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Attack on Titan: Junior High
Episode 9

by Lauren Orsini,

How would you rate episode 9 of
Attack on Titan: Junior High ?
Community score: 3.4

This week on Attack on Titan: Junior High, we get a new setting, but nothing else has changed. In “Sweet Summer!” the characters visit a summer festival together, but as they explore their new environment, the same old friendships, rivalries, and romantic affections persist.

In a way, this is a show trapped in limbo—character personalities are all simplified versions of themselves from Attack on Titan that already exist. When many of the jokes are simply riffs or references to parallel situations in the original show, there's no content beyond where Attack on Titan has already gone. Junior High is stuck—it can't explore or expand on the characters or their relationships with one another further than the canon of Attack on Titan has already progressed, or it risks going out of character and losing an audience that watches the show specifically because they enjoy the references to the original. This week's plot is silly and superficial, but it's understandable when you consider the confines it is working within.

Bertholdt is a gawky, blushing idiot with a crush on Annie Leonhart, and it's obvious to everyone in class but Annie, so Reiner and Ymir decide to team up to get the two of them together. It's an unusual alliance based around Christa, who they both adore and is too friendly to refuse Reiner's invitation (despite Ymir's possessiveness). Ymir's motive? She wants to watch Reiner like a hawk and keep him from putting the moves on Christa, so she won't have the time to be Bertholdt's pity date. Everyone underestimates the power of Christa's sunny demeanor, which encourages not just Annie to come with them, but nearly the entire class!

Now, Attack on Titan: Junior High is limited by the Attack on Titan canon, but it's also got an audience to keep entertained. For this episode, that means lots of shipping bait. So the relationships that exist during the summer festival are only as overt or ambiguous as they are in the original Attack on Titan. That's why we see Ymir constantly asking Christa to marry her and Annie and Mikasa's rivalry, but we don't, for example, see Sasha and Connie as more than friends, no matter what fans would prefer.

That's also how we know that Bertholdt's crush on Annie is doomed from the start, but it doesn't keep Reiner from cheerleading. As usual, the funniest part of the show is the most original, in this case Reiner's goofy shipper attitude as he holds a chocolate banana (Bert) and candy apple (Annie), acts out scenes, and makes them kiss. It's ridiculous, and it's the only part of the episode that made me laugh, because it's something the real Reiner would never do.

By now, if you've seen Attack on Titan but aren't manga current, you'll be thoroughly spoiled for upcoming events by this show. Much of this episode focuses on references to manga events, and even the foundation of Bertholdt and Annie's relationship is a significant spoiler. Their “romantic” fireworks moment is just like the one we've seen in dozens of summer festival episodes, most recently (for me) Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. It's a garden variety plot where characters have been reduced to simple caricatures, but it's very fan-aware and full of funny easter eggs for devoted Attack on Titan fans.

Rating: B-

Attack on Titan: Junior High is currently streaming on Funimation.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.


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