Television 

Five Thoughts on Attack on Titan’s “To You, in 2000 Years”

By | May 19th, 2017
Posted in Television | % Comments

With summer quickly approaching, pretty much every show worth watching is coming to an end. That makes the summer the perfect time to binge watch what you missed along with some old classics. That’s where the Multiversity Summer TV Binge comes from. Although I’ve never been deeply into anime, the one exception has been Attack on Titan. Having already watched the first season with subtitles, I thought it would be cool to return to the dubbed version of the series. Be warned, here be spoilers for the first episode!

1. Spider-Man playing Shadow of the Colossus is a great idea any way you slice it

The first thing that drew me into Attack on Titan was the visuals, especially the 3-D Maneuver Gear (or the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear as the dub calls it). Seeing people swinging around like the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, battling colossal zombies is a weird, cool idea that immediately intrigues me. Even if this show had nothing else going for it, there’s a lot of mileage to be gotten from the fight choreography, costumes, gadgets, and sense of style. The whole world feels lived-in and palpable, which given the fantastical premise didn’t need to be the case, but that’s a big part of the appeal. In any case, those visuals are reinforced by a strong emotional core.

2. Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind die Jäger!

It needs to be mentioned eventually but man, this has one of the all time great anime theme song! OK, I don’t really have a deep roster of favorites to draw from, but the intro is cheesy, pulpy, and totally gets me amped every time. I never skip it. There’s so much going on: the computer generated chains, the panels straight from the manga, the Japanese words scrolling in multiple directions, the paint-splatter effects- it’s sensory overload! To be honest, the intro is kind of dissonant from the tone of the show, which is decidedly unheroic. It’s so bombastic though. It gets my hopes up that maybe someone will overcome a single titan.

3. Eren Jaeger is such a child

I’m struck by how childish our protagonist, Eren Jaeger is. He goes from demanding his sister keep his crying secret, to picking a fight with a police officer for being drunk on the job, to looking on starry eyed as his heroes in the Scout Regiment (or Survey Corp as I’m used to calling them) return from battle. The show manages to give him a few dimensions, but all of them center in on the theme of immaturity. He’s full of a mixture of pride, shame, idealism, and hero worship. He fights with his mom, then suffers the unspeakable horror of watching her die brutally. I feel like he gets an entire character arc in this first episode. Despite not possessing a single likable trait (so far), Eren manages to be entirely compelling.

4. Armin is a step above

Something really resonates with Armin Alert’s first scene for me. He preaches pacifism to the guys beating him up, assuring them that his confidence in his intellectual superiority means that even if they kick his ass, he’s already won the fight where it counts. I think I said the same thing to some middle school bullies, and it worked about as well, except that I wasn’t friends with Eren and Mikasa. “You resort to violence because your brain’s the size of a walnut!” Armin yells at his bullies. Josh Grelle sells the hell out of Armin’s weird speech patterns. His lines sound like they were written to work with the Japanese lip movements, and despite not resembling human speech, Grelle captures Armin’s profound earnestness. You know what? At the end of this first episode, Armin is my favorite.

5. Man, this show wallows in darkness

At first, Attack on Titan seems grim, comically dark. Really, you give an old lady the severed arm of her dead son, with little to no warning? And then you throw a tantrum in the street about the meaninglessness of his death? It all seems a little bit… extra. But then you see the titans, and the destruction they can cause, and you realize that over-the-top may be the only rational response. This point is even better expressed later when Hannes, the drunken cop from earlier in the episode, tries to save Eren, Mikasa, and their mom from a titan. He has a panic attack, turns and runs, and barely manages to rescue the kids, leaving Mama Jaeger to die her awful death, while she quietly thanks him for saving her kids. She keeps her composure until they’re out of earshot, and then she too succumbs to despair as she’s being torn in half and eaten. It’s rough stuff. What’s cool though, is that the characters in this episode are all motivated by their feelings, not the plot. They act in anger or fear, and none of them come out looking very heroic.


//TAGS | 2017 Summer TV Binge | Attack On The Titan

Jaina Hill

Jaina is from New York. She currently lives in Ohio. Ask her, and she'll swear she's one of those people who loves both Star Wars and Star Trek equally. Say hi to her on twitter @Rambling_Moose!

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