After three years of waiting, the eagerly anticipated second season of Attack on Titan was finally released but at only 12 episodes long. This series is based upon the manga of the same name. The plot takes place in a world where Titans, giant humanoid creatures, roam the land. The last known pocket of humanity lives inside an area surrounded by giant walls, where they had a century of peace before the Titans breached it. Now, humanity is desperately fighting for their own survival. Not much is known about the Titans, however, for some unknown reason, they target humans to eat them. They often ignore all other animals and go directly for humans.
The first season main starred Eren, Mikasa and Armin, as well as a host of other supporting characters, who were part of the army in which they use specialized equipment. The equipment utilizes a combination of retractable grappling hooks and gas to propel them vertically and horizontally in order to combat the Titans. The equipment is attached to their waist, allowing them to zip around (similar to Spiderman), although they are not as useful on flat plains due to the lack of buildings and trees for them to hook onto. The first episode continues straight after the first season where the Female Titan was defeated and the wall cracked showing a Titan set within it.
Putting Eren, Mikasa and Armin into the background in favor of the other support characters instead, the first few episodes throws various new mysteries including another Abnormal Titan, gigantic and covered in fur, acting quite unlike any other Titan we had encountered so far. Each episode ends in a cliffhanger that annoyingly makes you want to watch the next episode immediately. Every episode ends in some sort of dramatic revelation that is designed to raise many more queries from the viewer. While it does hook you, it is also frustrating when you just want to find out at least something about the nature of the Titans. Attack on Titan succeeds in communicating the sheer terror and horror the characters must feel in such situations. They are forced to fight against the superior Titans, backed into a corner, feeling helpless and hopeless, knowing that they are right in front of you, ready to eat you.
The intense atmosphere is also felt when they are travelling at night through Titan infested areas, carefully portraying the scariness and tension when you expect a Titan is just going to jump out and kill you. Coming off from that, no supporting characters are safe since it is usually the case of it a character suddenly gets more screentime, they will probably die. On the other hand, there are inspiring adrenaline-filled moments such as when the Survey Corps charge into battle even though it was an impossible situation. What makes these scenes better are the excellent pieces of music, Season 2 reuses the soundtrack from the first season coupled with remixed. The pacing of the storytelling is uneven; it skips between different parties and different time frames, jumping back a few hours, a few years, and then forward back to the present.
The jumping around in time would break off an intense moment where the characters are just about to battle in order to do a flashback of the daily mundane lives of the characters before the Titans broke through. It is a good thing that Eren doesn't have much screentime because when he finally becomes more of the focus in the second half of the season, he still sucks, he's still stubborn and still quite useless. Even in his Titan form, he is thrown around overwhelmingly easily, giving way to his anger and making mistakes. He does redeem himself slightly during the battle in his Titan form leading to an epic showdown that was exhilarating and amazing.
Unfortunately, no matter how cool Eren was in his small moments of glory, he is one of the weaker aspect of the series. You feel that Eren is so set in his way of thinking that the two Titans are evil, that he doesn't try to understand them even when it is so obvious that there is another reason behind why they're doing what they are doing (although it is also the Titans' fault for not elaborating in the first place). Mikasa is fixated completely towards saving Eren in this season that she does nothing else and this clouds her normally sound judgement. Then Armin is just being Armin, pushed off to the side and in one scene, is quite cruel. The season doesn't paint them in any good light and serves to making them annoying and useless characters.
As expected, the major plot points of this season are the revelation of more Titans living amongst humans. The series keeps raising the question on why they are hiding, what their plan is, and why do they reveal themselves now. One of the most frustrating aspects is the fact that other characters seem to know more about the nature of the Titans but are keeping them a secret. It seems that character motivations are hard to decipher, especially when they keep a large chunk of it hidden. Not to mention that we never understood Annie, now with the other characters introduced, we're only getting bits and pieces so with what we are given, it seems to be a stretch on why the characters are acting this way.
The final episode as expected will not satisfy you if you were expecting some sort of closure or answer. The final few episodes were very intense in keeping the viewers guessing how the current scenario will pan out. As noted by one of the characters at the end, at least it is a step towards the truth and while we have learnt a lot behind the mystery of the Titans in this season, it raised so many other questions that it is hard to feel that you have a grasp on anything. Nonetheless, you will be hyped for a third season. Overall, Attack on Titan Season 2 is an engaging season. There is odd pacing here and there and too much teasing/foreshadowing, but it did not disappoint in what it promised to deliver.
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