I'm a more frequent American TV shows watcher than Anime watcher. I have been watching multiple great TV shows in the past 10 years: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Lost, Westworld, The Boys, Dark, House of Cards, Sherlock etc. - just to name a few. Attack on Titan caught my attention one day after I checked the top 250 TV shows on IMDB and saw multiple 10/10 featured reviews from other people, especially considering that it's an anime that is ranked very high on the list.
Hence, I came to AoT with high expectation and after watching it, I'm surprised that it only gets a 9/10. This show is definitely not inferior to Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, though I understand that being an animated, foreign show means that it has to try much harder to prove its worth.
I find AoT to be almost perfect, and I don't think it's realistic to expect any shows to be perfect. After all, these pieces of arts are all created by human being and we are imperfect! What other reviewers said about AoT is absolutely true: AoT has incredible storytelling, world building, plot twist, foreshadowing, character development and excellent soundtracks. On top of that, I trust the hype also comes from the fact that this show builds such a strongly immersive world for viewers where one can feel being part of its world and understanding the characters' motives and actions. This exerts a strong impact on our feelings and the theme itself is so thought-provoking, which is not something a lot of shows could do. And trust me, I believe I watched enough good series and movies so as not to be easily impressed. On a side note, I don't find the lowest ratings for AoT justified, but rather superficial. Among the lowest reviews I've seen so far on IMDB, none has truly given a critical analysis of why the show is objectively bad - it's either coming from pure haters, those who are too impatient to watch the story in full or those who just don't want to understand the series because of existing bias. Also, any comments saying that AoT is predictable and cliché is the same as saying GoT is predictable too 😊.
The show keeps getting better and better after each season with lots of jaw-dropping twists. As such, I do respect its consistently high quality after 10 years since its first episode and after seeing multiple great TV series starting off well and had degrading quality after a few seasons. There is only 1 episode left and the show so far has only raised the bar after each episode. I know about the ending through the manga and I find it absolutely satisfying. It's considered to be a controversial ending where the fandom is splitted. But I think that's the beauty of this series - it's more real than a live-action show and it correctly depicts the actual world. There is no boundary of good or bad, right or wrong - it's all about perspective.
All in all, a phenomenal journey that I'm utterly grateful to embark on. An absolute 10/10 for this masterpiece - a pity that 10 is all there is to rate.
