Attack on Titan: Junior High Episode 1--I've Been Waiting For This Day

One of my favorite spinoffs for my favorite series has finally aired!

Fun fact: when Isayama originally tried to publish Attack on Titan, the editor at one manga magazine told him that they would take the series if he turned it into a gag comedy. Of course, Isayama said no and Attack on Titan was published elsewhere, but now it has a school spinoff series with the exact same premise that works pretty well. Everything has come full circle, so maybe that editor was on to something after all!

In this alternate universe, Titans and humans attend the same school. They're not the same bloodthirsty monsters from the main series, but are despised instead for a different reason--they're bullies who eat everyone's lunches.

I'm not kidding

In this world, Eren has still gone through trauma at the hands of Titans...who ate his cheese hamburg steak. Despite everyone around him insisting he should let it go--after all, it's just food--Eren has sworn revenge. Someday, he'll make the Titans pay...for all the lunches they stole!

The Attack on Titan: Junior High manga pretty much just messes around with its ridiculous premise, but the anime takes it a step further and makes itself a parody of the main series anime adaptation as well. It frequently uses the same shots or even the same images from the scenes it pokes fun at, making it a bit more distinctive from the manga.

You could claim that they're just trying to save money on production, but that would just further the joke

A lot of the parody moments are pretty obvious, especially in the OP, but here are a few more I caught:

The episode is also a little shorter than a standard run (this one came in at about seventeen minutes), but this kind of series doesn't need full-length episodes to get to its punchline. I love watching a franchise poke fun at itself, and Attack on Titan: Junior High has already done a great job of that so far.

I missed these lesbians

I'll be blogging the series to document the self-referential moments as well as anything else the anime does differently for the manga, so look out for those posts! See you next time!

We heard you like Attack on Titan, so we put Attack on Titan in your Attack on Titan
so that you can watch Attack on Titan while you watch Attack on Titan

Images from Funimation.com. Please support the official simulcast.

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