Attack on Titan 4x1: "The Other Side of the Sea " // Early Access Reaction and Discussion

Up until this point, the Armored Titan's shell has been impenetrable. Now the world knows even he can be stopped, and the chickens will come to roost.

EspiOwnage

It could be that Ymir shed a tear while writing the letter so Historia's touching something at least to trigger the memory :D

BlueLacie

I don't think the scene where Historia got the letter and sees Ymir's "experience" was in the manga. I think its anime only... i think

M.N.

i love you guys and your relationship and your relationship with the show!! i look forward to these videos every friday, literally clear my schedule sometimes to watch lol. i have watched you guys long enough that theres a comfort in your videos and your faces :) keep doing what you're doing and when you eventually read this comment when you're done with the series then hi!

pink

I'm also one of the people who stay till the end of every one of your discussions, sometimes I look forward to them more than the reaction itself :p

Shivam Bansal

It's a slow burn and many think there are "filler" episodes but there aren't. Each and every episode serves as a mirror for the overall themes of the show and helps to color characters' decisions and motivation. You won't regret it @Jimmy

D

I am and have always been a Shingeki no Kyojin fan, since back in 2013. I was part of the group who suffered the four years until they decided to drop season 2 in 2017. Like most genuine fanatics of this show, we go as far as to see other human beings react to what I would consider to be my most cherished show. Its so important to me that when I became an adult and started work, I shared this anime with anyone who had ears and I can easily say I got more than half of them into it, people who never considered watching anime, old heads, my rapper friends, 4 ex's at this point lol. In many ways, this show has been a dear friend to me, something that has bore witness of my adolescence into my adulthood. I never felt passion for any show until this. This is masterpiece for a plethora of reasons, I believe it to be what the "Human Condition" is all about, to challenge your ingrain perspectives and masterfully immerses the viewer into something bigger than they originally envisioned, nothing is easy and simple as black and white, just different shades of gray. In many ways mirroring our own world, as you can apply this to any group of abandoned or vilified humans. What is right or wrong really depends on how You want to rationalize it. Masterpiece because its as you say, what Other show can even get you thinking like this? and yes I'm of the few who does stay and listen all the way until the end.

Reggie Azem

Violet Evergarden was a very good series but the final movie left me with a cringy feeling. The ending felt Hollywoodesque, and not in a good way. Regardless, still a good series recommendation imo.

BlueLacie

fav part of the discussion was your story about your birth dad getting into the show.

Arimpact

This is probably the one opening that's fine to watch.

Sevenpsych

The discussions are a big reason I hang around, and definitely not when I stop the playback. The recommendations for Monster would probably be great for those discussions, but not to "escape" from how awful people people can be to each other as individuals or as groups. If you enjoy some bleakness and sadness with hints of hope occasionally peaking through it's great. My recommendation isn't an AoT replacement or alternative, but I feel like I've done a disservice if I don't recommend my favorite series if you ever want something less twisty-turvy in plot to dissect and more emotional and character focused: Violet Evergarden. It's 13 episodes (and a couple movies) with a former child-soldier in a post-war setting dealing with ptsd and survivor's guilt who is trying to understand the different ways people can love each other (eg. as man and woman, siblings' love for each other, parents' love for their children, etc.), the pain it can bring, & how it's worth it, by helping them express the feelings they normally hide or didn't have a chance to tell the other person. Gorgeous artwork and animation, and the main character is voiced by the same woman as Mikasa.

Daniel

I have 2 series that you guys can replace aot with. One is monster(anime) and another is dark (tv show). Best shows for discussions after aot in my opinion

Child of the forest

As people are saying, Monster is a BANGER of an anime! Just a fantastic thriller series in general with a killer atmosphere to get lost in. I was actually just thinking recently about how few quality reactions there are for the show, so seeing you guys did into it would be an absolute pleasure! Would HIGHLY recommend!

