Attack on Titan: Episode 2 Review

Attack on Titan continues the story of the previous episode with more epic action that showcases even more of the stunning animation. If you have not seen Attack on Titan yet, you can click on the links at the end of the review to watch it, because you most definitely should give it a shot.

*Spoilers*

After the death of Eren's mother, the city's outer walls are being overrun by the Titan. There was one Titan in particular that was not quite as gigantic as the one that toppled the wall in the first place, but still significantly larger than the regular Titans. As of now, I do not know what makes certain Titans larger than others, but maybe that is explained later. Also, when that larger, white haired Titan burst through the wall, it let out steam, almost like a machine, and its jaw looked like a machine, neither of which I noticed until my second viewing. If you already know the answer, please do not spoil anything in the comments.

After the larger Titan attack, we get our first glimpse at the political situation with the politicians (or leaders) debating about the walls. Also, we get to see how the inner cities are in a state of famine. There is a mystery element introduced about Eren's father about some key, and an important secret. Eren also flips about not wanting to be a parasite and live off of others before Mikasa rightfully punches some sense into him. On a side note, I have to say that I already like Mikasa a lot, and I cannot wait to see more of her! To end the episode, the series flashes forward to the three protagonists in the Survey Corps. My general impression of the episode is that was mostly a setup episode to continue the story of the first episode, so it did not have quite the Wow-Factor of seeing the Titans and the world of Attack on Titan for the first time, but there were several intriguing elements introduced, which I hope will come into play later on in the series. Also, the protagonists are grown up now and that means some epic Survey Corp action is coming! On the technical side, the English dub cast seemed to be a little better, the animation continues to be gorgeous, and the soundtrack is freaking epic. Thankfully, the Toonami version of episode 2 did not cut any part of the utterly incredible opening, which was amazing to finally see in HD on my TV after watching and listening to it many, many times on my computer. Since the art style, acting, and other categories are essentially the same as my review of the first episode, there is really no need to rank individual categories for just one episode.

Okay, now it is time to explain my rating system for AOT (Attack on Titan) episodes. You may remember that I gave an outstanding 9.9/10 for the pilot episode of Attack on Titan for being possibly the best pilot episode of any anime I have ever seen. Since, I assume, AOT is only to get better as a series, so giving every episode that is better than the pilot a 10 would be absurd. To "normalize" my ratings for AOT episodes, episodes 1 and 2 will serve as baseline of sorts to which all future episodes will be compared to. Episode reviews of episodes other than pilot episodes are compared to other episodes of the series for 75% of the rate, with 25% of the rating being its overall quality. This is not an exact science, but it prevents me from giving every AOT episode a 10/10. My current baseline for the first two episodes is going to be an 8/10, which means that any episode that receives a rating of more than an 8 is an episode that I consider to be better than the first two, and less an episode is worse. My overall review of Attack on Titan will come after I finish the entire series. While that probably did not make any sense whatsoever, that is basically what I am trying to say.

Overall: N/A- Attack on Titan delivered yet again with titan sized action-set-pieces, and the continuation of Eren's drive to become a Titan killer. While not having the wow-factor of the first episode, episode two is at least on par with the pilot.

Note: Since my first Attack on Titan review was met with a solid degree of success, I will continue to review individual episodes. 

If you have a television provider, like Charter or DirecTV, you can watch the series here; if you live in another country or do not have a TV provider, you can watch the episode here in English dub (go at your own risk). If you want to watch the episode (and the entire series) in sub, you do so here from the official Crunchyroll website.

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