Attack on Titan Season Four, Episode Ten, A Sound Argument Review: Historia’s Sacrifice.

I remember reading Chapter 107 of Attack on Titan and feeling quite disappointed with the direction Hajime Isayama took Historia’s character.
To me, the idea of her sacrificing herself and any children she would have went against everything that her character development in the Uprising Arc was about, so to see her pregnant for this sacrifice plan really did not sit well with me.
Thankfully, with the benefit of hindsight as a manga reader, I now look on this scene, and the potential it has for the end of the story, a lot more favourably.
Historia’s sidelining after this point, though?
Well, I am pretty sure that I will always believe that was a mistake.
In any case, Episode Ten of Attack on Titan‘s final season, “A Sound Argument”, adapts both Chapter 107 and 108 well, albeit with a few hiccups.
Directed by Kaori Makita, the episode follows up on the serious cliffhanger from “Brave Volunteers”, which featured Eren standing in front of a mirror in his jail cell and proclaiming that he has to fight.
This is continued in the episode with a not so serious beginning, as Hange interrupts Eren’s talk with himself and humorously comments on it.
I had honesty forgotten how funny Hange could be but seeing her scenes adapted in the anime really drove it home for me, especially with this scene.
Just take a shot everytime she says “fight” during this conversation.
You will pass out in a matter of seconds.
It’s not all humorous, though, as Hange switches to serious, reminiscing on her talk with Eren about Titans, all the way back in Season One, and how he let her ramble on and on about pointless things.
However, these happy times are no more, unfortunately showcased by Hange’s next line about how she believed Eren would never sacrifice Historia.
From there, the episode delves into the flashback that puts Zeke’s supposed plan to save Eldia into motion.
This comes from a flashback of the Volunteers introducing Paradis to an ally, Kiyomi Azumabito from the nation of Hizuru.
It is through this flashback of her meeting those on Paradis that we learn not only the effect Zeke’s plan will have on Historia but also of Mikasa’s “importance” to Hizuru as well.
It is revealed that Mikasa in actually the descendant of a lost Shogun from Hizuru and thus essential to the nation.
This is proven through a tattoo Mikasa has on her hand.
Now, while my opinion about Historia’s pregnancy in the manga has gone from negative to more mixed over the years, my opinion on this scene has not, and the anime makes its reveal a little more problematic.
Mikasa being the descendant of a long lost Shogun always felt a little too convient to me, what with five Titan Shifters and the heir to the throne all coincidentally coming from the same training corps.
Not only this but Mikasa being important to Hizuru has so far amounted to absolutley nothing in the manga.
The anime makes this reveal even weaker with how its revealed, although that is not entirely Mappa’s fault.
You see, Mikasa having this tattoo should have been set up all the way back in Season One but, for whatever reason, Wit decided to remove it.
So, now that the tattoo is revealed in this episode, it has absolutley no buildup and feels like a retcon.
Following this reveal, we get a brief happy scene with Historia, where she is excited for Mikasa being important because it means she has someone to relate to.
Eren then comments that Historia looks happy, to which she replies that she is.
You know, just to drive the knife deeper into her hearts when she looks so unhappy with her pregnancy later in the episode.
The plan for this pregnancy is revealed in the flashback by Kiyomi, who reveals that Zeke gained her trust by gifting her with ODM Gear, which he got from Mike, who he gruesomely murdered all the way back in Season Two.
With the Ice Burst fuel as a resource, Zeke gives Hizuru a reason to get in bed with Paradis: profit.
This causes Mikasa to realize she is a pretext pretty easily and it is following this that Kiyomi reveals Zeke’s plan to save Eldia but also sacrifice Historia and her descendants.
Paradis will need 50 years to catch up with the rest of the world’s military technology and, in order for the island not to be attacked during that time, the threat of the Rumbling must be maintained.
Therefore, the Founding Titan and a Titan of royal blood must be passed down, meaning that Historia must have children who will then be sacrificed to the same fatal cycle that her family subjected themselves to for centuries, which, again, goes completley against all of Historia’s character development.
Historia agrees to this nonetheless and this is where Eren steps in, furiously proclaiming that Zeke can take his plan and shove it.
Eren’s reaction is a lot more volitle than it was in the manga here and I am personally all for that.
This violence is then continued when the episode cuts back to the present and Eren angrily attacks Hange, after telling her that since he has the Warhammer Titan, he can escape anytime he wants.
Eren furiously demands to know if Hange has some kind of backup plan, as Titan marks and sparks briefly flash up his face.
Hange backs off, playing off Eren’s lunge as a perverted move, before showing the audience how she feels depressed about the state of things, as she tells herself that Erwin made a terrible choice making her Commander.
After this scene, we get the big reveal of Historia’s pregnancy, with her looking dead inside, and a mysterious farmer telling her she needs to take better care of herself.
This farmer is apparently the father, according to members of the Military Police, including Nile, who are shown enjoying some wine togethor, before one drunk guy starts committing blasphemy by degrading Historia.
In all seriousness, this part of the episode was another problem I had with Historia’s pregnancy in the manga.
Historia just gets togethor with a random farmer who we have never seen and have no reason to care about, and also bullied her as a child, contributing to her suicidal ideology when we first met her in the story?
If the farmer is the father then, in my own opinion, this reveal was pretty poorly done.
However, notice that I said “if” because there are a lot of signs for this being a red herring.
Some of these signs, like Historia being said to have never married the farmer and also a panel of a mysterious, hooded figure watching Historia talk to the farmer, were cut in the actual episode.
Still, there are enough signs to make anime only viewers question it, just like us manga readers did.
Only time will tell if I am reading too much into these supposed signs or not.
One thing that is made explicitly obvious rather than just a sign, though, is Niccolo with the wine.
In the manga, this moment was subtle and some people did not pick up on it.
In the episode, however, Niccolo giving the Military Police officers the wine is highlighted by dark lighting and threatening music.
It makes it very obvious that something is up with the wine and I do wish it had been kept more subtle.
After this obvious scene, we get yet another flashback, to one of the last times Eren and his friends were truly happy, as they built a railway togethor, accompanied by a humorous background moment of Armin trying to stop Sasha from drinking all their water.
Levi and Hange show up, giving us another funny moment when levi is offended by how much taller the 104th has become, before Hange delivers the bad news that Hizuru is not willing to help Paradis negotiate with other nations because it wants their resources.
This most likely means they will have to sacrifice Historia, something that is already happening in the present time of the episode.
Yet, Hange has not given up hope and suggests sneaking into Marley to try and make connections because surveying is what the Scouts are all about.
This excites many of the 104th as they ride back on the train, which leads into a heart warming scene of them all discussing who should get Eren’s Titan when his 13 years are up.
Mikasa volunteers first but Jean counters this because she is still important to Hizuru and they don’t know if the Ackermans can become Titans.
Jean then says he would be best but Connie also counters this by saying he is too important and offers to take on the burden himself.
Next comes Sasha, who tells Connie that he is too much of an idiot to handle the responsibility, so she will do it, even though she doesn’t want to.
Connie fires back, declaring that she is just as much of an idiot as he is.
This leads to them both proving themselves idiots, as they comedically state, “Eh?” to each other in confusion.
Eren breaks this comedy by deciding he will not give the Titan to any of them because he wants them all to live long lives, leading to a whole lot of embarrassed blushing among the 104th, to which Armin blames on the sun after Jean yells at Eren about it.
Following this happy, heart warming flashback, it cuts back to the darker times where Mikasa, Armin, Connie and Jean are all reflecting on Eren’s actions, which lead to Sasha’s death.
Connie is particularly angered about this because of Eren laughing when he got the news, not aware that this is how he handles grief, and says they may have to cut Eren down if it comes down to it, which horrifies Mikasa.
Armin also says that the military may be planning to give Eren’s Founding Titan to someone they can trust, as the episode ends with shots of a suspicious looking Eren in his jail cell and even more suspicious Zeke at his “hotel”, still under careful watch from Levi.
Overall, “A Sound Argument” is a decent episode of Attack on Titan.
There are some great moments, like Eren and Hange’s scene and the flashback between the 104th.
However, some things I personally didn’t really like from the manga, like Mikasa’s convient importance that is actually not all that important, are kept and sometimes made weaker.
There are also a few animation issues here and there, like Pyxis’ bulbous head, which had a lot of people comparing him to Megamind.
Still, all in all, “A Sound Argument” is an enjoyable episode.

