Is Attack on Titan a joke?

Another quote from the Anime-loving wife:

That one is hilarious, but defiantly a boy's anime. The premise is that there are super suits that give you super powers, however the better the suit, the more skin is shown. So the women are practically fighting naked.

@chiablo: I like your wife's opinion^^ What does she say about Samurai Flamenco?

Congratulations... you've done what I thought was impossible. You found an anime she has not seen before. :p

Her highest recommendation is for a show called Beyond the Boundary.

She should try it. It is a new show this season^^

As for Beyond the boundary. at first I thought this was a hentai but that was boundary between dream and reality. But this sounds interesting. I guess I will check that out^^

Oh anime.

There is nothing wrong with that since you have it for both that is so great about anime. You ahve something like this:

And something like that.

Looks like more reinforcement as to why most anime is shit so ok? Unless that was your intention

I thought the show was really cool, managed to hold my interest. Its a show with a some strong female characters who weren't scantily dressed, which was something I personally apprieciatted. Also the show has great fight scenes and an awesome soundtrack. Its not a perfect show but I found it a ton of fun.

In my opinion a lot of anime downright sucks (not all there are some Gems) from 2001 onwards with 2007 bringing out the worst (Moe explosion). Within the last few years Sexual fanservice is at an all damned high the old adage "Anime is just violent Pornography." with the more recent hit befor Attack on Titans was Highschool of the dead. High School of the dead is much like Attack on titan you have people die in horrific ways and action sequences , however unlike Attack on Titan it has massive boobed girls (that let bullets fly past those same breasts) and just becomes about sex sex sex sex with oh a zombie.

Attack on Titan does what a lot of anime doesn't do is try to do something different. It has unexpected turns it shakes the foundations of what you know of the series in a inworld way. It makes you fearful to like a character for at any time you may see them brutally killed with none of the female characters just being walking tits to print on body pillows.

It has points in it that you cant tell whats going to happen. Yes the A and Z parts are predictable to a point, how ever the parts in between are more unpredictable.

I am actually stuck on episode 17, for a few reasons it dragged on with the current arc and keeps teasing me....and I know things (someone told me) of the next episode I know I will cry at and to be honest I don't want to see. I also have not really be strong emotionally to take it, I know fictional characters and all. Except I have been let in to like them and wish to see what the future holds.....which is dangerous with Attack on Titan for it make be them bit in half.

The standard rule for a new anime is 3 episodes if it has not grabbed you feel free to drop it. Attack on titan pace is a little slow and methodical, building up characters so that when you see the smooshed into the ground you are shocked it happened.

While I cant say that Attack on Titan is the greatest anime around. Its good, it actually appeals to me unlike the anime of the past 10 years. I have searched and found a few titles, Desert punk., Gurren Lagann, Black Lagoon, Hellsing,Code Geass, Mobile suit Gundam 00, Ghost in the shell Stand alone complex Gig 1 (Not gig 2, Mamoru Oshii got involved) Which there is two themes with my choices, its over the top hilarity or twist after twist after twist storytelling. Attack on titans fits the latter.

Then I am a weird anime fan, throw me a title from 1980s to 2000 I'll enjoy it. Give me a random anime from the last 10 years I will more likely be bored/annoyed by it.

I am the same person that thinks that Dominion Tank Police is the best anime ever.

AoT is pretty good. The pacing of the show is fucking terrible though, but those action scenes are great.

HAHAHA

Kill la Kill is the reason why I no longer will take other people's anime recommendations as seriously anymore. Had a horrible time with that anime and I can't stand the kind of fanservice it revels in.

Attack on Titan was way more appealing to me and had zero of the sexualized crap.

@akyho: as a great man once said, you're not wrong, Dominion is an awesome show. I also share your sentiment about modern anime. I was really into it throughout high school - I watched all the greats like Bebop, Berserk, Tenchi Muyo, Here and There Now and Then, Serial Experiments Lain, Dominion of course, Battleangel Alita - heck even hentai like Mezzo Forte or Kite had their redeeming qualities, or mediocre shows like Scryed or Trigun. Then new stuff started coming out..like Chobits.

