Attack on Titan did not slow down after Episode Five.
The War Hammer Titan arrived in Episode Six with the ferocity the preview had promised. The Survey Corps soldiers, who had not appeared since Season Three, dropped onto Marleyan soil through the chaos Eren had created.
Levi appeared above the Beast Titan for the second time and the thread for that episode spent three days generating nothing but variations of the same observation: that four years had passed and Zeke Yeager still had not found a solution to the problem of Levi Ackerman.
The Beast Titan's defeat was faster and more complete than the first time, which the forum found both satisfying and slightly horrifying.
Episode Seven covered the Survey Corps retreat. The airship. The Marleyan soldiers. The warrior cadets, Gabi and Falco among them, watching from the ground as the people who had attacked their city escaped into the sky.
Then Episode Eight aired in late August.
And everything changed.
By the time Episode Eight reached its final act, Spirited Away was still leading the domestic box office in its fourth week of release, though the initial frenzy had softened into the steady performance of a film that had already proven its place.
The summer blockbusters that had been waiting in its shadow were finally getting their breathing room.
The Attack on Titan anime had been running throughout this period as scheduled. In terms of pure reputation, the series remained where it had always been.
The Marley arc's opening episodes had drawn genuine critical admiration. The Declaration of War episode had generated coverage from outlets that did not normally discuss weekly animation.
But something had been shifting since Episode Five. The Marley arc moved slower than the series had moved before. The dialogue scenes were longer. The political architecture was more complex.
Eren's transformation in both the literal and personal sense, his coldness after four years, his willingness to act without consulting anyone, the distance between the boy at the ocean and the person who had sat in the cellar and then risen through the festival stage, was making viewers uncomfortable in ways they were still trying to articulate.
Many of them were managing this discomfort. The series had earned the patience it was asking for.
Episode Eight removed the possibility of managing it.
Gabi Braun had been on the airship for less than three minutes when she fired the shot.
Sasha. Who had stolen a potato during entrance ceremony and offered back a piece that was not even close to half and had become one of the series' most beloved characters across four seasons on the strength of that single moment and everything that followed it. Who had been the one point of genuine uncomplicated warmth that the series had consistently returned to when everything else was burning.
She died on the airship floor with her friends around her and her last word was meat.
The forums did not know what to do with themselves.
The fan comments arrived in waves, each one overtaking the last.
"So what was Shirogane-sensei thinking? Why did he let Sasha die?"
"I'm crying myself to death. This anime is so sad. From the first season until now, it was often Sasha, this cute, gluttonous girl, who made me laugh. Did Shirogane-sensei just let her die meaninglessly?"
"Gabi, that idiot. Shirogane, you must make her die later!"
"I don't understand why the people of Paradis Island and the Eldians of the Marley Empire like Reiner would kill each other. They are of the same race. Why are people like Reiner and Zeke so stupid?"
"Only by being brainwashed are they qualified to inherit the power of the Titans. What are they thinking?"
The grief over Sasha overwhelmed the thread for hours before anything more analytical surfaced. When it did, one comment arrived that stopped the chaos momentarily.
"It's clear that Shirogane-sensei wants to allude to many things. In fact, as soon as the character Gabi appeared, everyone should have realized that she is Marley's counterpart to Eren.
Both her actions and thoughts are exactly like Eren's in the first season, the type of person who would risk their life for friends and family. Shirogane-sensei depicted this plot just to use a contrasting technique to tell the audience that this is war, a life-and-death war, and both sides have reasons to hate each other."
"I somewhat understand why Reiner was so panicked in Season Two when he learned Eren held the Founding Titan's power. If you put yourself in Gabi's position, if she possessed the Founding Titan, what would she do? She would definitely mobilise the countless Colossal Titans within the walls to destroy Paradis Island. This episode made me realise how terrifying someone with Eren's personality would be as an enemy."
The grief thread and the analysis thread ran simultaneously for the rest of the night, occasionally colliding.
"I can't take it anymore. I'm not unable to accept the death of important characters. I can accept the deaths of the Commander and Hannes. They all defended what they wanted to protect with their lives. But Sasha's death is too difficult to bear."
"Her death was meaningless. Was it just to shape Gabi's character? Does she deserve it? Is she worth Sasha's life? Shirogane-sensei's move makes me extremely dissatisfied."
"Anyway, Gabi must die in the next episode."
"Stop daydreaming. Gabi is only eleven or twelve years old, still a child. How could the protagonist's side do such a thing in the anime? Moreover, as annoying as she is, from her perspective, she is just avenging her friend."
"A child my ass. From a positional standpoint, I have no problem with what Gabi did. There is no logic to discuss between warring parties.
But Gabi, from the moment she appeared, had no bottom line. During the battle she pretended to be a helpless injured child to deceive the enemy, and when the officer hesitated, she used explosives to blow up the opposing soldiers.
Killing Sasha was also because everyone saw her as a little girl and did not attack immediately. She raised her gun and shot Sasha. The most disgusting thing about Gabi is that all her actions rely on the enemy's pity for her as a child, taking advantage of their momentary carelessness. She and Eren are worlds apart. Do not insult Eren by saying she is his counterpart."
"It's so hard to watch. I've known for a long time that Attack on Titan is not a lighthearted anime. But I didn't expect that even in the fourth season, Shirogane-sensei would continue pushing the plot in a painful direction."
/
Overwhelming fan resentment spread across major anime websites in Japan, its momentum even stronger than the widespread criticism of Gabi among Attack on Titan fans when that arc had aired in Rei's previous life.
Many Attack on Titan fans back then had watched the show with a singular obsession: waiting for Gabi to die.
And that surging fan resentment was naturally felt in the market.
Many anime industry professionals woke up that morning with bewildered expressions.
Had the sun risen in the west?
Could Shirogane's work one day face this kind of backlash from fans? Could this be the year his reputation finally cracked? Would this man, praised for eight straight years since his debut, always standing at the pinnacle of the Japan's anime industry, finally have his brief moment of falling from grace?
Shirogane's peers no longer expected his industry standing to collapse entirely. It was like Hayao Miyazaki in Rei's previous life: even if Miyazaki made ten terrible films a year for ten consecutive years, producing a hundred unwatchable movies, would it diminish his status as the greatest director in the Japan's animation industry?
Not in the slightest.
Even if Rei truly botched the ending of this Attack on Titan anime, would it affect his industry standing? Of course not. It would simply become a footnote, a passing joke future generations mentioned when discussing his career.
Still, the media and Rei's peers quietly looked forward to exactly that.
Rei's resume in the Japan's anime industry was like a mirror, reflecting the mediocrity of his peers with uncomfortable clarity.
My mediocrity is inevitable, they thought, but surely a genius can make mistakes too?
Shirogane, won't you, like the rest of us, one day have your work become a laughingstock, even if only briefly?
With that mindset, many media outlets joined the growing army criticizing the fourth season of the Attack on Titan anime. Rei's anti-fans began to emerge. Many viewers watched and complained at the same time. The most discussed topics across the internet among Attack on Titan fans every single day were:
"When will Gabi die?"
"Gabi's Top Ten Reasons to Die."
"Why is Gabi the most despicable character in the Attack on Titan anime?"
"History really does repeat itself."