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Dec 13, 2020 2:30 PM

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Oct 2020
124
Yo the episode was fire, judging from the preview do I see Historia and Kenny???
処刑課師匠
Dec 13, 2020 2:31 PM
Offline
Jan 2014
5
It was a good episode, but there's one thing I didn't like, the fact that they skipped some character development that was in the manga.
Dec 13, 2020 2:32 PM
Offline
Aug 2020
1529
nanimeanswhat said:
Reiner: “That island is full of devils.”
Gabi: “Why?”
Reiner: “Girl stole potato”
Reiner:”...”
Reiner:”AND SHE ATE IT”


Truly horrendous indeed.

But man, I hadn’t realised that Reiner was this traumatised. I feel nothing but sorry for him.

Did I see Eren for a second there or was he just a normal long haired person? I haven’t read the manga so idk.


People say that this episode didn’t have good animation but I think it was decent enough. Character art is very detailed here, so it’d be really hard and time consuming to make animations more fluid and it would be a waste of both time and resources.

MoonDragon72 said:
Plus, last week's episode was laughably bad thanks to the awful CGI, so I'll probably get some enjoyment out of that.

Wdym awful CGI? I though last week’s CGI was very sexy, much better than the previous seasons.


If you like the CGI that's fine, but for me personally it was Berserk 2016 bad.
Dec 13, 2020 2:33 PM

Offline
Mar 2020
203
I didn't expect to see Reiner narrating the potato scene with a straight face. And you can see the division of the Eldianos well without counting their alienation, even without calling them "good Eldianos."
"I don't want to achieve anything, I just think that the person who has the greatest freedom in the ocean is the king of pirates." - Monkey D. Luffy.
"There is no one better than me when it comes to ending the expectations of others." - Natsuki Subaru
Dec 13, 2020 2:37 PM
Offline
Dec 2012
140
The episode itself was nice but animation was pretty choppy, still sucks compared to WIT, would rather have some still images than choppiness but no point in talking about that anymore. It is what we got so might as well get used to it. Anyway, I'm here because I love the story too. And hoping they make more use of old soundtracks soon.
Dec 13, 2020 2:38 PM

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Mar 2020
5404
When the dude looked in the window at the start of the show, the sea looked kinda weird.

I saw the cups and plates CGI'd...epic.

This episode really focuses on Marley and there plans going fourth. Was touching to see the soldiers reunite with their family.

Feel bad for the people who are inheriting Titans cause their life span is decreased but then again they see it as a way to serve their country.

Good episode :)
Dec 13, 2020 2:39 PM

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Oct 2020
2066
I felt really bad for Ymir. The anime made that scene much darker.
Dec 13, 2020 2:41 PM

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Aug 2015
15
Murajsam5673 said:
Yo the episode was fire, judging from the preview do I see Historia and Kenny???


Nop, they are Kenny and Annie
Dec 13, 2020 2:47 PM
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Jul 2018
564084
This was boooooorrring
Dec 13, 2020 2:47 PM
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Feb 2019
9
keragamming said:
applepi105 said:
seeing Reiner's side of what happened in the previous seasons makes me want to go back and re-watch to see if there were any hints to suggest that he hated being there ( before we/everyone found out he was a titan)


He was being sarcastic btw, I'm actually kinda shock everyone is taking what he said seriously, I thought the fact that he brought up Sasha with the potato thing would be obvious enough.

Gabi also hinted that she thinks Reiner was lying when he was telling them.


I remember the potato scene but not the bathroom scene
Dec 13, 2020 2:51 PM

Offline
Nov 2008
942
I'm surprised at how much they're rushing through it. It's perfectly watchable content but many subtle things get lost, and some scenes don't get to become "a moment" of their own right. These include the opening scene, Reiner and Porco's conversation, Gabi and Reiner's conversation, the Warriors' return to Liberio, Reiner's conversation with Falco, as well as Zeke's tea talk with the warriors.

Don't get me wrong, none of these moments are badly directed or hard to watch or anything. It's just that, by timing at least a few of them properly, by slowing the dialogue down, having a few silences here, a few background-edits there, it would've allowed these scenes to delve into a higher level of introspection and poetry. They could've been actual key moments of great emotional depth; the really slow ones that are just there without moving the actual plot forward.

I always saw Marley Arc more as a work of literature, a slow paced, slice of life, anti-war drama that doesn't go out of its way to spend a little extra time on a presumably boring interaction just to set a painful and awkward mood. I enjoy comparing it to anti-war drama's like Das Leben Der Anderen (2006), Il Conformista (1970), or The Deer Hunter (1978) because they all contain these suddenly placed, awkward, brutally honest and stretched out moments that are all sort of able to confront viewers with a character's guilt, hypocrisy, fear, doubts etc.

