English Dub Season Review: Attack On Titan Season 2

A new group of Titan Shifters appear, with dubious intent. Secrets will come to light, and Eren will be tested.

Spoilers Below

In the wake of Annie’s capture, the damage to the walls has revealed that they contain titans. More accurately, the walls are made from titans! There is little time to ponder these portents, though, as the remaining members of the 104th Trainees are under attack! They manage to escape and ride out to warn the surrounding villages. They meet up at Castle Utgard, where the feces really begins to tickle the fan. A large, ape-like titan called the Beast Titan attacks them, directing the normal Titans from a distance and sniping with thrown boulders. In the chaos, one of the trainees reveals that she is a Titan Shifter, just like Eren. Her smaller titan form is much more agile, and defends her allies until the rest of the Survey Corps arrive.

The next job for the crew is to figure out where the hole in the wall came from that let these titans in. The strange thing is, there is no hole. While they puzzle over this mystery, Reiner and Berthold make their own startling revelations. Not only are they Titan Shifters as well, but they are the Colossal and Armored Titans that brought about the destruction of Shiganshima. They kidnap Ymir and Eren, and run off beyond the wall. Shortly after, the Survey Corps bring their horses over the wall and give chase. The battle to reclaim the pair becomes chaotic, especially as Eren is unable to transform. Instead, he discovers a whole new ability: the power to command other titans. He leverages this ability to help his comrades escape, but Ymir stays behind to rescue the other shifters from certain death. But back at the capitol, they finally figure out the mystery of the sudden attack of titans… each of these giant monsters are actually humans.

After three long years, we finally have the second part of this series! Though half as long as the first season, it is jam-packed with the same intensity we’ve come to expect from the series. There is a lot more going on here, and the side characters are getting some time in the sun to develop. Each character gets their own episode, but it doesn’t feel like the writers went “Well this is their episode, what are we gonna do?” Instead, the story ebbs and flows between them naturally. Of course, you shouldn’t get too attached to many characters, because of how many die in these parts. Nobody in this story is safe, except maybe the main three. The story also plays around with who knows what, which gives the viewer more information. Still, information is not understanding. We also get a huge boost in how much we know about these mysterious titans, and what biological processes drive them. We still don’t know where they come from, but we know they are other people, injected with some serum. We don’t know what makes the titans into Titan Shifters, or why Eren is one, but season three is coming to Japan in April of next year, so the answers won’t be so long to wait for as before.

The animation on this season is, as the last one, amazing. Traditional animation juxtaposed with sparing and subtle use of CG to create sweeping, dynamic shots filled with action, drama, and intensity. The art style is truly unique, utilizing a heavy dose of cross-hatching to shadow the eyes and give the characters an internal dread that reads differently in every situation. Coupled with strong, expressive line art, the style here is extremely illustrative and distinctive.  The voice acting began a bit weak early on, but as each character got more real, their actors got stronger. Ymir and Christa, who felt like new characters despite being around from the beginning, developed the most. Christa, later revealed as Historia, went from a shrill, whiny little thing to an action heroine filled with determination. That isn’t just her character arc. It’s her voice. While I disliked hearing her talk when she showed up in episode one of the season, her actress, Bryn Apprill, gave her a deep strength in the final episode that made me smile. Elizabeth Maxwell (Ymir) got an entire episode of monologue, and didn’t waste it. All series long, the voice acting just kept getting better, right alongside the animation.

If you’ve seen the original Attack on Titan, I’m pretty certain you have been watching this series alongside me, right on the edge of your seat. If you haven’t, go back and chow down on it. It was some good watching, and this is more of the same. .  I will also be waiting with baited breath for the next season! I’ve got to know!