SPOILER ALERT/GRAPHIC GIFS AHEAD
Disclaimer: I do not own any GIFs, graphics, Youtube clips or photos. All credit goes to their creators.
Attack on Titan, AKA Shingeki no Kyojin!
It's one of mine and Josh's favorite anime's, and frankly, one of the best story lines I've seen for a series in a long time.
In fact, we loved it so much that we watched the entire first season (25 thirty minute episodes) on Netflix in the space of four days. AND in Japanese, which we normally don't do. If there's an interesting looking anime without an English dub, we will watch a couple episodes and then wait for the English dub to show up on Netflix.
Nope. We didn't wait. We hardcore Netflix binged.
In short, humanity has retreated behind 50 meter high walls when gigantic titans popped out of nowhere and began eating people.
I was really frustrated a few months ago when I heard some people were annoyed with the characters being too emotional. So, i watched the whole season again to see if I agreed with their perspective. Well, I have to say, I think they're wrong. Here's why.
Our story begins within Wall Maria (pronounced MAH-ree-ah, not MUH-ree-ah) when this guy shows up and kicks a big hole in the wall. Like a jerk.
And this guy, called the Colossal Titan, is HUGE. Like 60 meters tall, huge. Here's a graphic to show my point.
The protagonist, Eren Jaeger, is determined to destroy all titans after he watches while his mom is bit in half by this creeper.
Anyway, training isn't going to well for Eren, who can't seem to balance on his Omni-Directonal Mobility Gear. (AKA ODM gear) This gear is crucial in fighting titans, in that it gives soldiers a way to reach their only weak spot, which is the nape of the neck. And Eren has a lot at stake; if he can't balance on the ODM gear, then he'll be sent to work in the fields and won't be allowed to be a soldier anymore.
Watch this clip. Watch it. Just do it.
THE COLOSSAL TITAN APPEARS OUT OF THIN AIR AND KICKS ANOTHER HOLE IN THE WALL. LIKE A JERK.
And this is where the bloodbath begins.
Mikasa tries to stay back with Eren and he convinces her to join the front lines. He promises not to be killed, and she leaves to fulfill her duty.
Later, Armin is about to be eaten (he's paralyzed in fear from being face to face with a real titan), so Eren races to his aid, only to have his leg bitten off. Yikes.
Armin is about to be swallowed by a titan that looks like Santa Claus, but Eren dives in and throws Armin out. Then, Eren gets eaten, losing his arm. Armin looks on in horror.
Meanwhile, the other soldiers are horrified when the supply building is surrounded by titans.
He wakes up to be surrounded by Connie, Christa, and Ymir. The four of them meet at a rally point and he faces Mikasa about Eren's fate and blames himself. Mikasa makes a speech to the others and she uses up way too much gas with her ODM gear, causing her to fall into an alleyway. This is when we learn why she's so obsessed with Eren's safety.
When she was younger, her parents were killed and she was kidnapped. Her captors were going to sell her into slavery when Eren came to her aid, killing two of the three.
Yup, that's when Josh and I were sure he was psycho. But a brave one.
The third tries to strangle Eren and he tells her to stand up and fight if she wants to survive.
Suddenly, she's faced with a titan, she does her best to fight back and she's saved by another titan when it punches the first one in the face. She watches in amazement, and the first titan is beaten to a pulp.
After a brilliantly played out plan designed by Armin that saved the supply building, we discover that Eren wasn't dead at all. He's a TITAN SHIFTER! *dun dun dun*
Once this fact was brought to light, Josh and I stared at each other, mouths dropped open and stared at each other for a good long minute or so.
Here's what Eren looks like in his titan form.
And when Mikasa pulls Eren from his dying titan form, they actually have a tender moment. This is the point where they realize his arm and leg have grown back as well.
Disclaimer: I do not own any GIFs, graphics, Youtube clips or photos. All credit goes to their creators.
Attack on Titan, AKA Shingeki no Kyojin!
It's one of mine and Josh's favorite anime's, and frankly, one of the best story lines I've seen for a series in a long time.
In fact, we loved it so much that we watched the entire first season (25 thirty minute episodes) on Netflix in the space of four days. AND in Japanese, which we normally don't do. If there's an interesting looking anime without an English dub, we will watch a couple episodes and then wait for the English dub to show up on Netflix.
Nope. We didn't wait. We hardcore Netflix binged.
In short, humanity has retreated behind 50 meter high walls when gigantic titans popped out of nowhere and began eating people.
I was really frustrated a few months ago when I heard some people were annoyed with the characters being too emotional. So, i watched the whole season again to see if I agreed with their perspective. Well, I have to say, I think they're wrong. Here's why.
Our story begins within Wall Maria (pronounced MAH-ree-ah, not MUH-ree-ah) when this guy shows up and kicks a big hole in the wall. Like a jerk.
And this guy, called the Colossal Titan, is HUGE. Like 60 meters tall, huge. Here's a graphic to show my point.
The protagonist, Eren Jaeger, is determined to destroy all titans after he watches while his mom is bit in half by this creeper.
Yep. Super sad. Here's a clip in case you want to watch the sadness.
