I've watched AOT here in early 2021 and am blown way by its original storyline, engaging themes, interesting characters and gorgeous artwork. There are plenty of effusive reviews here to cover those praiseworthy details, so I'll focus here on why I deducted a couple stars. This reflects only my experience. Your mileage may vary.

What I want to highlight is the unfortunate, often confusing and distracting haphazardness by which the story is told and how the graphic style changes from season to season (esp. 3-4).

This is not a rant, but more of a critique of the process by which the story is produced for viewers -- ALL which I forgive because of the otherwise excellent overarching story.

Storytelling (no spoilers): The first two seasons were internally consistent and a delight. But beginning with season 3 and further amplified in season 4 , the creators started making hugely incongruent leaps in the story with little or no build up, contextual transition or foreshadowing, the result being a jarring and frustrating narrative. Whether it's the out-of-the-blue introduction of major new characters that take over the story for endless episodes (at the minimization of the core characters so well constructed in seasons 1&2), or the suddenly new bigger world perspectives (season 3-4 esp.) --- it adds up to a very roughly told story that at times seems made up on the fly season-to-season. Add to that the simultaneous change in graphic visualization style (more below), it can be a real disruptive effect. Now, to its credit, after you wade through the seasonal narrative and visual challenges, the overall story is a quite clever one, but could've/should've been presented in a less erratic style.

One cannot discuss AOT's storytelling without getting into the sometimes painful internal narratives, soliloquies, and conversations that drag on and on, mostly for exposition alone, and often at the most unnatural moments and out of context. Yes, while fighting a Titan or being shoved into a Titan's mouth one can have a deep and lengthy philosophical conversation with oneself or another as though there is no urgency in that moment. Yes, while riding full-out galloping horses a team can have a calm, softly spoken planning meeting, despite the jostle, noise and dust... at least they were able to, it seems. Truly bizarre, but not the worse design sin, because sometimes it works, but is vastly overused as an expositional method in AOT.

Fundamental visual style changes: We all accept that an animated series that takes nearly a decade to produce only 4 seasons is going to undergo evolution in style. Perfectly fine and expected. But the graphical style changes that happen in season 3 (a sad downgrade in style) and season 4 (an upgrade in style, but radically different) are so dramatic that it seems that entirely different budget, management and creative teams produced the series season by season, and shared little sentiment for the unbeatable methods used in seasons 1&2.

English dubbing: I don't know if there are multiple 'dub' versions of the series, but what I experienced was really poor voice acting in seasons 1&2 (too hyperbolic and over-the-top, though some might be chalked up to generic anime styling). Season 3 improved, and season 4 nailed it with true quality voice performances. I watched most of season 3 in Japanese with subtitles to avoid the often grating English dubbed voice acting. And because there were so many endless expository ramblings by all new characters in the opening episodes of season 4, especially, one couldn't use subtitles and keep up with what they're saying and get even a glimpse of the visuals.

To conclude, despite the 'grievances' I've mentioned, AOT held me in its grip (like one of its Titans might do), and I overall enjoyed it tremendously. I'd love to see a *quality* live action series of feature length movies based on the story, or maybe just one good one. Also, I suspect that my criticisms might have to do with how I binged all 4 seasons without a break instead if having to see it emerge slowly over many years, thus the "seams" are more apparent. I expect I'll rewatch the entire series and probably enjoy it even more.

Note: At the time of this review Season 4 has only 11 episodes.