kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. This was originally going to be a video, but I don't think my "thoughts on" videos have been doing that well (if I'm wrong, please tell me), so this will be a blog post instead. I would also like to apologize for my insane schedule this summer. I'm taking three classes and volunteering 5 out of 7 days of the week. So it's more than a little busy here.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the season that kept us waiting over a year: Attack on Titan Season 2!

So, to start things off, this season is short. I mean REALLY short. Short as in...HALF THE LENGTH OF THE FIRST SEASON! WHAT WERE THE WRITERS THINKING? WERE THEY THINKING, "Hey, let's just pack a bunch of stuff from the manga into twelve episodes! The fans won't care, as long as they get to see some Titan action!" Well, that's REALLY FREAKING STUPID! WE WANT A NICE, LONG, WELL-WRITTEN, WELL-ANIMATED SEASON! NOT A NICE, WELL-WRITTEN, WELL-ANIMATED TWELVE EPISODE SEASON!

Heck, they should have called this season Attack on Titan: Half the Maximum Effort for Half as Many Episodes!

Ok, maybe I'm being more than a little harsh. The animators have really gone all out so far in this season, as have the writers. As someone who read the manga arc that this is following (so I basically know what's going to happen, who's who, etc.), I still freak out over the plot twists. I mean...well, let's talk about the arc that this follows.

This season follows the Beast Titan arc of the manga, and opens right where the first season ended (after the battle with the Female Titan, where we see a Titan inside of Wall Sina). And...holy frick, for a first episode, the first episode of Season 2 was pretty gory. I mean...HEADS WERE BEING RIPPED OFF! HORSES WERE BEING CRUSHED LIKE THEY WERE NOTHING! SO MUCH BLOOD!

And I know what you're thinking: for a series about giants eating people, a lot of blood is to be expected. Well, the first episode was just brutal.

Now, from here on out, it's going to be spoilers galore. If you want to be spoiled, read on. If not, then stop reading, go watch the first six episodes (or however many episodes you're behind on) to catch up, and then come back.

SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

In the first episode...aside from it being brutal, we learn that the Titans do have some intelligence (some more than others, but that's beside the point). We meet the Beast Titan, who can speak in full sentences, and...well, the short version is that Mike Zacharias (we're just going to refer to him as Mike) tries to divert the drunk Titans (okay, they're not drunk, but come on; they look drunk when they're walking or running. See drunk Titans running) and ultimately gets eaten. I'll get into the long version of what happened later.

These "drunk" Titans are classified as Abnormal Titans. Why? Because these Titans can possess an unusual amount of intelligence and their actions are unpredictable. Some of them are capable of speed-walking, running, and even human speech (some more than others, but again, beside the point). While a typical Titan eats people on sight, these Abnormal Titans may choose to ignore lone or isolated humans and exhibit unpredictable behavior; often resulting in them causing larger damage as they disrupt important strategic locations.

In other words: yikes...just yikes (I try not to use more...colorful language on my blog, so feel free to replace "yikes" with whatever you feel like)

Anyway, here's the long version of what happened to our good pal, Mike. He and tries to divert the Abnormal Titans' attention and succeeds. He's about to escape...until his horse gets crushed by the Beast Titan. Well, that's not good.

Mike falls from the roof of the house...building...whatever he's standing on, and is caught by a stray Abnormal Titan who quickly proceeds to begin to eat him. However, after biting off one of Mike's legs, the Beast Titan bends down tells the stray to wait. The stray ignores him, and bites Mike's other leg (poor guy), breaking it, before the Beast Titan literally squeezes one of the stray's eyes (it might have been both, but they only showed one eye going up into the air, and either way, that's pretty gross) out of its socket. Ew...

Anyway, Mike, with one leg gone and the ability to speak having left him due to fear, can do nothing but stare at the Beast Titan. He had never seen a Titan with fur before, or a Titan that was taller than 17 meters (convert that to whatever unit you want if you don't use meters). Nor have we, the audience. So this was new for us.

The Beast Titan asks about Mike's 3DM gear, and Mike can't reply at all. The Beast Titan thought that humans were capable of speech. After some more dialog and a flashback from Mike, he tries to attack the Beast Titan as it's walking away, only for the Beast Titan to tell the other Abnormal Titans that they can move. And...well, you can guess what happens from there. Mike gets eaten in the most grotesque way they can portray in an anime.

Anyway, look at the Beast Titan:

I dare you to tell me that that's not even a little creepy looking

Not much happens in episodes 2 and 3, other than we get character development on Sasha (yay!!!). So, we'll skip straight to episode 4.

