More Like "Attack on My Free Time"

I start back to school next week, so naturally I decided to start a time-consuming TV show in the meantime.
Everyone from friends to students to random strangers at cons has been telling me I needed to see Attack on Titan for months now.  I was hesitant: skinless giants? semi-medieval human society? subtitles??

But now that I've finally started watching it, I can already tell it earned all those recommendations.

That skinless giant I mentioned.  I was under the impression that all the Titans were as big as this one and just as skinless, but it turns out that isn't quite the case! 

The basics are these: in an alternate human history, giant humanoid monsters called Titans have essentially destroyed/eaten most of humanity.  They range in size from 60+ meters tall to a mere 3-4 meters tall, and very little is known about their origins or physiology other than that they are extremely hard to kill.  They don't seem to need to eat, judging from their lack of interest in eating wildlife, and the reason behind their eating humans is described as "pure bloodlust" at one point.  Most of them are male, and they lack any semblance of junk (think a giant, hungry Ken doll).

At the start of the show, humanity has been clustered behind a series of 50 meter high walls for 100 years, and where, exactly, those 100 years are in human history isn't quite clear. They have guns and cannons, but only primitive ones.  They travel via horse and carriage, but have 3D Maneuvering Devices (how the military moves to fight and kill Titans) that are gas-powered.  No one seems to have any idea what's outside those walls either, other than Titans.

During those 100 years, the Titans don't seem to have eaten anyone (or anything, as far as humans can tell). Many humans have never even seen a Titan and thus question the heavy military presence in the cities.  But of course, that military is immediately necessary in the first episode, as the Colossal Titan appears over the walls of the city and the attack begins.  Other than the Colossal, most of the Titans seem to have skin but are just as largely invulnerable, hungry, and terrifying to humans.

The show starts focused on three friends: Eren, his adopted sister Mikasa, and their wimpy buddy Armin. Eren seems to be the leader; he's loud and angst-y but very, very motivated to kill the Titans, thus driving a lot of the show.  Mikasa, who was adopted by Eren's family after hers was murdered, is an understated badass; she works to protect Eren at all costs and doesn't tout her own abilities, but as soon as they start military training, it's obvious that she's the most deadly of anyone on the show.  Armin started as a common bullying victim, but his character evolves a lot as time passes and training takes over; he ends up basically a tactical genius, which is pretty cool.

After they escape the Titan attack, they join the military and the pace of the show really picks up.  More characters get added, more complications arise, and the abilities of the writer really show as each character has depth and emotion to him or her.

There is a brief period of peace wherein everyone relaxes a bit and Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and the others can focus on their training.  Then the Titans appear again, and all hell breaks loose.

Mikasa, being a badass as only she can

I admit, it's a weird concept for a show, but hey, that's anime.  There are some obvious anime-only issues that go along with it -- the wiggly eyes that anime characters get to indicate strong emotion stand out a lot, especially if you're like me and haven't watched anime in a few years.  And the dialogue, which is all in Japanese and apparently 100% shouted, has a sometimes wacky, stilted English translation that makes it clear the show was translated in a hurry, as opposed to written to convey the same ideas/emotions but in a more natural way.  In one early episode, Eren kicks a guard and Armin jumps in to defend him, saying literally, "I am sorry he kicked you, one of the adults. He is hungry and thus irritable."  Obviously a translation and not real writing --which is okay! It's not an English show in writing or origin, so whatever.  Actually, as it goes on, the translation tries to make the English more fluid and natural by throwing in a bunch of "ain't"s and "gonna"s, thus adding a humorous redneck element.

Those are about the only details I can pick on though; it's a really good show, with really (thus far) consistent characters and creative conflicts. It's also absolutely beautiful, and the music rocks, if that helps.

I've heard that the show evolves to include political subterfuge and more mysterious elements as it goes on, which I'm really looking forward to.  It's clear even now, only about 6-7 episodes in, that there is more to the Titan story than what Eren, Mikasa, and the rest of the squad know.  Little hints -- like how surprising the appearances by the Colossal Titan are (considering he's 60m tall, you'd think he'd be easy to spot) -- abound that something dangerous and secret is going on.

I'm not yet far enough in to know what that something secret is, and I don't want to spoil anything if my speculations are correct, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Let the binge-watching commence!

It's on Netflix. Go watch it. Now.