This episode of Shingeki no Kyojin followed right after I read the most recent manga chapter, and I have to say I don’t know how this show does it. With every chapter added to the manga I find myself rolling my eyes and groaning- I usually end every chapter by complaining that I hated it and don’t enjoy it whatsoever. Yet today I watched this episode of Shingeki no Kyojin and lost my shit. It’s virtually the same content as the manga but when I watch the anime I want to throw my money at it. Episode 30 of Shingeki no Kyojin might just be one of the most beautifully animated things I have ever seen. As an animator myself I wanted to cry as I watched some of these moments come to life. I don’t know how to say this any other way: the animators of Shingeki no Kyojin make a jump the shark crappy plot into one of the best things you can watch in anime. I want to write an essay about this, how long has it ever been since the anime was so substantially better than the manga that I hate the series until it’s animated?

I’m going to have to go with atmosphere. First off, this episode is focused on Christa and Ymir. I felt for them the entire episode and want them to get married. I liked them together before but everything about this episode made them my absolute OTP. I will not settle for anything less than them married with a farm, and if one of them dies then I will demand 5000000 drawings of them married with a farm or I will cry infinite tears. Everything about their relationship is unfathomably well written. The feelings between Ymir and Christa are more thorough and understandable than most things in anime, not to mention the actual source material. This is mostly thanks to how amazingly the animation handles their scenes. They even added filler to the episode and it made it better.

We find out Ymir is a titan and we see Christa encourage her, but that is only putting it lightly. Christa makes an impassioned speech about how dumb it would be for Ymir to just die for everyone on the tower, and this signals her to start throwing bricks from the tower. The fluid dynamic movement that Ymir’s titan form takes is breath taking and action packed, and by the end of the episode we get to see further accomplishments in dynamism by the animators when the survey corps finds everyone from the tower and saves them along with Ymir. Even minor moments where characters are talking are breathtaking to watch. I honestly don’t blame them for only doing 12 episodes, the budget for this show must be absolutely insane. I can’t even imagine an american studio doing a weekly series with this sheer quality.

There are things definitely in store for the show starting as soon as next week, but for now we can bask in how seriously amazing Christa and Ymir are together and how fantastic the animators did. Nothing can possibly go wrong in one episode right? Haha, jk, Ymir and Christa are too happy the show has to destroy some of the good feelings now.

Oki