First Impressions / Shingeki no Kyojin

「突撃」 (Totsugeki)
“Charge”

The penultimate episode of this second season of Shingeki no Kyojin does not disappoint. Sure, there are a couple of flaws with it but overall, I think it delivers the manga well enough and as an adaptation, the second season stuck very close to its source material. The beginning of the episode when Ymir takes Krista/Historia out of her mouth (totally gross by the way!) and the two have this reunion about what and why Ymir is going this; I thought this got to be a bit dragged out. It felt unnecessarily long and took a while from the urgency of escaping from the Survey Corps. Although I don’t mind Historia that much, her stubbornness and lack of broader understanding of what’s going on irks me. Maybe that’s because it’s clear to me (and everyone else) that Ymir is lying to her except her! Gosh d*mnit…

When we finally see the Survey Corps come together and confront Reiner, Bertholdt and Ymir, I thought it was very touching how they each went through their memories being cadets together. Jean and Connie haven’t gotten a lot of screen time this season so it’s nice to see them actually make an impact this time around. When Bertholdt finally responds though, I was a lot more empathetic towards their situation than I thought. Without any spoilers – it’s clear that Reiner and Bertholdt come from a hometown that isn’t within the confines of the walls but it really breaks my heart when you hear of how they struggle between being a “solder” and a “warrior” (cue the important title names). They going through some sort of identity crisis where they’ve been given a purpose but also they’ve adapted to this other way of living where they may be happier than where they once were. With this going through their minds, I feel like they’ve held back a lot when it comes to dealing severe damage. All they really want is to escape with Eren as if it’ll solve everything. We just don’t know why or of what importance Eren is to Bertholdt/Reriner except for this mention of “the Coordinate” last week.

To the Survey Corps though – having Eren on their side is the only option for them, and Erwin is willing to risk it all to get him back. If I had to pick an MVP this episode – it’s most certainly him. As a leader, Erwin is inspiring, thinks bigger picture and he does what every leader should do, which is leading by example and being at the front with his troops. In this case, it’s clear that he’s not just sprouting nonsense, but he’s actually there with his Survey Corps trying to rescue Eren as their one and only priority. Shingeki no Kyojin doesn’t have too many “shock and awe” factors anymore, but when Erwin was taken and everyone was still on pursuit, I felt both hopeful and hopeless all at once. Then when Erwin actually has the stamina (and hasn’t died from loss of blood) to come BACK, I was completely taken away! Say what?! That’s what you call a true solder. I guess you never count someone out until you see a body – burned or buried. Erwin just proves once again that this pursuit wasn’t for nothing and I only hope that everyone doesn’t die from this endeavor.

The last thing I wanted to mention was how much screen time Mikasa got this week. I was impressed by how many images I took when she appeared because her facial expressions go from shock, to anger, to relief, it’s just everywhere! I don’t mean to hate on her, but Mikasa isn’t my cup of tea. She’s way to irrational when it comes to protecting Eren and although I understand why, she’s still too quick to jump the gun (and you see it multiple times over the course of season 1 too). Armin on the other hand is much better at processing the situation and thinking of a solution. He also got his own creepy smile moment when he was lying to Bertholdt, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I don’t know if this means that Armin guessed that Bertholdt had a crush on Annie… maybe he just took it mean that they were very close comrades in their cause. And just a reminder in case anyone’s forgotten – next week is the finale for this season of Shingeki no Kyojin!

Author’s Note: How many people does it take to blog one weekly show? Clearly 2 because Zephyr and I were always juggling back and forth =P Don’t worry though, Zephyr will be back for our finale next week. Once again, please refrain from spoilers of the source material past what’s been covered so far. Use spoiler tags if you absolutely need to mention something that wasn’t explicitly shown/covered, as there is a zero tolerance policy in effect and comment.

 

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24 Comments

  3. >As a leader, Erwin is inspiring, thinks bigger picture and he does what every leader should do, which is leading by example and being at the front with his troops.
    Liberal tears in an anime review, crazy people.

    Zhorn1
    Reply

  4. Mikasa like Levi are both incredible ace of ace’s level fighters. I admire both of their fighting skills and dedication and body development.(not shown enough) But both are one track mind emotionally cold most of the time so hard to get into for many I am sure. Just watch out if you find Levi fantastic but Mikasa bad some chauvinist bias might have unknowingly slipped into your thinking. Or you just find Mikasa a bit more reckless than Levi but we do not know Levi well enough to judge this.

