kanna-chan's cafe

Hey guys, kanna here. Boy, oh boy, have I been dreading this. Not because the second half of Attack on Titan Season 2 was bad, but because (here I go again) IT ONLY HAD TWELVE EPISODES! WHY THE FREAKING FRICK DID THIS SEASON GET ONLY TWELVE EPISODES? EVERYONE KNEW THE POPULARITY OF THIS SERIES! SO WHY?

*end rant*

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the second half of Attack on Titan Season 2 (episodes 7-12).

After we discover that Bertholdt and Reiner are the Colossal and Armored Titans, respectively, the two transform in one of the best animated scenes in this season of Attack on Titan. The Colossal Titan grabs Ymir, while the Armored Titan engages Eren in battle. Zoe Hange orders the scouts to engage the Colossal Titan in battle only after it "eats" Ymir and another scout.

You know, there were a couple of things that bothered me about the Titan Shifters, now that I mention them:

1. To transform into a Titan, you need to have an injury and a concrete goal in your mind. So let's say you're a Titan Shifter, and you're in your human form attending an art class. Attending said art class, your goal is to finish a paper snowflake before the class ends. You have this goal in mind as you're cutting, but you suddenly get a paper cut. So...does this mean you'd transform into a Titan? Because of one teeny, tiny paper cut? I don't get it.

2. When Titan Shifters are Titans and they eat people, the people go through their digestive systems (bones and all), just like regular food goes through a human's digestive system. However, when the Titan Shifters shift back into their human forms...what happens to the people? It's not as if the human body can hold another body of possibly the same weight and height (if not bigger) than the human who became a Titan. What happens to the body? Ok...now that I think about it, maybe this is a question I don't want the answer to.

*shudders*

Moving on.

The Armored Titan seems to gain the upper hand, until Eren remembers the hand-to-hand techniques that Annie taught him (via flashback), and begins to seriously damage the Armored Titan. We learn that Eren as a Titan actually has some intelligence, because when Armin tries to get him to retreat to the wall, he obliges. Everyone is pretty surprised about it. I know I was, and I read this part in the manga, so I knew what was coming.

Why the shock? The others hadn't seen the Beast Titan, who was capable of human speech, and poor Mike Zacharias was brutally killed by other Titans at the command of the Beast Titan before he could deliver any kind of report to Levi Freaking Ackerman (that's his name now), Zoe Hange, Erwin, Pyxis, or anyone.

Episodes 7 and 8 are basically just one giant fight that extended into two episodes that ultimately conclude with Eren and Ymir getting kidnapped and the scouts going to rescue them.

In the next episode (episode 9), we find Bertholdt, Reiner, Eren, and Ymir in the Forest of Giant Trees. They're pretty high up in the trees, which are surrounded by Titans on the ground. Eren wakes up from being unconscious and finds his arms are missing. Despite this, his attempts to shift into his Titan form are stopped by Ymir, who points out that they are weakened from their earlier battle. Additionally, they are surrounded by Titans, and Bertholdt and Reiner are the only ones with 3DM gear. Eren, unconvinced, continues his attempts to shift until Ymir suggests that they wait until their missing body parts regenerate. Upon asked where they're being taken, Reiner explains that he and Bertholdt are taking Ymir and Eren to their hometown, but they're waiting until nightfall when the Titans can't move.

Later on, Reiner begins to have a bit of self-conflict about his duty as a soldier and as a warrior. Ymir deduces that this is confusion between his undercover and real personas. So...Reiner has a split-personality, then?

NOTE: I AM NOT A DOCTOR/PSYCHOLOGIST/PSYCHIATRIST. THE ABOVE IS JUST MY THOUGHT ON THE MATTER.

Eren, enraged by the havoc that Bertholdt and Reiner have caused as Titans, tries to confront them. However, he is once again stopped by Ymir, who asks about the Beast Titan and who might be their real enemy. Reiner manipulates Ymir using Christa's safety as leverage to drive a wedge between her and Eren. Just as Ymir is about to choose her side, shot guns flare out, meaning the scouts have arrived; angering Bertholdt and Reiner.

Episode 10: This was more info and less action, which was a nice break. We got a lot of character development on Ymir, which was great. Not a ton happened, other than Ymir (as a Titan) getting Christa (by "eating" her).

Episodes 11 and 12's summaries will be together, because these two episodes could have easily been one two-part episode.

Reiner has shifted into the Armored Titan and is carrying Bertholdt, Eren, and Ymir, who has Christa in her mouth. Ymir takes Christa out of her mouth and extracts herself from her Titan form to explain why she singled out Christa from the scouts (not a complicated explanation, but too long for this review, so watch the episodes).

Their conversation is interrupted when the scouts intervene and start attacking the Armored Titan. He covers Bertholdt and Eren, who is trying to escape from his bonds so he can Titan Shift. Mikasa tries to save him and has quite possibly the scariest expression on her face. It's not horror-movie-scary, but it's the kind of scary that would scare Bertholdt out of his wits. Seriously, the poor guy looks terrified beyond belief, you almost feel sorry for him. Keyword: almost.

Anyway, the rest of the 104th trainees and Mikasa attempt to reason with Bertholdt to get him to give Eren up, but Bertholdt explains that he and Reiner have come too far in their mission to go back as failures. Um...Bertholdt, buddy...you basically destroyed a large fraction of humanity in the first episode of Attack on Titan. You and Reiner. I wouldn't call that going back as a failure. Then again, I didn't write this show.

