"MY HERO ACADEMIA" SEASON TWO!

"ATTACK ON TITAN" SEASON TWO!

THEY'RE FINALLY OUT!

At least, that's what my excitement level was initially when I saw the trailers. Now that the shows are actually out, I'm kinda disappointed with them.

The first seasons of these shows were fantastic. "Attack on Titan" broke your heart repeatedly but also made you want to find out if the characters would actually beat the Titans (and you also had several other questions the anime has yet to answer). "My Hero Academia" warmed your heart and made you want to see how the heroes-in-training would develop. Both season finales left you wanting more. Granted, the manga for both these anime are still in progress. If you're like me and couldn't wait to find out what happened next, you found the manga online and caught up within a matter of weeks (or months if you paced yourself or had other things to keep you busy). But the manga isn't as satisfying in the anime in some respects. Some scenes - like the Sports Festival in "MHA" and the fight between the Rogue and Armored Titans in "AOT" - need to be animated. Static panels can't help you capture the full scene as well as animation.

While I'm eager to see both of these and other scenes animated, the hype for both is starting to fade out. I still love both of these shows, but I can't get excited about them anymore.

For one thing, "AOT" Season Two will only have 12 episodes, when Season One had 25. This doesn't make sense since they have enough material to make three seasons, or at least make season two as long as the first, while staying true to the story line. "MHA" Season Two will have more episodes than the first and looks promising, but the first half of the first episode is just a recap of what happened last season. The next two episodes also spend an unnecessary amount of time on backstory within the first few minutes when the developers could've devoted that time to expanding the plot even further in each episode.

As it stands right now, it's hard to be fully satisfied with either anime because of these issues, and I'm sure you have your own complaints.

Unfortunately, if companies know that people are going to watch a show or movie based on the franchise's popularity, they tend to do whatever they want, even if they ruin it in the process (*cough cough* "Batman vs. Superman," "Suicide Squad," "The Killing Joke," etc.). They still make money or increase their ratings, but fans are left disappointed and frustrated.

For the time being, we can only hope that "AOT" will get more episodes (without a three-year wait in between) and that "MHA" will have a full episode without needless filler. Sadly, until companies start giving fans exactly what they want, or at least provide substantial material that would help increase the franchise's popularity even more, we're kinda stuck with this.