Sheesh with all these delays and QC issues I’m glad that I’ve procrastinated on starting this show.
Maybe I should just wait until it ends to start watching it.
It is pretty fun now though, and the anticipation almost makes it worth the wait… if you can handle the waits then we can all talk about it as it comes out =)
Episode 5 –
spoiler
Eren finally faces the Titan that destroyed his life and realizes that the Colossal is sentient. He knew to go after the gate and the cannons! Eren intends to kill him, but during the fight, the Titan vanishes into thin air!
The other Titans begin to come and once again, the people must evacuate into the final inner wall, but what happens when that is attacked and there is nowhere else to go? But I’m getting ahead of myself. There is a more immediate problem here. The newly graduated trainees are declared to be full-fledged soldiers and are expected to fight. So much for the easy life that some of them wanted. Armin is terrified but Eren tries to calm him down. And the Titans are already through the gate!
Commander Pixis is playing chess with Marquis Bart when he receives word of the attack. He goes to join his man but Bart tries to stop him. I have a feeling that this marquis is going to be a troublemaker at some point. The graduates are informed that the Titans are already within the city and that the advance team has been “neutralized”. They have to hold on until the city is evacuated, but if they fight, they are expected to die and if they desert, they will also die. These kids are all terrified now!
Eren catches Jean trying to desert and gives him such a talking to that the others hear it and it encourages them. Although they are on separate teams, Mikasa makes Eren promise to find her when things fall into chaos, but he tells her that what she wants doesn’t matter – they have to protect humanity! In the end Mikasa tells Eren not to die, but that just makes him angry as he leaves her.
At least Armin is on Eren’s team, but I’m not sure yet if that will be a good thing or a bad thing. Suddenly Team 34 is ordered into battle and Eren’s chance has come but he knows it won’t be easy. Especially when they run into an “Aberrant” type of Titan and one of his team is lost. Eren, bent on revenge, goes off alone to fight this particular Titan. His team tries to follow, but Eren is reckless and narrowly misses being eaten. As his team tries to reach him, they are taken out, one by one, and Armin freezes up in terror. He soon joins the others in death. Eren is on a rooftop, barely conscious and suffering from the loss of a leg.
Eren remembers a moment from his past when he and Armin talked about the “outside world”. How young and naïve they were! But as Eren remembers this, he somehow finds the strength to jump into the Titan’s mouth and grab Armin’s arm before he is swallowed. I will never understand how he did any of this with his injuries, but he throws Armin to a nearby roof as he continues to struggle with the Titan and keep it from closing its mouth on him. He reaches out to Armin, but finally loses the last of his strength and the Titan snaps his mouth shut, severing Eren’s arm and swallowing the rest of him. Armin just screams and screams. And although Mikasa is away from that area, she can sense that something is very wrong.
Ep. 06
Wow. Mikasa’s backstory was messed up. No wonder she stares at the world the way she does.
Funimation Plans Attack on Titan on Home Video in 2014
posted on 2013-05-19 11:03 EDT
Hit anime now streaming via Funimation & Crunchyroll
If they can plan to release this show, which aired later, in 2014 then why can’t they give us Psycho Pass earlier?
Why is Funimation so slow?
Hopefully the dub for this will at least be well done, given how long it will take them; if they don’t release the show until 2015 I won’t be surprised.
Episode 6 –
spoiler
As Armin tries to deal with the loss of his team, he comes to the conclusion that he had always been living in hell. Making his way to the rearguard, he eventually runs into Hannah, trying to revive Franz. She asks for Armin’s help, but he tells her to get up on the rooftops. He believes Franz to be dead and just watching Hannah’s useless struggle makes Armin break down into tears once again.
The evacuation isn’t going well either. Some stupid merchant is hogging up the gate to get his goods through and won’t let any of the people ahead of him. The people are about to riot and the soldiers can’t do much against a guild boss. But then a Titan comes – an Aberrant – and mass panic ensues. Mikasa kills it just as it reaches the crowd. The merchant is pleased and orders Mikasa to make the people help him with his cargo. Mikasa is stunned. Her fellow soldiers are dying because people haven’t evacuated yet.