The current pacing sadly isn't allowing Marley Arc to reach this level of drama. I'll give three examples of scenes that could've reached the emotional depth that they deserved if they were given a little more screen-time to stretch out. These are only three examples, but it happens all the time, and it happened in the previous episode too:

01. Reiner and Porco's conversation about Marcel and Ymir is a fully matured work of poetry in the manga. The way Porco speaks about Reiner from Ymir's memories, confronting Reiner about his Paradis personality, recognizing traits of his dead brother in Reiner's former behavior (we even see Reiner from Ymir's point of view in the original panel!!!!!), describing his personal grudge to this broken man, only for Reiner to indifferently confirm these hateful words... is profoundly beautiful content that takes much more time to sink in than it was given here. Like, that's some out of this world introspection right there and it deserves to a moment in its own right.

02. The warriors' return to Liberio could've been much grander. Omitting their walk through the city was a bad idea as the hateful glares of Marleyan citizens would have added a much needed, darker undertone to their victorious return. It was essentially a weird, twisted walk of shame in the manga. The directors made a much sweeter moment out of it (the slight feel good music wasn't helping either and neither did it help during the scene at the Middle-Eastern bay) by omitting the ugly details that took place before it and in doing that, the scene lost a lot of its tragic quality. Showing actual, detailed and inevitably sad overview shots of the internment district would've helped in setting the mood too, but we're dealing with a rushed adaptation here, and there sadly isn't much time/resources to pay attention to these things.

03. Reiner and Gabi's conversation on their walk to the military headquarters is a prime example of how they sacrificed Marley Arc's "slife of life" aspects by omitting little, heartfelt details such as Gabi's silly conversation with the Marleyan guards (the ones watching over the district's walls) and Reiner and Gabi's stroll across the market wherein they're greeted by the friendly Eldians. These interactions are incredibly and impossibly wholesome and go out of their way to humanize both the feared Armored Titan as well as his successor by positioning them like normal people in a world that we recognize as real. The first time I read that I was like “Holy shit that's the Armored Titan being greeted by a bunch of friendly people who are all proud of him for the horrors he's committed that's fucking beautiful”. Isayama took every little moment he could in order to humanize and make relatable the people outside of the walls and it's a big part in why Marley Arc is arguably the best arc in the entire series, but the adaptation fails flat at reflecting the Arc's poetic aspirations.

Bonus: Omitting Pieck's "titan crawl" is tragic as it was yet another clever, heartfelt, funny and surprising way to humanize a warrior and show the consequences of their powers in a realistic, brutally casual way. Again, nothing too big, but these are already four incredibly original and poignant scenes that they cut out. Scenes that, because they were added, allowed the Marley Arc to become a part of the story that is richer, more heartfelt, more realistic and more complete than any other Arc. By omitting scenes and details, or not giving chunks of dialogue the time or focus to become introspective, highly poetic moments, the Marley Arc is being paced much more as a plot focused Political Thriller, than as a character focused War Drama.



Visually, it was an overall improvement over the last episode. Beautifully detailed close-ups of Reiner are always welcome and the animated shadows and camera work in the opening scene are impressive. I enjoyed the ambiance during the Reiner, Porco and Pieck's scene, which ended with one of those silent moments of awkwardly pleasant melancholy I would've loved to see all over the episode. The character acting was downright amazing in some scenes (Zeke's speech to General Calvi, Gabi at the train station) and extremely awkward in others (Udo on the port, Zeke and Colt after the meeting) but I still think that the character designs lack consistency from scene to scene (sometimes even from shot to shot) a little too much this early in the production. The compositing switches from surprisingly good (especially during close-ups, as well as a couple of eye catching light tricks here and there) to bad (during a large part of the episode it feels as if everything is rendered in the same texture) throughout the episode depending on how well drawn the character designs are (poorly drawn characters need more blur in order to not stand out against the background art) and the background art isn't particularly consistent; With the beautiful interior of the train borrowing elements from photorealism, and the in-between backgrounds being drawn in a less artful, less realistic style.