Talentless Nana, Manga Review: Please, Give Us a Season Two.

I really enjoyed the first season of Talentless Nana.
Based on the manga by Looseboy, it was a fun show to watch, where the twist of the very first episode was that the superpowered individuals we were following were actually being hunted down by a normal person to save humanity.
Watching Nana trying to covertly murder all of her classmates, while being constantly under suspicion from wannabe detective Kyouya, only to slowly begin to realize she is killing innocent people, made it extremely fun to tune in every week.
So, once the first season was over, and seeing that it was unlikely we would get a season two because of the lackluster Blu-Ray sales, I decided to give the manga a read and it did not disappoint.
Picking up from where the season one finale ends, the manga details the aftermath of the traumatic events from that finale on Nana’s psyche, and how she slowly comes to realize the full weight of her crimes.
Nana’s character development is great, as is her growing bonds with the other characters, especially Jin, who I have a theory about, which I will get into down below because it contains spoilers.
Back to Nana herself, she has many fantastic moments of growth, especially after yet another traumatizing and horrifying reveal for her that shatters her entire world view and causes her to temporarily snap entirely.
As for the other characters, many of them are very well handled, especially the new and returning characters.
The new main antagonist of the story, Nana’s mentor, Tatsumi Tsuruoka, is a fantastic villain, who gives off a very threatening presence.

This intimidating first panel of Tsuruoka’s face sure makes one hell of an impression.

Although, this praise of the characters being said, the author still has a problem with introducing many of these characters because they are just introduced like they’ve always been there when we’ve never seen them before.
It’s very clear that Looseboy comes up with these characters on the spot.
The only new ones who have a well built in introduction are Tsuruoka, Moe and one other character.
Speaking of which, I’m about to get into spoilers for the manga now so, if you’re anime only, then just take my word for it that the manga is really good and stop reading at this point.
Now then, this other character I’m referring to is actually something I was worried about coming into the manga.
I had heard rumors that the character Nana murders in the first episode, Nanao Nakajima, was actually alive somehow.
When I heard this, I was very much against the idea.
Nanao was a purposeful red herring in that first episode, being a bland protagonist cliche who existed to just get killed by Nana for the twist.
I really wanted the impact of his death to stay and didn’t think his character would be strong enough to get me to like him if he came back.
Well, I shouldn’t have doubted Looseboy because Nanao certainly came back and it was in the best way possible.
I love how he has been crafted into an antagonist for Nana, now that she is finally beginning her redemption arc, which will undoubtedly create a rocky road for this redemption in the future of the story.

Watching Nanao go from cliched Deku clone to bruding villain has been very interesting, to say the least.

Another element of the manga that surprised me was the revelation that Jin is actually, well… not Jin.
“Jin” is just the form he’s been showing to Nana and everyone else to fight them off with telekensis if need be, and he has been keeping the real Jin, who is in a comatose state, safe.
So, who is the fake Jin, then?
Well, this is the part where my theory which I mentioned earlier, comes in.
I believe that the fake Jin is actually Kyouya’s missing sister.
Her Talent was probably Transformation and she used this ability to win the civil war and keep the fake Jin alive, before acting like she was the real Jin to try and uncover the conspiracy.
There are some holes in this theory, like that fake Jin doesn’t really seem to be that interested in Kyouya, which he would be if he was actually Kyouya’s sister, but this could just be to keep him safe.
It will be interesting to see if my theory about Jin is correct or not as the manga goes on.

Whether fake Jin is secretly Kyouya’s sister or not, I’m looking forward to the reveal of who he actually is.

Overall, I would say that the Talentless Nana manga is quite an enjoyable read, despite its problems with features like character introduction.
I hope that, despite the low Blu-Ray sales, a season two will get the green light, so I can see all of the great moments from the manga adapted.

Attack on Titan, Season Four, Episode Nine, Brave Volunteers Review: Rubbing Salt in the Wound.