Mikasa makes her way to the guild boss and knocking his men aside, she raises her sword to him. But instead of striking the merchant, she hits his cargo. That is threat enough and the merchant orders the rest of his men to pull the wagon back, allowing the people to escape. Mikasa returns to the fight as it begins to rain and remembers her past. That was a rainy day too – the day her life changed. After watching her parents get butchered, Mikasa is taken to be sold. Being the last of the Asian race, the killers think they will get a high price for her. A lost Eren stops at their hideout, hoping to ask for directions.
They think to take Eren as well, but Eren had already accessed the situation and has a knife behind his back. He stabs one of the men and goes crazy, hacking at the other one even after he’s dead. Eren unties the dazed Mikasa and introduces himself as the doctor’s son. As he talks to her, Mikasa tells him that there were three men, but it’s too late – the third man appears behind them. Eren reaches for his knife, but the man kicks him across the room. He lifts Eren by the throat and begins to strangle him.
Eren tells Mikasa to fight, otherwise they will both die. Mikasa picks up Eren’s knife but hesitates. Her hands shake as she struggles with what has to be done. But remembering how cruel the world is, Mikasa stops shaking and stabs the man in the heart from behind, saving Eren. Eren is later reprimanded by his father for putting himself in such a dangerous situation, but Eren defends his actions. His father still berates him and Eren tells him that he just wanted to save Mikasa.
Mikasa is still dazed and asks how she can get home from there. She’s cold and realizes that she has no home to go back to. Eren puts his scarf around her and Dr. Yeager invites her to live with them. Eren takes her hand and urges her to come home. With tears in her eyes, she agrees and that is how Mikasa came to live with Eren’s family and why she always wanted to protect him. But back in the present, Mikasa thinks once again how cruel the world is. The bell tolls as the final gate lowers into place. Mikasa is told to retreat, but says that she will help the vanguard withdraw. In this world, Eren is her home and with him, she can do anything. So, here I am crying again!
Episode 7 –
spoiler
Not all the soldiers have retreated and some are trapped. More are without supplies and are just in despair. Worse, the Titans have surrounded Headquarters, so there won’t be any more supplies coming. Without gas, none will be able to make it over the wall to safety. The situation seems hopeless and most seemed reconciled to death.
Enter Mikasa! She asks about Eren’s team and is directed to Armin. He can’t even look her in the eye as she asks for Eren. The tears flow as he reports to her that his team died with valor in the line of duty. This throws the onlookers into deeper despair as they hear that Team 34 was wiped out. Armin apologizes to Mikasa as he confesses that he did nothing as Eren died for him. She calms Armin down and organizes the remaining trainees. Her plan is to take back Headquarters, get the gas and get over the wall. If she has to, she will do it herself!
Once Mikasa is gone, the others decide to follow her. I guess they didn’t like being called cowards. But will they all make it before their gas runs out? Mikasa is being reckless and Armin knows it’s because of the shock of losing Eren. Mikasa ends up crashing and finally deals with her grief. Once again, she has to go through the pain of losing her family and starting over. And now a Titan is approaching her!
Armin and Connie have gone after Mikasa and the others haven’t even reached their target yet and are running out of gas. They are beginning to fall victim to the Titans as the others watch, helpless and once again losing hope. As Mikasa waits to die, she thinks that the world has been both cruel and beautiful. Her last thoughts are of Eren and she says it was a good life. Mikasa closes her eyes and awaits her fate.
As the Titan reaches for her, Mikasa cuts its hand! It seems her will to live was stronger than giving up. But the Titan keeps coming after her. Although there’s no point in living, she doesn’t know why she keeps fighting to live. The first Titan is joined by a second and Mikasa is cut off from any escape. However, she can hear Eren’s voice repeatedly telling her to fight and she promises not to give up anymore.
But wait – something is wrong. The second Titan punches out the first one! I haven’t seen that happen before. Is he fighting over food or actually protecting Mikasa? And why does he look so different? This Titan screams as he butchers the other one, continuously stomping on him. Armin arrives to see this Titan and Mikasa. He grabs her and gets away just as Connie joins them. Another Titan shows up and is blocked by the killer Titan. All three witness the killer Titan raise his hands to fight the other. They watch in awe as the killer Titan hits the other and severs the heads from his shoulders, sending it flying into a far tower. Before the headless Titan can regenerate, the killer Titan finishes him off.
