Possible Spoiler Alert!!
With the second season of Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) finally coming to light, expectations were running high. From a personal perspective however, I found the anime to be lacking and suffered from one of the worst anime releases to date. Why is this the case? If a four-year wait wasn’t enough to kill your enthusiasm for this anime, get ready for the anime to hit the brakes.
Note to the reader, Shingeki no Kyoujin is very enjoyable! Well at least the manga is…
4 Year Gap
Okay so it was closer to 3 years and 8 months. Either way it has become the elephant in the room that nobody truly wants to talk about. Why the hell did we have to wait four long years for a second season? Having done the math, at the release of Shingeki no Kyojin the manga had published 43 chapters. By the time the 25 episode first season had finished, 33 of the now 49 chapters had been used. (By the end of the season an additional 6 chapters had been released)
Was four years really necessary? Honestly no, but when you are still receiving profits there isn’t a real priority to start season 2 though either. This being said, there is a right way of doing things. I don’t believe any fan should have to wait as long as they did. Everybody knew with the hype surrounding it a second season was bound to occur. What should’ve occurred was either of the following.
- Hold off release of the anime for a year or two in order to enough content to support consecutive seasons. Sure, the public doesn’t receive the content right away, but we wouldn’t be starved of it for such a long period of time.
- Cut the first season in half. After watching the first season I would have been content watching up to episode 13 in the series. Then with a one year break open with episode 14 which has everything a season opener episode needs to pique interest. With the delay in time more manga chapters will have been released allowing for consecutive seasons to occur.
Budget
When Shingeki no Kyojin was released the high budget was evident from the opening and quick movements. Where the money was spent was debatable however.
Artwork
Many fans believe that the artwork for Shingeki no Kyojin to be world class. I agree to some extent, but it does fall short in one area, the characters. Almost having a cutout quality, there is a large outline on almost every character. If there was continuity in the art it may be understandable, but the scenery is the opposite. Not quite up to the standards of Shinkai, the background is still high quality. Paste your cutout quality characters on top and something stands out for all the wrong reasons.
Voice Actors/Actresses
High quality VA’s (Voice actors/actresses) can always bring popularity. In Shingeki no Kyojin’s case I felt that a star-studded cast might heighten the show.
- Eren’s VA, Kaji Yuki, was one of the better performers in my opinion, fitting the role nicely. Three other characters fell short in my opinion though.
- Romi Park’s voice has a hard time fitting the image of Zoe in my opinion. The distinctive tones used made me relate it back to Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist and made me fall away from her character.
- Yui Ishikawa, while not as well-known as others took the role of Mikasa. Yet the air around Mikasa was a bit too serious. Mikasa needed to feel listless with an undertone of strength, but it feels like there is too much energy in her voice.
- Lastly, is Levi. I know this might get a bit of hate, but Levi’s voice feels too mature for the character, or at least the way he is drawn. Personality-wise I can understand the casting, as it plays similar to Trafalgar Law from One Piece. Stature however kills it for me.
Verdict –
The anime has pushed the action genre on the title and I fear that when slower and more psychological parts of the story make their way in, viewer retention may fall. I find myself still reading it though since it is incredibly interesting. Is it the best? No. I find flaws in how author Hajime Isayama wrote it, but I still will enjoy what is given to me. I will however avoid the anime because it doesn’t justify what was written in my eyes.