A visual improvement over the last episode but sadly for me, it doesn't bring me the slow-paced poetry or hyper focused introspection that I crave for in cinema, literature, television, anime or comic books. I don't think they'll be able to actually butcher this Arc, but with the route that they're taking now, it's building up to become a faster paced, political side-arc, opposed to a deeply personal drama that carries in itself all the details that give away access to the heart of this story.
MironBironDec 13, 2020 3:01 PM
Dec 13, 2020 2:51 PM
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Mar 2020
9
Personally I have zero complaints about how its done, the story,dialogues and all are great.The small problem is the animation,their movement looks fake and I dont know what to expect in fight scenes, also sad about Pieck's nose
Dec 13, 2020 2:53 PM
Offline
Nov 2019
17
The animation was very fluid: 10/10
Drawing was also too good: 10/10
The story is nothing i am caring about cause i already read the manga: 10/10
Pacing was was quite good but not the best, they didn't show Pieck's ass, hope they somehow show it in the next episode: 8/10
Dec 13, 2020 2:53 PM

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Dec 2015
1557
Direction improved, perfectly paced, amazing use of rotoscoping and extremely engaging story. This time, I have nothing to complain and it made me pretty sure almost all the negative assumptions about MAPPA's adaptation are wrong.

The only reason I still won't give it a 10 is because I'll will wait for a potential really impactful episode for it.
Dec 13, 2020 2:54 PM

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Jun 2014
8137
Not really impressed with the content of this episode and it's been a while since I've seen animation this bad....
Dec 13, 2020 2:58 PM

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May 2016
1322
Hayashi >>>> Araki. Change my mind.

I really loved the "camera movement", sometimes I felt that I watch a live-action series!
-
Dec 13, 2020 2:59 PM

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Sep 2018
577
@MironBiron

Get ready my man, they are coming for your ass lmao. I bet at least three people are writing a reply to you as I'm writing this.
Dec 13, 2020 2:59 PM
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Jun 2015
1116
millo said:
lmao i dont care about the people talking avout cgi or stiffness or MAPPA bad MAPPA evil MAPPA must die in the comment section.

What i care about is..... DID YMIR REALLY DIED OFFSCREEN?!!!!!! SOMEBODY PLEASE ANSWER ME, I'm in shock, i feel bertrayed, just like when reiner confess he is the armored titan and they did it in the background! WTF ISAYAMA?!!!!!

Overall the episode is really good and im happy MAPPA didnt cut Isayama's trademark jokes, like "tell me how many hair you have in your butt", or "my neighbour said the sea is salty because he piss on it" LMAOO WIT always cut these type of jokes idk why but now im happy~

This season felt darker to me (in a psychological sense) and i love it, well i love WIT's season with all my heart but MAPPA's direction really fit this season's tone i guess.

And if anyone wonder, why am i so positive, im an anime only person who only read the respective chapter of the manga after every season.
They only get 13 years and Ymir hit that limit.
Dec 13, 2020 3:00 PM
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Jul 2018
564084
@MironBiron
I agree with everything you said
Dec 13, 2020 3:02 PM

Offline
Nov 2008
942
SirTristram said:
@MironBiron

Get ready my man, they are coming for your ass lmao. I bet at least three people are writing a reply to you as I'm writing this.

Hahahahahahahaha I hope not! I wrote a very nuanced reply I believe!

chiearlymorning said:
I agree with everything you said

Thanks bro I hope you're not joking because you've been on a roll lately.
Dec 13, 2020 3:05 PM

Offline
Feb 2020
391
it was a fine episode, but i miss my main crew!!!! i want to see what they have been up to in these four years, just a flashback of levi and mikasa isn't enough and i'm not as attached to these new kids

but i will admit that i am becoming more sympathetic towards reiner and the eldians on the mainland and their aims. tbh nobody is right or wrong, it's just people following and believing what they have been told

also reiner recounting sasha's potato story brought a smile to my face, the way he was saying it as if it was some super evil act lol

anyway i hope we see the original gang again soon i miss them
Dec 13, 2020 3:10 PM

Offline
May 2015
398
I can still see some fans having severe separation anxiety from WIT STUDIO thinking that its a big disservice to have this handed over to MAPPA lmao. Regardless of the outcome, having this handed over to WIT will just be as "disastrous" given that Isayama is still calling most of the shots in this season with MAPPA's staff.

For a TV series, having this much character animation in a single episode is uncommon even WIT didn't bother to focus on this when they had the chance to work on it. You may say Kyoto Animation and Trigger used to do these kinds of character acting in all of their works so it's not that unusual but they didn't have much releases nowadays due to the former still recovering from the fire, and the latter just rarely does stuff. Seeing MAPPA put this amount of work in just a single episode despite their scheduling issues is commendable enough even if it has its rough moments.

MironBiron said:
I'm surprised at how much they're rushing through it. It's perfectly watchable content but many subtle things get lost, and some scenes don't get to become "a moment" of their own right. These include the opening scene, Reiner and Porco's conversation, Gabi and Reiner's conversation, the Warriors' return to Liberio, Reiner's conversation with Falco, as well as Zeke's tea talk with the warriors.

