Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode 24, Pride Review: One of the Weakest Chapters Becomes One of the Weakest Episodes.

Coming into Episode 24 of Attack on Titan’s Final Season, “Pride”, directed by Kazuo Miyake I was very interested to see what the anime only viewers’ reaction to it would be.
This is because “Pride” is one of the most controversial chapters in the entire manga, being so divisive that it caused people to become concerned about the future ending’s quality.
Honestly, I’m on the side of the readers who found the chapter to have more negatives than positives.
Yet, despite this, I was still intrigued to see whether the anime only viewers would overall like this episode, be divided, or hate it.
From what I have seen so far, I can almost certainly state that most anime only viewers enjoyed this episode.
I have heard some concerns among them but, all in all, the reception does seem to be on the positive side, making my negative opinion on this episode’s writing in the minority.
It is my intent with this review to back up my own negative opinion, so that I can explain the issues I and others have with this episode to any anime only viewers who potentially stumble across this review.
Not to sway them over to a negative side, because I am glad they enjoyed an episode I could not, but to at least help them understand some of our criticisms.
With that out of the way, I will get into the review, however, on a positive note.
Yes, despite not liking “Pride”, it does still have some good moments and the opening scene is one of these.
It depicts the aftermath of Hange’s escape with Levi from Zeke, Floch and the Jeagerists.
Hange and Levi are being hunted by some of the Jeagerists but Hange manages to get the upper hand and kills the both of them, a tear falling from her eye as she does so.
That last detail is a fantastic showcase of the moral complexity of this whole situation, as Hange now has to kill her own people to protect herself and Levi.
Once this is done, she sets about tending to Levi’s wounds and building a transport for him, during which she and Levi see Eren’s message to all other Eldians about the destruction of the world.
At this moment, Levi wakes up and it is at this moment that I was disappointed to see a detail from the manga being left out, this being the explanation of how Levi survived the Thunder Spear explosion Zeke caused.
In the manga, we see in a flashback that, at the last moment, Levi jumped atop his sword to shield himself from the impact, causing shards of his sword to cut into his face.
However, this explanation is removed from the anime, with the only excuse for Levi’s survival being that he is an Ackerman, which was also in the manga but it makes a lot more sense when paired with the explanation of Levi covering himself with his sword.
Back to the scene at hand, Hange and Levi both realize they cannot just sit back on the sidelines, and it is then that the scene transitions to the two’s negotation with Magath and Pieck, as Levi tells them his main goal is to find and kill Zeke, who Hange speculates is with Eren.
At first, Magath threatens Levi and Hange, seeing Levi’s weakened state, but relents upon seeing Levi’s resolve.
Hange then offers an alliance with Magath and Pieck to stop Eren from destroying the world, and it is here that my issues start to come in.
For starters, we do not see what led Hange to come to the conclusion that they all needed to team up with the Warriors.
I’m not saying that it doesn’t make sense for her character because it does but a little explanation for how her thought process was going would have been nice.
Not only this but as soon as Hange offers this alliance the scene cuts.
What were Pieck and Magath’s reaction to her offer at first?
Did they agree quickly or need more convincing?
How does Levi feel about this whole thing?
These are questions that are not answered because the majority of the Alliance’s forming is left entirely off screen.
The Warriors and the Scouts have such a damaged relationship after killing one another for years, so any alliance formed between them would be wrought with tension that would have been great to see.
Too bad we just constantly cut away to bad subplots that feel like massive wastes of time.
Case and point, the Connie and Falco subplot, my second least favourite subplot in Attack on Titan. 
Aside from memers, did anyone really care about Connie’s quest to save his mother here?
The literal end of the world is happening, we have no time to focus on this pointless journey that was clearly never going to end in any way other than Connie changing his mind.
It’s clearly building to that right from the moment that Connie is having his own inner conflict on the matter, the night before he and Falco finally reach Ragako.
Then we just get an awkward joke about brushing Titan teeth before Armin and Gabi run in to save Falco and innevitably do when Armin takes a gamble inspired by Commander Erwin’s previous ones.
This makes Connie come to his senses and decide to become a soldier his mother would have been proud of.
Credit where it is due, this is some solid character development for Connie that ties into the title of the episode.
But, again, we really did not have time for this when the end of the world is happening.
This should have been time spent building up the alliance, which was sorely needed.
What makes it worse is that this was clearly one of the main points of the Connie subplot.
Isayama used it to move Connie and Armin to the right palce, where they could meet up with Annie again.
The issue with this is that such potential for alliance build up is squandered, when all we get from Annie reuniting with Armin and Connie is an out of place pie joke, before the scene once again cuts away.
All we are left with is a scene of Hitch reading a letter from Annie, saying that she has decided to go with Connie and Armin.
Sure would have been nice to see that happen.
Not to mention that Connie laughing at Annie eating a pie just feels weird.
I have heard some defend this moment, explaining that Connie has always laughed during tense situations, like when Bertholdt transformed into the Colossal Titan during the Return to Shiganshina Arc.
While that does make sense, what undermines this is the fact that Connie’s lax attitude towards Annie just does not match with Episode 17, “Judgement”, where he mentioned he was angry at her for betraying them.
It just does not add up.
Out of place comedy being used instead of actual character conflict is another massive issue I have with this episode.
At least there were a few minor details which improved this scene from the manga, like the fantastic transition to the scene from Floch cheering “Shinzou wo Sasageo”, and a cut from the manga I am actually supportive of, this being the cut moment of Gabi joking around with Falco.
The reason I am glad this was removed is because it makes no sense for this to happen when Falco is mourning the death of his brother.
Speaking of which, I am still disappointed that we do not get to see Falco wrestling with his feelings about Colt’s death since, you know, it was his own unwilling Titan transformation that killed him.
Unfortunately, the bad Connie subplot leading to the poorly handled Annie meet up is not the end of the episode’s problems because I now have to talk about the Mikasa and Louise scene, another moment that has caused an argument between those who like “Pride” and those who do not.
The scene in question sees Mikasa track down a dying Louise to find that it was her who took her scarf.
Louise talks about how she wanted to wear the scarf to feel close to Mikasa, saying that Eren wanted the scarf thrown away, only for Mikasa to not give a damn, demand the scarf back, then storm off when she has it.
To me, Mikasa is incredibly unlikeable in this scene, being so dismissive of the dying girl who looks up to her.
I have seen those who like the episode defend Mikasa’s actions, pointing out that Louise is part of an extremist group, stole the scarf, and Mikasa does not owe her anything.
While all of these things are true, I still cannot help but think that this scene does Mikasa’s character a disservice because of the very first scene Louise appeared in, all the way back in Season One.
In Louise’s first appearance, Mikasa saves her and her mother from a Titan, for which the two are grateful and this makes Mikasa happy, before reminding her of her own family.
So, you’re telling me that in Louise’s first scene Mikasa is glad to have saved her and is reminded of her family, only to then be so cruel to Louise when she is literally dying in front of her?
Another thing people have pointed out is that Louise’s devotion to Mikasa causes her to revaluate her devotion to Eren but I would like to ask where that is shown?
Honestly, I think the whole Louise subplot could be removed and nothing would have changed.
Remove the Connie subplot too while we’re at it because, if both of those subplots were gone, then it would have given the story much more time to develop the alliance properly.
Although, I will say that the scenes after these poor ones are much better in quality.
For starters, there is the best scene of the episode with the rescue of Jean, Yelena and Onyankopon from the Jeagerists.
Both Jean and Onyankopon’s characterization in this scene is excellent.
First there is Onyankopon, who rightly calls out the Jeagerists for their hypocrisy and expresses his own grief over his soon to be loss of his homeland and family.
Then there is Jean, who organizes the rescue operation, joining the Alliance to honour Marco’s memory.
Jean and Onyankopon are the best characters in an episode that does a lot of other ones no favours.
As the rescue plan of having Pieck retrieve Jean, Yelena and Onyankopon from the Jeagerists unfolds, we see that the rest of the Alliance is leaving Shiganshina, with Annie and Mikasa having reuinted off screen.
Again, I would have loved to have seen that, especially since the last time they saw one another they were trying to kill each other.
Well, at least the scene where they escape from Shiganshina does include the moment when Annie sees a mysterious figure watching them, the outcome to which I am eagerly anticipating to see play out over the next few episodes.
Then, we get the final scene of “Pride”, which is, without a doubt, the most controversial moment of the episode, when Reiner is awoken by the alliance and told they need to go save the world.
Que the Avengers music.
Personally, this scene has never really bothered me that much because I like how it ties into Reiner’s character arc.
His initial motivation was to save the world but it only lead to him comitting atrocities, causing him to have massive PTSD.
Now, he is being offered the chance to redeem himself by actually saving the world this time.
I think if the scene had focused on this rather than the cheesy avengers formation of the alliance, then it would have been much better received.
Overall, Episode 24 adapts one of the weakest chapters of the manga into what I think is one of the weakest episodes of the series.
It is not Mappa’s fault, since the writing is the problem here.
In fact, I think Mappa did quite a good job, with some great shots, like the reflecton of Connie and Falco in the sword, along with making me realize just how loud the Rumbling would be when we see the characters trying to sleep.
In conclusion, my biggest problem with this alliance formation episode is the constant cutting away from that formation in favour of poorly written subplots and out of place humor.
Although, I will say that the writing for the alliance does get much better going forward (a few questionable instances aside), especially in the next episode.
So, look forward to that.

