My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising Review. A Plus Ultra Movie.

Going to see My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising last night was probably the most interesting experience I have ever had when seeing a movie in theaters.
There were so many people in cosplay, many of them jumping around in excitement and shouting out to one another, before the film started.
I was honestly scared that they were going to ruin the movie for me by shouting throughout the runtime but, thankfully, when it started, they quieted down, except for a few occasional cheers.
A good thing too because My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is a great time that any fan of the anime should see.
Although, anime only fans should know that there are a few light spoilers for where the series will go because the story takes place a little bit further in the manga.
Directed by Kenji Nagasaki, The movie takes place on Nabu Island, where Class 1-A are taking part in a training program by helping out the people of the island in their daily lives.
However, when the villain Nine (Yoshio Inoue), who has multiple Quirks, attacks the island in search of a young boy, the heroes in training must band together to stop him, with no hope for backup.
For starters, my favourite thing about Heroes Rising is definitely how it uses its characters, especially Deku (Daiki Yamashita) and Bakugo (Nobuhiko Okamoto), who take center stage in their efforts to save the target of Nine, Katsuma Shimano (Yuka Terasaki), and his sister Mahoro (Mio Imada).

bakugo and deku — Deku and Bakugo are the highlights of the film, with their rivalry having come a long way since season one.

It is not just them though because almost every member of Class 1-A is given a moment to shine in this film, creating some terrific action sequences.
This results in the epic final battle of the film, which is among the most glorious animation I have ever seen.
It is also set to the moving song, Might⁺U, that was recently in the anime when Deku saved Eri.
As for the villain of the film, Nine, he is not given much of a backstory so, unfortunately, him and his minions are not that interesting from a character perspective.
Thankfully though, they make up for it through the threat level they possess.

Along with Nine’s slightly lacking character, another minor flaw I found with the film is that it does pull a few things to make sure its events are never mentioned again in the anime.
This does make sense but some of the ways the movie goes about it do feel a little abrupt.
Aside from these minor problems, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is an absolutely fantastic film with a lot of great character moments, humor, and an awesome final battle.
Apparently, the ending to this film was the original ending Kohei Horikoshi had in mind for the manga but he changed it so decided to put it in here.
And, given how great this ending is, I cannot wait to see how he actually plans to end My Hero Academia.

Spirited Away Review: Masterful But Not Quite a Masterpiece.

When you think of Studio Ghibli, what immediately comes to mind?
I am pretty sure that at least 90% of you instantly thought of Spirited Away, the 2001 Hayao Miyazaki film that is hailed as being one of the greatest anime of all time.
I remember watching Spirited Away once when I was very little, but I had not watched it since then so the film was definitely a new experience for me, going in.
And what did I think?
Well, Spirited Away is certainly a masterful film but I would not call it a masterpiece.
The hero of this story is the young Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi), who is thrust into a magical world full of Yokai, when her parents are transformed into pigs.
She must then find a way to save her parents and get back to the real world, all while working at a Yokai bathhouse; a strange combination, I know.

no face — Chihiro meets a lot of strange and interesting spirits on her journey.

What’s striking about Spirited Away is its amount of creativity, with multiple interesting Yokai that lead to entertaining interactions between them and Chihiro.
This includes the Yokai No Face (Akio Nakamura) and, in particular, a foul smelling river spirit, in a scene that provided some big laughs through Chihiro and the witch Yubaba’s (Mari Natsuki) facial expressions.

Chihiro and Yubaba — The river spirit scene is definitely my favourite of the film because of how funny it is.

Speaking of Yubaba, I thought that the witch would be the villain of the film, however, much like Dola from Castle in The Sky, she turned out to be a far more complex and interesting individual than I first thought.
Another surprise for me is the connection to another Miyazaki film, with the soot Yokai from My Neighbor Totoro making an appearance.
What was not a surprise though, because of how much praise the film has had, is how emotional the story gets at times.
This is mostly achieved through the great voice acting of Rumi Hiiragi as Chihiro.
Along with this, the animation is also solid as it contributes greatly to the emotion of the film.

flowers — The animation of *Spirited Away* is well done, with a lot of striking visuals.

But, like I said, I do not think Spirited Away is perfect.
In my opinion, a certain storyline about the character of Haku (Miyu Irino) felt rushed and some characters befriend Chirhiro way too quickly, since they were antagonizing her a few minutes before.
It these kinds of things that keep Spirited Away from being a masterpiece, in my mind.
It is still an excellent film though, and I would probably rank it as on par with Castle in The Sky as the best Studio Ghibli film I have seen so far.

