Anime Review: Attack on Titan Season 2

Attack on Titan Season 2 (UK Rating: 15)

Those who have kept up to date with Attack on Titan in its manga form will know just how sporadic the quality of the series can be. The content the first season of anime covered is mostly immune to the horrendously dumb moments that plague what comes after and, thanks to the superb quality of the production from Studio WIT, the anime received rave reviews. Now that same studio is back and covering some of the best moments of the story to date. Diving straight into the action with the first episode, the fan favourite characters of Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Levi et al are dealing with the revelations of the Titans within the wall and the capture of Annie, so the story shifts to focus on the other recruits from the 104th.

The story this time finally answers some questions, while also expanding the world-building. It's a shame that it goes so far downhill after this point but, for the time being, it's nothing but quality. Every single episode in this collection is great, delving into the horror moments that gained it much of its popularity by delivering some episodes where the scouts have to creep in the dark, avoiding using lights lest they attract the attention of the dormant Titans. The Beast Titan is a truly terrifying new antagonist for the Corps and the existing threats finally get some motivation.

The first season ran for a full 26 episodes and a huge amount happened in that time. This second season is sadly only made up of 12 episodes, but there's a positive to the reduced running time as the story feels very tight. To make up for the limited amount of episodes, Funimation has packed in a ton of extra bonus content. There are, of course, both the English and the Japanese dub, consisting of Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD: Japanese 2.0. When it comes to the cast, there are a few issues with the English, the worst of which is Jessica Calvello's performance as Hange, which is utterly lacking in any heart, passion, or even emotion.

Considering the ugliness of the art in the source material, the anime from Wit Studio looked absolutely unbelievable, and that same high quality is once again in attendance. The combat scenes look amazing with the Corps tearing through the skies with its 3DMG. Then there is the visceral carnage of the Titans, tearing to pieces any human foolish enough to get too close.

8/10

Great - Silver Award

This second series of Attack on Titan is unbelievably even better than the first. The combat scenes are ridiculous, filled with dynamic and explosive moments against truly horrific looking monstrosities. The story gives the supporting cast some real time to shine, along with finally beginning to answer some major questions that have been around since the very first panel of the very first chapter, and manages to set up some big events at the season end that viewers will be desperate to see the pay-off for, and now they won't have too much of a wait, with season three finally having a release date. Currently scheduled to be shown in Japan in July 2018, Funimation will hopefully shorten the delay between Japan and the UK.