Category: Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

I was all geared up to write up a post that this season of attack on Titan was mere lip service for a third season that may never come when I seen that there is indeed a third season of Attack on Titan on the way next year. So I could voice those same complaints but they aren’t so grievous when we have confirmation that the anime will continue. One could complain that if they were going to make another season then why didn’t they make this season two cour but considering how much the production values dropped by this last episode I think they made a good move. If it’s one thing I think the animation studio needs to learn for the next season, it’s consistent animation quality. This season started high quality and then just started moving erratically between low and high for the remainder of it’s run. It’s a problem the first season had as well so I really hope they learn it for the third season. I still hold the point that in the grand scheme of things, not really much has changed since the start of the season. We have a few scraps in the finale but overall I think just too much time was spent on being action driven rather than advancing the plot. We have two main events in the defense of the castle and the chase with the Armoured and Colossal titans. Both of which I think were a too drawn out for their own good, especially the titan chase. Over half the season was dedicated to them chasing after those two and that’s just way too much time.

Well usual complaints aside, just what did I think about this season finale? I liked it. Having lost interest these past few episodes, this managed to get me engaged again. I am sad about Hans and I really think the author should have given him the titan kill. You can call it karmic payback for him ditching Erens mother all those years ago but I dislike the idea of punishing those who are seeking to redeem themselves. Han’s dying here pretty much confirms that he did make the right choice back then when he chose to save the kids and run away. I mean Han’s pretty much was set in stone to die but you could have given him that much before he kicked the bucket. Christa’s small 3D movement gear moment was also some really fine animation even though those few seconds are all we get to see of her fighting. Erens Breakdown at Hans death and his own inability to do anything about it was some truly excellent voice acting that I felt the high degree of emotion straight through the language barrier. Mikasa almost confessed her love to Eren in the moment they were about to die and I honestly burst out laughing when Eren dodged the kiss. People took his words about wrapping a scarf around her forever as some sort of proposal but well knowing Eren I would be willing to be he meant it a purely platonically. Actually I believe Eren hasn’t even hit the point when he even notices girls so I think Mikasa should just jump into his bed one night and give him a full course lesson if she wants this to go anywhere.

Eren’s new power to command titans certainly does spell out why Reiner and Bertholdt wanted to kidnap him but I do still find the way it just appeared to be a bit of a Deus Ex Machina. Actually it pretty much qualifies as one. Still the events of this episode were quite exhilarating and does get one pumped to see just where the story will go from here. It’s is also a huge relief that they finally found out that titans are humans. It’s about goddamn time. It’s pretty surprising that Levi only got one or two appearances as well, I only just remembered the guy when that scene started. I don’t know why Ymir decided to go with Reiner and Bertholdt as I honestly thought she only cared about Christa and this sudden pity for the two titans situation just seems abrupt if anything. Non the less it gives Christa something to fight for in the upcoming season. So this season ends on a high note and it seems that to many it was a good season, to some even surpassing the previous season. Personally I just don’t have the motivation to continue and for the third season I think it would be best to leave if up to another writer to cover. Believe or not you are not the only one tired of my whining. I have gotten rather bored of it as well. No review for this season as it’s not really finished in the true sense so I guess that will have to wait till next year.

By last episodes post I believe I made my position on this anime clear. I am sorry but I just don’t have any interest anymore. The production values managed to catch my attention in the beginning but as the series continues and those values are falling I must admit to finding this season being style over substance. Continuing the trend of just not a lot happening we have an episode dedicated to just Reiner running away from the scouting corps. We have three moments of badass here starting with Erwin ordering the soldiers forward while getting his arm bitten off by a titan. Didn’t really think much of the guy but admittedly that was a really empowering performance that can even get me somewhat hyped up. Another moment was Mikasa going full yandere in trying to retrieve Eren and yeah if Mikasa’s interest in Eren is purely platonic then I don’t see it. You don’t get this possessive over a friend. All things considered, seeing how dense Eren is I think Mikasa’s best bet is to sneak into his bed and take the reins. Hey it’s the end days of humanity, we ain’t got time for romance. Then we have Armin pulling psychological tactics on Reiner and Bertolt. While it’s nice to see him play an active role but this really feels like an unnecessary action. After all he could have pulled a surprise attack and cut Eren out of the bonds holding him to Bertolt so the psychological manipulation just isn’t really needed besides giving Armin his little moment.

