Homura Akemi vs Rei Sakigake




Homura Akemi has the ability to manipulate time. This gives her a decisive advantage over any opponent who wants to defeat her in one on one combat. Rei has some good skills in dueling and a decent deck but none of those cards can keep up with Homura. Homura has gone toe to toe against Mami, one of the strongest fighters in the Madoka series. Rei just can’t stop each shot and her deck will quickly be whittled down to nothing. Homura Akemi wins.

Suzuko Homura vs Hirana Asu




Suzuko Homura is facing off against her successor here. While successors may usually have more hax, Hirana’s deck isn’t all that overpowered due to the team format she is used to fighting in. Suzuko has had more fighters at her disposal and has shown more trap cards. She should easily be able to overwhelm Hirana in both pure talent and raw power. She simply has the better deck. Suzuko Homura wins.

Khun vs Bam



Khun is a great tactician. He could certainly think his way out of any puzzle and defeat Bam in a variety of mental games. In a physical fight though this will not be going very well for Khun. He is powerful but Bam’s just in a completely different league. Being the genius that he is, Khun would likely just forfeit as soon as the fight begins. Bam wins.

Shigeo Kageyama vs Reigen



Reigen is a very likable guy but his charm makes up 90% of his character. In terms of an actual fight he really wouldn’t last more than a few seconds against Shigeo. The difference in their abilities is astronomical. Shigeo could level the entire town in the time it would take for Reigen to throw a punch. There just aren’t any viable outcomes where Reigen pulls off the upset. Shigeo Kageyama wins.

Tyrian vs Cinder



Tyrian is a powerful fighter and if Cinder didn’t have her Maiden powers you could make a very fair case for him defeating her. He’s been shown to be even just a little more powerful than Qrow which would put him as one of the strongest non-maiden characters in the series. Still, the fact is that Cinder does have the Maiden powers which would make this a rather quick win for her. Cinder wins.

The Earl and the Fairy Review


This is one of those manga titles that I certainly had not heard about before reading. It’s sort of like an old school Sherlock Holmes title only with a lot of supernatural fairies running around. It’s a quick 4 volume read that roughly covers two arcs. There’s always a lot going on and there’s a rather big cast of characters running around although I suppose not all of them get a super big focus or anything like that.

The series starts by introducing us to Lydia. She is a Fairy Doctor. Unfortunately, most people don’t believe in fairies so she has a reputation for being rather crazy. She doesn’t let this bother her though and just continues about her business as usual. Lydia is tricked into getting onto a ship where there are a lot of different factions after her. There’s a gentleman who says he needs her help since a bunch of troublemakers are on the ship and they may even have her father captive. Then you have a guy called Edgar who was getting beaten up but admits he is actually the Legendary Blue Knight, Earl Edgar. Lydia doesn’t know who to trust.

Both of these guys seem extremely suspect and her father never really shows up in time as it is. If she chooses the wrong side she will likely end up dead. Hopefully her fairy abilities will lead her in the right direction. She does have a fairy cat named Nico but unfortunately he isn’t much of a fighter so if the humans attack there isn’t really much that he can do. The first arc is mainly about this quest which is around 2-2.5 volumes. Ultimately she does side with Edgar who goes on to become the main guy of the series.

Then you have the second arc which is a little more low key. The heroes make it to a more formal part of society where a girl is really after Edgar. His flirty nature takes over so Lydia runs off to sulk. Unfortunately she ends up losing in a battle against one of the fairies and gets her soul stolen. Edgar must now find her before it’s too late. Her body can’t live for long without a soul after all so if he is too slow then she will cease to exist. The stakes are naturally quite high here but on more of a personal level.

While the final chapter feels like it has to move quite rapidly there was enough time to tell both stories here. The second one feels a lot smaller but it’s still pretty solid. Edgar finally starts acting a little more like a good guy since even by the end of the first adventure you’ll probably be quite skeptical. Even here I wouldn’t buy into his excuses about needing to be flirty to stay in character. If he likes Lydia then he should stop messing around.

Due to that, I wouldn’t say I ever ended up liking the guy. He can be a bit rough also and was willing to sacrifice Lydia on several occasions. Those aren’t the kind of things you can just look over so you feel like there should be no way they can possibly end up together. Surely she will remember all of that clear as day right?

