Attack on Titan Episode 26 Review: Beast Titan

The long-awaited Season 2 of Attack on Titan is finally here with Episode 26 and, oh boy, aren’t we excited about it! We were left with so many unanswered questions like: Where do the Titans come from? How did humans build up those huge Walls when they couldn’t even defend themselves? Where did that Colossal Titan come from? Why do Titans eat humans and why the hell don’t they have any reproductive organs? (Okay, we all know the answer to that one)

Japanese Title: Kemono no Kyojin (獣の巨人)

Plot

The episode starts exactly where we were left in the first season. Annie is defeated and cocooned in an ice thingy from where it’s impossible to mooch any information out of her. When everyone is trying to get their shit together, they realize that there is a hole in the Wall Sina and guess what? There is a Titan in it. ‘Church of the Walls’ pastor Nick goes crazy and tells them that they shouldn’t let the Titan be seen by sunlight and we all know why. Then, our lovely Hanji Zoe is trying to confront the pastor for information but unfortunately with no luck, since he is willing to die rather than share information. But don’t worry, I am sure she will find a way to make him talk.

Meanwhile, we learn that near the south part of Wall Sina, where the rest of the gang is, (Connie, Potato Girl, etc.) Titans have breached Wall Rose and they are heading their way. They are ordered to help all nearby settlements evacuate and avoid engaging in combat with the Titans they see. Miche (the guy that can smell the Titans from far away) is using himself as bait in order to gain some time for the rest of the team. As he fights with numerous Titans by himself, he is spotted by the new threat of this season, the ‘Beast Titan’ aka Ape (as I am going to call it for now), and, surprise, he is able to properly speak and command the rest of the Titans. Before brutally killing Miche, he asks him how the Maneuver Gear works and takes one with him.

Episode Highlights

Hanji and Pastor Nick: First of all, let’s all agree that Hanji is the best. I love how she dealt with the Pastor and I am really looking forward to seeing how she will make him pee his pants in the future. I love how badass and crazy she is but still keeps a part of her humanity. And also, the fact that she has the same voice as Edo from FMA makes me a bit biased.

Connie & Sasha (aka Potato Girl): When they mentioned that they are from these parts of Wall Rose, I could smell the backstory in the future episodes coming our way. I don’t know how interesting this can be but please people: no fillers.

Eren & Mikasa: The scene of Eren and Mikasa was completely unnecessary. Eren, you are a very tough man that must not let your friend protect you all the time, and yeah, can you be a bit more insensitive?

That thing has seen better days, I’ll get you a new one if I see any in our supplies.

COME ON. Poor Mikasa.

Miche and the Ape: The most shocking scene of the episode is when Miche is fighting all these Titans alone. He is good, we know that, but you can see that these Titans are not behaving in a normal way with that Ape going around. And let me just point it out that Ape is creepy. We learn that Titans can actually talk and they can do pretty much everything that people can do, except flying around in that weapon that they are so eager to learn more about. I don’t understand how this works, to be honest; if Annie knew how to handle the Maneuver Gear then why don’t they know? Which makes us wonder if there is only one enemy in the show or if Annie was just acting independently or I am just completely stupid and I don’t get it. Also, the Titan casually sitting behind Miche in that scene had me laughing. I love them when they run and randomly sit in fabulous poses, Titans = FAB.

Themes & Trivia

Violence: Violence is a very prominent feature of anime. We have the really extreme and brutal violence in works such as Akira, Gantz, Elfen Lied, andTokyo Ghoul, anime whose main theme is violence itself, and the lighter ones like One Piece, Dragon Ball or Naruto that depict violence with no restraints as well but they are less gory. For me, Attack on Titan involves a lot of gore but does not portray brutal stuff just for the hell of it. There is a lot of emotion behind the most violent scenes of the show, such as the one where Eren sees his mother being eaten alive. The show makes the viewer empathize with the character and feel overwhelmed by the situation.

Animal Abuse: We saw only Miche’s horse being killed, but still, anime abuse is not okay. Did you know that PETA has protested for Depiction of Animal Cruelty in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders when it first started airing? We don’t want to reach that point…

Mike Zacharias: (ミケ・ザカリアス) Mike Zakariasu, also spelled as Miche Zacharius is probably of Greek descent, judging by his last name. Take that Mikasa, you are not the only exotic one.

Comments

I am pleased with the first episode. It was fast-paced and a lot of things happened that made us ask more questions about the plot. Are the Walls built on Titans, and if so why, how, and who did all this? Is the Wall Rose actually breached or is it just the Ape with his gang going around South just to make everyone poop their pants? The episode didn’t disappoint me at all; it built up the storyline and the plot very well and left you speechless at the end.

The voice acting was great as always. You have most of the top-notch seiyuu in the anime, and the animation is really good, especially in the fight scene with the Manoeuvre Gear. The soundtrack seems to be as good as before.

I have to say though I am very disappointed with the opening song. I was hoping for something awesome as the TARARARATA TA TA TA TA from the first season, but nope. Also, the opening title showed some kind of dinosaurs running along with the Ape Titan. Dinosaurs….? What the hell is going to happen in the series? The ending credits were really good; I enjoyed the mix of the creepy song with the hagiographic images of terror and despair.

Who’s going to be the next one?

So far so good. Attack on Titan is an awesome show for many reasons. The first episode of the second season was overwhelming and I want to believe, judging from the preview, that the whole season is going to keep the same pace. I am kind of sad that our Miche is probably a goner now and that he couldn’t even share what he saw with the rest of the gang. One thing that is bothering me is whether or not Miche was right when he said ‘There are likely no Titans among the 104^th Cadet Corps recruits.’

Nay or yay? Remember guys, ALWAYS avoid the spoilers.

You can also check the rest of our episodic anime reviews for Spring 2017! Asie has already posted her review for Episode 14 of My Hero Academia!

NEXT TIME: I’m Home (ただいま)