We have the team trying to reason with the two before titans swarm everyone but I think this was where the episode really lost me. I just don’t really have much of a connection to these characters and while my memory of the first season is vague I don’t remember these two being featured the prominently. The team remarks on the good old days that pretty much happened somewhere offscreen and as a viewer I find it hard to empathise with that. I don’t think focusing of the emotional aspect with these characters is the best approach as we don’t have any real logic to why they are doing this in the first place and the story needs to keep them tight lipped on that matter. We also have Ymir lying to Christa in order to get her to come along but I am annoyed yet again when they make her intent obvious but have Connie ride up to spell things out to Christa. Seriously Connie how do you know this? Are you her psychiatrist or something? For if you are trying to tell me that you can logically deduce all this in a single moment while in the midst of a giant titan battle then I call bullshit. Armin’s supposed to be the brains of the operation, not you.

One more episode to go and the second season of Attack on Titan ends. When looking over the season as a whole I find it lackluster. There were good action scenes and I am certain an Attack on Titan fan would be well satisfied with the result. To that I say good for you, truly wish I could have enjoyed it on that level as well. But to those who claim I am hatefully bias or misunderstand the value of this series, I pose a question. Let’s say next episode Eren and crew make it back to the wall and Reiner and Bertolt run to fight another day. Then just what has changed since episode one of this season? Sure Monkey Trouble was introduced and he might pop up in a third season if it comes. We have some development on some side characters with Sasha, Christa and Ymir. But are we not right back where we started? All the mysteries still remain mysteries, if anything we got more of them. We learn nothing of the affairs outside of the walls. Humanity is no closer to victory. And if this isn’t the end of the two titan shifters then what over half this season has been focused on is just a giant waste of time. This season is mainly a setup for a third season which may not even come. People give Re:Zero a hard time because it is claimed to be a prologue for things to come. But at least there things were accomplished, at least the main concerns were resolved. Here we don’t have that, we just have action scenes which essentially don’t change a thing. Popcorn entertainment if you will. But perhaps I am wrong and the last episode can bring something to the table which makes the events of this season all worth it. Even having Mikasa and Eren get revenge on the Titan that killed Eren’s mom would make for a good result. If it doesn’t then, well it’s just another transitional season that only serves to provide setup for another season which may never come.

Forgive me for the extremely late posts but I was on holiday in Portugal so didn’t really have the energy or tools to write up posts. If it’s any consolation the holiday was pretty terrible. I am out a grand and all I got in return was a mild tan, a half deaf ear, a cold and severe amounts of boredom. Gah, the pains of showing your family you give a damn. Anyway I watched these episodes back to back with hope that with a double dose of Attack on titan this would medicate my previous issue with the current plot being overly drawn out. Sadly this isn’t the case as I really am struggling to see the reason why these episodes are so ridiculously drawn out. In my adult years I have grown sensitive to when a show is wasting my time and in this case I feel these two episodes could be crunched into one and the pacing would be all the better for it. Part of the reason for this slow pace could be an artifact from it’s source, where events are repeated by the characters to refresh the audience on just what is going on. Now in a monthly series such as Attack on titan this is perfectly logical.

After all it’s hard to expect a reader to remember the events that could have happened a couple of months past. For an example the first episode here starts with Ymir reiterating that they were taken to a forest to wait for nightfall. Thing is that Hange pointed out this very thing in the last episode and having Ymir explain it here only illustrates to the audience why Eren can’t go titan and escape. Even then there is no point in going to such laborious detail. But a real big offender is the scouts checking out Connies village and once again repeating that titans ravaged it, but there’s no bodies and they didn’t take the horses…yes, yes, we went over this already. There’s no point in giving the audience a reminder on something that happened only a few episodes ago. This is sort of the reason as to why you can’t simply adapt word from word from a source and expect it to work as well. One has to take into account that anime has new benefits and lacks the limitations of manga while bringing it’s own limitations.

