Shingeki no Kyojin ~ Attack on Titan (ep. 1-18)
I'm totally spoilered about this series, so my perspective is pretty skewed, but I have to say I'm not... all that impressed.
The 3D Maneuvering Gear sequences are cool. The uniforms are pretty cool. But the storyline is really so-so.
Okay, the atmosphere is really grim and nasty, and humans are really portrayed as totally helpless, pathetic cowards, for the most part, who can only break down in fear and get eaten. Dark stuff. But...
Everyone acts like the deaths are shocking somehow, but the main characters are clearly delineated at the start of start of episode 4, when the instructor lists their strengths and weaknesses. You might think that group is the top ten of their years, and they mostly are -- with three exceptions. 1 - Armin, a main character, who gets included because he's important to the plot despite being a bad fighter. 2 - Marco, one of the top ten, who gets mysteriously excluded. Why? Because he's going to die. He's basically just there to drive in that death happens to "anyone". (Hahaha.) 3 - Christa. The reason is that she and Ymir don't get introduced until later in the manga. They only appear after Trost, really. In-story, you could probably say that the tenth spot hadn't been decided yet.
Thing is, the fact that Marco was left out and Armin was included makes it clear that narration was purely to show the audience who is important in the upcoming arc. Oh yes, "anyone" can die. Anyone not in that list is a side character and free to be killed as necessary. The only exceptions I can see are Christa and Ymir, who barely appear at all, since their storylines come much later. The adults are in the same way, really.
Then there's Eren's "Guts!" thing. It's so totally shounen it almost hurts. His special skill is determination! Even his ability to copy Annie's techniques after having them used against him once is totally shounen protagonist. I've seen that so many times it's not even funny.
I'm a little unsure how to feel about the serious way the show seems to take itself. I mean, many of its points are tried and true cliches -- weak point on the back of the neck, monsters that do nothing but kill humans -- and the show acknowledges how contrived they are and then tries to make logic out of them. But even with in-universe explanations for these things, they still feel contrived and stupid. I don't know.
Also, I was pretty meh about the opening, but it grew on me. The second one still sucks though.
Eren is good at motivational speeches, but the show goes out of its way to hammer in that he can't back up his talk at all. Also, he's seriously an ass to Mikasa. Overall, the show is kind of dull. I mean, most of every episode is spent showing how much most people suck. The proportion of "doing something" and "quivering in a corner uselessly" is so badly skewed, it's not even interesting to watch. It's like an American "horror" movie. Not with ghosts and scary things, but with gross dismemberment. Like... The Ruins, or something.
The fandom is crazy enough to almost make it worth it, though. Hahaha.