Attack on Titan Review & Characters - The World is Cruel (Shingeki no Kyojin)

  • Episodes : 25
  • Genre : Action, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen, Super Power
  • Airing Date : Apr 7, 2013 - Sep 28, 2013
  • Producers : Production I.G, FUNimation,


Attack on Titan Preview / Plot (No Spoilers)

Attack on Titan is about mankind almost being extinct several hundred years ago by giant humanoid creatures called titans. The titans are several stories tall, and resemble a regular human being. They also appear to have no intelligence whatsoever while they devour any human in its sight, the worst thing about it all, is the titans seem to kill for the pleasure of it and not as a source for food.

Time goes by and humanity has been reduced to a very small percentage of survivors who built great walls to protect themselves from invasion of the titans. These walls are taller than the biggest of all titans. The story then follows Eren, Armin, and Mikasa, three kids who have seen the devastation first hand from the colossal titan that appears out of thin air and puts a hole in one of the walls.

Because of seeing what has happened and knowing he can do something to help, he vows to kill every single last titan in order to take revenge for the death of his mother and what they have done against humanity.

Who does Attack on Titan cater to?

Aside from the series taking place a hundreds of years from the present setting of the series, titans have been terrorizing mankind and no one really knows the true nature of the titans. With that being said and not spoiling anything from the series, how would you have responded or acted in the situation presented for the characters in the series?

If you like an show that has tons of action and never shortens the amount of thrills and tragedy, while still presenting a great knowledge of what it's like to be human and fight for all of humanity, then Attack on Titan is for you! This series is packed with epic battles and emotional feelings.

What's so appealing about this piece of work.

The most appealing thing about Attack on Titan, is the amount of tragedy it presents in the series. This stretches out to show the human emotion in various ways like fear, depression, anger, and revenge. The show also has some significant qualities to it as far as life values and what it means to be human, all while trying not to loose faith in each other.

There are several cases when you think a person has lost faith in continuing to fight a good fight, but then, something extraordinary takes place.

TV anime "Attack on Titan" PV

Attack on Titan Main Characters List

Eren Yeager

Voice Actor :Yuki Kaji

Eren is the kind of person that acts on impulse and doesn't full think about his actions other just knowing what is right and wrong, or what someone should do or not. Even though he has these qualities about him, he is somewhat weak and can't really act on his own without any sort repercussion. His father is a well respected doctor and his mother is a loving housewife.

Eren has saved Mikasa in a situation where she now stands by his side through thick and thin. Eren is full of pride and determination, he joins the military in order to avenge his mothers death when the kingdom was attacked by titans. The unique thing about Eren, is his father injected him with something that gives him abilities you would never have imagined.

Mikasa Ackerman

Voice Actor :Yui Ishikawa

Mikasa is the adopted sister of Eren. She was rescued by Eren when her family was suddenly attack and killed by human traffickers. Because of this, she has an unbreakable bond with Eren that strengthens as they grow together.

She is very skillful and possesses great agility and combat training that surpasses everyone else. She is constantly looking out for Eren and protects him with her life.

Armin Arlert

Voice Actor :Marina Inoue

Armin is Eren's best friend and companion in arms. What Armin lacks in strength, he makes up for in emotional strength and intelligence as genius on theoretical courses. He is a brilliant individual who devises tactical plans under extreme pressure.

He's always hated himself for relying on Eren and Mikasa to watch out for him, but that all changes in the face of battle.


Contains Spoilers

Attack on Titan Review

Attack on Titan, also known as Shingeki no Kyojin in Japanese, is probably one of the most successful anime series in the past couple of years. It has been so popular, a live action movie is in the works, and Universal Studios in Japan had a exhibit for the series in the amusement park.

To start things off, Attack on Titan is one of my favorite series, and has been since it released in 2013. The series has some crazy scenes that are intense, and because of the situations in them, you feel terrible every time a person is killed. The first episode starts off in a way that seems similar to your standard series based on the soldiers of war and how the few people find them to be heroes and inspirations. Those who are inspired never know what's really happening until they see it for themselves.

Now, I was thinking, this was going to take a few episodes for the fan boy of the heroes to go through training and be on a high horse from it all, and then experience everything which would break his spirit, and he would die. That was my first theory as I watched the first episode. Well, that was completely not the case. Maybe like 7-10 minutes...death...tragedy...tons of gore. If there was a way to get anyones attention at 100%, only a few minutes in, this series did. After seeing what Eren, who is the fan boy and main character, was like and cared about the most. You can see how much pride he had in himself which made him very unease and always acting on impulse.