Animation has truly degraded these past episodes and I am not surprised. They had a pretty good run of demanding animation sequences so it’s no wonder if the team is burned out. But the second episode here has a few seconds of footage with animation so utterly terrible I had to repeat it just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. This is one point when in Reiner and Bertholdt were escaping on 3D dimensional gear and I swear to god the animation was just a still image moving diagonally. A literal animation tween of the most basic form and I am honestly surprised to see no mention of it in discussion threads. Other than that the number of still frames has gone up so either the team is saving themselves for something or are on their last legs. So in other events Riener is claimed to have disassociated cognition where in he has played the solder so long that he has trouble discerning which of his personas is real. I am sorry but, I really don’t buy this. Throughout the series Reiner has been a relatively solid character and showed no real sign of mental instability. They throw in a flashback to try and recon this in but it really does feel like a on the moment decision to justify his offhand confession to Eren. Also his condition is not explained by his comrade but instead perfectly deduced by Ymir at that very moment. It just bothers me that these characters are ridiculously perceptive when it comes to interpersonal relations but still frustratingly oblivious to obvious concepts like Titan’s being transformed humans.

I must reiterate that nothing in these episodes I would consider bad. In fact I found Ymir’s flashback to be the best part of these episodes though that may be anime original content or part of a later development moved to this point. But I do think that if I didn’t have to blog it that I wouldn’t be still watching it. It’s not a matter of disliking it but I just have a complete lack of interest. This could be attributed to the fact that I have read on in the manga and therefore know the revelations that this show is still trying to keep out of reach. But there are animes airing during a season in which I just can’t bring up the motivation to start watching it. Boku no Hero season 2 would be a prime example of this. I had the full intent of watching it and yet it’s over halfway through the season and I can’t be bothered to start episode one. I confess that I haven’t even finished the second season of Gate despite not finding it a bad show. I just…stop. No real feelings behind it besides apathy and my hesitation to continue watching which is greater as the episodes build up each week. In truth I never had much interest in covering this to begin with and still stand by my opinion in the preview that this is where Attack on Titan started to lose me. History repeats itself I suppose.

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.

It really does feel like this episode passed by far too fast as I remember Eren and Reiner fighting and not much else. Much like most of you I am sure you are very interested in who won that fight between Mikasa and Annie. Well I can certainly let you know that this fight is never ever brought up again. Look I bash the overuse of flashbacks in this series quite a bit but I really hate it when a flashback I am invested in is brutally cut off by the main character saying “Eh, who cares about that anyway.” To give you peace of mind, apparently the two were evenly matched and fought until an instructor cut the match short. The flashback served it’s purpose to suddenly teach Eren Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Got to admit that was very convenient timing as it makes it really odd that Eren never made use of these techniques against the very one that taught him them, Annie herself. In fact it’s rather odd that it’s only now that he starts to utilise these skills.

We have a couple of standout moments such as Hange reacting to a titan finally acknowledging her words and Mikasa’s fantastically animated cut into Reiners legs. However I really must ask, did it take them that long to figure out they should be attacking the gaps in his armour. I mean these people aren’t exactly educated people but it seems like minimum level combat tactics to strike at someone’s weak spots. Point is that if you need to break through a wall and there is a wall of concrete with a wall of styrofoam right beside it then it’s rather silly to go for the concrete wall. I saw that shot of Mikasa repeatedly trying to stab Reiner’s shoulder armour when there was a clear fleshy gap right beside it. Plus couldn’t the rest of you scouting crops swoop down and give Eren a hand? I mean the ending had a perfect shot for someone to fly into and cut the neck yet everyone was too busy playing spectator. I know you had spare blades Mikasa, why did you go after the legs instead of the neck?

I have a few more complaints too, like the way the kept interrupting the action to show others talking or reacting or whatever. The shot of Mikasa cutting the legs did not need intercuts to Eren choking Reiner. It should have been one unbroken shot and that really shows when someone edited the shots together without the fluff. I don’t mind the interruptions about how people feel about Reiner and Belhots betrayal as it does explain why Mikasa didn’t go straight to chop their heads off before they transformed as well as hyping up the fight. Even if Eren was being…well…Eren at the beginning. Seriously, Eren. You can be really damn disappointing at times. So we have a action packed half hour that leaves us with another big cliffhanger that honestly felt like ended the episode too soon. This episode also marks that we are over halfway through the season and I can hear the frustrated tears of Attack on Titan fans from here.