My Hero Academia, Season Four, Episode 21, Deku vs Gentle Criminal Review: The Gold Tips Imperial Pays Off.

Who would have thought that tea would be a villain’s undoing?
Joke’s aside, Gentle really screwed up talking with Deku because of his obsession with Gold Tips Imperial.
The tea that was the title of the last episode paid off here, as it allowed the training hero and the trying criminal to come to blows in the 21st episode of My Hero Academia’s fourth season, Deku vs Gentle Criminal.
However, before encountering Gentle, Deku still had to prepare for the fight, even though he didn’t know he was preparing for it.
Enter Hatsume, who made Deku gloves, which allowed him to better use the ability All Might taught him, to release a large amount of One For All’s power the moment he flicks his finger.
Another thing that came in handy was Mina’s dance moves, which she taught Deku, allowing him to move quickly in his fight with Gentle.
It’s genuinely cool how seemingly unimportant things, like dance moves, can have such a big impact on fights in My Hero Academia.
Said fight begins with a moment of chance, as Deku stumbles into Gentle and La Brava when he is getting a rope for Class 1-A’s performance at the Cultural Festival.
It is here that the mention of Gold Tips Imperial sets Gentle off, leading to both him and Deku realizing who the other is in a brilliant scene scored by Gentle’s ridiculous (in a good way) score.
Upon realizing who he is talking to, and that Gentle is most likely going to attack the festival, Deku goes on the attack, ordering him to stay away from his school.
And so the fight begins, with Gentle’s elasticity quirk being revealed.
This quirk comes in handy as Gentle is able to use it to get one up on Deku multiple times.
We also get a brief hint about Gentle’s past because, upon Deku mentioning the festival, Gentle also reveals he also took part in such things as a student.
This hint at his backstory will almost certainly be expanded upon in the next episode, as well as La Brava’s past, and I cannot wait to see that.
Their backstories takes these two almost too ridiculous to take seriously villains and makes them human to us.
Despite the relatable aspect of Gentle and La Brava though, they are still quite hilarious with the two of them delivering many great gags in this episode.
It kind of felt like I was watching a Looney Tunes episode at times.
Although, this does make for a weird contrast when the episode suddenly got serious at the end, what with the intense music and La Brava wondering if she will have to use her quirk.
Still, it did make me eager to see the next episode.
Overall, Deku vs Gentle is an exciting episode that brings a fair amount of both humor and action to keep the viewer engaged.

My Neighbor Totoro Review: Fun Slice of Life for the Family.

One of Studio Ghibli’s most well known films, My Neighbor Totoro has become so iconic that the titular giant, cuddly spirit, Totoro, has become synonymous with the studio.
So, with its fame, it was naturally the next Ghibli film I had to watch after the fantastic Castle in the Sky.
And, while I liked Castle in the Sky more, My Neighbor Totoro is still a good film for very different reasons.
Once again directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film follows two of the probably most energetic kids ever animated, sisters Satsuki (Noriko Hidaka) and Mei (Chika Sakamoto), who move with their father (Tatsuo Kusakabe) to the countryside to be near their sick mother, who is in a hospital.
There, they come across many friendly spirits, most notable of which is, of course, Totoro (Hitoshi Takagi).

kids and totoro — Upon meeting Totoro, Satsuki and Mei get involved in a lot of hijinks.

What follows is a slice of life film that is full of plenty of laughs and feel good moments.
This is much more tame and kid oriented compared to Castle in the Sky, not that there’s anything wrong with it because a lot of the child friendly humor had me chuckling.
Honestly, I found the kids reactions to the spirits to be the best part of the film.
The scene where Satsuki first meets Totoro at a bus stop in the rain is quite humorous in how she reacts to seeing the big guy.

totoro — Probably the most famous scene of the film, the bus stop scene, is also the best part of the film.

The animation is also solid, although I did feel the story took a while to actually get going, even if I was entertained by the character interaction.
But, once Totoro is finally introduced, the film picks up with plenty of heart warming moments.
I have to ask though, did anyone else get a little creeped out by the giant cat bus, or was it just me?
Jokes aside, My Neighbor Totoro is another solid Studio Ghibli film, with the iconic character of Totoro bringing a lot of highlights.

