How to summon Levi: mix your trash with your recyclables.
In case the first episode didn’t make it clear enough, this episode nails down the concept that it’s looking to parody the anime adaptation, not go beat-by-beat with the Junior High manga. A couple different chapters are condensed or at least referenced in this episode, and I think that cutting out the fat here is a great way for the adaptation to go.
For instance, joining the Scouts and trying to get Armin’s futon back are two different stories in the manga, but here it’s all in one episode. I imagine that’s because of the shorter episode length, but these two stories work well enough together that not much is lost. However, I am a bit sad that Levi’s booby-trapped apartment building didn’t get animated…
But the tradeoff is a lot more new content, like when Levi immediately sits down and pours himself a cup of tea while Eren and Mikasa argue. That scene alone made the entire season for me.
But it’s worth noting that this parody takes each character’s specific quirks and kicks them up a few notches, even more so than the manga did. Eren’s quirk is obviously “anger,” while Mikasa’s is “Eren,” and Levi is “cleaning.”
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| Although to be honest, I can see him yelling this at someone in the main series... |
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| And I guess they didn't know what to do with Armin, so they went for "cute." |
My favorite aspect of parodies is that they still hold a little bit of the main series in them, and Junior High nails Levi’s complete lack of communication skills. While he could’ve just offered to fix Armin’s futon, he just straight-out steals it for repair. There was an implication in the manga that’s lost here that he always meant to return it and didn’t take it in the first place out of his cleaning compulsion, but there’s no sense splitting hairs over a non-canon comedy.
With all that said, this episode has already adapted some of my favorite parts of the manga, which gives me hope that it might adapt my favorite bit in the whole manga series. I won’t spoil it here in case they do, but in the meantime I’m wondering how this show might combine other chapters of the manga. Is it going off of popularity or which chapters are easiest to make anime references with…?
Regardless, it looks like we’ll at least be getting Rico and the Wall Beautification Club next week, which is how the parody includes 3DMG in its world. Until next time, here are some more parallels to the anime I noticed this week:
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| Imagine going to 7Eleven and seeing this waiting for you |
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