Benjamin Yee

deleted that, was high and so focused on not spoiling the ending by describing the vibes too much that I didn't even realise I'd blatantly spoiled everything else.

lafatte24

Nice spoiler in your other comment

Balanatro42

Previous post aside, Arcane and Queen's Gambit are great suggestions. Love both. I would also love to see them do the original Game off Thrones to see Anna's first time reactions and watch Ben try to keep a straight face for what he knows is coming! 😂

trouty42

I'm sure your input is appreciated but I'd leave the deciding to them. Let's not crap on other people's suggestions. I really think it's best to simply suggest the show(s) you would like to see and let them go from there. That way the comments aren't filled with "don't watch that show, watch mine." Best intentions aside that's basically what these types of posts boil down to.

trouty42

Fair point. Although, since they still have a fair share of AoT episodes left, I think Arcane could replace HotD 1 ep/week, then Monster after AoT s4 2 ep/week. They'll probably have a gap between AoT s4 and finale so the finale of AoT can go into a 1 ep/week sloth of a show they finish then. WE CAN HAVE BOTH!

BlueLacie

I think they both took inspiration from WW2 and the Cold War so they have similar vibes.

BlueLacie

It's been over a decade since I watched it, I've forgotten a lot of it already so it would be nice to rewatch along with them, I remember the last name being similar to annie's so when it was mentioned in aot I inmmediately thought of monster, funny they are both german-based animes, I wonder if isayama took any inspiration from it.

Ego Jinpachi

My selfish me would love it, but I'm coming from the pov wondering if that's the best course of action for their channel, imo it would best to get these 2 shows I recommended out first since that won't take long, then sure explore other longer options like monster, with that they'll have more shows in their "resume" alreadywhich will make patreon subs more attractive to people having 2+ 10/10 shows offered, in the case of arcane the league of legends fanbase is huge (in the millions) so they will also get a considerable influx of new viewers/subs to the channel.

Ego Jinpachi

Spoiler for Season 4 Episode 3: All they said in the montage was that his blood has some hidden properties. And the way I see it, your titan form is decided partly by your genes. I thought Magath was saying that his blood influenced his "Beast titan", kinda similar to how Marcel and Porco (being brothers) had similar Jaw titans (since blood relation and such). But, hey I didn't read the manga, so im just as clueless. I just think that based on the information so far, we cannot conclude one or the other.

Joshua

I wouldn't say Monster is too long. Doesn't AoT have the roughly the same number of episodes? It also is more conclusive since its not on-going anymore. I dont think its a fair comparison with something like One Piece or DB haha.

Joshua

Cool story, but please put a spoiler tag at the start for anyone who are watching along side Ben and Anna.

Joshua

Yeah for like 5 minutes haha

Sean Carroll

I don’t agree at all Joshua, I don’t think it being the beast at all has anything to do with it, in episode 3 they even mention this when deciding who to give the titans too

Sean Carroll

Grisha: “Zeke….. I love you”

Sean Carroll

I would also like to recommend Monster for the reasons someone already mentioned. I think it's a perfect replacement for Aot once they finish s4 as they can drop double episodes per week at the same pace. The final Aot part can then replace one of their 1 ep/week sloths once it comes out in spring (I guess).

BlueLacie

OMG yeeees!! Monster first came to mind when they were talking about that. I'm so glad you mentioned it because I was going to write a comment suggesting it. Even though the premises are very different, the overal tone and philosophies are similar. I can already imagine them theorising and trying to wrap their heads around the details. I really hope someone nudges them to watch it. Oh, and yeah, I believe it would hit a bit harder for Ben, but in a way, I found the story very cathartic.

BlueLacie

I wonder now how the other titans would be at full power (with royal blood). SPOILER: Someone remind me, was Annie enhanced by Zeke's spinal fluid or where do those "booster" serumes come from? That Marley uses to enhance their Warrior titans.

BlueLacie

Definitely gonna have to give it a watch now, thanks for the recommendation 👍🏽

Jimmy lujan

When she sees that tear fall down, man...

