The second half of Attack on Titan is a colossal step in a darker direction compared to the first. If there was any doubt in the viewer's mind about the depths of horror and cruelty this story is out to plunge, doubt no more as the second half of the show makes dead sure you feel the poignant weight of all its glory-less "victories." One of the most common phrases uttered in Attack on Titan is "the world is cruel," and it's this note, not the triumphant "wings of freedom," that the first season of the show chooses to end on. Its finale climaxes on a theme of "falling," both literal and figurative, as heroes and foes alike watch birds effortlessly glide over the walls that still hold them captive. It's a powerful statement for a work this populist to plant its flag on, but how did we get here from the relative "gritty optimism" of early episodes?

On reflection, the first half of Attack on Titan could be accused of selling strife without sacrifice, and a whole lot of screaming without much true terror. It was terrible that Eren's mom died, but it could just be dismissed as tragic backstory needed to get the plot rolling. Some other characters died after that, but the arduous battle came out in our heroes' favor, with positive character growth for the many survivors along the way. Eren's resurrection as a Titan in human skin could easily be seen as a copout to further a "chosen hero" narrative at any cost. They're all valid criticisms of Attack on Titan as the "shocking tragedy" it purports itself to be. Gore and twists aside, surely this is a fantasy where the human spirit conquers all in the end.

The second half of the show beats those criticisms bloody, drags them off twitching in agony, and then beats them again until long after they stop moving. It's overkill in every sense of the word. It is a ruthless journey that only pretends to take us outside the walls before pushing us as deeply back into them as it can, so cruel that it actively regresses positive character development from the show's first half down into dangerous new directions. This betrayal of expectations is powerful not just because it's filled with unexpected twists, but because it forces the viewer to confront the meat of Titan's ideas, not just in all the rage, but in the long moments of silence that punctuate these episodes.

Yes, the "pacing problems" of Titan's first half are nothing compared to the agonizing decompression of its second half. "Pacing problems" needs to be qualified here because strictly speaking, the pacing is not the real issue. Titan is an efficient series that doesn't waste a minute of its runtime on unnecessary information, silly filler, or aborted arcs. Even little detours like a moment of Christa's resourceful cheer in a tough time are foreshadowing for key season 2 material that just hasn't been animated yet. Things are constantly happening in Attack on Titan, and they are important things, but the frustration with these things is frequently attributed to a "pacing problem" because they are never the things we want to see, and the Female Titan arc is a perfect example of this. Viewers want to know what's in Dr. Jaeger's basement, and why Eren can turn into a Titan. Viewers want to see the Corps sock it to the Titans and take back just a little more ground for humanity. Viewers want answers to questions about a story they care about, and good things for characters they love, but Attack on Titan is much more interested in throwing big smelly false hopes in the audience's face. The pacing of the Corps' mission failure after mission failure, and Eren's gradual, agonizing slip on his sanity is excellent, but that just makes it more maddening to endure. There can be no real "victory" against the Female Titan. Every possible outcome of the situation seems disgustingly unfair, because Titan's world, we are told, is cruel.

Tonally, it's all downhill for Eren and friends, but the balance between lows and highs that defined the first half of Titan has become more grotesque as well. The loud moments are louder and the quiet moments are quieter. Entire episodes are built on dueling motivations, with talking heads in a courtroom or up a tree just slinging juicy character development at one another. These are followed by entire episodes of brutal and elaborate action showcases, realized more beautifully than anything in Titan's first half thanks to the skillful assistance of parent house Production I.G (Episodes 17 and 21 are particularly outstanding in their choreography.) All around, it's more advanced, nuanced storytelling than what's come before, but that doesn't make its intense downswing any easier to stomach.

It was so much easier to rally around that cry of "We are the Hunters!" when we knew who the prey was supposed to be. In the presence of the Female Titan, those lines become muddy not only for the audience, but for the show's scion of human spirit, Eren. His vow to "exterminate all Titans" has already been compromised for obvious reasons, and now his belief in humanity as a united force for good against monsters is also forced to crumple and die. This has been a major fixation of Attack on Titan for a while, but it was only permitted to pop in and out of the background in scenes like Eren's talk with Pixis on the wall, or his rationale for the way he handled Mikasa's kidnapping as a child. Armin and Mikasa have much more flexible (if also flawed) views of humanity, and it's fitting that they spend most of this second half away from Eren, powerless to influence his heart in the way the jaded adults of the Survey Corps or the Female Titan herself can. When they finally rejoin their friend, he's already at a tipping point, so he adopts the advice they offer him in just the wrong enough context to tip him over into full-blown monster. "The world is cruel, so I too must be cruel to survive in it." "Only monsters can defeat monsters, so that's what I have to become." Most importantly: "It just feels good to finally let go."

