Attack on Titan: Junior High Review (Anime)
Attack on Titan: Junior High is a bite-sized parody of Attack on Titan where Titans steal the student’s lunches instead of their lives, and Titans have a monopoly on school clubs and activities. The students – faces we all know and love – band together to fight the Titan threat and to protect their food.
Characters are parodies of themselves with Eren’s desire to kill Titans coming from his lunch being stolen as a child, rather than his mother being brutally killed. Mikasa is unable to function without Eren in close promixity, and Armin is highly susceptible to colds and so is constantly wrapped in his blanket. It doesn’t make fun of the characters per se, but it does stretch their extremities for humour and it generally has more hits than it does misses. With each episode being roughly fifteen minutes long, it never outstays its welcome.
With each episode being roughly fifteen minutes long, it never outstays its welcome.
This is a parody for fans rather than those who aren’t fond of its parent series, with many scenes being re-created for laughs — there’s no heavy emotion to deal with here, other than the pining for Eren’s lost cheeseburger. It’s not a cruel parody by any means and it’s like author Hajime Isayama wanted to create a lighter version, one where the characters aren’t constantly fighting against death. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Studio WIT haven’t returned to animate Junior High but Production I.G are no slouches with the likes of Haikyuu!! and Guilty Crown under their belts. Seeing the characters zipping around massive tables and hallways – which are massive as they’re built for the Titans – rather than wide plains and destroyed builds is a nice change of pace and the sense of scale is well presented. There’s a lot of active physical comedy and references to the main show, and its brief episode length allows each episode to be fast-paced and packed with laughs rather than lulls.
One reason why Junior High is so enjoyable is that many of the original series’ voice-actors and actresses reprise their roles here, and they have a whole lot of fun with them. Bryce Papenbrook’s Eren is just as hot-headed and quick to act, but it’s over silly and pretty trivial things this time — well, taking another person’s food is no laughing matter, friends. It’s great to hear so many familiar voices when in a spin-off project like this, it wouldn’t be surprising if a new cast were introduced. Even the music riffs off of tunes with the opening theme sounding quite similar to the first opening theme of Attack on Titan.
Junior High will slap a goofy grin on your face.
Attack on Titan: Junior High is refreshing and it’s lovely seeing the cast interact without an external – or internal – threat. Levi is the coolest kid in school, Eren makes a name for himself for being the one student – again – with an intense hatred for Titans, and each character has their own quirk which is blown up here for laughs. With much less brooding and an ending that wraps up the series’ events nicely, Junior High will slap a goofy grin on your face.
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