Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season 進撃の巨人 The Final Season

2021 winter | Episodes: 16 | Score: 8.8 (1402601)

Updated every Mondays at 00:10 | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Streaming: Crunchyroll | Netflix

Synopsis

Gabi Braun and Falco Grice have been training their entire lives to inherit one of the seven Titans under Marley's control and aid their nation in eradicating the Eldians on Paradis. However, just as all seems well for the two cadets, their peace is suddenly shaken by the arrival of Eren Yeager and the remaining members of the Survey Corps. Having finally reached the Yeager family basement and learned about the dark history surrounding the Titans, the Survey Corps has at long last found the answer they so desperately fought to uncover. With the truth now in their hands, the group set out for the world beyond the walls. In Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season, two utterly different worlds collide as each party pursues its own agenda in the long-awaited conclusion to Paradis' fight for freedom. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Voice Actors

Ishikawa, Yui

Inoue, Marina

Kaji, Yuuki

News

Reviews

DISKOWN
07/07/2024, 08:05 PM
Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 1 represents a significant low point for the series. The persistent issue of low-quality CGI, which has plagued the show since its inception, is more pronounced than ever, remaining visually unappealing and disappointing given the series' stature. The dynamic action sequences that defined the previous season have been notably stripped down, diminishing their impact. Critical plot points are often conveyed through flashbacks, disrupting the season's pacing and coherence. Following the time skip, character motivations undergo drastic changes that are inadequately explained within the season. The captivating sense of mystery and intrigue that characterized earlier seasons is conspicuously absent, replaced bya less compelling focus on political intrigue that fails to engage. Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 1 falls short of expectations. It presents disappointments across several fronts. While it briefly touches upon themes of sacrifice and the ethical implications of warfare, highlighting how individuals can be dehumanized and transformed into 'monsters' through the cycle of violence, the overall experience leaves one questioning the series' future direction and whether it merits continued investment.
Erenmid100
05/24/2024, 05:25 AM
THE DEFINITION OF "GOOD BECUSE IT'S FAMOUS" The most ovverated piece of fiction of all time. Ok , being bored is subjective so I wiil not use that argument. 1. MC development is approsimative, he makes no sense choice. 2.Nothing original(titans aren't original) 3 dimensional movment isn't original too Spider-man said something? 3.conclusion is a literally copypaste of Code geass 4. Eren's idology start well then go ⬇️ 5. Eren writing is the biggest problem in the anime it's funny how many side characters in Aot are written better than him. 6.Only good thing what I can say are animation of s1/s2, in s4 i never seen a CGI worse than that.7.dynamic are totally random ------ I don't get how people like this garbage. I rate 1 just bc u can't rate below but my real rate is 0. Drinking lava or rewatch Aot? I choose Lava. Ps(sorry for grammar Eng isn't my lenguage)
SupremeSyncLord
12/16/2023, 05:08 PM
To me, aot ended at the last episode of season 3. After that point, it just wasn’t attack on titan anymore. Let me start by getting something straight. The plot for this season was not bad. In fact, it was actually good. However, the transition from season 3 to final season took away most of what I loved about aot. Most of the things I loved about aot was the whole tone, with people dying left and right, and humanity fighting a losing battle against titans. I also enjoyed the reveals of when a trusted ally was actually a titan all along. It’s these momentsthat I enjoy of aot, as well as the hype. Another problem might have been the fact that season 3 part 2 was the peak of the show. The problem when a show has their peak a lot earlier than the end of the show is that everything after that peak just seems so stale. Everything that came after s3p2 felt like it didn’t hit as hard as it, and wasn’t a proper successor. I couldn’t help but compare every episode to those pure hype and emotional and mind blowing moments from s3p2. Which is why I think that if aot would have ended there, I might have liked this anime a lot more. Now ik that a lot of things were unresolved at the end of s3p2, but if the story was written differently, the anime definitely could have ended when they saw the ocean for the first time. As I said, this season had a good plot, but just because it had a good plot doesn’t mean I found it entertaining. The amount of politics felt like a bit too much, and the whole Marley arc felt pretty dumb to me. The entire theme of the show changed, which put me off. Now, I might have liked this season if everything that came before it didn’t exist. I went into the season preset in my mind everything I like about aot, and none of that was present here. I enjoy different shows for different things. If a traumatizing anime like re zero were to turn into a comedy, I wouldn’t like it. I’m not saying I don’t like comedy, but I just don’t enjoy it in a show like re zero. Same thing here for aot. I enjoyed them fighting titans and the big reveals and that pure hype, none of which was present here. There were a few episodes that were actually good, which prevented me from rating this season lower. When I think of aot, I think of s1-3, because I know for a fact that this is not aot.
