With not a single wasted episode, out of almost one hundred of them, Attack on Titan is truly one-of-a-kind. Other anime series may have a low filler-to-necessary-episode ratio, but Attack on Titan does it best.
Moments from Episode One become significant in the series finale, and things that seem obsolete early on have massive consequences later. The amount of detail put into this show is incredible.
Attack on Titan is a show about a young boy named Eren Yaeger, his sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their best friend Armin Arlett. They live completely shuttered from the outside world on Paradis Island, where massive beings, called titans, roam free. The members of the nobility live in the center of the walls, the middle class citizens live in the next ring, and the common folk are housed in the outermost ring, which is most likely to be broken through by the titans.
The military police patrol the inside of the walls, protecting the citizens from each other. The Garrison patrols the top of the walls, making sure that no titans get in. The Scouts go out into the world, trying to reclaim lost land, gain information, and eliminate the titan threat.
Scouts use what is called Omni-Directional-Mobility gear, to maneuver outside the walls. This equipment is fueled by gas to launch them across the sky and to release grappling hooks. All of the military regiments have retractable swords at their hips, as the one weakness of the titans is at the napes of their necks.
Because this is an article about why Attack on Titan is the best anime series ever, a lot of this will be about things that happen way later into the show. I truly recommend that you go and watch this anime, as it is absolute peak storytelling. It starts off being a show about fear and the feeling of being stuck, and it evolves into more of a political drama, before eventually transforming into a true highlight of the human experience.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
I’m assuming the people reading this are the people who like this show as much as I do, who agree with me, and don’t need a recap of the entire show. This series gave me the biggest plot twist that I’ve ever witnessed. When viewers find out that Eren unknowingly used the power of the Attack Titans and the Paths to direct the Smiling Titan to kill his own mother, I guarantee that we all recoiled in shock.
Eren Yaeger does this horrible act so that later down the line, Armin will inherit the Colossal Titan. Eventually, Armin is able to stop Eren and the Rumbling, by fixing the divide between Marley and Paradis.
When Eren’s mother dies, the consequences are obvious. It’s the reason Eren joined the Scouts in the first place and how he finds out he’s a titan shifter. It’s also how he finds the truth about Marley and about Bertholdt, Reiner and Annie.
But everyone initially thought that this was just a coincidence. What’s even crazier is that this is only one example of this happening throughout the series, but there are HUNDREDS of scenes in which tiny, hidden details become massively impactful.
Another thing that makes this series so amazing is the overall theme of hopelessness, and I would argue that this is the overarching idea of the whole show. Some might say the series is about morality or unending cycles, but I disagree.
The Attack Titan can see the memories of those who have and will inherit it, and it knows what must be done to reach that future. The Attack Titan is really confusing in this way, because the first person to inherit it saw the Rumbling and what will come afterwards, and every inheritor of the Attack Titan does what they can to reach that future.
This end result was preordained from the moment the universe began. Nobody had a choice in the matter, and everything we see in Attack on Titan has been fated to happen since the beginning of time.
END OF SPOILERS!
There’s a lot of Japanese fiction out there, in every genre, and in every medium of consumption. However, I think that Attack on Titan is one of the best. It is so incredibly nuanced, with really deep philosophical meaning, yet it doesn’t seem that way when you’re actually watching it.
It’s only after you have to pause an episode, when you have to wait for the next one to come out, that you analyze it and realize what has just happened. I have never been so enraptured by anything like this in my life.
This is why I sincerely recommend Attack on Titan for everyone. It is a fantastic series, and you won’t regret giving it a try and sticking with it to the very end. You can stream it now on Hulu!
