S01.E08: I Can Hear His Heartbeat, The Struggle for Trost - Part 4

[PrincessEnnui]

On tonight's episode, Armin seems to regain his senses and manages to deliver himself, Mikasa and Connie to HQ. Along with them, the titan that fights other titans. From there, Armin further proves his worth by coming up with a plan to back the supplies. Meanwhile, the rampaging titan is revealed to be Eren!

 

Reiner coming up with the weak spot joke is line of the night for me. That Connie and Sasha believed him, only for Jean to rebut him... Also, Moe Titan, the titan Sasha was supposed to kill, returns! And is killed.

 

Poor Sasha, at least Connie messed up with her. Speaking of, the scene where they enact Armin's second plan is in the opening!

 

I really enjoy the ladies on this show. They're all capable, some less so than others, but still...

 

[lathspel]

I didn't see the Eren thing coming, that was cool. Him kicking the little baby Titan was really funny.

I'm not sure i could jump up and slice a point that's nearly 4 meters off the floor. But I haven't trained for five years either. I appreciated that on this show with such a highly unlikely premise, they noted that they had to do this mission with no maneuvering gear.

[PrincessEnnui]

Did they jump? I thought the plan called for them to be lowered, like the bait. How quickly I forget the details. :)

[the fresh maker]

I knew Eren was the male-model titan, but I thought he might stay in titan form the rest of the series.

 

For a shonen series, some of the supporting cast have gotten a lot of character development early on. Human Eren being off screen for almost two full episodes was a great way to get other characters in the spotlight. Mikasa, Armin, Jean, and Marco (and Sasha, Reiner, Connie, and Annie to lesser extents) have gotten a lot of development in a short time.

 

I'm going to have a hard time getting used to dub-Armin's voice. It's so much higher in the Japanese. This Armin is a baritone in comparison.

 

I appreciated that on this show with such a highly unlikely premise, they noted that they had to do this mission with no maneuvering gear.

 

I also liked the fact that not all seven attackers were successful.

 

I really enjoy the ladies on this show. They're all capable, some less so than others, but still...

 

And they seem to be treated equally within military culture.

 

Also, Moe Titan, the titan Sasha was supposed to kill, returns! And is killed.

 

And just because...

Edited June 22, 2014 by the fresh maker

[TigerLily20]

Did they jump? I thought the plan called for them to be lowered, like the bait. How quickly I forget the details. :)

part of them were lowered in on that basket thing with muskets to lure the titans to them, 7 of them were on beams waiting to jump down and slice the 7 titans all at once.  The only major flaw I would see to this plan is what if lets say only 3 titans came at them at first because the other 4 were slower or farther away?  You would then have to kill part of them and get the people off the ground some how and wait for the others to come, it really depended on all 7 titans coming at them at once.  I know thinking too much for an anime but still : P

[Isabelle]

 

I'm going to have a hard time getting used to dub-Armin's voice. It's so much higher in the Japanese. This Armin is a baritone in comparison.

 

I am struggling with this as well. I keep expecting Armin to clear his throat or something!

 

Also, I can't wait to get the next blu-ray set on 9/23.  This show is so beautiful in HD.

[lathspel]

I keep forgetting to mention that the art style on this show continues to be a knockout. Something about the line work really makes you see the manga behind it.

And the characterization is wonderful as well. In such an outlandish setting, I think these may be some of the most real-acting characters I've seen.

[WhoAmIWorkingFor]

Brief digression: Since I don't have cable TV, I was going to visit Crunchyroll to rewatch the episodes, but now that they're being broadcast, blocks of the the episodes are embargoed on Crunchyroll until they have been broadcast.  Argh.

 

The art style is very good, but there were some points where the production was severely strained. If I recall correctly, when Armin et al. head downstairs for the crazy plan, they just went with a series of still frames instead of actually showing them walking.  (There's also a strange moment involving badly-colored inbetweens that I can't remember the episode for; as noted above, I can't readily go back to check.)

 

Agree about the characters, though.  While goofy characters don't always work for me, I really started to like Sasha after she messed up and apologized to the Titan.  And Armin also really began to shine here.

[weyrbunny]

I knew Eren was the male-model titan

I didn't, though I never doubted that Eren was alive. And I've been calling the titan "8-Pack" after his abs.

 

Interesting that the artwork was influenced by Goya's paintings.

[lathspel]

The reference to Goya and the horrors of war brings it back full circle to what I was originally seeing in the cadets - the shock of being deployed into a terrible environment, like the First World War.

Hmm, want to bet that we'll ultimately find that these horrors were spawned by man himself?

[Sandman87]

Apparently Eren is such a hate-fueled rage pill that just eating him makes a Titan go all titanicidal. Kind of wondering how he managed to regenerate his severed limbs though.

 

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who's fascinated by the Moe Titan. He just looked so serious all the time. I'm fairly sure he's the only one other than Titan!Eren  that wasn't walking around with a stupid smile on its face the entire time. Also one of the few that didn't look like he needed to lose some weight. And that haircut! (Where do Titans get their hair cut anyway?)

 

Line of the episode: "Thank you, Crazy Berserker Titan!"

[WhoAmIWorkingFor]

Random Titans with distinctive faces: At least a few of them are shout-outs to pop culture here and there.  Damned if I can find the examples at the moment though.  (TV Tropes notes one from the manga that looks like Alex DeLarge.)