In light of the revelation this episode allow me to paraphrase a common saying, well shit. I admit due to my knowledge of the manga that I have been dancing around this particular reveal in my posts. I knew it was coming but I wasn’t sure how obvious it was to those that didn’t know. To me it felt very obvious that Reiner was a Titan, though which titan was up in the air. Though regardless if you seen the reveal coming or not, there was no way you could have possibly have predicted just how it was revealed. Well in this episode it was revealed who two of the most iconic titans in the entire series are and done so with such casual banter that it’s hard to believe. “I’m the Armoured Titan and this guys the Colossal Titan” says Reiner in a shot where he’s barely on screen. I remember reading this in the manga and needing to go back a few pages just to verify if I missed something. But no, the reveal is just dropped that suddenly. I can’t honestly fathom just what Reiner was thinking and even Reiner himself seems to be flabbergasted when he thinks over just what he’s doing. Perhaps after getting out of a near death situation he was unhinged enough to drop the ball. But this will likely go down as one of the most shocking moments in the entire series. Almost makes me wish I waited till the second season before reading on in the manga.

Thing is that I must ask, just what else happened in this episode? I know twenty minutes went by but it does seem odd just how little happened in those twenty minutes. Ymir was pulled up on to the wall and Reiner revealed that he was a titan. Quite frankly, that’s all that happened this episode. Sure there was so mindless talk, one thing being for the most part a needless flashback which looks to be the author trying to justify that this was set up in advance. However I feel it opens up a plothole. For that flashback confirmed that the scouting corps had caught on to Reiner and Bertholt being Titans, yet they still left Eren all alone with the two of them. Mikasa was smart enough to keep an eye on the two of them but just what excuse does the rest of the corps have to leaving them so close to humanity’s only hope? Not saying they have to have twelve soldiers surrounding them at all times but they could maybe push Eren somewhere else and let some other guy take care of them. Maybe it was a plan to lure them underground to detain them? Still seems too risky to use Eren in that regard. Besides they don’t quite know if they can detain them.

That really bugged me but all things considered the reveal was fantastically done, leaving one hell of a cliffhanger. Pretty sure that seeing the scouting core have a rematch with these two is a long time desire of fans and now we are looking to get that showdown. Still no answers though, who is Reiner working for and why is he doing this? Are Ymir and Reiner working together?(I am guessing not based on his reaction to her titan form) Where does monkey trouble fit into all this? Is he another completely separate entity? Perhaps next episode we will get some answers. But even if not this is bound to be one hell of a fight.

If there is one thing in particular that I would fault Attack on Titan for, it would be that the author is bad with characterisation. When looking over how characters develop in the series, this normally happens in one of two ways. Either the character has a flashback or another character just starts a verbal dissection of someone’s character right to their face. In this episode we have evidence of both these things at work with starting off with as flashback to the scouting corps winter training which we never saw before and Ymir outright berating Crista over what she surmised was her wish to die while doing something perceived as heroic. I dislike this matter of character development as it pretty much ignores the fact of how utterly obnoxious this kind of thing would be to a genuine person. Imagine if you will, some random coworker coming up to you and insinuating about your character based on their personal observation.

It would be annoying because who is this random person to judge and quite frankly, nine times out of ten they would be completely wrong. The readers of this blog can insinuate a lot about my character by how I write these posts, but I am fairly certain you would be far off the mark on who I truly am no matter how closely you read. When you get down to it these outbursts are not for the character benefit as after all they just sit and take it. This is for the audience’s benefit as someone verbally lays out this character’s motivations and intent bare. When it comes to matters like this, less is more and if you have reached the point where you need to verbally explain someone’s character to the audience then I think you have failed as a writer. At least when it comes to the visual medium.

Well this episode has Ymir defending the remaining people just in time for the rest of the scouting corps to arrive to save the day. Other than that we have a flashback to Ymir and Christa’s training days which serves to explain that they both have trouble with family. In Christa’s case it seems her family name holds a large amount of importance if the priests of the wall is to be believed. Ymir looks to be dead but considering titan regeneration it’s possible she could walk this off. I do believe that Eren managed to regrow an arm in the first season. Speaking of which he finally killed his first titan using 3D gear which really goes to illustrate just how much of the kid is talking the talk but not walking the walk. In the titanverse he admittedly hasn’t been  in the corps for that long but for someone who oh so boasted about killing all titans, this is suitably pathetic. But oh, is that just Eren. He has always been the character to speak grander than he can deliver. Which makes his pairing with Mikasa, who has the skill to live up to such promises, all the more fitting. Eren is all ego, no action. Mikasa is all action, no ego. When thinking about it this does make you question just what is more important in this kind of dire situation. To be a person who says what needs to be said or someone who can do what needs to be done? Admittedly not much happened aside from that, this was mainly an episode focused on Ymir and Christa. I will say that shot of Christa face when saying her name to Ymir was quite beautiful.

