Attack on Titan Anime Thread

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SonicSP
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

Also, if they have these gas-powered wires, I hope they realize they can do massive damage to this titans by tripping them or cutting their Achilles heel.
Spoiler for plot details revealed in the first seven or ten episodes or so. I can't remember when it was mentioned per say on the top of my head.

Spoiler
It's because they have regenerative powers. They have a weakpoint at the back of their necks that needs to be cut. Shooting works too if you can destroy it but the accuracy of the cannon makes it extremely hard. Pretty much the only way to kill them is to hit that spot and its a fairly small spot too that I can't remember the exact length measurement.

Using the cables to trip them so they can eventually cut their necks should be fairly feasible.
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LightningCount
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

SonicSP: Like I said, I don't want to read direct spoilers, but that's good if there's a reason. However, I was asking, without any spoilers, if that potential titan twist I mentioned is the main thrust/twist of this series, or if it has bigger tricks up its sleeves, and that other twist is just an early reveal?
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SonicSP
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

It's not the main twist I believe. It happens relatively early on.
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HellCat
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

I'm still impressed with how the show plays horror and intensity. None of the other done telegraphed anime nonsense, the Titans are animated razor sharp and you never know how they'll strike next.
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Amion
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

The manga's art is shoddy, but it really, really works to make the horror even more surreal. With the emphasis on the faces.

By the way Lightningcount, the number of plot twist this series will throw at you are vast. Don't think the early ones are the only ones. Oh, and the manga's gore is worse from what I remember. Much worse in Trost at least. Still, the development is sound so far as the characters are concerned.
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SonicSP
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

I think the manga art works in some cases like the general design of the Titans but I don't think much of it sometimes. I think it's decent now but it was really really bad when it started IMO. Still I think Ishiyama has improved a lot.
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Amion
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

Oh he has. And I had issues with the art too, I guess I just accepted it by imagining it as a surreal story during the battles. It's when they stop fighting that things get really awkward to look at.

But of course, we have the anime now and its beautiful animation.
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SonicSP
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

As someone who went from watching the anime before reading the manga, the early chapters were not easy to cope with.
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Amion
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

That's where we differ, since I too, watched the anime before reading the manga. At least, if you count the very first episode. After that I decided to check out the manga and just kept on reading. But I was looking for story, not art. I will admit they do work better in unison though, and the style was jarring even for me.
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LightningCount
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

Hey, everyone. So, as a relative newbie to the franchise, I thought I'd briefly update my thoughts on Attack on Titan now that we're 8 episodes in on Toonami.

For me, the mystery of the Titans themselves is still the strongest draw this series has. I also like how there are "abnormal" Titans that break the mold and keep things interesting. And the twist with Eren, which had been slightly spoiled for me, was still surprisingly satisfying, because it wasn't done in the obvious way I expected.
Spoiler
(The Titan was around him, rather than him turning into the Titan; and that hurts a lot of my other story assumptions).
I think it was episode 6 that this series really started to get its legs under it. That episode showed off some writing chops beyond the shock theater, shonen action, and traditional teen drama elements, and it really made Mikasa and Eren far more intriguing than before that point. (Though, their "relationship" hasn't flowed in a way that's felt quite right to me; I always took them more as brother and sister before this episode). That said, I think Jean is my favorite young character to this point. He has a nice balance/mixture of conflict and maturity within him. He has really stabilized the cast. And I thought Armin was going to go a long time ago based on previews. As an aside, I think if this were an Ocean dub, Brad Swaile would have played him.

They explained the Titan powers to some extent, answering some of my earlier questions/concerns, and the human forces' wires have a gas-powered air system attached that explains the steampunk jet packs I assumed this series would have.

After chugging for a little bit (deliberately, in retrospect), the action and pacing is really good all and all, and the graceful aerial combat and brutal
Spoiler
Titan vs. Titan
combat is very enjoyable. One wonders how that contrast will play out in the future.

The animation, while not necessarily setting the consistent level of new standards some reviews have stated, is very competent, and really shines during its action scenes, which tend to have cleverly blended uses for CG not unlike the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, and various artistic flourishes in terms of distortions/camera angles seen less and less in most anime since the end of the late 90s. The heavy black outlines on characters against the backgrounds is a little strange, as are the pencil hashing/shading seen in some scenes, but it's an interesting visual quirk fitting for such a bizarre series.

