How do you rate Attack on Titan?

The similarities and differences between the live-action version of Attack on Titan and the 95 anime version in terms of text and text presentation

I made a point of reading the comments on Douban and Zhihu before writing this article, and as expected, it was almost one-sided in its criticism. A bunch of originals spewed wildly, saying it was an insult to Mamoru Oshii and that the movie was worthless.

I'll admit that vertically it does struggle to reach the heights of the anime version, but I have trouble accepting that kind of over-emotional low score, and for the quality of the movie, a 7 is more than enough.

What follows is a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the anime and live-action adaptations, using the live-action version of Attack on Titan and Mamoru Oshii's Attack on Titan as a blueprint.

Space

One unique advantage the live-action version has over the 95th anime version is the presentation of space.

In a live-action movie, it's much easier to show spatial reality through deep-focus and motion lenses, not to mention the use of 3D technology.

For two-dimensional animation, the depth of a flat sheet of paper is a thankless task in itself, so Mamoru Oshii took a different approach, presenting spatial reality and chaos through changes in the environment.

Which of the two is better? That depends on whether this "form" helps, or even aids, the presentation of the "content".

The live-action version of the city of the future is a refreshing change of pace, and the manga is to be commended for its high level of reproduction.

But that's about it; the real versus the unreal, the confusion of self-awareness, and the pervasive loneliness that permeates all around is honestly not presented, and space is just space.

There will be no impactful images after watching it, which is something Blade Runner abuses it for (oops, works are afraid of comparisons).

And the 95 anime, with its large and extensive depiction of the environment to the soundtrack of "Ballad of the Golem," not only embodies a realistic sense of space similar to that of a live-action film.

The most important thing is that through a large number of empty scenes, the characters walk seemingly aimlessly in the emptiness, the city chaotic mishmash of information, making the audience suspicious, everything so real and so false.

Symbols - Mirrors

The live-action version still employs mirrors, but it's more of a "take", and only a little bit.

The 95 anime version, on the other hand, had a lot of mirroring, from Suiko's shadow in the glass, to an airplane reflected in the water, to even a woman in the city who looked exactly like Suiko.

There seems to be a bit too much of this kind of symbolism, as in Attack on Titan 2, where carefully sculpted lines, but still serving the theme, allude to humanity's ambivalence about self-understanding.

Symbol - Fisheye

If memory serves, there was no use of fisheye lenses in the live-action version, which is an advantage of animation, and arguably what makes art cinema better than Hollywood commercial movies.

The 95 version has a large number of subjective shots of fisheye perspectives, which are extreme wide-angle shots that differ greatly from what people see in the real world, as a way of intensifying the theme by making the first-person perspective, which is familiar to the viewers themselves, unfamiliar.

Symbol - Freeze Frame

Freeze frames are supposed to be an animation trope, and though it is also often used in current films, it is mostly used in the presentation of humor.

But animation is different, through the frame instead of the kind of repressed sad emotion, constantly expanding, but just put away, smothered in the heart.

There is nothing more classic than EVA Kaoru's death, a 64-second, single frame stop-motion image, and those who have seen it know what I'm talking about.

The 95 version, including Innocence afterward, uses symbols like mirroring, fisheye, and freeze-frames in the service of its theme, while the live-action version is tired of storytelling and superficiality.

Characters

Characters presentation wise, I don't think the live-action version is any worse, a lot of people say that apart from the main female character the others didn't stand up, come on, don't compare the TV version to the movie okay!

The length of the movie dictates that characterization can only be done for the main characters, you think it's a TV show, 40-50 episodes to your heart's content.

And those who watched Attack on Titan 2 came over and said that Bart wasn't fleshed out enough in the live action version, and with Bart as the main character in Attack on Titan 2, if he wasn't fleshed out, Mamoru Oshii could really go to the poop.

In the same text situation, animation has a unique advantage in characterization.

The 95 version has a lot of close-ups of Suko looking straight at the camera with her eyes wide open and never blinking, and other characters do the same, and it goes on for a long time.

"When we look at our own face in the mirror, we stare at it for a long time and realize that the face becomes unfamiliar." Similarly, when we stare at a character, we get a creepy feeling and can't help but wonder "Is she still human?" "How do we define that?"

The live-action option uses a different approach, which is to move and break down the human body so that you never know if what you see next is a person or a machine.

One detail in the live-action version is that the character's mechanical face armor is removed, and we can clearly see the eyebrows twitching - what else can't be built?

Text

Finally, we've come to the crux of the matter, and it's where the live-action version gets the most flak, and it's likewise the place we're focusing our argument.

The live-action version's story and themes are set up in a way that pulls it down to the level of a mainstream Hollywood commercial movie, and it's pretty much hanging by a thread from the 95th edition, and no one can save it.

The live-action version was in the deep end from the moment Kuze came on the scene and revenge mode kicked in.

The live-action has turned into a search-for-memory, revenge-and-redeem, personal-hero mainstream blockbuster that is essentially no different than a superhero.

It still talks about universal American values, humanism, as evidenced by Suko's choice to ultimately stay.

And the 95 version, including Innocence, the original manga, is much more high-minded and discusses much deeper things.

If the live-action version has the capacity of a lake, the 95 version has the capacity of an ocean, one still obsessed with the individual human being, while the other discusses the way back for humanity as a species.

Mori Oshii has moved from "humanism" to "dataism," and the human race will eventually move from Homo sapiens to Homo sapiens, just as Suiko has moved from the flesh to the internet.

But the anime doesn't visualize this viewpoint; it's more like a human being's confused struggle in the transition from humanism to datism.

Yuval. Hraley discusses this at length in "A Brief History of the Future": what makes a human being human? What is the difference between a human being and an animal?

Darwin's theory of evolution destroys the "soul", and if the soul evolved, then its "indivisibility" and "eternity" are contrary to the nature of evolution.

And datism, based on biological algorithms, destroys humanism, "turning humans from upgraded gorillas into enlarged ants."

Humans have always thought of themselves as the top of the biological chain because they have souls, minds, and free will.

But in the view of biological algorithms, there is no evidence of a soul or a mind, and so-called free will is nothing more than a biological current stimulating neurons.

So what's the difference between humans and animals? It's all just algorithms, but it's a difference between lower and higher levels, in other words we don't even know if we have autonomous will, so how can we conclude that dogs don't?

What's the difference between drivers and jerks whose memories have been tampered with and dogs?

Instead, in "Attack on Titan 2: Innocence," the dog is more alive than the reformed man.

The director uses the Puppeteer's mouth to voice his own questions, or warnings.

Ugh, my brain is going to explode, this series is so much more than an "entertainment product". It's not something that can be explained in a few words, and to be honest, it would be a lie to say that I got it, but it's more like a treasure trove waiting to be mined.

Last but not least, the search for the mother in the live-action version has been criticized by some as a "tadpole" looking for its mother.

But since the ending is that Suko stays, it's a must, and the "mother/baby bond" is an element of human beings and mammals***.

Wouldn't the easiest way to prove that I'm human and not a machine be to go back to my roots?

It feels like I've opened another big can of worms.

One post is not enough to explain this series, and there should be more posts to talk about these issues.