Eventually I completely lost interest. Out of modern series I've seen Gurren Lagann because it had that old school vibe to it. I heard Ergo Proxy was supposed to be good - I had the entire series but never watched it.

I saw some clips from this Titan show and it seems so week in comparison to the old stuff. Maybe I just got too old for this stuff, but I can still watch Spike aboard the Bebop to this day, while the newer stuff makes me roll my eyes or even cringe.

dont watch the anime and read the manga.. The anime stops on such a damn cliff hanger that I refuse to watch it after the second episode seeing as how my friends told me where it stopped.. I ruined it for them after I told them what happens in the manga >:D since they ruined the anime portion.

The nudity actually puts me off the show's premise a little, it's the quality of the animation and pacing that really makes it work. Unlike in AoT, stuff happens in a reasonable time-frame and the characters act and talk in a very animated way, for lack of a better word. It's also gooooooorgeous, Trigger make really pretty shows.

And in anime slow burns like Monster and Legend Of The Galactic Heroes (or even Galaxy 999, which I put just a tier below those 2) really pack their punch in the latter half of their runs. God I wish I could forget I watched LoTGH so that I could watch it fresh again. I have barely watched any anime since finishing it because everything else pales in comparison to it.

YES. YES. YES. YES.

@flipperdesert Trigger = Ex-Gainax

Okay, I gotta know: what is that GIF from?

It's not a joke. It's a damn good show, even with its flaws.

If it is a joke, it's a awesome one at that. Really though, I've watched the entire first season and it was incredible. There were a few stretched episodes that padded things out more than it should've, and although I didn't notice while watching, the Internet has pointed out some glaring animation shortcomings. Overall I have to say I really liked the show. It kind of made me interested in watching anime again. So far I've found a few shows I otherwise would've never watched or even know exist if not for Attack on Titan.... and the Giant Bomb anime thread

Anyways, I was glad to see the show completely subvert some of my expectations of the genre. Some characters I thought were terrible at first (Armin) turned out to be pretty awesome after some development. I honestly can't wait for the next season, that'll most likely show up in the latter part of next year. I'll say that the show ended up becoming a classic for me that goes right along with Cowboy Bebop.

Anyone who watched the first few episodes and weren't really digging it, I implore you to stick with it for a while longer. Because certain things I expected to drag it down were resolved with and kept moving forward.

One final thing I'll say is that I was very pleased and surprised to see that the female characters weren't grotesquely sexualized like most other anime. Several of them were just straight up badasses. It was refreshing.

Hey man! Just because they had 5 minutes of sex doesn't mean they're hentai! It just means that they're...realistic? Man, I don't even know where I'm going with this. I'm just happy that someone else remembered that they exist. Low quality sex scenes aside, they're pretty cool action anime that can kill an hour pretty easily.

Kite Liberator, on the other hand, is pretty terrible and doesn't have any redeeming qualities unless you like breasts and space. On another note, why am I just finding out that Samuel L. Jackson is gonna be in a live-action adaption of Kite?

I just got into this series, partly because of this thread and also because I've heard this series brought up randomly from time to time. I'm liking the majority of it. Animation is great, action scenes look good...

... but mother of fucking god, does Eren stop being a whiny piece of shit at some point? That character alone is ruining this whole series for me.

I have to call bullshit on this. How is the show predictable? The show goes out of its way to subvert your expectations. I lost count of the number of times I expected a scene to play out a certain way only for it to go in the complete opposite direction or in a way I didn't consider.

I'm with you. AoT does the rare thing of genuinely giving characters a 50/50 chance of success, as in "sometimes they'll have a plan and it'll work, sometimes they'll have a plan and EVERYONE WILL BE HORRIBLY MASSACRED". You must be psychic if you somehow predicted how every scene would play out.