Manga Spoilers:
The first thing I want to talk about in the manga spoilers section is the Mikasa and Louise subplot.
I gave some harsh criticism to this storyline back there and the reason for this is in large part due to my disappointment at the lost potential, something that I have noticed a lot in regards to Mikasa’s character in general.
One of the biggest missed oppurtunities with her character is definitley her connection with Louise.
Imagine if Mikasa actually cared about Louise and mentored her, eventually coming to feel like she is to blame for her joining the Jeagerists.
This could have created some great character development for her.
What’s more, imagine if, instead of Louise just dying because of a random Thunder Spear, she actually takes part in the upcoming port battle in a future episode and Mikasa either has to kill her to protect the plane or sees her die at someone else’s hand.
Wracked with guilt, she could then retrieve the scarf from Louise’s body, making her actually revaluate her devotion to Eren, having seen the lows this devoition brought Louise to.
But no, instead we just have Louise being devoted to Mikasa, who does not care at all, even when the poor girl is dying, and not having any realization surrounding her devotion to Eren, despite the similarities.
Coming back to the port battle though, we can expect to see that in Episode 27 because it has seemingly been confirmed that each of the following episodes for the second part of Attack on Titan‘s final season will only adapt a single chapter.
I have very mixed feelings about this because I just don’t think that some of these chapters are long enough to justify a single episode, like Episode 26 “Traitor” for example.
I fear they may try to pad these episodes out with large recaps, really slowing down the pacing.
Although, this concern may turn out to be false, so I will admit to that if it turns out to be the case.
It also does not like we will be getting Chapter 131 adapted in this part of the Final Season like I suspected either, so does that mean no Chapter 123 flashback as well?
Will we be seeing those in a movie or a Final Season Part 3?
Only time will tell.

Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode 23, Sunset Review: A Great Set-Up Episode.

Thankfully picking up without a recap of what happened in the last episode, Episode 23 of Attack on Titan‘s final season, “Sunset” is great set-up for what is to come.
Directed by Mitsue Yamazaki, the episode begins in Trost District, displaying the horrific side effect Eren’s Rumbling has on the people of Paradis.
With all of the walls crumbling, many houses have collapsed, a lot them with people still inside.
Hundreds are probably dead from this, and we see Hitch helping care for the survivors, only to have to go and gather riot gear when fanatical Jeagerist citizens get into an argument with those who have lost family members in the Rumbling by saying their sacrifices were worth it.
It just goes to show that even if Eren does destroy the world, infighting on Paradis will not end.
As for Hitch, when she goes to gather the riot gear, she notices wet footprints coming from the basement where Annie’s crystal was stashed.
Realizing the warrior is now free, Hitch goes after her, only to find herself remarkably out of her depth as the awakened Annie holds her hostage easily.
But maybe not because Annie is still in a weakened state, allowing Hitch to throw her to the floor, comparing her to a grandma.
However, as Hitch is calling for help, Annie reveals she has cut herself, leaving Hitch no choice but to help her out of fear of the warrior transforming.
Hitch takes this as well as she can, joking that she won’t have to see Annie’s face anymore, to which Annie hits back by saying she won’t have to listen to Hitch complaining about men, revealing she was concious the entire time.
This is a nice way of justifying not needing to explain to Annie all that has happened since she entered the crystal.
The two of them then take off on the horse, looking up at the advancing Rumbling as they go, which looks absolutley incredible.
Seriously, I’m amazed at how well Mappa has done at animating the Rumbling so far.
They have honestly done a better job with the CGI Colossal Titans than WIT.
Not to say that Mappa is better than WIT, no, the two studios just both have things they are better at than the other.
Back to Annie and Hitch, this is the moment where we finally get Annie’s full backstory.
It’s revealed that her birth was the result of an affair between an Eldian and a Marleyan.
She was then raised by an Eldian man with a similar situation to her, who trained her to become a warrior, all so that he could live a better life.
This resulted in Annie eventually breaking the man’s leg and then gaining a complete indifference to human life, including her own.
But then, on the day she left, the man who raised her broke down, begging her to come back home to him, now loving her as his daughter.
This is why she fought so hard to get home and why, if it ends with her seeing her father one more time, she would do it all again.
I like this motivation for Annie.
It is certainly cold, saying she would do the horrific things she did again, but it has understandable reasoning, since she did it all to get back to a loved one.
There is also some great humor here as well, with Hitch interrupting Annie by asking her if this is her life story or something.
Of course it all turns serious when Hitch states that Annie will most likely only find a corpse when she gets home.
Que the perfect cut to Annie’s father and the rest of the Eldians in Liberio arguing with their guards about the Rumbling being started, which they learned when Eren alerted them through the Paths.
The guards, however, do not believe them and place them under arrest, leading to Annie’s father starting a revolt when he remembers Annie’s tearful face when she promised him she would come home.
Back on Paradis, Shadis hears a gunshot before telling the trainees to wait for their moment to take on the Jeagerists, while Armin prepares to go and stop Connie from feeding Falco to his mother.
Armin tells Mikasa they need Gabi’s help to convince Reiner and Pieck to stop the fighting, which means they need Falco too, so he will tell Connie his mother should just stay a Titan for peace.
Mikasa then asks Armin what she should do and Armin says to help Jean.
This is a curious line from Armin because it appears to be changed from the manga, where Armin tells her to think for herself, not to think of how she should help Jean.
Unless this is not a translation error on either the manga or the anime’s part, this is a pretty odd change to make, since it goes from Armin seemingly pointing out how Mikasa often struggles to think for herself, to him just advising her to help Jean.
Either way, what follows is the same as the manga, with Mikasa predictably asking about Eren, leading to Armin exploding at her, ending with him saying that Erwin should have been chosen over him, before departing.
This was a sad moment for Armin, although I did find it humorous how Historia is just randomly thrown into the conversation.
It really is a shame how little screen time she is getting.
Back to the scene at hand, once Armin leaves, Mikasa notices that her scarf is missing.
I am not looking forward to the answer of where it is in the next episode.
Armin then goes outside, where Gabi is saying her goodbyes to the Braus family, telling Kya her real name, before she and Armin depart to save Falco.
Back inside the building, Floch has shot a volunteer who resisted as a fear tactic against the rest of them.
In answer to Jean’s demand of who made him king, Floch responds that Eren came to him with his plan for the Rumbling ten months ago, going on a rant about how the volunteers’ only hope is to side with the Eldian Empire now that their homelands will be destroyed and their family’s butchered.
Floch really is a great antagonist.
He is a perfect example of how nationalism can twist a person.
Case and point, when he brutally executes the volunteer he shot when he resists further, which, by the way, is much more brutal in the manga.
As Mikasa arrives, Floch then speaks to Jean, telling him to go back to the way he was in Season One, shocking Jean who is then struck with guilt upon seeing Onyankopon staring at him.
On another note, the ost during this scene is, once again, incredible.
It gives Floch this villanous theme, one that is further established when he lies about Zeke killing Hange and Levi.
The credits then role, while showing Connie taking Falco to his village.
Connie has used Falco’s memory loss to his advantage but still feels guilty about what he plans to do to Falco, since he is a good kid, even though sacrificing him would bring back his mother.
Much like the resolution to the scarf scene though, I am not excited to see this subplot play out next episode.
With the credits coming to an end, the post credits scene then sees Pieck and Magath being approached by Hange for unknown purposes.
Levi is with her, alive but horribly injured, and Hange calls him a “harmless fellow who refuses to die.”
Harmless?
Hell, no.
Refuses to die?
Oh, most definitley.
Overall, “Sunset” is a pretty great set-up episode, with some excellent animation and visuals.
As for the end result of this set-up… well, let’s just say I’m interested to see the anime only reactions to it and leave it at that for the spoiler free section.

