User blog comment:Coquidragon/Episode 20 non review/@comment-4829046-20141118133729/@comment-1746153-20141118143234

Yeah, that's how I'd describe it as well. Some people get into series where many characters are killed of just because of exactly this ("Oh, this series has the balls to kill off characters unlike Naruto/Bleach/One Piece/anything else mainstream, it's soo cool an mature!"), but not everyone realizes that most characters that die were written for this purpose anyway, and their deaths only add to shock factor (again), but have little impact on the plot.

I think if I had to pick a favorite character in SnK, it would be Hange/Hanji. She (?) is weird but I find this weirdness somehow appealing. I know that the most popular character is Levi, but he never appealed to me, at least in his early appearances, due to his over the top badass asshole-ish behavior.

However, my most favorite manga series are usually mostly pure horror, and they are less popular ones. One of the examples would be Franken Fran, and even though it did have lighthearted moments as well, it sure deals with disturbing themes that are usually more elaborate than just rape or brutal murder.