Attack on Titan OAD

The OVAs takes place around the time skip in the series near episodes 3 and 4 in the regular anime. Moving away from just the usual trio of protagonists and their training to become professional titan slayers, the story also focuses on Hanji, Levi and his squad, and several others. This OVA adds a little more background into some of the elder and younger characters of the story as well as some more mysteries to the strange titans. The first episode is the only one adapted from the manga while the other two episodes are original material. Episode 1: Hanji has become determined to capture atitan as the Survey Corps heads out on yet another difficult mission into titan territory. Being Hanji, she is obsessed with titans to the point where she blatantly disobeys the leader, Erwin, and goes off in search of some titans for her experimenting pleasures. She comes across a 6 meter titan and runs around asking it questions while it attempts to knock her off her high horse and swallow her whole. Eventually after some strange behavior from the titan, Hanji and Levi come across a diary written by a deceased member of the Survey Corps named Ilse Langnar. Her story details her encounter with the titan that chased Hanji and basically just adds even more mysteries about titans without really any startling discovers aside from some curious dialogue. Episode 2: This episode is an overly-serious yet humorous joke about Jean and his teenage angst, and it even features a Jean-centered version of the first opening theme. Jean doesn't get along with his overly-caring mother and just wants to go out into the world and get away from her, but even then she continues to embarrass him. This was my least favorite episode of the three as it just seemed stupid with it's poor attempt at comedy for the most part. Episode 3: This episode finally returns to the 104th division with a training exercise that helps unite them. What seems like a long and boring exercise turns into a mission to get back at thieves who stole the group's 3DMG and Christa. The tactics and characters in this episode are very much like the real series (unlike episode 2). The animation is just as good as it is in the regular anime and the soundtrack is also pretty similar (just without the songs that specifically go along with some of the main characters). The small amount of action looks great. While there is much less beautifully animated gore, there are still plenty of beautiful scenery shots. Some of the animation during the overly-serious comedic moments in episode 2 do not fit very well though considering most of this show is not comedic in the least. As for the characters, Hanji is still the most adorable, psychotic 40 year old in anime and Levi has to take of everyone. Ilse's voice actor does an excellent job of speaking in a rapid, panicked voice during the flashback and portrays her perfectly. Eren, Jean, Armin, Mikasa, and everyone else are back to how they were in the beginning with Eren and Jean bickering about everything, Armin trying to keep the peace, and Mikasa just being Mikasa. I enjoyed these OVAs (aside from the second) about as much as I did any normal episode from the anime. Since they take place around episode 3 and 4 for the most part, I wouldn't recommend this to people who have not watched the beginning of the anime yet, as it does have the usual recap at the beginning of the first OVA which would spoil the first few episodes. To anyone who has seen past episode 3, I recommend watching this. It's just more of the same Attack on Titan stuff as before just with much, much less gore.

Overview: "Seid ihr das Essen? Ja, wir sind die Jägerschnitzel!" What happens when you have a HUGELY popular series, but you can only make a new season every 3 years and people are all begging for more? Obviously, you HAVE to give them something, otherwise too many people will abandon ship. Especially since most fans of the anime don't actually read the manga. To solve this dilemma, Attack on Titan created this OVA. However, they really didn't want to create filler material that might accidentally contradict something later on in the manga. The only way to ASSURE that this contradiction doesn't happen, is to make anOVA where absolutely NOTHING of any importance or substance happens. I appreciate the massive handicap that the director of this OVA faced! However, there was a much better approach the OVA could have taken. The OVA should have focused on actual character building and interesting conversations between the characters to perhaps flesh out some of the minor characters or let us look deeper into the minds and motivations of our leads. What did we get instead? I'll explain. I can't really "spoil" anything because nothing happens! OVA 1: The OVA starts strong by making the correct marketing decision and choosing fan favorite Levi as the main character. He and his team must capture a Titan alive in order to study it. They discover the lost diary of a deceased scout. The diary gives us a name and basically just acts as a teaser for people who have already read the manga. If you haven't read ahead in the manga, you don't actually learn jack shit. Yeah, they capture a Titan, but we don't learn ANYTHING new about the Titans! Where they came from, why they eat humans, etc. I DO know all of those answers as of 4/29/2015 because I've read the manga, but watching this OVA won't get you any closer to that knowledge. Do we learn anything new about Levi? Nope. Do we get to see how his team dynamics work in a much clearer picture? nope. Did this episode have a freaking point besides saying "go read the manga?" Nope Ova 2: We get a cooking contest between "Potato Girl" and Jean. Seriously. That's what happens! We also get a sexy training montage of Mikasa practicing boxing for some reason in a white push-up bra. Is she trying to be Tifa Lockhart? Obvious fanservice is obvious OVA 3: They travel to what looks like the "old West" AKA Southwest United States and end up fighting outlaws. Wait...didn't this series take place in Germany? How the fuck did they get to the Southwest US? DAMN IT OVA, YOU HAD ONE JOB!!! Overall: If you aren't a huge fan of Attack on Titan, this OVA is a colossal, titanic waste of time! If you ARE a huge Attack on Titan fan...ditto. Basically, this OVA sucks. That's it folks. I don't have positive things to say here. Besides keeping the same high quality music and good animation, it freaking sucks!

