To try to explain Attack on Titan to someone who doesn’t watch the show (and capture all the depth of the franchise and not just write it off as a show about dudes attacking naked giants) is not easy. The show is violent, layered, complex, and maybe one of the best things out there right now. But seriously, how would you explain it? Well, once again, Kotaku attempts to do what most would scoff at:

The Titans are these large, kind of sluggish beasts and you’ll see humans zipping and flying around them, flipping in the air to perform some really acrobatic moves and land a decent strike. There’s lots of yelling as commands are quickly changed, because nothing ever goes according to plan. It’s almost always chaos. Cannons are firing off from a distance and Titans, with their ear-to-ear and toothy grins, try to swat at anything and everything that moves.

The goal for the military is to swing around behind the Titans and swipe at the back of their necks, which they have discovered to be their only weak spot on an otherwise incredibly tough exterior that manages to heal itself, no less.

Editor’s note: not all Titans are slow. Honestly, though. When I tell people it is about badass soldiers who attack what really end up being giant zombies, most people are pretty eager to give it a shot. Just saying.

[Image, story Kotaku]

Tags: animation, anime, attack on titan, awesome anime, cartoon, explain, humans, Japanese, titans