Attack on Titan - Movie

I’ll be honest, when it comes to live action movies there exists a certain expectation from the fans of the anime they are based off of for the content to at least resemble the original stuff at the most basic level. For that reason I have to say that my recent experience watching the much anticipated Attack on Titan was then partially met. They had titans and 3D maneuver gear that allowed for some pretty epic scenes and delivered a platter of awesomely placed action cinematography that almost makes you forget there were just a few things off course about the whole thing.

The truth of it though, was had I gone into watching this not knowing the anime as I did, the movie would still have been pretty amazing, slightly confusing – yes, but still enjoyable. The overall story stayed the same as it followed the history of humanity being nearly wiped out by the flesh-eating titans, leaving a small percentage of humans to gather behind these walls in an attempt to survive against them.

Enter our brooding protagonist who, due to a significant loss, vows to kill the titans. In order to do so he joins the survey corps, a military-like group who train with the hopes of surviving against the threat that is the titans. The movie doesn’t do much to explain the different divisions so it’s a bit of a guess game as you watch on and try to figure out what’s going on, but as not much emphasis is put on them I guess the focus then shifts to the characters, which could have been better portrayed in my opinion.

What I did notice was that character development lacked a bit as the movie seemed to assume the audience already had an image of some characters while it focused on introducing its original characters and creating what I can only say was some very unnecessary scenarios. These scenarios actually had me staring dumbfounded at the screen and asking ‘W.T.F’ as I tried to accept that they actually happened.

In any case, the CGI was still pretty good in most of the scenes and the fighting was epic. Though the original story suffered some grating changes as it made it to the big screen, there were other scenes that made it in that could almost make up for the few blunders. The acting wasn’t perfect for everyone, but it was far better than expected.

Obviously I’ll watch the second movie, because what has been started must be finished. But I guess in the end, if I were to give it a rating it would probably be about four boxes of popcorn and maybe one large coke – if that means anything.

Owari no Seraph - Anime

I’m very glad to see that not all anime has succumb to the endless desire to only be ecchi-related as of yet. Thankfully one of these anime happens to be of my favourite genres and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love vampires?

I have to be truthful though. I can’t really wrap my head around this one very well. Owari no Seraph comes across as just another revenge story where our protagonist has suffered a great loss by the hands of the evil vampires and now vows to destroy each and every one of them and works to gain the power to do so. Obviously we can assume that one of his slain family members might just make a comeback somewhere along the lines, because, story reasons… yet at the same time, and this is where things get wonky for me, I feel like there’s more to it that I’m missing somehow but we’ll get back to that in a minute.

Our protagonist, Hyakuya Yuichiro, lives in a post-apocalyptic world that was nearly wiped out by a man-made virus and left a small margin of humanity, most of which were under the age of thirteen. In this ravaged world, our hero desires only a few things and that is to protect those he loves and the desire to kill every vampire he can get his hands on.

Employed by the Moon Demon Company, who makes it their mission to protect what is left of humanity, Yuichiro goes out and hunts the vampires down. In his team, we see a variety of interesting characters with their own troubles that make for an interesting side story as they struggle to keep up with the harsh world they live in and the dark things they must undergo in order to hunt the creatures that have destroyed their lives.

An interesting twist comes from the fact that one of our hero’s beloved family members, whom he thought was killed by the vampires in their attempt to escape captivity when they were younger, turns out to have become that which he now hunts so mercilessly. A discovery he makes in a turf war that obviously rattles him.

But this is where the wonky bits come in, as I don’t think the story ends there. I think there is more to our story than just our hero’s unfortunate dilemma of whether or not he can kill his family member. And the hint lies in the revelation made by the demon our protagonist had previously made a contract with in order to gain the power to fight the vampires he despised so much. Without spoiling the story too much, I’d have to say our protagonist is far more special than just his strong desire that gives him his strength. This little curiosity is what has kept me engrossed in this series and I have to say it’s exciting to wonder on the possibilities, I just hope it doesn’t disappoint.