「戦士」 (Senshi)
“Warrior”

For everyone that was waiting for the big reveal – there you have it! Out of the blue, the Colossal and Armored Titan reveal themselves! And not just to Eren, but everyone else that’s standing on the wall at that time. There’s no going back now for Reiner and Berholdt as they make themselves public enemy number one. It’s literally an explosion of information coming at you about the two; everything except an objective. For now, all we know is that they’re scooping up the people in their group that have been revealed as titans and “trying” to escape. And that cliffhanger?! Shingeki no Kyojin pulls out a lot of cliffhangers, but I don’t know how anyone can sit around not itching to read the manga now (so if you’re eager to keep the action going, the story picks up at chapter 43). This next arc is probably one of my favorites in the story so it’s amazing to see it animated and it spares no expense in doing so.

Say what you will about all the episodes leading up to this moment, but when reality settled in and the backtrack started playing, I got goosebumps. When you hear all the doubt and self-reflection hitting Reiner in the face, the awkward silence, and the stares, gosh that scene is just ideal for that type of epic reveal. If you guessed it before this moment, that’s great, but as for myself – I thought this moment was perfect. The story leads up to it, like a background/second dialogue going on and you don’t really take it seriously until the backstory starts rolling as well. When Hange starts revealing the facts of the investigation going on (does anyone else also immediately think of Ed when he talks?), and even Armin chimes in about Annie, it’s hard not to believe that it’s true – Reiner and Berholdt are the reasons that so many humans died 5 years ago. The evidence piles up against them and even Reiner knows that now that he’s said it out-loud, there’s no going back. They have to continue going forward with whatever mission they were assigned way back when and that’s what makes them true warriors.

When I first read this chapter, I never really understood or grasped just how strong of a connection Reiner and Berholdt had with the other cadets. I get the they’re friends and comrades, but seeing it animated with all the flashbacks and soundtrack just made it all the more convincing that Reiner does struggle with what’s real for him. Whatever Reiner and Berholdt (and Annie) were trying to accomplish being a cadet, just seemed to have lost a lot of momentum while they were held within the walls and busy trying to blend in. The anime did a great job here showing all of Reiner’s inner turmoil and it certainly made me pity him (and Berholdt) a lot more than I did in the manga (which just made me feel more mad than sad). Whereas I think being mad, helps reaffirm what Eren and company must be feeling, I think Reiner and Berholdt getting some sympathy votes helps illustrate how complex and dimensional they are as characters. I’m a very empathetic person to begin with though, so maybe I just feel sorry for everyone! Even seeing Eren’s denial stage turn into acceptance and rage got me all emotional.

Now while it’s awesome that we got to finally see the Colossal and Armored Titan reemerge after all these years – the question still remains: a) where did all the titans come from (if there’s no hole in the wall)?; b) what do Berholdt and Reiner want?; and c) what about Ymir? I think these are probably the three biggest questions that I’d like to see answered before the end of the season, fully understanding if it never does get there. It’s also nice to see other characters shine rather than the focus being on Eren all the time. I’m biased to seeing more of Levi (which might not happen, given his current condition) but more Armin, Hange and Ymir would be awesome too. Let’s see if they all survive this upcoming battle though and just how far Berholdt and Reiner are willing to go for their resolve.

Author’s Note – I don’t normally notice things like these, but since I rewatched this episode quite a bit, I noticed a small goof in animation. When Mikasa first strikes, she cuts off Reiner’s arm and then goes to attack Berholdt by slicing his throat. Just as she’s about to finish Berholdt though, Reiner charges at her – and it’s at this moment, you can see, he has two arms again! And then in the following episode, he’s missing it again. Oops! =X

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: I didn’t feel much for Reiner and Berthold in the manga, but the anime did a good job showing their struggles since finding Eren. Say what you will about the “slow” parts of the story, but when I see endings like these and that music…omg, this is why I enjoy #Shingeki

Full-length images: 06.

 

Preview

42 Comments

  1. Dont know about others, but CGI of colossal titan was really cringy for me. Is studio just trying to save money or they want to implement new technique?
    I didnt notice their mistake with Reiner’s hand, thanks for pointing it out Cherrie 😀

    Shirocat
    1. There is a usual misconception in the anime fandom that the use of cg implies that there is budgetary problems but its quite the opposite. Cg cost more but its used when trying to keep a production on schedule due to it’s less time consuming nature (most of the time anyway). Looks like this is the result of the second season of attack on titan being in production hell and not moving along as swimmingly as the production staff probably wanted

      sonicsenryaku
    2. Lol! I’m always surprised when people read my notes =X
      I also thought the CGI was a bit… out of place. In the past, they haven’t used CGI for the Colossal Titan animation so maybe they’re trying something new? On the other hand though, the Colossal Titan IS an anomaly when it comes to Titans so I’m little okay that he sticks out a bit. At least that’s how I’m interpreting it haha

    3. Problems like this and other mistakes have convinced me that if these type of things make you want to take more than half a point off the score it best to wait for the finished product, the Blue Rays. In example for me it moved it from a A+ to a A or a 10 to 9.5.
      It is sort of sad the the anime process is now final product only in the Blue Rays when we expect final product on broadcast and only thing that should be special about Blue Ray is image quality in some cases and bonus material.

