Attack on Titan - Episode 13

Although it seemed as if all hope was lost in the audacious mission to win back Wall Rose thanks to Eren's Titan form, but Armin's words and actions are at least enough to stir Eren from his slumber...

For the rest of those tasked with protecting and/or fighting alongside him however, there are more pressing matters at hand - namely simply trying to stay alive, and assisting their comrades in doing likewise.  As Jean continues to struggle with faulty equipment, those close to him do everything in their power to aid his escape, even at the risk of sacrificing their own lives in the process.

In the midst of all this chaos comes a sudden realisation - Eren is back on his feet in Titan form, and having successfully hoist the boulder at the centre of the operation aloft is making his way towards the hole in the city walls to seek to plug it.  Thus, the focus of the mission shifts once again, this time to ensuring that nothing impedes Eren's progress no matter the cost - a potentially tall order as more and more Titans appear in his path.  Inevitably, more lives are lost in the name of this victory for mankind, and even as Eren succeeds in plugging the hole in the wall to stop further Titan incursions the subsequent clean-up job costs countless lives.  However, humanity has won an important victory, which means that it's time to plan the next faltering step in the fight back against the Titans - needless to say, Eren will again be expected to play an important role here.

After a few slow episodes of late, this week's Attack in Titan is very much back on track - tightly paced, action-packed, and for all of its continued production and animation time-saving (to the point where one or two moments almost became confusing) the strength of the show's core concepts still managed to shine through to make a gripping instalment that was great to watch from beginning to end.  Now, we get to sit back for a week via a recap episode - sorry, an episode chronicling Eren's hallucinated memories of everything that's happened so far - which will hopefully give the production team a little breathing room to make the second half of the series everything that it promises to be.