Another week, another good episode for the final season of Attack on Titan.
Last week’s episode, “Assasin’s Bullet”, was one of the most tragic in the entire series, featuring the death of long time fan favourite, Sasha Blouse.
So, after a traumatising loss like that, how does the latest episode, “Brave Volunteers”, follow it up?
Well, by showing Sasha a tonne in flashbacks, just to rub salt in the wound, of course!
Wait, what?
In all seriousness, it was both nice and tragic to see Sasha in these scenes, as her jokes always landed, while also making us feel sad, realizing that this will probably be the last time she makes us laugh in the series, considering her death.
Directed by Kōki Aoshima, “Brave Volunteers” is mostly comprised of flashbacks, explaining what happened to the Scouts during the three year timeskip, providing plenty of context for their actions in the attack on Marley.
This context is provided by the first scene, as we learn about the titular volunteers who betrayed Marley under the orders of Zeke Jaeger.
The opening scene showing this is a well done adaptation of the manga, as the episode begins with Armin talking to someone off screen, while he holds the seashell he retrieved at the end of Season Three.
From here, the episode transitions to not long after that final moment on the beach, where the Scouts have to stop an oncoming attack from a Marleyan warship.
Thankfully, such warships are no match for a Titans powers, with Eren picking the ship up with ease, in a moment that is very similar to one of his predecessors and namesake, Eren Kruger.
Slamming the ship down onto the beach, the Marleyan invaders are then greeted by an enthusiastic, yet nervous, Hange, in an excellent case of voice acting from Romi Park.
Hange’s welcome to the Marleyans was funny in the manga but Park’s delivery here makes it even more hilarious, with her giving the best performance of the episode.
However, this is a performance that the Marleyans are not quite buying because Hange and Levi’s captive, Niccolo, is not too cooperative, and the captain of the invading forces would rather die that “drink pig piss” with “devils.”
Well, die he certainly does, as courtesy from Yelena, who blows her commanding officer’s brains onto the deck, before other members of the Volunteers, Onyankopon among them, take control of the ship, as Yelena accepts Hange’s offer for tea and then ominously states how she has been looking forward to meeting Eren.
The reason this is so ominous quickly becomes apparent in the next scene, where Yelena reveals her connection to Zeke, with her worshipping him, like a god.
Before this, though, Hange and Levi get an exposition dump about events in Marley, since they defeated them at the battle of Shiganshina, learning all about how Marley had entered a series of wars because of their defeat and how the Titans used to trap the Eldians have surprisingly become a defence.
Although, these Titans have been long since defeated so if Marley had found that, Paradis would have been in a world of hurt.
Also, when Yelena is mentioning these Titans, we get a comedic shot of them dancing, which I can’t believe I criticized when I reviewed the manga chapter this episode adapted.
Seems a bit of a weird thing for me to have complained about in hindsight.
Back to the episode, the Garrison and Military Police are understandably skeptical of the volunteers because of their connections to Zeke.
However, this changes when Eren learns that Zeke’s secret plan involves both the Founding Titan and a Titan of royal blood.
Realizing that his theory about those two being necessary to activate the Founding Titan is correct, and now having a way to use the power without endangering Historia, through Zeke, Eren admit this knowledge that he had kept hidden from the rest of the Scouts.
This starts the slow spiral of the Scouts not trusting Eren any more, which culminates in them losing trust in him completley with his attack on Marley.
Still, Eren’s revelation also gains some support for the volunteers, helped further by them assisting in taking down further attacking ships.
We see one such take down, when Yelena and Onyankopon lure the enemy soldiers in, only for Armin to force them all ashore with his Colossal Titan, where they are meet by Levi, who is kind enough to offer them all some pig piss, throwing the words the dead captain spat back at them.
With trust in the volunteers now ascertained, many of them begin helping out with other tasks, like Onyankopon, who helped the island set up a port.
This leads to the comedically awkward moment where Sasha asked Onyankopon why his skin is dark.
Just like that, Sasha was cancelled by all of Twitter.
Jokes aside, this comedic moment did lead to a moment of insightfulness from Onyankopon, who states that their creator most likely thought it would be more interesting if different kind of people existed in the world.
This ideology will become important to Onyankopon’s character in the future and is why I think he is such a great side character.
Another volunteer who helps out, although much more unwillingly in this case, is Niccolo, who broadens the 104th’s perception of food, something that is greatly appreciated by Sasha.
Que another comedic, yet tragic, Sasha scene where she dives into the lobster, like a rabid animal, and declares Niccolo a food genius, earning a blush from the previously prejudiced soldier.
Despite coming so far with the volunteers, though, Eren is not as convinced as Armin and Mikasa that this can eventually create a chance for peace.
He points out that the world despises them because they can turn into monsters, which they are not exactly wrong about, and how they need to buy time to stop them from attacking.
With this line, Eren fires a practice shot, which transitions cruelly, yet beautifully, into Sasha being shot, showing how Eren is partially responsible for her death because of his attack.
From here, the episode switches to the present, as the 104th attend Sasha’s funeral, only for Niccolo to be attacked by an Eldian soldier for being Marleyan, showing how bigotry is now unfortunately starting to run strong in Paradis’ ranks, as well.
Thankfully, Niccolo is protected by Jean and Connie, who bring him to the grave, where the characters say their goodbyes, including a heartbreaking line from Connie, who says that Sasha was like his twin and now it feels like a part of him is gone.
Sasha’s parents then arrive, with the young girl who Sasha saved all the way back in Season Two, who they seem to have adopted, showing that Sasha really did make a difference with her fighting.
Niccolo offers to cook a meal for the family in memorial of Sasha and her father agrees to, free of charge.
Like father, like daughter, it would seem.
However, while there is a coming togethor of would be enemies here, this is very much not the case with Levi and Zeke, whose rivalry continues to grow in two very tense, yet comedic, scenes.
First, there is the carriage ride scene, where Zeke comments how the ignorance of the Public on Paradis is frightening.
Levi wants to kill Zeke but is willing to wait to see if this plan of his plays out, to which Zeke acts grateful for, before cautiously asking Levi if he can stop glaring at him.
Monkey PTSD intensifies.
Then, we get the hotel scene, where Zeke is welcomed to the five start hotel of the Titan forest, a perfect spot for relaxing and possible ODM Gear fights if Zeke tries anything.
Zeke wants to show Gabi and Falco the luxury of this “hotel” but I doubt they’ll be too happy about it, especially with Gabi chewing her fingernail and ranting to herself about Eren Jaeger, as she and Falco currently sit in a prison cell.
Finally, we get our three big moments from Armin, Mikasa and Eren this episode.
For Armin, it is finally revealed who he was talking to all this time: Annie.
The Female Titan is still stuck inside of the freaking crystal four years later.
Then, there’s Mikasa, who sits against Sasha’s grave for the second time this episode, repeating the words Eren first spoke to her, “Fight or die. Win and live.”
With her repeating Eren’s line, we cut to the man himself, inside a prison cell, looking particularly dead inside, and sporting a new hairstyle that is suspiciously similar to the way the Warhammer Titan styled her hair.
As he looks at his reflection in the jail mirror, Eren ends the episode with him twice repeating one the words associated with his character, “Fight. Fight.”
Who Eren will be fighting against now that he is on Paradis, though, remains to be seen.
“Brave Vounteers” is another really good Attack on Titan episode.
It gave us some much needed explanations about what the Scouts had been up to during the time skip and gave us more tragedy, with the comedic Sasha scenes that only rubbed salt in the wound that is the pain from her death.
One thing that has surprised me about the last couple of episodes is that they have been pretty slow paced, compared to the previous episodes anyway, adapting only one chapter as opposed to two.
This makes me wonder just how far the season will adapt, since there’s only supposed to be 16 episodes, after which we will probably either get a Final Season Part Two or a movie.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
In any case, the next episode “A Sound Argument” is set to air today and it will be extremely interesting to see the fans’ reaction to it, given what is revealed there.

Attack on Titan Chapter 137, Titans Review: Rise of Toxicity.

