The Titans begin their attack and the residents of Wall Rose are now being evacuated. As for the rest, it is time for them to fight these Titans. Now that Eren has the ability to fight these monsters, can he and his comrades defeat these monsters?
After four episodes, it is time to see Eren fly with his 3D Maneuver Gear and fight the Colossal Titan that destroyed Wall Maria. Eren's first encounter and later, fight with the Colossal Titan is really amazing. The speed of Eren's flight and how they shoot it in a perspective that gives us viewers an impression that we are swinging with Eren is just amazing. They did sure take a lot of notes while watching The Amazing Spider-Man in theatres while they are doing research on how they can make the 3D Maneuver Gear really realistic.
Since we are talking about killing Titans, this episode explained why during their training, they need to slash the necks of a Titan. As it turns out, it is the only weakness these creatures have as they have the ability to regenerate. Man, this show is really giving me this impression that humans are just cattle for the Titans. Back to Eren, the Colossal Titan disappeared before Eren can even slash his neck. This made me wonder, how the heck these creatures can instantly disappear? Aside from that, if the Titans are said to be too stupid, how come the Colossal Titan aimed to destroy the fixed cannons and the gate? Now I am starting to think that the Titans are magical creatures or something.
While this is all happening, we have a bit of politics in one scene, which features some high ranking military official ending his game of chess with a Marquis because of a Titan attack. We saw the Marquis act like a kid and begged for the said military official to stay and protect his territory. This scene showed us one thing, in any era, politicians or rulers are all greedy individuals who only cared for themselves and not others. This scene also showed us that not all soldiers care for themselves, some of them still care for their subordinates.
Speaking of the said subordinates, this is the first time to see the trainees in battle. If there is one thing that surprised me about it is how they reacted. These guys endured 3 years of harsh training in preparation to fight these Titans, and when the day comes to finally fight these creatures, most of them are crying for help and crying for their lives. Heck, some of them even vomited, what's worse, most of them panicked! Thankfully, Eren is there to snap some of them from it. Because they will finally face the Titans, Mikasa asked Eren to run towards her once things get tough. To be honest, Mikasa is being too concerned for Eren in this point, both of them are the top of their class; in short, Eren is capable in protecting himself.
Finally, it is time for battle, aside from the impressive animation, the action sequences are amazing. But the biggest surprise is that unlike most shonen anime titles that showed us that our heroes are now strong individuals after harsh training, it is the opposite in this series. Instead, we are shown a scene wherein our heroes are hopeful and happy that they can beat these Titans... and then follow it with a scene wherein they are brutally killed by them. Well s***. I am not sure what the author is thinking during that time, but this is quite brutal in modern and classic shonen manga standards.
To make it worse, Armin here is standing, frozen and just watching his friends being eaten by the Titans. This made me want to kill Armin because of it. He now has the ability to kill these monsters, he endured 3 years of harsh military training and his own fear got the best of him. That is why I was kinda happy that a Titan swallowed him whole. This is the time when Eren woke up and decide to save his friend after some flashback, which featured Armin showing Eren a book about the outside world that is banned by the government.
Eren's act in saving Armin is fantastic and showed us why he is such a great protagonist. This scene also showed us why Armin is an idiot. Instead of using his 3D Maneuver Gear to pull Eren out of the Titan's mouth, he tried to reach his hand towards him and before he can reach it, the Titan just bit Eren's arm of before swallowing it. Five episodes in and the show's main protagonist is now dead. Man, this show is so messed up that I like it.
