Shingeki no kyojin Attack on Titan: Hangeki no noroshi

It's difficult to write any sort of fair review of this Japanese miniseries since I downloaded it off the internet with subtitles that appeared to have been created with Google translate from a bad transcription. Half the time I couldn't even guess what people were saying.

But since no one else on IMDb has reviewed it (the one review here is by someone who seems to think this is the page for the Attack on Titan live-action movie that this is spun off from), so let me step into the breach.

This three-episode, generally light-hearted series seems to be loosely centered around the creation of the vertical maneuvering equipment soldiers use to fight the Titans.

The first and strongest episode focuses on the amusing inventor character (while I watched the anime series I don't remember anyone's names) as she experiments on a captured titan. I find the actress very amusing and overall this one is a lot of fun.

The second episode involves a skilled archer and that character that is always hungry. It's a little disorganized but reasonably amusing and even somewhat touching.

The third episode is longer and weaker than the rest. It's a totally lunatic thing that is primarily focused on the prettiest and strongest of the soldiers in training. She sets off the episode's longest action sequence when she announced she will marry whoever can battle through her defenses to kiss her. There is a lot wrong with this premise, but it does allow for a few amusing gags. Unfortunately, the episode's fight choreographer isn't nearly good enough to sustain an episode that is 90% fighting. Also, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why there were two women in hot pants carrying whips who appeared to be combination nurse/enforcers. I'm not really confident that better subtitles would have helped much with that one.

Overall I think I'd give the first episode a 7, the second a 6, and the last a 4, because it really dragged. Overall, this is watchable and probably worthwhile if you're a Titan completist. I did like it better than Attack on Titan: Junior High, for whatever that's worth.