The Other Side of the Sea

In the year 854, the Mid-East Allied Forces and Marley are grinding through the fourth year of a war ignited by Marley's humiliation in Shiganshina. Everything hinges on Fort Slava. Among the Eldian troops thrown at its trenches are the Warrior candidates, children competing to inherit Reiner Braun's Armored Titan. When young Falco Grice is wounded in the open, his brother Colt hauls him back to the line, where Gabi Braun reminds the dazed boy what the battle is really for. Gabi is the presumed favorite, though she insists her scores matter less than her mission to erase the island devils and prove the loyalty of Marley's Eldians.

An armored train carrying anti-Titan artillery pins Marley down; a single 150mm shell can kill even one of the Nine. Commander Magath refuses to gamble Galliard or Pieck against it, and prepares to spend an 800-man Eldian assault instead, until Gabi volunteers a plan. Stripping off her uniform and armband, she approaches the enemy as a harmless child, collapses convincingly, then bombs the track and derails the train. Galliard's Jaw Titan storms in to shield her and Falco, and the offensive begins. Pieck's gun-mounted Cart Titan clears the trenches while an airship releases dozens of captive Eldians over the fort; Zeke's scream converts them mid-fall into Pure Titans that crush and devour the defenders.

Reiner drops in behind them, sick of the sight of yet another wall, and transforms on landing, but a second armored train blows his arm off before he improvises the derailed carriage into a shield and spear. Zeke bombards the enemy fleet with hurled shells, absorbing a naval counter-barrage that Reiner blocks with his own Titan, and sinks the remaining ships. Peace follows, yet the lesson is unmistakable: conventional weapons can now kill Titans, and Marley's need for the Founding Titan has never been greater. In a Marleyan city, a face familiar from Paradis reads a newspaper.

The episode introduces the Warrior candidates Falco, Gabi, Udo, Zofia, and Colt, competing for the Armored Titan, along with Commander Theo Magath. Gabi's undercover perfidy destroys the first armored train and earns Magath's respect. Zeke's spinal-fluid roar turns parachuted Eldian captives into an airborne Titan strike, breaking Fort Slava.

The battle exposes Titan vulnerability: anti-Titan artillery severs the Armored Titan's arm, and only mutual cover lets Reiner and Zeke sink the enemy ships. The Mid-East Allied Forces, their navy gone, sign a peace treaty ending the four-year war, while Marley's leadership registers that its Titan monopoly is depreciating. The final shot plants Jean Kirschtein in Marley, hinting at Paradis operatives already across the sea.

MAPPA takes over production with this episode, the 60th overall and first of the final season, directed by Kaori Makita from a Hiroshi Seko script. It adapts the chapters The Other Side of the Ocean and Marley's Soldiers, airing December 7, 2020 in Japan and January 10, 2021 in the United States. My War debuts as the opening, with Shock closing in partial animation.

An information segment sketches Marley's military dictatorship, rebuilt around seven of the Nine Titans after the Great Titan War and the legend of the hero Helos. Funimation dub broadcasts of this season carried a disclaimer noting the English cast recorded from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.