HOLY SHITTING FUCK THERE’S A TITAN AT THE GATES WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO NOW.
Episode 5
3:57 – Wow, they did an awesome job conveying a sense of momentum, scale, and speed in that encounter. I think they were going for something like how we must appear to flies, and it certainly worked – the slow but unimaginable power of the titan, the constant whiplash of the three dimensional cords… good stuff
5:07 – The lone doll in the street, pretty much the required marker of an abandoned town. We lose more dolls that way…
5:48 – Nooo Franz and Hannah, don’t let the camera catch you solemnly swearing to protect each other! Noooo…
6:45 – Goddamnit Armin. Wait in the fucking car if you have to.
9:42 – This scene is pretty vintage samurai fare, right down to the holding back in order to let your lord maintain his ego. But it’s executed well enough, which I guess is kind of the point of all of this – it’s taking some classic shounen ideas, some classic war film ideas, some classic samurai film ideas, etc etc, and just making a well-executed riff on them with a fun core concept. Nothing wrong with that
10:30 – It seems like this whole army really likes the idea of keeping their most useful soldiers in the least useful/dangerous locations. I guess according to traditional warfare, this makes sense, since highly valued skills are generally about a soldier’s use as a tactical/strategic thinker or leader, and you’d rather have your grunts kill their grunts than your best be mowed down in a melee. But here the “best soldiers” are just the best fighters, plus the titans have no hierarchy, do not know to focus on targets of opportunity, etc… you’d think it’d be better to use the best soldiers wisely throughout the battlefield, not just have them guard the rear.
Although, considering that scene with the lord and Pixis, this could very well become a plot point, where our brave and talented recruits lead to some structural changes in their “lose as slowly as possible” focused military
12:21 – I like that this whole episode is just Eren walking around and Kamina-ing people into shape
13:05 – Holy shit he even headbutted her.
13:45 – “I couldn’t die even if I were killed here.” Well, I’m not above saying it. Hate to tell you, Eren – people die if they are killed
15:00 – Eren just sitting politely in class, mouth agape in his silent horror face.
The pacing of this episode is pretty weird – a minute of frenetic action, titans start attacking the city, and now we’ve found time to introduce some new characters, run through three separate pep talks, and have a biology class flashback. Not sure about it
15:16 – Why did historic guards wear wizard hats? Wait, fuck that, why don’t current guards wear wizard hats?
16:08 – Ah, I get it. I’d already read past this point, so I’d forgotten we hadn’t fully established how their battles work yet. That’s certainly something the show needed to do before we got into the action
16:45 – And now with this fourth pep talk, along with thinking about the skill analysis from last episode, I’m actually pretty content with the work here – they’re not just hitting classic scenes or buffing our impression of the leader, they’re clearly indicating “leadership potential.” Which hopefully means this show will get pretty damn tactical about the various roles our heroes play within the squad, which I am all for
17:15 – Yesss, these close cam shots are awesome. I love the sense of speed they’re creating here
And Done
WELL SHIT. Squad crushed, main character devoured, mankind is doomed. I think I’m gonna go sit down for a while.