Beast Titan

In the wake of Annie Leonhart's capture in Stohess, damage to Wall Sina exposes something impossible: a Colossal-class Titan embedded in the Wall itself. Pastor Nick begs Hange to shield it from sunlight, and later, atop the Wall, Hange snaps under his stonewalling and dangles him over the edge, demanding to know what his order has been hiding. Nick invites death rather than talk, and Hange relents just as a messenger arrives with word that changes everything.

The story rewinds twelve hours. At a southern outpost where the suspect 104th recruits are being kept unarmed and under observation, Miche Zacharius scents Titans approaching inside Wall Rose. With no sign of any breach, the soldiers scatter in four directions to evacuate villages, Sasha heading north toward her home ground while Conny, joined by Reiner and Bertholdt, rides for his village of Ragako in the south. Miche stays behind alone to buy time.

He carves through five of the nine Titans, a performance said to be second only to Levi's, and calls for his horse to withdraw. Then a furred, apelike Titan plucks the animal off the ground and hurls it into him with pinpoint accuracy. Knocked from the rooftop and mauled, Miche can only stare as the creature speaks, asking politely about his omni-directional mobility gear. Receiving no answer from the terrified soldier, the Beast Titan confiscates the equipment, releases the surrounding Titans from their standstill, and strolls away while they eat Miche alive.

A living Titan is discovered inside Wall Sina, and the Wall Cult's leadership clearly knows more than it will say. Hange's interrogation of Pastor Nick fails, establishing the church as an obstacle for the arc ahead. Titans appear within Wall Rose with no visible hole, and the alarm reaches Erwin in Stohess as the Scouts mobilize.

Miche detects the incursion, organizes the evacuation ride, and dies buying time: after killing five Titans he is disarmed, studied, and fed to the pack by the Beast Titan, whose speech, intelligence, and interest in human technology mark an enemy unlike any seen before. His last words to Nanaba, that no one is beaten while they keep fighting, echo bitterly through his final moments.

The 26th episode overall and the season 2 premiere, produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G, directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka and written by Yasuko Kobayashi. It draws on the manga chapters Soldiers Dance, The Beast Titan, and Scream, and debuted in Japan on April 1, 2017.

This episode introduces the third opening theme, Opfert eure Herzen!, replacing Die Flügel der Freiheit. Takehito Koyasu voices the Beast Titan in Japanese, with Jason Liebrecht in the English dub, and the lore segment notes that the Wall Titans appear to be formed from crystal like the Female Titan's.