First Impressions / Series Introduction / Shingeki no Kyojin

OP4 Sequence

OP4: 「Red Swan」by X JAPAN feat. HYDE

「狼煙」 (Noroshi)
“Smoke Signal”

Well boys and girls, it’s finally here. After nearly a year’s wait since the end of last season, Shingeki no Kyojin is back for round three, ready to make up for the production/scheduling mistakes of the last and maybe—just maybe—return this Erin yelling, Levi cleaning, Mikasa crushing series to the popularity from whence it came. Or at least that’s the plan I imagining because anyone who’s read the manga knows full well what this season (well, the first half) is going to be mostly about. Titan fights alongside episode music scores? Darling please, we’re all cutthroat politicians now.

As if alluded to already by Wit’s episode numbering scheme, SnK wastes little time with recaps and refreshers (because everyone here remembers last time, right?), jumping immediately from the success (if you exclude Ymir’s “betrayal”) of rescuing Erin and Christa/Historia from Reiner and Bertholdt (aka the Armored and Colossal Titans) last time to the follow up hiding and research. Beyond Hange’s attempt to get Erin’s Titan form to crystallize and save everyone a load of trouble—if Erin wasn’t already trouble enough—and reintroductions to the gang (well, mostly best bread potato girl Sasha), going to ground is the means for Levi and friends to find out who exactly is now targeting Erin and Historia and what their true objective is. Considering some of the chaos of last season and the lack of big answers it’s largely more of the same again, but as foreshadowing for later quite a few important hints were dropped for those paying attention. Our good friend Pastor Nick for example has finally met a variety of torture too damaging to his mortal bonds, courtesy of the interior police. Likewise Erwin has found himself in the custody of government officials, enough to force Hange away to try and do something about it. And then there’s the minor thing of military force being openly used to find and apprehend the important Titan-blondie duo. Whether out of frustration or fear, the masterminds here have finally grown impatient of playing in the shadows.

The more intriguing aspect right now I imagine though will rest with Levi and the new villain of the moment Kenny (Yamaji Kazuhiro). Who Kenny is and his exact connection to Levi (among other key characters *smirk*) will be described in plenty of detail later on, but suffice to say right now he’s big, he’s bad, and knows what to do with a pair of awesome looking pneumatic pistols to the chagrin of some. Having Armin play the girl to let Mikasa do her thing might have sounded good in practice, but unfortunately as Levi discovered too late some people aren’t as willing to leave matters to chance now. Erin, for better or worse, is likely to fall into enemy hands yet again, and Mr. Clean is going to have one hell of a time trying to stop it.

There’s a lot of wild happenings to come in the world of titans and big bloody walls, and this time we have 24 episodes to work through it all. Stay tuned boys and girls, this ride is just getting started.

Note: Considering the reveals coming this season try and avoid posting spoilers whenever possible; otherwise use the spoiler tags, that’s what they’re there for. Any comments with open spoilers will be liberally edited or deleted as seen fit.

Epilogue:

 

Preview

16 Comments

  4. I wondered at first if the animators had mislaid their design sheets because the characters were distinctly off-model sometimes. But I didn’t have to worry about that too much by the end because all of a sudden we were deep in shounen trope-territory with a new, random Big Bad who looks like a refugee from a particularly bad cowboys versus vampires movie turning up out of nowhere.

    I don’t really care if there’s some deeply meaningful relationship between him and the rest of the cast, he’s just so preposterous (what, you mean the man-eating giants that can be formed in an instant aren’t?) that I’m skipping this until they’ve killed Kenny.

    Angelus
    Reply

  7. https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2038%20-%2040.jpg
    This uncomfortably looks like 3D gear adapted to guns instead of swords/box cutters. Which means, the plan to move into Trosk in order to use their own 3D gear was turned against them. Assassins trained to use pneumatic guns and 3D gear? That has govt-backed “Black Ops” written all over it, which is really bad for our heroes.

    It looks like our heroes can never catch a break, from random giants turning into sleeper agents among their ranks, to Erin needing a lot more “recovery time” than was expected to become a Titan again, to 66% to 98% of the government turning against them. Something more important than just Titan-repelling is going on here. Maybe somebody in the royalty has discovered Erin’s father’s notes about turning people into Titans?

    jhpace1
    Reply

    1. All will be revealed soon enough, but suffice to say the recent actions of Erin and Levi/Erwin (along with Historia’s reveal to the world) have accelerated the enemy’s plans. Desperation has a way of getting people to do things they never previously would have considered.

      Pancakes
      Reply

    1. They most definitely didn’t. They’re still the same as ever. I don’t think Kaji Yuki and Kamiya Hiroshi would want to miss the biggest event involving Even and Levi, unless they became sick. Which thankfully they didn’t.

      yoloalchemist
      Reply

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