English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Hunters”

Ha! Get it? Because Yeager is German for hunter. Anyone? No? Okay.

Spoilers Below

Not gonna lie, folks. It looks pretty bleak. Erin and Ymir have been kidnapped by Bertholdt and Reiner, and the steam blast from Reiner’s Colossal Titan has done massive damage to the scouts. Word of this has now reached Trost District and Commander Pyxis. We are then given a good-sized scene where the messengers recount pretty much the entire season. Forces are dispatched to lend aid to the scouts by the wall. In the meantime, Armin watches over a hard-boiled Mikasa, as she dreams her concussion-addled dream.

That dream, by the way, was more of a memory. Armin had some bread stolen by some bullies, three days of food. Erin went to go get the money from them so Armin could eat. Knowing he’d be in over his head, Mikasa ran to his aide. She arrived while the fight was already underway, and her presence only escalated the beatdown into a donnybrook. Wall guards and vendors joined in the fight until someone in command comes to break it up. The bullies ran, and Erin took off after them, leaving the others behind. Mikasa awakes from her dream to hear the worst news. It has now been five hours since the fight, and with all their horses on the human side of the wall, they can’t give chase. Even if the could, they’d be too injured to do anything. They would have to wait until reinforcements arrive with horse lifts. After Hannes gives her and Armin a rousing speech about Erin’s suicidal tenacity, the two friends gnaw into their field rations. Pyxis and Erwin arrive with supplies and lifts, and Hange lays out the plan. The Colossal and Armored Titan may have beat Erin’s Attack Titan, but they were bound to be tired afterward. If they got in any fights with Titans, they’d be sitting ducks. Hange is sure they’d head for the forest and hide in the trees until dark. If the Scouts can make it there before nightfall, they may just be able to rescue their kidnapped comrades!

Though this episode was a bit lacking in the “something happening” department, it just goes to show that Attack on Titan knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat, even when it’s slow. The dramatic art style just catches you and adds an intensity of emotion that many other shows with more mainstream styles lack. We’re just having a talk about Erin leaving us behind? Yeah, you get art like the stuff on the right, and it drives the tension through the roof. The animation on the street brawl scene was absolutely amazing, and it had so much character to it that I just wanted to see more of that. It reminded me of all the over-the-top action sequences of the first season, but without the flashing swords or slow-moving titans. Just mayhem.

The voice acting was great, with one notable exception. I know it isn’t his fault. Josh Grelle is acting Armin as he’s directed, and that is as close to the original Japanese portrayal as possible. But, like I keep on saying, Armin’s voice is grating to me, especially when he gets emotional. Just too much like he’s gone through puberty, but can’t shake the voice crack. It just isn’t comfortable. On the other hand, Mikasa (Trina Nishimura) and Hannes (David Wald) were excellent. Trina brought out a solid dose lovesick pining as only a warrior can. No melodrama, just a lot of depth in the voice. David kept Hannes true to his roots. There was a nice sprinkling of drunken goof that had been given time to sober up. I could hear it in how he was talking. It made his lines in the fight scene fun and added an interesting level underneath while he was speechifying the kiddies. Wow. “Speechifying” didn’t trip my spellchecker. That’s a real word there…

So, while this episode may not have had a massive amount happen, it was a nice bit of downtime from the previous episode. It is loaded with good drama, great animation, and even better art. I’m going to give it eight angrily-munched field rations out of ten.