Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan (Japanese: 進撃の巨人; Hepburn: Shingeki no Kyojin,  lit.  "Advancing Giant") is a Japanese anime series based on the manga of the same name by Hajime Isayama. The first season aired in Japan between April and September 2013, the second season from April to June 2015, a third from July 2018 to June 2019, and a 4th and final season, which was released in December 2020 and will end in 2022. The English dub aired from May to November 2014, with its sequel airing from April to July 2017.

Plot
One hundred years ago, after huge, humanoid man-eating Titans appeared, humans took refuge within walls. After the wall which protects their hometown of Shinganshina is breached by the Colossal Titan leading the other Titans to enter, Eren watches in horror as a smiling Titan eats his mother. Vowing to kill all the Titans, Eren enlists in the military, along with his childhood friends Mikasa Ackermann and Armin Arlert. Throughout his adventures, he runs into conflict with other military soldiers, and learns more about the Titans and their origins.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The animation and art is amazing, even better than the manga's art.
 * 2) Powerful and emotional music, courtesy of Hiroyuki Sawano (Blue Exorcist, Kill La Kill, The Seven Deadly Sins).
 * 3) The theme song is very interesting and catchy to listen to.
 * 4) The Japanese voice acting is a dramatic phenomenon, with the best performance being Yuki Kaji as Eren. Other voice actors did good jobs as well, especially Hiroshi Kamiya as Levi and Yoshimasa Hosoya as Reiner.
 * 5) The story and overall premise is very interesting, as it is a unique spin on the zombie apocalypse premise.
 * 6) Eren Jaeger is one of the best-written protagonists in fiction.
 * 7) Its immense popularity led to a prequel subtitled No Regrets, a spin-off subtitled Junior High, merchandise, a two-film live-action movie series, and a slew of video games, two of which were released internationally.
 * 8) Amazing character designs, for both humans and Titans.
 * 9) Took liberties with its dark tone for including a lot of gore and shocking moments, more than Tokyo Ghoul, but not as much as Deadman Wonderland.
 * 10) One of the best war dramas in film and television history, as the story involves teenagers and young adults forced to enlist in the military at such young ages and risking their lives to protect their home society.
 * 11) Masterfully-performed intro and outro songs. The first three intros and the fourth outro are performed by Japanese band Linked Horizon, with the first, Guren no  (lit. "Crimson Bow and Arrow"), or The Rumbling by SiM being used in many videos having nothing to do with Attack on Titan.
 * 12) This is one of the few modern anime that are actually completely faithful to the manga with little to no filler.
 * 13) Amazing English dub from Bryce Papenbrook (Kirito from Sword Art Online) as Eren, Trina Nishimura (Kyoka Jiro from My Hero Academia) as Mikasa, Josh Grelle (Fumikage Tokoyami from My Hero Academia) as Armin, Matthew Mercer (Leorio from Hunter X Hunter) as Levi, and more!
 * 14) Starting with the second season, English-dubbed episodes air almost immediately after Japanese broadcast.
 * 15) The other dubs - French, Spanish (both Spain and Latin America), German, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean - are mostly well-translated and well-voiced-over.
 * 16) Epic soundtrack composed by Hiroyuki Sawano,also the openings and endings sung by Linked Horizon,cinema staff and Shinsei Kamattechan,the manga author's favorite band.
 * 17) There are plenty of anime-exclusive scenes and dialogue that act as foreshadowing in later events of the manga, most notably with Eren planning to obtain freedom by destroying the world during his fight with Annie.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The pacing of the anime, especially in the first half of Season 1, needed some work. Most episodes were just unnecessary dialogue. Luckily, the two anime films, which recap the first season, fix that by removing a lot of said dialogue.
 * 2) The Italian dub lacks proper screaming, which was one reason behind the show's infamy. When Armin screamed, it sounded like he was crying, and when Eren's Titan form roars, it sounds like he's yawning.
 * 3) The anime and posters depict the Colossus Titan/Bertholdt Hoover as the main villain, but in reality, he's a secondary villain and the real main villains are the Marleyan Government (season 3), and Eren Yeager (Final Season) though they appear to be great a threat in the first three seasons.
 * 4) Season 4 is animated by Studio MAPPA instead of Wit Studio. As the first previews show, there are many inconsistencies with the first 3 seasons regarding the artstyle, some manga readers also did not agree with the adaption. However, MAPPA still did a good job on that.
 * 5) * One of the best scenes and shots from the trailer were never present in the final product.
 * 6) The CGI on the Titans (from seasons 2 - onwards) can look unfinished.

Trivia

 * Attack on Titan is not only popular in Japan, but also in several countries internationally, and has gained a large and active international fanbase.