While speaking about anime, only a few come to mind as some of the biggest in the world. The biggest anime should be something that can be easily digested by anyone, meaning it doesn’t require viewers to be promised that it gets better later. Thus, anime with larger episode counts aren’t necessarily the biggest, such as One Piece, but rather masterpieces like Attack on Titan that can instantly hook anyone. Attack on Titan stands as an anime that can easily appeal to anyone, as it guarantees viewers will stay invested until the very end. The reason the anime has this appeal lies in its narrative and the twists it features.
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From the fifth episode of the anime, which featured Eren Yeager being swallowed and seemingly killed by a titan, the fandom was shocked. This was further elevated and completely restructured the narrative when Eren later reappeared as a titan himself. It made it clear that the series’s core elements revolved around intelligent titans being connected to humans, leaving the mystery of who the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan truly were. Attack on Titan Season 2 Episode 6, titled “Warrior,” which was released on May 7, 2017, 9 years ago today, revealed this exact information with a shocking twist that perhaps no one saw coming, and honestly, no twist has ever matched its level since.
Attack on Titan’s Season 2 Twist Is Still the Greatest Anime Twist Ever
In this episode, as the Scout Regiment is on Wall Rose planning what to do now that they have Ymir, the Jaw Titan user, in their captivity, Reiner Braun, who appears to be mentally strained, casually pulls Eren Yeager aside and reveals that he is the Armored Titan, while Bertholdt Hoover is the Colossal Titan. This casual confession shocks everyone watching in a way that is hard to describe. Up until this point, Reiner had projected a persona that made him one of the most trustworthy characters in the series, and it becomes clear that his genuine belief that he belonged inside the walls since childhood, alongside his dual personality, gave his true identity unparalleled concealment.
The shock value only increases when Eren says that even if Reiner truly is who he claims to be, he wouldn’t just casually give himself up. This leads Reiner to reveal his beliefs and motives as a character, adding another layer of shocking depth. This is the point in the series where it becomes clear that there is no one Eren can truly trust. The shock and betrayal are too overwhelming to fully comprehend instantly. In the nine years since this episode was released, no anime has delivered an episode with such immense shock value and a twist of this magnitude, and perhaps none ever will, as Attack on Titan perfectly captured lightning in a bottle with this episode.
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Image Courtesy of Studio Bones
