Last night I watched the entire Female Titan/57th Expedition arc.
Oh, my god. That last ep, "The Vanquished," in particular.
There is a scene in that episode that is nowhere in the manga. I'd seen that mentioned in FFA; I think it would have been in the timeframe of chapter 30. It drives home how disastrous the 57th Expedition was and how much of a toll it takes on the survivors - including Erwin and Levi, despite their ruthlessness, their ability to control their emotions, and their commitment to the Survey Corps. The final gutpunch is that laying the dead to rest properly ends up being nothing but an unaffordable luxury.
Another nice touch is the cutting back and forth between Erwin telling Hanji, "We can't afford to follow the best plans anymore. We have to take serious risks from now on, be prepared to lose everything," and Levi's squad pressuring Eren to go along with their plan - which is, of course, the best one. Since I already knew what would happen next, I can't tell you how emotionally effective it is as foreshadowing, but I found that sequence quite moving.
And I'm very pleased with the depiction of the progress of both Armin's and Jean's character arcs. I can see why Jean is smillaraaq's absolute favorite character. And Armin? Armin is fucking scary, and here's where we get the first real clue about that in the anime. He's watched his own squad leader and fellow squad members be killed, he's just taken a vicious fall, his face is covered in blood, and he's got enough self-possession to motivate Jean by yelling at him in very precise language to take vengeance for the dead. There's certainly rage there, but there's also cold calculation.
And, writing this now, it's just occurred to me that Isayama makes him look like he's still nine years old, rather than fifteen, because the contrast between the childlike appearance and the brilliant, ruthless mind behind it is so bloody jarring. Even more so than the contrast between Levi's appearance and character. If you focus on Levi's eyes to the exclusion of the rest of his face, you can see that he is, indeed, much older than he looks. Armin, not so much.
On the other hand, I am seriously disappointed at what was done with Annie in titan form. The complaints about her being sexualized are right on the money. During Eren's fight with her, she's lying on her back and he's straddling her. When you see them from a distance, it's offputting, but you can still credit it as the result of a wrestling throw. When you see them from fairly close up, from behind her head... that's not what it looks like. It left an extremely bad taste in my mouth.
What's worse, however, is that they do not show Eren as recognizing Annie - even when she raises her fists and curls them forward, a trademark fighting stance of hers. He thinks, "I'm gonna devour you," but there is none of the internal "dialogue" he has "with" Annie in the manga. As Dragoplateau says in their long meta about Eren, Annie is one of his numerous mentors. She takes him deadly seriously when others in the 104th don't. She not only teaches him how to fight, but she changes his perception of the world and of human nature. And, then, she is his first betrayal. He's not only angry at her for killing so many people, especially Levi's entire squad. He's equally stunned and hurt. Compare this with his later reaction to the betrayals of Reiner and Bertholdt, when his pain transmutes immediately into pure rage. But we get none of this complexity in the anime.
Oh, and yeah, I could have done without the comments about "the one with the nice ass" and "that bimbo" from Reiner. Granted, he turns out to be one of the bad guys, but it reinforces the sexualization of Annie.
(And where the fuck is her crystal?! I hope that happens in the next episode ... I watched six eps last night, couldn't stay up for a seventh. Oh, never mind, that was in the Stohess arc. Derp.)
Finally, I think the anime could have refrained from implying a romantic connection between Levi and Petra - again, not in the manga. It was done tastefully, I'll grant, unlike what was done with Annie. That said, while I am certainly not averse to the trope of lovers as comrades in arms, I'm very wary of it with het pairs because of how it changes the motivations of the woman. In the manga, Petra is ferocious in battle and a stern mentor to Eren because she is committed heart and soul to the Survey Corps. The hints after her death that she and Levi were something more than subordinate and CO give those things a very different meaning, one that is out of step with the overall themes of the manga.
There is a scene in that episode that is nowhere in the manga. I'd seen that mentioned in FFA; I think it would have been in the timeframe of chapter 30. It drives home how disastrous the 57th Expedition was and how much of a toll it takes on the survivors - including Erwin and Levi, despite their ruthlessness, their ability to control their emotions, and their commitment to the Survey Corps. The final gutpunch is that laying the dead to rest properly ends up being nothing but an unaffordable luxury.
Another nice touch is the cutting back and forth between Erwin telling Hanji, "We can't afford to follow the best plans anymore. We have to take serious risks from now on, be prepared to lose everything," and Levi's squad pressuring Eren to go along with their plan - which is, of course, the best one. Since I already knew what would happen next, I can't tell you how emotionally effective it is as foreshadowing, but I found that sequence quite moving.
And I'm very pleased with the depiction of the progress of both Armin's and Jean's character arcs. I can see why Jean is smillaraaq's absolute favorite character. And Armin? Armin is fucking scary, and here's where we get the first real clue about that in the anime. He's watched his own squad leader and fellow squad members be killed, he's just taken a vicious fall, his face is covered in blood, and he's got enough self-possession to motivate Jean by yelling at him in very precise language to take vengeance for the dead. There's certainly rage there, but there's also cold calculation.
And, writing this now, it's just occurred to me that Isayama makes him look like he's still nine years old, rather than fifteen, because the contrast between the childlike appearance and the brilliant, ruthless mind behind it is so bloody jarring. Even more so than the contrast between Levi's appearance and character. If you focus on Levi's eyes to the exclusion of the rest of his face, you can see that he is, indeed, much older than he looks. Armin, not so much.
On the other hand, I am seriously disappointed at what was done with Annie in titan form. The complaints about her being sexualized are right on the money. During Eren's fight with her, she's lying on her back and he's straddling her. When you see them from a distance, it's offputting, but you can still credit it as the result of a wrestling throw. When you see them from fairly close up, from behind her head... that's not what it looks like. It left an extremely bad taste in my mouth.
What's worse, however, is that they do not show Eren as recognizing Annie - even when she raises her fists and curls them forward, a trademark fighting stance of hers. He thinks, "I'm gonna devour you," but there is none of the internal "dialogue" he has "with" Annie in the manga. As Dragoplateau says in their long meta about Eren, Annie is one of his numerous mentors. She takes him deadly seriously when others in the 104th don't. She not only teaches him how to fight, but she changes his perception of the world and of human nature. And, then, she is his first betrayal. He's not only angry at her for killing so many people, especially Levi's entire squad. He's equally stunned and hurt. Compare this with his later reaction to the betrayals of Reiner and Bertholdt, when his pain transmutes immediately into pure rage. But we get none of this complexity in the anime.
Oh, and yeah, I could have done without the comments about "the one with the nice ass" and "that bimbo" from Reiner. Granted, he turns out to be one of the bad guys, but it reinforces the sexualization of Annie.
(And where the fuck is her crystal?! I hope that happens in the next episode ... I watched six eps last night, couldn't stay up for a seventh. Oh, never mind, that was in the Stohess arc. Derp.)
Finally, I think the anime could have refrained from implying a romantic connection between Levi and Petra - again, not in the manga. It was done tastefully, I'll grant, unlike what was done with Annie. That said, while I am certainly not averse to the trope of lovers as comrades in arms, I'm very wary of it with het pairs because of how it changes the motivations of the woman. In the manga, Petra is ferocious in battle and a stern mentor to Eren because she is committed heart and soul to the Survey Corps. The hints after her death that she and Levi were something more than subordinate and CO give those things a very different meaning, one that is out of step with the overall themes of the manga.