Moving on, Eren and his two friends, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert escape with only a fraction of the population from the city. After being dealt rations and feeling useless, Eren finally decides to enlist in the military in hopes of joining the scout regiment to find out the secrets of the titans. Mikasa and Armin follow him and off to training they go.
While in training, you meet a lot of characters that you learn to love quickly.
P.S. I already know that this advice won't be followed(even by myself), but don't love ANYONE.
Among these are Sasha Braus, Connie Springer, Jean Kirstein and Marco Bott. There are others, but these are notably my favorites.
On the top row from left to right:
Mikasa Ackerman, Reiner Braun, Bertholt Hoover, Annie Leonhart, Eren Jaeger, Jean Kierstein,
Marco Bott, Connie Springer, Sasha Braus, Historia Reiss, Ymir, and Armin Arlert
TANGENT TIME: Sasha is AMAZING. Just amazing. The end.
Anyway, training isn't going to well for Eren, who can't seem to balance on his Omni-Directonal Mobility Gear. (AKA ODM gear) This gear is crucial in fighting titans, in that it gives soldiers a way to reach their only weak spot, which is the nape of the neck. And Eren has a lot at stake; if he can't balance on the ODM gear, then he'll be sent to work in the fields and won't be allowed to be a soldier anymore.
Watch this clip. Watch it. Just do it.
Lucky for him, his gear was faulty, so the fact that he balanced when it was broken was AMAZING. (And yes, he's an intense individual, but if you saw your mom get eaten by a smiling monster, I think you'd be a little angry too.)
Anyway, graduation day comes and they're off to the wall for watch duty. And just as Eren is feeling confident in humanity's future, THIS HAPPENS.
And this is where the bloodbath begins.
Mikasa tries to stay back with Eren and he convinces her to join the front lines. He promises not to be killed, and she leaves to fulfill her duty.
Later, Armin is about to be eaten (he's paralyzed in fear from being face to face with a real titan), so Eren races to his aid, only to have his leg bitten off. Yikes.
Armin is about to be swallowed by a titan that looks like Santa Claus, but Eren dives in and throws Armin out. Then, Eren gets eaten, losing his arm. Armin looks on in horror.
Meanwhile, the other soldiers are horrified when the supply building is surrounded by titans.
He wakes up to be surrounded by Connie, Christa, and Ymir. The four of them meet at a rally point and he faces Mikasa about Eren's fate and blames himself. Mikasa makes a speech to the others and she uses up way too much gas with her ODM gear, causing her to fall into an alleyway. This is when we learn why she's so obsessed with Eren's safety.
When she was younger, her parents were killed and she was kidnapped. Her captors were going to sell her into slavery when Eren came to her aid, killing two of the three.
Yup, that's when Josh and I were sure he was psycho. But a brave one.
The third tries to strangle Eren and he tells her to stand up and fight if she wants to survive.
Suddenly, she's faced with a titan, she does her best to fight back and she's saved by another titan when it punches the first one in the face. She watches in amazement, and the first titan is beaten to a pulp.
 |
| Armin Arlert |
Once this fact was brought to light, Josh and I stared at each other, mouths dropped open and stared at each other for a good long minute or so.
Here's what Eren looks like in his titan form.
And when Mikasa pulls Eren from his dying titan form, they actually have a tender moment. This is the point where they realize his arm and leg have grown back as well.
The Scout Regiment soldiers are brought in to kill as many titans as possible.
The soldiers who saw Eren being pulled from the titan agree to keep it a secret. But another man, Kitts, saw what was happening and he brought Mikasa, Armin and Eren to a secluded spot which was surrounded by cannons after the two of them defended their friend. Eren tells Kitts that he doesn't remember turning into a titan and he isn't sure how his limbs grew back. But a frightened Kitts commands that all three are shot with cannons. In the heat of the moment, Eren partially changes into a titan to protect his friends.
Kitts is really freaked out now, but Armin tries to reason with him that Eren isn't dangerous to humanity. Kitts demands the cannons are fired when Commander Pixis shows up and puts a stop to it.
I love this guy.
Commander Pixis has an idea to use Eren's abilty to plug up the hole made by the Colossal Titan. They go through with the plan and Eren succeeds, and is taken into Military custody.
After the plan is done and all the remaining titans are killed, the soldiers begin piling up bodies of their fallen comrades.
OH, AND Jean finds half of Marco's corpse (AKA his best friends corpse) next to a building and I cried. A LOT.
Finally, you meet the Scout Regiment commander, Erwin Smith, and his subordinate Levi Ackerman (no known relation to Mikasa) when they visit him in prison. After hearing Eren's reasons for wanting the titans dead, Levi decides to have Eren join his regiment, and he makes it clear that he'll kill Eren if he goes rogue.
And that's it for part 1! I know this is a long post, but I LOVE this series so much that I had to share!
Going back to my complaint of some people thinking that the people in this series are too emotional, they're watching families die. Men, women, children. Their comrades die; the people they trained with for years and trust with their lives. THEY'RE WATCHING HUMANITY'S EXTINCTION, FOR HEAVENS SAKE.
I think they have the right to be at least a little emotional, especially considering that most of the main characters are in their older teens. There. Rant done. (For now...)
Thanks for reading! I'll make a Shingeki no Kyojin Season 1 Part 2 post hopefully soon!
Love, Mackenzie
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