Before I started this episode, I had it in mind to write in this post that the titan designs of this season were far less intimidating and more comical. After this episode however you can consider that though solely retracted. Personal favorite is the titan that appears when Reiner opened the stairway door. If I saw that in the middle of the night you would be certain I would be running as far as possible in the opposite direction. It’s good to have some action after the cool down period of the last episode. Monkey trouble is kicking up…trouble but I can’t help but wonder just what is his agenda here. Is this simply an act of killing humans or is there something else at work. Considering her recent focus, perhaps Krista is the one he wants dead and the others are just collateral. But then again Ymir is acting suspicious enough that she could very well have something to do with this. I really wish this series could hold back a bit presentation wise and show a little more subtly as Ymir had “Acting suspicious” plastered all over her face and the camera make a point to shout this all the more. The reveal at the end of the episode isn’t really that much of a surprise when you openly announce that she’s hiding things with dramatic emphasis. Honestly I had her number when she interrupted Connie just as he was coming to the realisation that the titans within the wall where his village’s inhabitants. Making her the second person to cut off the line of thought, with the first being Reiner. Though considering Reiners actions this episode and his brief flashback that seems to dismiss the idea of him being a titan.

The deaths of the scout corps leaders didn’t surprise me all that much. Upon introduction I had these people marked for dead so to see it happen was hardly surprising. Though even if it was expected I will say those death scenes were really good. I knew when I seen Krista pouring that alcohol over Reiners wound that it would come back later. It annoyed me so much to see her waste the entire bottle, not even pouring it over the full wound. Majority of it ended up on the floor. Poor Gerger, all he wanted before he died was a drink. This world couldn’t even give him that. I do find it rather amusing how Nanaba sacrificed herself in order to save him, only to give him a far crueler death. Though considering what happened to Nanaba afterwards, maybe not. At least he wasn’t conscious when the titans started eating him and Nanaba’s last words are utterly bone chilling. Fun fact for some, the last line that Nanaba said “Father. Please stop. I won’t do it again” was an anime only addition. I actually really like this change as it insinuates a lot about the character just right before she dies and to see a strong character get broken down to a sobbing child is a pretty horrifying sight. As to what we could inferred over her last words, perhaps it was a beating she got after doing something wrong or that her father was an abusive parent or potentially something significantly darker. What it is we shall never know now that she’s titan chow but what it does show is that the veterans of of the scouting corps are just as fragile as the rookies.

This episode does showcase the things which make attack on titan so well regarded but while I enjoyed this episode a lot I still have this nagging in the back of my mind. That being that this episode presented more questions and little answers. We are reaching the 30th episode of this series and we don’t know much of anything about the titans or anything in general. There are plenty of teases for answers down the line(The key to the basement, the priest talking to Krista) but whether we will get those answers in this cour is up in the air. Another thing is that I would really like to see humanity start winning. Every victory up until this point has come with a big however nailed to it. I may have mentioned this before but the key to tragedy is the balance between hope and despair. Muv Luv Alternative (Stated as the inspiration for Attack on Titan by the mangaka himself) managed this balance perfectly. It made you believe that humanity could win, that things were turning the tide before bringing in the BETA and everything going straight to hell. Attack on Titan piles tragedy upon tragedy and a constant tragedy isn’t interesting. We had a small moment where it looked like the survey corps would pull through but pretty much one minute later and things are right back to doomed. I think this would have had greater impact if the survey corps succeeded in defending the tower and then the viewer is like “Yes, these people can win!” and then just as they are about to leave the second wave of titans come in. Then the despair is real and more poignant because for one moment we believed things would work out. Well next episode has titan Ymir and if I am not mistaken, her titan form looks remarkably similar to the titan that killed Reiner’s brother in that flashback.