Graine
10/22/2021, 07:14 AM
SPOILERS for Attack on Titan seasons 1-3 (and Claymore, for comparison's sake)! I can see that many of the negative reviews for AOT season 4 are awfully nitpicky. I'm not gonna engage in nitpicking and I am not going to latch on to the show's plot holes either. I feel like there are broader and more important elements for me to critique than the minute details. If stuff like the physics of the 3D Maneuver Gear bother you, I don't know how you made it this far with the show. What happened to Attack on Titan reminds me a lot of what happened to Claymore (manga) manyyears ago. The entire setting you knew, the one you thought you should care about, turns out to be just a small island in a larger world. A fly in an evil empire's militaristic soup. The monsters that you remember once sending shivers down your spine are revealed to be just weapons of war - things that can be created and even controlled. The lens, through which you observe the story, is now zoomed so far out, that all the struggles, drama and horror you went through with the show's characters before, now seems terribly small and insignificant. But. Claymore at least had the decency to brush aside it's awful attempt at a shocking plot twist after it didn't really land for anybody. It wrapped up the story in the confines of the setting it had already established. The damage had been done and the twist had made everything worse, but at least it remained a concise story. Attack on Titan on the other hand doubles down on it's twist hard. While I kinda want to commend it for sticking to it's guns, the fact is that this is not even the same story anymore. This is an entirely new setting with new stakes and rules. Even new cast, really. There are enough new characters that get introduced during season 4 to fill up the entire character roster of an average anime series. I got nothing against expanding the scope of a series. It can keep things fresh and interesting. But this isn't expanding. There is a difference between expanding and just throwing the original premise in the trash. Ever since season 1 ended, almost every new detail we have learned about the world has made the once cool and compelling setting less and less interesting. Was the Colossal Titan something that caught your attention back in the day? Thought it was menacing? In the endless cycle of the series trying to one-up itself, not only have we already seen bigger titans, but now we hear that there are literal millions of Colossal Titans. Millions. Did you happen to enjoy the main characters' struggle in the cool walled-off world of fascism, cruelty and cover-ups? Too bad. You were just watching bunch of recluses on an island - a society, held together by memory altering magic powers. Thought the silent terror of the unintelligent, man-eating titans was really horrific? Did you get invested in the fight against them? They are just killed off-screen. All of them. The great threat to mankind done and dusted, without so much as a montage sequence to commemorate the oocasion. We still get the transforming super titans... But those turn out to be nothing more than glorified mecha suits by the end. In a way, it's actually worse than just having mecha suits, because at least a vehicle could be lost or irreparably broken, so there might be some tension related to losing one. But with the titans, you can just keep conjuring them up as long as the "pilot" stays alive. Here, there are no lasting physical consequences to either the pilot or the vehicle outside of death. Let's talk about the utilization of Eren in this. I don't know if it was the call of the writer(s), the director or the voice actor, but being "jaded" is translated to being "boring and monotone". No matter what you thought about Eren as a character in the previous seasons, it was actually kinda fun seeing him get agitated - spitting out (often hollow) threats and making bold claims. Screaming in rage or in terror. Crying his eyes out. Whether you thought he was oblivious, stupid or annoying, the character had some energy to him. Almost every single line of Eren, as delivered during season 4, sounds like he is one second away from falling asleep. You might call it character development - I call it yet another thing ruined. Not all development is good development and a stagnant character is better than a boring, passionless edgelord. I think I can just barely swallow the shift in Eren's morality, but not in his behavior. As a direction to take Eren towards, this could have worked, but it's pushed way too far. The most frustrating thing about Season 4 is that, in a vacuum, there are still some neat things going on. The presentation is still more than fine and some of the dramatic peaks were undeniably effective and decently set up. There are even some deeper themes being explored than what we are used to in the show's previous seasons. As a detached, individual anime story, this could have been all right. But because this exists in the Attack on Titan "universe", it is hard for me to pay attention to anything that is going on beyond a once-so-awesome series that has systematically driven itself into the ground.
