It’s the Multiversity Summer TV Binge! Although I’ve never been deeply into anime, I’m totally in love with 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!
1. Filler episode
So I hear there’s this thing in anime called a filler episode. Sometimes on a beach, sometimes in an internal monologue, these come when the creators need to pad the series to buy themselves some more time, and maybe to save some money. This, felt like a filler. After a brief aside, we spend most of this episode stuck within the same grating 15 seconds that we ended the last episode on. Captain The Harrowing has fired on our heroes, Eren turned into half a freaky titan carcass, and everyone is standing a dozen yards away from each other yelling boring platitudes and ignoring each other. After the stupendous last few episodes, this one was a major dud.
2. Marco and Sasha are still great
Before spending most of our runtime in Armin’s subconscious, we get a quick check-in with some of our favorite supporting players. A soldier is freaking out (which I believe was the working title for this series) and Marco is trying to comfort him. Marco is better than you, me, everyone, he’s just so good and pure. He tells the crying anonymous soldier to look to Sasha, who is a model of composure, before Sasha starts crying and screaming too. Is she succumbing to the horrors of war? No, she has a tummy ache. It’s a silly gag, but I laughed, and it was a bright spot in the otherwise dull proceedings. It’s a good way to use humor to build characterization.
3. Captain Vorman harrows once again
I don’t remember ever hearing a real name for Captain The Harrowing before this episode, but apparently it’s Vorman. He sucks. He seems to be around to have a gross beard, upsettingly sunken eyes, and to be wrong about everything. He wastes everybody’s time by asking characters questions, calling them liars, and ignoring them. It’s tedious and stupid in a way the show hasn’t been before. At least when that merchant was being a jerk a few episodes back, it was due to greed. I looked Vorman up on the Attack on Titan wiki (where he’s called Kitz Weilman, a stupid name) and I learned: “Kitz Weilman is a visually tense man, with sunken eyes, and an expression of perpetual worry.” and that “Weilman was perpetually weak-minded and foolish.” Yep, that about covers it.
4. Armin does something
So the main thing that “happens” in “Response” is Armin thinks real hard about himself and determines that a) his friends really do love him and b) he’s a pretty smart guy. This is a whole lot of nothing because we the viewers already knew this, and Armin went through a much more interesting turn in the last few episodes, and came to pretty much the same conclusion. I love Armin, and I’m happy to take a trip into his thoughts and feelings, but we’ve been here already. After reaching the same conclusions he did a few episodes ago, he stands at a crisp salute, ready to die…
5. Dot Pixis saves us from ourselves
…only to be saved by Commander Dot Pixis, who has so much personality, he must have been siphoning it off from his boring subordinates. Pixis is goddamn amazing, he combines the gruff charm of Sam Elliot with the gruff charm of J.K. Simmons. He’s gruff and charming is what I’m trying to say. He’s an eccentric old man, he drinks too much, and he’s right as much as The Harrowing is wrong. “Can’t you see this soldier’s heartfelt salute?” he says upon appearing, immediately working his ways into the hearts of America, Japan, and the whole damn world.
We briefly met Pixis a few episodes ago, but this is the first time we’ve seen him interact with characters we already care about. He’s willing to listen to them, to value their talents, and to give them sage advice like, “Getting eaten by a titan wouldn’t be so bad if it was a sexy lady one.” Don’t you dare try to kinkshame Dot Pixis, he is proudly into vore. “Genuinely eccentric,” as Armin puts it. Thank god for you Dot Pixis, who saved our heroes, and me from boredom.
