Attack on Titan

[james_davis_nicoll]

Doesn't seem entirely upbeat.

Comments

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

If Hajime Isayama and Peter Watts were to collaborate on a book, nobody would be able to finish reading it if there was a fifth-story window nearby to thrown themselves out of.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Oh, please, it's not that grimdark. It's a war story in which the most significant deaths are a handful of mauve shirts, while the dozen or so major characters are so badass they escape every danger with only superficial injuries.

If you want a depressing recent anime, Flowers of Evil and WataMote are far, far worse.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

"Handful?" You must be referring to the Anime. Because I'm reading the Manga and it's one horrible massacre after another.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Compared to your typical WWII movie, the number of named characters who've died in the manga is small, and of characters who've been around for multiple volumes there are more who've turned into villains than have died.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Ah. Because non-named characters are of no importance. Gotcha.

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

Well yeah. You go into a war story expecting people to die. Where it falls on the grimdark scale is determined by how many of those deaths involve red shirts, mauve shirts, and gold shirts. AoT is firmly in mauve shirt territory -- you only have to worry about characters introduced since the last battle; if they survive the next one, they gain contractual immunity until the grand finale.