You know, I’ve been very disappointed with the Attack on Titan fandom recently.
It seems the toxicity levels have been getting higher every week.
First, people harassed Mappa’s staff over an OST choice in Episode Five of the Final Season.
The exact same thing happened the week after, with Mappa staff being harrassed because of the CGI in Episode Six this time.
And now we have the reaction to Chapter 137 of Attack on Titan, which, oh, boy, the toxicity levels are really off the chart here.
Let me start off by saying that I don’t have a problem if you didn’t like the chapter.
I personally did but I respect your opinion, nontheless.
However, what I do not respect is people screeching to high heaven that Attack on Titan is going to have a terrible ending, akin to Game of Thrones Season Eight.
To those people, I say, “Will you calm down? We have two chapters left!”
Seriously, actually read the ending before you criticize it.
Could the ending still be bad?
Yes but it could also be good.
We won’t know until we get the ending in April and we shouldn’t judge the series’ ending when we haven’t even got to that point yet.
Another problem I have with the toxicity surrounding the reaction to this chapter is that a lot of people seem to be outright ignoring explanations and build up for things that happened just because they don’t like them.
People say that Zeke and Armin getting help from the dead Titan Shifters came out of nowhere, with no build up.
Wrong because there was build up, from Armin seeing Bertholdt’s Colossal Titan crying back when he got the power, to Hange seeing her dead comrades when she died, to Armin seeing Bertholdt’s spirit two chapters ago.
People say that Zeke abandoned his entire ideology because Armin talk no jitsud him.
Wong again because, while Armin did convince Zeke to help, Zeke tells Ksaver he still thought the Euthanasia Plan was right, and was always against the Rumbling.
Finally, people say that it makes no sense for Kruger to help the Alliance and he should be on Eren’s side.
Again, I don’t think this is accurate because, even though Kruger did sacrifice a lot of lives to achieve his goal, he ultimately wanted all Eldians to be free and would not agree with all of the ones on the continent being massacered.
Also, there’s the potential of a twist surrounding Eren’s intentions that could happen in the last two chapters, which may explain this further.
So, as I’ve hopefully shown, many of the supposed inconsistancies and forced moments, that some are criticizing, actually do have build up and are well thought out.
Back to the actual chapter, “Titans” begins with Zeke explaining to Armin the origins of “Life”, this being the hallucigenia that would go on to give Ymir her powers, and how it seeks multiplication.
This most likely connected with Ymir’s fear of death, creating the first Titan form and an alternate dimension, the Paths, which was free from death.
Ironic that this place Ymir created to be free from death ended with her being enslaved there.
Although, this enslavement may not be due to Ymir’s stolkholm syndrome relationship with King Fritz as I first thought because Hajime Isayama puts particular emphasis on the question of why Ymir continued to obey him.
This is not the only question brought up about Ymir in this chapter because she seems to allow Eren to be defeated by the end and Armin says that she wants something from them.
What this is and how it aligns with Eren’s goals, well, I’m sure that will be the last big twist of the story.
Returning to Zeke and Armin’s conversation, Zeke speculates that Ymir felt some connection to the world she left, again hinting at a possible rebirth for her at the end.
It was this desire that Zeke, who is antinatalist, could not understand, which was why Ymir sided with Eren.
This has caused Zeke to lose hope completley, now content to just sit in the Paths with Armin and reflect on how pointless fighting is, and if it would be better to just give up and use that as a form of freedom.
However, Armin pulls out his trump card: talk no jitsu!
Now, I know this has a bad connotation but, come on, Attack on Titan is literally full of examples of it.
Eren convincing Ymir to help him in Chapter 122?
That was an obvious case of talk no jitsu, yet it’s such a great scene.
It’s not about the concept but the execution and, in my opinion, Isayama did Armin’s talk no jitsu of Zeke well.
I do think that a commom motif associated with Armin, that of the seashell, should have been used to convince Zeke that life is about the happiness of smaller moments but the leaf scene still worked great.
Even if I think the seashell works better for Armin’s character, though, the story behind the leaf, with Armin relfecting on a time when he, Mikasa and Eren were happier, works well with what Isayama is trying to say.
It certainly strikes a cord with Zeke, who sees the leaf as the baseball he would always use to play with Ksaver.
This causes Zeke to realize that, even though he suffered a lot, there were still happy moments, like him being able to play catch with his mentor.
Zeke’s relization somehow brings back the spirits of the previous Titan Shifters to help, and I will admit that this is something I’m a bit iffy on.
Yes, I do maintain that these spirits coming back to help was foreshadowed and built up well but the explanation for why it happened is a bit lacking.
In any case, it’s great to see these old, great characters back for one last time.
Grisha, Kruger, Ksaver, Bertholdt, Porco, Marcel, even Freckled Ymir, who I am really glad got some spotlight towards the end.
I honestly thought Isayama had forgotten about because of how little he brought her up since her death, compared to other characters.
With Zeke and Armin having a moving moment with Ksaver and Bertholdt, asking them to lend their strength, the spirits of the old Titan Shifters attack, saving Jean, Pieck, Reiner and Annie from iminent death.
Speaking of Jean and Pieck, I do think it is pretty funny that the fandom started shipping them as a meme, yet, after these last couple of chapters, some of them seem to be pretty serious about it.
Once those in danger have been rescued, the Alliance moves on to rescuing Armin and defeating Eren in a series of sequences that give each member a chance to shine.
First, Gabi shoots the Okapi Titan, with Levi holding her steady.
Then, Mikasa cuts open it’s mouth, freeing Armin, who kills it with a thunderspear but is dragged down by its tounge, which has stabbed his leg, only to be saved by Connie and then caught by Annie.
Armin then explains to the others how Zeke saved them by bringing back the past Shifters, and it is then that we get the fate of the bearded monkey himself.
Long has the rivalry between Zeke and Levi been built up and it is finally resolved this chapter as Zeke partially emerges from the spine of Eren’s Titan and calls out to Levi, allowing himself to be beheaded to stop the Rumbling.
This is a pivotal scene for both characters, seemingly bringing and end to not only Zeke’s arc but Levi’s as well.
As Zeke sits atop the spine, waiting for his innevitable death, he realizes that the day is nice, finally appreciating the little things, like Armin suggested.
Similarly, he also has a resolution with Ksaver and Grisha, connecting with his mentor over their time spent playing and thanking his father for him being born so he could do that, admitting that there may be some good things about a potential rebirth.
With Zeke’s character arc completed, and him thinking that he couldn’t realize the good parts of his life until it was too late is probably deserved because of how many he killed, Levi decapitates him but looks far from pleased, more shocked and unsure about where he goes from here.
Zeke’s death was clearly not something Levi savoured as he said he would back when he threatened to kill him in Chapter 105.
I think Levi’s next path in life will be to survive and keep the memories of his comrades alive.
You know who I don’t think is going to make it, though?
Reiner.
In one of my predictions posts, I said that I thought he would actually make it but now I’m not so sure.
This uncertainty comes from Jean blowing up the explosives wrapped around Eren’s next with a cry of “suicidal blockhead”, which also brings an end to his character arc because he finally doesn’t hesitate when he has to pull the trigger.
The reason this scene makes me scared for Reiner is that, after Eren’s Titan is decapitated by the explosives, the hallucigenia bursts forth and attempts to reconenct with Eren’s head, only to be tackled and held back by Reiner.
The panel of Reiner preventing the hallucigenia from reaching Eren’s head looks suspiciously similar to the Helos statue Willy and Magath looked at in the Marley Arc of the imaginary hero slaying the Devil of All Earth.
Something tells me that Reiner will be known as the next Helos after this, whether he lives to see that he has become known as a hero or not.
Another character whose fate is up in the air is Eren himself because, following a brilliant panel that looks almost biblical, where Armin is held up and protected by Bertholdt, Grisha, Kruger and Ksaver’s Titans, Armin finally transforms into his Colossal Titan with a goodbye to Eren.
This brings an end to Chapter 137 and, with that, the Yeagerist part of the fandom explode at Eren’s defeat.
Is Eren really dead, though?
Of course not.
We haven’t seen Eren’s perspective for the entirety of the final battle and there’s no way that Isayama would kill his main character off screen.
Eren’s intentions and how they tie in with Ymir’s will most likely be the big twist of the story and Isayama is probably saving that for the next or very last chapter.
So, overall, I enjoyed Chapter 137 of Attack on Titan.
It does have some issues but, all in all, it’s pretty good.
The part of the fandom that is already declaring the ending bad, even though we haven’t got it yet, are definitley overreacting.
It’s okay to be concerned about the direction the ending is heading.
I’ll admit, I’m a little concerned too because of how easily the Alliance seemed to win this but, keep in mind, we still have two chapters left in which a lot could happen.
So, let’s all wait for the ending and make our decisions about it once we finish it.