Manga Spoiler Section:
Okay, so I can’t be the only one really intrigued to see how anime only viewers will interpret the next episode, right?
Chapter 126, “Pride”, is one of Attack on Titan‘s most controversial chapters.
It is the point that many manga readers began to become concerned about where the direction the ending was heading because of the way the chapter was written.
While I do think that the chapters following “Pride” are a million times better, and am looking forward to the adaptations of them, I am still dreading the next episode because “Pride” is definitley in my top five least favourite chapters of the series.
It is an extremely rushed chapter, with numerous scene gaps, unearned comedy, and one of the worst subplots of the entire series as a key focus, this being the Connie and Falco subplot.
Still, there are moments I am looking forward to, like the beginning scene with Hange and Levi, and Jean and Onyankopon’s development.
Plus, I think we can count on Mappa to make the episode visually interesting, at least.
But, no matter what my thoughts on the next episode are, I can still say that it had some pretty great set-up with “Sunset.”

Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode Twenty-Two, Thaw Review: Returning Character and OST.

With the Paths storyline of Chapters 119 to most of Chapter 123 coming to an end at Episode 21, Episode 23 of Attack on Titan’s final season, “Thaw”, kicks off with a cut to the present as our main characters and the world at large reacts to the Rumbling.
Directed by Hidekazu Hara and Kiō Igarashi, “Thaw” begins with the typical episode recap, before showing the reactions the Eldians in Liberio are having to Eren’s declaration about the Rumbling.
Among these Eldians is Annie’s father, a fitting choice concerning that the episode ends with the twist of her return.
Once we get these Eldians’ reactions, the scene then cuts to Reiner and Gabi, who are retreating from where Wall Maria used to be, as the Wall Titans are now marching.
Falco is nowhere to be seen and Reiner realizes that he was taken by Connie and Jean, before despairing that Eren will destroy the world, which hits him hard in particular because his original goal was to save it.
As Gabi leads him into a house to rest, Reiner suggests she finds Pieck and escape, telling her they have no hope of stopping Eren, before falling unconcious.
Gabi, however, is unwilling to accept this and, in a scene very similar to one where Eren told himself in the mirror to “fight”, Gabi also ties her hair up into a ponytail, followed by her declaring that she is coming for Falco.
The boy in question has indeed been captured by Jean, Connie, Mikasa and Armin, who are now all struggling with their conflicting thoughts about the Rumbling.
Jean states that he believes the people of the outside world brought this all upon themselves, yet his tone and wording highlight his confliction greatly.
Armin is much more forward with his doubts, declaring that Eren is going too far, which leads to Jean stating that Eren is committing this unprecedented genocide for them.
Before they can appropriately deal with the inner conflict this brings them, they notice that Zeke’s Titans are now on a rampage.
As they move to deal with them, Mikasa asks Jean what he intends to do with Falco.
Jean suggests feeding Falco to Commander Pyxis so he can come back as a Shifter but Connie interrupts, insisting his mother be the one who is saved, since there won’t need to be any fighting anymore because of the Rumbling.
An argument ensues when Armin suggests letting Falco live, so they can use him to negotiate with Reiner and the other Warriors, but they are again interrupted, this time by an attacking Titan, giving Connie the chance to kidnap Falco to save his mother.
And so begins what I think is one of the worst subplots in all of Attack on Titan, but the awful way that storyline unfolds is not for a few episodes at this point.
As Jean, Mikasa and Armin decide to focus on killing the Titans in Shiganshina, since there aren’t any walls left to contain them, the episode changes focus to Sasha’s family, who are fleeing from a Titanized Nile.
Kya ends up hitting her head and falling down some stairs, with Nile going right after her and no Sasha to save her this time.
It is at that moment that Gabi rushes in, freeing Nile from the misery of being a Titan, as she kills him with the anti-Titan rifle, saving Kya, who then sees her as Sasha.
This symbolic moment where Kya sees her sister in her killer is a controversial one in the fandom but one I like because of how it follows through on Gabi’s redemption.
Kya pays Gabi back in full for her rescue, covering for her when Jeagerists show up and recognize Gabi as the girl from Marley.
Niccolo and the rest of Sasha’s family also support Gabi, leading to the Jeagerists leading them to saftey.
During this time, Gabi and Kya have a heart to heart, where Gabi admits that she killed people for praise and that is her devil.
Niccolo follows this up by saying both he and Kya have devils within them as well, and the only way to escape them is to escape the forest, just like Mr Braus said.
Meanwhile, one of the soldiers who beat up Keith Shadis is about to be eaten by a Titan when who should come to rescue him but the man he beat up.
Shadis then heroically orders the trainees to follow him into battle, as the returning ost Barricades plays.
I was not expecting this theme to play this episode but I think it works fantastically.
As for Shadis, he is a character whose storyline I am excited to see play out in the final season because of how much I liked it in the manga.
One thing that I think is a downgrade from the manga, however, is the adaptation of the paneling in the next scene, where Mikasa kills a Titan that was going to eat Yelena.
In the manga, the shot cuts between Yelena’s horrified eyes and Mikasa’s determined ones, before revealing that Mikasa has killed the Titan that was about to kill Yelena, which then crashes into the building.
In the anime, however, the impact of this impressive paneling is lessened signficantly, with some of the shots being too quick, and new shots being placed in, like one of the Titan about to eat Yelena before Mikasa kills it.
We then see Jean leading the charge against the Titans in Shiganshina, with Shadis assisting as he and the trainees lead various Titans to where they will be easier to kill.
However, these are not just ordinary Titans but former comrades, a tragedy which becomes clear when Armin notices Commander Pyxis among the Titans and then puts him out of his misery, thanking him for helping them get this far and wishing that he rest in peace.
As the fight progresses, we see Mikasa save Louise, only for her admirer to be distracted by this and then get hit by a thunder spear explosion, her fate now unknown.
With the Titans in Shiganshina all killed, the survivors rest, with Onyankopon coming to Jean and reflecting on how his homeland will be destroyed.
Rubbing this painful moment in for him further is when everyone’s least favourite nationalist (or favourite depending on who you ask) Floch arrives with a smug look on his face to announce the Eldian Empire’s revival, placing Yelena, Onyankopon, and the rest of the volunteers under arrest.
As this is happening, Armin and Mikasa are led into a basement by Mr Braus and meet with Gabi, who begs them to give Falco back, only to be horrified when she learns what Connie plans to do with him.
She then begs further, asking if Eren can return Connie’s mother to normal on his own since he also removed Reiner’s Armour.
This causes Armin to realize that Eren removed all Titan hardening, meaning that Annie must be free.
Sure enough, the scene then cuts to Annie, now free from her crystal after 56 episodes, bringing an end to the episode.
Overall, “Thaw” is a great adaptation of Chapter 124, bringing back Annie well and depicting the fight in Shiganshina amazingly, with the return of the excellent ost Barricades.

Manga Spoilers:
“Thaw” saw the beginning of the Connie and Falco subplot, the storyline where Connie attempts to feed Falco to his mother to turn her back into a human.
As I said in the spoiler free section, this is one of my least favourite subplots of the entire series. The only one I can think of that is worse is the atrocious pregnancy subplot Historia recieved (if you can even call that degrading treatment of her character a subplot, since it never amounted to anything).
One of the big reasons for my dislike of the Connie subplot is how pointless it seems in the grand scheme of things.
The end of the world is literally happening and we are wasting time on Connie’s mother.
This has me hoping that the anime might make some changes to improve this subplot but I wouldn’t hold my breath, since this episode adapted a single chapter with no significant alterations.
The only slightly significant change I could find in this episode was that we actually see Louise get injured during the fight with the Titans in Shiganshina.
This was a nice addition because in the manga we don’t see her get injured, just the aftermath, so this bridges the gap well.
Unfortunately, at the end of that gap is another scene I do not like, the one where Mikasa completley ignores Louise dying in front of her and just wants her scarf back, making her extremely unlikeable.
Yeah, it’s safe to say I’m not looking forward to seeing the adaptation of Chapter 126, which is in my top five least favourite chapters of the series.
Oh, well, at least the adaptation of Chapter 125 “Sunset” was really good, and I will be sure to review that before Episode 24 is released.

Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode Twenty-One, From You, 2000 Years Ago Review: Fantastic, Despite the Hindsight.

