Attack On Titan Is The Greatest Anime Of All Time For One Important Reason

Individual anime may do a few things better; for example, Demon Slayer has better animation, and One Piece is more colorful and upbeat, but there’s no other anime series, or, to be honest, any other television or streaming series, that can beat Attack on Titan where it really counts: the story. Written by Hajime Isayama, the manga told a tight story that folded in on itself and slowly expanded over the years, until it was a world-encompassing epic. In what is, sadly, a rarity these days, the anime managed to stay true to the manga the whole way through, and that’s why this is the greatest series of all time.

Attack on Titan opens with a deceptively simple episode; a massive being called a Titan appears one day and breaks down Wall Maria, a massive structure protecting the remnants of humanity from the monstrous Titans on the other side. The young boy Eren and his friends, Mikasa and Armin, are in the middle of the city when the attack happens, and by the time they reach Eren’s mother, she’s consumed by a Titan. The series then moves forward when the kids are older and join the Scout Regiment so that they can learn how to use the omnidirectional gear and take the fight to the Titans.

Over the next few arcs, the story slowly expands from the interior of the last bastion of humanity to the outskirts beyond where Wall Maria fell. What other series can make setting out for a basement so compelling and dramatic? The pacing of Attack on Titan is second to none, and unlike other series with an ever-expanding cast of characters, Isayame makes everyone feel important, and characters you barely tolerate at the beginning will become your favorites by the time the final credits roll.

When Attack on Titan takes a sudden dramatic shift in Season 4, the artistry of the series becomes apparent. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t say what happens, but at one point, you’ll want to go back to the very first episode and give it a re-watch. I was blown away by the intricate connections I missed the first time.

Re-watching the series is especially easy, as unlike other anime that run for 60+ episodes, Attack on Titan has no filler episodes. Even anime with half the number of episodes, such as Spy x Family, use filler episodes to buy time for more manga chapters to be published. There’s none of that here, and even at some points when you think it’s a filler episode, it’s not, as everything, no matter how out of place it seems, is filled with meaning in retrospect.

Attack on Titan is also gorgeous to watch; wait until you see Levi Ackerman flying through the air to take on a Titan all by himself. The stellar characters make you feel emotion for literal potatoes, as every single character’s death, and there’s a lot of those, will feel like a gut punch. No other series will break your heart with faceless, nameless grunt deaths like this one.

REVIEW SCORE

Now that the story is complete, there’s no better time to go back and binge Attack on Titan on Crunchyroll, Disney+, or Hulu. If you’ve seen it before, go watch it again, and if you’ve never seen an anime before, this is one of the best introductory anime. Be careful, though, as once you’ve experienced this series, every other anime will pale in comparison.