English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Sin”

You are what you eat!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Eren tries to figure out where he is when Historia shows up and tries to explain things. Her father, Rod Reiss, has apparently been doing everything for the sake of humanity, even if that means turning on the Scouts and killing people who know too much. Rod takes over explaining from there, noticing that Eren is having an odd moment of déjà vu, as if he’s been in this location before when he never has. Somehow, Rod touching his back rekindles repressed memories within both Eren and Historia. Eren remembers a battle between white-robed people, as well as seeing himself be injected with something and turn into a Titan from someone else’s perspective before eating someone…that someone being his father Grisha.

Historia also regains some lost memories; particularly ones of a dark-haired older girl who taught her to read and treated her kindly, but then erased her memories every time she left. This girl, Frieda, was actually Rod’s eldest child and Historia’s half-sister. Unfortunately, Frieda died five years ago, killed by Eren’s father. He and Frieda could turn into a Titans and he apparently wanted the power she held, so he killed her, ate her, and stole that power before killing the rest of the Reiss family except for Rod. Based on Eren’s memories, he must’ve somehow turned Eren into a Titan and then had himself eaten, allowing Eren to remain human while also gaining both Grisha and Frieda’s power.

Kenny arrives to inform Rod about the coup at the capital, so Rod tells him to use his squad to defend them while they perform the ceremony. Meanwhile, Erwin and Pyxis prepare to storm the Reiss compound, but it seems their victory isn’t as secure as they thought. Despite being subjected to Zachary’s shit-eating contraption, they sound pretty confident that Rod will do something to erase the memories of everyone except them in order to maintain the status quo, and it has some connection to the scream Eren used to control Titans.

While on the way to save Eren, Levi informs the rest of the squad what he knows about Kenny, who shares the last name Ackermann with Mikasa. While they discuss their shared heritage and its apparent connection to their fighting ability, Kenny seems to be thinking similarly as he recalls his grandfather’s explanation regarding the Ackermann’s former affiliation with the king.

OUR TAKE

We’ve hit another lull in the action, but at least that time is used wisely give us some crucial information that’s connected some important dots. Since we now know how Titan power is transferred, seeing the last few moments of Grisha’s life tells us how and from whom Eren received his Titan shifting ability, as well as that odd screaming ability that he used at the end of the last season that allowed him to use other Titans. And while it’s not quite confirmed, that might be the ability Grisha gained from eating Frieda, as well as what the nobles are resting the hopes of their keeping their power by erasing the memories of everyone outside of the families who are immune.

That gives us seven distinct intelligent Titan types now (although it seems Eren’s and Frieda’s have merged now), along with Annie’s Female Titan, Reiner’s Armored Titan, Bertholdt’s Colossal Titan, the Beast Titan, and Ymir’s…Big Mouth Titan? There are still some obvious gaps in this info, like what Grisha was doing there that night and why he thought to kill himself and to give Eren his power was the best option, but I trust we’ll be getting that soon.

Kenny also finally makes a reappearance in the story after a few weeks, along with further expansion of how he knows Levi, his connection to Mikasa, and even more lore about the royal family and their secret society. Seems the Ackermann’s and the Easterners rejected the king for some reason, and so both tribes were persecuted and hunted. This means the death of Mikasa’s parents is a direct cause of the royal family seeing both those groups as traitors and she has an even more personal stake in this than just rescuing Eren…even though I’m pretty sure she’s still just going to care about saving him and not much else. I’m not quite sure how all of this motivates Kenny, given he seems just fine with simply killing, but having the trust of the royals is apparently pretty important to him.

And we have further reason to fear for humanity’s future, regardless of who wins this battle, based on how Zachary’s treating his prisoners. Pyxis’ lack of complete loyalty to either the nobles or Erwin is understandable since there was no way to know if Erwin’s plan could work. Even now that it has, things aren’t set in stone just yet, and things could potentially turn out much worse. But for now, their best bet rests in Eren.

So, things aren’t looking good.