SEJEEDZ
09/16/2021, 04:42 AM
What was a good mindless action packed show surrounded by mystery and a sense of dread regarding the unknown evolved into a complete convoluted mess of increasingly confusing proportions. I feel like I wasted my time trying to find something interesting in what turned out to be the author's desperation to piece things together while trying to keep up with the series' hype and popularity rather than trying to tell a good story. Although one thing did remain consistent, and it was the excessive use of convenient plot twists to turn the story however which way desirable. This makes it painfully obvious each and everytime it occurs that the writer does not have any foresight on how to progress the story and is making it up as he goes along based on the feedback he receives from the series' fanbase.
slime3000fly
04/09/2021, 08:41 AM
Seasons from 1 to 3 were one of the best anime i have ever watched. I had highs hopes, that final season will be better or as good as the previous seasons. However after watch all 16 episodes i have to say that it was a big disappointment. This season can be a separate anime. There aren't any significant between season 4 and the previous one. You meet old characters but they behave completely different than they used to and we don't know why. New characters are boring. They have one feature and that's all, they doesn't change at all during the whole season. Ontop of that every hero behave very stupid and only stupidity push plot forward. When it comes to animation is ok but nothing more. In season 1-3 animation was masterpiece and one of the reason why Attack on titan was so popular. It provides a lot of enjoyment to watch like characters fight, everting looked like a dream. Nevertheless the biggest problem of this season is story. Plot is just far-fetched, problems that appears beacasue of stupid characters, perfect timing of every action and some magic story armor for some of the heroes. In the past due to story we had fights, now due to fights we have story. To sum it up i can only say that big expectacions met big disapoinmened.
BruZZo
04/07/2021, 10:46 AM
Attack on Titan: The Final Season is at best a step down for the series, and is at worst an insult to the first 3 seasons and all the care that was taken to realize this story's potential. Little bit of backstory here. When I decided to rewatch the series during this summer I had expected to not be impressed and simply feel completely vindicated in my sleeping on this huge titan of a show. I ended up watching all of it in one day, and even a hateful spiteful bastard such as myself who will let his intitial preconceptions taint my view ofanything had to swallow my pride and admit that seasons 1 - 3 of Attack on Titan, while certainly having its downsides, is a beautiful piece of work with ample amounts of directorial flair, gorgeous visuals, engaging characters, and a plot that kept my eyes glued to the screen from beginning to end. Attack on Titan: The Final Season is not what I wanted, and I have a hard time believing that this is what anyone wanted. Make no mistake- this is not just a visual downgrade from WIT Studio, this is an ugly, ugly show taken on its own merits disregarding the seasons that came before it. It honestly has taken me for a loop the fact that more people aren't seething that this is what Attack on Titan has come to. The character artwork is static and completely devoid of any kind of intensity of emotion. In an attempt to make the show more manga-accurate, we now have scenes of intense drama where it is difficult to ascertain the feelings of the characters and just how the events are affecting them on an emotional level. Their eyebrows move very little, their eyes appear glazed over, and the heavy shadows over their facial features, something that should be reserved for an intense emotion, are just there all the time and make every character look completely stone-faced and bored. Character designs are homogenized, with little in the way of proportions or features that could inform us about their character, and the way they move is stiff and lifeless. The animation itself is where a lot of the bigger issues come to rise. People who tolerate the CGI in this season seem to misunderstand where it is the issues lie when it comes to this stuff. The CGI looks bad because there is a heavy visual disconnect between the humans and surroundings and the CGI of the titans. The momentum of the fight scenes is floaty, the textures are