Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan) – 33[The Hunters]

One thing that continues to surprise me when covering this series is that after watching a full 25 minute episode of it and sitting down to write, I think about what happened in the episode and find it remarkably little. Truly, what did happen this episode? Well Reiner and Bertholdt ran off with Eren and everyone else chased after them once the military police showed up at the wall. That’s it. With one sentence I have hereby encapsulated what has transpired within the entirety of the episode. Maybe that is selling it short as we did have another flashback and Hans giving Mikasa and Armin some pep talk. Still I find the ever excessive use of flashbacks annoying and we could have established this at a much earlier point instead of now. Other than that we just have that one scene with Mikasa and Armin trying to eat as dramatically as possible. That was just really silly.

Perhaps you may be berating me for criticising this show taking it’s time as an attempt to speed things up could very well remove the gravita of the situations. But we only got a single cour this time round and to have more than one episode just focused on one or two significant events just feels like a waste of resources. But enough about that. Hans tried to make a point with his pep talk with Mikasa and Armin that Eren’s tenacity for never giving up was something to be admired. I however disagree with this statement. Tenacity in face of overwhelming odds is commendable, but only when they reason for those odds is not the person’s fault. Eren picks fights he cannot win. That’s not bravery, that’s stupidity. Still he’s likely right in that Eren will struggle and give his captors hell whenever he can. Though considering how effective Eren usually is I don’t expect much of a result from that. They already chopped off his arms to stop him turning titan. They could just cut out his tongue to stop him giving them any lip. Through considering this series so far, what else would they fill the time with if they can’t let people talk?

Alright I am being mean as this episode wasn’t a bad one by any means. I am sure fans are still eagerly awaiting the next development but I do think the way Attack on Titan tells it’s story is flawed. Nonetheless the soundtrack and production values are carrying it despite the story not really going anywhere fast. You may argue that a lot has happened over the season but I ask whether any of your questions from the first season have been answered? For the answer on that is surely no. Instead we got a lot more questions. Seeing as we got Reiner and Bertholdt to represent the unknown enemy, we might finally get some answers when they are confronted by Eren next episode. Still I think that this story will hold it’s cards for quite a while yet.