The twenty first episode of Attack on Titan’s final season, “From You, 2000 Years Ago”, was quite the surprise for me.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.
This is because the ending to the manga rectontextualized the chapter this episode adapts in a negative way for me, making it a lot less enjoyable.
However, despite this problem still being there in some instances, I actually loved this episode.
But, I am getting ahead of myself.
My criticisms for the future recontextualization of this episode will be left for the manga spoiler section down below and this half of the review will be spoiler free for the future of the story.
Directed by Naoki Matsuura, the episode begins by adapting the rest of Chapter 121, by first showing the fight between Grisha and Freida, which ended with Grisha killing her and the entire Reiss family, except for Rod.
Then, as expected, given how the rest of the episodes have started in the Final Season’s second half, we get a brief recap of the last scene of Episode Twenty, seeing Grisha’s reconcilation with Zeke again, leading to Zeke being thrown back into Paths with a chained Eren.
Zeke is horrifed at Eren’s manipulation of Grisha, stating that Eren showed Grisha something from the future that convinced him to pass on the Founding and Attack Titan.
Eren confirms this, before going on to state that he saw his own future all the way back in the Season Three finale, when he kissed Historia’s hand.
For those who watched this episode and are still confused about how this works, I’ll give a brief expanation.
Basically, Historia’s royal blood allowed Eren to get a better look at Grisha’s memory of killing the Reiss family.
However, because Grisha was then being manipulated by Eren and seeing his future memories, it allowed Eren at the moment when he kissed Historia’s hand to see these memories of what he would eventually do in the future.
This is another moment of geniux writing from Isayama, recontextualizing the Season Three finale perfectly by connecting it to the past and future.
Back to talking about Eren and Zeke in the Paths, Eren tells Zeke that when he kissed Historia’s hand he saw a “sight.”
This is where a curious change from the manga comes into play here.
In the original Chapter 121, when Eren mentions this “sight,” he looks like he cannot wait to see it, while in this episode he looks depressed when he says it.
I will get into the potential reason for this change down in the manga spoilers section.
Despite Eren looking depressed when he mentions the “sight,” it naturally does not lessen Zeke’s fears, only heightens them, causing him to demand that Ymir sterilize all Eldians at once.
She turns to do so and Eren, in a panic, rips himself free from the chains holding him down, with some great screaming from Yuki Kaji.
As Eren runs to grab a hold of Ymir, Zeke tells him that no one can stop the Founder Ymir once she has begun to move.
One opening credits scene later, and we get the adaptation of my former favourite chapter of Attack on Titan, “From You, 2000 Years Ago,” which depicts Ymir’s backstory.
It starts off with a brief flashback to Freida reading a young Historia the book about Ymir, describing her as a girl who is kind because she’s always thinking of others.
This brief scene is nice to compare Mappa and WIT’s differing style, as it also appeared in Season Three.
Along with this, it leads into Ymir’s backstory well, which shows that, despite constantly thinking of others, Ymir’s life was not a good one.
This is first proven with the the scene of Ymir’s village being raided by a group of barbarians, who enslave its people and cut out their tongues.
After this horrific treatment, Ymir sees two people kissing, showing her longing for human connection, and this is followed up by the leader of the barbarians, Fritz, declaring that one of the slaves has set a pig free.
He demands that the slaves identify the culprit or everyone else will lose an eye.
Whether she did it or not, Ymir is thrown under the bus, with thirteen fingers pointing at her, representing the life span of Titan Shifters.      
Since Ymir has no tongue now, she cannot even defend herself and has to resort to bowing to Fritz, who sarcastically tells her that she is “free,” before having her hunted down like a wild animal.
With one eye gouged out, and multiple arrows in her body, Ymir flees until she comes across a gigantic tree, which she seeks refuge in, only to fall into a pit of water and begin to drown.
Just as she is about to die, a strange spine-like creature rises up and merges with her, making Ymir the first Titan.
Many years later, Ymir is still a slave for Fritz, unfortunately.
It gets worse for her when Fritz tells Ymir he will give her his “seed,” to which Ymir looks absolutley miserable, understandably so.
We then get a montage of Ymir bearing Fritz’s children, while his Eldian Empire continues to grow, with Ymir also being forced to fight and subjugate Marley, which resembled the Roman Empire back then.
Eventually, a group of Marleyan leaders are bowing before Fritz, only for this to turn out to be an assassination attempt, as one soldier throws a hidden spear at Fritz.
Ymir throws herself in front of the spear, giving her life for Fritz, only for him to berate her, telling her to get up since he knows no spear can kill her.
At that moment, Ymir gives up on life and dies, her soul going into the Paths.
In the physical world, Fritz horrifically feeds Ymir’s body to her daughters, revealed to be Maria, Rose and Sina, who the three walls on Paradis will be named after.
This cannibalistic feast allows Ymir’s Titan powers to be passed down.
Despite this horrifying scene being censored compared to the manga, I still think it was adapted well.
Ymir then continues to build Titan in the Paths for 2000 years, while we hear Fritz’s narration that his Titans will rule until the world’s end.
It is at this point that Eren interrupts Fritz, bringing us back to the present with his declaration that he will put an end to this world, pleading with Ymir to give him her strength.
He proclaims she is not a god, or a devil, but a person and that she has the right to choose what happens now.
Alarmed, Zeke runs to stop Eren, demanding that Ymir continue to obey him, just like Fritz demanded of her.
As Zeke approaches, Eren continues to console Ymir, before wondering if she was the one who lead him here, and telling her she has been waiting 2000 years for someone.
At this moment, we see Ymir’s eyes for the first time as she cries at Eren’s profound words.
This powerful moment was adapted beautifully from the manga, but I do wish we had seen Ymir’s face rise up to reveal her expression rather than just cutting to it, which the anime chose to do.
In any case, Ymir has chosen Eren.
Despite this being a powerful choice, it is quickly revealed to also be a horrifying one.
Outside of Paths, the spine-like creature emerges from Eren’s body and attaches itself to his decapitated head, the following transformiation absorbing both him and Zeke, as the walls crumble around them.
The Rumbling has begun.
Cutting back to Mikasa and Armin, the two look on in shock at Eren’s new Titan form, which is the largest we have ever seen in the story.
Armin desperately wants to believe Eren is doing the right thing, stating his belief that Eren has started only a partial Rumbling to destroy the world’s military.
However, it quickly becomes apparent that this is not the case, as Armin notices that all of Wall Maria has collapsed.
If Eren wanted to destroy just the world’s military, then he would not need so many Wall Titans.
Just as this relization is hitting Armin and Mikasa, Eren calls them and every other Eldian into Paths using the Founding Titan’s power to declare his intentions.
We get a brief overview of every important character hearing his announcement, including some anime original reactions from Floch and Historia, the latter of whom is still sitting in that damn rocking chair that she can’t seem to leave ever since she got pregant.
Eren declares to every single Eldian that his intent is to use the Rumbling to wipe out all life beyond Paradis Island, with the episode ending on a fantastic adaptation of his monstrous face from Chapter 123.
Eren has now gone down the path of global genocide and there is no going back for him.
“From You, 2000 Years Ago” is a fantastic episode of Attack on Titan, already being hailed as one of the series’ best, what with its amazing showcase of Ymir’s tragic backstory and Eren’s horrifying plans for the Rumbling.
Although, I am curious if anime onlies will keep this high opinion of the episode once its events are recontextualized with the ending. 

