Shingeki no Kyojin

Centuries ago, mankind was slaughtered to near extinction by monstrous humanoid creatures called Titans, forcing humans to hide in fear behind enormous concentric walls. What makes these giants truly terrifying is that their taste for human flesh is not born out of hunger but what appears to be out of pleasure. To ensure their survival, the remnants of humanity began living within defensive barriers, resulting in one hundred years without a single titan encounter. However, that fragile calm is soon shattered when a colossal Titan manages to breach the supposedly impregnable outer wall, reigniting the fight for survival against the man-eating abominations.

After witnessing a horrific personal loss at the hands of the invading creatures, Eren Yeager dedicates his life to their eradication by enlisting into the Survey Corps, an elite military unit that combats the merciless humanoids outside the protection of the walls. Eren, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, and his childhood friend Armin Arlert join the brutal war against the Titans and race to discover a way of defeating them before the last walls are breached.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yeager, Eren Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Ackerman, Mikasa Main

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Arlert, Armin Main

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Levi Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Smith, Erwin Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Zoë, Hange Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Blouse, Sasha Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Braun, Reiner Supporting

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Kirstein, Jean Supporting

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Leonhart, Annie Supporting

Shimamura, Yuu Japanese

Wada, George Producer

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Nakatake, Tetsuya Producer

Kinoshita, Tetsuya Producer

Reviews

Sep 11, 2026

YamiLoon

Recommended

When I first started watching anime, I really resisted watching AoT. Back then, everyone was talking about it and saying that once you watched it, you'd never be able to enjoy other anime the same way again because it would raise your standards so much. And yeah, I actually believed them. After watching 20 anime, I finally decided to give AoT a shot. And it ended up becoming one of the best experiences I've ever had. I won't deny that it's a masterpiece, but let me also put an end to the whole "you won't be able to enjoy other anime after watching AoT" thing. ... Anyone who says that probably hasn't watched more than 5 anime. And I also genuinely don't understand people who call AoT garbage. Sometimes it feels like they're more annoyed that AoT is more popular than their favorite series than they are actually disappointed with the anime itself. Either way, it just doesn't make much sense to me.

Anyway, enough of that. Let's talk about the anime itself.

First of all, the idea behind the story deserves a lot of praise. At first, it seems pretty simple, with giant creatures that eat humans, and humans who use special weapons designed to kill these creatures in order to protect themselves and their families. But as the story moves forward, everything becomes deeper and more complicated, with twists slowly revealing themselves along the way. Especially in Season 4, which still has the best plot twist I've ever seen in a TV series.

The character writing is excellent. Every character has a reason to be on screen, and at least for me, none of them ever felt unnecessary or out of place. Whenever a certain character appeared, I felt something different. For example, whenever Levi showed up during an action scene, I already knew no Titan was going to survive. Whenever Mikasa appeared, I felt this weird heaviness in my mind. I don't even know why, maybe it was because of her cold and emotionless personality. And then there's Eren, the MC, who made me feel so many different things throughout the story, from weakness and helplessness to anger, revenge, and love.

The animation quality in seasons 1–3 is excellent, thanks to WIT Studio. Season 4 had its own challenges and the studio also changed to MAPPA, but even then, the overall quality was still really good.

The heavy atmosphere and dark, serious tone of this anime are incredibly captivating, especially because it doesn't constantly throw in stupid jokes that ruin the mood. That's something that bothers me in some anime, like FMA: Brotherhood, where there were quite a few jokes that just didn't fit the atmosphere for me. AoT knows when to stay serious. Then you have the amazing action scenes combined with incredible music that constantly got my adrenaline going. Everything works so damn well together, especially the music. I honestly don't think there's a single bad song in this series. They're either good, great, or straight-up masterpieces. From Call of Silence, which feels like a beautiful and heartbreaking symphony for the soul, to the chaotic and insanely hype opening The Rumbling.