In episode 4, which is set two hours before the first events they show, the 104th trainees in the group (Connie, Krista, Ymir, Bertholdt, and Reiner) at Castle Utgard rest while their seniors keep watch. There's...a lot of violence on this episode, including Reiner getting his arm almost bitten off. It's not pretty. The seniors get killed off, and in order to protect everyone, Ymir (I promise, I couldn't make this up if I tried) jumps off the tower, cuts herself with a knife, and transforms into a Titan.

In episode 5, this group is reunited with Eren and co. Not much happens except for fight scenes, but we do get a bit of background on the relationship between Krista and Ymir (pronounced as Yumiru in the original Japanese). This also includes the fact that Krista is actually the illegitimate child of a nobleman's mistress, and was forced by the Wall Cult (a group of priests who refuse to give up any information on the Titans inside the walls...yeah, this was better explained in the manga) to join the army because she was unwanted by everyone. She took on a false name (Krista) and revealed to Ymir at the end of the episode that her real name is Historia.

Ok. Now we're at the halfway point in the season. Episode 6. This might be my favorite episode of the season so far. Let's go!

So in this episode, Bertholdt and Reiner take Eren aside as an unconscious and seriously beat-up Ymir is being tended to. Bertholdt and Reiner just casually reveal that they are the Armored and Colossal Titans, respectively. They tell Eren that their mission to wipe out humanity can be avoided if Eren goes with them to their "hometown."

Then, Eren realizes something.

In a flashback from 12 hours before all this started, we learn that the scroll that Sasha handed to Hange was a background report on Annie. It says that Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner were all from the same place. However, not a lot of background information was available on the three of them except for that. Hange asks the rest of the 104th cadets about the three, before they realize that while Annie had never been seen with Bertholdt and Reiner, the Female Titan somehow obtained the correct information on Eren's location within the formation during the 57th expedition from Reiner's team. Armin thinks that Reiner wrote a message to Annie when he attacked her with his blades, and when Reiner asked where Eren was prior, he unknowingly told Reiner the truth. Hange orders everyone to keep an eye on Bertholdt and Reiner without raising any undue suspicion.

Back to the present. Reiner realizes that he and Bertholdt are unable to convince Eren to come with them because he cares too much about his friends. He convinces Bertholdt that they need to finish their mission now and advances on Eren, before Mikasa quickly intervenes and cuts off Reiner's hand. She then attacks Bertholdt and is about to go in for the kill before she's pushed away by Reiner. The two shift into their respective Titan forms in what might be one of the best animated scenes in all of Attack on Titan.

Anyway, the Armored Titan grabs Eren, while the Colossal Titan grabs Ymir and the two begin to take Eren and Ymir away. Before this can happen, however, an angry Eren who feels betrayed transforms into his Titan form and begins battle with the Armored titan.

Thoughts: HOLY FRICK. I mean, I'm pissed that this season is only twelve episodes (no, I'm not going to get over it), but wow! This season...first off, talk about brutal! Just when you thought it couldn't get any more gory than that scene when that one Titan ate Eren's mom, we have a scene where our good buddy, Mike, gets ripped apart and eaten by at least four Titans.

Second, this is incredibly well-animated. Possibly better animated than the first season. The transformation scenes where Bertholdt, Reiner, and Eren all transform into Titans and when Ymir transforms into is incredible to watch. You can tell the animators really went all out.

Third, they got Linked Horizon back to do the music for this season. You can't imagine how happy I was. While I'm a little disappointed in the lack of German in the opening song, "Opfert eure Herzen" (note: I think that means "Dedicate Your Hearts," but I could be wrong) and the fact that it's not as good as "Crimson Bow and Arrow," it's still a really good song. I can't wait for the full version.

Fourth, I love the character development we're getting. Between Krista, Ymir, Sasha, and hopefully Bertholdt and Reiner, we are getting a lot of character development. If there's one thing I'm disappointed about, it's that we don't know Bertholdt and Reiner's reason(s) for wanting to wipe out all of humanity (they talked about it in the manga, but I forget).

Finally: Each episode leaves me with more and more questions. I mean, I know I read the manga and I'm currently way past this arc, but each plot twist still manages to make me jump. I find myself with more and more questions at the end of each episode. Like: What were Bertholdt and Reiner's reason(s) for wanting to wipe out all of humanity? What does Krista's background have to do with all of this? How are some Titans able to use human speech and not others? And lastly...WHO THE FLYING FRICK IS THE BEAST TITAN (they mentioned it in the manga, but I don't remember)?

Well, that's my review/thoughts on/whatever you want to call it of the first half of Attack on Titan Season 2. Hope you enjoyed! ~k