(no subject)

So I finally started watching Attack on Titan, and I think I'll watch more, but it's definitely an anime I want to take in small doses. I can see why some people really love the thing and others ridicule it.

The titans/titans who are mere ordinary garden variety man eating giants/walls thing are such amazing metaphors for environmental destruction, security measures at the expense of privacy, consumerism and feudalistic capitalism, the growth of Chinese power as a perceived threat to Japan, any number of things. Big stuff where the meaning is basically about who you are as a viewer. I find it very touching that the writer was apparently thinking about personal boundaries and interactions. The story is very well presented up to a certain point. It's tragic and compelling and then, at some but not all tragic moments, everything's all impassioned speeches and dramatic music and the melodrama is driven home with a 20 lb sledgehammer and there's less dramatic impact than whatever was going on 3 minutes ago. I also think that Eren as a character is weakened and made a lot less appealing by the way he's presented simultaneously as;

• a traumatized kid reacting in an emotional way
  
• a heavyhanded voice for how viewers might react to the situation
  
• The Hero! (TM)