Recap: After Eren emerges from the corpse of the Rogue Titan and tries to recall the events that led to the transformation, humanity’s fears come to a head as Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are in danger of being executed for treason against the state.

Gee’s Thoughts:

Predictably enough, the rest of humanity isn’t so keen on the idea of a human being capable of turning into a 15 meter tall flesh-machine of destruction. As Eren regains consciousness  we find our heroes surrounded by the military with Commander Beardface ready to execute them at any moment. It’s not like our heroes can do much to defend themselves against the accusations they’re receiving. For all intents and purposes, it’s undeniable that Eren’s power is a great threat. The issue is figuring out to whom it’s a great threat to. Eren’s shown to have no recollection of his time as a Titan, so whether he even has control of his own powers is questionable.

Elsewhere, we finally get to meet the true ace of the military, Levi. Levi/ Revy/ Rivaille/ “Ravioli”/ “However this guy’s name is spelled” is basically the goddamn superman of the Titan universe. He doesn’t just succeed in effortlessly killing Titans, he thrives doing it. Sure, he’s a tiny guy, a clean freak, and has probably one of the more unpleasant demeanors in this show, but he’s basically Super-Mikasa, as if Mikasa’s very existence wasn’t already insane enough. And he’s a damn good leader, considering the kinds of crazy shit the Recon Corps have to deal with.

In the end, this episode was more about establishing the situation than anything else. In the grand scheme of things, the anime kind of shows that for a survival action story, Attack on Titan is surprisingly low on the action. Instead it’s peppered with short moments of high intensity and tension. Something I didn’t really notice when reading the manga. Now that Eren’s Titan transformation ability has been confirmed and witnessed, we’ll get to see how humanity responds in kind.

Marlin’s Thoughts:

The whole injection scene seems to make us want to believe that Titans are some kind of man-made monstrosity. I guess after human beings that can crash through several houses worth of tiles without being hurt I can forgive Titan for taking some magic shounen science liberties, but man is that a stretch. With the ultimate goal finally spelled out for us, namely reaching this ominous basement, I’ve finally become conscious of how little time we have left. With the Titan manga nowhere near completion by what Gee has told us, what is this studio going to do to play us out?

Gee: In addition, for everyone watching this, I’ve created a character guide for those having trouble remembering the loads and loads of characters this anime is going to introduce. While the anime doesn’t suffer from the sameface and rather poor early artwork that the manga did, I have a feeling it’ll still come in handy. I’ll continue to update it every week as new characters are introduced.