Sunday, December 6, 2015

Attack On Titan: Junior High Episode #10 Review


And the winner is...

What They Say:
It's back-to-school for the cast of Attack on Titan as this spin-off gives us a glimpse into the average school year for each and every one of them. Instead of fearing for their lives, the characters are fearing for their lunches as the titans have a brand new appetite (One significantly less heartbreaking). Based on the manga, Attack on Titan: Junior High brings us familiar faces and memorable scenes in a lighthearted comedic format that is sure to bring a smile to your face. Will Eren and the others be able to survive the school year being right next door to a school for titans?

The Review:
Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)
With the third-years nearing graduation, the time has come for Attack Junior High to elect a new student council president. The only issue is that none of the candidates are really fit for the job. In fact, two of the candidates are only running so they can get girls! (Yes, Jean is one of them). Needless to say, this year's election is going to be quite a hurdle for almost everyone involved.

We start off with just another Jean/Eren dispute as they both announce their candidacy for the upcoming election. Eren's political base is that he wants to destroy all the titans (Shocker). Jean's standpoint is that being student council president makes girls fall for you. Right off the bat, these two start butting heads about how the other is unfit to be president. Shortly after several heated arguments, the opinion polls are pinned to the bulletin board and, what do you know, all of the candidates have under a 10% approval rating. If only there was some way for them to find out why their ratings were so low...oh wait, there is.

Remember Ilse Langnar from the original Attack On Titan? Probably not, she didn't really matter and only made an appearance in one of the OVAs for the series. But she was that one girl that took down notes for Levi and the rest of the humans shortly after her entire squadron was annihilated by titans during an expedition. This time, things are different. She is now a newspaper reporter for Attack Junior High, and she has notes on the election! Queue intense chase scene involving all of the candidates attempting to steal her notebook. Eventually, the notes are recovered. They are just instructions on how to clean.

Heh.

In the end, we finally get to hear the candidates give their electoral speeches. It's just...none of them really went well at all. Eren's speech was received well once Armin took the stage and spoke for him, but that all went to hell once Eren spoke again. Jean's speech also started off terribly, but then became great once Marco took the microphone from him. (Why didn't Armin and Marco just run?). After Marco speaks, Ilse shows up once again -- this time from a catwalk -- and shouts at everyone, telling them that Marco should be student council president.

And then he is.

Best/Favorite Part:
At the end of Eren's speech, we get another glorious flashback moment when Levi shows up and kicks him right in the face. What a kick. Eren is sent flying and Mikasa actually gets some life in her eyes, screaming as her brother/boyfriend/childhood-friend is sent flying through the air. Oh man, I forgot how great it was seeing the look on Eren's face as his role model kicked him in the mouth. Good job, Levi.

In Summary:
For fans of Ilse from the OVA, this might be a rather enjoyable episode. Though the comedy is a bit weaker in this episode than previous installments in the series, there are still some fun moments and enough shared screen-time to make it at least "Pretty good". Still, it was nice seeing the creators of AoT Junior High give some love to a lesser known character, even if she didn't have a lot of time to really do anything. I'd lump this episode in with the "Less good" ones so far this season, but that doesn't mean you should skip it.

Grade: C

Streamed By: Funimation

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