As you can guess, I didn’t buy into the romance here between Lydia and Edgar. There’s also Ermine who likes Edgar as well but you know from the start that she is absolutely doomed. While Lydia’s skills as a fairy doctor are good, she does make quite a few mistakes when dealing with Edgar. It’s a shame that Nico can’t fight since that would at least even up the odds. Lydia’s a nice character who means well but ends up being completely out of her depth.

The best character would probably be Raven. He’s rather emotionless so he doesn’t always know how to act but he is the best fighter in the series. When needed he can take down as many opponents as required to give Lydia and Edgar safe passage into the next room. He’s a trained assassin from when he was a kid so he’s borderline super-human in the present.

Ermine doesn’t get a huge role but she was a good character as well. Things just never really seem to go her way but from Edgar’s main team she certainly had more compassion than the others right from the start. She actually felt human while the others would focus on just doing the most logical thing at the time.

Then from the second arc you have the main princess who chased after Edgar and was cursing her friend with the fairy. Of course she pulls the whole “I didn’t mean it tho” speech but she was easily the weakest character of the second arc. You can’t just put your friend in mortal danger and then not do anything about it. Even by the end she didn’t want to go and help since it would hurt her reputation. Yeah, you definitely can’t come back from a string of scenes like that. I was surprised that even by the end she wouldn’t do the right thing. If she said it was because she was scared that would be (a tiny bit) better.

As for the art, I’d say it looked pretty good. Edgar and the other guy from the first story do look rather similar but that may have been intentional to make it a little more difficult to determine who Lydia should go with. This is hardly an action series so don’t expect a lot of fights but the action scenes we do get are pretty solid. Whenever a character brings out a gun you can bet that there are going to be a lot of intense panels around that.

The series really flies by since it’s so fast. On one hand that means we don’t really get to finish a lot of the lore and concepts brought up in the series. Don’t expect to really get to any truths behind the Blue Knight lore or meeting up with the King of the Fairies. In general the manga feels more like an introduction to the series which makes sense since there are many more novels than there are manga volumes. In theory I suppose this would help you go to read them next.

I could see this going for a Natsume’s Book of Friends kind of vibe long term once the characters mellow out. Perhaps not quite as laidback as all that but with episodic stories about the fairies and such it could have that kind of vibe. We’ve seen an evil fairy that could fight so next I want to see a heroic one that can flaunt his powers. Giving Nico a huge power up would also be great.

The writing for the series is on point even if none of Edgar’s inner monologues really help me sympathize with the guy. We do learn a lot about his past as well as Raven’s and Ermine’s. The trio definitely didn’t have a great time of it and had to commit a lot of crimes in order to get out of there. It’s part of why they won’t hesitate very much in the present either since they’ve really been hardened at this point.

Overall, The Earl and the Fairy is a good manga. It’s one of those titles where I definitely couldn’t buy into the romance though. As the “mean” guy, Edgar goes a little too far so you just can’t root for him. The art is good though and the base stories are on point. The heroes definitely live in a very corrupt world but fortunately they don’t dwell on it compared to something like Black Butler or things could get dicey. If I were Lydia I would have just gone home after the first arc but hopefully as she goes on more missions she will be able to gain more fairies and maybe even get some power ups along the way. That would definitely help her in future situations like this. If you end up reading the series and liking it then you’ll probably want to try and find an English scanned version of the novels to continue the saga.

Overall 6/10

Death Becomes Her Review


Death Becomes Her is a film that shows the dangers of immortality. I would almost say that should be a spoiler but a lot of the posters showed this already and I imagine it’s in the trailer so it should be treated as part of the main plot. That said, it would have worked as an effective twist since it’s a while before that happens. Finally, we have a movie that shows why being immortal isn’t necessarily a good thing. I’ve always said that you also need regeneration in order for the ability to be worth it. Otherwise it’s just going to be more of a weakness as you grow old and are forced to survive for eternity. The film has some fun moments and eh moments so it perfectly stays at the center of 0 and 10.

