In order to gain the skills necessary to combat the Titan threat Eren, Mikasa, and Armin enlist into the 104th Trainee Corps. There they meet several unique characters and potential allies. However Eren's dream of enlisting in the Survey Corps may all be for nought if he can't figure out how to keep his balance with the ODM gear. Can a couple of new friends help him out?
Tropes:
- Adaptational Expansion: In the manga Eren, Armin, Reiner, and Bertolt stayed on their bunks when they talked about their pasts. In the anime the four leave the barracks and walk to a cliff in order to see a lake below.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: The Trainee arc was originally shown after the Battle of Trost arc via flashback. Here the Trainee arc is shown first likely to keep the show moving in chronological order and to give context to various characters personalities.
- Boot Camp Episode: The entirety of this episode takes place during the Shiganshina Trio's time enlisting within the 104th Trainee Corps and shows how they develop the skills necessary to combat the Titans.
- Bread of Survival: Sasha eats a stolen potato in front of her commander and is punished by being made to go without dinner. Krista saves some bread for her, and Sasha asks in awe and reverence, "Are you God?"
- Breather Episode: After the Downer Beginning of the first two episodes this one, and most of the next episode, are mostly various light hearted romps and character pieces introducing a variety of new fun characters to the show.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Shadis is yelling at Sasha why she decided to eat a potato in the middle of roll call she explains that she didn't want to eat it cold. Shadis then asks why she decided to eat it then and there and a confused Sasha asks him if he is asking her why people eat potatoes. Finally she offers half of the potato to Shadis seeming to think that will make him happy. She is forced to run laps for her trouble.
- Doomed Hometown: Bertolt explains that he and Reiner were from a mountain village in Wall Maria. Because of their remote location they didn't get word of the Walls destruction until the Titans were right on top of them and they had to escape. Reiner expresses a desire to return to their hometown once more.
- Foreshadowing: This episode introduces many characters, and foreshadows major things about some of them.
- No Name Given: The female recruit that gives Krista a hard time about helping out Sasha is not named in this episode (or indeed for the entire season as her name hadn't been revealed in the manga yet). As such the anime helpfully refers to her as "freckles" in the credits.
- Training from Hell: While we don't get to see to much ourselves it's pretty clear that the combat training is incredibly brutal. One of the instructors mentions that Shadis intentionally breaks recruits down into blank slates to be remodeled into soldiers. Those that can't take the pressure, or whom are deemed liabilities, are removed from the program and send to plough fields. Eren and Armin are shocked to see a few people send to the fields on the first day.
- Troll: Mikasa gets a brilliantly deadpan moment when Sasha, who had somewhat intruded on a moment she (thought) she was having with Eren, sits in his former seat asking if she can have Mikasa's bread. Mikasa holds up the bread to a smiling Sasha then stuffs it in her mouth.