Attack on Titan Chapter 127, The Night of the End Review: Major Death Flags.

After the extremely rushed Chapter 126, many Attack on Titan fans, including myself, were concerned about the direction Hajime Isayama was taking the manga’s ending.
Well, thankfully, Chapter 127, “The Night of the End” seems to have significantly lessened those fears.
The chapter is a return to form, with the much needed tension between the characters that was missing in “Pride” being put on full display.
This building tension is made readily apparent by the full page spread of the alliance of Scouts, Warriors, and Volunteers around a campfire in their own separate groups.
This lead to many fantastic moments, among them small confrontations between Mikasa and Annie, and Jean and Magath.
Magath was the real surprise confrontation this chapter because I thought he had come to accept Eldians as his allies, for the most part.
However, with his attempts to justify the conflict between Paradis and Marley this chapter, Iayama has made it clearer than ever that he has a long way to go.
Still, he looks to be on the right path by the end of the scene, as he attempts to help Gabi, only to stop himself and consider his actions.
Speaking of Gabi, she stood out as a peacemaker at the end of the scene, with her protecting Reiner from Jean’s attack, and her and Falco begging the Scouts to help them stop the Rumbling.
Hange also played the role of peacemaker in “The Night of the End”, although to a much more hilarious degree, with her trying to maintain order by offering everybody soup.
Her direct opposite this chapter is Yelena, who Pieck reveals is actually a Marleyan who crafted a story about her being from a country that was conquered by Marley to make her seem more grand.
After this revelation, Yelena goes about stoking the flames of antagonism between the group, bringing up all of their crimes against one another.
She hits a particular nerve when she mentions Marco, which leads into Reiner and Annie explaining the truth about his death to Jean, telling him that Marco’s last words were “we still haven’t talked”, which is extremely relevant now.
We also get to learn some interesting facts about the aftermath of Marco’s demise, as Reiner reveals that, due to the split personality he had following the murder, Reiner killed the Titan out of guilt.
This is not enough to placate Jean though, who attacks Reiner, getting a few good punches in before Connie and Armin pull him away.
Gabi then shields Reiner, ending with her getting kicked in the face, before begging the scouts to help stop the Rumbling, as I mentioned before.
And to end this tense standoff, Isayama of course inserts some humor, with Levi waking up and telling the alliance that they are being “so noisy.”
Overall, this scene was fantastic and exactly what we needed after the complete lack of tension between the characters in Chapter 126.
The standout of the scene is definitively Jean, whose character growth is so great in this chapter that he has easily climbed up on my favourite characters list.
He is the main character of the chapter right from its opening moments, where he imagines what his life would be like if he just accepted the Rumbling and lived the good life.
He even imagines himself with a wife and children, the wife baring an uncanny resemblance to Mikasa.
By the end of the chapter, Jean has thrown this dream away to fight to stop the Rumbling as Marco would have wanted him to.
Unfortunately, all of this development for Jean is giving him some major death flags, especially with it looking like the alliance will face Floch in the next chapter.
Floch essentially represents what Jean could have become so it makes sense for the two to face off and I have a feeling it will result in both of their deaths.
Another character with death flags this chapter is Hange, who has a moment very reminiscent of when Erwin appeared to hallucinate his dead comrades in the Return to Shiganshina Arc.
Given that Erwin later died, the fact that Hange experiences this, along with Jean, is very concerning.
Death flags aside, this scene between Jean, Hange and Miaksa is very welcome because it explains one of the plot holes in Chapter 126 about how Jean and Mikasa met up with Hange.
Unfortunately, the chapter does not fix all the flaws of “Pride”, because we don’t get a flashback to Annie meeting with Armin or an explanation about how they met up with Hange and the others.
Still, at least some of the problems with the previous chapter have been fixed.
Back to the scene between Jean, Hange and Mikasa, there are two other things about this moment that I appreciated.
The first of these is Mikasa announcing that she believes they have to stop Eren.
It appears that she is finally taking Armin’s advice to think for herself and I hope to see this continue.
The second feature I appreciated was the small argument between Jean and Hange about what they would do if they stopped Eren to prevent the rest of the world from destroying Paradis.
While I did find it disappointing that Hange had no real plan, it is nice to see that Isayama knows that if Eren is defeated then the outside world would still not leave the island alone.
So, just defeating Eren is not going to be enough to keep the Eldians safe.
The final scene of the chapter sees the alliance heading to the harbor to take Kiyomi’s plane to stop Eren, as I predicted.
However, in a brilliant move, Floch has already realised their plan and moved the Yeagerists to guard the harbor and stop the alliance, holding Kiyomi hostage.
This looks like a job for Keith No-Longer-A-Bystander Chadis!
In all seriousness, it will be interesting to see what role Keith (if he was the man watching the alliance from the window) has to play in fighting the Yeagerists.
I also wonder what Kiyomi will do in this situation?
She can’t just be in the story to provide the plane so she must know something, right?
In any case, it looks like in the next couple chapters we will get Floch as the penultimate boss fight of the series.
Let’s just hope that Jean and Hange don’t bite the dust beating him.
As for any criticisms I have towards the chapter, one of the big ones is that I would have liked it if we had got a few more moments of tension and self reflection with the characters.
For example, we do not see Pieck and Magath’s reactions to Porco and Colt’s death, nor Reiner to Sasha’s, and Falco still does not seem to be all that bothered by the fact that he accidentally killed his brother.
Then there is Levi, who still has not called Annie out for killing his squad, but he was unconscious for almost the entire chapter so I can let that one slide.
All in all, “The Night of the End” is a great improvement from Chapter 126.
It delivered on the much needed tension between the characters, gave fantastic character development for Jean, and set up both the coming fight with Floch and, most concerning of all, possible death flags for some characters.

