My reaction after watching the first episode in a nutshell.
For 100 years, humanity lived peacefully inside three walls, that is until one day when Titans larger than the ones fought by humans arrived. Witnessing it are step-siblings Eren and Mikasa and their friend, Armin. Can they escape from the attack of the Titans?
The opening scene gave us a brief idea on what are these Titans, they are creatures who feed on humans and the walls created by humans for over a century ago has kept them safe. The thing is, some humans are brave enough to fight these Titans but as for some, they just slack off like the Titans didn't exist outside. This is when Eren comes in, he wants to be part of the Survey Corps whose job is go outside and find out what are these Titans and to some extent, fight them. It makes sense why the heck he hates those soldiers who just slack off.
Speaking of the Survey Corps, they returned after their survey, only not to achieve a thing. Showing us a scene wherein the supposed "heroes" of the wall didn't make any progress immediately sets up the mood of this series for me. This scene gave me an impression that humanity is helpless against these giants and that their fight for everyone's safety is just a waste of time. To put it simply, humans are just fattened cattle for the Titans, which made me wonder how this series will will progress in later episodes if a bunch of humans can't defeat just a single one of them.
Since Eren wants to become part of the Survey Corps, Mikasa tells this to her adoptive parents. As expected, Eren's mother doesn't want him to be part of it, but as for his father, it is fine with him. This is when he brought up that he must show him something found in their basement once he is done with his medical job. Considering that his father is the one who saved the towns people from an epidemic, I think I have a general idea about what he is working in the basement. To put it simply, I think the thing in the basement will serve as the plot device that can allow our heroes to defeat the Titans.
Because Eren's mom doesn't want him to become part of the Survey Corps, he runs away, and ends up meeting Armin along the way who is being bullied by people who thinks that he is a heretic. Considering that he is found in the show's opening sequence, I guess he will end up getting some serious character development, leading to his decision to join the Survey Corps. Thanks to Mikasa's presence, they were able to save Armin and learned some new things about why those bullies think of him as a heretic.
After watching this scene, this gave me a general idea on how the government works in this series. It feels like that they are a bunch of corrupt corporate oafs sitting in their high chairs who just think of the present, and not think of the future possibilities that lies ahead of them. So yeah, Eren and Armin's fear of a possible Titan breach finally happened. The arrival of the Titans gave me this impression that these beings came from outer space thanks to the entrance of one Titan larger than the average Titan. As expected, humans start to run away and to those humans who want to help fight back these creatures, they ended up losing their courage once they come face to face to one Titan.
Because of this attack, Eren is worried about his mother. The first thing Eren and Mikasa saw is their mother stuck in a lot of rubble and that Eren and Mikasa's strength is not enough to get her out of it. To make matters worse, if they can get her out, she is now crippled and can't run away from the Titans. Hannes comes to save the kids, but first, he must fight the Titan approaching Eren's house. Hannes' reaction after seeing a Titan gave me an impression that even the "strongest" of men can cripple in fear after realizing that he is too weak to fight someone stronger than him.
At the end, Hannes ends up saving Eren and Mikasa while their mother ends up becoming Titan food. This scene sends chills to my spine due to how the mother regretted that she wasn't able to escape with her kids. To make it more dramatic, the music, and how the Titan ate her while her kids are watching it gives me thing strong impression that Eren and Mikasa will become the ones who can defeat these Titans. As for how the episode ended, the narration and that it ended up with a cliffhanger made me want that the next episode will be out soon. This is show is started strong and I can't wait to see more.
