Attack on Titan (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2560140/) is a new anime show which just popped up on Netflix with very good reviews. I had never watched an anime show before and decided to check it out due to the cool premise and sheer curiosity. I was not disappointing.
It’s about a post-apocalypse scenario where most of humanity was killed by these mindless humanoid giant beings called titans, and the survivors now live in a small walled off region. In the first episode, the walls are breached by a new type of Titan and the ensuing attack kills about 20% of the surviving humans. From then on, the show follows a group of young soldiers who join the military to fight the Titans.
The philosophy and aesthetics of the show are fascinating. The primary over-arching theme is about the importance of total warfare. Most of the good guys act like the villains in any other military-themed story, by continually pressing for extreme measures to defeat the titans, while the bad guys are either too cowardly, mystical, or weak willed to do what’s necessary to fight back. The protagonist borders on the psychotic in his drive to destroy the titans.
Aesthetically, there are a lot of romantic elements. The characters all represent clear concepts or moral ideas, even minor ones. The art style is beautiful, and the Titans are brilliantly creepy.
Has anyone else watched it? If not, I recommend it.