Attack on Titan - Episode 19

With their fast-paced Titan assailant closing fast on the main body of the Survey Corps, it's looking like do or die time for Levi and company.  But with no sign of a decision coming from the group's top man, has he lost his bottle at a pivotal moment or is something else afoot?

Although it seems that Levi does have something up his sleeve, that being a noise-producing round, this does nothing to slow their pursuer or even break its stride, and with reinforcements being obliterated hither and thither Eren starts to serious consider turning into a Titan there and then to try and take on their opponent.  Although most of his comrades implore him to follow Levi's lead and continue their escape, Levi himself is rather sanguine upon what decision Eren should make, leaving it up to him whether to place his faith in his own abilities or those of the soldiers around him.

As he weighs up this decision, we flash back to the build-up to this mission, as Levi informs Eren that he believes there's an - admittedly painful - way of stopping him in his Titan state without killing him, while Hanji looks to perform some experiments while Eren is in his transformed state.  However, no matter how hard he tries Eren simply can't transform (performance anxiety perhaps?), until a seemingly innocuous action somehow triggers the process to the horror and concern of his squad mates.  Still, something new has been learned about Eren's ability, and perhaps there is further progress to be made as we flash back to the present and finally see part of Levi's plan come to fruition.

Although it just about worked as a whole, I can't help but feel that the flashback in this week's episode felt a little jarring in the midst of such a tense moment - it seemed like those scenes could have been placed into their correct place in the story without spoiling anything and would have allowed the main scenario within this instalment to fully ramp up the pressure of the moment.  Still, we once again find ourselves reaching another interesting point in the series, and we once again arrive at that point via a kick-ass moment that was worth waiting for, and it's those occurrences which ensure that Attack on Titan remains a hot property that everybody is talking about.