Out of the 3 OVA released so far, the first is the standout. It focus's on interesting characters that i wanted to see more of in the main anime so that's a plus. Zoë is a character with a very...unique personality, which is both interesting and entertaining since she's very unconventional. Levi and his squad are the supporting characters and it's nice to see them because i personally enjoy their characters and i wish they were around more in the anime. I'm not sure whether or not to consider this one filler, since it did seem story focus'd but vaguely. The episode talks about theTitans and shows something about them that we haven't seen before so it's cool to speculate what it's about. Overall the story on this one was fun to watch unfold and interesting. The second was just fine, it worked as a typical filler. I like how it focus'd on one of the show's strongpoints - the characters. Jean and Sasha were the main characters for this one, with Armin, Reiner and some others acting as the support including General Pixis. The story is very odd, focusing on a cook-off. Though this doesn't mean i wasn't entertained, especially towards the end the episode took a wacky turn which was actually pretty funny. It also characterized Jean and gave him a bit more back story showing he's a very kind hearted person in short. It was also nice to see more of Sasha as well since she's on of my favorite characters The third was good as well, i don't really know who the focus is on this one, it told a story about a training exercise gone wrong. It followed Eren, marco, Jean, and the rest of Eren's squad prior to the second Titan attack in the second wall. The story wasn't that intense since we already know all the characters survive via seeing them in the main story that takes place after this episode does. The antagonists didn't really feel so threatening either, but watching the cadets fight them was pretty entertaining as well as seeing the interplay and chemistry between the characters. There were some funny moments and it was mildly entertaining so I don't have any big gripes with it. Overall it was good. The OVA are nothing amazing like i said, but they're very entertaining nonetheless and i enjoyed watching it. The first episode is the standout of course so i recommend watching that one at least. If you're a fan of the show the other two are fun to watch as well but if you don't like fillers then it's not your thing. Personally i didn't mind the filler story and i enjoyed it so i gave it a 7. Hope this helped (:

*This review is meant to poke fun and give insight. Story (60/100) With all 3 OVA's together, it equals to an overall of 60. After seeing the first OVA, titled Isle's Journal, I had hope for the next OVA. Then I heard they were tacking on another OVA, to make it three in all... Isle's Journal- By far the most interesting OVA. Hell, even better than the original series itself. You delve into an episode that happens in between episode 3 and 4 (If I am thinking correctly) of the original series. Levi goes on an adventure. Sounds interesting, right? Well, it is. But, I could havedone without Levi's squad. I mean, Aluo's damn gag reel of biting his tongue was annoying as hell. (-5 points) OVA #2- I don't even know what this one was named, but I don't care, because this episode was REALLY unnecessary. I have 3 words: Uneventful, unnecessary, fan service. This. This was really stupid. I'm sorry, but it was. (-10 points). It focuses on Jean, who they make the MC. Sounds...cool, right? For Jean fans, at least. They all decided to have a cook off like its Hell's Kitchen, which made no sense at all, and the animators thought, “Hey, remember those supposedly funny scenes Isayama did in the manga? Let's add those in random spots so this episode makes no sense whatsoever.” (-5 points). OVA #3- OK, this one was a bit better than the last one, but was easily crushed by Isle's Journal in the interesting factor. “Important girl gets kidnapped by men and needs to be saved by everyone's teamwork” cliché (-5 points), “Mikasa/Annie ex machina” (-5 points), “Character stops others from killing bad guys because feelings” cliché (-5 points) No half-aked Armin (-5 points) -Seriously, we get a Mikasa working out scene in the previous episode, but no Armin? Screw you animators. I'm tired of femservice. ME WANT MANSERVICE. Character (55/100) There really isn't any character. (-10 points) I mean, except Isle, who was interesting. In OVA 2, we get to see a bit of Jean's past, and suddenly, Jean is a dick to his mom! “MC is lucky enough his parents aren't dead, but still treats them like shit until the end when he realizes his mistake”. (-10 points). Why is he a dick? Did I miss something? (-5 points) Krista is useless as usual. (-5 points) Not enough Armin, too much Mikasa (-5 points) In reality, the characters are still 2D cardboard. Their 3DMG is more developed than them. (-10 points) Visuals (85/100) Not gonna lie, Snk has some good art, but it was wasted on that second OVA. (-5 points) Mikasa and Marco need to be signed up with a hair commercial, because those scenes were sort of awkward to watch. (-5 points) Reused 3DMG scenes from original series. What, can't make new scenes? (-5 points) Audio (85/100) Audio and voice acting was done very well. Don't care for the OP. I don't need Armin to narrate everything for me, too. (-5 points) I don't remember any of the OST's except for one, which I still can't find. (-10 points) Enjoyment and Final Scoring (71/100) 60+55+85+85+70=355/5=71 I'm not a big fan of SnK. And these OVA's didn't change my mind about it either. But, I recommend this toward any SnK fan, as you guys would love it, of course.