Attack on Titan Season 2: Episode 2 (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlexNow that the dragons are hibernating for the season, it’s time to focus on the Titans! While this week’s episode was mostly filler, it provided substantial background information on one of my favorite characters: Sasha. Missed my last review? Read it here!Eren, Armin, and Mikasa are readying with the rest of them in the Stohess District. As they head out to discover the fate of Wall Rose, Minister Nick joins them. Commander Hange Zoe hopes that the Minister will open up on what he knows about the Titans in the wall if he sees their destructive force in action.Meanwhile, Sasha is riding to her village to warn them of the incoming Titans. We are treated to a flashback of Sasha talking with someone; both have a southern twang to their dialogue. Sasha even uses the phrase “gives a hoot”, which feels extremely out of place in this universe. As she continues her ride she comes across a new village. In the village, she finds a titan chowing down on the thigh of a woman while her child watches. Sasha attempts to behead the Titan and fails, instead opting to grab the little girl, and run. The girl tells Sasha the other villagers left her and her mother behind, even though they knew her mother’s legs were bad.Sasha attempts to buy them time by shooting arrows, knowing if she blinds the they’ll be able to get away. As she struggles for her bullseye (or Titan’s eye in this case), she waits for it to get close and stabs it in the eye with the arrow. She escapes, and catches up with the little girl, who has found Sasha’s village. As they ride to safety, she bonds with the man we see in her flashback…her father.Also still traveling, Conny arrives at his village to find it decimated. He is horrorstruck to find a titan has fallen on his house. He can find no survivors in the town. Even weirder, the titan has malformed legs. There’s no way it could have caused the destruction, much less traveled there. The episode ends leaving more questions than answers.While the episode may have felt fluffy, the animation was on point. The cinematography involving the scene where Sasha lines up to show the Titan was phenomenal. That coupled with the focus rotations while the characters are on horseback is great. Each of the scenes made it feel like I was watching a movie and not an anime.Attack on Titan is also very heavy on background sounds. When there isn’t the sound of nature, there’s music to accompany the dialogue. The type of music depends on the situation. For calmer scenes, the twinkling of piano keys can be heard. For more intense scenes, it’s a chorus of singers and a swell of orchestra music. I would typically find this additional noise annoying, but it enhances the ambiance and mood of the scene. It’s also subtle enough that I had to listen for it to know it was there.Next week’s episode is titled “Southwestward”, and it appears to involve more traveling. Both Conny, Eren, and their respective parties travel on in hopes of finding information about the Titan attack.[yasr_multiset setid=11]