30 Days of Anime – #16 the Anime That I Think Has the Best Animation

#16 What Anime Do You Think Has the Best Animation?

Attack on Titan

I would like you to read the following blog post about the anime that I think has the best animation bearing in mind that, when it comes to animation, I’m a complete novice whose entire knowledge base consists of things I learned watching Shirobako! I don’t know how it all works (despite having grown up with technology it still mystifies me) and I don’t know any of the fancy-pants terminology, so please bear with me, somebody who’s going to do their very best to explain what they love about Attack on Titan’s animation, in patience and in kindness!

The reason I chose Attack on Titan for the purpose of this blog post is that, whilst its animators can’t animate horses for love nor money (seriously, they are janky as hell!), they do do an awesome job of capturing the fluidity and rapidity of humans in motion. The show’s fight scenes are fast-paced, with kicks, jabs, punches, and grapples coming one after another in quick succession. Nevertheless, these scenes look flawless! They’re like a whitewater rapid, there’s an energy, a ferocity to the movement involved, yet they still flow in perfect, ceaseless motion. You’ll be hard-pressed to find recycled shots, off-model characters with arms twisted or necks craned at impossible angles (unless they are broken, which does happen, obvs), or, motion lines aside, dumb looking FX that both disrupt the flow of movement and detract from the grittiness of the fight! In short, Attack on Titan’s fight scenes are amazing. And that is entirely down to its animators, whose hard work and skill ensures that they are brutal, fast-paced, and realistic!

But what blows me away the most about Attack on Titan’s animation is the way in which its animators capture the movement of characters using the maneuver gear. The idea behind this piece of equipment is that it allows its user to catapult themselves into the air, soar through the sky, and perform incredible acrobatic feats, all in order to kill titans. It ought to come as no surprise then that, as with the movement of characters caught in life-or-death struggles, the movement of characters using the maneuver gear is fast-paced and dynamic. It’s almost dizzying to watch! The show favours a third-person viewpoint, however, as the camera follows its characters during their swift ascent, as they rapidly traverse cramped cities and dense forests, and as they speedily maneuver up and over the grasping hands of hungry titans, it practically hugs their backs, so much so that you feel like you’re soaring with them! It’s almost as if Attack on Titan allows me to experience how it feels to actually fly, and it’s fantastic! To fly, to really fly, has long been a fantasy of mine, so when I sit down to watch this show and I suddenly find myself doing just that, my heart races and adrenaline courses throughout my body! And that wouldn’t be possible if not for the fact that, through a combination of the magic of technology and the skill of people who have spent years honing their craft, Attack on Titan’s animators were able to perfectly capture the precision of human movement and blend it with the speed and velocity of soaring through the sky!

As you might imagine, not having the foggiest when it comes to animation made writing this blog post very difficult! All the same, I hope that it wasn’t difficult to read and that I made up for my lack of knowledge with pretty, poetic words! So, which show’s animation has stood out to you? Remember to use simple words so as not to confuse this total novice!