Dodgeball! Titan Junior High School

"What is with this team? An idiot who’s head can’t get around the rules...A girl who stuffs her face in the middle of the game...And our star player who depression is so intense its got an aura! What is going on with this team?!"

- Jean is confused by the state of his team

Dodgeball! Titan Junior High School (闘球！巨人中学校) is the 3rd episode of the 1st season and the 3rd episode overall of the Attack on Titan: Junior High anime, produced by.

Overview
Annie is unable to admit her love of cheeseburgers at lunchtime due to the derision Eren received after admitting to the same thing; due to this, she develops a grudge and vows to defeat him in the next day's dodgeball match. However, when the match rolls around, Eren is late, causing Mikasa to be unable to devote herself to the game. After multiple rounds, only two teams are left: one with Jean, Mikasa, Armin, Sasha, and Conny; the other with Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt, Ymir, and Christa. At the last moment, however, Eren arrives, allowing Mikasa to give the game her all, battling to a tie with Annie while everyone else is eliminated. Annie finally admits the reason for her grudge towards Eren and they make amends, just as Conny finally figures out the rules and gets Annie out.

Afterward, Eren, Mikasa, Annie, and Armin have lunch together, and Mikasa becomes jealous when Eren and Annie start to bond over their mutual love of cheeseburgers.

Summary
Annie opens her lunchbox, revealing a delicious combo of cheeseburgers for lunch. Christa and Ymir approach her, asking about her favorite food. As she is about to state her answer, Annie hears mockery from her classmates about Eren's desire for cheeseburgers, pertaining his favored lunch to be childish. Christa snaps Annie out from her anger dilemma as some of her classmates make their way to her desk, asking Annie the same question. Annie gets cornered. Instead of admitting her love of cheeseburgers, she declares...Mozuku seaweed. Enough for Christa's surprise, noting that Annie has a mature choice when it comes to food. At the same time, Eren arrives with the excitement of tomorrow's dodgeball tournament, discussing it with Armin and Mikasa. Much to Annie's displease, she confronted Eren. Menacing that she will defeat him in the next day's dodgeball tournament, then goes back to her desk. Leaving Eren in the state of confusion.

Jean glances around his team, consisting of Mikasa, Armin, Sasha, Conny, a couple of Franz and Hanna, and Marco. Hopefulness unfolds through Jean as he sets his goal to win in order to get popular among the girls. When Eren's absence is noticed, Armin guesses that he had just overslept. And with that, Jean's goal is doomed. He plans to cover up everything until Eren comes. Over the corner, Keith Sadies overhears the case of Eren's absence. Terrifying, not until Mikasa breaks the terror-stricken beings by reasoning out that Eren went to the bathroom and the commotion is caused by Sasha's fart. Keith tells Sasha she should learn to control herself, as Sasha churns Mikasa demanding for a reason. Mikasa just shoves a bread into her mouth, much to Sasha's delight. As Keith leaves, he remarks that if anyone is caught slacking off, the whole group will be fed off to the Titans. Jean proclaims to the team that no matter what goes, they have to win. The group complies as Annie watches them from afar.

Hannes throws the ball into the air as Marco and an opponent tries to snatch it away. Unluckily for Marco, the opposite team got the attack first. Conny receives the attacker's ball and prepares for a strike. On the other hand, Jean claims that Conny may be stupid, but he is good at sports. At this point, they can try to win the match without Eren in company. Instead, Conny throws it directly into the opponent's grasp, as the enemy acquires possession of the ball and much to Jean's own disappointment. Marco approaches him, asking if he knows how to play dodgeball. Mindlessly from his own thoughts, Conny asks Marco what is dodgeball. Ignoring the ongoing process of the game, the enemy hits Conny and Marco, pulling them out of the game. Marco then proceeds on teaching Conny the mechanics of the game.

As everyone continues on with the match, Armin spots Sasha, slurping from a bowl of ramen. Sasha reasons out that it is better to eat it or else it will get cold and turns into a complete waste. The argument continues up until Armin warns Sasha of an incoming attack. The ball advances to her, but Sasha flawlessly avoids it, with the ramen still on hand. As she consequently dodges the incoming attacks, Armin acknowledges Sasha's focus when it comes to eating. All the while, Jean grumbles about having anyone decent to play in the team, and then Mikasa comes to mind. The opponent launches the ball at Mikasa as Jean boasts that it does not have any chances on landing on her. The ball hits her and Mikasa is down. Armin reasons out to a dumbfounded Jean that whenever Mikasa is away from Eren in a specific long time, her stats decreases to 30% of her full capabilities. Surrounded by a gloomy aura, Mikasa turns into a state of despair, saying lines of how cruel the world is. Jean goes into confusion as to what kind of students this school embody.

