There are two ways you can watch Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin. First you can watch it as if it were a serious piece of media. Results here may vary. Alternatively you can watch it as if it were a Bmovie popcorn flick. Something to pass the time. Something mindnumbing and doltish but selfaware enough to take all of its faults in stride and dive in headfirst and fullthrottle. Yes I realise I inadvertently described Eren in a single sentence here. Something so ostentatiously unabashed propelled solely by overzealous overacting and indiscriminate plot twist after indiscriminate plot twist that you can only admire Studio Withttps://anilist.co/studio/858/WitStudios We dont give a shit keep giving us attitude pump your fist and yell FUCK YEAH as naked people chow on smaller nonnaked people. Again results here may vary. https://blog.sakugabooru.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/arakibattlefield.mp4 Heres the thing. As much as I wanted to commit to this second form of spectatorship I found it near impossible to do so. Not that there was any shortage of overzealous overacting or indiscriminate plot twists. After all these are what Attack on Titan is built on. But thats exactly it. I find theres only so much selfindulgent absurdity one can tolerate before such a formula gets dry. An entire first season was built on these foundations. Now audiences are expected to salivate as the same formula is dished out before them. Not only this one key ingredient seems to be missing: selfawareness. Much like the first season except for the occasional moment theres little to no indication that Attack on Titan 2 isnt taking itself seriously. Which is fine. Only if a show strives to present itself as a sincere piece of media I find it difficult to avoid assessing it as such. Damn youre ugly From a visual standpoint Attack on Titan 2 is mostly fine. Much like the first season the art is probably not for everyone but its nonoffensive enough. Of course thats the idea: the drab colour scheme combined with the fact that the titans designs and hell that of some of the characters too are nestled firmly in the uncanny valley creates that uneasy aesthetic that is so wellsuited for and defines the Attack on Titan series. However the titans designs perfectly exemplify the earlier posited conundrum: they occasionally teeter into the realm of the stupidly comical. Again this too contributes to that uneasy feeling: an unsettling amalgamation of innocent mindless childlike goofiness and devastating killer instinct. As such Im more willing to forgive and even praise the show on this front. Of course the art is by no means flawlesshttps://twitter.com/DaLadybugMan/status/871068745858469888. The show also had a tendency to default to shoddy CG horseshttps://blog.sakugabooru.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/horseslide.mp4 and occasionally titans toohttps://blog.sakugabooru.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/05/gobacktoyourbadvideogame.jpg. Likewise there were more freeze frames than I cared for. 480https://blog.sakugabooru.com/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/attackonstilltan.jpg Freeze frames galore The highlights of the series are without a doubt the intoxicating action sequences especially those showcasing the 3DMG. Goddam those gas effects I cannot overstate how much skill and workpower likely went into their creation. The FX/animation departments at Wit seriously outdid themselves and the outstanding sakuga was always something to look forward to. https://sakugabooru.com/data/f9a3d2f74cc6fc5e5ce5138001d7eb7f.mp4 On a side note I cant say I was the biggest fan of the change in scenery. The open fields and medievalstyle buildings got boring quick as there was not a lot to them as far as detail or colour was concerned. I guess theres only so much background art variety you can have when the show is literally set in a walled enclosure. The OST is sublime. Hiroyuki Sawanohttps://anilist.co/staff/103509/HiroyukiSawano continues to nicely establish himself as a leading musical face of the industry. Songs mainly consisted of a surprisingly effective blend of electronic music and orchestral choirs plus the occasional insert song. These complemented the action scenes and emotional peaks well. Id be lying if I said the OP didnt grow on me although Im not entirely sure about that bit with the charging animals and dinosaurs and shit. The ED is deliciously disturbinghttps://files.catbox.moe/4kkaen.. https://files.catbox.moe/fw9cp3. Its difficult to assess the voiceacting given that at any given moment it is more likely to find a character yelling than not. Again everything is hilariously overacted from the voicework to the characters overexaggerated facial expressions. Similarly some of the shit that happens in the action sequences is so outlandish that its comical. Again this wouldnt be problem except its tension and immersion breaking. More importantly theres rarely any indication that this campiness is intentional. Theres little suggestion of selfparody. As such youre laughing at it not with it. This is like all the things you can fit inside a memory This season has a slower more characteroriented focus. Unfortunately