I can’t even count the number of times I’ve asked myself “why do you put yourself through this?” by now where Attack on Titan is concerned – it’s a lot. And there are almost as many reasons why I’ve felt that way as times I’ve felt it – so I guess you have to give Araki and Isayama points for versatility. Yet here we are again, one more season, once more into the abyss (and not even the good abyss, either). Every time I think I’m out…
The reason for questioning my sanity this first episode reminded me of was one of the big ones. I can’t off the top of my head think of a show I’ve watched for anywhere near this long – and even mostly thought was quite good – where I’ve hated so many of the characters. Even setting aside the ones that are just on the level of really annoying (well, that’s most of them) like Eren and Mikasa and Sasha, there are so many I truly despise – Erwin (WHY WON’T YOU DIE???) most obviously of course. But among others also Levi, with Kamiya Hiroshi’s indefensible performance behind it. And his stink is all over this season premiere.
Yet, here I am. When I say I don’t want to rehash yet again all the reasons why this show troubles me, I truly mean it – my season finale post from last summer covers it pretty thoroughly. But the part of me that wants to see how it all turns out still hasn’t quite given up the ghost yet, and the sheer spectacle and mind-trippy weirdness Shingeki no Kyoujin brings to the table is a drug that isn’t really supplied by any other series. I don’t know whether I’ll have the stomach for another entire season of AoT, but I will at least give it a go.
The overall sense I get from the season premiere isn’t that hopeful, to be honest, because it feels as if we’re heading up another time-wasting blind alley (and those would be high on any list of reasons why this series can be so appalling) with “Kenny the Ripper”. We also get Pastor Nick being tortured and murdered by the Interior Military Police, which signals that the inner sanctum itself may be this arc’s big bad. Or at least it did, until Kenny showed up. There’s also Eren failing utterly at being an experimental titan, and Armin being terrorized and humiliated (it’s inarguable by now that Isayama gets his jollies from that) as part of a Levi plot. I sometimes wonder – why does Isayama hate Armin so much? It’s almost as though he resents that a smart and sensitive character wormed its way into his story and became more important that he intended – snowflakes like Armin are not heroic figures in the worldview of people like Isayama.
Yeah, ya know… We’ll see, I guess. It’s always a balancing act with Shingeki no Kyoujin. Curiosity vs. exasperation, spectacle vs. bloated excess, cleverness vs. abject amateurism. Who knows where the series is going to go now – though no matter where it is, I’d just as soon it get there a little faster. Whether I like developments this season or not, I think another narratively stagnant mess like the last one would be the worst of all possible worlds. That’s a dangerous thing to say about this series, though, so I suppose I’d better not push my luck.
Nayrael
July 24, 2018 at 8:17 amIsiyama hates Armin? Wat? Armin is literally shown as the smarter guy in the show, almost always in the correct, and is the sole voice of reason, which puts him above almost everyone else. If Isiyama hated him, he’d be treated as a naive fool, not someone who is the reason why everyone is still alive.
If anyone here is getting bad treatment, it’s Eren. The guy is viewed as a joke even by other characters.
Miyu Fan
July 24, 2018 at 8:21 amMy memory might have failed me, but I thought that you at least liked Sasha, Connie and Jean. Or was it Reiner and Bert that you liked? Already know that Armin is your favourite.
Yeah I don’t really feel this Kenny arc and if they dragged this arc too much then it would be terrible. I just want to know the mystery behind the Titans and Historia. Having side arcs like Kenny wouldn’t have to be a drag if the show is better written to explore themes like how human kill another human even when facing extinction, but I expect Eren would just scream that into our face in the coming episodes. Subtlety is completely lost in this show.
Guardian Enzo
July 24, 2018 at 2:53 pmReiner was interesting until he completely jumped the shark with that laughable “twist” last season. Just another case of Isayama ruining a good character. Conny I’m neutral on (which makes him elite in this cast), and TBH I don’t even remember who Bert is.
Simone
July 24, 2018 at 4:38 pmI’ll just say that I’m a manga reader, and even I can’t remember what the fuck happens in this arc, except for Kenny being involved. It’s that bland and inconsequential.
The wild guesser
July 24, 2018 at 11:10 amArmin is by far the best character of this series, and the 3D maneuver gear scenes always make this show worth watching, despite everything else in my eyes.
Jean isn’t too bad a character either tho.
d m
July 24, 2018 at 2:09 pmI have to laugh at “get there a little faster”, considering there was very little of the S1 “standing around talking” downtime, and that this episode sped through 7ish chapters. If it was going any faster the wheels would come off.
