Yes! This would be the chapter for the anime where it had to boil down to whether the creators knew what they were doing or not. If they didn’t get this part right, then I had to question whether they knew what they were doing with this adaptation. But they nailed it! They actually made a smashing episode here.
This episode really meant to drive home that the characters are just completely screwed. Everyone gets slaughtered, the main character is death, the only way to escape only leads to even more giants. It’s hopeless. Even the ever-strong Mikasa gave up and just lead all of the survivors on a suicide mission. It all was meant to build up to that one giant who started to fight back.
The atmosphere was very different from the manga, but it worked! This entire episode just had me on the edge of my seat, and the characterization was great. That’s what lacked in the start of this series: it’s really good, but the characters are very one-sided. Here is where they lose all that and get multiple sides.
And the choices behind the music and animation: they really work. The style of the manga made it impossible to animate directly, but the movements here have their own styles and they were awesome! Especially near the end of this episode.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)
I don’t recall watching any anime episode twice on the same day.
Good stuff SnK; brilliant episode.
They’ve definitely got the action/horror chops down pat. Shame the writing stretches so far to put the heroes into dire straits without really convincing me of it. I’m also a bit underwhelmed by the twist at the end; seems a pretty obvious setup to me. Here’s hoping Titan turns out to be a bit more than just angst and ass-kicking until even that gets repetitive. I’m optimistic.
your comment does not reflect your optimism, Hogart
So how many episodes will there actually be? The Manga seems quit far from being finished, while also being released only once a month.
Personally I think the anime will end at Ch.43 or something.
I really, really hope that they won’t pull a story out of their ass and follow the manga 100%. The only problem I see now though is, how? Let’s say the anime is finished in about 6 months with about 25 episodes, the manga would get 6 volumes, which also means, that we probably would have to wait 1-2 years for a new season.
“the main character is death”
This typo opens to me a world of possibilities. Can you imagine it? An anime where the Grim Reaper himself is the protagonist? As he fights against the evil forces who want to grant immortality to humans and thus break the eternal balance of the universe itself?
(Yeah, it probably exists already. Hell, Bleach is almost it. Sort of)
It wasn’t really a suicide mission. It was a far-fetched mission. Staying would have been suicide. They needed gas to climb the walls. So the mission, although unlikely, was their only chance to retreat. 0.1% is better than 0%. No gas = they are trapped = they just wait to get eaten. So they could either fight, or wait to get eaten. And, Mikasa, inspired by Eren, thus motivate the troops to go on the mission.
If they didn’t have enough gas to climb the walls, then they didn’t have enough gas to fight the remaining horde of titans. It’s 0% either way.
In fact, it’s more probable that they could help each other make it to the walls, then get up high enough for most of the titans to not be able to reach them and wait, or use less gas to fire their hookshots and climb the rest of the way with those (how else would they climb the walls?). The titans were preoccupied, after all.
But this was arguably necessary for Mikasa’s growth as a character (“I led them all to this”), and it’s been established that the people in this setting are dumb as bricks, so I’m hardly surprised they would desperately cling to any sign of hope and react suicidally.
First of all, they may have been closer to the gas-stockpile than they were to the wall. It is likely, after all. They were at the front-lines, after all, so it would make sense that the wall is the furthest away from them. Wouldn’t you say? 😉
Option A: They retreat. But they state explicitly that they do not have enough gas. To get there and then get over the wall would require more gas then they have, it is stated explicitly. Giants are fast. So that has 0% probability of success. So we can either assume that they are lying or accept it. They could give their gas to a few and sacrifice the rest, I suppose, but I don’t think the sacrificial lambs would agree.
Option B: They wait and get eaten. Easiest to accomplish, just do nothing. Demoralized as they are.
Option C: They go get gas. Survive or die trying.
The situation is plausible. Sure you can nitpick and say that their decision is wrong, but remember that they are at the front-lines, so getting to the gas-supply, would by shorter than getting to the wall.
DIG A GIANT HOLE.
THAT IS ALL
SERIOUSLY A GIANT HOLE = GG except vs SUPER titan and even he wouldn’t be ale to get his friends across a GIANT HOLE.
Why has this not be thought of? it would create jobs, boost the economy and completely nullify the titan threat. “omg you got past our wall, now fall into a pit until we decide to come back and kill you”
All i’m saying is a 40 feet deep 100 feet wide hole on the other side of the wall would make their entire existance a ton safer. Only Devients would stand a chance of being smart enough to climb it and even then its shooting fish from a barrel.
Why didn’t the humans build tunnel networks, or even tunnels in or under the walls and adjoining walls? How did they even build the walls in the first place while Titans were eating them? Why don’t the giants dig under the walls if they’re cleverer than everyone expected?