abnormally smooth and don't retain the same shading that the rest of the show does, and they move so quickly and appear so weightless that you'd be forgiven for forgetting that they're supposed to be giant huge monsters. When it's used on human characters, for sequences like the 3D Maneuver Gear scenes, it looks even worse. All of the intensity of motion and exhilarating action from the previous seasons has been reduced to someone clicking on a stiff 3D model of a character and swinging it around with reckless abandon. Episode 5 or 6, where it's the huge fight and Eren finally gets ready to fuck shit up, is the absolute worst offender of everything I've just said. A mockery of a fight scene that is so incomprehensible and poorly staged that I almost dropped the show right then and there. As a result of the poor visual presentation of the show, the story suffers as well. The boring direction and shot flow only serves to amplify the series' needless complexity, with all this founding titan and curse of Ymir and Marley and all this other shit that amounts to nothing. Nothing about all these different titan powers serves to heighten the emotion of the story, nothing about the Ackermans being this special race serves any purpose to add something truly substantive to the story, and so on. The story fails to land due to poor handling and long, essay-like episode scripts that only bore the viewer with an endless onslaught of information that goes nowhere in the end. Attack on Titan's visual direction was the hook that got people invested in the story, and now that there's no hook, the story falters. Put it this way: Anime is a visual medium. The visuals of your show matter as much as your story does. You can make whatever story you want, with whatever masterful subversions and deep characters your brain can muster, but if the visual component is lackluster and fails to sell the viewer on the ideas being put forth, I would consider that a failure from a production standpoint, which is where the heart of my discontent with this season lies. Attack on Titan, a show that has been renowned for it's INCREDIBLE visual direction, a show that has made big emotional moments hit so much harder and leave a lasting impression on you, has been reduced to a great studio fundamentally mishandling the visual aspect of this show. I'm sure Mappa tried their hardest and did what they could given the time frame, but what we have is still what we have. this is the Attack on Titan: The Final Season that we are going to get, and there are no do-overs. This is the legacy of this show now. Anime, similarly to TV and film, is a medium that fuses its many different aspects together with each other to create something beautiful; a gorgeous dance between sound, visuals, and storytelling that come together to create a truly resonant piece of work. I am speaking as someone whose life has been changed by the media I've consumed, whose understanding of the world has been deepened through the great works of art that I have enjoyed. Art, in all its forms, is as necessary to the human condition as breathing. As humans we seek to be understood, to express ourselves. At a fundamental level, art is an extension of ourselves and what we feel, and is a beautiful way to funnel our creativity and emotions into something that other people can latch onto and feel the emotions of the creator through their work. Despite my preconceptions on the series, please know that it doesn't bring me any joy or happiness to see a truly resonant work of art be reduced to this. To have, what was most likely going to be an incredible story, given such a rushed adaptation. Perhaps if I had been more invested in the first 3 seasons I'd find something more to like about this season, but to me this show's flaws are abhorrently obvious and apparently that's a hot take of some kind. I try not to cast aspersions towards anyone's intent for liking a show, but the fact that this season, with it's flaws so brazen, has rocketed up the ranks on MAL's top 50 is a testament to the brainless, idiotic hype culture that has surrounded this show for years now. Calm and honest critiques on the show's quality are thrown to the wind in favor of vague, generalized statements on how this show is a masterpiece, and only serves to stain the legacy of this show by showing how reactionary and impulsive this community really is. TL;DR Unengaging, unimpressive, and unsatisfying. Ladies and gentlemen, Attack on Titan: the defining masterpiece of our era.
