Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Attack on Titan
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James_Beckett
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 274 Location: USA |
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None of the OVAs are available for legal streaming, right? If so, then I can't watch them. I avoid illegal streaming whenever possible. |
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Ethe
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Something I forgot to mention in my previous comment:
Taking into account what we know about the different military branches, I'd say their decision to follow Kenny makes perfect sense. Judging by the dead look in their eyes, these soldiers probably had good intentions when joining the military, but then found out the true, corrupt nature of the Military Police. They were members of the Interior Brigade , so they were most likely forced to carry out horrible crimes in the name of the King and the nobles. In that aspect they are similar to Sannes; but whereas Sannes had peace of mind thanks to his admiration and blind devotion to the King, these guys just accepted they were horrible people. They knew they were puppets to their superiors, who only cared about maintaining power and protecting their lands, and they accepted it. So after having committed such acts, why would they be against following orders from Kenny? Sure, he's a crazy murderer, but they are no better and they know it. Besides, Kenny spoke with an honesty that their superiors in the Military Police probably never showed. So why not take a chance, believe in his dream, and offer their loyalty to him? Why not go against the system that turned them all into monsters? |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1008 |
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I just have a little correction regarding this review:
Levi wasn't using the "Ackerman's" power on that flashback, an Ackerman must go thru a traumatic event and "Awaken" in order to have access to this power (I suppose at least, the 3 Ackerman we have seen have awakened this way). Levi's awakening it's during the "No Regrets" side history narrating the event that led to him to join the Surveillance Corps which happens various years later than that scene. Outside of that, yeah, I would have loved if Kenny had been hinted before, I frankly feel it was inserted on the plot to explain something and give the other side an opportunity to win since the Surveillance Corps have 2 Ackerman on their lines. |
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Ethe
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Levi was already overpowered before No Regrets, and even in the OVA itself he's shown to be a complete badass before the climax. He probably had his Ackermoment when he was still a child, otherwise I doubt he could've survived in the underground on his own after Kenny left him, even if the latter taught him how to fend for himself. |
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minidynz
Posts: 40 |
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Levi Smile + Mikasa Smile= Ackersmile
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jr240483
 Posts: 4378 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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same here the only exceptions are series that will NEVER BE LICENSED IN THE US (cough* cough* kodomo no jikan) , series that will never have official sub versions (looking at you pokemon & yugioh) , and certain ero series where their license holders (looking at you mary jane , PoRO , lilith/pixy/ziz & pink pineapple) will never allow their ova series to be licensed in the west! WHY!? cause they fear that their fans WILL rather buy the uncensored versions than purchase their heavily edited versions! |
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CoolyHolder
Posts: 3 |
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Could you elaborate on this? I haven't read the manga, but I'd like to know how Historia's past differed from the original material. |
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shakir0247
Posts: 60 |
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I had a very similar problem with the ending of last week's episode. They could've just included that part this week and saved the Beast titan reveal for later, letting both episodes function more like a complete package. In both cases it just felt like a very forced way to end of a cliffhanger.
Yeh, that is unfortunately my main issue with how this arc was adapted. I still enjoyed it greatly, but ultimately Historia's character was the part I was most looking forward to seeing adapted, and sadly I feel like they dropped the ball on that one. On top of the Frieda stuff you mentioned, I'd argue that most of her cut scenes from the beginning of the arc were pretty crucial as framing devices for the rest of her journey, and too much gets lost without them. It's a shame because the parts that did get adapted were executed very well (I especially liked how nonchalantly and apathetically Historias's VA narrated her own tragic backstory). It's also hard to overlook the fact that they adapted the longest arc in the manga, up to this point, in just 10 episodes. I appreciate that the majority of the cuts have mainly improved the flow and pacing, but I still feel like this arc should've been given 1 extra episode. I think this is also why some of the stuff they decided to keep (like the poop machine) and the stuff they added (new and extended Levi action sequences), stood out like a sore thumb to me. |
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Ethe
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Sure! Though I apologise in advance for the long post 
Frieda had... some serious self-loathing issues that stemmed from her inability to save humanity from the titans despite having the power and desire to do so. This can first be seen in the flashback where she's teaching Historia how to read. However, the subs (and not the adaptation) kinda goofed up there: Historia says that she wants to be like Frieda when she grows up, to which Frieda happily responds "Sure, sure! That's perfectly fine!" The thing is, that's not what she actually says. A more accurate translation would be something like "Enough! No more! Don't say that!", or like the subtitles in Attack on Titan: Junior High (iirc, in the dub she says "Stay just as you are!" or something along those lines). Frieda doesn't want Historia to be like her because she considers herself a terrible person. At first, she was determined to use the Coordinate to end humanity's suffering once and for all (from episode 46: "Leave it to me, father! I won't lose to the ghosts of our ancestors"), but she ended up being controlled by the first King's will and did nothing, just like her uncle and grandfather. And it doesn't end there. As I said in my previous post, she was mentally unstable. Ever since she started carrying the burden of the Coordinate, she suffered from depression, and from time to time her personality would change and she'd turn into a much more aggressive person. To quote Historia: "Sometimes... Frieda would start acting like a completely different person. Like she was being possessed by something. She'd say that we were sinners. And afterwards... she'd get really depressed, like there was something constantly troubling her." There's even one particular moment where she yells at Historia and she looks outright deranged. So how does all this come into play in the present? Well, it's all connected to Historia's development: the reason why the moment she turns against her father is so great is because there are so many layers to the reasoning behind her decision. In the anime, however, we lose some of those layers. When she sees a self-loathing Eren saying that he should've never been born for stealing the Coordinate and not being able to save humanity, she sees herself in him but she also sees Frieda, who went through the exact same kind of pain. When she decides to flip her father over, she does it in order to save Eren just like Ymir saved her, but also just like Frieda saved her by making her feel loved and needed when she was a child. And what a beautiful irony that is: still wanting to be like her sister after everything and despite Frieda's wishes against that. That's the reason I still don't understand why in the anime, when Historia delivers this great line in episode 45:
They decided to just show that brief flashback with Ymir in the snowy mountains, whereas in the manga you got brief flashbacks with Ymir and Frieda, since she's remembering both of them at that moment. It would've been a much better decision to either a) show both flashbacks b) show neither; that'd be a small improvement over the manga imo: make it feel less on the nose and let us infer where her words are coming from. So yeah, in the anime, Frieda doesn't play that big of a role (if any) in Historia's development. Phew, sorry about the long post. I needed to get that off my chest so from now on I can focus on what the anime did right, which was plenty. Besides, the thing with truly great characters like Historia is that even if you truncate parts of their journey, you're still left with a pretty damn satisfying character arc. And as a last note, seeing the Uprising arc animated and reading James' reviews made me appreciate parts of the story that I hadn't paid much attention to back when I read the manga for the first time.