Commander Erwin baits a bunch of the Titans, but gets his arm eaten in the process. It's probably the most badass I've ever seen Erwin. He's yelling out for everyone to charge as he gets his arm eaten. It's pretty impressive. Too bad he got his arm eaten in the process, but still.

A desperate Armin distracts Bertholdt by talking about Annie, which creates an opening for Erwin to cut Eren free and allow Mikasa to rescue him. However, upon retreat, the Armored Titan starts throwing Titans everywhere to defend himself, and one of them knocks Eren and Mikasa off their horse. We then come face to face with a Titan that you might recognize:


That's right. It's the Titan that ate Eren's mom in the first season, which is referred to as the Smiling Titan. It looks more than a little creepy, doesn't it?

Upon seeing the approaching Smiling Titan, Eren gets to his feet and notices his arms and hands have regenerated. He tries to turn into a Titan, only to fail at each and every attempt. He and Mikasa are forced to watch as Hannes meets the same fate as Eren's mom at the hands of the Titan that ate Eren's mom. It's actually pretty brutal, and I was shocked that they killed him off (I mean, I knew this was coming, but I was still shocked). RIP Hannes. Let's have a moment of silence.

*moment of silence*

Ok. Are we good now? Good. Moving on.

Mikasa starts to despair and thanks Eren for always being there for her, as well as commenting on the scarf he wrapped her in when he rescued her. You can't help but think that the two are about to kiss at some point, only for Eren to get up and say, "I'll wrap that scarf around you as many times as you want" (or something like that; I'm going from the subtitles) and throw a punch at the Smiling Titan while he's still human.

Surprisingly, this actually works. Another shocker: this punch gets the non-sentient Titans to head toward the Smiling Titan and start killing (and eating) it. It's pretty brutal and gruesome, so I'll just move on.

It turns out that Eren possesses a hidden power that he activated by punching the Smiling Titan called the "coordinate." This is the power to control other Titans. Ymir realizes two things:

1. Reiner and Bertholdt wanted Eren because he possessed the "coordinate," which Reiner was pretty angry about when he found out.

2. Ymir realizes Historia (aka Christa; I'll be referring to her by her real name from this point on) has a future within the Walls

Ymir leaves Christa and goes with Bertholdt and Reiner so they wouldn't go back empty-handed. A week later, Hange gives her report to Levi, Pyxis, and Erwin. She is accompanied by Connie, who has come to a very startling realization about the Titans.

In the second episode of this season, we saw a Titan that Connie said looked a lot like his mom. Turns out, it was his mom. We cut back to the present as Hange explains that the Titans within Wall Rose were, in fact, the people of Connie's village. Meaning: non-sentient Titans were once humans.

And our season ends with Eren vowing to use his new power to help humanity, while Erwin smiles suspiciously at his arm (I'll talk about that later) and vows to discover the truth about the Titans. Elsewhere, we see the Beast Titan on top of Wall Maria with a blonde-haired human wearing glasses on its back.

So, rating: 11/10

Why: This season was actually better than the first, in my opinion, and the animators went all out. While the scenes with all the blood and gore (especially the first episode) were a little much for me (I'm not squeamish, but I couldn't help but be surprised at the fact that they actually animated all that), they were still well-animated.

Each episode kept me wanting more. When I finished watching an episode, I came out with more questions than answers, and I can't help but think that that was a good thing.

The voice actors were super on-point. They got the original cast back (well, they kind of had to for a second season), as well as a new voice (there might have been more than one new voice, but I'm not 100% sure). I'll be talking about the original Japanese in this, not the English dub (which I did see, and was great, but I'm sticking with the Japanese version). We got Takehito Koyasu as the Beast Titan, who you might recognize from his titular role as Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (G-d, I hate that title, because it's ridiculously impossible to say and spell), as well as numerous roles in Bleach, Detective Conan, and a couple of arcs in JoJo's Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders.

This season was definitely worth the four year wait. My one complaint was (here I go again) THIS SEASON WAS ONLY TWELVE EPISODES! I WASN'T READY FOR IT TO END AFTER TWELVE EPISODES (I don't think anyone was, but still)! YOU MADE US WAIT FOUR YEARS FOR ONLY TWELVE EPISODES! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US?!

*ahem*

I think the one main question I have is...what was Erwin smiling about? My best friend, Dragonessa, and I actually had a conversation about this. I had temporarily forgotten about the manga at the time and thought that Erwin was actually a Titan and that his arm regenerated. However, Dragonessa reminded me that Erwin was human and that wasn't likely to change. However, you have to admit that Erwin being a Titan would be an awesome twist.

The Beast Titan arc was one of my favorite arcs in the manga, so to see it adapted into anime was amazing. I believe Season 3 (yes, Attack on Titan Season 3 has been confirmed) will be the Uprising arc. I don't want to give away too much (if anything), so I'm not going to mention what happens in this arc (mainly because I only remember so much and don't want to spoil the Season 3 for myself).

Well, I'm working on a reaction video to Netflix's trailer for Death Note, which comes out August 25. Look forward to it! お楽しみに！

I plan on having that video up at some point tomorrow (but plans change, so who knows when I'll have it up). Anyway, look forward to it! ~k