Recap: Annie reveals herself to be the Female Titan. Eren struggles with the revelation and can’t bring himself to transform.

Gee’s Thoughts: This is the beginning of what many of us have been waiting for. Fast paced (and for once, excellently well executed) animation, Titan’s glorious soundtrack in full force, and in general, Attack on Titan being the violent and chaotic piece of work it is. Annie proceeds to royally fuck up the military as our trio is forced to go to plan B: Take down the Female Titan with Eren. Except as usual, Eren has trouble transforming when it counts, and the military is forced to stall Annie as long as possible. Oh well, at least we get more cool montages of Annie effortlessly murdering the shit out of humanity’s finest.

Mikasa’s “pep talk” is the voice of reason today, as Eren subconsciously can’t bring himself to harm a former friend and ally. Honestly, compared to the manga, this scene wasn’t nearly as good in the anime. One of the main reasons this is so difficult for Eren to internalize is because Annie and Eren actually get along decently, something which is only really shown in the manga. Annie, being hands down the best CQC expert among the 104th, is a natural fit for Eren, who’s constantly striving to improve and grow stronger. In the manga, they’re shown training together often as Annie teaches Eren some of her tricks. In addition, the conversations the two have really help flesh out Annie and lets us have some insight into her mindset and her beliefs. All this buildup is what makes Annie such a difficult villain for Eren to fight. She’s not just the enemy, she’s a former friend, and if Mikasa’s accusations mean anything, maybe even something more than that. So it’s disappointing that out of anything the Titan anime would cut out for the sake of time, it’s Annie’s scenes.

That said, Mikasa’s part is perfect, her gaunt expression and frank interrogation of Eren reminds everyone that she is…not exactly all there. At this point I’m not even sure if her speech is coming from genuine care for her comrades or jealousy that any girl other than her is taking up Eren’s thoughts. But she has a point, Annie isn’t some innocent girl who’s been wronged, she’s a member of a race of malevolent flesh eating giants hell bent on exterminating humanity, and she is directly responsible for the death of many of Eren’s friends, including Levi’s squad and Marco. To afford someone as coldhearted as Annie any reservation or mercy is foolish at best, suicidal at worst.

On a side note, I love Jean’s bit with the Military Police. Having been the one most intent on joining them initially, it’s satisfying to see how far Jean has come compared to the cowards and corrupt thugs that inhabit the insides of Wall Sina. Jean might not always be the nicest guy, but he’s a man who knows he’s a got a job to do and does it. For that, he earns my respect.

After some more fighting, shouting from Jean and Armin, and some ridiculously smooth aerial maneuvers on the part of Mikasa, Eren finally transforms, ready to cast aside his feelings and beat the everloving fuck out of Annie. Considering how good the animation was this episode, here’s hoping they really saved their budget for next week, because things are going to get pretty wild.

Marlin’s Thoughts: Coming from someone who hasn’t read the manga, I definitely was confused with why this was such an overwrought decision for Eren. Knowing now what Gee’s told me, it makes much more sense. I wholeheartedly agree that that lack of knowledge really hurt this episode. Still, at the very least the action has stayed exciting, and watching Misaka swing around and kick ass will never get old. I’ve been trusting more and more for Titan to come through where it really counts, and I hope that continues as we come to this final clash of the titans.