Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast’s daughter publication, GME! Anime Fun Time. Click HERE or on the poster above to download our spoiler-iffic round-table discussion on 2013’s popular shonen action anime, Attack on Titan. Panel members include Paul Chapman, Thomas Pandich of Skin Crawling Comics, and Clarissa Graffeo of AnimeWorldOrder. Join us for nearly 60 minutes worth of friendly chatter about a series that is not, in fact, “naked cannibal porn”.
Final Thought:
The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast 
A. O. T. is a slow show with over extended dialog during fight scenes.
Some resemblance with the new SciFi show Helix, interesting starting premise, but slow and illogical unraveling.
The French city that you were trying to think of is actually a German town called Nordlingen. It also served as an influence behind the town in Princess Tutu. http://lavendermintrose.tumblr.com/post/67375201268/the-backgrounds-of-princess-tutu-and-attack-on
Attack on Titan is definitely set in what used to be germany. Jäger is a somewhat common surename. It means “Hunter”. Ackermann is also germanic surename consisting of the german words for (cultivated) field and man (as in “a male”, antonym of woman). Armin is also a german given name, as are Rainer and Bertholdt. A lot of the other names are also very germanic.
One more thing: Both opening themes include a lot of german parts as well.
I really don’t like AOT past where the anime covered. Isayama seems to be watering the story down by building up mystery after mystery with no answers to the point that it’s ridiculous. Another thing is that the series quickly becomes despair porn. Isayama abuses the whole “tragic death” thing far, far more than George R. R. Martin ever does in Game of Thrones. Maybe part of my dislike is because I had folks build it up to me as the greatest manga ever by way of comparing it to various other series that, at the very least, are much more consistent in quality.
SPOILERS:
It’s been pretty explicitly revealed that this is in the future of our Earth. There’s a scene where they find canned goods that have (I believe) Japanese writing on them. The first chapter of the manga (and I believe the first episode of the anime) are both called “To you, 2,000 Years From Now.” That seems pretty explicit that this is our world.
I find it absolutely bizarre that Isayama had a character named “Pastor Nick,” yet a later scene has a character (faking) reacting in awe when she discovers that “Pastor Nick is a priest.” How that was supposed to be believable to the soldiers she was talking to I have no clue (and yes, they bought it).
He’s changed his original idea for the ending. Originally, he was going to do something similar to the movie “The Fog” and have everyone die or something, but now he says he can’t do that because people love the characters too much. While I don’t think his writing is good, if he’s gonna let the fans write it I doubt it’ll turn out all that great.
Lastly, I hope he doesn’t implement plot points from the pilot chapter; that was atrocious.
I haven’t watched much new anime in years, but I started checking this out based almost solely on your podcast, Paul. Thanks for that. I’m really enjoying. I’ve watched right around the first ten or so episodes. This, as well as Kill la Kill, which I’ll check out next, are streaming on Hulu Plus, which I use in lieu of paying exorbitant cable rates.
**Spoilers follow**
I couldn’t believe how quickly this show will either kill of and/or horribly maim its main characters. It borders on tragedy porn in some respect (particularly the death of Eren’s mother), but never gets as tragedy porn-y as Game of Thrones, which I’d compare it to (as well as Lost, because of the continual mystery building up in the story). I will say I was horrified when my favorite girl, Mina Carolina (the one with the pigtails) was dispatched so quickly. Also, while the animation isn’t great and the 3D/CGI stuff is distracting in some places (holy crap, those church bells…), I absolutely love the Vertical Maneuvering Device usage, particularly the more skilled users like Mikasa and Jean/John (however they’re translating his name).