Guardian Enzo
July 24, 2018 at 2:54 pmThings happening fast don’t matter if the things that happen don’t matter to the actual story.
Orion Taylor
July 25, 2018 at 12:22 amA few comments:
1. As others have mentioned, this arc is kind of a slog and pretty forgettable. Heck, even Isayama recently acknowledged that it was pretty bad:
https://www.snknews.com/post/176213698922/isayama-hajime-shares-new-blog-post-with-original
hopefully the anime will improve it, but given its track record the future does not look bright.
2. I think Isayama really likes Armin. Besides being the smartest, he is (IMO) easily the bravest and most selfless character in the series, always willing to take one for the team when the moment/strategy calls for it (as seen in this ep). The story has and will continue to highlight this. This does mean that he gets put through a lot of shit though.
3. TBH, unless you are willing to be patient for the next several years, it might be best to jump ship now. It really does feel as if the series coasted on the merits of its compelling premise for a long time, and only recently improved in story/character quality. I promise: things do improve. There is a point where AoT develops a very coherent and compelling message that provides some meaning and context to what we are watching now. That being said, that point is not going to happen in the anime anytime soon, the future bump in quality doesn’t absolve the series of its past/current failures, and this current arc is one of the lowest points in the series (quality-wise). If you’ve found yourself questioning your commitment to the show, it’s only going to get worse (for the time being). I would gladly like to be proven wrong, but it’s unlikely.
4. The one bright spot this arc is that there are a couple of sick action beats that occur b/c some of the fights are human vs. human instead of human vs. titan or titan vs. titan. Will they be animated as a camera panning over still-frames? (with some action lines thrown in), or will they be the sickest action sequences of all time? Time to roll the studio wit dice to find out!
5. I’m not sure how appealing this option is to you, but you can always just catch up in the Manga. It could potentially save you a lot of time! I guess you could just continue as an anime-only viewer. Your time investment in the show will increase, thus lowering the quality threshold the show must surpass for you to continue, leaving you miserable as you continue on this journey with seemingly no meaningful destination until you finally drop the show out of frustration, never having received the gratification you thought would be awarded to you when you embarked on this god forsaken journey. Alternatively, you could figure out immediately whether or not this show is worth investing any more of time into, and either drop the series on the spot, or continue on, confident with the knowledge that the future is bright. The option is always there.
Guardian Enzo
July 25, 2018 at 12:33 amThanks for that detailed warning. It more or less matches up with what I’ve heard from other folks. I guess I have a decision on my hands, but I’ll say this much – if I do bail, I can pretty much guarantee I won’t be going back.
Simone
July 25, 2018 at 11:11 pmI support Orion’s idea of just reading the manga. It’s about to end soon, I think, and when the mystery of the Titans finally gets explained, it IS actually pretty unexpected.
I don’t agree with him on the message though – that is, I don’t think you will appreciate it. In fact it just becomes an even more overt version of the kind of nationalist view that you decry here, albeit with a dash of cynicism thrown in about the whole thing.
Orion Taylor
July 27, 2018 at 10:53 amThat’s fair. Admittedly, I’ve been taking the manga more at face value. At the surface level, I do think AoT makes a strong argument against war, violence and nationalism (we are drawn to sympathize with the oppressed and downtrodden, the victims of nationalism, not the oppressors). However, an opposite conclusion can certainly be drawn from a deeper read (the story has yet to present a valid alternative to the perpetual cycle of violence, self-sacrifice in the name of the nation is shown to be the only path to victory etc.).
At least on the surface level, I feel that AoT’s message is that “the cycle of war/violence/oppression will continue unless we actively work to break out of it”. Someone reading a bit deeper would probably say that AoT’s message is that “since the cycle of war/violence/oppression is unbreakable, being the oppressor/victor is much more preferable to rolling over and dying”. I would like to believe that the former is the intended message, and the latter is the result of bad writing (and not something far more sinister), but perhaps that is being too generous to Isayama.
Guardian Enzo
July 27, 2018 at 4:53 pmI would leave out the “perhaps”, based on my own reading of the situation.
Simone
July 27, 2018 at 5:07 pmYeah, like Enzo, I think the latter is the reading. It’s actually a direction from which I think a lot of extreme nationalist or even fascist positions come – not one of exalted belief in nationalism, but rather one of bleak pessimism with regards to human nature. “There’s just no breaking the cycle of violence, so it’s better to be the one who kills than the one who’s killed”. I won’t mention manga details here, but frankly, I think it’s way too easy once you know all the details to draw parallels between in-world and real life factions, and the resulting narrative is pretty standard Japanese nationalist fare.