The Promised Neverland, Season Two, Episode Five Review: I Regret My Optimism.

Well, I really jinxed myself by saying I was optimistic after The Promised Neverland Season Two, Episode Four, didn’t I?
The third episode of this second season made me really concerned with the direction the story was going, with all the important cuts, including my favourite character being completley gone.
Then Episode Four happened and I began to regain some hope.
Sure, there were things that were handled rather poorly, like the laughably incompetant soldiers, but brand new scenes, like Isabella being recrutied to hunt the children, made me optomistic about where this anime original storyline could go.
However, Episode Five has now come out and, wow, did it drop the ball.
Directed by Takahiro Harada, the episode picks up a full year after the last one.
That’s right, we have skipped a year immediately after the children escaped the bunker and now they are living in the demon world.
How did they survive so long with all of the intelligent demons, wild demons, and armed humans hunting them down?
Good question because the anime offers absolutley no explanation.
See, this is why skipping over 60 chapters is an incredibly bad idea because it means where you pick up the story from will make absolutley no sense and, in this episode, it makes little.
How did the children get the material to disguise themselves as demons?
How have they not been noticed before when they got so easily noticed this time?
Most importantly, how is Norman back so soon with absolutley no build up?
This last moment, which is the cliffhanger of the episode, has almost made me lose hope about the quality of the rest of the season entirely.
The build up to Norman’s reveal in the manga, with Norman acting as the new William Minerva, was absolutley fantastic.
Here, he just shows up with no setup whatsoever and it comes off as extremely anticlimactic because of this.
Also, while it’s nice to see Maaya Uchida back as Norman, it’s only been seven episodes so he hasn’t been gone long enough that his return is a surprise.
Norman’s incredibly bland return and the other plot holes created by the episode are not the only problems, unfortunately.
First of all, the time skip made the scene hyping up Isabella last episode almost pointless.
She was tasked with hunting the children and she just failed for that entire year.
I don’t think the demons would have been too happy with those results.
Also, the chase scene in this episode, which leads into Norman’s return, is pretty bad because it lacks any tension.
To be fair, there are some moments that saved the episode from being terrible, like Emma’s interaction with the blind demon and the exploration of deterioration with the two sympathetic demon children.
However, the rest of it made me very disappointed, with the numerous amount of plot holes in numerous scenes.
It honestly feels like the anime is just going to end with this second season, given how much has been completley skipped over and the direction the story is going.
It feels like it’s going the Tokyo Ghoul adaptation route and I really hope it can find some way to prove me wrong about that.
Unfortunately, next episode is supposed to be a recap episode so it looks like those hopes are probably going to be crushed.

Attack on Titan, Season Four, Episode Eight, Assassin’s Bullet Review: Great Use of OST for Tragic Scene.

