English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Historia”

To thine own self be true.

Spoilers Below

Let’s set the wayback machine to the days when the 104th Training Corps were doing their environmental survival training in the frosty mountains. During that time, Daz wore himself out, nearly killing himself. Krista and Ymir tried to save him, but got lost during the blizzard. Eren and the gang want to go out and look for her, but their instructors insist against it. The storm could kill them all. As they walk back, Ymir cuts to the heart of the matter, accusing Krista of using Daz as an excuse to attempt self-martyrdom. That’s when she reveals Krista’s secret. She knows the little blond is actually the illegitimate child of a high-ranking clergyman in the Cult of the Walls. Rather than give her a fair share of the inheritance, they decided to force her to hide her identity and join the army. Nice folk, them. Ymir gives her some advice. If Krista dies like this, she’ll only be giving them what they want. Her best revenge is to live her own life the way she wants to. They reach a point where they aren’t far from the camp, but a steep cliff prevents them from taking Daz further. Ymir tosses Krista aside so that she’s buried in snow. When she comes to, Ymir and Daz are gone. When she gets back to camp, Ymir and Daz are already there! Daz is safe and alive. Ymir admits she has a secret of her own and asks for a promise: If Ymir’s secret were to become known, she would want Krista to live under her own name.

Okay, back to the present! Krista and the gang are at the top of the tower, as Ymir has turned into the Jaws Titan and begins tearing into the enemy. They begin to fret. If she’s been hiding this the whole time, she could have been working with the enemy! She very quickly proves otherwise, as she deliberately throws herself to the hungry titans to keep from damaging the crumbling tower. Krista returns the favor of that snowy night. She calls out Ymir for trying to be a martyr. That sacrificing herself for them was just being selfish, and she should live for herself… by tearing apart the tower. The Jaws Titan takes this to heart, pulling bricks out and chucking them at the other titans in the world’s most extreme game of Jenga. When the damage is too much, she clambers up to give all the good little boys and girls a ride to safety. The only cost? Ymir can’t get away and is swarmed by the gnashing teeth of her titan brethren. Eren, Mikasa, and the rest of the scouts arrive, but too late. Ymir has been torn nearly to shreds. As she lay in critical condition, Krista rushes to her side to make good on her promise: Her name is Historia.

Man, good episode, this one. This finally gives us what we need to know about Krista, and hints at the larger story behind Ymir, all while forging s stronger bond between the trainees of the 104th. Ymir was the Titan that ate Reiner and Bertolt’s friend before the story began, which suggests that she wasn’t always a Titan Shifter as she is now. It was also really hilarious that this episode, thirty in, and Eren only now gets in a kill with his ODM gear. That’s right, thirty episodes, and he still has only killed titans as a titan, and not as how he was trained. That’s kinda funny. Even better that he announces it proudly before tangling up his gear. Priceless. I do hope Ymir survives. We could use a couple more titans on our side of the battle. We’ve seen Eren survive worse.

I do have to say, the art in this episode was brilliant. The shot right after the one to the right here? I wish I had been able to capture that. It was an absolutely beautiful shot of Krista looking down at Ymir, so well animated and detailed, it took my breath away. Watching the battle animation was lots of fun. That Jaws Titan can really jam. I haven’t seen movement like that since Aram of Chain Chronicle, and he was mostly CG animated. Ymir was animated traditionally, so that’s even more impressive. It makes me willing to forgive the few minor errors in her facial details at a long distance. Overall, this episode was even more beautiful than the last couple. The voice acting was rather nice. Bryn Apprill has upped her performance for Krista a bit. Though she was a bit shrill, she tempered it back a bit from previous episodes. I feel like she played well off of Elizabeth Maxwell’s Ymir, though it seemed Elizabeth’s performance may have been a little flat. I would like to see a bit more behind the surface of the lines, but then again, I have high standards. I still loved this episode, and give it nine chompy titans out of ten.