Don't get me wrong, none of these moments are badly directed or hard to watch or anything. It's just that, by timing at least a few of them properly, by slowing the dialogue down, having a few silences here, a few background-edits there, it would've allowed these scenes to delve into a higher level of introspection and poetry. They could've been actual key moments of great emotional depth; the really slow ones that are just there without moving the actual plot forward.

I always saw Marley Arc more as a work of literature, a slow paced, slice of life, anti-war drama that doesn't go out of its way to spend a little extra time on a presumably boring interaction just to set a painful and awkward mood. I enjoy comparing it to anti-war drama's like Das Leben Der Anderen (2006), Il Conformista (1970), or The Deer Hunter (1978) because they all contain these suddenly placed, awkward, brutally honest and stretched out moments that are all sort of able to confront viewers with a character's guilt, hypocrisy, fear, doubts etc.

The current pacing sadly isn't allowing Marley Arc to reach this level of drama. I'll give three examples of scenes that could've reached the emotional depth that they deserved if they were given a little more screen-time to stretch out. These are only three examples, but it happens all the time, and it happened in the previous episode too:

01. Reiner and Porco's conversation about Marcel and Ymir is a fully matured work of poetry in the manga. The way Porco speaks about Reiner from Ymir's memories, confronting Reiner about his Paradis personality, recognizing traits of his dead brother in Reiner's former behavior (we even see Reiner from Ymir's point of view in the original panel!!!!!), describing his personal grudge to this broken man, only for Reiner to indifferently confirm these hateful words... is profoundly beautiful content that takes much more time to sink in than it was given here. Like, that's some out of this world introspection right there and it deserves to a moment in its own right.

02. The warriors' return to Liberio could've been much grander. Omitting their walk through the city was a bad idea as the hateful glares of Marleyan citizens would have added a much needed, darker undertone to their victorious return. It was essentially a weird, twisted walk of shame in the manga. The directors made a much sweeter moment out of it (the slight feel good music wasn't helping either and neither did it help during the scene at the Middle-Eastern bay) by omitting the ugly details that took place before it and in doing that, the scene lost a lot of its tragic quality. Showing actual, detailed and inevitably sad overview shots of the internment district would've helped in setting the mood too, but we're dealing with a rushed adaptation here, and there sadly isn't much time/resources to pay attention to these things.

03. Reiner and Gabi's conversation on their walk to the military headquarters is a prime example of how they sacrificed Marley Arc's "slife of life" aspects by omitting little, heartfelt details such as Gabi's silly conversation with the Marleyan guards (the ones watching over the district's walls) and Reiner and Gabi's stroll across the market wherein they're greeted by the friendly Eldians. These interactions are incredibly and impossibly wholesome and go out of their way to humanize both the feared Armored Titan as well as his successor by positioning them like normal people in a world that we recognize as real. The first time I read that I was like “Holy shit that's the Armored Titan being greeted by a bunch of friendly people who are all proud of him for the horrors he's committed that's fucking beautiful”. Isayama took every little moment he could in order to humanize and make relatable the people outside of the walls and it's a big part in why Marley Arc is arguably the best arc in the entire series, but the adaptation fails flat at reflecting the Arc's poetic aspirations.

Bonus: Omitting Pieck's "titan crawl" is tragic as it was yet another clever, heartfelt, funny and surprising way to humanize a warrior and show the consequences of their powers in a realistic, brutally casual way. Again, nothing too big, but these are already four incredibly original and poignant scenes that they cut out. Scenes that, because they were added, allowed the Marley Arc to become a part of the story that is richer, more heartfelt, more realistic and more complete than any other Arc. By omitting scenes and details, or not giving chunks of dialogue the time or focus to become introspective, highly poetic moments, the Marley Arc is being paced much more as a plot focused Political Thriller, than as a character focused War Drama.



Visually, it was an overall improvement over the last episode. Beautifully detailed close-ups of Reiner are always welcome and the animated shadows and camera work in the opening scene are impressive. I enjoyed the ambiance during the Reiner, Porco and Pieck's scene, which ended with one of those silent moments of awkwardly pleasant melancholy I would've loved to see all over the episode. The character acting was downright amazing in some scenes (Zeke's speech to General Calvi, Gabi at the train station) and extremely awkward in others (Udo on the port, Zeke and Colt after the meeting) but I still think that the character designs lack consistency from scene to scene (sometimes even from shot to shot) a little too much this early in the production. The compositing switches from surprisingly good (especially during close-ups, as well as a couple of eye catching light tricks here and there) to bad (during a large part of the episode it feels as if everything is rendered in the same texture) throughout the episode depending on how well drawn the character designs are (poorly drawn characters need more blur in order to not stand out against the background art) and the background art isn't particularly consistent; With the beautiful interior of the train borrowing elements from photorealism, and the in-between backgrounds being drawn in a less artful, less realistic style.

