ATTACK ON TITAN

FRAME BY FRAME – LIVE ANIME WATCHTHROUGH BLOG

My history with Attack on Titan is much like any other attempt I’ve made to watch an anime that wasn’t concluded: I absolutely adored the first season when it came out. When the second season came out, I watched the first season, then adored the new season. Then the third came out, and I wasn’t satisfied with any of the recaps I watched on YouTube. I blinked and the fourth season was already out (kinda) and it’s been too long to remember anything.

This has happened with some of my favorite modern anime:

Attack on Titan (Adored S1, rewatched S1 for S2, and got lapped by 3 & 4)
My Hero Academia (Just a mess, still not caught up)
Tokyo Goul :re (The first two seasons would be on my Mt. Rushmore)
One Punch Man (Only two seasons so far but I’m on my third watch of Season One, with trepidation to start Mob Psycho)
Dragon Ball Super (I just kept rewatching DBZ, the first 5 episodes of GT, or the Beerus arc of DBS, but haven’t finished it)

That being said, the end is in sight. They’re currently producing Season 4: The Final Season: Part 3: Part 2 or some shit, and I have just enough time to start over and have all of the emotional beats hit correctly.

I started this show sad, single, migraine ridden insomniac college student with an appetite for $12.99/ handle vodka straight no chaser. I’ll be finishing it an in-shape late 20’s guy with a marketing job in downtown Boston living with my forever partner.

The first project I ever did on Adobe Illustrator was teaching myself how to make the Garrison Regiment badge with the pen tool. I watched half the first season on a family vacation using a free ad-supported Crunchyroll account laying on air mattress in the closet of my brother’s studio apartment in Miami.

Despite the rewatches, this finale will absolutely ruin me.

I love the early stages of this show. It was my first real modern anime besides Dragon Ball Z. It taught me about Manga and what spoilers can pop up on anime forums. It was my first Sub. It was the first time I truly appreciated how fucking powerful and emotional Japanese voice acting can be. Armin’s pleas to the government and Eren’s screams were guttural and give me chills just thinking about it.

Even the second season gave me solace while living at home over the summer, as I watched anime like AOT Season 2 and the original Fullmetal Alchemist on my aunt’s old exercise bike from the 1980’s.

It’s a shame I didn’t keep up with it during Season 3 and 4, as I was surprised it was still going despite how slow the production is. But that just allows me to create new, positive memories during a much better time in my life. I won’t have to look back with rose tinted glasses. I’m truly in the best spot I’ve ever been in physically, psychologically, nutritionally and sleep wise.

Instead of rushing or worrying about wasted time or shows I could be watching instead, I’m gonna enjoy this.

I can’t fucking wait for the ride.

Attack on Titan: Season One (Rewatch)

03/28/23 – Episodes 1-9: I’m Thinking I’m Back

I started Episode 1 & 2 while on the elliptical after work and I knew that I was fucked. The theme song is EXCEPTIONAL and so powerful I was shaking the elliptical. I was gonna start with one episode of AOT and one of My Hero Academia or Spy x Family, depending on my mood. But not only was I too addicted to pass up Episode 2, I nearly delayed dinner just to stay on the elliptical and watch Episode 3. I hoped that this would prove as an effective workout incentive. Which it did. I had three back to back elliptical days, and that just wasn’t gonna cut it. The next day , I watched three straight episodes after work.

05/04/23 – Episodes 9-13: Peak Anime

I had forgotten what a master class this show is, and not just a flashy action and gore way, but the poignant and nuance way that they portrayed fear, doubt, and devastation of the human spirit at every turn. For every epic titan slash, there’s a crushing loss, a horrible and pointless massacre for the characters to react to, for the camera to linger on, and for the viewer to have to digest. Some reminder of loss and trauma.

This show is constantly reminding you that they are not fighting tooth and nail and risking it all to drive out all the titans and keeping their old lives and sense of normalcy back. They’re doing everything in their power to simply slow the overwhelming discount, and buy them a handful of weeks or months, at most to find a solution to combat the ongoing and impending famine, The class war that’s getting ready to irrupt, and the emotionally and psychologically rocked civilians, trapped together, and on the verge of revolt and mass hysteria. The absolute, biggest miraculous victory was plug in the hole in the second wall, to keep more Titans from flooding in day by day. Hundreds of lives lost to simply pause the external threat long enough to lose dozens more trying to exterminate the existing threat, and to the Titans that are already occupying the rubble of their old homes and businesses, destroying more buildings by the second. Every crucial decision made by the true heroes in general, Pixie and the captain of the kill squad is made without the illusion of praise, or enshrinement in history Sitting around the corner. They know that the selfish cowards in power are waiting around the corner with court Marshall paperwork, a warrant for their arrest for crimes against humanity, and likely a noose for making the impossible choices that they themselves didn’t want to even think about it. There’s no naïveté or mincing words. Their hands will never be clean, and they’ll never be remembered as heroes. They’ll be remembered as incompetent and ill equipped for the situation at best, or is absolute monsters at worst. Yet they made the hard decisions anyways, for the sake of the present, and disregarding their own future. They’re pushing a car running on fumes to the absolute limit, knowing that they will never recover the car itself or be able to drive again in the future, but doing whatever it takes to get to the destinations in one piece. and the sad thing is the society that they are saving, and that will call the monsters is the same society that sent out more than half of their population to die. But they will have to live with that either way.

Armin truly shines and transcends anime with the performance and writing. Mikasa becomes a truly multi dimensional character with flaws and emotion, and the weakness and fear that she never had before. There is also the long awaited character development from Jaques as he leads his team out of danger, and nearly dies in the process. And while Erin may take a backseat as the main character, he shines in titan form and fuels some of the coolest scenes in the damn show. From the Titan, MMA to the blocking of the cannon and his epic boulder moment, it is truly the iconic piece of the show. The standoff scene is also one of the most tents and chilling scenes thus far.