Throughout the struggles of the first match, Jean and his team manage to win. Mikasa curls herself up in Armin's futon, muttering words about the world's cruelty, again. Annie's team is playing and whoever wins the match will be the opponent of Jean's group. The first attack hits Christa. Reiner rushes to catch the ball, unfortunately Ymir is on guard. She trips Reiner and claims Christa's safety upon catching the ball herself. Christa thanks her as Ymir proposes to marry her after the match is over. Another attack aims for Annie as Bertholdt comes to block the ball and it flies up into the air. Upon hearing a warning, Annie lunges towards the ball. And in just one strike, she launches it and gets most of the other team's players out. With the teamwork of Annie's team, they sweep the others down, straight to a game over. Shock surges through Jean and his team. Annie calls out to them, asking if Eren has already arrived and affirms that if he does not show up by the time the match starts, Mr. Keith will be notified. Meanwhile, Eren stares at the clock showing five minutes before twelve at noon. He is late.

The school bell rings and lunch time comes. Christa asks Annie about her liking of Mozuku seaweed. She becomes alarmed with the fear of Christa suspecting her to be lying. Instead, Christa offers her the Mozuku from her lunch, as she agrees on taking it. Before Annie takes to notice, her teammates are passing their Mozuku lunches to her. Much to her irritation, she orders them to eat it. In the meantime, as Jean is prepared to be a Titan's meal, Armin then quickly thinks of a plan. Veiled with a wig, Jean pretends to be Eren. Having to say it is a bad idea, Armin insists as Mikasa will interpret him as Eren himself. Beaming with optimism that they will get through the whole match, until Mikasa denies Eren's presence. Annie and her team arrive, asking if Eren has come already. Sasha pushes Jean pertaining him to be Eren as Annie speculates him by asking his favorite lunch. Jean and his team are in the middle of being caught until, all of a sudden...Eren arrives. Apologizing that he overslept. Mikasa rushes to him, yanking his cheeks apart, warning that being late is not a good habit. Annie pledges to destroy Eren with all her might and the final game begins.

The battle engaged between Annie, hurling the ball; Eren, seizing the attack with his face; and Mikasa trying to keep Eren safe. Out of the blue, the ball hits Jean and Hannes. As the match nears the finale, Eren, Mikasa, and Annie are the ones left. With a battered face, Eren picks up the ball and swears to end the game with the attack. The ball comes speeding onto Annie. She strikes the ball with a powerful kick as it travels back, hustling Eren from his feet. Amazement embodies Eren with Annie proclaiming that she can teach him the technique. Mikasa reappears with the ball in hand, asking Annie if she could teach her, too. Jean and the others start to bet food on whoever wins. Mikasa storms her way to Annie. She charges the ball and Annie prepares for a smash, out of nowhere, Eren gets up. With a single strike, he is sandwiched between the ball and Annie's foot, too much force sends Eren flying into the air; only to land on his back. Eren goes back to his senses, asking Annie the reason behind her hatred of him. Annie retells the derision Eren caused in the opening ceremony because of his desire for cheeseburgers, which earned him a lot of ridicule, making her unable to admit her love of the food. Everyone is shocked onto how shallow Annie's reasons are but Eren innocently acknowledges it. He offers a hand apologizing to Annie as they make amends to confess their liking on cheeseburgers. The students applaud as to what it seems a forming friendship between the rivals has set. But then out of nowhere, the ball lands on Annie's head much to everybody's confusion. It appears from the corner that Conny finally understands the rules of dodgeball. Annie is out and the game ends.

Mikasa, Armin, and Eren are about to have lunch, when Eren clumsily drops his only cheeseburger. As he is about to pick it up, Annie appears proclaiming the rule of germ contact onto the food, asking permission to join the trio for lunch. Eren welcomes her to join as Annie offers a cheeseburger to him. Mikasa senses a forming closeness between the two, causing her to nudge a fish into Eren's mouth, when he asks for another cheeseburger. As Annie makes an offer, at the same time Mikasa shoves food into Eren, making him feel like he is being treated like a child. Armin quotes that they may end up in a love triangle and smiles at the thought.

Parodies

 * Keith hearing Eren's absence while Mikasa reported the incident to him because Sasha farted which Mikasa shoved a bread in her mouth to silence her is similar to a scene in Episode 3 of the main anime after Jean and Eren confronted after dinner.
 * Mikasa confronting Annie using the combat pose in a game of dodgeball mirrors Episode 32 of the main anime itself in a cadet training camp.
 * During a scene when Annie offered Eren another cheeseburger, Mikasa forced fed Eren some fish is similar to Episode 2 when Mikasa shoved the bread on Eren's mouth after recalling that a Titan ate his mother before.

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