The trio is in shock that this Titan knew where to hit the other and how to kill it. They are further surprised when it continues on and does not attack them. They figure it must be an Aberrant type. Connie says that they need to get to Headquarters, but Mikasa is out of gas. Armin exchanges his tanks for hers although Mikasa refuses to leave him. I wonder how everyone is going to get to the Headquarters. And Mikasa can’t stop thinking about that killer Titan.
Attack on Titan Original Anime DVD Delayed 4 Months
posted on 2013-05-31 23:49 EDT
Wow, they’re delaying things left and right.
They must really be strapped.
I think the bigger shock here is that the Japanese fans are still buying shows on DVD. I expect the Japanese anime fans to be a bit closer to the cutting edge of technology.
You’re talking about a Country which finally stopped manufacturing the PS2 only about a year ago…
And laser disc players only a few years before that.
This is true, but it’s not really the same thing. The PS2 plays the massive array of PS2 games, thanks to Sony deciding that full backwards compatibility wasn’t worthwhile (sigh). The PS2 plays PS2 games to their fullest, so it has a purpose. DVD does not have the same purpose as it has been fully outmoded by blu-ray: DVD does nothing of worth that blu-ray does not, but blu-ray does much that DVD cannot.
You can buy a VHS player today but can you buy any Hollywood movies on VHS that are both current and legal releases?
True, but no one makes VHS players anymore. They are all second hand. Even combo players are hard to find new.
Plus, since DVDs are fully playable on bluray players, I doubt they will ever go away (at least not until Bluray is ultimately replaced and the players become outdated.). There are some things that just aren’t worth the hassle of putting on bluray, and some things would look even worse. Take a look at all the SD trailers and extra features on blurays for an excellent example.
Does no one truly make VHS players any more? I’m positive that I’ve seen combo players for sale in stores (new) still.
I wouldn’t say that blu-ray makes the SD content look worse as we just get to see the “true nature” of the SD content with the higher resolution. Though I think that’s the real problem: that SD content is still being made, and made by a technologically advanced country that supposedly has had greater-than-SD TV technology since the 1970s and largely created the blu-ray media. I can’t help but feel that anime in SD is illogical as it would be for, say, Bill Gates to be using Windows 98 as his primary OS still, despite having the resources to use the much superior tech that he was involved in creating.
An anime lauded for its visuals (which I have to say that I’m enjoying) like Titan shouldn’t have any of its content put into SD.
There are a (very) few companies that still make VHS/DVD combo players, but a lot of them are left over stock. They’re also mostly limited to discount retailers. It’s been a few years since any stand alone models were produced.
The problem with SD content on blurays, is that any flaws become more apparent. It’s just not worth the time and expense to upscale everything that’s been released on DVD, or even VHS. Even a lot of Minor Hollywood releases skip Bluray if they don’t feel the sales are there, particularly direct to video and some lower budget horror movies. I have quite a few films I had to buy on DVD that were never released on Bluray, despite HD materials being available.
Unfortunately, the home video market was drying up long before Bluray made its appearance, and even if bluray completely replaces DVD, that’s not likely to change. It’s even getting to the point that many companies like Paramount are licensing out large portions of their library, rather than wasting money putting things on home video themselves.
I really want to pick this show up when it comes up, but since it’s a series I’m interested in, I’m sure Funi will screw it up somehow. Either the dub will suck, the video quality will be terrible, or they will screw up the audio mixing. It’s also almost a guarantee that the box will be of poor quality and will probably peel like everyone of their recent series I have. Perhaps I will wait for the inevitable super cheap Classics or SAVE release.
…or don’t forget, they might take “years” to release it, and when they finally do…solicit it, don’t forget the delay…
As for the DVD/BD thing…can u reall see anyone releasing Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors on BD. We’re lucky (I’m lucky) they even decided to finish releasing the complete series on DVD.
Ooo…and Beetlejuice on DVD…finally… :laugh:
P.S. Don’t forget the WB toons like Thundar and SwatKatz
And Swat Katz and Thundarr were burn on demand DVD-R’s at that. But I would be all over Jem and the Holograms on Bluray! 
I’d be even all over if they made a remake of Jem and the Holograms. But a BD version of the orignal would be nice. B)