A visual improvement over the last episode but sadly for me, it doesn't bring me the slow-paced poetry or hyper focused introspection that I crave for in cinema, literature, television, anime or comic books. I don't think they'll be able to actually butcher this Arc, but with the route that they're taking now, it's building up to become a faster paced, political side-arc, opposed to a deeply personal drama that carries in itself all the details that give away access to the heart of this story.


I am not a manga reader but I'd like to say that this is so far one of the well-thought and unbiased opinions in this thread. I personally loved the new season as an anime-only watcher and as an animator as well and it's really interesting to see in-depth analysis just like this from a manga reader like you. These kinds of comments are what compels me to pick up the source material.
ZnraDec 13, 2020 3:28 PM

Those with dirty minds will find my Steam pic offensive
Dec 13, 2020 3:11 PM

Offline
Mar 2016
1723
The animation was weird this episode. At times, it felt like there weren't enough frames. Some of the movements felt quite unnatural too. The camera also moved in a weird way.

The art was weird at times.

Hanae Natsuki has voiced too many famous characters, so it's hard not to hear Kaneki or Tanjirou when listening to his voice. Falco has a lot of scenes in the story, so I wish they got someone better for the role.

Pieck's voice doesn't sound like she's in her early twenties at all.

It seems they repositioned Eren on a building instead of being behind Reiner's group.

I feel like this episode went too fast. The characters were speaking without a proper pause, and it made them sound very incompetent. A proper leader should speak with proper enunciation. . . like Erwin does or Pixis, or Shadis.

I had quite a lot of problem with the way this episode was directed. It was like they wanted to end this and get to the war as quick as possible. But, Snk is not all about war! The story has conspiracy and politics and lots of proper mysteries.

I hope the next episode is better.
Dec 13, 2020 3:11 PM
Offline
Jul 2020
181
It was cool i liked it. I was happy to see
i also almost cried when Reiner was talking about the soldiers :') and falco is the best so kind.
chichiLADec 13, 2020 3:17 PM
Dec 13, 2020 3:12 PM

Offline
Apr 2020
1686
Why did they waste time on terrible character animation. Rather have parts be "moving manga" than ugly ass directing. Better to just read the manga since they're skipping much needed characterization anyway. Pce out Final Season.
Dec 13, 2020 3:12 PM

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Mar 2016
3076
Besides some really nice spotlights for Reiner, it’s a pretty ho-hum episode at best. The 2D aesthetics sure feel quite off; I think the staff probably wanted to animate those more but the added details came off more weird than impressive to me. Just comes off as jarring and admittedly ugly at times.

Not like anything really helps considering I don’t expect anything to improve my opinion of stuff after the huge Wall Maria clash in the previous season.
Dec 13, 2020 3:13 PM

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Aug 2019
1694
MironBiron said:
SirTristram said:
@MironBiron

Get ready my man, they are coming for your ass lmao. I bet at least three people are writing a reply to you as I'm writing this.

Hahahahahahahaha I hope not! I wrote a very nuanced reply I believe!

chiearlymorning said:
I agree with everything you said

Thanks bro I hope you're not joking because you've been on a roll lately.


Nothing wrong with positive or negative feedback regarding something provided there's context and evidence. See nothing wrong with your post.
Dec 13, 2020 3:14 PM

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Aug 2012
414
Horrible pacing. Episode felt rushed.
I dont think anime-only understood who pieck was
Too much information in a single episode. No time to introduce the new characters.
Dec 13, 2020 3:19 PM

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Dec 2015
86
Pack it up boys, valid criticism is no more!!! (because some fanboys said so) Seriously, why wouldn't someone be demanding with something they like?

On another note, pretty nice episode, I found the pacing to be perfect. According to manga readers, some stuff was ommitted (but I think they just rearranged the chapters, according to some other manga readers, maybe both things). In the end I would prefer if nothing was skipped: I don't give a flying duck about the manga, but I'm a supporter of faithful adaptations, unless the adaptation improves on the original source. Dinner scene was too cringey with the animation, but that's all of my complaints animation wise. Artstyle good, sound is there, characters still look like potatoes so it means it's SnK. I was going to complain about certain spoiler (if it really is one), but damn if it is legit, it's one of those spoilers that hype me up. Damn, I do hate time skips doe.
Dec 13, 2020 3:19 PM

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Apr 2019
1295
4 years have passed, Technology is advancing at a rapid rate, It's now or never, retrieve the Founding Titan! Well, certainly in the endgame now. Paradisians are certainly putting their two titans at work, destroyed 32 ships. Seems Gabi has caught on... maybe the Paradisians aren't so bad after all. Anyway, excited to see how our Paradisians have grown over this time skip.

