In the first season of Attack on Titan, the central character, Eren Yaeger says, "Fight! It's the only way to live!" I mean, I say "says." He shouts it. He shouts almost everything. I heard once that auditioning for a role on this show was hard on the voice actors. They had to prove they could scream like their testicles had been grabbed by a viper. It shows in the production quality. It has a tone of desperately trying to save your balls from a snake.
That philosophy of fighting being the only way to live fills the whole show. Including, I think, the experience of watching it. It's a physically uncomfortable show to watch at times because of the tone of the screams, mainly.
The tone of the story, though, is a constant confrontation. The writers seem driven to demand, "why are you watching this?" and when you keep watching, their reaction is, "okay--you're funeral." The story takes every chance to attack the notions a viewer might bring with them. It establishes, for example, an idea that a desperate struggle will be worth it if you keep fighting. Then it keeps not being worth it.
I've tried to get through Attack on Titan four times, and I finally watched the whole series. In itself, that ought to be a cruel indictment of the show, because if it didn't hold my attention the first time then it should be dismissed.
Yet I couldn't. I wanted to just forget about it. Couldn't do that either. So I persisted.
It has a strange, gripping nature to it. The twists, while they all feel like betrayals, are satisfying in their symmetries. The physical discomfort of listening to the show speaks to a wildness that entertainment so often lacks. It's untethered, allowed to be too much.
And it's visually beautiful. Shocking and occasionally icky, but usually quite pretty.
So it leaves me conflicted. Should you watch Attack on Titan?
Which is also one of the more profound demonstrations of theme I have ever encountered in a story.
Eren said it: Fight! That's the only way to live.
I don't think I enjoyed Attack on Titan. It dared me to fight through it, though, and I do feel rewarded by the experience.
Should you watch Attack on Titan?
The premise of the show is the people living inside of a city cope with constant invasions by mindless titans who want to eat them. They use a steam-punk-esque bag of technology to even the odds against a bigger and stronger set of opponents, using cunning and mobility to gain advantages. The progress of the show is laid on what turns out to be an intricate set of conspiracies and plots that push each other towards explorations of deep human questions. Its central theme is "fight," but it leans heavily into a lot of historically-informed explorations of the dangers of bigotry--familiar without being allegorical. Pretty impressive balance.
So should you watch Attack on Titan? If that makes your curious then go for it. I don't regret giving it space in my head, but I won't ever become one of this show's champions.