A not-so-grim reminder.
It’s been long enough since Attack on Titan first aired that I’d all but forgotten how much I liked it. Back then, my roommate and I made our WiFi password “jaeger!!!” (which it remains today) and joked about cosplaying as Sasha “Potato Girl” Braus. Parody spinoff Attack on Titan: Junior High caters precisely to that silly, jokey side of the fandom. It’s definitely funny and entertaining, but the premiere episode is so full of references that I wonder where the show will go from here.
We want to hear it.
It’s chibi-Eren’s first day of junior high, and the episode opens with him and Mikasa hurrying to school. Eren bombastically crashes into a number of his new classmates on the way, which (re)introduces us to many of the main series’ characters. Ymir’s crush on Christa — a popular coupling among fans — is even more pronounced than usual, for example, and it felt like being reunited with old friends. Everyone’s true to who they are, just… way less sad. And more alive. It’s the kind of pick-me-up I could have used when I first watched the main show, and I really enjoyed it.
Once the 104th Training Corps kids get to school, they accidentally wander into the comically huge Titan campus. A Titan drops a person-sized eraser on Eren, Eren promptly writes his name on it, and the Titan then retrieves it. This is used as the explanation for why Eren hates the Titans (as opposed to, you know, one eating his mom). It’s kind of silly and probably the least clever part of the episode, but it was still funny to see Eren refer to the eraser as something “precious” that was taken away from him.
We want to hear it.
The rest of the episode is filled with entertaining twists on fan-favorite moments, like Sasha’s infamous potato scene (this time with onigiri) and the Colossal Titan’s first appearance. They’re charming and funny, and I kept pausing to tell my roommate about characters’ silly roles (military instructor Keith Shadis as the junior high teacher, Garrison soldier Hannes as the janitor) and how different plot points translated into this alternate universe.
Even though it does a great job of turning something as grotesque and often serious as Attack on Titan into a comedy, I’m just not sure how Junior High will continue like this. The first episode hits most of the big internet jokes, so I was left wondering if it will stand on its own plot-wise or just parrot the main series.
We want to hear it.
Of course, a parody can’t really work if you don’t know the source material, and I don’t expect it to completely diverge from the original. It’s just not yet clear if Junior High will coast on references or cleverly turn them into even funnier jokes. It’s an entertaining show right now, but as it stands it seems more suited to an OVA than a full series — I’m not too invested in it yet outside of my existing investment in Attack on Titan proper.
I had a lot of fun with Attack on Titan: Junior High’s chibi, cheeky first episode. It does inside jokes and references well, but it hit so many in this episode that I’m not sure how it’ll keep up the pace. However, it consistently had me laughing, and it’s worth a try as long as you’re a fan of the original show.
- Entertaining references
- Characters’ charm
- Consistently funny
- What next?