Beyond the Boundary (Kyokai no Kanata) is shaping up to be one of the top shows of the year. I've hear that some people are put off by the moe component, but the animation, story, and action scenes are too good to ignore the show.

Maybe go watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it's the last modern anime I've seen that didn't make me hate myself or the genre. I think it's pretty good.

Maybe he's talking about the main story arch, less so the details between point A to Z.

Which episode are you at?

As the series progresses, Eren won't have the spotlight as much as some other characters.

You're a joke.

Yep, I rarely watch anime nowadays, but Fullmetal and Samurai Champloo are two that I'd recommend. Maybe even Welcome to the NHK if no action isn't a turn off.

@humanity: I think it's funny since my top 3 animu are 1.Big O, 2.Giant Robo and 3.Bebop which basically boil down to one people mostly hate half of, another 2/3rds of people I've talked to have never heard of and one that everyone loves. All come from (technically) the 90s but also I haven't

really watched much anime recently so maybe I might find some I think are amazing I just haven't found. Although I still do think AoT is a pretty good show

its good stuff

By the latter half of the show, I had wised up to the fact that they were trying to subvert my expectations. Keeping an eye on who was where, when, and why, I was able to guess how a notable amount of scenes would play out. The biggest factor was how and how much each of the people in the scene was introduced and developed. From that, you could tell who would live and who would die with dependable accuracy, how the survivors would react, and how the scene would conclude. I didn't predict every scene, and I was genuinely surprised by several, but it's not bulletproof.

As a general rule it's best to wait till episode 3 before passing judgement on an anime. Plenty of great shows have strange beginnings that can put you off easily if you don't devote yourself to the rule (e.g. Madoka Magica). Although I honestly wouldn't say AOT is one of them. Hype could definitely have a negative impact on your experience with AOT though, because while it is a fun show it definitely has some problems. The two big ones are the pacing (there are quite a few episodes where virtually nothing happens at all) and the recapping madness. It does get a lot better during the most recent arc though.

If you want a show that instantaneously shows you what its about and could give two fucks about build up try Kill la Kill. You'll be able to tell whether it's for you within the first 4 minutes.

I'm mostly talking about what happened in the open field and the forest and how that concluded when they went back to the wall. My scenario changed several times as events went on during those episodes. If we ignore the deaths and potential deaths that could have happened and focus on the potential outcomes you have a lot of plausible scenarios.

During those episodes the momentum kept switching between the humans and the titans where their goal was nearly at hand. I got pretty excited about the possibility of an enhanced interrogation or going behind enemy lines to find out who's really pulling the strings.

We know what really happened (want to keep this spoiler free) now, but I was constantly proved wrong during those episodes.

I had the same thought up until episode 7-8 (You'll know it when you see it.) It felt more like a parody than anything.

I loved anime for so long, but I have not been able to watch anything in a very long time. AOT was the last anime I tried to get into and I found it very boring. I watched up to when they go into the forest in one day and couldn't bring myself to ever watch it again. I just found the whole setting/story dumb and none of the characters were interesting me. I think those wire things they zip around on are really cool, but that was it.

As I've read through this thread, I've noticed a number of people claiming that most new anime we're getting now is terrible, and at the same time hailing the 80s and 90s as the glory age for anime, listing maybe 10 or so different series as examples. I would just like you to consider, for a moment, how much anime actually came out in those two decades compared to your lists of "masterpieces" and tell me there wasn't just as many awful shows coming out back then. Furthermore, you're talking about a time when anime wasn't widely available and the audience outside of Japan (who didn't spend a fortune importing VHS tapes) had extremely limited exposure to it.

Dominion Tank Police? Kids these days forgot all about Patlabor! (I kid, both of those were released around the same time in the late 80s).

blahhhhhhhhhhh

tumbling down the rabbit hole, everything is upside down, talking backwards and dressed in mad.

From what I've seen it's not very good. Teenagers because their melodramatic soap opera and it's decent animation..... it's still not very good. Compare those designs to Fire Emblem Awakening, seriously looks dull.

