User Reviews

"A Dim Light Amid Despair: Humanity's Comeback: Part 1" is a decent episode but nothing special. We get to know a few new characters.

Recap: After a brutal introduction to their commandant Keith Sadies, the cadets learn of Eren's past and his dreams. Eren later finds difficulty training with ODM gear, though with some motivation from his new friends he is able to overcome his struggle. The commandant later reveals that his belt was somehow broken, and Eren finds no difficulty training with functional gear.

The first two episodes were about the titans so it was inevitable that there would be a point where things calm down a bit we are introduced to new characters some more friendly than others as well as the equipment that eren will fight Titans with overall this episode sets up the things to come 7/10.

On the one hand, this episode is much better than the rushed and clumsy openers, but on the other hand, it concludes by wiping out all the character development it achieved.

It's just a really awful writing decision to blame Eren's struggles on faulty equipment. He went through a genuine growth arc in this episode. He was finally humanized after being a one note screamer in the first two episodes. It amped up the genuineness of that starting point by having us, as the audience, realize that he is just an immature kid after all with a lot to learn. That made this episode fantastic.

But then it is all erased because he was never actually struggling at all. The faulty belt was to blame and suddenly he's just a perfect one note angry yeller wanting to destroy all titans again. It's a tremendously bad writing decision.

To me, this episode commits one of the cardinal sins in any tv show. That being Eren's special abilities on the evaluation machine

Instead of Eren sucking at first but actively trying to get better and the episode showing us that he doesn't back down from a fight or give up and in the end mastering the maching through sheer will and training (which would've been cliche but a billion times better than what we got), he is instead revealed to have been training on a broken machine, which is not only completely underwhelming for his character but makes no sense.

First of all, what is this meant to set up? That Eren is just special cus he's the author's self-insert Mary Sue character? There is no arc to Eren in this episode, he just so happens to be on a bad machine and is actually naturally gifted because even then he could balance on it for a bit. It's stupid and it's pathetic.

Second of all, how did no one notice the machine being broken? There are what, a hundred or more recruits in the army? Even if there are 50 there sure aren't 50 evaluation machines, therefore more people must've been on the machine that Eren was on and what, nobody noticed something wrong with it? Nobody noticed that the recruits on that specific machine just so happened to perform the worst? To me, this episode and the pilot established the show as one that does not care for plotholes and that is extremely underwhelming and definitely not "greatest anime of all time" worthy.