Guardian Enzo
July 27, 2018 at 5:43 pmThat’s the thing… The more you learn about modern Japanese nationalism, the more you pick up the dog whistles in Shingeki (and many other series, disproportionately LNs). My personal view is that Isayama actually sets his fascist sights even higher than that, but either way it’s a pretty ugly worldview as far as I’m concerned.
blargnobia
July 27, 2018 at 10:46 pmIt’s definitely the latter. There are too many signs pointing to that. For starters, Isayama has a defeatist worldview with regard to human perfectibility, and seems to regard irrational conflicts genocide as inevitable. You could even see this way back with Eren’s conversation with Pixis, and it only gets more apparent later on. He also lionizes the military while portraying the in-universe government as weak and corrupt. Finally–and the anime seems to have cut this subplot entirely–he portrays entrepreneurs as selfish, but their selfishness is somehow pure and ultimately helpful. It’s difficult to read into the manga and not come away thinking his nationalism is dripping into every panel.
I recently did a presentation on the Rape of Nanking for a history of genocide grad seminar, and I can’t help but wonder if SnK is an apologist allegory for that event.
Stöt
July 25, 2018 at 10:53 amThat analysis thoroughly resonated. I always have a bad reaction to seeing Levi’s face on screen, but this time the Seiyuu took the forefront of my disappointment/anger. Why is this guy so poorly voiced? ugh. I must have dropped this show at some point, and forgotten about it. Oh well, I guess I’m gonna have to drop it again.
blargnobia
July 25, 2018 at 12:07 pmI’m conflicted on this show. After you pointed out Isayama’s political leanings (last year, iirc), Enzo, I’ve been seeing more and more evidence of his fascism. It’s really insidious. On the other hand, I’m still watching it and reading the manga. Even without taking the political issues into consideration, it’s still a really stupid show… but there’s something viscerally satisfying about seeing Mikasa or whoever kill a titan.
Guardian Enzo
July 25, 2018 at 2:57 pmYes, even this early in the story it’s becoming pretty clear where Isayama’s views run, but I know enough about what happens in the future to know that becomes even more inescapable. Among the many reasons why this series screams to be dropped, that’s a big one.
Matti
July 25, 2018 at 3:23 pmRE: “I sometimes wonder – why does Isayama hate Armin so much?”
Because he’s named after a Dutch DJ that plays annoying emo trance music? Reason enough, imho.
sonicsenryaku
July 29, 2018 at 9:48 pmSo i finally got around to watching the first ep of season 3 and i gotta say, I have found myself being sucked back into the void despite my opinion of the series having soured just a bit after having rewatched some parts of the series to ready myself for season 3. Once upon a time i would have said that Attack on Titan was easily a 7/10 anime (not anymore..more like a 6.25), but lately i’ve found that some of the things i let slide bother me a bit more now such as the show’s political worldview (that bothers me more due to how that view is used narratively rather than it affecting me personally) and the lack of truly good character work. Speaking of character work, while i still think Eren, Mikasa, and Armin have a clear familial bond that serves as the emotional backbone of the show, the lack of strong characterization within the cast, the challenging of their emotional dynamic in interesting ways, or allowing the characters to interface and respond more multi-dimensionally with the events happening around them leaves something to be desired.
I feel that i while i expressed similar sentiments a year ago, I was a bit nicer to those flaws, which bother a bit more now on rewatch. For one, I might have remained okay with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin’s lack of strong character intrigue if they at least behaved more outwardly familial with each other; I don’t know, something that vividly communicated a concrete relationship between these three. If Isayama cannot do that then at least make the dialogue between our main trio feel natural, congruous and emotionally insightful rather than expository, clunky, and ponderous. I’m still of the mindset that there is a tragedy to their relationship that in isolation, is interesting enough to allow me to get behind what Isayama is trying to do with these characters, but overall, it feels like one of those, “sounds good on paper” situations. Despite my complaining of, I find that stilted character writing is always easier to digest when the characters are at place in situations where they get to show off how competent they are. In Attack on Titan’s case, it helps that the cast are almost always in the thick of action, ameliorating some of the limp characterization that plagues this show.
Regardless of my complaints, I still think the show utilizes its bombast in a successfully entertaining fashion with enough intrigue in the main narrative to functionally maintain viewer investment. I’m still down for more Attack on Titan and i mean who knows, maybe ill think a bit more highly of the show once the third season wraps up. Doesn’t seem that way as of S3ep2 but it could happen. I still find a kick out of watching this show.