Isayama definitely created one of the greatest works in the entire medium, and the people who brought it to life as an anime turned it into one of the best experiences any TV series fan could ever have.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jul 28, 2026

AnimeMangaBoo

Mixed Feelings

Currently I am re-watching attack on Titan and I'm gonna say from my youth to watching it now this series was completely overhyped and I am very apologetic to anyone that I had recommended the show to. I say this because the conversations nay be to rich for some viewers, and I shouldn’t have been so reckless recommending it.

Season 1 is by far the only solid season out of everything that you will get from the next 3 seasons. The pacing is pretty accurate for establishing a world with Cliff Hangers, characters situation's etc. It's going to take its time unfolding everything while also leaving ... most of the imagination to decipher meanings. AOT really draws you in and I definitely still love season 1 & 2 just as much as I did the original run that I saw it. However, if you make it passed season 1 & 2 of AOT, season 3 & 4 are going to undo everything that you enjoyed. There is going to be solid PMOs moving forward. So if you don't mind that or you just want to continue the series for the heck of it, then by all means start season 1 and continue all the way to the final season.

This is my first review in real time (well a re-watch in real time) but I must interject I have mixed feelings now about recommending this anime to anyone. I will expound further...

(This review is very exclusively season 1 moving forward with no obvious spoilers)

THE CHARACTERS: Are very limited, A LOT of people are going to die, so you won’t get EVERY SINGLE character'S POV, but AOT establishes a great main cast early. All characters in AOT really aid in the flow of the story line, so their screen time is never wasted. For AOT to have so many characters dying in enormous amounts, I'd say they did a grand job with the characters that they do keep around. Allowing the audience to be attached just enough to continue the storyline. With a high turnover rate of characters that can be frustrating for some viewers, but from my analysis of season 1 AOT does an excellent job at being able to push the story forward in spite of this.

THE STOYLINE: Its pretty solid! It grabs you attention without taking too long on it setup. The action happens fast! so that's a plus, this is a series that utilizes cliffhangers and has spliced deep backstory sequences. Be warned AOT loves showering you with timeline jumps. If you don't like that, this may not be the anime for you, you'll get confused and probably angry, but I think the viewers are gonna be able to follow it relatively easily.. up until season 4. THIS was done on purpose! So prepare yourself when you get to the final season but again the storyline, you're able to follow along even with a time jumps. AOT is dense & rich. It has something specific to tell you, but its gonna yank you everywhere all at once. AOT is focused though, so don't get discouraged, there is a story that is unfolding. AOT is definitely an anime that has point & purpose, whether you will care or not as the story unfolds is going to be completely up to you! DO WITH THAT INFORMATION AS YOU WISH.

THE ENVIRONMENT: Its pretty medieval-ish, each location is developed at different levels. Overall AOT a bit of a historic piece. characters are riding on horses, and trying to feed cars carrots LOL. Technology is not as forward, so if you enjoy anime were its a bit dated & the timeline is about history, you're going to enjoy this, a lot! If you are not into that you MIGHT find it a bit annoying but it's up to you to continue or not.

Overall season 1 has a lot of moving parts, there's large amounts of information being delivered to you upfront & then it draws you in by pulling back the missing the "who what when where and whys" to the information that it gave you.

If that makes any sense.

AOT is give Info, but will be missing pieces on purpose and you're gonna have to wait to find out what the rest of the pieces are.

BE ADVISED: that in my humble opinion, the storyline is NOT THAT DEEP (S1-S3, but S4 is..smh) I will tell you this now upfront attack AOT builds for that a specific type of situation but it fails to deliver on that entirely. good efforts though. there's some really cool & very limited "oh snap!" moments where you're like that was a cool twist but overall it's lacking in having a reason to exist with all this information you're going to be given over the next 3 seasons

* deep sigh* AOT is one of those animes that you want to add to your list that you watched but it's not gonna be high ranking for you. (at least for me) again this is my perspective, my opinion, & my thoughts. My feelings are so mixed right now & I feel a sense of regret I can't recommend or not recommend this anime to you. Either way it's really one of things are you gonna have to experience for yourself and then you're gonna leave your review and I can't wait to read it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 10, 2026

eyeswide17

Not Recommended

While I do stand by the rating of (9) for this first season, I want to write this as a warning for some. Because while there's a couple of episodes in Part 2 of Season 3 that are just peak, not just for the series, but for all media, you have to be aware that you won't have a good time with the ending if you're investing your limited time into this.