ten-gen_simp
03/31/2021, 09:53 AM
I finally got round to catching up to this anime after the part finished, and let me say it was disappointing. the characters are mediocre at best but i cant get emotionally attached to a women who hasn't done anything since season 2 (Sasha) Gabi on the other hand is the most well written character in S4 and you can care for a 12 year old girl only doing what she was told do, also all her friends DIE in front of her and grown ass men want to beat her up think of someone else's point of view for once in there lives I wasreally hoping the levi would die in that explosion with that stupid fucking monkey, he only in the series to show the "TrAgIc FiGhTiNg BaCkStOrY" to the audience his fighting style is to become a Beyblade Reiner has more plot amour than goku on steroids, he should of died like 8 times he is so trash he has amour then get it punched off of him immediately it is literally cardboard man-kasa the worst tom boy of the 21st century she isn't even hot she simps over eren like 40 yr old hogs that watch this show simp over v-tubers eren is the single most annoying person in this dumpster fire of a show he is so replaceable it isn't even funny there nothing special about his goofy ass the fandom is even worse than the show. there isn't even a point to be so angry that a good studio had to animate this trash show i'm surprised they even decided to animate this god awful show, how dose it feel that you get angry at hard working people drawing day after day to then serve you beautifully presented shit on a plate overall a 3/10 the fandom, the plot, the characters and every thing else is just so bad. this is overrated as all fuck
MrRohling
03/30/2021, 04:31 PM
Look how they massacred my boy Everything got worse in this season. I'm just really sad with happened with this anime. You can barrely notice that the music is there. It's absolutelly meh. The animation is awful. It seems that the dialogue scenes received more attention than the fights. The story got worse but it's bearable at least. The worst part is the pace of the anime, it's almost frozen, nothing happens on the epsodes. My gf sometimes couln't watch and I was able to condense everything that happened in 1 or 2 sentences. There is nothing more to say about this, so here goes MAL rules
mike1412
03/29/2021, 12:58 AM
(I apologize in advance for my poor English)This season of AOT was really overhyped by the fandom and any criticism of it just means that people say you are too dumb to understand it OR "you should be grateful for what you have got ". Animation - Hands down the worst it has been in the 4 seasons of AOT. Very choppy animation at some places (for example the forest fight), along with hideous CGI for ALL the titan shifters this time, the camera angles and the editing all feels so amateur and like it is done with no passion at all. Still frames formost of the dialogue scenes with that boring brown filter ... I thought we were done with that. If you look at the various shots and camera angles that WIT gave us, along with the audiovisuals they were absolutely stunning, but MAPPA is just a step-down. And it's not that they can't do it, just look at the CGI of dorohedoro and the animation of jujutsu kaizen. The war hammer titan fight was an absolute joke, I was laughing my ass off during the fight. They hyped us up with the trailer only to completely under deliver. I will definitely not be trusting the trailer of S4 part 2. Soundtrack- Soundtracks have always been one of the strongest areas of AOT, but this season the same soundtrack that was revealed in the S4 trailer is SPAMMED FOR EVERY SINGLE ACTION SCENE (maybe with a few small changes ). It feels really weird and lazy. Not only did MAPPA come up with no new tracks for this season but they don't even use the full arsenal available from previous seasons. K21 during the forest fight and the piano soundtrack before the war declaration were the only fitting soundtrack moments this season. Kohta Yamamoto and Hiroyuki Sawanos partnership obviously didn't work out this time. Character- In this season we are introduced to many new characters who are basically like mirror images of the ones we knew from Seasons 1 to 3.Gabi especially is supposed to be like a younger Eren hotheaded, brainwashed and ANNOYING. I understand the intention from Isayama but it all feels very heavy-handed and not subtle at all. Characters are now just info-dumping machines and have a grim face 24/7 (Eren I am talking about you ). Zeke is supposed to be the smartest character in the AOT universe but the number of times he has gotten his ass handed to him by an amathophobic Beyblade (ya I think Levi is really an average character) now is ridiculous. The author has obviously dumbed down a LOT of the