Attack on Titan Season 2 Review

Didn’t think that I’d honestly have this one to write but man am I glad to cover this one. But after 4 years of waiting, Season 2 was a shorty but a goody. What I mean by that is they took the convoluted almost insane plot of the manga and managed to throw a few re-phrases and advance scenes (looking at you confessions) to hint greatly at the grimdark truth of this series. Great news for all by the way, last week a third season was announced for next year. And off that note so begins the (obviously) spoiler filled Season 2 Review.

Marc at one point in his article states that “Literally, all the budget was spent on making this fight look as beautiful as possible.” How is that possible when they clearly added this scene which is both one of the most beautiful anime action scenes in HD I’ve ever seen and probably some sick bastard’s Christa/Historia x Ymir material. But jokes aside, I don’t mean that at all as a criticism of Marc’s opinion, but as a huge compliment to the animation team. Between this scene and the one Marc has with the Titan MMA/Mikasa being a beautiful engine of destruction most shows would really be out of budget. Beyond that, we notice highly detailed backgrounds as they race by in the above scene, with numerous titans of various body types, facial expressions, and overall posture. Akin to our constant pointing out of how an amazing artistic fact is the action and detail that Konosuba jams into their show, we have this where you will see dozens of individuals attacking dozens of other individuals only to die in 3-6 frames.

Beyond this we have the fantastic music. The scene above with Historia gliding through like the regal angel that she is, was made all that more amazing by the music playing along with the action. I had the 3DM gear audio for a text ringtone for a while because of how just absolutely cool it is. It makes you think of one of those times where if you hear the same sound or word over and over again it loses meaning or sounds strange or annoying but trust me, it makes you want to jump off a building. But in a good way. *Please don’t jump off a building unless you are a trained professional.* The voice acting from the dramatic reveals of “Hi, I’m the reason why your life is hell and your family is dead,” to emotional confessions of love from one of the most terrifying characters in anime to even the SCREAMING has you so absolutely engrossed in the show you almost wouldn’t believe it. Even when these people are dying/being eaten they are loading balls so absolutely titanic that the Titans themselves are dwarfed and this anime does NOT fail to impart that feeling to us as viewers.

So the plot per where Marc left off. We have been harping all season about some of our issues with the show, ranging from the out of order reveals to the pacing to things that people need to shut up and watch the show about. The out of order reveals helped make this plot seem SO MUCH more logical than it is in the anime where you will read 70 chapters before things make sense. Here the end scene teases the big bad behind Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie and we’re left wondering who is that guy and why is he wrecking humanity. Ymir’s reveals indicate there is life behind the walls and we have better insight into the traitor’s “hometown” that they constantly reference. As Eren and Ymir are hauled off by Bertholdt and Reiner we have some minor plot reveals but its all very well done in terms of being hidden and explained. The main characters all kind of start really falling into place with Mikasa not just being the silent borderline stalker and actually pseudo confessing, Eren actually becoming rage incarnate instead of just impotent rage by learning to control his powers, and Armin deciding it was time to just do something and psychologically mind fuck his buddy from boot camp by telling him the girl he loves is being constantly tortured over and over again. All with this face.

Normally during my reviews I have to bank on one good thing or another to justify the shortcomings. AoT is one of the few gems that has the entire package. Great plot, fantastic music and voice acting, beautiful and symbolic scenery when parents/parental figures are eaten by what at first seems like an ironic coincidence but is revealed to be almost a plot point way way down the line. All of these combining factors are the reasons why I’m feeling this series may be best of the year. So go watch this show and leave a like  and a comment before the scary one true Yandere comes a-knocking.