Huge Spoilers and a huge wayward post listing things I loved about it.
I started reading the manga in 2011 (it began publication in 2009) around the time news came out it was going to get a live-action film adaptation. I was reading a lot of dystopian manga like Eden: It’s an Endless World and King of Thorn and I was immediately drawn to Attack on Titan’s story of survival in a strange world full of mysteries and giants gobbling up cool looking characters. It had many elements that only anime and manga seem to do that I love such as an intriguing dystopian world, slight tweaking of gender roles – intelligent males and aggressive and confident female characters, and a boatload of existentialism that pointed out the cages humans make for themselves and give fancy labels like society, family and religion. I’m no anarchist but I do like a story which tears these things down or at least questions them and to see characters do their best to survive in the world and transcend their circumstances.