Attack on Titan (Shingeki No Kyojin) ★★

The Walls

Attack on Titan or Shingeki No Kyojin (SNK for short) takes place in an apocalyptic world in which titans are forcing humanity into the brink of extinction. To protect themselves, the humans have created three huge walls known as Wall Maria, Wall Rose, and Wall Sina.

The Colassal Titan

One day a titan known as the Colossal Titan  breaks through Wall Maria and attacks the city in which the main characters live. Titans generally range from 3 to 15 meters tall and eat humans, not out of necessity, but out of pleasure. They have no reproductive organs, have hard skin, regenerative abilities, and are have high body temperatures shown by the steam they emit from their skin The only known way to kill them is to carve a large incision at the base of their necks.

Eren Jaeger, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, and his friend Armin Arlet are amidst the attack and fearfully run for their live and regrettably, leave Eren's mom to be eaten by a titan. Eren then vows to kill all of the titans and decides to enlist in the military and so Mikasa and Armin decide to join him.

Armin, Eren, and Mikasa

Levi Revaille

Annie Leonhart

Eren is later found to have the ability to turn into a titan and so the military try to use that to their advantage though Eren sometimes loses control of himself in titan form. As a result he is put under the close supervision of Levi Rivaille who leads the Survey Corps' Special Operations Squad. Other characters are discovered to be Titan Shifters
as well such as Annie Leonhart.

Eren and Mikasa have a dark history together that bind them in a way that is deeper than just a sibling relationship. Though Eren had saved Mikasa in the past, Mikasa is generally always saving Eren and keeping him out of trouble. Armin is the small nerdy boy who everyone picks on so Eren always tries to come to the rescue only to be saved in turn by Mikasa.

Eren Jaeger in Titan form

Eren is headstrong, impulsive, and rather stupid but he is determined, loyal, and most of all perseverant.

Mikasa Ackerman

Mikasa is calm, collected, and extremely adept at the art of killing titans.

Armin Arlet

Armin is timid but wicked smart and thus is a major tactician.

The anime itself is rather graphic and often shows body parts and blood flying everywhere. The manga shows the characters having a lot more depth than the anime does.

It's an interesting story line though it doesn't seem to go anywhere. There's supposed to be something hidden in Eren's basement that might give them a clue as to how and why Eren is a titan shifter but the reader has yet to find out what it is.

Several things are also not explained, such as the 3DMGs (three dimensional maneuvering gear). All that is mentioned about it is that it runs on gas. It is also not explained why Eren must bite his hand quite forcibly to activate the transformation into titan form.

Also the writer of the anime, Hajima Isayama, seems to have discarded Eren and goes more into detail about Levi which is rather strange saying as Eren is the main character. So as to where he is taking the story, I have no idea but am interested to find out.

The anime itself leaves a lot of unanswered questions so the manga is probably more recommended than the anime, but that's a matter of self preference.

Overall not a bad anime, but I would recommend reading the manga saying as the anime does not really explain anything, develop the characters, or go anywhere with the plot.