The film starts out with Helen taking Ernest to a film to watch her “friend” Madeline. Helen is quite resentful of her to be honest since Madeline steals every guy she ever goes out with. She has decided to take her current man Ernest on a little test to see if he’s faithful. Can he survive the “Madeline effect” or will he succumb like the rest? He does…instantly. He marries Madeline and Helen decides to murder her after years of living like a vegetable. Can she really pull this off? Meanwhile Madeline has been cheating on Ernest for years but wants to look younger so she can do it all over again. Fortunately there is some magic in this verse.

I think from the start the film wants to tell you that none of the 3 main characters are good people. Ernest has no backbone as he jumps from one girl to the next. He has no motivation and just sits by as Madeline cheats on him. The whole town knows about it which makes matters worse. The only thing he’ll get out of bed for is murder like when he tries to finish Madeline off. As a result I also couldn’t buy into the end of his character arc. He tries to be the better man by the end but by this point it was just too late for this guy. You’ll be shaking your head at him.

As for Helen, well she probably shouldn’t have taken Ernest on this little test of hers. Now, you could say it was good to get this over with than once they were married but I’d say once they are married it should be easy to avoid her entirely. Helen’s also gone after quite a few guys it seems so you also have to wonder if her love is really all that serious or a matter of pride at this point. Helen is also completely serious about wanting to murder Madeline by the way so that’s another reason why you would definitely not be able to call her a hero.

Finally you have Madeline…who is cheating on Ernest all the time. There’s no way she’s a hero here and she is portrayed as being extremely vain. She comes close to getting the doctor to give her extra shots even though it was against corporate policy. Madeline really only looks after herself at all times so you definitely can’t trust her.

With the main characters all acting like true antagonists that means instead of rooting for any of the characters you’re really just cheering the craziness on. For example the best scene in the film is when Madeline grabs a shotgun and just blasts Helen. For starters, it was just really unexpected and it also shows how you can cut loose when both characters have extra powers. They can afford to have a real fight and it’s all quite intense. This could have easily transitioned into an over the top action movie if needed as they escalate against each other to claim Ernest.

They can thank Lisle for this as she found the secret potion of eternal life somehow. It’s definitely an impressive substance to be sure as you effectively can’t be murdered now. It also helps you look quite young for a little while. I guess maybe you need large doses of the stuff or you begin to quickly fade though. Maybe it’s even a bit of a scam since Lisle still looks good but perhaps if they had joined her club they would have gotten more doses. Regardless they definitely should have stuck around since leaving did not help them in the slightest.

The humor is good at times and weak at others. Helen getting quite fat as she sulked about losing Ernest would range a little more on being gross than funny for example. It was an effective way to show how depressed she got but it definitely could have been toned down if you ask me. The film also has quite a bit of fanservice with the various characters, particularly Lisle as it demonstrates the effects of the potion. With all the cheating going around I can safely say that none of the romances were good either.

On the plus side, a lot of the gags involving the immortality itself were fun. Everyone believing Helen was dead for example made a lot of sense since she would literally have no pulse. Her deformed state was also quite realistic even if perhaps hard to look at. Helen using her own death as blackmail against Ernest was great too. He probably regretted having the skills needed to patch her back together.

Overall, Ernest definitely needed to man up a little more. If he had done that then he definitely wouldn’t have been caught in this circumstance. As it is, the guy gets manipulated rather easily. His only good moment might be when he managed to dodge the poisoned drink trick only to still get knocked out by a frying pan anyway. I wouldn’t say the film particularly clicked with me but it has enough gags where you should have some fun here. If you want a cautionary tale on immortality then you should definitely check this one out. The ending is also quite scary in a way too since it furthers that point immensely.

Overall 5/10

Godzilla Destruction Review


Clearly making these mobile games is tougher than I thought because this is another one that just wasn’t very good. If all 3 of the Godzilla games that were announced at the same time are by the same developers then it makes a lot of sense. This one seems to be using a lot of the same assets from Run Godzilla. While the gameplay is slightly better there are still a lot of really weird game design choices. Ultimately it just feels pointless to play a lot of the game.

The game has no story this time so you can forget about that part. You’re thrown in without much of a real introduction or anything. The gameplay is simple. You move Godzilla around with the touchscreen and if he is near an enemy he will attack automatically. Pretty handy right? That’s the extent of the game, there is literally no other gameplay. Each level has 15 mini levels in it which have around 5 waves each. I wouldn’t say the levels are incredibly long but they’re longer than you may think.