BlueLacie

Oh the surprise when they find out it's a p-girl

BlueLacie

Omg that would be amazing. It would be my excuse to get back into the show, since I put it on hiatus for awhile nkw

Joshua

I have been thinking about what to recommend the past week, and these 2 comments above ^ suggest both great shows that I have in the highest regard, monster and lost, however, they are tedious long shows (worth it at the end? for sure) but they wouldn't flow well with how the channel operates imo (releasing 1or2ep per week type of deal) it's like I wouldn't recommend starting dragon ball/the walking dead nowadays to react channels who haven't seen them since it would be a tedious journey for their channel even if it's worth it at the end. So being that the case, I have narrowed it down to Arcane and/or The Queen's Gambit, 9 and 7 episodes long respectively, short 1 season shows that I regard as worthy/highly as Monster/Lost/AoT/Death Note/HotD that I know they'll like, that fall perfectly in the spot for what HotD is right now for the channel and perfect candidates to replace it directly in the schedule once that's over in 1 week with the finale, On the longer side of things, which I think will most likely happen sometime in the future after HotD is done is the start of GoT, although that's a big commitment as any other long shows people recommend.

Ego Jinpachi

I mean kind of both. Kruger said the Royal Blood draws out the true power of 9 titans. So in a way it is because of the beast. But also because he's royal.

Joshua

Actually if you count part 2s as a seperate season. Then season 4 part 2 would be season 6 ;)

Joshua

Yea, I follow them.

Joshua

"Where do I find something else like AoT?" I have an answer (and I've commented this before) it's the TV show LOST which ran on ABC from 2004 to 2010. Obviously not an anime but the reason it's similar, or that I think it's similar, is because the characters are put in this isolated situation that seems normal at first but pretty quickly they realize there's something strange about it. It has mystery, great characters, relationships, weird lore like a mysterious history to be unravelled. Definitely things to hypothesize about, questions galore. No action heroes swinging around like spiderman with swords but honestly, what other show has that? Oh yeah and huge cliffhangers at the end of most episodes! Ahhh anyway you're probably not going to ever see this post lol. LOST was a phenomenon when it was airing, this was before the streaming era of TV came along. People would watch it Sunday nights and then talk about it at work the next day. It was huge. Those were fun times.

trouty42

he's the sole salvation

Ego Jinpachi

Yeah, they make it seems like the previous 3 seasons were useless and just fillers, hate that copy pasta. "tHe AcTuAl sToRy"

Ego Jinpachi

Considering their conversation at the end about not knowing what could hit the same notes as AOT and Ben's upbringing, they REALLY need to watch Monster. Like, seriously. Whoever speaks to them about animes and what's said in the comments, please trust me on this when I say it's one of the greatest shows, not just anime, ever made. And many of their fanbase would agree that they'd love it. 🙏🏽 Excellent dialogue and writing, Philosophical, Psychological, heartfelt and gut wrenching. It's all the and wrapped in a grounded and believable world. And on top of all that, the greatest antagonist in all of anime. Pleeease

D

10:26 eren didnt have the attack titan before the founding, they were transfered at the same time

Ego Jinpachi

backpack bitch

Ego Jinpachi

9:56 grisha was the first without royal blood to have the founding

Ego Jinpachi

Yeah spoilers wtf

Narwhalw7

maybe edit out that s4p2 spoiler!!!!

Katie Barnes

Another show that is way more good than it needs to be, is Arcane (based on league of legends game). The cinematic trailers for League has already been out of this world good, in my opinion, but the show was phenomenal. Animation style (2D overlaid with CGI/#D animations, or the other way around I don't know details), but also in the plot, characters, writing, cinematography. It truly is an amazing show that has launched a LOT of video essays on youtube, and I think you guys would have a lot of things to say about it.

lafatte24

lafatte24

Random fact: Falco is voiced by the same VA as Tanjiro!