My Hero Academia Season Four Episode Twenty, Gold Tips Imperial Review: So, Mineta is the Worst.

“Gold Tips Imperial”, the 20th episode in My Hero Academia’s fourth season, started off well with a great joke centering around Eri and Miro (as seen above)… only to follow it up with the worst joke of the entire series.
Seriously, Mineta telling Eri he will probably like her when she is ten years older made me want to throw up.
Is having a character say they will only care about a traumatized little girl if they become attractive when they get older supposed to be endearing?
Because it’s not.
I wish they had removed the joke.
It wasn’t funny in the manga and it definitely isn’t funny in the anime.
As for the rest of “Gold Tips Imperial”, it is a decent episode that sets up more events in the Cultural Festival to come.
Although, will say that even though the Mineta joke at the beginning is terrible, a lot of the jokes that come afterwards make up for it.
For example, the moment when a serious looking, sun glasses wearing Mina tells Deku that he has been fired, only to immediately clarify that he has been transitioned into another job is quite funny.
The funniest part of the episode though is the gags about Class 1-B, with Monoma declaring their play is named Romeo, Juliet and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Return of the Kings.
I’m so glad this joke did not get cut because of copyright because it gets a big laugh.
Another moment that gets a laugh is the recurring joke where Monoma gets whacked on the head by one of his fellow classmates after he gets carried away again.
This then leads into the reveal of the beauty pageant preparation where Nejire is going all out to try and win this year.
The episode goes full fan service with Nejire here, resulting in even Deku getting flustered.
Jokes aside, we got to see a lot of old characters again this episode, like Hatsume and even Shinsou, briefly.
Hatsume in particular had a big role, interrupting All Might training Deku where All Might reveals he once used support gear.
This leads into another funny moment when Uraraka is freaked out by Deku frantically searching for a video of All Might in support gear, calling himself a failure for not having seen it before.
However, this results in Deku accidentally watching Gentle and La Brava’s video, which will have a big impact in the next episode.
Speaking of Gentle and La Brava, once again they are the most entertaining parts of the episode, with our first look into their backstories, as La Brava is revealed to have hacked Gentle’s address to find him and wants to help carve his name into history.
The relationship between the two is genuinely sweet and quirky, and I cannot wait to see the rest of their backstory unfold.
They also get a lot of laughs, as Gentle struggles with basic technology and needs La Brava’s help.
Overall, “Gold Tips Imperial” is a standard episode of My Hero Academia.
It is mainly set up with probably the standout moments being the great gags and La Brava and Gentle’s scene.
Although, the Mineta joke certainly brought the episode down for me.

Castle in the Sky Review: The First Indicator of Studio Ghibli’s Greatness.