Any level ups and power you get in the levels are lost afterwards as it is all temporary. If you’re lucky you will get enough flames and G Profile Pics to help level up your Kaiju and try the whole thing again. Of course if you die during the experience you won’t get almost any rewards which is unfortunate. The game is set up so you should be playing for a very long time if you want to get anywhere. Of course you can pay the big bucks to get the content up front. That’s really your only other option.

For a video game just about anything can be forgiven if the gameplay is good. The problem is that it’s not very fun though. It’s just not all that satisfying to watch Godzilla attack all of the enemies for you. You’d like to be the one blasting away at them. Instead it’s almost like you’re the driver and the computer is the actual player. You can see how that would make for a rather hollow gaming experience right?

The levels all blend together really quickly so it gets rather dull. It’s not as automatic as the Run version but it’s still almost all done by the computer. You don’t feel like you’re really doing all that much. The game also just feels very limited in what you can do. This is literally the only game mode. Everything else is looking at items or your Kaiju and things of that nature. In 2021 I don’t think you can survive on a single game mode unless it’s a Story Mode or something like that.

Additionally the menu layouts don’t make much sense. Good luck equipping any of the gems you unlocked in the game. I could not figure out who to do this since every time you try to put one on it just falls right off. Perhaps that feature just isn’t set up in the game yet? It wouldn’t surprise me a great deal if this game is just severely incomplete. If anything it may even add up quite a bit.

The graphics are not good. It’s using the same character model as mentioned earlier which was already not that good. The level designs are uninspired. I suppose the enemy tanks look okay but there’s nothing too special about them either. The soundtrack is basically nonexistent as well.

What this game needed is really a complete overhaul. Throw in some real gameplay, a bunch of extra monsters, and even a quick story mode. Do those things and you could have a real winner on your hands. I don’t think there’s a big target audience for just walking around as your player does everything on his own. Where’s the excitement and the danger? I’m sure a game could pull this style off with enough development time and unique ideas but this was definitely not going to happen here. This mobile game seems like it was finished awfully quick.

In terms of content I suppose I should say that this can last for hours I guess. You can try completing all 4 worlds which each have several levels in them. Additionally you can keep on replaying the levels over and over again to farm materials and get level ups. That at least gives you a reason to go on back right? Keep this up and you should be in a good spot. Of course the replay value will depend on if you like the gameplay enough to do those things but if you do, the content is certainly here at least.

Overall, Godzilla Destruction is another disappointing mobile game. It’s a shame because most mobile games end up being quite amazing but this one was clearly not at that level. It does beat the first one so if the third in the trilogy can win then we might be in a good spot. Otherwise I’m afraid they will forever be known as a very weak trilogy of games. Better luck next time and all that.

Overall 4/10

Attack on Titan Review


It’s finally time to take a look at Attack on Titan. It’s certainly a series that made it into the record books and shall never be forgotten. At this point you can make the case for it being in the top 10 most recognizable anime/manga of all time with how big it got. The series ended recently and while there is an 8 page extra coming to the volume format, we more or less know how things went. Unfortunately the original manga ending is the worst manga ending of all time. It’s unbelievably bad but for obvious spoiler reasons I can’t talk much about that just yet.

I would say we can divide the series into two main parts. Part 1 introduces us to a world where 80% of humanity has been wiped out by Titans. The few survivors live behind 3 walls where they have learned to live as a smaller part of the food chain. Among these people are the Survey Corps, a group of fighters who still resist the Titans. They scout the outside world and slay Titans when possible. After many years they have made almost no headway so most people don’t even want to join the team.

Fortunately the main character Eren Yeager is not afraid. He wants to be a Survey Corp member without a doubt. He doesn’t have a lot of physical skill but fortunately has the ability to turn into a Titan. Perhaps now humanity finally has a chance to survive? His best friends Armin and Mikasa are also here to help as needed. Armin’s the main strategist while Mikasa is the best fighter of the 3.

That’s a rather simplified version of Part 1 of course as a whole lot more happens. It does serve to at least cover the Pre Arc though. This is where we are introduced to all of the main characters or at least the ones for Part 1. There are a lot of characters running around so it takes time to get to all of their names.