Manga Spoilers: 

I will start off the manga spoilers section for this post with a scene that I will admit to being quite confused by.
This is the opening scene, where Zeke confronts Eren after they leave their father’s memories.
As I said in the spoiler free section, Zeke deduces that Eren showed Grisha a memory, which convinced him to hand over the power of the Founding Titan.
What was this memory he was shown?
Well, your guess is as good as mine.
Seriously, what did Eren show Grisha that convinced him?
We get no further explanation on it in the manga and Grisha’s soul even sides against Eren in Chapter 137, so why does he give him the power?
Either this is something that will be explained in the show, with an anime original scene, or it’s a plot hole, unless I’m misunderstanding this scene’s meaning, of course.
Then there’s the strange change of Eren’s expression when he refrences the “sight.”
The question is why the anime changed his expression from excited to depressed?
This is just a guess on my part but maybe it’s because they want it to be more in line with the idea that Eren was pretty much a slave to the Founding Titan in the ending, forced by destiny or something to do all he did, which Eren would not be happy about.
If that is the reason for the change, I don’t really like it because it does not line up with Eren’s reaction to the “sight” of the Rumbling in Chapter 131.
Unless, god forbid, they change that too.
Now, let’s talk about the recontextualization of Chapter 122.
I disliked the ending reveals that Ymir was in love with her abuser and waiting for Mikasa to help her get rid of this toxic love so much that it shot the chapter from my favourite to right out of my top ten.
If anything, though, I would think that it speaks to this episode’s quality that I was able to put aside this major issue I have and enjoy it so much, despite my hindsight for future events as a manga reader.
However, there were a few instances where my negative opinion creeped through.
For instance, this episode only strengthened my opinion that the twist of Ymir loving Fritz is absolutely ridiculous.
Even if you put it in the lens of stockholm syndrome it makes no sense.
Just look at Ymir’s reaction to Fritz telling her that he will force her to bear his children.
Like I said in the spoiler free section, she looks miserable when he says that.
How are we supposed to believe she loved him when she looks so depressed whenever she’s with him because he’s such a monster to her?
I’m dreading this reveal whenever we get to it.
It’s easily the worst part of the entire ending for me.
I’ll end the manga spoiler section on a positive note, talking about the absence of most of Chapter 123, “Island Devils.”
That chapter mainly consists of a flashback from Mikasa’s perspective during her, Eren, Armin and the other scouts’ time infiltrating Marley.
This flashback was skipped over in the episode for the ending scene, where Eren declares he will destroy the world.
However, I do not think this scene has been removed entirely.
No, I think it was just moved for when the anime adapts Chapter 131, “Rumbling.”
I think the flashback of Chapter 123 would work perfectly with Chapter 131’s adaptation because it is the chapter that introduces Ramzi.
Seeing him and his family partying with the 104th, our main characters’ last moments of happiness, before seeing Ramzi and millions of other innocents slaughtered in the Rumbling right after would be horrifying and a lot more cohesive.
So, if that is what the anime is going for, I am in favour of this change.
Of course, there is the chance that this flashback has been removed altogether, but I don’t see that happening since it is required to introduce Ramzi, which will go on to make his death by the Rumbling impactful.
So, I’m looking forward to be horrified with that episode, before the season ends to adapt the rest of the manga in either a movie or the Final Season Part Three, because there’s no way it’s ending in twelve episodes with this pacing. 

Soloist in a Cage Review: A Short, Magestically Brutal Ride.

With so many long running manga out there that span hundreds of chapters, sometimes it’s just nice to sit down and read one with a simple, succinct storyline that can be finished in a single day.
If you’re looking for such a manga, then I would highly recommend Shiro Moriya’s Soloist in a Cage.
Spanning twenty chapters, the story follows Chloe, a young girl born and raised in Prison City, where all those convicted of crimes are sent, whether those crimes be simple theft or cold blooded murder.
As a result, the city is unbelievably dangerous, especially for Chloe, who has to stay indoors protecting her baby brother Locke, after their parents died.
The only reason they have survived so long is through the kindness of Ross Sandberg, a prisoner planning an escape, which Chloe crashes with Locke, planning to go with them.
Tragically, Locke is left behind in an accident during the escape.

Thus begins Chloe’s journey to rescue Locke.

The true story of Soloist in a Cage then begins many years later, as Chloe, now a deadly fighter thanks to Sandberg’s training, reenters the Prison City to rescue her little brother.
During her mission, Chloe encounters many different kinds of groups and characters, from the kind to the vile, all the while dealing with the overwhelming guilt she feels from the amount of blood she has to shed to achieve her goal.
All of this is executed fantastically with some excellent artwork by Moriya, with him transitioning from a comedic to gothic style flawlessly. 

The gothic art style in particular is great to look at.

It is here that I really need to praise Moriya himself because he had to take a year off from writing the manga, due to poor health.
Yet, after going through that, he still returned to finish his story, which I was a little sad to see end because I felt like it had the potential for more.
I wanted to know more about the outside world, like how this dystopian world got so bad that it sends those guilty of relatively harmless crimes to be locked up in the same city as murderous cannibals, for example.
But Moriya chose to end it at Chapter 20 and it is still a good ending that concludes the story in a fittingly ambiguous way.

The ending to Soloist in a Cage concludes Chloe’s story nicely.

Overall, Soloist in a Cage is a great manga that can be read fairly quickly.
It has fantastic artwork, an interesting world, and a likeable main character with a gripping internal struggle.        
 

Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode 20, Memories of the Future Review: My Favourite Chapter Becomes One of the Best Episodes.

If I was excited to see Episode 19 of Attack on Titan, then I was practically shaking with anticipation at the thought of seeing my favourite chapter, 121, “Memories of the Future”, adapted.
Directed by Koki Aoshima, the episode is another fantastic adaptation of the manga, making my favourite chapter also one of my favourite episodes.
All things considered, there are some things that keep it from definitley being my favourite but I will get to these issues later.
“Memories of the Future” picks up from where “Two Brothers” left off, with Zeke bringing Eren into their father Grisha’s memories to try and prove to him that their father brainwashed him. 
They travel for years in his memory, with the opening scene of the episode adapting the rest of Chapter 120.
As Zeke and Eren view Grisha raising a baby Eren, Zeke takes a moment to deliver a snide comment about Grisha forgetting his first son, not realising that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
From here, the brothers continue to travel Grisha’s memories, until Zeke comes across a memory of Grisha trying to manipulate one of the nobles from the Uprising Arc into revealing the location of the Reiss family.
Zeke uses this as an example of Grisha’s cruelty, as this act endangered his family, but Eren only replies with some nicely handled sarcasm.
We then get small cameos from Hannes and Kenny, before we get the big moment where Grisha uncovers the Reiss family cavern, shocking Eren and Zeke because Grisha is not supposed to steal the Founding Titan for years to come.
It is at this moment that Zeke finally realizes his father did learn from his mistakes, as Grisha abandons his plan to steal the Founding Titan to go back and live with his family in Shiganshina.
On another note, I did like how the anime fixed a mistake from the manga here.
In the original Chapter 121, when Grisha is about to go steal the Founding Titan but changes his mind, he is not wearing glasses, when he was already shown wearing them by that point.
The anime adds these glasses.
It’s an admittedly small change but one that works better with the continuity of events.
Another cool addition that the anime adds, is a brief flash of memory from Zeke of Grisha looking disappointed in him from Chapter 114, once again showing how Grisha has changed, which Zekes admits in the next scene, down in Grisha’s basement.
However, Zeke then doubles down, stating that despite Eren not being brainwashed he is still not his true self because he is acting as Grisha wants him to, once again unaware of the painful reality.
This reality is hinted at when Grisha awakens and somehow sees Zeke, which should not even be possible because it is a memory.
Before Zeke can figure out what this means, Eren declares that they will go to the next memory, ending the adaptation of Chapter 120, and moving into the adaptation of my favourite chapter.
This adaptation begins with the exploration of who Eren is as a person, as when Zeke agaim demands to know why Eren betrayed him, Eren replies that he has always been this way, since birth, leading into Eren showing Zeke how he killed Mikasa’s kidnappers to rescue her.
It is here that my first minor criticism of the episode comes in and that is the censorship.
Eren and Mikasa killing the kidnappers was much bloodier in Season One and it was toned down here for some reason, which was disappointing because it really makes Eren’s statement that he will take away the freedom of those who try to take his have less impact.
In any case, Eren uses this statement to insult Zeke, pretty much calling him a slave to defying what Grisha wanted.
Zeke counters this by sarcastically replying that if that is the case then Grisha should be considered a hero for putting Zeke on the path of saving the world (that’s an odd way to say genocide, Zeke).
Eren, however, is not listening to this, instead watching the memory of himself wrapping Mikasa in his scarf all those years ago.
Following this, we get another cool anime addition, with a visual allusion to Zeke’s bond with Tom Ksaver, through a father playing ball with his son.
We also get the next showcase of how Grisha can somehow see Eren because he looks right at him when he is locking up the information about the outside world in his secret compartment.
We then get a Mappa recreation of the scene where Grisha leaves in Episode One of the series.
One detail I did find kind of funny in this part of the episode is Zeke’s face when he’s listening to Mikasa turn Eren in to his parents for wanting to join the Scouts.
He looks like he’s received some world shattering information but it’s a normal scene.
Made me chuckle a bit.
We then see that when Grisha told a young Eren that he would show him the basement, he was actually looking at future Eren when he said this.
However, I’m not entirely sure that these shots line up.
They do line up in the manga, but because the Season One adaptation of the scene was shot different it is not the case for this adaptation and, if you notice that, it can be a bit offputting.
The offputing stuff continues in the next scene, where Grisha finally confronts Freida and the rest of the Reiss family because Frieda’s character designs are quite inconsistent, with it looking like she transforms into a different character in between shots.
It is minor issues like these things that keep me from definitively stating that this is my favourite episode of the series, like the chapter it adapts is my favourite of the manga.
“Memories of the Future” is still among the best episodes despite these issues, with the rest of the adaptation being mostly stellar.
First, we have the argument between Grisha and the possessed Freida Reiss, who advocates for the Eldians of Paradis’ extermination by the Marleyans, so no one outside the walls will die.
Grisha then cuts Frieda off when she tries to explain that he could not use the Founding Titan power if he had it, explaining that he knows this.
When Freida questions how he could, we get the big reveal that the Attack Titan can see the memories of its future successors.
This is why Grisha has been able to see Eren and Zeke when they entered his memories.
In the past, Grisha was seeing Eren’s future memories of this moment, allowing a two way communication between the past and the future, all through memories.
It is one of the most brilliant uses of time travel I have ever had the pleasure of reading and witnessing, and Hajime Isayama deserves all the praise for it.
He deserves even more praise for it because of what comes next, as it is revealed that Grisha could not bring himself to kill the Reiss family at first, until Eren manipulated him into doing it through the future memories by repeating Kruger’s words to him.
I was interested to see what ost would be played during this shocking scene but it was completley silent, which I actually liked.
It reminded me a lot of the “Midnight Sun” episode, where they had no music to let the power of the voice acting have more impact.
However, the impact of this shocking moment is again lessened somewhat by the censorship.
At least the excitement picks up in quality right after, with one of the best scenes in all of Attack on Titan.
After Grisha has killed the Reiss family, and left their destroyed chapel, he stumbles from his Titan form and begins to scream in despair over how he killed them all, including the children.
This scene is even massively improved from the manga, something I did not think was possible, as the animation for Grisha’s movement is absolutely stellar.
And it is here that I must praise Hiroshi Tsuchida, Grisha’s voice actor.
He did an absolutely incredible job this episode, delivering what is honestly one of the greatest performances in the entirety of the anime so far.
It only gets better from here, as Grisha begins talking to Zeke, telling him of how he knows Eren will get what he wants because of his future memories but that it will be horrible.
Grisha then looks up and sees Zeke through the future memories of Eren, which causes him to leap to his feet and sob as he apologises to Zeke for how terribly he treated him as a child, embracing him and telling him that he loves him.
The reconciliation of Zeke and Grisha made me tear up when I first read it in the manga and it made me tear up when I saw it adapted in the anime.
It also speaks to the greatness of Isayama’s writing, that he can make us cry over two characters who have done horrible things.         
Grisha just killed an entire family, and Zeke just killed Colt and Titanized Pyxis, Nile and countless others in the previous episode, and yet I still cried for them here.
As he hugs his son, Grisha begs Zeke to stop Eren, who Zeke jumps away from, throwing him out of the memories and back into Paths, as Eren looks down at him determined, the younger brother now having the upper hand.
And so ends the adaptation of my favourite chapter of Attack on Titan.
Aside from some censorship and character design issues, this was an absolutey fantastic episode that is among Attack on Titan’s best. 