With many of Studio Ghibli’s films having come to Netflix, I figured that now was the perfect time to watch them for the first time.
And what better film to start with than the studio’s first film, Castle in the Sky?
Directed by the great Hayao Miyazaki, the 1986 film follows two children, Pazu (Mayumi Tanaka) and Sheeta (Keiko Yokozawa) on their journey to find Laputa, the legendary floating island.
With Sheeta being pursued by both the military and a family of pirates, Pazu vows to protect her, and thus begins an adventure that is a magical experience.
Despite being decades old, the animation of Castle in the Sky is still great, with the OP using an art style that is unique compared to the rest of the film and really stands out.

Op castle in the sky — *Castle in the Sky* has a lot of excellent animation moments, especially in the OP.

Other outstanding animation moments include the reveal of Laputa itself and a particular shootout during the film’s midpoint.
Along with the animation, the characters are also especially endearing.
Pazu and Sheeta are both relatable and you root for them the whole way through.
But my favourite character is definitely Dola (Kotoe Hatsui), the leader of the pirates pursuing Sheeta.
Originally, I thought she would turn out to be a one dimensional antagonist but this perception was quickly proven wrong when she took on an unexpected role in the story that made her all the more likeable.

Dola appeared to be a one note villain upon her introduction but quickly became the film’s most likeable character, for me.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the main villain, Muska (Minori Terada), who is as one dimensional as they come.
Thankfully, the other characters are nowhere near as bad, with even some of the side characters having stand out moments, like Pazu’s boss.
Overall, Castle in the Sky is a very enjoyable film with great animation for the time, an interesting plot and memorable characters.

Pazu and Sheeta — All in all, *Castle in the Sky* was a great film for Studio Ghibli to start off with, as it serves as an indication of the quality films to come.

I cannot wait to watch the rest of the Studio Ghibli films on Netflix, which you can expect to see my reviews of after I watch them.

Death Parade Review: Not a Very Cheerful Parade.

The anime club at my university recently started and, during our first meeting, we watched the first episodes of five anime, three of which we would choose to watch for the rest of the semester.
One of these anime was Death Parade, directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa, and of all the anime we watched that night it was by far my favourite.

episode 1 second attempt — The first episode, “Death Seven Darts” does a great job setting up the theme of the series, along with its characters and structure.

Imagine my disappointment then when Death Parade was not one of the anime that was selected.
Although, I suppose this did turn out in my favor because it gave me the opportunity to binge the 12 episode series over three days.
And, let me tell you, despite what the fantastic OP would have you believe, this anime is anything but a cheerful parade.
Death Parade is mostly set in Quindecim, a bar where many people turn up with no memory of what happened, only to meet the mysterious bartender Decim (Tomoaki Maeno) and his new assistant (Asami Seto).
Decim reveals to his guests that they will have to play a game by roulette of which their very lives will be stake.

decim — Decim and his, at first, unnamed assistant have a great dynamic, especially when it comes to the morality of Decim’s job and how the assistant deals with that.

To say anything more would be to spoil the twists of the first episode, which, although expected, I don’t wish to ruin because of how good the anime is.
With Death Parade‘s episode structure, it would have been very easy for the show to become repetitive but it almost never does with its great leads in Decim and the unamed woman and plenty of memorable side characters.
This culminates in many fantastic episodes like “Death Counter”, which is incredibly engaging in its mysteries and twists, and the final episode “Suicide Tour”, which really gets the tears rolling with its emotional climax and fitting ending.

Sad Decim — Prepare for a whole lot of tear jerking moments in the final two episodes.

One criticism I do have with the anime, though, is how often it is brought up that a certain group of characters cannot feel emotions, only for them to be clearly displaying emotions, with one of these characters almost always being angry.
Granted, I do not speak Japanese so the meaning of emotions could be very different in the language context so I could just be misinterpreting this.
Still, Death Parade is a great anime with plenty of memorable characters and tragic scenes.
Just don’t mistake it for the happy looking show that the OP makes it out to be.

My Hero Academia, Season Four, Episode Nineteen, Prepping for the School Festival is the Funnest Part Review: So, Mineta is basically Deadpool.