Attack on Titan is a very serious manga so don’t expect everyone to survive. Part of what helped make it big is the sense of danger that the manga has. You always feel like someone could die at any moment. There may be some characters who feel really safe but a lot of the others certainly seem to be in danger when the Titans show up.

The art was quite rough when it first started but by the end it’s improved a great deal. Initially I would say the art was slightly below average compared to most other titles. It still had a lot of intense moments but felt rather rough around the edged. The artist clearly continued to improve his craft the whole time. If you see a comparison picture between the beginning of the series and the ending it is a world of difference. By Part 2 this was looking very clear and quite solid.

While the dark/grim tone of the manga may be part of what helped it get big, it’s also what limits the series. Even before the ending it’s not like this series was going to get a high score. It’s way over the top with the violence. Characters are eaten alive, dismembered, and even tortured. One of the worst scenes in the series was definitely when Levi and Hange tortured this one guy who wouldn’t talk. A big theme in the series is “relative morality” where you have to become a monster to defeat other monsters.

By the end of the series there aren’t any real heroes because everyone has compromised on their integrity at one point or another. It’s certainly a cynical view on the world but more on that later on in the review. The series is always going for as dark a vibe as possible though. Before dying the characters will beg for their lives or yell about how they don’t wanna die. All for that maximum emotional punch of course.

A lot of horses die in the battles as well since this takes place in a more old fashioned world. Whenever the titans show up you can expect that the horses aren’t going to make it which is unfortunate. All of these factors just kept on beating the series into the ground. I would also say with confidence that this has to be the most violent series I’ve read. It never really lets up.

As for Part 2 of the series. We finally see what lies beyond the walls. It turns out that the whole “80% of humanity being wiped out” was all a lie. The rest of the world is just fine and are having wars against each other as normal. Eren infiltrates these places and realizes that the whole world wants to destroy Paradis. He decides to destroy them first and gathers up his own faction. Back on the island Armin and the others can’t accept this outcome so they mobilize to stop him. Can they defeat Eren and ensure that Paradis is obliterated once and for all or will they be stopped, resulting in their island being saved?

Part 2 is definitely very ambitious to the point where it almost feels like a different series entirely. The idea of expanding the world like this is certainly good. It allows us to see the action from a different point of view to really see if you’re still rooting for Paradis or not. Eren’s big personality change is also intense since he is really acting like a different character. Whether you agree with him or not will definitely be a big deal.

So lets talk about Eren as a whole. I liked him a lot in both Part 1 and 2. In Part 1 he is your classic main character who is really determined, yells a lot, and wants to accomplish his goal. He wants to destroy all of the Titans since they destroyed his Mother and that will allow him to finally be free. The villains try for sympathy points a lot of the time but Eren never buys into it. The guy’s just a stellar main character through and through. If he doesn’t have a skill he makes sure to quickly develop it.

Then we have Part 2 Eren. For context, he finally gained the power of the Founding Titan and after making contact with Historia at the end of Part 1, he now has access to Paths, the Future, and the Past. Effectively he’s mind melded with every possible Titan owner from all timelines so like Dr. Strange he can see every eventuality. Eren decides that the only way to save his friends and to be free is to wipe out the rest of the world with the Rumbling.

That’s basically an ability where he will have Titans flatten the rest of the planet. This is directly going to murder every living being on the planet aside from his island. Right from the start you may think he has to be stopped but keep in mind that the rest of the planet aims to nuke Paradis off the face of the planet. This is due to a long tragic past history where the world believes they are all demons.

Attack on Titan shows many times that peace is quite impossible. I’d say the reason why you would likely go with Eren is because the heroes have no other plan. More than once characters explain to the heroes why this can’t work any other way. For starters, Eren gave them around 6 months and the heroes did nothing with that time. Later on when someone asks what alternative there is if they stop Eren, Hange says she has no clue.

So it’s a bit of a contrived situation you could say but it’s written in a way where Eren’s Rumbling really is the only option. Okay, here are the other two options presented in the story. You have Zeke’s idea which is to force every Eldian to not be able to have kids. This means their race will die out so Paradis will die eventually but perhaps peacefully since the other countries won’t have to murder them anymore. I think that’s an easy alternative to explain why it’s a horrible idea. The other countries will blow up Paradis anyway and they would be going down in a really awful way.