Dec 13, 2020 3:21 PM
Offline
Jul 2018
564084
MironBiron said:
SirTristram said:
@MironBiron

Get ready my man, they are coming for your ass lmao. I bet at least three people are writing a reply to you as I'm writing this.

Hahahahahahahaha I hope not! I wrote a very nuanced reply I believe!

chiearlymorning said:
I agree with everything you said

Thanks bro I hope you're not joking because you've been on a roll lately.

No joke this episode felt all over the place for me
Dec 13, 2020 3:22 PM

Offline
Apr 2015
2619
Pieck is cute and interesting, honestly loved how she was laying on that couch during that meeting.

Seems the Anime now mentioned that it was 4 years since Zeke's defeat by Levi, eventho someone was kind enough to answer me last week.

Loving this mature and older Reiner. The way he described all the guys on the island was pretty funny, but its interesting to see how the people there view everyone on that island.

Everyone saying about spotting Eren, rewatched it and yeah spotted him second time around.
Dec 13, 2020 3:24 PM

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Jun 2020
514
This episode were just full of talking but I love how accurate it is from the manga.

We got to see Galliard and Pieck faces.

Dec 13, 2020 3:30 PM
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Jul 2017
63
why reiner is not line up, he is definitely one of the most traumatized person there.

and about the animation, sometimes it abit not fluid but most of the time its good. The art tho, the art is amazing and the cinematography is top tier
Monster of the week trope is a sign inability of the author to write a good plot so they introduce random ass villain to distract viewer with action.

My English is not good.

Dec 13, 2020 3:31 PM
Offline
May 2020
147
I find it kinda weird that this episode with rotoscope was just a flexing dream from a certain veteran director that will probably not appear anymore. Just my take.
Dec 13, 2020 3:31 PM
Offline
Dec 2020
7
MironBiron said:
I'm surprised at how much they're rushing through it. It's perfectly watchable content but many subtle things get lost, and some scenes don't get to become "a moment" of their own right. These include the opening scene, Reiner and Porco's conversation, Gabi and Reiner's conversation, the Warriors' return to Liberio, Reiner's conversation with Falco, as well as Zeke's tea talk with the warriors.

Don't get me wrong, none of these moments are badly directed or hard to watch or anything. It's just that, by timing at least a few of them properly, by slowing the dialogue down, having a few silences here, a few background-edits there, it would've allowed these scenes to delve into a higher level of introspection and poetry. They could've been actual key moments of great emotional depth; the really slow ones that are just there without moving the actual plot forward.

I always saw Marley Arc more as a work of literature, a slow paced, slice of life, anti-war drama that doesn't go out of its way to spend a little extra time on a presumably boring interaction just to set a painful and awkward mood. I enjoy comparing it to anti-war drama's like Das Leben Der Anderen (2006), Il Conformista (1970), or The Deer Hunter (1978) because they all contain these suddenly placed, awkward, brutally honest and stretched out moments that are all sort of able to confront viewers with a character's guilt, hypocrisy, fear, doubts etc.

The current pacing sadly isn't allowing Marley Arc to reach this level of drama. I'll give three examples of scenes that could've reached the emotional depth that they deserved if they were given a little more screen-time to stretch out. These are only three examples, but it happens all the time, and it happened in the previous episode too:

01. Reiner and Porco's conversation about Marcel and Ymir is a fully matured work of poetry in the manga. The way Porco speaks about Reiner from Ymir's memories, confronting Reiner about his Paradis personality, recognizing traits of his dead brother in Reiner's former behavior (we even see Reiner from Ymir's point of view in the original panel!!!!!), describing his personal grudge to this broken man, only for Reiner to indifferently confirm these hateful words... is profoundly beautiful content that takes much more time to sink in than it was given here. Like, that's some out of this world introspection right there and it deserves to a moment in its own right.

