Recap: Eren’s Titan form goes berserk, throwing the plan into disarray. The rest of the recruits and the army attempt to mitigate the situation and save Eren from the oncoming Titans.

Gee’s Thoughts:

Now things are finally starting to get interesting again! The anime managed to take what was a relatively mundane part of the manga and make it a tense and exciting struggle. With Eren struggling within his own mind, the rest of the army are forced to adapt. I do like that they decide to try and save Eren, if nothing more than because he’s an invaluable asset. It’s grim, yet entirely rational reasoning despite the plan clearly falling apart. Rico’s speech in the previous episode about Eren being the indirect cause of the death of her comrades becomes increasingly relevant this episode. No doubt a fair number of soldiers are going to die for Eren’s sake. Hell, if I were in Pixis’s situation, I don’t think I could muster as much faith in Eren as he does, considering the current situation.

Luckily, we have Armin, the bro of bros, coming to the rescue. His speech is a pretty standard one, but you gotta respect a guy who’s willing to do so much for his best friend. It says something when even Mikasa can’t break Eren out of his trance, but Armin can. Mikasa might be devoted to Eren, but Armin’s the one who truly understands him. In a sense, despite Eren clearly not being exactly human, he’s got Armin to remind him of why he’s fighting the Titans in the first place.

Elsewhere, the other recruits are playing decoy to try and draw the Titans away from Eren, to middling success. Thankfully, it gives us another look into Jean’s character arc. As he slowly becomes the soldier he was meant to be, it’s great to see the selfish survivor turn into a leader determined to save not only his own life, but the lives of his friends and comrades. I suppose we’ll see next episode if Jean manages to prove even the “normals” aren’t to be trifled with, or if he’s going to end up being another example of not getting too attached to characters in this show.

Overall, while still not back to the par that the show set for itself, this episode was definitely a step up from last week and with Eren returning to form and ready to bash some Titan heads and plug some holes, it looks like we have a thrilling conclusion of the first season on our hands.

Marlin’s Thoughts:

Look, I know that scene was adorable Titan, but did we really need a “HES NOT MY BOYFRIEND” scene while dozens of soldiers are dying around them? Seems a little inappropriate. As for Eren, his whole dream sequence really spoke volumes to me. Are those trapped within aberrant titans put in similar Matrix-type situations where they experience a reality that isn’t even occurring? It definitely puts a new twist to the idea of the Titan biomech.

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.