Attack on Titan!

I cannot believe that I have taken this long to talk about something as dear to my heart as Attack on Titan.

I have never seen an anime become so popular, so quickly. It literally became a complete phenomenon just overnight. And justifiably so! Sometimes, -rarely- but sometimes, something is popular because it just DESERVES to be so loved. 

From the moment that you hear the intro, you're hooked. It really is spectacular and sets the show up incredibly well. You come into the show feeling like "alright! new episode!", but after the intro plays you are so ready, so pumped, that you're about to explode in excititude! THE INTRO ITSELF HAS A FANBASE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Which is nothing new for anime. Anime nerds love their openings. But this one really reaches into levels of absurdity. There are countless parodies, the most hilarious of which is HERE. The second half introduces a new intro that is not as widely celebrated. In fact, most hate it. I myself learned to like it, but it took quite a few episodes.

The characters in the show are also great. Its amazing how connected you can get to them despite their limited screen time. Perhaps its the fact that they're constantly in danger, that you just gotta sympathize with them. You really feel the helplessness of humanity against something so seemingly unstoppable. As a fair warning, however: No one is this show is safe. With most shows you can be assured that your favorites will be spared. Attack on Titan is a different beast. Anyone can die at any moment, and it lets you know it. And its wonderful.

Something that is very noticeable with Attack on Titan is its unique pacing. The show, which at this moment is 25 episodes long, consists of a handful of long arcs. These arcs focus on different "attacks". And each "attack" takes quite a few episodes to complete. This is obviously done deliberately as the episodes are titled "The Battle of whatever parts 1,2,3,4,9". The show also isn't afraid to skip ahead years into the future without warning. Its a scheme that I do not believe that I ever seen in any other anime. The show does this to great effect. It gives itself time for its audience to really feel the weight of these events and the heavy emotions that come with them.

Without spoilers, at this moment, the series just kind of ends. No answers, no cliffhangers. Nothing. Which if you do some research, is totally understandable. Attack on Titan is based on a manga that at this point is not much farther into the story than it's animated counterpart. It doesn't help that the Attack on Titan manga has one of the slowest release schedules in the history of manga. A lot of times, producers of  anime will simply create their own story. This usually ends in disaster by the time the manga gets to a point where the anime can continue since the anime may have gotten itself to a point of no return to make sense of the manga storyline's inclusion. So I can respect the studio's decision to simply cut off where it did and wait for more content to animate. I can only hope that when the show finally returns, it can maintain the insane levels of quality in animation, music, and emotional content that this show has displayed so far.

Watch it in glorious HD on Crunchyroll!
PS: Huge crush on Mikasa