Darby

Re zero and mushoku tensei are good shows for discussions

Keyshon Wilson

Zeke can transform those eldians because he has got royal blood, not because of him being the beast titan

Sean Carroll

Best discussion ever! Many of us are like you, we want to talk about AoT for hours but no one in our direct friend group irl has the time or inclination… so Auto-Save is our fix. (“Re:Zero” is also a good anime for long discussions)

DJ Hunter

By the way, further to the whole Blu-ray vs Crunchyroll sub thing and just to make it MORE confusing for everyone, it looks like Funimation actually uses the enhanced Blu-Ray visuals but with the same subtitle translation that Crunchyroll used on broadcast. It's absolutely the enhanced visuals (it's super obvious on the airship if anyone wants to check) but Gabi calls the bombs 'grenades' in the original and 'explosives' in the Blu-Ray, and they talk about the armoured train before you see it as 'that' in the original and 'it' in the Blu-Ray, which is why I noticed when you highlighted those specifically. Nothing to worry about as this effectively means you're getting the best of both worlds (for anyone who had an issue with the Blu-ray subs), but it does make that whole discussion over which version is the one to watch hilariously redundant in hindsight.

Asteroidea

Calling it now, Anna will forgive zeke even though she says she won’t

Sean Carroll

Funnily I actually think that One Piece is the closest world building wise to Attack On titan. It's a very different kind of manga but believe me it's an amazing character and stroy development. And of coruse Berserk but it's....hella depressing lmao

Gaïa New Gate

p-boy was a really good name lmao.

Jacob Park

Have you watched working title reacts? They also have great discussions

Sean Carroll

Always love your discussions and cherish watching the whole video!

Russell Gambardella

Wow the meta discussion there felt like it's been brewing a while. :) I'm pretty sure quite a few people here watch you guys and subscribe precisely because of the lenght and quality of the discussion afterwards, not (just) the reaction. There are hundeds of reaction channels but with you guys I, someone who read the manga after season 3 ended, really get to experience this whole series, the best piece of art/entertainment I know, again as fresh. (Well, that might also (unfortunately) answered the other bit in your discussion about whether you're ever gonna find something to replace this show/story.. but maybe one day we'll find it).

Weeros

Oh man, great discussion! Personally, I dont stick around the discussion section for other react channels, however, for you guys it's the exception! I love it when you guys ramble on and on about your wacky (and not so wacky) theories. Also, about the animation. A new animation studio took over for this season (Mappa). Pretty sure you've heard of that studio.

Joshua

Good point haha

Joshua

I love how it is just a universal reaction for people to go "Are we watching the right anime" When the episode starts 🤣

Night Sterling

They'll get to a point where they wish Reiner were dead. That man has suffered enough! P.S. Funny they think Falco and Colt are Zeke's...children ':D SPOILER: *sweats heavily in euthanasia plan*

BlueLacie

The chokehold that marley has over the eldians is that they would get extra privileges and family protection if they become marleyans warriors. This was shown in s3e20. That's why the tag "honorary marleyan" is used for eldians who work for marley. Blu ray usually change character designs that were inconsistent and some new filters but not in every episode. So you won't find differences everywhere

Child of the forest

Ben, Anna, this is probably the only AOT intro that DOES NOT contain any spoilers at all. You can watch it safely.

Adam Adamowicz

Pieck

Isac christensen

I also think the same as you!! And that's why I also belive he was able to cure it so fast because it must have been common place in Marley

Sabás González

One of my favorite theories is that because Grisha came from Marley, he brought with him a pathogen that the Islanders weren’t exposed to caused the plague. Sort of how the colonizers brought over to other nations.

Justice Hastings

Yrrrrr, good ish on the reactions, I feel the passion! And to answer the question in the end scene when Zeke(Beast Titan) pitched torpedos towards the Warships, they in turn, "on sight" as the kids say, immediately fired their cannons. So no magic trick, just quick retaliation.

Reggie Azem

It is Falco :)

Isac christensen

You can watch the opening no problem.

Forrial

I get it. But geez I'm sick of this quote at this point lmao. Any time there's a significant transition everyone repeats the same copy pasta. No malice btw, I'm just saying lol

Joshua

The OP has 0 spoilers

bondbond53

I was about to turn off my pc, so glad this dropped just now

Ster_arch_13

Yes boys here we are finished with the prologue and onto the actual story

bondbond53