this points to the most glaring problem with the Attack on Titan franchise in general: its messy writing. From the opening episode of the first season Attack on Titan was brutally honest in how it was going to sell itself substantively: on cheap thrills. Initially this hinged on the shock value read: a dingo titan ate my baby that arose from the admittedly brilliant and unique premise but plot twists soon joined the picture. There is nothing wrong with this. It can certainly make some good entertainment. And going into season 2 you mostly get what you expect. Plot twists by themselves are innocuous enough and I do commend the likely unprecedented manner in which the big reveal of the season was handled. That said they begin to lose their appeal when it becomes apparent that literally anyone and their uncle could be an enemy. Moreso it becomes blindingly obvious this season just how overreliant Attack on Titan is on these plot twists. Not just narratively: shit the plot is at a standstill? RKO outta nowhere. But also as a means of retaining the audiences attention. Its as if the show has gradually constructed a facade of mystery and intrigue forcing the audience to pay attention lest they miss yet another crucial earthshaking plot development. https://sakugabooru.com/data/265e00360f9af83fb150f7f0f7accc97.mp4 This is because virtually all other facets of the shows writing are lackluster. Take the inconsistent pacing. Attack on Titan 2 really does not know how to handle itself when theres a lull in the action. I mean we spend an entire episode sitting in a fucking tree. Very little progress is made this season. Sure plenty of new discoveries are made key plot points are raised and a central villain is introduced. But resolutions are far and few between. More questions are given than answers. Its as if as few manga chapters were spread across twelve episodes of anime as humanly possible. Multiple plot tangents concurrently exist at any given time and are tantalisingly drawn out. For example the subplot concerning Connies home village. Come. The. Fuck. On. Not only is this frustrating its plain insulting. This irregular pacing can largely be attributed to the way character development was handled. Again this season was more characterfocused where much of the secondary cast received some screentime. Of course out of the central trio only Armin receives any semblance of substantive growth. Despite the inroads made at the end of last season Eren has reverted to his usual headstrong self. Meanwhile Mikasa remains as obsessively attached to Eren as ever. Rather we learn a bit more about Connie yeah not really Sasha Hannes Ymir and Krista. Its not exactly the most compelling stuff but its something and I appreciate what was being attempted. It is genuinely touching to see these personal triumphs and advancements given that these characters havent had a lot going for them. That said Im not entirely sure what was going on with Ymirs arc at the end here. This is mindboggling. Seemingly it can only be in service to something plotrelated likely in the form of a twist later on in the series. Regardless my biggest qualm with this new focus on characters is how overlyreliant the show is on flashbacks. In moderation or when they form an intrinsic element of the narrative structure like in Herohttps://letterboxd.com/film/hero2002/ or Mementohttps://letterboxd.com/film/memento/ flashbacks are fine. But here it is obvious that the writers or Hajime Isayamahttps://anilist.co/staff/106705/HajimeIsayama were either too lazy or incapable of developing characters in a way that would smoothly integrate into and complement the principal presentday plotline. Instead they had to work retroactively making up for lost ground by ostensibly giving the characters backstories ad hoc so they could then have a platform to be developed off of. As such we dont so much receive growth which implies progression from the characters moment of introduction as we learn about the characters. Of course the abundance of flashbacks chews up valuable screentime that could otherwise be spent on more pressing concerns like the main plot and subplots. Needless to say the subtext concerning humanity preserving humanity and questioning what even constitutes as human is never really deftly handled enough to be too compelling. Its there but only the surface is scratched while the shoddy writing overshadows and detracts from these themes. ?? Attack on Titan 2 much like its predecessor can certainly be good fun. Its action sequences are impressively animated and generally exhilarating to watch. Its soundtrack is phenomenal. And whether intentional or not it can always get me to chuckle. https://sakugabooru.com/data/a5515c88b10c098e4c3e066aa250eeb5.mp4 Its unfortunate then that it squanders nearly everything that isnt action related. From pacing to character development the writing does what it can to ruin the flow and intensity of the series. Of course I chose to take the show seriously and I undoubtedly would have enjoyed it more if I had approached it with a less sober eye. Then again with very little indication that Attack on Titan 2 wasnt taking itself seriously I think it would be unwarranted if I were to do so.