Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou

Do you ever feel like milking the shit out of something that's popular? No? Then you wouldn't relate to this crap. Attack on Chibi is a spin-off parody anime to one of the most popular shows ever made. It's done by a different studio, focusing more on comedy and having this chibi artform instead of the dark and greedy look that the original show has. The show fails at everything. You would expect that a parody of Attack on Titan would succeeed at poking fun at it, while having some clever stuff thrown in. Instead, we have this show pandering towards fans for the sakesof getting another dollar. A lot of the characters felt like they were pulled out from fanfictions and Tumblr. One of the most popular characters in AoT is Levi, who is now known in the fandom as that guy that has a thing for cleaning, though this was barely present in the original show. In Attack on Chibi, they decide that it would be a good idea if they drag that cleaning joke for Tumblr users to fangasm. Does it work? I don't see too many people really talking about this. The only reason this cashgrab exists is to remind you that AoT is still a thing and that the second season will be out in 2016, but there was no point in making this. Every character is an exaggerated version of their fanfictions, the comedy is slaptstick nonsense and everything else is not note worthy. But I will give them credit for one thing. At times, they play serious music in the background while parodying a scene from the show, and I'm not sure how, but it works pretty well. Unfortunetely, this is barely present in the show, and is only used in episode 1 and episode 12, which are the best episodes. The rest? It's hard to watch. It really is. Not only that, but the episodes are only 17 minutes for some reason, and it doesn't help that each episode feels longer than the average 22 minutes, too. This show is like anime, a mistake. 3/10

This series relies entirely on the viewer's having-seen and having-loved Shingeki no Kyojin. If you have not seen or did not enjoy the world of Attack on Titan, don't watch this. Straight up don't do it. You will be on the outside of an inside joke. Knowledge of the original series is absolutely critical to getting anything out of this spin-off. It is a parody that relies heavily on the parallels it draws between the original characters and events and the irony of twisting the setting in which those events take place. If you haven't seen the original version, this is going to come offlike an episode of Dora the Explorer or some shit, and it's also going to spoil the events of the original series, so just don't do it. Don't. Okay, so everyone left reading has seen the original at this point, right? Excellent. Here we go. I expected to think that this series was stupid. I literally only watched it out of morbid curiosity, the ease of time commitment (episodes are roughly 15 minutes long), and the fact that I really missed the original cast of characters while waiting on Shingeki no Kyojin's third season. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a well-crafted parody that is at once naively childish AND smart. If you've never seen the original, this series is going to consist of a bunch of hammy characters trying to naively solve silly, inconsequential problems in the wholesomest of ways. It's very hard-work-and-friendship-conquer-all. It's cutesy. It's corny. It feels like an episode of My Little Pony. However, that's kind of where its brilliance lies. What the series is actually doing is wryly mocking the very R-rated, tragic, and horrifying events of the original story. With that in mind, Chuugakkou is quite sick, twisted, and wryly hilarious. The characters are overblown, exaggerated versions of themselves, each one successfully lampshading their defining traits. It helps the comedy that the same cast of actors returned to voice them and treated them with the same emotional depth and gravitas as the original series, expounding the dramatic irony. What references are made to the events of Shingeki no Kyojin are both unexpected and hilariously underplayed, leading to genuine laugh-out-loud moments in each episode. The plot of each episode is more or less irrelevant nonsense--it's merely a vehicle for character-driven and context-based mockery. Frankly, the inclusion of a real plot with actual emotional stakes would likely undermine the humour of the series. It's necessary only as a backdrop for a bunch of darkly funny silliness. Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou is a splendid supplement for Attack on Titan fans twiddling their thumbs between seasons. It gives you a light-hearted dose of your favourite cast of characters and successfully lampoons the horrors-of-war storyline in a way that would frankly be insulting if it weren't written, produced, and performed by all of the people involved in the original project. Chuugakkou is a wink and a playful nudge from the writers to the fans and will tide you over until the bloodbath returns in 2018.

