Ok ... what in the hell? I've read 3 things on this thread that simply make me wish to tear out my hair in frustration. So here we go, rant incoming:
"AoT is badly paced" ... umm did you watch the show? The overall story is actualy really well paced and labeled. It follows a simple model of conected story arcs: Calamity happens, things get bleaker and bleaker untill with great sacrifices a partial victory is won and it may seem just for a moment that things might be looking up before reality crashes down and the next arc begins. It is a really good model of build up, climax, respite that cicles through the whole season. Most anime's out there can barely pull off one such cycle in a season, yet AoT does several, and people say it drags on too much and has too much filler? Are we living in bizaro wolrd? The pacing in AoT is almost perfect, best i've seen in a while. Also the story is miles ahead in complexity and intrigue than alot of anime i have seen (and i have seen ALOT of anime) and the world they create is the most believable i have seen in ages.
AoT is a shonen ... why? Why this label? I can see it for the first half of the season, but after the second story arc, things take a turn for political conspiracy, intrigue and character drama with less and less time spent just fighting titans. Hell, Eren transforms a grand total of 4 times in 25 episodes! If this was a shonen he would have done it at least 20 times. It has nothing of the shonen formula atached to it, yet people just casualy throw the label on and walk away smugly calling the show trash. How verry insightfull. Now if the show wasted it's time with MG fights against Titan of the day, or Titan on Titan fights with Eren in the spotlight for every friggin episode then shonen would have been perfect for it.
The "too much angst" bits ... it's not angst first of all. No one is going "nothing is worth it, only pain matters, the world is shit" and all the spiell. On the contrary, the main cast is defined by OPTIMISM AND DETERMINATION! no matter what happens, they believe in a beatifull world outside the walls, in the value of their fight and are determined to do everything they can to ensure a better future for manking. INCLUDING EREN. HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS QUALIFY AS ANGST? You should learn something about human emotion. Now anger, that i can get. But hey let me come on over and EAT YOUR FRIGGIN MOTHER RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU! Let's see how you reacted to that! If anything the fact he turns all the grief, depresion and pain into anger against what he views as the enemy of all makind and is willing to do anything (including become what he hates) to destroy the titans is god damn impresive. There is not an ounce of angst in this show, no character just sits in a corner with Crawling palying in the background and just complains that the world is pain. Oh the world is pain and death and the atmosphere is opresive. Yet all the characters of the main cast are activly fighting against that, not bitching about it.
2 final notes: watch the whole show before writing it off like garbage! If you don't watch it to the end, all your opinions about the shows quality hold little actual significance. And second: IF you are capable of calling the retarded piece of shit called Kill la Kill "best anime of the year" then my friend you are not even worth the air your breathe. That is pure anime garbage fanservice made only for a new line of love pillows. And yes I HAVE SEEN the show ... but i wish i hadn't ... it's garbage.
PS: SAO fans? Ever heard of Log Horizon? It's still airing but from what i've seen so far it's miles ahead of SOA (which started ok then pissed all over it's potential and set it on fire. and i still stuck with it)
