TV Review: Attack on Titan Season Two (2017)

Attack on Titan Season Two (2017) directed by Tetsuro Araki

Picking up where the action left off from Season One, the seemingly last band of humanity hiding behind massive walls has become more vulnerable than ever. Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen the first season, look away now!

It turns out the show's hero, Eren Jaeger, isn't the only human who can transform into a Titan. Another had been discovered in season one and a bunch more show up in season two. If this wasn't enough plot development, something weird is discovered about the walls and a whole new group of Titans are attacking inside the second wall. The locals are panicing and the soldiers put everything on the line to stop the menace and find (and hopefully plug) the hole in the wall. Even with such a simple plan, everything is not as it seems. This season generates more mysteries than answers.

The plot moves along at a breakneck pace with more cliffhanger endings than the first season of Alias. The season is only twelve episodes and was made four years after the first season, so there's a lot of manga storyline to catch up on. I felt it moved a little too quickly to make proper sense of many of the characters' decisions. The action is still exciting and the premise is still intriguing, but I am a little nervous that it's a lot more mystery-building than world-building and things won't resolve satisfactorily by the end. The next season is supposed to start in July 2018, so I may watch it.

I watched Season Two on Crunchyroll, a streaming service that caters to anime fans. I didn't pay the subscription fee so I had to watch commercials, which wasn't so bad. The streaming did occasionally crash (the site uses a Flash player and my Mac browsers didn't always cooperate), which was annoying. Reloading the page and skipping 30 seconds ahead was the workaround for me.

Recommended, though not nearly as good as the first season.