Well, the Gabi hate train has officially left the station.
In all seriousness, I was both excited and dreading Episode Eight of Attack on Titan‘s Final Season, “Assassins Bullet.”
I was dreading it because it would deliver one of the moster heartbreaking deaths of the series and excited because, well, it would deliver one of the most heartbreaking deaths of the series.
The death of Sasha Blouse is one of the most tragic moments in Attack on Titan and it was adapted perfectly, in my opinion.
Directed by Hidetoshi Takahashi, Lie June Yang and Yōsuke Yamamoto, “Assasin’s Bullet” begins by slowly building up to Sasha’s death, first by showing the quick defeat of Reiner by Eren.
Anime only viewers may have thought an epic fight was about to happen, based off the previous episode’s cliffhanger but no, at least not this time.
Reiner’s Titan wasn’t formed well enough to handle Eren, both because of his injuries and his suicidal thoughts.
However, Reiner’s goal wasn’t to fight Eren here but to rescue Porco, which he succeeded in doing, managing to outsmart Eren.
With his power spent, Eren decides to flee with Mikasa, showing Reiner a sympathetic look before saying he’ll see him later as he and Mikasa take off for the airship with the rest of the Scouts.
Seeing this, Gabi decides to make her last stand, taking off with the gate guard’s gun and ready to shoot Eren Jeager, who is currently boarding the airship.
It is here that we get Eren’s reunion with Armin and Levi, which is tumultiuous to say the least.
First, there is Armin pulling Eren into the airship, a blank stare on his face, where there is a clear difference to Armin’s happy expression when similarly giving Eren a hand back in Season Three, when they were leaving the Reiss’ crystal cavern.
Then, there’s Levi who, in classic fashion, kicks Eren in the face, sending him crashing into the wall.
Levi places him under arrest, before telling him he looks like every hopeless person he meet in the Underground, showing how far Eren has fallen.
Armin even stops Mikasa from helping Eren here.
Eren’s actions have clearly driven a rift between him and the rest of the main cast, which will only widen further upon the death of Sasha, which is built up to from this point on in the episode.
This build up to her tragic death is started first by, of course, reminding us all of how close Sasha is with Connie and Jean, just to drive the knife deeper into our hearts, when she finally bites the bullet.
As Floch starts a victory cheer in honour of the six Scouts who lost their lives (soon to be eight), Connie embraces Jean and Sasha, telling the two that they are important to him.
Way to jinx it Connie because down below the airship, Gabi is racing to attack the Scouts, with Falco right behind her.
Coming from a family of former restorationists, Falco is obviously not as brainwashed as Gabi, who comes from a Warrior family, so he sees the truth of the situation.
He tries to tell Gabi as much by stopping her and informing her that this attack is revenge for the attack on Paradis nine years ago.
Gabi, however, can’t break through the brainwashing because of her upbringing, which is only reinforced by the horrors of war she has just experienced.
Bringing up the deathsb of Udo and Zofia, how she never saw this attack on Paradis, and how it has always been normal to kill those on the island because they are devils who may have just ruined whatever chance of Eldians being accepted, Gabi races off once more.
Shooting a former member of the Garrison, Lobov, Gabi prepares to use his ODM Gear to launch a suicide attack on the Scouts, planning to take out as many as she can.
As Colt approaches, Gabi plans to part ways with Falco, telling him he was one of the good ones.
Unfortunately for her, Falco is not going to just up and abandon her as he grabs hold of her when she takes off, remembering the promise he made to Reiner.
All Colt can do is watch as his brother and Gabi descend up into the enemy’s clutches to deliver Sasha her death.
It is here that Floch’s intent to create a cheer for Eldia comes back to bite him, everyone, and especially Sasha in the behind.
Not being able to hear anything because of the chanting, Gabi is able to sneak onboard and get a shot off… right into our beloved Potato Girl’s chest.
Just like that, the cunductor has screamed “All aboard!” for the Gabi hate train.
While many people may have boarded this train, hating Gabi for killing Sasha, I, for one, remain firmly on the platform.
Ever since I read the manga, I have never hated Gabi for killing Sasha because she is a brainwashed child who just saw Sasha kill people she cared about.
I will miss Sasha in the anime just as much as I did in the manga but I am still personally looking forward to see Gabi and the other characters grows from this.
Sasha’s death is honestly one of the most impactful moments in the manga, both because of how emotional it is and its long term effects on the story.
We will some of these effects in the next episode but back to “Assassin’s Bullet”, following Sasha being shot we get absolute craziness, as Gabi and Falco are beaten by Floch and the other Scouts while Jean and Sasha try to get a tourniquet wrapped around Sasha and keep her concious.
However, with blood leaking from her mouth, it is clear that Sasha has internal bleeding and does not have long.
This is further confirmed by her haziness, as she seems to be hallucinating that she is about to be served meat to eat.
Sasha’s voice actor, Yū Kobayashi, does an excellent job here voicing Sasha’s final moments, as she struggles to speak through her slowly escaping life.
Then, we get the big twist of the episode because, as Jean prepares to bring Gabi to “the mastermind” of this attack, Magath comes to see an injured Pieck and learns of the Marleyan soldier who trapped her and Porco.
This soldier, named Yelena, is one Pieck recognized for one, very specific reason: she is a devout follower of Zeke.
With that line, comes the reveal that Zeke has been working with the Scouts to orchestrate this attack on Liberio to extract him.
Zeke seems to want Eldia to be free based on what he is says and has been using Yelena to communicate with the Scouts over the years.
Speaking of Yelena, it was funny to see various anime only viewers think for a couple of weeks that she was actually Armin, who had gone through a growth spurt during the time skip.
As for Zeke, despite it being revealed that he is now working with the Scouts, things are not obviously good between them, considering all that he has done.
Levi especially has an axe to grind with Zeke, promising that he still plans killing him to be the last part of a meal that he will savour.
It seems that Eren is in a similar state of tension with the Scouts, as Hange states that, by going rogue and forcing the Scouts hand through making himself a hostage, he has lost their trust.
Before the tension can grow any further, however, Connie comes in with the hearbreaking news that Sasha has died and, at that very moment, the OST kicks in.
For Sasha’s death, an instrumental version of “Call Your Name” was chosen.
The combination of the OST and the shots of Mikasa and Armin crying over Sasha’s dead body had me tearing up.
It was the perfect way to portray Sasha’s death in all of its tragedy.
This tragedy is hightened when Eren learns of her last word, which was “meat.”
One could be mistaken for thinking this is some kind of joke but it’s really not.
For Sasha, food represented the freedom she would obtain when she and the Scouts were finally safe and got to eat whatever they wanted.
In this moment, Eren realizes that Sasha has lost her chance at this freedom, which is why he laugh-cries, similar to what he did when Hannes died.
And, with this, the tragic “Assasin’s Bullet” comes to a close.
Overall, I would say this was a perfect adaptation of the manga, with Sasha’s death in particular being tear inducing.
I for one am interested to see if the Gabi hatred will last, or if more people will start to warm up to her character as the season goes on.

The Promised Neverland, Season Two, Episode Four Review: Slightly More Optimistic Now.

Episode Three of The Promised Neverland Season Two made me very concerned about the direction the anime was going, what with all of the cut content and changes.
However, after Episode Four, I’m feeling slightly more optimistic.
I still have concerns but I feel a little better about where the story may be heading.
Directed by Kakushi Ifuku, the episode follows the Grace Field children’s time spent at the bunker, which skips over quite a lof of chapters from the manga.
I’ll get my criticisms out of the way first because it’s easier which, again, is mostly down to the changes.
Right after the opening, with Emma being told the truth by a recording from William Minerva, or rather James Ratri, the episode quickly desolves into a bunch of segments that feel like filler.
Given what we could have been getting if the episode had just adapted the manga, this feels like an extreme downgrade.
Although, people who haven’t read the manga that watch this episode may actually these scenes, so I will admit I am biased in my sentiment.
My bias extends to the downgrade for the attack on the bunker, which is not only incredibly rushed but also laughable compared to the manga with how terribly incompetant the soldiers are.
These clear downgrades from the source material would have brought my opinions of the episode into the negative and would also have increased my fears for the whole season, if it wasn’t for the saving grace of the episode: Isabella.
One of my criticisms of the manga is that characters like Isabella did not get the screen time they deserved.
Well, now it seems that the anime is fixing this issue because Isabella is getting a brand new, anime original storyline, where she is tasked by the demons to hunt the remaining children.
This actually got me excited for what role she would play and I already have my theories about what could unfold in the future because of this, like that the demons potentially offered Ray’s saftey in return for her help.
This and the opening scene where James Ratri informs the children about his backstory, with a recorded phone message, not only saved the episode for me but also gave me some hope about the future of the story.
As I said, I still have my worries, increased by the preview, which seems to suggest a time skip, which would be way too early but, again, we’ll just have to see how this all turns out.
Overall, Episode Four is a decent episode that both has me concerned and makes me more optimistic for the rest of The Promised Neverland Season Two.

Attack on Titan Chapter 137 Predictions.

Just three more chapters to go and then the Attack on Titan story will come to an end.
I’m very excited to see how my favorite story will conclude and, if the cliffhanger to Chapter 136 is anything to go by, things may get crazy as we head towards the finale.
So, in preperation for the next chapter, here are my questions and predictions for what will happen in Chapter 137.

Is Zeke Physically Dead?

