Attack on Titan: Junior High
By: EyeSpyeAlexLooking for something to watch while you wait for Season Three of Attack on Titan? Well, look no further than Attack on Titan Junior High! This show provides you with all of the parody and satire missing from the more serious main show.The show follows Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and the other Scouts as they start their first year at Attack on Titan Junior High. After accidentally stumbling into the Titan school, the group makes their way to the human school where they begin classes. By lunchtime, they are settling in...until the Titans attack. The Titans are hungry, and descend upon to the students to start feasting...on their lunches. As the students are left hungry, Eren loses something extremely precious to him: his cheeseburger lunch. He vows to avenge his lunch and learn to beat up the Titans so that they may never steal from him again.Through the club fair day, Eren finds a secret club that’s mission is to protect the school from the Titans. He, and his fellow classmates join this secret club and begin defending their school’s wall...from Titan graffiti attacks. Yes, the Titans are classic school bullies who vandalize property and steal the lunches of human students. The club takes their vow to defend and clean the school’s wall very seriously, even using special ODM gear to get those hard to reach places.
As Eren trains to be the best wall defender, he and his classmates go through the motions of Junior High. There’s romance, drama, sports festivals, and summer festivals. There’s also detentions, pranks, and dodgeball tournaments. Things get heated when the Titans attack the students during the classroom festival. Eren’s class creates a cheeseburger stand, which the Titans take back to their school to enjoy. Eren is enraged, and leads his fellow classmates on a reconnaissance mission to rescue the stand. Even though the stand crumbles, Eren considers it a success as manages to he save one cheeseburger.The plot is a perfect mix of action and absurdity and it kept me watching the entire time. I liked how the plot didn’t take itself seriously, and how mundane events were treated as serious situations. It was a nice break from the serious tone of the main show, and in my opinion, avoided treading into annoying territory.The character traits and flaws of the Scouts get turned up to eleven in this show. Sasha is even more food obsessed. Mikasa is so obsessed with Eren, she devolves into a depressive mass when he isn’t at school. In addition, Armin is such a wimp, he can’t leave the house without his trusty futon, or he gets too cold to function.
Animation/Music/Voice Acting
This anime tried and succeeded in being vastly different from its source material. This is not a bad thing, and works for the plot and characters. It would have been unrealistic to see the characters drawn as their counterparts and behaving in such a childish way.The animation style is extremely cartoony, which is vastly different from the main show. All of the characters have big heads, eyes, and mouths, with small bodies. They honestly look like animated Nenderoids, which is adorable and a little unsettling.The art style of the show and background is also extremely cartoony and simplistic. There is a lot of bright color, and a lack of detail.While all the characters may be caricatures, it works for the setting. This is a show that is self-aware of how ridiculous it is, and knows it’s a parody. This version will never replace the main show canonically, so they have the freedom to take creative liberties when it comes to character’s emotions and actions. It’s refreshing to see the characters in a different way after watching the intense main show.
All of the English and Japanese voice actors returned to voice their characters, and I think that helped with the show’s success. It would have been weird to hear Eren or Mikasa with a different voice.Attack on Titan Junior High also incorporates music from the main show into its episodes. Reusing the songs adds a certain level of silliness to the “battle” scenes in this universe. Instead of battling Titans for their lives, they are fighting them for their lunches. Or to stop them from graffiting the school. Still intense, but on an elementary (or should I say middle-school?) and humourous level. The show also reuses the main show’s opening, and I am 90% sure they changed the opening line to incorporate often misheard lyrics.
Re-Watch Value
I’m a picky person when it comes to re-watching shows. I either need the show to contain a lot of intense plot points, or being outrageously silly. This show falls into the latter category, and is one I will definitely re-watch. There’s a lot of references to the main show and I don’t think I noticed them all watching through it. On top of that, it’s a nice, mindless show to watch after watching it’s more intense source material. I’m excited for season two to come out on DVD so I have something else to watch during the hiatus of the main show.
Packaging
The packaging is pretty stellar for a season one disc. The slipcase is decorated with our favorite characters and looks great displayed on an entertainment stand. Inside, the keepcase holds a reversible sleeve which has various characters on both sides. Both the DVD and blu-ray discs also display our favorite Scouts, which is a nice touch.
Bonus Materials
Between the physical and the watchable, this boxset is chock full of goodies! The discs contain promotional videos, trailers for anime, interviews, and episode commentary. The set itself comes with stickers, and a cool booklet with character designs. Opening was like opening a present on Christmas morning and I was filled with a sense of amazement.Attack on Titan Junior High season one is now available for purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray here. Those with a Funimation Now account can also stream the show.[yasr_multiset setid=9]