It reeked too much of barely constrained fascism, both in the media itself, and in the fanbase, for me to stick around for longer than half of the first season. Having learned about how hardline a nationalist the author is, that doesn’t surprise me-- but I also can’t tolerate it myself

me everyday people post AoT when they could be agitating for a new Beserk OVA.

I enjoyed it very much. It still bothers me that it does blood libel though.

Great worldbuilding but ultimately it is ruined by it’s childish politics.

Has there ever been a better OP then season 1 of AoT?

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How did they salvage the ending?

Haven’t read the manga and I haven’t watched the last episode, but I like it well enough.

Idrc about author’s intent in this case because I read it as a portrayal of imperialistic nationalism taken to its logical conclusion: total annihilation. I deliberately ignore most parallels between the AoT world and the real world (Japan, Israel, Holocaust) because if I acknowledged them the show would probably be incredibly lib.

And I love me some overdramatic slop sometimes.

I’ve watched it as it was released tbf, maybe if I get around to it I’ll rewatch it from the beginning with a more critical eye.

I hear a lot of people say AoT is fascist, but I’ve never seen it and only know the most basic details (medieval setting, giants attack fortress city, heroes fight them off). Can someone fill me in.

Idk about AoT, I bailed after a person got eaten, but can’t all anime be described as having an insufferable fan base? I literally don’t talk about it IRL. If someone starts the conversation, maybe I’ll join in, but only when it comes to mecha. Average people don’t give you as much side eye if you’re talking giant robots. I won’t talk about all the other shows I watch bc they associate that with weirdos. It’s true, I am a weirdo, but at least I know when to keep my mouth shut about it.

true dat, WIT fight scenes were goated and MAPPA wasn’t bad either

I’m a big fan of worldbuilding and historical lore in shows, so I was pretty impressed with Attack on Titan, plus the characters all seem to have rational motivations, and it was fun to piece together everything on a re-watch.

I’m a bit confused about the claims that the author is fascist. I admit I haven’t looked into in great depth, the biggest evidence I’ve seen is that the character Pixis is based off of Akiyama Yoshifuru, an imperialist general, and that the author has stated he admires him greatly. Granted, that’s not a good look, but I’m not entirely sure about the context on this, for all I know, he might admire him the same way one might admire Genghis Khan, not based on any sort of moral compass, but rather on a “Wow, that’s a lot of conquering.”

But I digress, regardless of the author’s views, just from watching the anime twice with at least a modest amount of literary analysis ability, I can’t see how the show can be interpreted as anything other than anti-fascist. Eren Jaeger is not sympathetic at all once he goes genocidal. Marley is basically a stand in for Nazi Germany and is portrayed as barbaric and monstrous. Most of the atrocities committed by the Titan Holders is based in trauma and is the direct consequence of military indoctrination and nationalistic fervor. I must admit, Armin justifying the slaughter of thousands of civilians left a bad taste in my mouth, I do wish the show went further into exploring his traumatic change in character. As it stands, he’s usually portrayed as the level-headed one, so people might think of him as morally justified. But all in all, it seems like the thesis of the show is that trauma begets trauma, and nationalistic attitude is the root cause of most of it.

I mean, please correct me, I definitely do not want to be militarist apologist, but I’ve heard this sentiment quite a lot on the internet, and I don’t think it’s been satisfactorily explained to me yet.