02. The warriors' return to Liberio could've been much grander. Omitting their walk through the city was a bad idea as the hateful glares of Marleyan citizens would have added a much needed, darker undertone to their victorious return. It was essentially a weird, twisted walk of shame in the manga. The directors made a much sweeter moment out of it (the slight feel good music wasn't helping either and neither did it help during the scene at the Middle-Eastern bay) by omitting the ugly details that took place before it and in doing that, the scene lost a lot of its tragic quality. Showing actual, detailed and inevitably sad overview shots of the internment district would've helped in setting the mood too, but we're dealing with a rushed adaptation here, and there sadly isn't much time/resources to pay attention to these things.

03. Reiner and Gabi's conversation on their walk to the military headquarters is a prime example of how they sacrificed Marley Arc's "slife of life" aspects by omitting little, heartfelt details such as Gabi's silly conversation with the Marleyan guards (the ones watching over the district's walls) and Reiner and Gabi's stroll across the market wherein they're greeted by the friendly Eldians. These interactions are incredibly and impossibly wholesome and go out of their way to humanize both the feared Armored Titan as well as his successor by positioning them like normal people in a world that we recognize as real. The first time I read that I was like “Holy shit that's the Armored Titan being greeted by a bunch of friendly people who are all proud of him for the horrors he's committed that's fucking beautiful”. Isayama took every little moment he could in order to humanize and make relatable the people outside of the walls and it's a big part in why Marley Arc is arguably the best arc in the entire series, but the adaptation fails flat at reflecting the Arc's poetic aspirations.

Bonus: Omitting Pieck's "titan crawl" is tragic as it was yet another clever, heartfelt, funny and surprising way to humanize a warrior and show the consequences of their powers in a realistic, brutally casual way. Again, nothing too big, but these are already four incredibly original and poignant scenes that they cut out. Scenes that, because they were added, allowed the Marley Arc to become a part of the story that is richer, more heartfelt, more realistic and more complete than any other Arc. By omitting scenes and details, or not giving chunks of dialogue the time or focus to become introspective, highly poetic moments, the Marley Arc is being paced much more as a plot focused Political Thriller, than as a character focused War Drama.



Visually, it was an overall improvement over the last episode. Beautifully detailed close-ups of Reiner are always welcome and the animated shadows and camera work in the opening scene are impressive. I enjoyed the ambiance during the Reiner, Porco and Pieck's scene, which ended with one of those silent moments of awkwardly pleasant melancholy I would've loved to see all over the episode. The character acting was downright amazing in some scenes (Zeke's speech to General Calvi, Gabi at the train station) and extremely awkward in others (Udo on the port, Zeke and Colt after the meeting) but I still think that the character designs lack consistency from scene to scene (sometimes even from shot to shot) a little too much this early in the production. The compositing switches from surprisingly good (especially during close-ups, as well as a couple of eye catching light tricks here and there) to bad (during a large part of the episode it feels as if everything is rendered in the same texture) throughout the episode depending on how well drawn the character designs are (poorly drawn characters need more blur in order to not stand out against the background art) and the background art isn't particularly consistent; With the beautiful interior of the train borrowing elements from photorealism, and the in-between backgrounds being drawn in a less artful, less realistic style.

A visual improvement over the last episode but sadly for me, it doesn't bring me the slow-paced poetry or hyper focused introspection that I crave for in cinema, literature, television, anime or comic books. I don't think they'll be able to actually butcher this Arc, but with the route that they're taking now, it's building up to become a faster paced, political side-arc, opposed to a deeply personal drama that carries in itself all the details that give away access to the heart of this story.
100% agree. Aot is a very plot heavy show with very little time for character interactions. What makes the Marley arc so good is that it actually takes a lot of time to give characters scenes that aren’t just plot oriented and just have human interactions. This is what made it feel so mature. But in the anime since these scenes aren’t plot relevant they’ve all been cut out as you’ve mentioned. Reiner and Porcos talk,the soldiers negging Gabi about Falcos crush, Pieck and Porcos interaction, Gabi and Mister gate keeper, and many more. All these moments add nothing to the plot but everything to the characters which imo is more important then plot. But unfortunately these are all probably going to be cut.
Dec 13, 2020 3:33 PM

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Aug 2012
414
@MironBiron I agree with you.
This is starting to feel like I am watching Tokyo Ghoul. Everything is rushed.

Dec 13, 2020 3:35 PM
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May 2020
147
This isn't even close to Tokyo Ghoul disaster, but cutting dialogue is always a bad thing.
Dec 13, 2020 3:40 PM
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645
CeddyyBearr said:
Pieck is cute and interesting, honestly loved how she was laying on that couch during that meeting.

Seems the Anime now mentioned that it was 4 years since Zeke's defeat by Levi, eventho someone was kind enough to answer me last week.

Loving this mature and older Reiner. The way he described all the guys on the island was pretty funny, but its interesting to see how the people there view everyone on that island.

