When you cast away all the flavor and skin, at it's core it's a story about heroes which fight the bad guys, odds always stacked against them. That being said, the setting is very gripping, clever, and subtly hints at relevant and serious themes. Characters are lovable but don't feel like they get much development beyond the setup values they are assigned at the start. Yet still, I cared very much about them and my stomach was twisting as I was watching what was going to happen to them next. Which pretty much sums it up. Even if, at times, it doesn't offer much in term of complexity when you try to dissect it and analyze it, it is thrilling to experience. It's the best distraction I afforded myself this year.

Some Pros:

Great setting. Nice visuals, even if at times a bit too bloody, with a very attractive combat style, great music which follows it well and promises quite some nerd-chills. The way titans are colored, their facial expressions just make them exceptionally creepy, as if they walked down from a weird modern art piece. They only add more to the special atmosphere of the show.

Some Cons:

Untimely internal monologues which can eat up nearly whole episodes. The very short episodes, not even 20 minutes of original material per, create inappropriately small chunks for how slowly the story progresses at times. I watched it all at once, but I can imagine it being a bit frustrating to endure through so many cliffhangers. Combat feels like it is driven by personal "anime awesomeness" skill rather than teamwork or some other clever aspect a tad more often than I'd like. It feel like there was a missed opportunity here to avoid falling into that mold.

Overall, it's a elegant take on action packed anime. I personally recommend it. You should be bought by episodes 4~5. Oh, and I recommend watching it with the Japanese audio if you don't mind reading subtitles, the English dub isn't so great as actors they picked don't match their characters very well.