      RedRocket
  2. This was a perfect adaption of the manga material, as far as I’m concerned. Well… Minus the CGI Colossal Titan. Holy hell, it looks so bad, in the preview as well. Everything else though… Would rewatch 10/10.

    Misk
  3. i must say this scene , hell, the entire chapter with the revelation was masterfully done. i read the manga but man i felt the same and even more watching this on the anime, the tension, the shots, the music OHH THE MUSIC.., the animation (lets not talk about that videogame cgi colossal titan though lol).

    I really love how the author went this route to reveal these two, instead of a classic bombastic revelation… it was so casual, so out of nowhere, no build up, no nothing, it was almost in the background with other characters having a conversation (this was identical on the manga) where Reiner casually says “hey Eren i am the armored titan and my pal here is the Colossal, come with us will ya?” lol.

    and just like you , in the manga i was like FUCKINNNGGG TRAITORRRSSS!!!!!.. but here in the anime i felt a little bad about them… a little… they still are fuckers lol..

    And jesus that shot of a heartbroken Eren, crying with the flashbacks, oh shit, i felt that, the situation is sooooo sad.. the people you considered brothers and have been with you the past 3 years are the responsible of a looot of deaths including your mother.. very painful stuff.

    anyway, to me this sole episode is worth the season, looking forward to that battle!

    Neks
    1. There were some real feels there from both Eren and Reiner when the flashbacks started rolling and you hear all their thoughts. I definitely pitied both parties a bit more in the anime than the manga and it makes me feel more invested in their characters. That’s just a sign of a well-done adaptation though =) especially for this part of the story. I thought the Ymir and Krista scenes were also much more heartfelt in the anime than the manga.

  4. So they did not use children in the war against humanity , children ARE the war against humanity … nice logic there
    if annihilating humanity was the goal , why not just transform after infiltrating then destroy everything ? or why not just destroy every wall and let the lesser titans do their thing ?
    if getting Eren was the objective , why not just grab him at one of the 14235345 times they were together ?
    also what about the flash backs where Reiner’s friend was killed by the ymir look-alike titan ???
    and finally , are we ever going to get past the ” OMG THAT PERSON IS A TITAN , I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT
    !!! , next episode : OMG THAT PERSON IS A TITAN TOO ?!?! WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED ?!?!? ” plot line ? because that is literally the only thing that happened in the past 13 episodes or something

    Urahara
    1. I get your complaint about the long delay between the attacks on Zhiganshina and Trost. As a now unspoiled (as of this episode) anime-only watcher, here’s how I rationalize it (I’ll stipulate this is a stretch): (1) The real objective isn’t to destroy humanity. Reiner et al. were mislead because they were kids and the real objective is super-duper secret. (2) The plan involved infiltrating the military. The attack on Zhiganshina was done first to cause confusion that obscured the Titans’ fake backgrounds. (3) Reiner and Bert’s entry into the military was delayed because they were swept up in the suicide mission to retake Wall Maria. A shot of a shocked Reiner and Bert in ep2 at 19:35 when this mission is described leads me to think this. Thus they ended up in the class with Eren et al.

      I’ll admit you have to like a show first to go to this much trouble to cover up one of its plot flaws.

      As for capturing Eren, there haven’t been that many opportunities. Capturing Eren almost certainly became an objective only after Eren’s Titan ability was revealed during the Battle of Trost, and not much time has elapsed since then: perhaps a week for the military tribunal, 4 weeks to the expedition to the forest, and perhaps another week to the Raid on Stohess. Also, they probably wanted to capture Eren without revealing their identities and sacrificing their original mission.

      proper1420
  5. I was really hoping they’d make some minor adjustments to the dialogue in this episode compared to how things worked out in the manga.

    Reiner and Berhodlt talking about their “village” and how their primary goal was to “ensure humanity was wiped out” all seems to be based on the authors plans for the plot before the series took off and goes against the grain compared to the direction things start moving later on when they decided to stretch out and develop the series more.

    qwert
  6. I was wondering how the anime would play this scene out. It felt incredibly awkward to read in the manga (not in a bad way) because of how erratic Reiner suddenly becomes, and how there was virtually no build-up.

