Welcome back to my weekly Attack On Titan recap! This week’s episode: S2E5 – “Historia”.
Well, we’re almost halfway through the second season of Attack On Titan, and if you’ve been keeping up with my reviews of each episode, you know that I am loving this season. It has improved on so much that Season 1 struggled with, and I am extremely excited to see what comes next. Before I jump into my review, I want to point out some news that was released earlier this week, regarding the Season 2 Blu-Ray release dates. The first set will be released June 21st and the second set on August 18th.
This was the best episode of Attack On Titan I have seen this season, and definitely one of the best throughout the full series. Instead of picking up right where Episode 4 – “Soldier” left off, “Historia” started with a flashback to the Cadet Corps’ training, in which Christa and Ymir go missing and a search party consisting of Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and others must find them. This lasted for a little more than half the episode, which was good because up until this point, the series’ flashbacks have only been a few minutes.
In this time, we get to learn so much more about Christa, and why she joined the Cadet Corps. It’s revealed that she joined the Corps after having been forced to give up her original name and live a different life. All the while, Christa, and Ymir are bringing another cadet, Daz, back to the base, and Ymir realizes Christa is taking on the role of dragging Daz through the cold, desolate environment because she wants to die. Ymir throws her into a tree, causing her to be buried in snow, but a familiar yellow flash envelops the screen. Christa wakes up and sees that Ymir and Daz are gone.
After returning to the base, Christa finds Ymir already there, sitting up against a post. Daz is inside, and Christa asks how they made it back. Ymir says she will tell her, but makes Christa promise that once Ymir reveals her secret to everyone else, Christa will use her real name.
Back in the present, Ymir has just revealed her power to the Corps. Unleashing her fury, she quickly chomps down on many Titans’ napes, killing them to save her friends. Meanwhile, Reiner and Bertolt have a very disturbing realization: Ymir was the Titan that killed their friend many years ago, portrayed in the flashback last week. Christa almost jumps off the tower, and Reiner grabs her leg, but is still in shock and grips it too tightly, causing her pain.
After Christa yells at Ymir to destroy the tower, Ymir tells her friends (while still in Titan form) to grab on, and they do as she says. Grabbing on to Ymir’s hair, Conny, Christa, Bertolt, and Reiner watch as Ymir demolishes the tower, causing it to crumble on the Titans below. However, the battle is not over yet, as the Titans begin to rise and eat Ymir’s Titan form. Christa runs towards her friend and is nearly eaten by a Titan, but Mikasa shows up to save the day, along with Eren, Armin, Hange, and other members of the Scout Regiment. Slaying Titans in brutal fashion, the Corps finish the job started by Ymir, including Eren, who finally gets his first kill! After all, this is over, Christa runs to her friend, who is wounded very badly. The former says that she never told Ymir her true name. Christa reveals that her name is Historia, before watching Ymir pass out.
As I mentioned before, this is most certainly the best episode of the season thus far. Filled with great action, extremely well-crafted character development, emotional moments, and a very good flashback, “Historia” is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum as episodes in the series go. Let’s talk about it.
I really enjoyed getting to know both the characters of Christa and Ymir in this episode. Seeing them interact throughout the entire episode was some really great story progression, and I’m glad this show is doing it right. As it stands right now, I think that Season 2 is much better than Season 1 because of the much better development of the characters.
The action this week was frickin’ amazing. Seeing Ymir brutally rip Titans apart was super fun to watch, but it also was very interesting seeing Ymir talk in Titan form. We saw a Titan talk in “Southwestward” a few weeks ago, but knowing that Eren or Annie never spoke in their Titan forms, I’m really invested in this subplot right now, and excited to see where the series takes this. The only minor issue I had with the episode was that the Scouts’ arrival to help out Christa and the others felt a bit rushed. I wish they had taken more time to shift focus over to Eren, Mikasa, and the others.
Overall, this was the best episode of the season, and most certainly one of the best in the entire series. I only had one issue with it, and it was very minor. I’m going to give “Historia” a 9.5/10.
