「戦鎚の巨人」 (Sentsui no Kyojin)
“The War Hammer Titan”

Now this is where the fun begins. As promised in the final moments of last episode, war is now back on SnK’s menu, and we received the first course of many to come. After all, when you’re getting the gang back together, don’t be surprised if things get a little rowdy.

Given all the trepidation about MAPPA taking over the production helm, I must admit the results aren’t that bad. Action-focused episodes—particularly SnK’s—are always the tell for animation quality, and while a drop off is undeniably noticeable compared to Wit’s earlier work, what we got here is frankly that bad. Those CGI Titans for example (Eren’s especially) look a lot better than last season’s Colossal Titan, and with blood and explosions flying every which way, a lot of the issues you’d normally expect (e.g. stilted movement, obvious CGI textures) largely blended into the background. It reminds me of Polygon’s work with Sidonia no Kishi, which given how that series was in terms of production isn’t a bad comparison to have.

In terms of plot, however, I don’t think there’ll be as many complaints. Besides the slight shock of seeing Willy Tybur deliberately choosing to be a martyr (itself not that shocking considering it retains the Tybur family’s power and status), the main eye opener was the appearance of all the old characters in their glory. Levi; Connie; Sasha; Jean; and oh yes, even Mikasa (among others), all are back and in peak Titan kicking form. Well, not entirely Titan kicking. The perceptive will start getting an idea of what’s coming down the pipeline here, as the shock of the sudden attack, the killing of soldiers and civilians both, and the subtle (yet strong) distinction over whether such action is valid and its likely fallout spreads among Marley and Paradis both. It doesn’t take much to guess what the likes of Gabi will now attempt to do after all, or how differences in opinion amongst the raiding force could turn into defined battlelines down the road. And once Eren collects yet another Titan trophy to accentuate his already impressive power (because I don’t think anyone expects the War Hammer Titan to escape this situation)? Yeah, don’t expect this train to slow down anytime soon.

This was just the opening salvo of Paradis’ plan to help secure their survival; rest assured what comes next will pour some further fuel onto the fire.

 

Preview

18 Comments

  1. Haven’t seen the episode yet, nor read the chapter this is from, but I always thought that it was kind of a waste to introduce the last Titan just to become a power up for Eren. Not that we necessarily needed more characters but still.

    Also, did Higurashi get dropped?

    Da5id
  2. Magath:What’s more, it looks to be the usurper of the Founding Titan–the Attack Titan [Shingeki no Kyojin].
    Roll credits. *ding*

    Porco: “You’re kidding! Can’t you see I’m a Titan?! These guys are just humans yet they’re coming to kill me?! These guys… They’re the devils of Paradis!”
    Well, they’ve been fighting Titans for years. And in a way, they’re devils you (and the rest of Marley) made yourselves…

    Whew! Finally glad to see the old gang back together. (That look on Gabi’s eyes, though… Hoo boy.)

    Also gotta love how this moment/chapter/episode is basically a role reversal of that fateful moment many years/volumes/seasons ago. (Eren now figuratively doing what Bertholt, Reiner and Annie did at the time.) Made me check back to the review of the very first episode on RC back in 2013 just to see the parallels.

    @Pancakes & Da5id: Got back to the replies in the previous episode, and I certainly would love to watch the animated finale in the theaters if that’s what the creators are going for. But even with the COVID-19 vaccines now being rolled out, it’ll probably be a while before I can even watch SnK‘s finale in an actual theater. *sighs* Goddamn.

    Incognito
  3. This episode relied way too much on CG, especially when they also used it for team Paradis and the 3D gear maneuvers. The switch from normal animation to CG for non-Titan stuff was immersion breaking. 🙁
    My favorite scene probably was the properly animated Sasha sniping down two guards.

    boingman
    1. I wonder that as well. The build up has been amazing, but that leaves us with 10 episodes to conclude everything?! And we still haven’t even concluded the invasion by the Scouts. Why not give us at least 22 like last season?!

      Mcmarty
  4. I hope they won’t go into a really bad anime original ending where it is going to be a major cliffhanger because that would just destroy the legacy of the past seasons, but seeing the pace and the remaining episodes, I fear they are looking to go for shock value instead of a more coherent story.

    n30nl16ht
  5. So apparently, the staff at MAPPA are now receiving harassments and other, not so subtle comments from people who cannot tolerate their production of the AOT final season.

    I am of 2 minds about this. One on hand, obviously no one deserves nor should ever have to endure such backlash over a work of art or entertainment, and the people on the giving end of those are simply not in their sane state of mind. On the other, another way this negatively affects the staff is that now because of this, people who have genuine criticisms of how the production is being handled and only wish to convey those criticisms in a peaceful manner will potentially be dismissed as yet another form of harassment, and that can’t be good for anyone.

    I am always mad whenever such a thing happens to any entertainment project. And unfortunately, such phenomenon will likely never cease to exist. I said it before and I stand by it, MAPPA simply suffices, and it’s understandable why it only suffices instead of being full-on visual bliss like with Wit (Jujutsu Kaisen being something they have to make look good), but I can’t help myself but to be distracted by some of the visual inconsistencies I see in front of me sometimes.

    It is what it is, and the story is the main thing that’s riveting to me this time around.

    1. I remember the drama around Gurren Lagann. The show got some hate from 2ch and a staffer from Gainax got mad and said in some detail how much they hated the website. These things happen. You have a popular work and ya never going to make 100 percent of people happy

      Lyfe
  6. Just came back to watching the series again after a few years.

    Can anyone please explain why they hate Eren’s people so much? Like they started the whole thing years ago by destroying the wall and now they’re b!tching about when Eren’s group went on the counterattack? lol

    sorata
    1. because years before the wall came crashing down, the Eldians once ruled the world and killed everyone.
      The King of Paradis wanted peace, so he and his people retreated to the island and warned the world not to disturb them, or else.
      Some Eldians were left behind, however, and they became subjugated and put in camps.
      The world hates them because they are feared. Devils, they called them.

      thirstybugger

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