zubbus

Ergo, the first thing I have to tell you before you stop reading. All my oriental friends raved about this show, and that always puts me off a bit (the number of people, not anything else. I mean, I am naturally disinclined to go mainstream, so when I DO praise a mainstream, you know it's really good) You start with a bunch of kids with naive ideals and philosophies. And they dream and daydream a lot. You will see them do that less as they grow and mature, as we all do and probably agree we should. By this point, I have seen nothing impressive.

Granted, they are kids so they will need to learn. And they do, fast, and hard. The world they live in is given to you straight, or that's what they make you think for the first few episodes. Mankind are hunted by titans bla-bah and try to fight them with "maneuvre gear"- wire grapple combined with gas propulsion, and then cut the titan's weak spot with something nice and sharp, which Japan has always had, to be fair, although the cultural setting of this last surviving major city of mankind seems to be set in the likeness of post-medieval central Europe.

What is nice is that the wire grapples and gas propulsions are technologies we currently have and it is realistic to master their use to the level on the show, given a generation of human devote to the training and accepting that a mistake can mean you splat yourself to death. Only when I nearly finished the series I realized the movement resembles fighter aircrafts, if you are into that sort of thing (and it's also because those who are really good at it only showed up then).

The show tells you from the start the kid's mother gets eaten, and it doesn't get easier from there. Every time you think they are beginning to get things on the track of wrapping it all up, another load of hell pops out of nowhere. In fact, that is the only thing predictable about this show.

In such a bleak world, morals lean a lot more towards the ability to survive, especially collectively, meaning some people are willing so sacrifice themselves or a smaller number of others to save many. And you see everyone are on different levels of agreement of acceptance towards that and struggle with each other over the subject. Cowards arguing with heroes and people realizing they are one and not the other in face of danger, etc, etc. But all characters act logically and reasonably to that end for a very enjoyable watch.

Did I mention the kids daydream a lot? Some of these dreams seem to have a deja vu or precognition element to it or actually altered reality - Boy dreamt of being given a key and woke up with a key which he did not seem to have before. A fragment of a dream might paint a person 1 picture and a longer version of the dream later reveals a completely different story.

The series portrays a large city and it does not disappoint and in how new characters and elements come into the life of the main characters. In fact, the kids work their way into more and more complex plots and schemes. And they are also in the process of researching and discovering more about the titans they fight. And there turns out to be a whole load of interesting ideas about how the author invented these titans.

The people who appeared good guys may seems like they are not, but turn out they actually are, just not letting on the stuff they knew. Or maybe they are not, because the story is clearly not all finished after series 1 and that's the only bad thing.

This is the best blend of survival horror, friendship drama, super-power-kid, sci-fi, war of subterfuge, alternative world apocalypse a lot of us have ever seen. OK, the friendship and subterfuge elements are not THAT good, only just "great".

We all would like to try everything as thoroughly as possible before forming an opinion, or at least my generation of education taught me so. But what my generation of education didn't see is none of us, not one, can ever, ever have the time for all of that.

But once in a while I have some energy and inclination left after watching repeats of QI I have watched too many times before (I know confessing to watching too many repeats of QI can be discrediting for my review, but heck, where else would you find THIS program).

I know I actually spent most of my review talking about why I watched it rather than about the show it itself but here's why: 1) I suspect you're reading this because you're roughly in the same place of wondering whether you want to give it a watch 2) It's really quite good so I don't want to spoil it for you 3) Really how much more explanation and introduction do you need for another stand-up comedy?

Honestly, it's got a tad long built-up compared to Live at Apollo, lots of information, (and that's why it's got a lot of visual aids), etc. But those ones are often the best bits of each comedians over a long time compressed into one act. And the stuff this one builds up to is really good.

Oh and it was episode 5 I watched and he spent most of it taking the mickey out of reviews on the internet, so I doubt Dave will leave my good deed unpunished.