    RedRocket
    Reply

    1. I actually like Mikasa more because of those flaws. Besides, what she told Historia in this episode was on point. Her power and heart (and of everyone’s) can only take care of a limited number of people. In a dangerous situation like that where the precious person of her is in risk it would be presumptuos to also help her enemy’s allies.

      Grahav
      Reply

  5. https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2036%20-%2019.jpg
    Erwin : “This but a scratch!”
    Random Soldier : “A scratch?! Your arm’s off!”
    Erwin : “No it isn’t. NOW GO GET EREN!”

    https://randomc.net/image/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin/Shingeki%20no%20Kyojin%20-%2036%20-%2029.jpg
    You can tear his arm but you may never stop him. Erwin is so full of win.

    > next week is the finale for this season of Shingeki no Kyojin!
    I still refuse to accept that next week is the final episode T_T

    One Pinch Man
    Reply

  6. Hopefully it won’t be a huge layoff until the next season like the gap between 1 and 2, since reportedly the only reason we didn’t get more episodes was a lack of animators committed to the project rather than a shortage of source material.

    That aside, Armin’s bluff was excellent. He surmised how exactly to get under Bertholdt’s skin, and Eren got freed as a result. Mikasa being more terrifying than a Titan when Eren’s involved obviously helped too, lol.

    PurpleBomber
    Reply

  8. Cherrie, you typed “solder” instead of “soldier”, twice. :O

    Armin’s creepy smile is to sell the lie to Bertholdt, to come across as sadistic as possible to agitate and distract him.

    Magnus Tancred
    Reply

  9. I guess you never count someone out until you see a body – burned, buried, flattened or ripped apart into multiple non-survivable pieces.

    FTFY

    And this week is why we keep watching SnK through its highs and lows (how ever later it may get pushed back) and suffer through the pacing for jampacking as many intricate details as possible…

    …since it’s been only 2 days for Eren and the Scout Legion since this season started.

    info600
    Reply

    1. Hell yeah , how can anyone not be disappointed ? the writing is not very good , the pacing is bad , literally the only thing that happened this season was eren’s kidnapping
      anyone being satisfied with this season is a hardcore fan who is just happy the show is back

      Urahara
      Reply

      1. Oh I know that, I’ve read up further along in the manga a couple years ago. This arc just wasn’t as gripping. But this happened with the manga as well. After the Bertholdt reveal, I was just like “really?” Considering how important the Colossal Titan has been for branding, it just felt so disappointing that it made everything else, at least for me, seem less…special? And the fact that we’ve waited four years for this just made me sigh heavily.

        drunkenveggie
        Reply

  12. I think the only ones happy with this season are manga readers , if you have watched the anime only you are most probably not satisfied with this ( there is a very logical reason for this of course )

    Urahara
    Reply

      1. Because manga readers are not left wondering as to what is happening , they already know everything
        for them , this show is the icing on the cake , for us it is a source of frustration because waiting 4 years to get 12 episodes where literally the only thing that took place was Eren’s kidnapping and the only thing revealed was ” those guys are titans too “

        Urahara
        Reply

    2. I don’t understand why people bashing Anime based on the number of episodes. Why don’t we just laid back and enjoy the anime without complaining for once.

      *minor spoiler ahead*
      For those who still thinking that this season is just a minor arc where Eren got kidnapped couldn’t be more wrong. If you watch carefully by the end of this season you will know why the title of the series Shingeki no Kyojin (the Attack Titan) which is seems a little bit odd at first, instead of more make sense title like Kyojin no Shingeki (Titan’s Attack)… (and by this you will also know that the commonly used english translation for this series “Attack on Titan” is wrong). It seems that the writer will wrap the show nicely at that point for anticipation for the 3rd season.

      Dreamsavior
      Reply

  15. I am not gonna lie, my body was tensed the whole episode and got goosebumps when Erwin did a little speech about pursuing the Titans. My one question is how could the Titan that killed Eren’s mom show up at the end? Could he also be a human-titan that is among them?

    lunascha
    Reply

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