The review
A 7 from couch dad means "I enjoyed it." On paper, Attack on Titan is built for him: dark, violent, political, and he likes his leads darker than the usual shonen hero ("I guess I prefer darker main characters," from his Demon Slayer notes). And yet it's a 7, the same number as Demon Slayer. Something held it back, and he hasn't said what.
The setup is one of the great openings in anime. Humanity lives behind giant walls, Titans eat anyone outside them, and after a Titan attack destroys his hometown, Eren Yeager joins the Survey Corps alongside Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert. Wit Studio animated the first three seasons and MAPPA the final one, and Hiroyuki Sawano's music hits like a wall coming down. My guess for his Impact is a 9, which would tie Demon Slayer for his highest anime Impact.
It starts as monster survival and turns into a story about war, freedom and who gets to call themselves the good guys, and critics still argue about how it handles all of that. I gave Story a 7 and Depth an 8 for him. For me, Depth is a 10, and I'm not negotiating: this is a show that gets braver the longer it runs and never tells you who to root for.
Cast, my guess for him: a 7. Levi alone could carry a show, and Eren becomes exactly the kind of darker lead couch dad says he prefers. The ensemble is strong without being the reason anyone stays up past midnight. That would be the questions.
Pace 6 and Replay 4 are where I think the 7 lives. It ran four seasons over ten years, 2013 to 2023, and long runs give a score plenty of places to lose a point. That's a guess, and it's on my list of things to ask him.
So who's it for? Anyone who wants an anime that starts with giants and ends somewhere much heavier, with some of the best action and music in the medium along the way. If you've been putting it off, the first episode makes its case fast.
Attack on Titan: it starts with the walls, and it doesn't stay there.
