The anime industry is made up of countless titles that have become so popular they take over the conversation and turn into massive pop culture events that even reach the non-anime crowd. There are a few titles that have this effect every decade, but the response to Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan was on a whole other level. Attack on Titan’s formative man-versus-monster manga started in 2009 and completed a celebrated run after 34 volumes.
Attack on Titan’s epic anime adaptation ran for a decade and produced nearly 100 episodes, helmed by two anime industry juggernauts, Wit Studio and MAPPA. Attack on Titan’s evergreen reception has a lot to do with the turns that it takes during its final storyline. The anime’s ending remains quite polarizing and open to scrutiny. The anime’s reputation is still held in high regard, but there is a small selection of flawless anime that surpass Attack on Titan’s ambitious heights.
Monster Is A Psychological Thriller With An All-Time Great Serial Killer Antagonist
Naoki Urasawa is one of the best mangaka in the industry and is responsible for some truly revelatory works of art, including Pluto, BILLY BAT, and 20th Century Boys. Monster is one of Urasawa’s most revered works and a challenging recontextualization of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, albeit without any science fiction or supernatural elements. Monster is a complicated deconstruction of guilt, grief, responsibility, and morality that puts a brilliant neurosurgeon up against a monstrous serial killer.
Dr. Kenzo Tenma feels a certain sense of responsibility over Johan Liebert’s murders because he was responsible for saving his life during surgery. Monster turns into a rich look at karma as a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out between Tenma and Liebert. Attack on Titan, like Monster, also explores compromised morality and how one simple action can trigger a domino effect of consequences. However, Attack on Titan builds to an apocalyptic finale and many of its greatest dramatic moments involve incredibly exaggerated showdowns with gigantic monsters.
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Attack on Titan makes all this work, but there’s something to be said for a series like Monster that remains grounded in reality and could all feasibly happen. Attack on Titan has made a name for itself — both for better and for worse — when it comes to its ultimate antagonist. Monster avoids any such controversy and Johan Liebert is one of anime’s greatest and most entertaining antagonists. Monster also edges out Attack on Titan when it comes to pacing and its overall ending. Monster is just a more concise, focused narrative.
Legend Of The Galactic Heroes Explores An Epic Space War’s Complex Machinations
Thereare a surprising number of similarities between Attack on Titan and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, despite one involving fantastical man-eating monsters and the other being a sprawling space-opera sci-fi epic. At their core, both anime are geopolitical war stories that present the sweeping, generational destruction that’s caused by these conflicts from both sides of the battle. In the case of Attack on Titan, it’s not until the final season that the audience is left to properly empathize with the alleged “villains.”
Legend of the Galactic Heroes instead begins as a dual-pronged narrative that juxtaposes the forward mobility of two brilliant military officers, the Galactic Empire’s Reinhard von Lohengramm and the Free Planets Alliance’s Yang Wen-li. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is careful never to vilify either side of this conflict, and it’s so effective because everybody is flawed in some regard. It’s less that there’s a direct villain in this war and more that the very act of prolonged conflict is the ultimate evil in Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
Even the anime’s title presents this as a heroic and inspirational story when it’s closer to a dark melodrama where nobody truly “wins.” Legend of the Galactic Heroes has over 100 episodes to craft its intricate narrative. It never feels rushed and the explanations for fallout are actually realistic. The anime makes this war feel real, whereas Attack on Titan turns to extreme transformations, surprising narrative twists, and enlightening backstories to create tension and suspense. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is never as manipulative with its storytelling. It all feels incredibly natural.
Attack on Titan deserves plenty of credit for its risky and ambitious structure that gradually evolves into a very different series. While this evolution makes sense, it’s not necessarily a pivot that’s meant to appeal to everyone. Attack on Titan wants to ruffle feathers, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it also invites valid criticisms about its final season and some of the more radical hoops that it jumps through to make its points successfully. Alternatively, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is still regarded as one of the best shonen anime of all-time, over 15 years later, because it’s such a focused and efficient exploration of its ideas.
At 64 episodes, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood isn’t a short anime, but it also doesn’t get lost in unnecessary filler or meandering storylines. Everything serves a purpose, and Brotherhood’s streamlined storytelling and focus definitely give it the advantage over some of Attack on Titan‘s more unruly sections. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood also establishes such a well-defined magic system that’s never cheated to solve problems, whereas Attack on Titan’s approach to Titans is occasionally subject to scrutiny. There’s also something to be said about the fact that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, despite all its bleak developments, is still a series that’s rich in levity and actually gives the audience things to laugh at.
Attack on Titan‘s threadbare comedic moments can be rather exhausting, especially during its endgame when everything is so impossibly intense. Edward and Alphonse are fantastic characters to spend time with, but it’s also impressive how much empathy is given to the monstrous homunculi they face. Add to that an unforgettable finale that’s such a universally praised conclusion, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime triumph that does everything right.
Steins;Gate Unpacks Time Travel With Thought-Provoking Precision
Time travel stories are among the most challenging subgenres to do well due to the endless paradoxes inherent in such sci-fi stories. Curiously, Attack on Titan engages in its own form of mental time travel that leads to some of the franchise’s biggest twists. In Attack on Titan‘s case, this development comes across as the anime creatively introducing a new mechanic, even if it doesn’t necessarily make sense. Steins;Gate, on the other hand, is an anime that’s all about time travel and the cycle of grief, regret, and trauma that it can trigger.
Steins;Gate explores monumental ideas, but its scope is considerably smaller than Attack on Titan‘s global conflict. This makes it easier for Steins;Gate to focus on just a small group of characters in addition to its protagonist, Rintaro Okabe. Time travel serves as a unique means of driving enriching character development, as individuals like Okabe confront their trauma and evolve throughout the anime.
It’d be very easy for Steins;Gate‘s story to keep facing complications and continue across multiple seasons, like Attack on Titan, but it’s in its best interest to end the anime on the best possible note rather than prolonging a good thing. Steins;Gate remains uncompromised even if a prequel and other franchise expansions exist.
Neon Genesis Evangelion Descends Into An Existential Apocalypse That Redefined Mecha Anime
Neon Genesis Evangelion and Attack on Titan occupy different genres, but they’re both titles that feature extreme showdowns with giant creatures that humans control. In Evangelion, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei are pilots of the EVA Units, whereas the characters transform into the Titans themselves in Attack on Titan. Attack on Titan holds many of its secrets close to its chest, and there’s a very different energy to it from the beginning throughout its first season. Neon Genesis Evangelion explores a similar style of cryptic storytelling that’s intentionally deceptive regarding the anime’s true nature.
Neon Genesis Evangelion hits as hard as it does because it truly redefined mecha anime when it came along in the ’90s. Evangelion evolves from a more traditional mecha series in which giant robots wage war against extraterrestrial threats into a more introspective affair that remains one of anime’s most powerful examinations of depression and trauma. There are endless action spectacles that cultivate some brutal visuals. All this remains in service of the deeper existential questions that Evangelion poses to its characters and to what’s ultimately best for the universe.
Attack on Titan certainly doesn’t hold back when it comes to trauma and tragic backstories. It’s still impressive to see just how raw and real Evangelion is willing to get. All this reaches a head in Evangelion’s final episodes and its concluding feature film, The End of Evangelion, which features an assault of surreal visuals and visceral storytelling that have become a huge part of Evangelion‘s legacy. Attack on Titan concludes with just as devastating a finale, but it lacks the same haunting, abstract imagery of Evangelion‘s farewell.