Manga Spoilers:
One interesting change from the manga that I wanted to talk about is a brief shot that we get before the scene cuts to the aftermath of Eren killing Mikasa’s kidnappers.
This addition is a brief glimpse of the “you aree free” panel from the final chapter, serving as yet another nail in the coffin of the anime original ending theory, a coffin which is already six feet under at this point.
Another change is that we see young Eren’s face when he wraps Mikasa in the scarf and, if you look close, you can see that he blushing.
This is kind of morbidly funny considering that Eren killed a bunch of people before this point.
On the other hand, it is some new foreshadowing for Eremika, which was sorely needed in the manga.
Not to say there was no buildup for their relationship, as Mikasa received plenty of it, however there were only really three prior moments before the ending where I thought that Eren might feel the same.
Other than that, he just did not appear to like her romantically to me, so new additions like the blush are a good thing, even if they are subtle.
Finally, let’s talk about the next episode, which will adapt what used to be my favourite chapter, “From You, 2000 Years Ago.”
I say “used to be” because the ending recontextualized the chapter in such a negative way for me, that it got kicked from my number one spot to all the way out of my top ten.
The reveal that Ymir was in love with her abuser the whole time, despite having absolutley zero reason to love him, and the reveal that she was waiting for Mikasa to free her, despite them having little to no similarities before the final chapter, really polluted my view of the Ymir backstory chapter.
So, now that we’re finally going to see that chapter adapted, I’m wondering if I’ll feel the same way when watching it.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to get into the mindset I had when I first read the chapter, which should allow me to enjoy it.
If I can’t, though, then I think I’ll finish the episode with a bitter feeling, since it could have remained my favourite part of the story if Ymir character had not been botched at the end.
Well, at least I can say that “Memories of the Future” is still amazing, with one of the most creative time travel mechanics in fiction, which Isayama should be very proud of achieving. 

Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode 19, Two Brothers Review: Three Family Tragedies.

