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Wake me up when the Titans stop Attacking
Aug. 12th, 2013 01:46 pmThe anime Attack on Titan seems to be taking over every blog, Tumblr, and social media account I follow. I seem to be immune to its supposed charms, however.
1) I understand the show initially caught everyone's notice because of the theme song, which is notoriously ridiculous and hyper-dramatic. The problem here is that as an Angelique fan, I'm too used to the stylings of the band Granrodeo, for whom ridiculous hyperdrama is a way of life.
2) I'm tired of the whole "ANYONE CAN DIE AT ANY TIME!" schtick that seems to have been popularized by Joss Whedon's shows and Game of Thrones. First, I don't think that introducing or building characters for the primary purpose of giving the audience a cheap shock when they're abruptly killed necessarily or even a majority of the time constitutes good writing. Second, contrary to popular insistence, no, not anyone can die in these affairs. Even someone with a passing knowledge of Westeros can tell that Tyrion, Jon, Daenaerys, Arya, and Jaime are not going anywhere. The kill most-frequently cited as Buffy's most-shocking was of an older supporting character's girlfriend. That's the type of character that wouldn't survive the first reel in a Friday the 13th movie. Stories usually require some sort of constants characterwise to provide the audience with a thread through the narrative, and while there are ways to circumvent this, they all require a degree of genuine risk, and the alleged "riskiness" of writers who have their eyes on shock value instead of other considerations seldom extends to actually risking their narrative structure.
3) The whole plot pushes the needle too far on what Roger Ebert deemed the Goofy Meter. The world of the future is facing apocalypse not from a more advanced extraterrestrial intelligence, a self-aware AI revolution, or mass abandonment of meatspace for an idealized virtual world, but from...giant humans who run around and eat people. The "titans" of the title. (Some of these titans also apparently look like Slim Goodbody, for some reason.) I'd think the world's modern militaries wouldn't have a problem taking out such huge targets - I mean, it's not like the titans have laser guns or anything, they're just standing around like naked cavemen - but apparently these titans can move really really fast? Or something. They're conquered the square-cube law but don't have the intelligence to dress themselves. I mean, look, I love JRPGs, and I'm sure we can point out goofy JRPG plot points all day, but JRPGS - the good JRPGs - go into their premises with a touch of wonder or self-awareness or worldbuilding, whereas the Attack on Titan property goes into hyperserious mode about these things right off the bat and doesn't look back. You gotta buy my credulity: What return am I gonna get for suspending my disbelief for your story? I'm just gonna see people get eaten? Sounds like a bad investment to me.
.
1) I understand the show initially caught everyone's notice because of the theme song, which is notoriously ridiculous and hyper-dramatic. The problem here is that as an Angelique fan, I'm too used to the stylings of the band Granrodeo, for whom ridiculous hyperdrama is a way of life.
2) I'm tired of the whole "ANYONE CAN DIE AT ANY TIME!" schtick that seems to have been popularized by Joss Whedon's shows and Game of Thrones. First, I don't think that introducing or building characters for the primary purpose of giving the audience a cheap shock when they're abruptly killed necessarily or even a majority of the time constitutes good writing. Second, contrary to popular insistence, no, not anyone can die in these affairs. Even someone with a passing knowledge of Westeros can tell that Tyrion, Jon, Daenaerys, Arya, and Jaime are not going anywhere. The kill most-frequently cited as Buffy's most-shocking was of an older supporting character's girlfriend. That's the type of character that wouldn't survive the first reel in a Friday the 13th movie. Stories usually require some sort of constants characterwise to provide the audience with a thread through the narrative, and while there are ways to circumvent this, they all require a degree of genuine risk, and the alleged "riskiness" of writers who have their eyes on shock value instead of other considerations seldom extends to actually risking their narrative structure.
3) The whole plot pushes the needle too far on what Roger Ebert deemed the Goofy Meter. The world of the future is facing apocalypse not from a more advanced extraterrestrial intelligence, a self-aware AI revolution, or mass abandonment of meatspace for an idealized virtual world, but from...giant humans who run around and eat people. The "titans" of the title. (Some of these titans also apparently look like Slim Goodbody, for some reason.) I'd think the world's modern militaries wouldn't have a problem taking out such huge targets - I mean, it's not like the titans have laser guns or anything, they're just standing around like naked cavemen - but apparently these titans can move really really fast? Or something. They're conquered the square-cube law but don't have the intelligence to dress themselves. I mean, look, I love JRPGs, and I'm sure we can point out goofy JRPG plot points all day, but JRPGS - the good JRPGs - go into their premises with a touch of wonder or self-awareness or worldbuilding, whereas the Attack on Titan property goes into hyperserious mode about these things right off the bat and doesn't look back. You gotta buy my credulity: What return am I gonna get for suspending my disbelief for your story? I'm just gonna see people get eaten? Sounds like a bad investment to me.
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