Advice: Never take friends' recommendations seriously especially when they insist you watch it until you hate it before you even watch it. I realized that when I tried to *make* people watch a show that I liked, they'd come into it in a negative mood and pick all the holes they can find so they can say it's bad and rub it in my face LOL. I'm kind of a bad friend. But when I only mention it every once in a while and then when they're looking for something to watch they remember, oh hey he recommended this and that I better check them out. Only then you'll be safe.
Sorry for the offtopic advice lol, but I felt it was needed because annoying people like me can make people hate good shows. With that said, AoT is special, and I say that because people overrating it creates huge expectations for new watchers who still don't know what it's about. Remember that AoT only blew up because of the first few episodes. They were harsh, emotional, graphic, and created a feeling of connection and sympathy with the characters very early on that many shows fail to do so successfully early on. The later episodes go more in depth about the story.
With that out of the way, let me talk about my own opinion about this anime. It's not a masterpiece, but it gets so damn close. The animation, the sound design and soundtracks, the direction, and the whole production is top notch. Watch the Bluray version if you want to truly enjoy these aspects of the anime (I've watched it at least 3 times, lost count after that). The story builds up the mystery of the titans very well and introduces new mysteries over and over again to keep the viewers intrigued, and succeeded in doing so imo. As the story progresses it becomes less and less about Eren getting revenge for his mother, and more about politics and conspiracy (at least in the manga, and hopefully in Season 2). I often hate when shows have to use teenagers to appeal to a younger audience, and that's what AoT is doing. I would still watch it even if they killed off all the teenage main characters, because the show is not really about them like you'd expect a shounen to be. It's about the much bigger picture about humanity's struggle and fight against a predator.
Sorry, I kept blabbing. Hope this at least encourages you to finish it, because it really is good.