I was quite excited for episodes 19 and 20 of the Final Season of Attack on Titan.
This is because they would be adapting some of my favourite chapters of the manga, Chapter 119, “Two Brothers”, and Chapter 121, “Memories of the Future”, the latter actually being my favourite of the story.
As for “Two Brothers”, it was adapted amazingly under director Teruyuki Omine, detailing the three tragedies between brothers that happen in this episode perfectly.
The episode begins with a thankfully small recap, as we only see Zeke fall from the Wall, as he did in the previous episode, before we get to the current content, which begins with Eren absolutely wrecking Porco when he tries to stop him from reaching Zeke.
However, he is stopped by yet another head shot from Pieck’s Titan canon, only for the Jeagerists, lead by Floch, to intervene.
This leads to a brutal shot adapted well from the manga, where a Jeagerist is killed by Pieck’s canon slamming into him.
Seeing this, Armin realizes they have to take out the Cart Titan if they are to have a chance at winning.
Mikasa then saves him from gunfire, since Armin took his eyes off the battle they are currently in while thinking ahead.
Connie takes out their attackers and the group move forward, with Armin deciding to take Pyxis’ advice to get behind the enemy.
We then cut to Zeke, who wakes up at the bottom of the wall, still in his Beast Titan form, and he sees Eren being attacked by Reiner, who tries to rally Porco to help him.
However, when Reiner reaches for Porco, he unintentionally activates a memory from Marcel, showing Porco how his brother badmouthed him to keep him from inheriting the Armoured Titan, all to protect him.
So starts the beginning of the brotherly tragedies in this episode, as Zeke decides to scream and transform every single Eldian who drank his poisoned wine into Titans.
It is at this moment that Colt runs onto the scene with Falco, begging Zeke to allow his little brother enough time to escape the range of Zeke’s scream.
This clearly strikes a cord with Zeke, who feels the same brotherly bond with Eren.
However, it is because of that bond that he cannot delay the transformations so, to protect his plan and Eren, he screams.
Right as Falco transforms, Colt holds him close telling him that he is there for him.
On that note, I will say that that I wish they had kept Colt’s line from the manga, telling Falco that his big brother would always be with him.
That said, the soundtrack to Falco, Pyxis, Nile and the other infected member of the military’s transformation is top notch, and it becomes even better when the Titan invasion music from the very first season begins to play.
It really reminded me of the attack on Trost at the beginning of the story, especially with some visual similarities, like one Titan peeking behind a building, similar to how the one who ate Thomas did in Season One.
The moment is made more horrifying with Reiner staring in horror at Falco’s disturbing Titan form, and Gabi seeing Colt’s burned body, looking quite similar to how Armin did when he almost sacrificed himself to defeat Bertholdt.
Taking advantage of the situation, Zeke orders Falco’s Titan to kill Reiner, giving Eren the oppurtunity to escape.
Before Eren can break free from Reiner’s grasp, though, Zeke is apparently fatally shot through the nape by Magath, as he, Pieck, and the other Marleyan soldiers have defeated Floch’s Jeagerists, with Floch being the only survivor again.
Just as Magath is about to land another shot on Eren’s head, Armin’s plan to get behind the enemy pays off, as he blows Pieck’s Titan canon up with a thunder spear, while Mikasa kills some more Marleyan soldiers aiming for Armin, including Koslo.
Speaking of, I like how the anime decided to include Koslo in this attack, leading to Mikasa killing him.
In the manga, he just disappears after the Marley Arc, so it was nice to see the anime give him an actual death, even if he is just a minor character who pretty much nobody cares about.
One character I do care about is Porco, who ends up robbing Reiner of his sacrifice, allowing Falco to eat him instead.
This is a great death for Porco for three reasons.
Number One: He is too injured to heal himself so will die anyway but, this way, his death can have meaning.
Number Two: By saving Falco, he is living up to his own brother Marcel’s legacy as a brother.
And Number Three: It is one last middle finger to Reiner, as he dies saying he was always better than him.
Honestly, Colt and Porco were kind of meh characters for me, but their deaths in this episode are so well written it makes me care about them.
Enraged over Porco’s death, Reiner attacks Eren with all of his strength, only for him to harden and then escape, running to finally meet Zeke, who was playing dead that whole time.
Jean and Connie aid Eren, shooting Reiner with Thunder Spears to clear his way.
Zeke screams for Eren to hurry, stretching out his hand as he approaches, only for Gabi to pick up Colt’s Anti-Titan Rifle and literally decapitate Eren with it.
Imagine if this was the cliffhanger for the episode.
Everyone would have lost it right?
Well, that’s how it was for us manga readers because that is exactly how Chapter 119 concludes.
I read this chapter in public and got a few weird looks as I audibly gasped at the sight of Gabi shooting Eren.
However, despite this, I never really blamed Gabi.
Eren still murdered a lot of her friends and, whatever his plan is, it cannot be good for Gabi’s family in Marley.
Besides, it’s not like Eren’s dead, as Zeke makes contact with his head before he can die.
Before this, though, we get a flashback to Eren and Zeke’s meeting in Liberio, where we see just how much Eren means to Zeke, but also get a hint of how Eren may be manipulating Zeke, as he does not catch the ball Zeke gives him as a sign of trust.
This flashback then cuts back to the present, where Zeke catches Eren’s head, and we get the adaptation of the memory shards, which are amazingly adapted, with a couple of interesting easter eggs.
From here, we have Eren entering the Paths with a chained up Zeke, who explains that he waited years in the Paths for Eren to be reformed and that the chains constricting him are there because of the King’s vow renouncing war, stopping those with royal blood from using the Founding Titan, so only Eren can command Ymir.
Speaking of, the little girl who saved Zeke at the beginning of the season is confirmed to be Ymir Fritz, the Founder of all Titans.
Zeke then begs Eren to complete their plan of sterilizing all Eldians, only to learn that it is not Eren’s plan at all, bringing yet more brotherly tragedy to an episode full of it.
When Zeke demands that Eren tell him why he betrayed him, Eren responds with his catchphrase of “because I was born into this world,” before asking Ymir to lend him her power, only for her to walk straight past him and bow before Zeke.
Zeke reveals to a confused Eren that because he was not influenced by the first king’s ideology when he arrived in Paths, he was able to eventually destroy the vow renouncing war, allowing him to take full control of the Founding Titan.
This allows Zeke to order Ymir, who sees him as her master, along with other royal blooded Titan users, since she has the mentality of a slave.
The original Titan Shifter being a slave this entire time is a really interesting twist that plays into the story much better than the idea of her being some kind of evil manipulator.
Now having full control of the Founding Titan, Zeke declares that he will “save” Eren before saving the world with him, pressing their heads togethor with a flash of Titan lightening, bringing an end to the episode.
Although, given the direction Episode 20 goes, this was definitely not the best of idea on Zeke’s part.       
Overall, Episode 19 was a fantastic adaptation of Chapter 119 and parts of Chapter 120.
It did a great job of bringing the brotherly tragedies of Colt and Falco, Porco and Marcel, and Eren and Zeke to the screen. 

Manga Spoilers: 

One thing I find especially interesting with the memory shard adaptation is the inclusion of goth Mikasa and nerd Armin from the school alternate universe at the end of every Attack on Titan volume, along with the inclusion of the cover image of Reiner in a sauna.
I’m pretty sure the latter is just an easter egg but I think there may be a possibility that the school au could be included in the anime, specifically the final one at the end of the last volume where a modern day Eren, Mikasa and Armin seem to be watching the end of Attack on Titan in the movie threatre.
This could potentially be a post credits scene after the final episode or movie, if the leaks about that are right.
Now that I think about it, Eren and Mikasa watching Attack on Titan at the movies could have been Isayama’s subtle way of telling the readers that we were getting a movie for the ending.
However, I’m not really sure how I’d feel about the school alternate universe being included in the anime, since I’ve never really cared it, but it’s a possibility I wanted to bring up. 

Vinland Saga Manga Review: Not What I Expected but in a Good Way.

After finishing and loving the first season of the Vinland Saga anime by WIT Studio, I jumped right into the manga by Makoto Yakimura, and was surprised by the direction the story goes, to say the least.
I have heard a lot of fans say that many people who loved the first season of the anime, like me, may drop the series during or after Season Two because of the direction it goes.
This is not to say I am one of those people, no, I quite enjoyed the direction the manga took, but I am saying that people need to be ready for something quite different in the future of the anime, at least for Season Two.

Be prepared for a lot of farming in Vinland Saga‘s second season.

This season will adapt the Farmland Arc, a storyline that has much lesser scale battles than the first arc, choosing to focus mostly on the character development of Thorfinn, Canute, and many of the new characters.
Speaking of Thorfinn, wow, was I impressed by his development, especially after the first season, where I honestly was getting a bit tired of his angsty revenge phase by the end.
After reading the manga, however, I completely understand why that was necessary.
To be honest, his arc reminds me a lot of Eren from Attack on Titan and Shigaraki from My Hero Academia, at least in my initial perceptions of these characters.
All three of them start off as immature, before their character development justifies them starting off this way, eventually propelling them to be among the best characters of the series.
This is the case for Thorfinn, whose character development in the Farmland Arc is stellar.

Thorfinn’s journey to become a true warrior is gripping.

His character development is the focal point for Chapter 71 “Oath”, one of the best chapters of Vinland Saga.
The rest of the character development for new characters, like Einar, and old ones, like Canute, is also fantastic.
Overall, I loved the Farmland Arc, even if I would place it behind the War Arc because of how amazing of a character Askeladd is.
As for the two arcs that follow it, this is where some of my issues begin to pop up.
For starters, Vinland Saga becomes a much more comedic story after the Farmland Arc.
To be fair, a lot of this humor is very good, however, some of it feels quite unnecessary, especially one Shining reference that was so out of place it pulled me out of the scene.

This gag felt very unnecessary,

There is also a timeskip that is quite poorly executed, in my opinion, and it left me a bit unsure about the most recent arc, until one of the latest chapters, which is fantastic. 
All of this said, though, I want to be clear that I still like these later arcs.
I just don’t think they live up to the standard of the first two.
This could change, however, considering that the series is still ongoing.
And even if it never reaches those same heights, Vinland Saga is still a great story that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading.
I cannot wait for the Second Season, where we will see the fantastic redemption arc of Thorfinn begin.    

Vinland Saga Anime Review: A Brutal, Viking Epic.

So, I’d been wanting to watch Vinland Saga for a long time but had a hard time finding it online.
Then, when I got Amazon Prime to watch the adaptation for Wheel of Time, I was delighted to see that the anime was there, so I could finally watch it.
And it did not disappoint.
Adapted from the manga by Makoto Yukimura, directed by Shūhei Yabuta, and developed by the great Wit Studio, Vinland Saga tells the tale of Thorfinn (Yūto Uemura), a young man from Iceland, looking to avenge the murder of his father, the former Jomsvikings warrior, Thors (Kenichiro Matsuda).

The first season of Vinland Saga follows Thorfinn’s journey to avenge his father.

However, this is not your typical revenge story because, while most stories of this nature would have the main character tracking down the antagonist to get their revenge, Thorfinn does not do this.
No, instead Vinland Saga goes in a completley different direction from any revenge story I have seen, with Thorfinn actually accompanying the man who killed his father, Askeladd (Naoya Uchida), in the hopes of dueling him to the death one day.
This makes none of our central characters good people, as they’re all the type to do the raiding and murdering commonly associated with the Vikings of history.
Speaking of that history, it’s interesting to note how many of these characters are interpretations of real people, with creative liberties taken.
The best example of this is Askeladd, who is based off a folk tale character, and is also by far the best character in the show.    

Askeladd is fascinating from the beginning of the season to the end.