Eren is reckless, but he's also a puritan. That changes in an instant when a colossal titan appears and puts a hole in the first Wall of Maria and lets other titans freely enter the kingdom, causing chaos and mass killings. Eren's mother was one of the people killed in the massacre, and was probably one of the most devastating deaths I have seen in a while. This is due to how Eren and his family were presented in the first episode, it provided enough emotion that almost made you want to cry, if I wasn't already in shock from the scene.

There are a lot of references to the art of war and the citizens of war in Attack on Titan. To the soldiers fighting for the kingdom, and the refugees working to provide for themselves, while trying to coup with their losses.

The story has you following the lives of Eren and his companions as they grow from weak children to heroes of the Kingdom. They battle these mysterious titans who appear out of the blue causing chaos. No one really knows anything about the titans as they continue to lose more and more people in battle. Mankind is on the brink of extinction. What I liked the most about this series is also what made me confused and upset when it ended. I liked that they never really gave away any information about the titans, it provided an understanding that could only be seen through the eyes of the people.

Even though most of it was fear and death, it was presented in a realistic way that would make sense if something like this were to really happen. The part that got me the most though, was when Eren had the dream of his father injecting him with some kind of serum, and then waking up. Later on realizing that he has the power to transform into a titan. Ok, I somewhat understand that, that type of thing happens in anime all the time, and I expected an explanation for it as well. When suddenly another titan appears, the female titan, I was thinking how many different types of titans are there.

The female titan has the same amount of intelligence as the colossal titan and the armored titan, which has the viewers guessing they're the ones in charge of the others. The female titan is aware of Eren and his abilities, and that just had me really guessing at that point, there must be someone on the inside of the kingdom that is working with the titans?! That's when it hit me, going back to Eren being injected and his father mentioning the basement of the house and how the answers are within it, there could actually be others like him. But who? That's when I personally think the story takes us all on a really crazy ride in search for something greater than any of us realized, and whatever is in the basement will definitely reveal all.

Now, here is the point of the show that made me somewhat confused, furious, and yet, wanting more. The military discovered there are others like Eren, ok, expected. They also discover that the female titan is Annie because of her unique fighting style in hand-to-hand combat and her actions when she was in the military with Armin. Armin is the one who puzzled the pieces together and revealed it was her, brilliant work from a very intelligent individual. They devise a plan to capture her with the help of Eren in titan mode, Annie is subdued in titan form but sacrifices herself into a crystalized cocoon in order to keep the secrets everyone want to know, because there is obviously a bigger picture to all of this.

Eren is somewhat imprisoned within the capital, while the Survey Corp has Annie locked up deep underground. Then basically, the series ends on the biggest cliffhanger I have ever experienced from watching an anime. This isn't just an episode, it was the whole series. There was no real closure to the story, no real guarantee anyone was safe, Eren's fate has yet to be decided, and we still don't know what the hell is in the basement. Sigh. That's why I can't wait to see what the outcome is to this epic series. The other thing that pisses me off, is its going to have been 3 years by the time the second season is released. Why have I been waiting so long? All I know is, the second season better be epic, the creators had enough time to make it great and I expect nothing less.

1. Military Soldiers

Garrison, Survey Corp and the Military Police are charged with defending the walls and the citizens within the kingdom. The Garrison is tasked with patrolling and protecting the Walls from the titans.

The Survey Corp is tasked with reclaiming lost territory from the titans and the Military Police is tasked with keeping order in the kingdom and also protecting the King.

2. 3D Maneuver Gear

Also called the Vertical Maneuver Gear, it is a gear developed by humans which allows them to have great mobility in the air when facing titans in combat. This allows the soldiers to fight in a three dimensional area for a more tactical approach in fighting.

To use this gear, the users must well trained in order to use it.

3. Titans

No one knows where these titans came from, but what is known is there are many sizes and types of titans. There are the regular titans that resemble are regular person, but are very tall. There is also female titan, a colossal titan, titan shifters, and an armored titan.

They all are extremely unpredictable, but the female, armored, and colossal titans are the scariest ones. Maybe it's because they have intelligence that makes more dangerous.


Overall, Attack on Titan is probably one of the best series out there. It has great character development, even though the characters have a very short life expectancy in the series, you feel more for their death.

The visuals in the series were amazing and well done in my opinion, it present some beautiful imagery with great cinematic camera movements.


attack-on-titan-dvd1-300x423 Attack on Titan Review & Characters - The World is Cruel (Shingeki no Kyojin)

Editor in Chief

Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz

I'm a Geek, Nerd, Writer, and lover of all video games, anime, science, technology and the internet. I previously worked for STFUandPlay.com, a contributing writer as the Japanese Corespondent at TheKoalition.com and founded a website called Transcend-Gaming.com! I currently live in Japan as Editor in Chief of Honey's Anime and its very talented writers! I'm down for anything! What do you want to do?

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