I had the same impression initially. I hope they make another season.

@extomar

: Thats the weird thing, they both feature a female lead in love with their police vehicle/mech. I have not watched the tv series of which I really should. However the two movies really put me off it, same way I am totally put off the second Gig of GITS SAC. I love the first GIG it was perfect fits with Masamune Shirow's style and humor almost like the manga left from the pages into motion. Far better than what Mamoru Oshii did with Ghost in the shell.

I am of course a Masamune shirow fan....before....the pin ups took over. I always felt there was something off with GITS the 1995 movie. This was before I was into Masamune Shirow as I watched GITS in 96 a year after the world premier. Reading the man. I enjoy Gits 1995 movies it just not Masamune shirow. I have found I dislike anything else done Mamoru Oshii. I freak out when I see a Basset hound in an anime and find out it was Oshii since I feel weird as if I know its wrong. Happened with Sky Crawlers, Basset hound...it clicked I saw the credits and it all made sense.

oh for Fu..............Patlabor 2 the movie directed by Mamoru Oshii explains everything...I should have know when I typed "I am put off in the same way."

A show like Patlabor wouldn't be made today because a major point of the show is that "nothing happens". Kind of like a Captain Taylor in Irresponsible Captain Taylor, Goto is so "smart" that he can beat any threat or problem because he knows his team and his opponents which is shown off in the first Patlabor movie. The end result is often so profoundly unravels the bad guy's plan so completely no one notices what happened. It was never about the action but the criminal and the crime they were trying to pull off.

In the same vein, I always thought Ghost In The Shell: SAC was the best and at its best because of this: There is a crime that needs to be solved where the fate of the world isn't at stake but the risks are still high. When they turned it into a bunch of guys saving the world from whatever in other movies and series it immediately became "meh".

Still really early; three episodes in. Eren looks to be the generic "anime boy who's cocky, gets his ass beat, but eventually turns out okay" which I find to be an annoying trope. His sister is awesome though. No nonsense; she just gets her shit done.

Anime (or any sort of entertainment from Japan) being melodramatic?! You don't say!!!!

@flappy: I feel ya! For the longest time I also thought they were just more explicit OVA's since they're both equally violent as sexual (Kite is maybe worse since it has more rape...I think..?). Years later I found out they were indeed hentai.

Samuel Jackson seems fitting since Mezzo and Kite are both like Tarantino movies of anime.

You should report back to this thread when you finish watching episode 5.

Also side news: I watched some scenes from that Kill La Kill show and oh man. At some point you should just lay the cards down and unashamedly turn your show into soft core pornography with a story on the side. I mean the above mentioned Kite and Mezzo Forte were somewhat unapologetic about their nature and at least you could respect that about them (good OVA's overall). On the other hand I can see how this can do gangbusters in the ratings - fighting, high school post apocalyptic setting and girls in outfits that you need to "get naked" for to release their full potential applies to all the right demographics.

@humanity: Soooo you watched a couple of transformations sequences and judged the show based solely on that and a rough understanding of the plot? Man, that is profoundly cynical. Even as unabashedly fan-servicey and goofy as the show is I feel that is a little disrespectful to the creators.

I rather like Eren, he doesn't stuff around and cry and moan he just yells "YOUR ALL GONNA DIE MOFO'S" and pours the bag of salt all over himself.

The alternative could have been another depressed Shinji, and we all know how fun THAT was.

Yes, no more Shinji please. What I really like about Eren's character is that he knows when he fucks up and he regrets his decisions when everything goes to shit in a realistic way. People died and he knows it was his fault because he let people question his instinct with "the power of friendship." I love that the show stomps on the "believe in your friends" anime trope.

It may have a wonderful plot - there are people working on it who were in part responsible for Gurren Lagann and that was a great show. But teenage girls transforming into what can be described as "outfits" in the loosest possible meaning of the word, complete with G-string panties and bouncy unmentionables is-what-it-is man.