Wow! This episode was intense!

The first half of the episode focuses a lot on the fighting, and we see both Zeke and Eren’s Titans take a beating. But things really take a turn when Colt, Falco, and Gabi come running up to Zeke, and Colt beginning Zeke not to scream until Falco can get away (since he had accidentally ingested some of the wine with Zeke’s spinal fluid in it). While Zeke sympathizes with Colt, Zeke still screams anyway… and suddenly, Titans are popping up all over. But seeing Falco turn into a Titan in front of Gabi and going after Reiner’s Titan was the part that really grabbed me when characters were turning into Titans.

The body count gets high in the first half of the episode. Both unnamed characters and characters that the audience has come to know are among those numbers. And to go along with the body count, the animators made sure to highlight the blood and gore. While I did see the occasional still shots or camera panning over a shot to mimic the appearance of movement, what stood out to me was the blood and gore. The animators really wanted to emphasize the brutality and the chaos of the action.

But then, something shocking happens right before the commercial break. Gabi gets a hold of a gun and shoots at Eren, and her accuracy with her shot creates a shocking moment to end the first half of the episode. Since I haven’t read this part of the manga, I had no idea that this scene was coming. Let’s just say that it threw me for a loop.

At the beginning of the second half, it retreads a little bit of what we saw leading up to the shocking scene, but everything is done in slow motion. I thought this was effective, and made sense to do in order to lead up to the next scene.

We see Eren standing in the sandy area where the Founder Ymir resides. Zeke is next to him, sitting on the ground in chains. Through Zeke, we learn that Eren passed away but that they managed to make contact with each other before his passing. Apparently, Zeke has been waiting a while for Eren to arrive in this location. At this point, Eren proves that Armin’s faith in him wasn’t misplaced, because Eren only pretended to believe in Zeke’s plan in order to make it to this point. But just when the tables seem to have turned in Eren’s favor, the Founder Ymir passes him by and goes to Zeke. It turns out Zeke learned some things while waiting for Eren, and that the Founder Ymir believes she serves those with royal blood. With what Zeke reveals, the tide turns back in his favor. The episode ends with Eren and Zeke butting heads.

The preview shows that the two of them will be seeing each other’s memories, and also seems to insinuate that the two will learn things. With the next episode title being, “Memories of the Future,” I suspect it’s going to focus entirely on this plot point.

But, wow! As I said at the beginning, this episode was intense. There were times that it seemed like the story would be close to ending, but I knew that the story can’t end here since we’re only three episodes into this season. I’m curious to see how the story is going to be able to progress past this point and how the story will ultimately come to its end.

Additional posts about Attack on Titan:

• Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2: Episode 2 – “Sneak Attack”

The episode opens by tracking back slightly to Armin, Mikasa, Jean, and Conny being released from their cell and debating whether or not to help Eren. We got to see Armin and Mikasa’s answers in the previous episode, and in this one, we get to hear what Jean and Conny have to say. Jean admits that even though he’s always thought of Eren as trouble since their academy days, he doesn’t want to see Eren die this way. Conny adds that if Eren dies now, he won’t be able to punch him in the face. Even though Armin keeps trying to reassure Mikasa that Eren lied about some things and is acting differently to try to convince Yelena that he’s cooperating with her, Mikasa doesn’t seem to buy it. At this point in the anime, we’ve reached a point where I haven’t read this in the manga, so I have no idea which way this is going to go. A part of me wants to believe what Armin is saying, but there’s a part of me that’s just as skeptical as Mikasa is.

Before the group can go to Eren’s rescue, though, they have to convince the Jaegerists to let them leave so they can help Eren. Once they make it past the Jaegerists, they unlock all the cells and let everyone out. Which includes Falco, who has made friends with one of the Eldian soldiers.

Meanwhile, Colt and Gabi go to rescue Falco. When the Eldian soldiers are released and head outside, both Falco and the Eldian soldier he befriended see them. The soldier makes up a story that he’s going to tie Falco up in one of the houses, but instead of doing that, he delivers Falco to Colt and Gabi and tells them to run. The final scene we get of these three characters sees Colt asking why Gabi trusted the Eldian solider, and after a bit, she tearfully admits that the people on Paradis Island are people and not the devils as they were taught to believe. Sasha’s family comes by, and while most of the family wonders what happened to “Mia” and “Ben” (the names Gabi and Falco went by when they stayed with them), the sister who had initially befriended Gabi can’t forgive her for killing Sasha. Near the end of this scene, Falco confesses his feelings to Gabi and why he wanted to become a Titan candidate. While this seems awkward, Falco admits that he could become a Titan since he ended up getting some of the wine with Zeke’s spinal fluid into him, so he needs to say this now in case he turns into a Titan. Gabi rips off the armband that shows he drank the wine, and Colt believes that if Zeke learns that Falco could turn into a Titan, that he won’t scream. This is the last we see of these characters in this episode. It was interesting to see Gabi’s change of heart here, especially since she was the one who believed the Marley propaganda about the inhabitants of Paradis. While there had been hints that her views were starting to change in earlier episodes, I appreciated finally seeing her admit that what she had been taught all this time was wrong. This was a great piece of character development for her.