Makes you wonder how they'll handle the next story arc, which is just as long. Still, I have faith in the writing team 
I agree on the extra Levi scenes to a certain extent. I thought the fight in episode 2 was amazing, but the fight against Kenny in the cave bugged me a little, since Kenny should've been paying close attention to the ritual the entire time. On the other hand, I was fine with the poop machine. It shows that the "good" side can have horrible, messed up people in power too. And sure, we already had that conversation between Zachary and Erwin in episode 5 to show us that, but actions speak louder than words, and the scene itself is meant to make you feel uncomfortable in the first place. That said, I do understand why some people say they went too far, and I must admit the main reason I didn't have a problem with the poop machine is because I have a weird sense of humour, so I thought the whole thing was hilarious
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shakir0247
Posts: 60 |
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The fight in episode 2 was certainly very well done. I was just a little bothered that such high quality animation was dedicated to what is ultimately a rather inconsequential scene. Basically it felt like Levi got the sakuga treatment specifically because he's the most popular character in the show, and I would've liked if they saved that stuff for the more dramatic scenes later on. Granted, this is not uncommon in anime, but I nevertheless always find it distracting.
I didn't mind that scene per se, I just thought it was less crucial than a lot of other scenes that got cut, so I was surprised to see it included. |
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Xiximaro
Posts: 151 |
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Nope this was overall bad adapted, worst of the seasons... There was no fat trimmed, only meat. This should have ended with a cliffhanger right before Reiss battle since it's going to be two cour. The characters had almost none development and if they had some, it surely got contrived.
What most don't understand is that SNK is both fast and slow paced through out the story and since this part was politics and conspiracies it needed to be slow but that doesn't mean it would be bad, we had so much moral dilemmas cut half short and rushed info that it's no joke. |
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Ethe
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Episode 48:
What a clever way to reintroduce a character most of us thought we'd never see again. And the interesting thing is this episode had been foreshadowed way back in episode 3 of the first season, when we found out that Keith apparently knew Grisha. I'd always wondered what the relationship between those two was all about, and Bystander gave me the answer I was looking for (although I feel bad for poor old Keith). My favourite part has to be that throwback to the time Eren couldn't control his balance using the ODM gear. Turns out Keith messed with his equipment so he'd get kicked out of the military all along. Looking back, that triumphant scene when Eren finally gets the hang of the ODM gear through sheer willpower becomes even more triumphant now that we get to see it through a new lens. This episode was also full of little moments that I loved: bonding scenes between our main characters. Baby Eren chewing on Carla's hair. A couple of priceless facial expressions courtesy of Jean, Sasha and Connie (good choice for the thumbnail )
Sadly, we had that unfortunate scene with Mikasa at the beginning, which was supposed to be funny... I think? Yeah, it doesn't work. And later on in the episode we should've gotten a glimpse of how Mikasa viewed Grisha as a loving father figure, but the adaptation has never been very kind to Mikasa, so I expected they would take that out. All in all it was a pretty good episode and a nice way to wrap up this first cour
EDIT: Wait a minute, Floch is a redhead?! Everything I thought I knew was a lie... (loving the unexpected look thou) Last edited by Ethe on Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:47 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Hansond Jaysond Lee
 Posts: 57 |
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"Keith is more interesting than Kenny"?
Sir, I would highly suggest you to not to consume any alcohol related beverage and/or food when watching the anime adaptation of Hajime Isayama's hit series, Attack on Titan, because you completely lost me there. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1319 |
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Gotta love the expressions on Sasha and Connie's faces on the review thumbnail.
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S0crates
 Posts: 227 Location: Banned - Noticed our poor ethics |
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Eren & Mikasa needs to get this relationship going, this is so painful to watch on the side, it's been so long. The Pain, the pain!
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