would say that it jumps the shark faster than almost every anime I've ever seen. It starts so strong it could have been amazing but it ends up being a lot more predictable than people make it out to be. I dislike the story and characters a lot but I think the world is pretty interesting and the action is okay. Overall I'm mostly negative about it. It's funny because me and a friend of mine like to dub our own words over that first opening movie and it's hilarious. Just different variations about bullshit coming out of nowhere in the plot.

One thing that I've seen people make fun of in anime, back when I watched it in high school and would show it to people: the amount of inner monologue in anime that are trying to be serious. I mean, I get it, they're often adapting a manga into anime, and manga as a storytelling medium have the convenience of having thought bubbles to convey characters' thoughts and motivations. The vast majority of TV and film try to avoid using voiced inner monologue; I don't know that there's anything inherently bad or hokey about it, but it's just a convention that has been pretty widely adopted, and I can only really think of comedies that occasionally use inner monologue to get laughs from a character either having a really dumb thought (Home Simpson, etc.), or thinking one thing but then saying another.

But anime. Boy, does it generally make no effort to remove inner monologue when it transitions from manga to anime. And I can totally get why that turns some people off, because sometimes you'll get entire scenes of somebody just standing in a room or in a vehicle or something, and like a fucking minute of just internal monologue because the story wants you to know where their thoughts are at. So I understand why people think that sort of stuff is super fucking weird, even though I think if they just try a little they can deal with it and get into the story.

Anime just does a lot of stuff like that where they defy conventions established in most other TV and movies that Westerners would watch. So it's an uphill battle, when you also combine that with how ridiculously pandering a lot of shounen anime are getting (I mean, they know they're doing it and sometimes they're playing it for laughs, but like that Kim Kardashian game, even if you joke about how you're doing a shitty thing, it doesn't change the fact that you're doing a shitty thing because you know it'll dupe idiots into engaging with your thing).

Once when I was high, I was certain that Attack of Titan was a thinly veiled metaphor against the meat industry. I'm still not quite certain that's not what it's about.

You have a bunch of people trapped in a small pen, surrounded by massive and physically dominant creatures who eat them when they want to. The Titans reach in there and bite into people, smiling and happy and oblivious to the suffering of the people being eaten. The people are chickens and the Titans are humans.

Of course then one of the chickens gets mad and bites its fist and becomes a human. That ruined my theory.

@bisonhero I think a lot of anime uses inner monologue as an excuse to not draw any animation on screen. Evangelion certainly did.

The fucked up psychology of the characters (and especially Shinji) is the entire point of NGE. I blame the marketing for tricking people into thinking the show was supposed to be a fun action show about robots punching monsters, but that's not really what the show was at all.

And in a way Eren is similar to Shinji in that they're both stupid messed up kids put in a situation that they're emotionally unequipped to deal with

I'm still waiting for it to get good.

@brodehouse said:

It gets weird because that series was influential enough that now it has trickled down to shows that are also pretty navel gazing, but have markedly better budgets and don't need to avoid animating stuff due to running out of budget. But they still do scenes with a lot of inner monologue.

I've been out of the game for a while, but back when I was still watching stuff here and there, I actually really liked RahXephon, and don't think that its ending shits the bed nearly as badly as Evangelion. There are still major elements of its mythology that just aren't made clear in the show and I only found out through reading a wiki later, but I came away liking it a lot better. But boy, there are some episodes of that show that are just the main character walking around thinking about stuff.

Or maybe the production was just as troubled, I don't know. But I feel like there's nothing as obvious as in NGE, like when EVA-01 busts out of that black sphere Angel, and then there's a painting of the scene that the camera just pans over for like, 45 fucking seconds. Or that Kaoru scene that is just a still shot for like a solid minute. It seems like RahXephon was never anywhere near needing to cut corners that much.

Guy watches anime, dosent like it, decides to make post knowing the answer full well to his question to make himself look cool and edgy.

...I liked it.

I dont often like anime.

But when i do, its quality shit.

(insert meme picture of that old dude)

Seriously though. I dont often watch anime. I apperciate it as a medium but i rarely enjoy it unless its REALLY good. (bebop, samurai champloo, akira, princess monoki, ect.) But this easily makes the list of "anime anyone can enjoy and apperciate". Simply because of the quality.

I mean its fine if you dont like it, thats cool. People have different opinions. But uh, a single 20 minute long anime episode? and you hate it? come on... I had a friend of mine tell me to watch "the vampire diaries" and i gave it a full FIVE 45 minute long episodes before i told her it it was garbage. I gave it a respectable chance. It was total and complete garbage, but i gave it a fair chance with an open mind.