He is whitty and charming, despite being an absolutley terrible person, and how his backstory is woven in and expanded upon is excellent, especially with how it ties into his actions at the beginning of the story.
Even the conclusion of his character for this season is amazing, making his overall character seem like both an antagonist and an anti-hero, while being neither at the same time.
Make no mistake, though, Askeladd still regularly commits atrocities, despite him being the best character in the show.
Thankfully, his horrific actions and those of the other characters are never glorified.
This leads to some pretty bleak episodes, like Episode 14, “The Light of Dawn.”

Episode 14 is a real gut punch, reminding us just how cruel our main characters can be.

I am going to remember many scenes from Vinland Saga, both the uplifting and the bleak, with many of the stories’ characters developing from these scenes, not just Thorfinn and Askeladd.
Most notably we have Canute (Kensho Ono) and Thorkell (Akio Ōtsuka), both historical figures who have great importance to the story, especially Canute, who goes on to serve as a fantastic parallel to Thorfinn in the manga.

Caunute is my favourite character of the season, next to Askeladd.

Speaking of the manga, the section that the anime adapts is actually a prologue to the true story of Vinland Saga, with the final episode literally being titled “End of the Prologue.”
The manga then goes in a direction that I honestly was not expecting, yet still quite enjoyed.
I do perfer the story telling of the first season, though, primarily because of Askeladd’s excellent development as a character.
The entire story of Season One is also aided with some fantastic animation and music from Wit Studio and composer Yutaka Yamada, tying everything together into an excellent adaptation of the manga.
Vinland Saga is an amazing anime, and I will soon be reviewing the manga and then Season Two, whenever that releases. 

Attack on Titan, the Final Season, Episode 18, Sneak Attack Review: Mappa Continues to do the Manga Justice.

I can still remember reading Chapter 118 of Attack on Titan for the first time and being quite impressed with all of the standout character moments.
Well, I am pleased to say that Mappa adapted this chapter amazingly, for the most part.
Directed by Jun Shishido, “Sneak Attack” begins by recapping the last few minutes of the previous episode, again showing us Armin tell everyone that Eren was probably lying about Mikasa, and that he is most likely just using Zeke and Yelena.
Last episode had a recap beginning as well and, honestly, I’m finding them to be a bit annoying.
It’s clear they’re just doing it to pad for time so they can adapt one chapter per episode.
Once the recap of the previous episode is over, the other characters quickly come to the conclusion that they have to help Eren, with Jean even admitting that he envied Eren because he found him to be “cool,” a great moment of growth for him.
Afterwards, the 104th go to suit up so they can help Eren fight off Marley and, while running, Mikasa questions Armin’s reasoning for Eren lying.
This causes Armin to remember Eren’s final line in the Season Three finale about destroying their enemies beyond the sea.
He realizes something because of this but chooses to stay quiet, instead focusing on how he and Eren both knew about Mikasa’s headaches so Eren used it to make his lie more convincing.
We then get another recap of Eren and Reiner’s fight, followed up by a kind of underwhelming moment when Porco attacks Eren, only for him to be punched away.
This, and Eren’s glare at Reiner when he is being held down, just had a lot more impact in the manga.
However, this worrying start then turns amazing when Eren begins to rip Reiner’s jaw apart.
Eren’s scream mixed with his Titan roar gave me goosebumps, as did Zeke arriving to save his little brother.
The Beast Titan was completely CGI in Part One of the Final Season but he appears to be mostly 2D in this episode and looks absolutely fantastic.
This animation only gets better when Zeke throws his crunched up boulders at Marley’s airships, causing them to crash into each other and explode.
As this is happening, Eren begins making his way towards Zeke, limping as he does so, which is a great showcase of the brain damage his Titan received from the constant heads shots from Pieck’s Anti-Titan Canon.
The Marleyan forces struggle to combat this, with Pieck and Magath forced to go on the defensive against Floch and the Jeagerists, and Colt and Gabi going to rescue Falco.
They don’t really have to though because the 104th set out to free everyone the Jeagerists are holding captive, including Falco and Nile.
Nile tries to comfort Falco before they are freed, saying this may be his chance to get home, while he may sadly never see his daughters again, even though there is so much he wants to tell them.
Along with Falco and Nile, Shadis and Pyxis are also freed, the latter of which prepares to lead his men who have drunk Zeke’s contaminated wine in the last ditch stand.
Mikasa also prepares for battle, Louise with her, and at that moment she decides to leave her scarf behind, something she has never done before.
Now, surely I am including this as one of the many great character growth moments in this episode, right?
Well, unfortunately, no, I’m not.
The reason for why though is manga spoilers so I’ll detail the reasons why I found this scene off putting in the manga section below.
Once the 104th are all geared up, they go outside, where we see two iconic Yelena panels adapted.
The first of these is her basking in the glory of Zeke’s destruction of the airships which is, again, fantastically animated.
The second of these is her troll face, when Armin tells everyone they don’t have time to focus on Levi and Hange’s status, as they should instead focus on helping Eren and Zeke.
Yelena’s threatening troll face that follows is great and a moment that I’m sure gave a lot of anime only viewers a few nervous chuckles.
As if these Yelena moments weren’t standout enough, we then get Nile, Floch and Gabi’s development in what is the best scene of the entire episode.
Colt and Gabi come across Nile, Falco and the other wine poisoned military police.
Falco sees Colt and tells Nile who, instead of attacking, takes Falco to his brother, freeing him.
Nile might not have much of a hope of seeing his daughters again but he made sure to help a little boy alone on the battlefield.
It is interesting how Isayama actually started Nile off like an antagonist, having him trying to get Eren taken in by the Military Police, where he probably would have been given to Rod Reiss to pass on his Titan.
Then, Isayama pulled back the layers to reveal Nile as a sympathetic character also fighting for humanity, all leading to this moment where he helps Falco.
Next, comes Gabi’s big moment of character development, as she stops Colt from attacking Nile and then, after overhearing Kya talk about how she wants to kill Gabi for killing Sasha, finally admits to herself that she was wrong about the people of Paradis being devils.
Her tearfully announcing this is her biggest moment and it is made better in the anime, through the new shots of open bird cages, showing how Gabi has just begun to free herself from the cycle of violence.
Falco also frees himself in a sense by finally confessing not just his involvement in the attack on Liberio, leading to Udo and Zofia’s deaths, but also his feelings for Gabi.
His awkward confession is genuinely sweet and leads to another excellent moment of growth for Gabi, as she tears off Falco’s black armband, just like he tore off her Eldian one before they meet Kya.
The three then go to warn Zeke about Falco ingesting the spinal fluid, in the hope that this will convince him not to scream.
They almost did not need to worry, though, because it is then we get the titular “Sneak Attack,” with Pieck and Magath showing off their intelligence by launching a near fatal attack on Zeke.
First, they have Pieck emerge from her Titan, causing it to disintegrate, making the Jeagerists think the have defeated her.
Then, the Marleyans ambush Floch and the other Jeagerists.
Finally, Magath fires the Anti-Titan Canon at Zeke in the hopes of killing Zeke.
Unfortunately for them, and Falco, Zeke is still alive so there is still a chance that he could scream if he is given the chance to recover on the ground wher he has fallen, ending the episode.
Overall, “Sneak Attack” is a fantastic adaptation of Chapter 118.
My only criticisms are that the recaps are slightly annoying and the Mikasa scarf scene loses a lot of impact for me with hindsight.
Otherwise, it’s a great episode, and I am even more excited for the next one because it will be adapting one of my favourite chapters of the entire series, Chapter 119, “Two Brothers.”

Manga Spoilers:

Now, I will talk about the issue I have with the Mikasa leaving her scarf behind scene.
This scene had me excited when I first read it in the manga because I thought it would be a turning point for her character.
Yes, I did think the scarf would work its way back to her through Louise based off her looking at it, but I at least thought this would all result in Mikasa potentially distancing herself from Eren.
Instead, Mikasa ends up doubling down on her Eren obsession, despite her ending up killing him in Chapter 138.
This whole thing of her leaving the scarf behind just seems pointless in retrospect.
Mikasa is a character who my opinion on really suffered when I reread the series for my Top Ten Chapters list.
I am not saying that she never develops, but she is a character with so many missed opportunities.
She could have developed so much through her Ackerman and Hizuru heritage, along with leaving the scarf behind and her connection to Louise but these chances for further development are never taken.
It makes me wonder how I will view future Mikasa scenes in the anime.
Is the hindsight of how her story ends also going to make those less impactful for me?
I certainly hope not.