My feelings on it are mixed. On the one hand, I really do appreciate the nature of the Titans themselves being creatures that we don't quite understand and are killing humans for seemingly no reason (at least they haven't directly given one yet). I appreciate how brutal the world can be at times, though all the people saying that any character can die at any time, that simply isn't true. It APPEARED to be for quite a while, but that was proven to be false (and I maintain that the series would have been better for it if that stayed true). The story is no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it's presented in a fresh way, especially compared to a lot of the crap anime being churned out recently. The cast is interesting enough and the voice acting is solid. One thing I particularly like is that quite a few of the female characters actually have distinct facial features, as I find it annoying that female characters frequently have very bland or interchangeable faces (with only eyes and hair to differentiate them, though this is certainly not true about ALL anime). Animation can be gorgeous at times, though I'm still 50/50 on the weird clash of art style in drawing the characters versus the way the environments are drawn. I will say I've always loved the titan designs though. Many of them shouldn't be scary at all, and yet that somehow makes them more creepy to me. I will also say that I appreciate one scene in particular that does a very nice job of undermining the typical anime way of "friends and friendship will win out in the end". I won't say what it is for those who haven't watched/finished it yet. But it was very refreshing with this kind of material.
The series does have problems though, make no mistake. Eren as a character just isn't that interesting or impressive. He is a cookie-cutter angsty shounen protagonist Mikasa can be interesting or cool at times, but her constant attachment to Eren does get on your nerves after a while (especially when she can't go a few minutes without calling his name). It does lose a bit of steam after Trost is retaken. Another issue is that I didn't enjoy where they ended it on, while I understand why they chose that point, leaving the season to end when it did wasn't that dramatic or interesting. The action scenes can be spectacular at times, but sometimes the scenes of them talking while using their 3D gear are utterly ridiculous. Yes, I know they talk while doing this, but you've made a point to show they are effectively swinging like spider-man. Don't just have them floating through the air when they need to talk. It looks weird and completely out of place. The anime also isn't helped by the fact they had to tone down some of the more graphic scenes, which tends to diminish the tone and nature of the series (I started reading the manga when the anime adaptation was announced, so I've seen just how violent and brutal it can be).
Ultimately I would say it's solid, and I'm glad the anime is spacing out the source material so they don't run out of story and have to create their own filler. It has flaws, and I would say the series has been hyped up far too much. Then again I can't blame people for getting excited about it considering how boring/uninteresting/awful a lot of anime has been in recent years. It's nice to see one come out that's pretty decent (this isn't to say there haven't been any good ones, but there have been far too few that have made me care). My final thoughts though, is that the series should not have veered off in part of the direction it did, the moment when a very powerful, early scene with Eren was undercut was the moment where my opinion on the series went from being extremely excited to just being interested. A good series but nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking. Though if you don't mind reading, I would say read the manga over watching the anime. The artwork portrays the themes a lot better and the pacing is a bit better.
Also, Hanji Zoe is my hero.
