After a three year hiatus, Attack on Titan’s anime adaption receives the long-awaited second season, while unfortunately having only twelve episodes due to production issues within the anime industry, season two makes the best of its episode count with a compelling story, absolutely beautiful animations, fantastic action, and lots & lots of death.

Attack on Titan is an 2013 seinen anime series, it is produced by Wit Studios & Production I.G., it is licensed by Funimation, season two is currently premiering in English dub & sub.

The mighty Beast Titan cometh.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete, to complete spoilers for Attack on Titan’s first six episodes, aka Part 1 of season two.

Three long years fans have waited for a continuation of the Attack on Titan anime series, adapting its content from its manga source material, Attack on Titan captivated audiences with its lead characters, story-lines, and heavy death count. In season two the death count is increased ten fold as we lose not only minor characters, but also some fairly key characters to the story as the plot continues.

Major reveals from the manga, swiftly make their way to season two.

THE GOOD: Attack on Titan’s second season is here and the wait was most definitely worth it. Everything about season two from the animation, adaption of canon, and story has picked up significantly since season one. This season is moving along quiet quickly, more than likely due to its episode count, which is understandable so long the remainder of the season isn’t too quick. While the pacing thus far has been fairly well done, the quick introduction of the Beast Titan, as well as other key story points making it to anime does have me a bit worried about the rest of the season, but only to a small degree.

More Titan Shifters make their way to the second season.

Of course the big finale of season two’s first half is the identity of new Titan Shifters, this of course includes Ymir, Reiner, and Bertholdt, while all three had small minor roles in the first season, it was revealed in episode six (episode 31 overall) that they were the Mini, Armored, and Colossal Titans respectively. In Ymir’s case she transformed in order to protect her fellow Survey Corps members & more importantly Christa aka Historia Reiss. It was a situation where Ymir had absolutely zero options & was basically forced to reveal her titan powers, which she may not have realized she had for too long prior to the reveal in the anime. In contrast however, Reiner & Bertholdt’s reveals while not as emotionally intense, were done so in a far more powerful way. After surviving an attack from an onslaught of titans, the Survey Corps from the earlier episode regroup with Eren and his group. Reiner (with Bertholdt by his side as usual) casually tosses Eren aside from Mikasa who sticks by within ear shot, Hange, Armin, and the others. Reiner suddenly begins a casual conversation with Eren about the wall, before he randomly blurts out the fact that he and Bertholdt are the Armored and Colossal Titans.

The co-traitor of Humanity.

Bertholdt is unsurprisingly shocked by his announcement, while Eren is strangely unmoved by it most likely due to a small amount of shock. In a flashback we see Hange conversing with Eren and his group about Annie’s odd behavior while she was searching for Eren in her Titan form. Armin is able to deduce the possibility of Reiner having some kind of connection to her due to the unrealistic situations surrounding his escape from her attack (which also saved Armin). Back in the present,  Reiner tries to convince Eren to return to his & Bertholdt’s home town in exchanging for causing as little destruction as possible to the wall. Still not believing the situation, Eren refuses which causes Bertholdt to remind Reiner of what he had just done. The latest chapters of the manga have been suggesting that Reiner is suffering from mental anguish due to playing the role of two different people and possibly having regrets for some of the things he’s done up to that point, and this scene was the first taste of that. The climax of the episode sees Reiner & Bertholdt being forced to titan shift, but not before being almost killed by Mikasa upon realizing the impending threat for Eren.

Eren vs Reiner.

The nonchalant bomb drop of the reveals alongside the climax of the episode were so beautifully crafted that even manga readers who knew about the Armored & Colossal Titans identities for years now had to take notice. Each episode thus far of season two has been a nonstop thrill ride, one episode after another, with more to come within the next several weeks.

The mystery of the Titans continue.

THE BAD: While it hasn’t effected anything thus far, the extremely fast pace of season two is a tad worrying. Here’s hoping none of the forthcoming episodes suffer from pacing issues as a result.

An all out war is coming.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Attack on Titan’s second season is an amazingly satisfying watch thus far. Key reveals that will please fans of the manga, and shock those who only view the anime itself are coming from all sides. The Titan reveals for Ymir, Reiner, and Bertholdt were brilliantly done in their own respective ways and it keeps anime fans guessing as to who the next Titan Shifters could be. Season two is going at a far more fast pace compared to season one, which is something to look out for, but for the moment it hasn’t suffered from pacing issues just yet. The improved animation from Wit Studios is very noticeable and quiet complimentary for action sequences, the anime series’ score also increases intensity of the dramatic scenery nicely. Otaku Dome gives Attack on Titan Season 2, Part 1 a 96 out of 100.