Shingeki is a show with an exceptional high-concept premise. S1 not only delivers on that premise but offers one of the most gripping episode-to-episode experiences. I actually can't think of a show that ... held my attention so intently since... maybe S1 of Prison Break. Ironically another show that could only handle it for a season until it broke down into comical storylines.

Isayama himself admitted he wanted the ending of Attack on Titan to be extremely bleak but needed to change gears because the first show in 2013 exploded in popularity and he did not want to deliver a totally hopeless and miserable ending to the fans. That, and it probably became very lucrative to keep it going...

Though the statement itself is already a red flag because what the material he wrote early on lends itself more to shounen territory. Shounen with dark horror elements, but still shounen in all the ways that matter. So what was the plan there at the very start? To have a story that was all about how you should always fight even against impossible odds only to end it in some everyone-dies bleakness? You lure people in with one thing and end in another? Why would I want that?

And you can tell, he's a little all over the place, and this non-spoiler of his original intent should give you a good idea of what kind of mind you're dealing with. In the end what you get is a complete fucking Frankenstein's monster of a story. It changes tonally on a whim and completely rewrites characters routinely to fit whatever plot is unfolding.

The constant plot conveniences that exist just to drive the story forwards are also parody tier sometimes. There's one character that, no joke, probably gets defeated like five times and keeps magically getting rescued by plot armor.

The worst offender by far though is structuring it in such a way that the payoff that should emerge after many of these narrative arcs just doesn't come. As a made up example, imagine a show that spent a good chunk of time covering the capture of a spy that would provide the MC with information about the real villain's identity... only for him to swallow a cyanide pill as soon as he's captured because no one bothered to restrain him. This is fine if it happens in a movie and everything from the setup to the execution is 10-15 mins. But when you wait SEVERAL HOURS for that to conclude only to get nothing? It is a total slap in the face. I get that it's almost intentional blueballing to keep the story as intense, but come on... It's like he knew the answers to all these mysteries wouldn't be satisfying so he tried to delay having to go there as much as possible. And he was right. If you ever experienced watching LOST, this is eerily similar.

At the same time, I cannot deny that this show also has one of the greatest jaw-dropping moments in anything ever. And that there are many, many cool moments. I actually came back to edit this into the review because I got so frustrated after finishing S4 that perhaps I went overboard in the negativity. Overall, I stand by what I said, taken as a whole, judged as a total package, AOT is not just flawed but borderline incoherent. It stretches believability to an extreme and, for me personally, it broke it.

Isayama's narrative instinct seem to be, "What's the craziest thing that could happen next?", which early on leads to an insane level of narrative propulsion. It's genuinely impressive. And some of the twists in the story that result from that ARE very godlike levels of satisfying in the moment.

But it does not come together as a masterpiece with a grand design, but rather reveals what it always was, a patchwork story woven together issue to issue by a mangaka who has exceptional instincts but is not yet at the level of a true craftsman storyteller.

Credit where credit is due, though, it's still one of the most interesting things made in recent memory. If you're some underage kid or unemployed, this isn't really a waste of your time. This review is mostly for the people who might be spending months trying to get through all of it.

The question for you is:
1. Do you think it would be cool if Vinland Saga became Gantz by the end?
Or, alternatively,
2. Would you still be able to appreciate the 10/10 parts of a show even if those early seasons never build up to anything worthwhile? Can you compartimentalize to that degree?

If either of those are true, then watch it. But if you think back to something like the final seasons of Game of Thrones with horror and wish you had never gotten invested, then stay away. Far, far, far away.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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