Attack on Titan - Episode 3

It's time for military training to begin in this week's Attack on Titan, and that can mean only one thing - the introduction of a belligerent drill sergeant!

Thus, our groups of new recruits find themselves getting a verbal, and occasionally physical, bashing - at least, most of them do, with only those who have clearly already seen plenty of the horrors that the Titans can serve up being spared a tongue-lashing.  Even the toughest of military minds can be rendered speechless in certain scenarios though - enter "Potato girl" (she has a proper name, but who cares?  Potato girl it is), who hungrily chows down on a spud in the midst of this dressing down of all and sundry, with her only reaction being to offer half of said potato to her mentor as he tries to wrap his head around what the hell she's doing.

With these early introductions out of the way, it's on to an aptitude test to see if the group are up to using the innovative 3D manoeuvre system used by the military to combat the Titans.  Although most of those still at the camp (with a number having left at the end of day one) have little trouble getting to grips with the harness and the balance required to make use of it, Eren is having a nightmarish time and simply can't figure out how to stay upright.  Of course, this leads to much mockery from his peers - especially given his bragging the previous day about how he plans to kill or Titans - but this soon turns to help and advice from some of those around him as they realise how earnest he is.  Not that any of this seems to help, although it appears that there's a rather more fundamental problem that had been standing between Eren and passing this particular test.

Having been assuaged with scenes of gruesome violence, depression and misery throughout its opening act, it was actually really refreshing to see this episode of Attack on Titan add some levity to proceedings, proving that it has a pretty sharp sense of comedy when it needs to and offering a change of pace for some of the episode as a result.  With this training episode proving to be just that, a single episode, rather than risking outstaying its welcome, it seems that we're already moving on to the next stage of the series - given its promising final scenes this week, I simply can't wait.