Answers: you’re thinking too much. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Maybe Titan will try to explain these things eventually, but for now it’s just about grim hopelessness and desperation, no matter how odd.
To answer: human psychology. If they work too much on defences, they are acknowledging the existence of the Giants. They already have the Walls, so they would rather rest peacefully. Work on other things, like food.
Tunnels aren’t a bad idea, but it is a massive feat of engineering to make big and stable tunnels, so it would take a lot of work. And humans would simply rather work on more pleasant things. Not to mention that humans are selfish.
That doesn’t really add up, but I’m at the point now where it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve seen worse representations of human psychology in a shock anime before, so I might as well just hand-wave it as “the first generation survivors died too quickly to build any more defenses, and they took all the intelligence and survival instincts with them.”
I think they just kept the ideas of the masive protective wall because it was Middle Age, mega constructions made in rock (to sculp it) would take centuries to be finished, maybe their constructive tecnology is the reason (i don’t want to get technical about kinds of walls and iron structure), we just need some perspective… ._.
I noticed in one of the previous ep they had holes in behind the gates and a draw bridge over them but they ran and left it down.
“SERIOUSLY A GIANT HOLE”
Then it’s Gurren Lagann all over again, but without Kamina… -_____-
I think you misunderstand, the titans are too stupid to climb that big wall. so if you dug a giant hole and they fell in it, they would remain there forever or until you decided to kill them. EVEN if a 50feet tall giant came, he would only be able to climb out, not help his friends out (quickly at least) or create a way for the others to get through.
And it isnt’ thinking too much
thinking too much would be “why dont they have latch post ALL throughout their city along with refilling stations ALL throughout their city for such a purpose”
It would be like the city of Chicago only having a single solitary fire station from which the trucks refill. aka idiotic.
I didn’t mean “thinking too much” in terms of real life, I meant thinking too much for this show 🙂
Not sure if you noticed, but the titans do jump. Quite far as a matter of fact, as seen in ep… 5 I think it was?
I can tell you more reasons why digging holes wouldn’t work, but that would require me spoil later parts of the story.
True, but jumping far isn’t the same as jumping high. At least for now, I’m not convinced that the Titans could jump high enough or be clever enough to help each other climb on one another. They do seem to be evolving or whatever, so I’m sure pits and such aren’t going to be a problem for them eventually, but for now things aren’t being helped by the lack of tactics and intelligence being employed by the humans. It seems like they’re trying to sweep the most obvious and logical approaches under the rug for now just to increase dramatic tension, which is a trick that gets old really fast. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen.
Like I said, can’t really explain why it wouldn’t work without some major spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that.
Alright. I appreciate that, thanks. Hopefully I’ll still be able to appreciate the explanation when it finally does come.
Are you stupid ttsukasa? You expect a 1700s tech nation to dig a moat for a fortress nation that is 500 km in diameter? And the Titans would just climb out of the fucking hole 40 feet is shorter than most Titans, dumbass. The Colossal Titans is 50 meters not 50 feet, retard. Look at episode 5 again, they build deep moats around the gate, but when the Titans broke through you can see a Titan just climbing his way out of the hole no problem.
Protip: don’t call someone a retard when your own logic doesn’t pan out. If the humans of this show could build those GIANT FREAKING WALLS (while being eaten alive, no less) then I’m sure they could build some big holes too. They didn’t know about the 50m tall Titans until episode 2, after all. Besides, they did try smaller-scale pits, it just doesn’t look like they tried too damn hard.
There is an explanation for those walls but its a spoiler. Lets just say the walls were build before the Titans arrived in that particular area.
Fine. But that’s hardly an excuse for those of us who haven’t been that far in the story yet. Don’t call people retarded for wondering why they haven’t explained the obvious yet. Moreover, it still doesn’t adequately explain why they wouldn’t build more advanced defenses AFTER the walls were built and they were safe for a time, so of course some viewers will impatiently wonder about it until they get an explanation.
Are you aware of what an insane feat of engineering that would be? 40 feet = ~12 meters. So say 10 meters. And 100 feet = ~30 meters.
Wall Maria was 3015 km long. Over 3 000 km. Digging a 10x30x3x10^6 = 9×10^8 m³. That is a lot of dirt. That is comparative to digging away a mountain. The wall itself is impressive. And since you can’t dig right next to the wall, you might undermine the integrity of it, what if the giants simply jump over it? Also keep in mind that holes erode over time. So overall, it would be impractical.
Rather than to dig it all around, they place strategic pits, but they are only so and so efficient.
@Hogart:Fraid not Hogart from what I recall of the manga doesn’t go down that road.
Oh well. Then here’s hoping it’s at least really fantastic angst and ass-kicking.
And as it shifts into battle shounen this is where I lost interest in the manga. I see this, and what comes later, as the author trying desperately to keep from writing himself into a corner.