Attack on Titan - Episode 14 - Recap - Still Can't See - Night Before the Counteroffensive (1)
Attack on Titan - Episode 14 - Recap - Still Can't See - Night Before the Counteroffensive (1)
One of my favorite shows right now is Japanese anime Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin). It's like The Walking Dead, except with giants.
One hundred years before the start of the story, giant humanoid Titans appeared and forced humanity to live within towering concentric walls. The innermost wall (the most protected) is called Wall Sina. The middle is called Wall Rose and the outermost is called Wall Maria.
At the beginning of the series, the Titans breached Wall Maria with the sudden appearance of the Colossal Titan (a Titan as tall as the wall) and the Armored Titan (a Titan that runs fast then smashes a hole in the wall). The humans had to retreat back to Wall Rose as the Titans invaded all the lands (they have an appetite for humans, and this is all they do).
The protagonist of the story is Eren Jaeger who seeks revenge on the Titans when his mother was devoured by a Titan in front of his eyes during the breach of Wall Maria. He, along with his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman and best friend Armin Arlert, enlist in the army.
The day after their graduation (five years after Wall Maria was breached), the Colossal and Armored Titan appear again and breach Wall Rose at the district of Trost.
During the defense of Trost, Eren gets eaten by a Titan -- and this triggered his super power while inside its stomach. Eren was able to transform into a Titan himself! Though unable to fully control his Titan form at first, Eren was instrumental in taking back the district of Trost by sealing Wall Rose with a gigantic boulder.
Episode 14 starts a new story arc in the series. In fact, the show had brand new musical intro and closing credits. It looked like a new show actually with all the new characters.
With Wall Rose secured, the military is now trying to figure out what to do with Eren. Some think he should be killed because he is a Titan and others think he could be used as an ally.
The military is divided into four branches: the cadets (where Eren and company just graduated from), the Garrison (soldiers assigned to protect the walls), the Military Police (soldiers assigned in Wall Sina, to protect the king) and the Recon Corps (soldiers who go outside the walls to study the Titans). (Note: In the anime, the Recon Corps is called Survey Corps). The Commander-in-Chief of the military decides where to send Eren: to the Military Police (who want him dead) or the Recon Corps (who want to recruit him).
It's a bit predictable as to what would happen, but the episode did introduce some new antagonists to the show: the Military Police leader, the elites that they are protecting (there's an underlying class war going on in the series), and the religious nutcases who think the walls were "created by God" and should not be desecrated.
Most of the action happened in the military tribunal, which is a very jarring change of pace from the action-packed episodes during the battles at Trost. I actually thought that the Trost story arc was one or two episodes too many, so even if there wasn't any action, this episode was very meaty in terms of story possibilities.
Ultimately, the Recon Corps get Eren -- which is the equivalent of Harry Potter going to Gryffindor. Eren has idolized them since he was a kid, so it's going to be interesting to see him either jaded or fulfilled by the experience.
Hopefully, Mikasa and Armin don't get left behind too much. They said they would apply for the Recon Corps too after they graduated, so I hope they accompany Eren.