    When you learn more of what’s going on later in the story, Reiner’s behavior sorta makes sense. Deep down, he was truly conflicted. He had to play his role as a mole within the military, but at the same time, he did care for his comrades. There’s also his narrow misses with death. Playing double identity plus several near-death experiences took their toll – and made him finally snap.

    Bertolt on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be that effected.

    eamonx
  7. Lol Cherrie when I walking in to the homepage; that’s click bait my friend haha

    Can’t wait to see more action considering Ymir isn’t that powerful, but we’ll probably see Eren’s Titan ass get beaten up, so… Still looking forward though.

    1. LOL! As a writer, I have two options – I can straight-up spoil it with a thumbnail photo on the front page… OR… I can just let people discover it on their own 😉 But I said that because some people might have dropped/or not watched SnK2 up until this point and this might be the moment they want to start watching again!

  8. https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2031%20-%2009.jpg
    “I’m the Armored Titan and he’s the Colossal Titan” is probably the most chill reveal twist ever.

    https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2031%20-%2026.jpg
    You’re a Titan! You’re a Titan! Everybody’s a Titan! This is a quality “Top 10 Anime Betrayals”.

    https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2031%20-%2028.jpg
    Colossal was hand-drawn back in Season 1. Now it is CGI. Why?

    One Pinch Man
    1. Guessing to the answer to your question, but I’d assume because all it did in Season 1 was kick doors down and disappear. Maybe they switched to CGI because its’ doing a lot more this season. I noticed they switched back to hand drawn for closeups though.

      A.Gui
  9. With Reiner and Berholdt, it’s one of many example of the risks of going deep undercover – it can be very easy for the line between the mission and everything else to become blurred due to emotional involvement, causing the agents to doubt themselves, the mission, and so on because of letting others in.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
  10. The nonchalant nature of the plot bomb was wonderful and hilarious, IMO. For how much this anime has been known to drag things on for far too long, this was a very welcome punch in our faces. XD

    PurpleBomber
  11. now only pieces of the puzzle missing are:
    1.where did the titanms come from?
    2.to what purpose they serve?
    3.who is commanding them?

    it all smells of Umbrella-corp. style experiment…

    ewok40k
  12. I have to give a hand to the links to Annie’s attack, it suddenly explains a lot. That fight was so well done that Reiner’s lead didn’t even raise any doubts. I remember cheering when he suddenly chopped off her fingers and survived being crushed; how little did I know. Great episode, I’m itching for more.

    As for question a) Where did the Titans come from (given that there’s no hole in the wall)?
    I’m 100% certain that they came from within. They must be the original people from that destroyed village… (Remember the mother’s voice coming from the Titan with tiny legs and arms? Remember Reiner telling that it was all in the mind of the guy (whose name I don’t remember right now)? ) I theorise that they were all transformed and are being controlled (mentally or otherwise) by the Beast Titan, either that or they went berserk upon said transformation.

    Kiritsugu
  13. a) where did all the titans come from (if there’s no hole in the wall)

    Has already been answered in the show: They came from the villagers themselves. The blond titan that couldn’t get up was the connie’s mother.

    CaptnLongSocks
  14. I feel like the pace is going by super fast in the second season. I have never read the manga so I don’t really know how the story is “really” supposed to go. Even still, so many twists in this episode. I really didn’t think Reiner would expose himself so quickly.. (or maybe it wasn’t too quickly compare to how long he has kept it a secret for so long). I can’t wait to see Eren kick their butts xD

    lunascha
  15. Yep you feel betrayed but a mole does not betray a mole never was on your side in the first place they are loyal to their side. You still kill them as spy’s because if your not expecting prisoner exchanges the price for hiding your identity in war must be death otherwise why should anyone wear a uniform. Of course you don’t kill for years got to try to get them to talk over and over. Normally getting them to talk is no harder than solitary with only a very well trained “guard” to talk to, using modern mental health techniques over time almost everyone will spill it all and be honest unlike torture. Well it is mental torture but the subject does not quite realize that.

    I loved that it matched for many what I felt reading the manga. I was reading along noticed what they said, my reading comprehension tests at 100%, but did not react till it was confirmed and then it hit hard. Guess I was in denial. A great moment.

    I don’t get bothered by what seam plot holes till a story over I have to give the author time to fill in the gaps and their might be very good reasons not to clue you in yet.

    RedRocket
  16. Reiner and Berhodlt were true child soldiers, as we know from current child soldiers, in example in Africa, at 12 they really for the most part have no idea they even should resist instructions of their elders. Thus they are burdened with a horrible memory once they start connecting with the humans that they had to kill yet think they will never be accepted by the humans, non acceptance very likely it would take very charismatic leadership to convince they were just pawns and more useful alive and on humanities side than dead.
    Of course now they have picked the enemy route.
    Anne avoided some of the mental conflict by staying more distant to everyone.

    RedRocket

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