“Because of my character design, my hands won’t reach!”
And, just like that, Mineta breaks the fourth wall in what is the best joke of “Prepping for the School Festival is the Funnest Part”, the nineteenth episode of My Hero Academia’s fourth season.
This Deadpool style gag is one of many comedic moments in the episode, which sees Class 1-A prepare for their school festival performance, with Jiro at the head of preparation.
She more than proves her worth here as well, both in organizing the performance and in her singing, which is incredible.
I’m not sure if Jiro’s voice actor, Kei Shindo, is actually singing here but, if she is, then she is absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait to hear her sing again many episodes from now.
As well as Jiro, we also got a good character moment from Bakugo, who surprisingly wants to do the performance for the other student as well, or as he puts it, “Let’s kill everyone in U.A with our sound!”
Of course by “kill” he means knock the socks off them but this is Bakugo we’re talking about so you can never really be sure.
Following the preparation for the performance by Class 1-A, we get the final few scenes of the episode where we see Deku begin to unlock more of One For All’s abilities with All Might’s help.
The new technique he develops will be of vital importance later in the arc and it will be interesting to see its use.
Then there is the final scene, which sees the adorable Eri arrive at U.A, with Mirio and Aizawa, to see the preparation for the festival.
Expect more cuteness from her in the following episodes.
As well as all of this build up for the festival, there is also the build up for YouTuber “villains” Gentle and La Brava.
I put “villains” in quotation marks because of how they are not exactly taken seriously by the public and their crimes consist of punishments for weird things.
Still, don’t take Gentle and La Brava lightly.
The interesting thing about them is that they could actually be major villains if they wanted with their skill set but have decided to punish ungentlemanly acts instead.
If they wanted, they could do some serious damage, which we will definitely see later.
On an entirely unrelated note, I have been wondering if we will get the Pro-Hero Arc this season because of the shots of it in the OP but, with how many episodes we have left and how many that Arc should take up, I don’t think we have enough time.
In all likelihood, the season will probably end at the end of the Cultural Festival Arc or a few chapters into the Pro-Hero Arc.
Overall though, “Prepping for the School Festival is the Funnest Part” is another solid episode of My Hero Academia that once again sets up future events for the festival and Gentle and La Brava’s oncoming attack.

Attack on Titan Chapter 127 Predictions.

In my opinion, Chapter 126 is one of the weakest chapters in all of Attack on Titan.
The alliance between the Scouts and the Warriors was incredibly rushed and the entire Connie and Falco subplot was pointless.
Since the manga is set to end this year, having a bad chapter this close to the conclusion is very concerning.
Granted, everything since Chapter 110 has been incredible, if you ask me, so this bad chapter may just be a fluke.
Not only this, but maybe the chapter will be a lot better when it is adapted in the anime through its connection to the other episodes; who knows?
Still, if Chapter 127 is going to be good, I think Hajime Isayama needs to do a few things to get the story back on the right track.

What Needs to Happen.

Usually, I don’t say something needs to happen in a story for it to be good because it can be seen as unreasonable and putting unnecessary expectations on that story.
However, I believe these expectations are entirely warranted this time with the rushed nature of the alliance in the previous chapter.
In order for this alliance to work going forward, there needs to be two things.
1. There needs to be a flashback explaining how the Scouts and Warriors came together and what their plan is.
2. There needs to be tension between the two groups in the alliance.
In Chapter 126 it felt like there were a lot of missing scenes, like Annie’s discussion with Armin and Connie, everyone in this new alliance meeting up and deciding to rescue Yelena and Onyankopon, and the alliance deciding what their plan is.
The second and third missing scenes in particular are needed as flashbacks or there will be huge gaps in the story.
For one thing, we have no idea what the alliance plans to do about Eren and they can’t have decided to work together with no plan because that would be stupid.
Another thing that bothered me about Chapter 126 was the lack of tension.
For example, when Annie ran into Connie and Armin, Connie laughed at her for eating pie when he was shown to be angered by her previous betrayal in Chapter 118.
It felt very out of character for them and the rest of the characters to team up while seemingly forgetting all they have done to each other.
Now, I know the Scouts and the Warriors have to set aside their differences to stop Eren but are they really just going to forget everything?
They have been at war with one another for years for god’s sake.
I want to see Levi angry at Annie for killing his squad, I want to see Jean angry at Reiner and Annie for murdering Marco, I want to see Reiner and Annie angry at Armin for eating Bertholdt.
In order for this alliance to make any sense there needs to be tension between the group and we need an explanation for how they came together and decided their plan.
Let’s hope Isayama does not drop the ball this time and actually delivers on these things.

How Will The Alliance Reach Eren?