Everyone saying about spotting Eren, rewatched it and yeah spotted him second time around.


Where did you see him? Which timestamp? Was it the guy with one leg?
Dec 13, 2020 3:44 PM

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2112
This show truly is a masterpiece.

The camera movements are a bit weird for me but they work in most cases like in the last scene when they panned from pieck to reiner. And speaking of Pieck holy shit I love her so much. Not a big fan of the excessive blur especially in the scene where they were at the docks but it's okay.

This episode made you think about the "good edians" and why they think the people of Paradis are devils. They've been living in a world where there is no justice and freedom that it impaired their judgement of it. But marleyans or eldian they are still human like they showed in that one scene where Reiner saw his old comrades. That was heartwarming honestly. But damn who would've thought that the walls had more freedom.

I'd like to mention that one scene where Zeke didn't know he had royal blood. He's really clueless lol. Also The Turner family was mentioned and manga readers are hyped for a certain
so ig im hyped too.

dompsterfireDec 13, 2020 4:08 PM
Dec 13, 2020 3:45 PM

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Aug 2020
509
Look at this realistic animation guys,espeically when her dad held her! really felt like i was in a movie.

Sad7727Dec 13, 2020 3:48 PM
Dec 13, 2020 3:46 PM

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Sep 2016
25
I found a bit weird the animation of Zeke walking up the stairs, but besides of that, It was nice. I enjoyed the episode a lot.
Dec 13, 2020 3:48 PM

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May 2010
801
Did they forget to add some frames in this episode? It looked so weird
Dec 13, 2020 3:52 PM

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Nov 2008
942
Sad7727 said:
Look at this realistic animation guys,espeically when her dad held her! really felt like i was in a movie.


This was actually one of my least favorite examples of character acting here. It looks like rotoscope over a low frame-rate CGI model. I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic, but it would’ve been more elegant if they went for a limitedly animated, well storyboarded sequence of close-ups and backgrounds instead of this.
Dec 13, 2020 3:53 PM
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Oct 2020
108
I only started to notice how good the sound effects were in the dinner scene with the howling wind. I hope we can hear a war siren in the next few episodes.
Dec 13, 2020 3:54 PM
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May 2020
147
MironBiron said:
Sad7727 said:
Look at this realistic animation guys,espeically when her dad held her! really felt like i was in a movie.


This was actually one of my least favorite examples of character acting here. It looks like rotoscope over a low frame-rate CGI model. I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic, but it would’ve been more elegant if they went for a limitedly animated, well storyboarded sequence of close-ups and backgrounds instead of this.

It was veteran animator/director from season 1 showing off his rotoscope fantasy. Just try to act like that scene never happend, because the said veteran shouldn't appear anymore/a lot
Dec 13, 2020 3:55 PM

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Znra said:
I am not a manga reader but I'd like to say that this is so far one of the well-thought and unbiased opinions in this thread.

Thank you. I have the feeling that many people think that I’m biased as shit so this is nice to read.
Dec 13, 2020 4:05 PM
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2887
Hmmm. Interesting episode as we have given those on Marley viewed those human beings ---> as a DEMON.

Now lets see what will happen in next episode
Dec 13, 2020 4:10 PM

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Mar 2019
633
Good episode.

I only have two nitpicks in terms of how the chapters were adapted. My first nitpick is that I would have preferred to have seen them animate the walk through the section outside the internment zone where all the non Marleyans look at them suspiciously despite the Eldians going to war for their sake. It's like a few panels on one page in the manga so it's not like it's an important scene, but it's a scene that still sticks out to me.

My second nitpick is that they omitted Zeke's second line towards Pieck in the Warrior meeting scene where they're being spied on. He commends her for her thoughts, but unlike the manga he only does it once. Not having Zeke compliment her a second time ruined the effect of Zeke's silly behavior towards her in that scene.
Dec 13, 2020 4:10 PM

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Aug 2020
2112
MironBiron said:
Sad7727 said:
Look at this realistic animation guys,espeically when her dad held her! really felt like i was in a movie.


This was actually one of my least favorite examples of character acting here. It looks like rotoscope over a low frame-rate CGI model. I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic, but it would’ve been more elegant if they went for a limitedly animated, well storyboarded sequence of close-ups and backgrounds instead of this.
I agree with this lol. That scene where Zeke was smoking and he and Colt were going up the stairs. That felt a bit weird and some camera movement were eh but the scene in the ending though where the camera panned to Pieck and then to Reiner was really good imo.
dompsterfireDec 13, 2020 8:03 PM
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