Alternative 2 is to just blow up a small part of humanity and call for a truce. I doubt humanity would really listen to that. Another idea brought up by Hange is to just ask for peace from the get go. Considering that the other countries have been attacking Paradis for years and destroying innocent people the whole time…that wouldn’t work either. If the heroes had an actual idea about how this would go down then it’d be easier to root against Eren but every time he would ask them for a plan they would just dodge the question or run off like Hange.

All right, time to talk about the ending so skip these next two paragraphs until you have finished the series. Spoilers start. In the final chapter I think the author realized too many people were on Eren’s side so it was time to assassinate his character. For starters, we find out that Eren murdered his mother. Yes that’s right….he controlled the Titan to eat her. This would start the cycle of him hating the titans and becoming the current him. The logic is that there was no other way for him to start on this path so using his mastery over time he made the events happen. You can see how awful that is right? If you can see and control events across the past, present, and future then you could surely do something else right? Ah man that was bad.

Next, at least we all knew Eren had a concrete plan for destroying all of humanity right? He wanted to be free and to save his friends. He had a ton of dialogue to support this including inner monologue. Well, no he admits to Armin he has no idea why he did this and only destroyed 80% of humanity. Armin’s happy about this at least since not everyone was wiped out. The chapter ends with Mikasa hinting that they’re all going to get slaughtered anyway but it depends on your interpretation. The final 8 pages haven’t come out officially yet but based on those it looks like it was confirmed that Paradis was obliterated so I like that my head canon was validated there at least. It also underscores why Eren’s plan was the only one that could work. I could talk about the ending for a very long time but let me quickly wrap this up. Eren gets reincarnated as a bird so he is now free but can’t enjoy it. Historia ended up marrying a random farmer which really came out of nowhere. Reiner looks pathetic and is trying to go after a woman who’s already married. Mikasa may have married Jean out of pity but still clearly loves Eren so Jean knows he was just the rebound. Oh yes and Eren cries because he doesn’t want Mikasa to like anybody else. Yes…this ending was baaaad.

Spoilers end Attack on Titan was certainly a grand journey. While it had a ton of faults I can at least say this for the series, it did have a lot of good world building. The fact that there is so much to discuss definitely speaks to that. It lasted for quite a while as well and had a lot of high moments. When it wasn’t focusing on being as gritty as possible we got some really iconic scenes and panels. Eren fighting the Armored Titan/Female Titan or when he got ambushed by the Jaw Titan were all great moments.

The series delivered on having a lot of action as well. It could transition pretty well between high action arcs and other stories which were more about mind games and taking things slow. I did get invested in seeing how things would go at least. The series had a long slump during the political arc but the final arc got pretty intense. If we really are getting a sequel series I’ll be interested in how that goes. Just massively tone down the violence and it could be quite good.

Now lets look at the characters. I’ve already spoken at length about the best character in the series known as Eren so we can skip him. Armin’s another big character. He certainly has a lot of moments to shine with his plans but he isn’t nearly as likable. Armin’s the kind of character you could see going over the edge way sooner than Eren and causing a lot of trouble. Armin always tries to claim the moral high ground as well even though I would say he’s never earned it. The guy annoys me the more I think about it actually.

Mikasa was a great character though. She’s an expert fighter who is quite loyal to protecting Eren. Aside from Levi she is likely the most talented human fighter in the series. By the end of Titan she can fight one on one against shifters thanks to the electro spears. Outside of the main 3 I suppose Levi would probably be the biggest character. The guy definitely gets a lot of hype and has the skills to back it up. The way he fights you would think the guy is not human at all. Technically as an Ackerman he is superhuman so that does explain a lot of things. I’ll never agree with him beating up Eren or assisting in torture though which does hurt the guy quite a bit.

Then we have Zeke. I just never liked the guy and there are a lot of reasons for it. I couldn’t sympathize with his backstory. He’s meant to be a rather aloof guy who says crazy stuff for kicks but it was never all that amusing. His plan was also complete nonsense so all of these things added up and I could never like the guy. It doesn’t help that he is absolutely traumatized by Levi and gets nervous whenever he appears.

