Attack on Titan: Junior High

Episode 10

It's already an established fact that the characters of Attack on Titan: Junior High are barely recognizable caricatures of their former Attack on Titan selves. However, as the episodes progress and these characters don't grow or change at all, the effect becomes tiresome. This episode placed the characters in an election for student council president—a plot indistinguishable from any other anime set at a school—focusing especially on Jean and Eren's rivalry. This weak plot combines with one-dimensional characters and their repetitive conflict to form one of the least satisfying episodes of Attack on Titan: Junior High yet.

Remember Ilse Langnar? She didn't survive very long in the show, only appearing post-mortem in the series' first OVA as the narrative voice of her salvaged diary, but she practically has a starring role in this episode. Note-taking—her one distinct character trait—has become the entire basis for her character here, making her a sort of Harriet the Spy type. Her attempts to expose a scandal in the student council are played for high drama, with some of her monologue coming line-for-line from Attack on Titan. (That's the thing—sometimes you can't tell if this show borrowing directly from the original is a joke or just convenient laziness.) When Hanji's pet Titan, Sonny, scares her in the woods, she drops her important notebook full of allegedly juicy information that the student council candidates would love to see. It makes sense that the original Ilse would be terrified of Titans, but this Ilse goes to school with them. It seems like this show only pulls out the Titans when it needs a kind of bogeyman, and we never really see what Titan classrooms are like. Ten episodes in is a little late for me to have this many questions about the setting, leading me to think that this show scrimped on world-building.

After the drama of Ilse's lost notebook (which she then gets back with no fuss), the rest of the episode is full of cute but unfulfilling gags. Sometimes this show confuses a reference to the original show with humor. For example, it repeatedly showed the characters drinking “Titan milk” in order to make sure the viewers saw it, which is the TV equivalent of your over-enthusiastic friend nudging your elbow after they crack a joke. It's just overbearing. I did enjoy the multi-color transitions of each of the characters in 3D maneuver gear “pulling” the show from one scene to the next, but it's more like a cute piece of Attack on Titan merchandise I would buy than an entertaining element of a story. (Overall, the design of this show is adorable. I would buy chibi figures of every character, but it wouldn't make me find the show any more interesting.) Eren wants to destroy the Titans and Jean wants girls to like him and Oluo bit his tongue twice this episode, get it? He bites his tongue a lot! And look, it's Levi kicking Eren like in the original show, viewers liked that, right? LAUGH NOW.

In the end there can only be one winner, and it's going to be the character whose single dimension of personality, if you can even call it that, is being the least obnoxious. Congratulations, Marco! Although I wouldn't say it's much of an accomplishment.

Rating: C-

Attack on Titan: Junior High is currently streaming on Funimation.

Lauren writes about anime and journalism at Otaku Journalist.