Attack on Titan: Since That Day

Recap of Shingeki no Kyojin was definitely a waste of time. I don't feel like there was a reason to put it in the series or even count it as an episode. If you have watched ep.1-13 you don't really need a recap so just don't bother wasting your precious 24 minutes. Short and sweet review. 4/10

Technically, if you're that type of person who watches only a few episodes when you have free time, you might find this episode helpful to refresh your memory. However, i'm that type of person who finishes any anime that interests me in a few days. This episode is called a special, although clearly a recap. I watched this anime, thinking it was an actual special, unknown it was a recap.In my perspective, this 'special' has no merit to me. Surely, if you bothered watching it, this recap may have refreshed your memory and showed you points you may have missed, but overall i think it's a waste of time. Irecommend you do not watch this so-called special, unless you want either of the above.

I swear I didn’t want to review another recap but here we are. I hated reviewing the first two recap movies because I hated having to repeat all the stuff I said in season one. However, this recap came out prior to the movies and is a much shorter recap of the first season. Making this recap episode far easier to review. While the recycled animation and sound design is decent. The pacing of narrative and characters is even worse then movie one. It is very clear that this episode serves to create a base rundown of the first half of the first season. The mainproblem I had with the first recap movie of Attack on Titan was that the pacing was horrific. You want a recap to be short but this movie was not short, it was two hours long and only served a purpose if you wanted a short rushed version of episodes 1-13. So while it can be argued that this episode has worse pacing. This episode and the movie recap the events of the first half of season one. However, the movie lasts for two hours and feels more like we are meant to be watching for the story rather then a recap. The Since that day episode only has a 24 minute runtime. Making the recap far more tolerable to watch. The sound design of Attack on Titan has always been great. Hitting all the base criteria for what makes an anime have good sound design. The sound effects of the environment and people interacting make the world feel so much more alive. The voice acting makes every character feel that much more realistic. The original soundtrack is one of the best in anime. The soundtrack conveys both the world of Attack on Titan and the mood of any specific scene. I’ve talked about the sound design of Attack on Titan in all my other reviews of each season. But in this specific recap episode, the sound design of the series is present. But we never really focus on it. Luckily the best parts of the sound design are present in the best scenes which this episode does highlight. The animation of Wit studios is without a doubt top tier. Which is very clearly the case as when the animation of the series switched over to Mappa. Everyone was sending death threats to the animators of Mappa, starving in an underpaid environment. But regardless, this episode as a recap shows the best moments of the series which also happen to have the best animation. I won’t rank the animation as high because it is recycled animation. But it is easy to watch a 20 minute recap featuring the best animated moments of the series. I can’t rate this section that high. Mainly because the character aspect of a recap episode is not going to be its strongest element. As a show needs the correct pacing in order to achieve emotional depth with a character. However, a recap episode can’t do that as we are cramming 14 episodes into a single episode of run time. I would have to judge the recap episode by what key character moments they showed and the relevance of those moments in the episodes after the recap. For the most part, the recap does this pretty well. I won’t go into specifics as I don’t want to spoil the series. But for the most part the series does a good job at including key character moments. Despite the pacing of both the story and characters, it is nice seeing Wits animation and the original soundtrack of Attack on Titan. Overall, I rank this 5/10.