This week, Attack on Titan revealed one of its most highly-anticipated episodes yet, and the anime did not disappoint one bit! Episode 44, “Wish”, saw a rare perfect blend of intense drama, edge-of-your-seat suspense, and some epic action, including one of the best fight sequences the show has ever produced!
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Warning – Big Episode Spoilers Follow from here on out!
“Wish” picked up with Levi and his Scout Regiment attack the Reiss family’s Underground Chapel in the capital, in order to rescue Eren before he can be sacrificed in Rod Reiss’s scheme. The scouts know that the Kenny Ackerman and his Interior Police squad is waiting in the chapel’s entrance to ambush the scouts – but Levi and his soldiers come in through the front door anyway. Using smoke bomb barrels and some flaming arrows from Sasha, the Scouts create a smokescreen that allows them to get into the chapel and attack the Interior Police from their blindspots.
What next ensues is the greatest human vs. human battle that Attack on Titan has ever produced. The animation and 3D animation for the VME battles was awesome and well directed in terms of sequencing and layout, as we watched several members of Levi’s squad have to make the sudden and damning decision to cut down other humans. However, the real standouts of the battle were watching Levi battle Kenny, while seeing female scouts like Mikasa, Hange, and Sasha take the lead in dispatching their Interior Police foes. Mikasa’s battle skills were so awesome that fans are now jokingly comparing her to Neo from The Matrix, with the way she was maneuvering and taking out Interior Police troops by the handful. Levi and Mikasa’s powers prove that the Ackerman legacy is going to be an important part of this story, for sure.
It wasn’t all heroic awesomeness, though (this is AoT after all): the Scout Regiments suffered a big tragedy (or two) in the battle, as Hange went down, hard, while battling one of Kenny’s top lieutenants. The battle is also far from over (and subsequently, so is the danger): Kenny’s remaining forces have pulled back to protect the heart of the chapel, where Rod Reiss has just unleashed a terrifying new Titan transformation of his own. Unless Eren can step up in a big way, Levi’s scouts may suffer a lot more loss before they can complete their mission and escape with Eren and his Founding Titan powers still intact.
If anything, Attack on Titan season 3 has made the case that the anime is just as good (if not better?) at human vs. human conflict than it is actually featuring the titular titans as the threat. As stated, the human conflict keeps drama rooted in something more grounded, and the combat based in a “wire-fu” style of high-octane action. In short: it’s pretty awesome so far, and the next episode, “Outside the Walls of Orvud District” should be even better.
Catch new episodes of Attack on Titan season 3 streaming Sundays on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu.
