English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “Midnight Train”


OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Marley army discusses their options after narrowly winning their last war, knowing that the power of the Titans will soon be out classed by advancing machinery. To pre-empt this, Zeke pitches that they finally get back to obtaining the Founding Titan, since that’s the one that controls minds and will be able to help them maintain control. He’s only got a year left before his Titan powers kill him and he hands them over to Colt, but he wants to finish cleaning the mess his father Grisha left for them. The Titan Shifters recover from the battle, though Galliard gives Reiner a hard time for acting like a reliable guy while on his mission on the island. Reiner also talks briefly with Falco, who wants to become the Armored Titan to keep Gabi from giving away her life, which Reiner encourages. Everyone returns home from the war, with Reiner and Gabi going home to their family and Reiner briefly going into some of his mishaps while undercover, though his mother suspects he might not hate the Eldians as much as he puts on and is disgusted by this. Still, the plan now seems to be heading back to Paradis one more time.

OUR TAKE

While last episode was mostly about establishing this new setting and cast, this one seems very firmly about Reiner’s perspective in all this. As the only one who came back from the mission to take the Founding Titan, he is finding himself grappling with multiple conflicting emotions and identities. As we learned after his reveal of being the Armored Titan back in the second season, he has a rather difficult time reconciling identities in his head, going from being his “soldier” persona to his “warrior” real self on and off. Now we see, and will expand on next week, he was actually the runt of his particular litter of Titan Shifters, not seen as particularly reliable or strong. Even better, we get to learn this through finally meeting the Cart Titan we’ve seen a few times in the past season but in human form, along with the new Jaw Titan after Ymir, who seems to have a grudge against our boy and is the brother of the guy who Ymir ate. And we’re due to meet the final Titan of the nine, the War Hammer, pretty soon as well to complete the roster.

And yet, Reiner’s the one who made it back after both losing his comrades and betraying people who probably became the closest friends he ever had. And now he’s seen as that big brother type again by this new lot, though likely with a heaping dose of imposter syndrome. He’s both more than aware of how his people are treated but also knows that his life is basically forfeit and over and fears what could happen to those next in line to get his power, which is why he wants to spare Gabi that fate. More on that as it develops, though it was worth checking in on it.

I didn’t mention this last week, but there was a studio change from where the first three seasons were made, Studio Wit, to the one handling this one, Studio Mappa. There was some understandable backlash against this when it was announced, especially since Wit had done such an excellent job as the series went on, most notably near the end. The art style change is definitely noticeable and is taking some getting used to, most notably the shift to CGI Titans, which don’t look great but also not terrible. This week saw some weird motion capture kind of movement that I was not a fan of, though that doesn’t seem to be the norm moving forward. But what does look to be happening is things ramping up as the story continues, which I can’t wait to see.