There’s also a focus on Eren in his Titan form as he battles with Reiner and Galliard. But just as all hope seems lost, Zeke arrives in his Beast Titan form. Zeke takes over the battle as Eren starts heading toward Zeke. The Marley soldiers are desperate to stop the two from coming in contact, and near the end of the episode, Pieck pulls off a feint that allows Zeke to be shot. Unfortunately, the angle was off, and being shot and falling actually gets Zeke closer to Eren.

At this point, it looks like the stage is being set for Zeke and Eren to meet, but considering this is only the second episode of the season, I have feeling that whatever’s going to happen isn’t going to be starting right away, that there are going to be obstacles to slow things down. It’s going to be interesting to see how the remainder of this story is going to progress, especially since it’s obvious from how the story is being portrayed that the climax of this story is getting closer.

Additional posts about Attack on Titan:

• Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2: Episode 1 – “Judgment”
• Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2: Episode 3 – “Two Brothers”

©Hajime Isayama, KODANSHA/”ATTACK ON TITAN” The Final Season Production Committee.

The TV anime series Attack on Titan The Final Season Part 2 started at 00:05 (JAPAN TIME) on January 10, 2022 on NHK General TV.

With the TV series on air, the artist of the opening theme song has been revealed. Viewers found out that reggae and punk band, SiM made the song, which is titled, “The Rumbling.” The vocalist MAH read through the original story and created this song. The title was picked from the strong impression they got of the scenes in this TV series season. This TV Size song has been released at 00:00 (JAPAN TIME) on the January 10, 2022 through various music streaming and download services.

It was also announced that SiM has officially moved to PONY CANYON label.

SiM started their new year with this big news about the amazing collaboration with Attack on Titan and their transfer of music label.

Information on “The Rumbling”

• “The Rumbling” is the opening theme for for Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2
• Artist: SiM
• Lyrics: MAH
• Musical Arrangement: SiM
• The song first aired as part of the series on January 9, 2022 at 24:05 (JAPAN TIME)

SiM’s “The Rumbling (TV Size)” has been released through various music streaming and download services:
https://lnk.to/therumbling_tvsize

Special site for the song:
http://sim2022.ponycanyon.net/

SiM’s homepage:
https://sxixm.com/

This episode jumped right back in where the end of the previous season left off. Unfortunately, since there had been a significant gap between the end of this season and the beginning of this one, I was having to spend some of the early part of the episode trying to piece together and remember what happened to lead up to this point.

This episode opens with Hange finding a bloodied Levi and saying that he was killed by a Thunder Spear. Floch keeps trying to insist that Hange let him take Levi’s pulse to prove that he’s dead. However, he’s interrupted by Zeke reappearing. Hange uses this distraction to jump into the nearby river with Levi, but this is all we see of Hange and Levi. As of the right now, Levi’s fate is truly unknown. Is Levi really dead, or is Hange trying to making it appear that he is?

After this, Floch approaches Zeke and asks him what happened, because it certainly had looked like Zeke had died. Zeke tells him that he was taken to a place he didn’t recognize and saw a girl rebuilding his body with sand. When the opening credits appear after this scene, we do see a brief shot of the girl in the opening, so I assume she’s going to somehow be important later in the season.

After the opening credits, the rest of the episode sees Marley coming to Paradis and attacking. Gabi and Pieck, who are chained together, are freed after Porco (in Titan form) cuts off Pieck’s hand. Pieck falls over the side of the tower, but she changes into her Titan form. In Titan form, Pieck helps Gabi to get away, and they reunited with the Marley troops.

Meanwhile, other Marley troops are coming down in parachutes from the zeppelins, and among them is Reiner. Eren, who is in his Titan form, jumps off of the tower and going against Yelena’s protestations. At first, it appears Eren has the upper hand when he traps Porco and Reiner, but Pieck’s Titan form appears with a gun attached… and the gunners get in a couple of good shots on Eren.

A panicked Onyankopon goes to release Armin, Mikasa, Conny, Jean, and the others to try to get help for Eren. At first, Conny is extremely pissed off, and his reaction is very understandable. They definitely felt betrayed by Yelena and her group. It turns out that Onyankopon hadn’t known the truth about Yelena’s plan, and Armin believes he’s telling the truth. By the end of the episode, both Armin and Mikasa express a desire to help Eren. It’s not clear if the others will assist them or not.

As I said earlier, I was spending the earlier part of the episode trying to remember what had happened in the first half of Attack on Titan Final Season, so it’s a lot harder for me to have reactions to what happened in this episode because of that. But this episode definitely had a lot of excitement (and a lot of blood) during Marley’s invasion and Eren’s fight with Reiner and Porco.

I’m interested to see what happens next week to move the story forward, and hopefully I’ll have an easier time with a writeup next time as well.

Additional posts about Attack on Titan:

• Attack on Titan Final Season: Episode 16 – “Above and Below”
• Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2: Episode 2 – “Sneak Attack”