Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new discussion and catchup series for Attack on Titan. This is taking over the anime slot filled previously by Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. I have heard good things about this and will try not to let my love for FMAB influence my opinions early on for this.

Going in I knew nothing about this and wasn’t sure if Titan was a name of place, but it ended up being giant red dudes known as Titans. It turned out that they were the bigger of two species of giants tormenting a city. I actually found the smaller more human looking ones creepier and I did find myself with one big question. Do they really all need to be naked? Surely they could have threw a loin cloth on them or something? The opening mention of when everything changed reminded me of Avatar and that wall was rivalling that of Ba Sing Se. It was pretty impressive (before it got knocked down) as giants had only scratched at it for 100 years. And of course the theme song was really good, and I don’t speak Japanese! Just a great track to get you pumped.

I took a liking to the guard the kids met early on, but knew that all he was saying was going to end up being wrong. He was way too sure that nothing was going to happen that in turn you knew something had to happen: it wasn’t the subtlest of foreshadowing. I was actually really glad when he turned up at the end of the episode to help. He didn’t seem overly terrified of the giant, maybe he had yet another drink to settle his nerves? But it was great to see him burst into action even though he never thought he would have to.

There were a couple of good quotes this episode that I noted down. “That’s what happens when pride takes you outside the walls” was an interesting one as it added to the common thought they were safe inside the walls. There was no need to go out there, yet the giant’s lack of success in breaking the wall convinced soldiers that they could cause no damage at all. You tell that to the guy who had all but his arm eaten! And why on earth would you bring that arm back to his mum? Was that weird or is it just me? Especially when the guy then rues salt in the wound by saying that her son died for nothing! This dude needs some sensitivity training. The second line was said both at the beginning and the end: “home is like a pen and humanity is the cattle”. It played up the sheer hopelessness that we saw when the giants broke through. There is nothing they can really do to stop them. The difference in power is just too vast and being in that situation would be absolutely terrifying.

I would just like to say that I was not ready for that ending. My mouth was hanging open for the latter minutes of the episode as I watched a woman be picked up, snapped basically in half, and then eaten by a big naked dude while her child watched. This was only episode 1! At least FMAB waited a couple of episodes before (SPOILER) that guy stuck his daughter and her dog together! In spite of that, I am interested to see where this story goes and how they manage to even the odds against these giants. I am not overly fond of Aaron at the moment: he was a bit of an arse throughout the episode and he got on my nerves a little. And I wonder if we’ll ever get to see what he was so excited about behind that locked door? Apart from that a very strong opening and look forward to see what happens next.

DD Rating: 7.5/10