And now, for the speculation part of the post.
At the end of Chapter 127, Connie, Armin, Mikasa, Gabi and Falco went to collect Reiner, with Connie telling him it was time to save the world.
This definitely means they are going to take a stand against Eren but the question is how do they reach him since his Titan form is the tallest of them all?
Well, with Kyomi’s plane of course.
In Chapter 109, we see that Kyomi has a plane that uses the Iceburst stone as fuel, which she calls a “flying boat.”
She plans to use it to view the Rumbling experiments, however, now that the Rumbling has been activated to its fullest extent, this plane would be perfect for reaching Eren to try and stop it.
Sure, Kyomi could have fled in it but she said she wants to protect Mikasa so I find it reasonable to assume that she would stay to try and find her.
Mikasa will probably remember this and suggest that use Kyomi’s plane to reach Eren. So, Chapter 127 will most likely include the mad dash to reach the port and take the plane.

What Does Magath Want With Yelena?

Although I did not like Chapter 126, there were some things about it that I enjoyed like the multiple mysteries it set up.
One of these mysteries is why Magath requested that Yelena be rescued from the Yeagerists.
There could be a number of explanations for this, ranging from wanting to punish her for the crimes she committed against his country to thinking she will have some information about Zeke.
Although, maybe these explanations seem a little too simple.
In all honesty, this is one mystery that I actually have no idea where it is going.
But I am interested to see play out.
There is one mystery that I am positive I know the answer to, though.

Who is The Mysterious Man in The Window?

The second big mystery of Chapter 126 is who the man in the window who watched Armin, Annie, Mikasa and the others escape was.
There seem to be three characters that the fandom are predicting it will be, Historia, Zeke or Keith.
While it would be great for it to be Historia, I think we can rule her out pretty quickly.
The figure in the window does not look like a woman, let alone a pregnant one.
That leaves Zeke and Keith and I have to go with Keith here.
The man just doesn’t look like Zeke at all.
He does, however, look a lot like Keith, being bald, having the same facial structure as him, and even appearing to have the same shirt he was wearing in Chapter 125.
Therefore, I am certain that the figure in the window who is watching the alliance escape is Keith Shadis.
So, if it is him, then what role does he have to play in the story going forward?
Well, what with his identity being kept a secret at this stage, I can firmly say that it will undoubtedly be important and I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Shadis has really grown on me as a character in this final arc with his progression from bystander to active participant.
I am sure he will lead the recruits that now follow him in a battle against the Yeagerists for the fate of the island.
Speaking of…

What Will Floch and The Yeagerists do?

In one of the few good scenes of Chapter 126, the alliance rescued Jean, Yelena and Onyankopon from the clutches of the Yeagerists.
They made it appear like the three of them had been eaten but the final panel of the scene suggests that Floch may be onto them.
And if he realizes that Jean and the rest of the 104th, along with Levi and Hange, have teamed up with the Warriors to stop Eren then it is certain that he will lead the Yeagerists in an effort to stop them.
This is why I think we may be getting a few big character deaths pretty soon.
Eren is doing the Rumbling to save his friends so I don’t see him killing them but Floch definitely would.
However, like I said earlier, I feel that Shadis may have a central role in their downfall.
But, as for Floch, I think it would be much more fitting for Jean to be the one to end up killing him because they are two sides of the same coin.

Where are Zeke and Historia?

It seems like every chapter we are wondering when a missing character will show up.
Thankfully, recent chapters have brought back Annie, Levi and Hange but characters like Zeke and Historia are still missing.
Of the two, Zeke’s role in the story is a lot more obvious, I think.
He will most likely show up somewhere in the final battle in a last ditch effort to stop Eren as his father begged him to do and initiate his Euthanasia Plan.
It is through him and Yeagerists fighting the alliance for their own ends that we will see most of the deaths.
We will also probably get a final fight between Zeke and Levi, with Connie also taking part.
Zeke will most likely die, along with Levi, paralleling one of the many battles of Ragnarok in Norse Mythology.
However, while I think I have a good grasp on what Zeke’s role will be, I am currently struggling to think of something for Historia.
I was so sure that she would show up in Chapter 126 but she just didn’t.
Honestly, Historia is in the story so little now that she might as well be the new Annie.
Yet, Isayama keeps bringing her up so she has to be important somehow.
Sadly, I don’t think we can expect to see Historia until Eren’s P.O.V is finally revealed, which should be around the end of the story, where we will learn who the father of her child really is and what role she has in Eren’s plan.
I just hope she can stand out when she does return with how little story there is left.