After having seen 8 episodes, it is clear how to describe this series to long-time anime fans, and in doing so, it's not surprising that it's such a breakthrough title. It's basically Berserk meets Fullmetal Alchemist meets Evangelion. It even seems to go so far as to visually reference these works at times.

Well, we'll see how it continues on. There's still the mystery of Eren's father and his experiments, too, which I'm looking forward to seeing more of. I have some theories about that. I have to say, though, despite the many assumptions I had about how this series' twists would go, they have managed to contradict a lot of my expectations, which is a good thing. I remember having that same experience with G-Gundam. I can't say I'm head-over-heels for Attack on Titan, but it's definitely an intriguing show that I want to continue with.
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Amion
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

Glad you liked it. This is a semi-spoiler but I don't really count it since it's one of those not-yet-revealed things:
Spoiler
We still don't know about Eren's dad or how he fits into the whole picture.
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LightningCount
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

Amion, I can't click that, since it's still a spoiler according to you. :P

I forgot to mention that the music is pretty cool and/or fitting in this series. I find the broken digital beats that appear from time to time to be especially interesting, if not Bleach-like. The OP and ED are also excellent.

I've been thinking about where the Titans could come from, and there's really only a few possibilities considering some of their powers.

1.) They're supernatural monsters, and therefore the sky's the limit as far as explanations go.

2.) They're a product of a mutating virus, either natural or man-made to create super-solders, that went totally out of control. (But the ability for the Colossal Titan to appear and vanish in lightning has me leaning against this one).

3.) They're aliens, and we're on the terraformed moon of Saturn called Titan that has been driven backward in technology/society by the invasion of the Titans. Hence Attack on Titan! (That would be crazy and take this to a whole different level, but I doubt they'll go this route).

4.) The Titans were the original inhabitants of this land, and the humans are actually miniature people (like in The Secret World of Arrietty) who have made a bunch of eye sores for the awakening Titans with their civilization.

Only time will tell; though, maybe that won't even be addressed as part of the series. The Titans could be a MacGuffin plot device for all I know.
My Mecha/Scifi Novels: https://www.goodreads.com/series/168677 ... -war-arm-x
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Amion
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

You're wrong about the last one. I discredit it as a spoiler because the intro itself tells you that they appeared from nowhere in humanity's past. Take that for truth. Unless of course...the history is wrong.

Yeah, I really loved your third possibility. It's crazy wild and awesome sounding. Wish it was true.

About the spoiler, it's something that you will never learn form the anime, so I'd say it's ok to click. It won't really spoil anything or give you information you don't already have.

And don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure there's a weird scene change in the flashback about Eren's dad. They're in the forest together in the anime, while in the manga it's unclear. there's some telltale stuff like that they don't do in the manga but have in the anime, but it's all mostly at the end and better for it I think. Esthetics are one thing this series just does awesomely.

And Mikasa/Eren are...an interesting couple. At this point i'm not sure what their relationship is supposed to be. Sad as it is, most anime tend to be ambiguous, which is a shame.
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SonicSP
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Re: Attack on Titan Anime Thread

LightningCount wrote:2.) They're a product of a mutating virus, either natural or man-made to create super-solders, that went totally out of control. (But the ability for the Colossal Titan to appear and vanish in lightning has me leaning against this one).

3.) They're aliens, and we're on the terraformed moon of Saturn called Titan that has been driven backward in technology/society by the invasion of the Titans. Hence Attack on Titan! (That would be crazy and take this to a whole different level, but I doubt they'll go this route).
What episode are you in anyways? Maybe we'll know what can be discussed more openly then and maybe using things from said episode. I haven't been keeping up with the Toonami broadcasts since I already own Part 1 of the Funimation Blu-Ray.

Like in Resident Evil games, 2 is always possible in fiction I guess.

Not going to say anything for or against the alien theory but the moon of Saturn thing is likely out. With zero translation expertise of my own, I'm under the impression from others that the word they use to refer to Titans (kyojin) translates better to "giants" rather than "titans". That being said and done, the English name of the series "Attack on Titan" has appeared as early of the cover of be first book volume of the manga so Ishiyama certainly had some intent of having that as the English title, so we can never know for sure. But "Titan" as a term doesn't really exist in the Japanese version minus it being showed as a name subtitle in the credits (the opposite of this would be if they actually called them "titans" instead of "kyojin" in the Japanese dialogue, in which case there would be a chance we see some word play references).

Lol, the paragraph above isn't really important information but just trivia I guess.
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