I didn’t care for Reiner with how he keeps trying to guilt trip everyone and not take responsibility for what he did. The whole dual personalities thing wasn’t going to save him. He tends to beg and whine a lot and Eren shut down all of his arguments real quick. He was a very intimidating villain initially but by the end of the series he’s really a pushover.

Annie was a fun villain though. As the Female Titan she was able to use her hand to hand skills rather well to even give Eren a run for his money. Annie was also quite a sadistic villain so stopping her wasn’t easy. She didn’t really get to have a true character arc by the end but since she had her own arc I think fans should be satisfied.

Bertolt doesn’t get to do a whole lot next to the other shifters but I wouldn’t say there’s much to know about him anyway. He’s always acting rather nervous and definitely doesn’t have the confidence of the other members. Without them he would be absolutely and completely lost the whole time. So much for having the Colossal Titan right? It definitely would not be enough to help him.

Gabi is one of the new characters introduced in Part 2. I actually liked her from the start. She reminded me of Part 1 Eren although she was without powers so she could never be as useful in a fight. Gabi doesn’t have any honor in a fight so she’ll try any kind of cheap shot to win but that’s just the way the characters were brought up on her side. Meanwhile Falco also gets a big role in Part 2 although he isn’t nearly as good since he isn’t decisive the way she is.

Back to the main group we also had Connie although he never really stood out. The guy complains quite a bit and doesn’t do a ton in the action scenes so he is always doomed to be a side character. Then there’s Sasha who is the main comic relief character. The series is usually quite serious but she tries to add in a bit of levity here and there.

Commander Erwin was a big character for a while. As one of the acting captains in charge he would come up with a lot of plans. He kept the Survey Corps going for as long as they did. It would not have been possible without his plans. In fact, Armin never quite caught up to the guy.

Hange is easily the worst character in the series. She acts completely evil with her titan experiments and just about every scene with her is nutty. It’s wild that she tries to act like a hero with absolute morals by the end of it. Cmon, you just can’t buy it at that point because of how much she had done. She refused to even think of a plan which is why Eren had to go.

As for Historia, I liked her in Part 1. She’s an example of a character who did get ruined in part 2 though. She doesn’t really do anything throughout the whole series and really just gets manipulated. Not a great way to go considering her whole character arc of becoming brave and defying fate in Part 1. Her friend Ymir also got wiped from the story rather quickly. I liked that she would talk tough even if she was on the wrong side of the debate with Eren and Reiner.

Then we have a second character called Ymir and to this day I wonder why we got two characters with the same exact name. They could have changed it up a little bit right? Well, this Ymir’s pretty awful. She has a lot to do in the Paths dimension but the more you learn about her the worse it gets. Just wait until you read that final chapter.

So I wouldn’t call the character cast great but at least there are some very memorable characters. Eren really helps to carry the series a lot all by himself. Throughout Part 2 you are always waiting for him to appear so we can see more from his perspective. That’s where all of the hype comes from after all. If anything it would have been nice to have seen him talk/think a bit more in the final arc.

As a final note I’ll say the best scene in Part 2 was definitely the betrayal on the rooftop when the opposing army decided to try and capture Eren. Using the Jaw Titan teaming up with a bunch of others was a smart play. In Part 1 the best scene had to be Eren going up against the Armored Titan in what would be their decisive battle. Seeing Eren finally put his martial arts into play for the first time was a moment worth remembering.

Overall, Attack on Titan is definitely a pretty bad series which wrapped up with a terrible ending so I suppose that was fitting. The final 8 pages if the leaks are true still sound bad but in an extremely minor way do help the ending a bit since it would confirm one of my theories. At least we got a lot of great memes out of it though and even a fan character. The violence is too extreme and it consistently tries to be as gritty as possible. Get out of here with the heroes literally torturing people. It does force you to think about some rather high concept arguments though like a character resorting to committing genocide on 99% of the planet to save his friends. Is it worth it or is he just insane? You can have a lot of discussions on that which is good. If you like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones for their elaborate universes and constant sense of danger then you will like this series. If you want something with a really expansive story but toning down the violence then I would recommend checking out Tower of God.

Overall 2/10