Chapter 136, titled “Devote Your Hearts”, concluded with Armin finding Zeke trapped in the Paths Dimension with him.
In my review for that chapter, I mentioned Zeke asking Armin if Ymir ate him too, and tried to predict its meaning.
My theory about the meaning of this was that when Eren transformed, after Ymir gave him her powers, Zeke was actually eaten, however, because his conciousness was in the Paths Dimension when this happened, he is still alive there while being dead in the outside world.
Before reading the chapter, I was against the idea of Zeke dying off screen because of how his arc would be ended by this, with his rivalry with Levi never being resolved.
Now, though, I am actually okay if Zeke really was eaten because, if he is still alive in the Paths Dimension, it offers a way for him to still have his character arc and role in the story concluded.
Speaking of which…

How Will Zeke’s Story End?

Now that Zeke has finally returned to the story, the big question is about how his story will end.
There are two pieces to Zeke’s story that need to be resolved: his already mentioned rivalry with Levi and also Grisha beggining him to stop Eren.
The latter piece makes me believe that Zeke is definitley going to join Armin in stopping Eren.
How this will factor into the Levi situation is a little less clear.
Maybe Levi still has to kill Zeke to end the Rumbling so Zeke will allow this to happen, or maybe Connie will be the one to do it because Zeke killed his family?
However, I have another theory that I would like to bring up, this being that no one will kill Zeke because he could still be alive by the end of the story, at least in the Paths Dimension.
Some people have been predicting that Eren’s story will end with him being dead in the outside world, while his conciousness stays in the Paths Dimension to watch over it and make sure that it can never be used again.
While this is a good theory, I was thinking, what if it’s not Eren who decides to stay behind in the Paths but Zeke instead, and he uses this to atone for all the wrongs he has committed?
This could also resolve his conflict with Levi, who allows Zeke to live for the betterment of everyone.
There are some holes in this theory, though, like that Zeke is not exactly trustworthy with such a monumental task, what with him wanting to sterilize all Eldians earlier.
Maybe he can be convinced to move past this incredibly flawed and cruel plan to just look over the Paths?
I think this would be a very interesting and unexpected way for Zeke’s story to end, if this is what Hajime Isayama decides to go with.

What Will Zeke and Armin’s Plan be?

I have already said that I believe Zeke will help Armin try to stop Eren, however, how they will go about doing that is hard to guess.
The two are the smartest characters in the story, so them finally interacting will be interesting to see nonetheless.
In any case, the only thing I can even think up of them attempting to do to try and stop the Rumbling, other than kill Zeke, is convince Ymir to stop.
She is the one who holds power over all the Titans and is allowing Eren to commit his mass genocide, so giving her the talk no jitsu may be they’re only option.
How they’ll even go about doing so is beyond me, though.
If anything, they’ll be at a disadvantage, since Zeke wanted to use Ymir like all previous Royal Blooded Titan users did, so she’ll be a tough sell.
Overall, it’s pretty hard to make an accurate guess at how Armin and Zeke will try to stop the Rumbling in Paths.
It could be by actually killing Zeke for good, convincing Ymir to stop, or something else entirely.

What Happened at Fort Salta?

While predicting what will happen in the Paths Dimension is difficult, predicting what will happen at Fort Salta is not.
My one criticism of “Devote Your Hearts” was the incredibly obvious fake out where it was made to look like the Eldians from Liberio and the fort soldiers had opened fire on one another, when this is clearly not the case.
There is no way that Muller, the guy who was preaching about throwing away hatred in Chapter 134, would just give into it again so easily.
It’s obvious to me that the gunshots heard were him firing into the air to call a truce, and the two sides will work togethor, getting the cannons ready to fire at Eren, so they can help the Alliance in a big moment.
I would actually be really impressed if this didn’t happen, though, and Isayama actually went with something else but I don’t think that will be the case.

Will The Big Twist Happen?

Attack on Titan is a story with so many fantastic twists.
The reveal of Reiner and Bertholdt as the Colossal and Armoured Titans, the reveal of the outside world and Grisha’s past, Eren attacking the festival, the entirety of Chapters 119-123.
There are so many amazing twists but those are the very best of them, with the last mention being the greatest part of the entire story, in my personal opinion.
So, with the story coming to an end, and Armin now in Paths interacting with Zeke, I have to wonder if we’re going to get the last big twist of the story.
The reveal of Eren’s perspective, why Grisha gave him the Founding Titan in the first place, and what the heck “See you later, Eren” actually means, this could all be unveiled in the next couple of chapters.
I’d like to predict what these reveals will be are but I have pretty much no idea.
I’ve read some crazy predictions, both fantastic and bad and it will be interesting to see if any of them turn out to be the case.
No matter what the twist is, however, I’m also positive it will result in one thing: Ymir’s freedom.
Her literal rebirth serving as the ultimate personfication of freedom in the story.
Whatever happens, though, I am excited to see what crazy events will transpire in these final free chapters.

Attack on Titan, Season Four, Episode Seven, Assault Review: Attack on Nutcracker.