These are scary directions for the story's hero to take, and they're meant to be. Attack on Titan challenges the false glory of its own opening theme song not only in the show's powerful conclusion, but throughout it in chunks like the disturbing ending of episode 22. The show can't even be accused of ending on an ominous note because it had to stop where the source manga stopped. The original manga portrayed these exact same events more triumphantly, where success was achieved through team communication, rather than a horrible breakdown in communication that mostly succeeded in breaking Eren. The harsh tonal rewrite in the anime was a deliberate adaptation choice, probably made to reflect the changing tone of the manga, which has now plunged even deeper into the hole of moral ambiguity than anything in the anime.

On that note, it's upsetting that one of the most brazenly fanged anime series in years has gotten its teeth removed so awkwardly in the english dub, but unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. The acting, vocal direction, and even the sound mix for the series is still second to none, with standout additions Matthew Mercer and Jessica Calvello completely owning their roles as Levi and Hanji respectively. This makes the only sub-par element of this otherwise outstanding dub its adaptive script. Unfortunately, it's a handicap that has gotten so much worse from the first half that it's tragically impossible to ignore.

For the most part, Titan's characters are simple, crass teenagers who use simple, crass language to convey their thoughts and feelings, and in the Japanese dub this is maintained with crude insults, childish declarations, and enough deviation in voice to make it clear who is speaking based solely on their scripted dialogue. Titan's English dub characters are indistinguishable in prose, trading clunky idioms back and forth in ways so self-aware and unnatural that responses often sound as if they'd been planned before a question was even asked. Character voice is completely homogeneous, with specific phrases like "the proverbial" and "out of the frying pan and into the fire" jumping from character to character in bizarre passive voice. (The latter expression is used first by Eren, then Jean: the two least likely characters in the show to use a grandfatherly idiom while being chased by Titans.) Point blank: it's overwritten. Titan's dub dialogue reads more like the meticulous wordy agony of an anime review like this one than appropriate dialogue for an anime that stars 15 year olds. The consequence of all this tortured prose is that most of the bite has been gummed out of Titan's emotional exclamation points. Everyone sounds just a little too polite and literary, even in moments of anger, turning much of the simple strength from the original material into word-mush.

Still, this is a carryover problem from the first half, and might not bother some viewers at all. The real problem is that these rewrites have now started completely changing the context of important scenes. Armin ends a pivotal speech that acts as both character development for himself and Erwin with "Those who can't abandon anything can't change anything either" in the Japanese dub. This is changed to "That's the irony, really. If you can't let it go, it's not worth holding onto" in the English version, which at first sounds just so odd in delivery that it's hard to tell what it means (a common problem with the dub,) but on further inspection, means the complete opposite of the original phrase. The original statement is an assertion of pragmatism: "Sacrifices must be made for the greater good." The revised statement is a condemnation of codependence preceded by an attempt at self-awareness: "Isn't it ironic that the things you fight for the hardest often hold you down?" It's completely off from the intended context. This mistranslation of intent rears up throughout the show, most notably in Annie's heartfelt lines about the importance of treating weak people who buckle to a system as human beings, even if they're not heroic in the world's eyes. It's turned into "I would do anything to just be normal like you" in the dub, once again false to context because it implies that Annie is contrasting herself with Marlowe; she was instead comparing herself to him. All these problems could easily be solved with a humbler, more faithful translation, but ultimately, the stellar casting and performances in the dub are enough to elevate its crippling script problems. It's just a shame that they have to.

Funimation's "Collector's Edition" set comes with a smattering of goodies, from a special Good Smile Eren strap, to Maria, Rose, and Sina banners. On-disc extras include dub commentaries, more of the sadly unfunny chibi theater shorts, (the 4-koma chibi strips in the digibook are funny though,) and an interview with show producer George Wada intercut with cosplayer footage and fan reactions from Anime Expo 2013. The aforementioned digibook is the star feature of the CE though, filled with art, bios, and revealing interviews with Titan's director as well as the original author. Of course, there's also the artbox made to carry both parts 1 and 2 comfortably--with a wicked surprise on the back of the box.

From its understated politics and foreshadowing to its grandiose gore and hairpin twists, the second half of Attack on Titan is tough to process and tougher to discuss, but it proves even more strongly than the first half why this is a series that deserves to be a phenomenon. Whether there's any hope in Eren's future is up for debate (at least until season 2 starts,) but at least the ride down will be captivating. Attack on Titan maintains its blockbuster spectacle up through the end, but its real power lies in the silence of unanswered questions. Not only the questions raised about its own plotlines, but the ones it raises about the darkest and most fragile places in the human heart, and how thin the line between man and beast can fray when survival is at stake.