It’s more than a little frustrating when you have a character present who has answers to very important questions, yet refuses to speak up for rather contrived reasons. Though we don’t quite know why the priest doesn’t speak up I can’t really think of anything that would possibly be preventing him from doing so. This world isn’t advanced enough to have listening bugs or specialised bombs. And with him admitting that he will speak only to Trista of the scouting legion that suggests it’s not a matter of him being overheard either. I just can’t really see it as anything but a contrived reason to keep the audience in the dark. So I think this is the episode where this anime’s production values can’t keep it interesting for me. Though it seems like those are slipping as I notice more still frames in play. Perhaps my lack of interest stems from the fact that I read the manga and thus all this baiting for answers isn’t grabbing me because I know the answers. Though I also remember this was a round the point that I started to lose interest with the manga. Still what have we learned with this episode?

For one we learned that the material of the wall is made out of the same crystal material as the titan’s hardening which means that they could block the hole in wall maria by Eren making use of the technique. I am not certain if Eren made use of it before in the first season but Levi pretty much says for him to shut up and do it with hopefully will mean that Eren won’t be angsting up a storm about it. We learn that Connie’s village was apparently attacked by titans but oddly there isn’t any blood or signs of villagers escaping. Considering the rather bloodchilling “Welcome Home” Connie got from the immobile titan I think it’s a safe assumption that the Titans within the wall are the villagers of Connie’s town. What further proves this is that the wall has not been breached which pretty much means these titans somehow climbed over the wall or magically appeared within it.

I did really like the moment where during the check on the wall one of the soldiers was getting ripped up by the anticipation of an enviable titan attack. Being out in complete darkness and knowing that at any moment giants can come out and rip you to pieces is nerve wracking enough but agonising over when it could happen is sure to drive anyone mad. This show does lack subtle when it comes to character interactions so it’s pretty clear that Ymir lied to Crista over being with her because she wanted to be and clearly has a second agenda. Reiner was acting weird as well with just how hard he was trying to get Connie to ignore what the titan said but I admit I have difficulty determining if this was him covering up the truth or just acting really over the top for dramatic effect. Now that are stuck in a castle with Titans at the doorstep. But for good news this week, Sasha got a potato. Honestly that did make me smile.

Potato girl Sasha gets her time to shine as we have an episode dedicated to her. So fun fact regarding this episode. You may have noticed that Sasha had a death flag all over her during this scene and there’s a good reason for that. It seems that Sasha was in fact, supposed to die during this part in the manga. But when the author showed this to his editor, his editor got quite upset as Sasha was one of his favorite characters. The editor even claims that after reading the storyboard that he went to the bathroom and cried but this may be a joke on his part. Anyway this editor managed to convince the author to spare Sasha which is why she manages to slip away just in time. Personally this scene might have meant a whole lot more if she did die as the whole scene was essentially a big heroic death moment with no heroic death. There are other merits to this part of the story such as adding a bit to Sasha who up till this point has been more of a comic relief character. I also love how it showcases that even a giant that’s only slightly bigger than a human can be just as much of a threat. The scene was beautifully demented with the little girl sitting watching her mother slowly get devoured. All things considered the mother was pretty calm for someone getting eaten alive. I will likely be giving this show a lot of flack in these reviews but I do think it can do an excellent job on portraying the absolute horror of the world these characters inhabit.

Presentation still carries the story and manages to keep the show entertaining. I was thinking that seeing as Sawano was working on two series this season that he might do a lesser job on one of the series soundtracks. Though so far Re:Creators and Titans OST’s sound pretty baller. Still I find that the story developments are still just presenting more questions than answers. Animation has definitely gotten an upgrade as while the previous season wasn’t lacking in good animation, it did have a problem with consistent quality. One episode would feature a fantastically animated bout between titans and another would have still images with voiceovers. This doesn’t look to be the case here if the first two episodes are evidence to the rest of the seasons quality.

Our episode ends with the group finding a titan in a house and being shocked over how it’s legs and arms are too small to support itself, mention there is no way this titan could have got here by itself. Obviously this is insinuation to the scouting troop that titans may in fact be transformed humans. There’s a particular problem with this revelation and that’s the fact that everyone watching has pretty much figured that out by episode 6. In fact with the discovery of Eren’s powers to transform into a titan this revelation should have come up long before this. So the audience must wait for the character to get up to speed on the situation when isn’t the best way to go about things. It would be different if this answer was something the audience could see and the characters could not and one could reason that seeing as they are from a more middle aged era that this question wouldn’t even occur to them. Still if nobody, not even the titan obsessed scientist thought of this then these characters are pretty dumb.