Spin-offs are often a way to pander to fans and give them something similar to what they were looking for, but not really. Often times, these spin-offs come in the form of OVA's, extra episodes that usually don't pertain to the original plot and go off on their own little sidestories. Other times, we have completely different stories that are usually for comedic reasons and pander to fans of this series. This...is the latter. Story: Attack! Titan Junior High, as it's known in English travels into a different world of the SNK world where all of our 'lovable' characters go tojunior high school (or middle school) at Titan Junior high where they experience the best school life possible, filled with fun, excitement, and the signature rampaging monsters known as titans. What fun! The main thing here to realize is that the SNK that a lot of people know and love has been turned into a school comedy. All of the events that have happened in the series both in the anime and the manga have not transpired, and everyone is alive. Note, EVERYONE is alive. So, what does this say about this show? Well, not much really. To be honest, there's nothing really interesting about the story of Attack Junior High. Every episode, our merry band of lovable titan killers go about their daily school lives, doing what apparently every middle/high school in Japan does according to anime such as: school festivals, club activities, getting love letters, and sacrificing your lunch to the oppressive titan species that for some reason has a school right next to you. And honestly, that's all the show has to offer. In every episode, we follow Eren, or some other member of the main SNK cast on a mini adventure that usually has some kind of throwback to the original series be it a reference to an iconic scene, or hidden little references that every SNK that sees it will go, "Oh! It's that! Nice!" or something of that sort. In the end, Attack! Titan Junior High is a bland piece of cheap entertainment that only really services hardcore fans of the SNK series. Its entire potential was wasted at the start since it tried to take a series and turn it into something it both wasn't and could never be. Overview: - Bland, marketed spin-off - Seriously though, there is nothing worth about this series. Characters: Similar to their original counterparts, the cast of this show is essentially a devolved version of the entire SNK cast, with each character retaining only one of their 'vast' amount of traits. Eren is the same genocidal maniac who wants to kill all titans, Mikasa is her same "only sustained by Eren", Jean wants to be popular with the ladies, Sasha wants food, Conny could give less of a crap about anything, etc. The most noticeable difference I can see in terms of cast is the fact that Armin for some reason is a temperature freak who for the life of him cannot take cold, even if it's 70 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and requires a futon on or around him at all times, which really makes him look and seem more ridiculous than he already was. (And that's saying something.) And as I mentioned before, every character, and I mean every character of the SNK series appears in this spin-off, including Levi's dead patrol, Sawny and Bean, and the other nobodies who died during the first arc of the series. In the end though, there still really isn't much to say. These characters already weren't really that good as proper characters in the original series and seeing them again, especially in a format that really doesn't try and make them seem likable, doesn't really help this show in a positive light. Overview: + Everyone comes back - Everyone is one-note and/or boring. (We get it, Eren. You want to kill all the titans. Shout something else for once, will ya?!) Art: Now, the art. The art is one of the more peculiar things about this spin-off. Wit Studio made the original SNK with a very definied artstyle with everything looking somewhat melancholy with these thick black lines to define character outline, folds in the face, etc. But for this spin-off, we have Production I.G. taking the reins in development and you know...there's just something...off, about this. Attack! Titan Junior High uses a chibi or moe style of animation that isn't really all that unique in any way. Nothing about the show really stands out except for the way the characters were made. To put it in simple terms, the characters look both great, and terrifying in Chibi form. Now, why do I say they look great and terrifying? Well, it's because the chibi format really doesn't work for everyone. There are certain characters in the SNK universe that have an inherently defined look to them like Erwin, Jean, and Keith. And as such, when being transferred, look really, REALLY weird in this format to the point that they look laughable or out of place. (Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?) They look so off with the chibi proportions that are displayed that it's just jarring to look at. Other characters like our three main characters, Christa, Sasha, and even Conny look fine, but it's just hard not to remember how creepy it looks to see Jean's unmodified face stuck onto a Chibi body. (Now THAT'S true nightmare fuel) Overview +/- Average and generally normal quality - Some of the characters look off; VERY off. Sound: The soundtrack for Attack! Titan Junior High is basically what you heard in the original SNK with only a few minor differences. Every so often in the show, they will play one or two sound bites that will sound familiar if you've seen the original series, but that's about it for relation to the original. What makes this series different than its predecessor is its opening. Essentially, it's a rehash of the first opening of SNK with a more 'school-related' sound to it with ringing bells and sounding more upbeat than its original melancholy self. The ending is rather generic, so it really doesn't deserve much special mention either. Overview: + Throwbacks to the original - Any music made specifically for this is meh at best. Personal Enjoyment: First of all, I didn't really like the original SNK. And it's not because I'm inherently someone who just doesn't like THE popular thing, but rather because it was a show that had promising potential, but just had a lot of flaws that hampered the quality of the show. (Plus fandom. I hate fandom.) So, after finishing this what are my thoughts? Did I like this show? Ok, for the first episode, sure. It's the kind of one-off experience thing where you're like, "Wow, this is a thing. That's a little funny." because it's a parody of a series that's just so bad, it's funny. But, with every new episode, the show got tired fast and there really wasn't anything to enjoy watching. At least it's only like 15 minutes an episode, so you don't have to suffer a full-length episode worth of soulless material. What didn't I like about this show? Most of all, it's just how bland and tasteless this felt. It's a spin-off that only really served to market SNK even more as a series, pandering to the fandom and following it has, thus creating a series that even as a comedy, failed to fulfill. There just didn't seem like there was much effort put into it, like I.G. thought, "We can make this as crap as we want; people'll still watch it." Which...kinda came true in the end. Would I recommend this show? If you love SNK. And I mean LOVE SNK, then this is a show you should probably watch, since its got all of the SNK wrapped up in a different setting package. But if you're not one of those die-hard fans, just don't even consider this; you're only wasting your time with this series if you decide to watch it.

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