And here I thought “Declaration of War” was an incredible adaptation of the manga.
Well, in comparison, episode seven of Attack on Titan‘s final season, “Assault”, blew my expectations out of the water, in an episode that clearly surpassed the source material.
Way more dark and brutal than the two chapters it adapts, “Assault” is a visceral, heart pounding episode from start to finish that has me even more excited for how Mappa will adapt future chapters, some of which are the best in the entire manga.
Directed by Jun Shishido, the episode depicts the end of Eren and the Survey Corps’ horrific assault on the Liberio Internment Zone, where they completely demolish the Marleyan army and its prized Warriors.
Zeke, Pieck and Porco, all fall to the might of Eren and the Scouts, with only a severely injured Reiner left to stand against them by the end.
Before all of this craziness happens, though, “Assault” starts with an engaging beginning scene before the opening, hyping up the oncoming fight (if you can even call it that) between Levi and Zeke.
With Pieck and her panzer unit arriving to help Porco, numerous Scouts are cut down in a hail of gunfire, much to Mikasa and Levi’s horror.
However, Levi’s horror quickly turns to determination as his old enemy Zeke enters the battlefield and the epic fight between the two factions continues.
It is this fight that Falco emerges from the rubble to see, as Reiner managed to save them both by partially transforming when Eren began his attack.
However, Reiner is now in a bad state as a result of this attack and isn’t healing properly, which Falco realizes is because he has lost the will to live.
Reiner being absent puts the Warriors at even more of a disadvantage than they thought because, even though the Scouts are cornered in Marley, like Pieck points out, they have two aces up their sleeve.
The first of these aces comes in the form of the Colossal Titan himself, Armin, who launches an attack on the naval port, essentially tactical nuking it and killing hundreds if not thousands of people, unfortunately not all of them soldiers.
Armin sees this horror for himself because, after emerging from his Titan, he sees a small child in the rubble, looking up at him in horror, probably the same way he looked up in at the Colossal Titan when Bertholdt breached the wall, all those years ago.
How many innocent people did Armin kill in this attack?
All the haunted Armin knows for sure is that this horrifying experience is most likely what Bertholdt saw and felt on the day he broke the wall.
As for Armin’s Colossal Titan, I really have to applaud Mappa for making it look amazing as it did.
For one thing, it was entirely 2D, with not a hint of CGI.
Back when Wit Studio did their Colossal Titan in seasons two and three, it was entirely CGI to the point that it was slightly distracting but here it looked perfect.
As for the rest of the CGI in this episode, I thought it was fantastic as well.
Thankfully, the morons who threatened Mappa’s staff over the CGI last episode seem to have finally shut up about it now so this is a testament to how great everything looked.
Back to “Assault”, the second second ace the Scouts have up their sleeve is an airship that is flown to pick up the Scouts from Liberio, with Hange and a new character named Onyankopon in charge of flying it.
It is great to see Hange and Armin again, and their conversation about Armin’s planning being similar to Erwin’s shows how their character arcs will involve them trying to live up the legacy he left them with.
As for Onyankopon, I know from the manga that he is a pretty great side character, so I’m interested to see how he will be portrayed and voice acted in the anime.
In any case, their airship is a giant target, which is why it was so important for the Scouts to take the Warriors down before it got there, especially the Cart Titan with its Panzer Unit.
By the time the airship arrives, only Porco is left, Pieck and Zeke having been defeated.
Unfortunately for Porco, he screws up yet again and is defeated by Mikasa and Eren, leading to Eren using him to kill the Warhammer Titan.
I say “again” because the Warriors failing was 90% Porco’s fault here because of his complete arrogance in this battle.
Screw up number one for Porco: He doesn’t listen to Pieck telling him to stay back and protect Zeke, allowing both her and the war chief to be taken down by the Scouts.
Screw up number two: After seeing Pieck and Zeke have been defeated, he gives into his anger and attacks Eren in a blind rage, leading him to accidentally expose the Warhammer Titan’s weakness.
Finally, screw up number three: Porco doesn’t check his blind spot when going to attack Hange and Onyankopon’s airship, allowing Mikasa and Eren to dismember him, and then Eren uses him as a literal nutcracker to kill the Warhammer Titan and inherit her power.
Speaking of the nutcracker scene, wow, was that way more brutal and emotional compared to the manga.
The shots of Eren’s Titan looked absolutely demonic and the voice actor for Porco, Toshiki Masuda, did a fantastic job with showing Porco’s horror as he realized Eren is using him to kill Lara Tyber.
Another scene that is way more brutal than the manga is the deaths of the Panzer Unit, as it is shown that they have pictures of themselves and their family’s in their gun holes before they are killed by Sasha, Jean, and the other Scouts, making them much more sympathetic before they die.
Of course, there’s Armin’s attack on the port, which is also more horrifying, with the red glow giving it a real Evangalion vibe.
And then there’s the moment the episode hyped up right from the begging, Levi’s absolute slaughter of the Beast Titan.
Much like the first round, this couldn’t even be called a fight because Levi took the giant monkey down with just one hit, hatred glowing like a fire in his eyes.
Gabi, Falco and Magath then have to watch as Levi blows up the Beast Titan’s nape, supposedly with Zeke still inside, traumatizing the kids further.
The two have seen so much in the last few episodes, being betrayed and having their friends die in front of them, and this is only bringing them further into the black hole of hatred created for those on Paradis.
Gabi especially has fallen further down this rabbit hole of propaganda, now having the gate guards’ gun and declaring that she will kill Eren Jaeger.
Her and Falco’s voice actors also do an incredible job this episode, just like Porco’s, with their guttural screams for Reiner giving me chills.
It caused a response in Reiner as well, as he rises from the rubble, apparently ready to save Porco from being eaten and to face down Eren in round three.
Although, it doesn’t seem like this round will last very long considering that Reiner’s Titan is half formed, with much of its armor missing.
This is most likely due to his damaged state because of Eren’s transformation and his suicidal mindset, shown by his line of, “Why can’t you just let me die in peace!”
It does make for an epic cliffhanger, though, what with the intense music and great voice acting.
“Assault” is another brilliant episode in Attack on Titan‘s final season, delivering fantastic action, animation and voice acting.
I am now even more excited for the next episode, “Assassins’ Bullet”, and how well the chapter or chapters it covers could be adapted.

The Promised Neverland, Season Two, Episode Three Review: Where Did You-Go?

I was very excited for episode three of The Promised Neverland Season Two because it was supposed to be the episode where my favorite character in the manga would be introduced.
Alas, it was not to be.
I had heard rumors that The Promised Neverland would be going anime original before the season started airing but I had no idea it would be to this extent.
Not only was an incredibly important character from the manga missing, who, again, is my favorite character, but also many important scenes hinting at the future of the story were removed as well.
Since the episode aired, it has been pretty much confirmed that the rest of the season will be anime original and, honestly, I am very concerned about this.
If they had stuck to the manga then the story would currently be adapting my favorite arc of the entire story, so of course it is worrying to see this part of the story that I love so much being changed.
This could either go really good or really bad for The Promised Neverland Season Two.
However, I need to make it clear that, despite my concerns, I still enjoyed episode three.
Although, if I had not read the manga I would certainly have enjoyed it a lot more because my negative points about the episode mainly revolve around how the changes in the story could become problematic as the season goes on.
As for the actual episode itself, it is well done, with director Yayoi Takano delivering a good adaptation for what was kept, like the opening goodbye between the Grace Field children and Sonju and Mujika.
This part of the episode revealed a much darker to Sonju because it is revealed that he saved the children so they could survive and have children of their own, which he could then eat in the future since this would be in line with his religious beliefs.
Before departing though, Mujika shares a goodbye where we get our first removal of a vital manga scene, with an important line Mujika says being removed, the first of many such removals.
Then we get a brief action scene of Sonju facing off against the demons from the farm, which is pretty enjoyable, before we see the kids reach the bunker and the whole slew of manga scenes that have been left out becomes apparent.
It was honestly hard for me to focus on the rest of the episode when we got to the big scene where the important character was supposed to appear but didn’t.
This makes me concerned that his introduction being changed may damage his character arc somehow, if he hasn’t been removed from the story all together that is.
God, please don’t let him have been removed from the story.
In any case, now the kids have reached the bunker and seem to have a good base of operations for a while.
Or do they?
The cliffhanger of the episode has Emma and Ray finding a phone, much earlier than they do in the manga, and answering its call, while the other kids find deranged writings on a wall, which is thankfully a sign that the missing character is still around.
In any case, this cliffhanger with the phone does make me interested to see how episode four will diverge from the manga.
Fingers crossed that the anime original story Season Two appears to be going down is just as good, if not better than the original story arc.
At least in the next episode I will be expecting drastic differences this time around.
Overall, episode three is a decent episode, despite its changes from the source material.
I am concerned about the future of the anime, though.
Still, who knows?
Maybe it can surprise us.