characters for certain others to take the spotlight. Mikasa has to be one of the worst female characters I have ever seen. She is like a pokemon whose only cry is "Ereh". After 3 seasons I still know nothing about her character. Historia is now just sidelined and her only job left in the story is to give birth. Annie is irrelevant, still in that crystal just waiting for the final battle so she can make a comeback. Reiner is the only redeeming character in this mess, his development and perspective that we get to see from both sides are brilliant although the plot armour Isayama has given him is pretty ridiculous. All in all the bland new characters we are introduced to along with a drastic change of the ones we already knew without really seeing much of it doesn't make me very happy. Story- I never really like the barebones politics in AOT. The story just feels like a mash of Norse mythology, Nazi-Jew racism, code geass(you'll know what I mean), Gender Blue etc. The world-building is so shallow. 3/4 seasons we spend on an island that we are made to believe is the only part of the world with life and after the basement reveal everything changes so drastically that I am sure anime-only watchers must have found it jarring. TBH I don't even care about the rest of this "world". Isayama must have a good story in his mind but the way that it is told in this convoluted mess is not fun to watch at all. The flashbacks have also increased tenfold in this season. The biggest problem I have with AOT is the concept of PATHS. Every single asspull is conveniently explained away using PATHS. This gets worse and worse as the story progresses. Eren is the GOD of this world now with the attack titan, war hammer titan and founding titan and there is absolutely no sense of danger at all. The only way he can be beaten is if he does something stupid himself since he already knows how everything is going to end. I just want to ask Isayama - how many more times will we see Eren vs Reiner, with Eren beating his ass and then Reiner being saved by plot armour ?? But one thing I have to give Isayama credit for is the foreshadowing . Enjoyment / Overall - Considering all the other mediocre anime this season, I thought AOT would be a ray of hope but the obvious step down in animation and soundtrack, along with the completely different cast of bland characters, info-dumping and flashbacks galore - it felt like i was reading a boring history book and finished it just for the sake of it. This anime doesn't deserve to be #1 on MAL. Season 3 part 2 was better in almost every single aspect - animation, soundtrack, character moments, dialogue, story etc
Valinis
03/29/2021, 12:56 AM
Oh boy. Possibly the most over-rated series this season by a long shot. As someone who has enjoyed the Shingeki series quite a bit I was so disappointed by this final season, and I really don't understand why it's receiving such raving reviews. #2 of all time? Really? It's going to be a sad day when this inevitably overtakes FMA Brotherhood in the #1 spot that's for sure. Where to begin... there's so many things I dislike about this season. The majority of this season follows the story of side characters we've never seen before and honestly don't care about at all. Most them are extremely one-dimensionaland very dislikeable with few redeeming qualities. What little screen time the main characters get is super underwhelming and none of them are even remotely the same people from the previous seasons. This season may as well have been a totally separate cast from a different point in time. The story is a mess and really uninteresting. The exciting action between humans and titans is basically non-existent and is replaced by boring politics. Perhaps reading the manga makes the story good, but if your anime requires the viewer to go out of their way to do extra research on the side then honestly it's just bad writing. The art is pretty bad in comparison to the previous season. This is largely due to a different studio handling this final season. Shingeki already suffered terribly from character individuality and MAPPA really haven't done a good job making characters unique. Everyone has the exact same face. The sound is fine I suppose. The theme songs suck though. All in all very disappointing. Give it a watch so you can add it to your list but it's far from the masterpiece the fans are making it out to be.
kairyu_gen1
03/28/2021, 06:58 PM
I'm just going to say it: This season sucked. I'm not some AoT hater, while the series has had its bumps, I've given every previous season a positive score. I like Attack on Titan, but the hype for this extremely flawed "final" season is absolutely ridiculous. Let's start with the most pervasive problem; this show just isn't fun to watch. The dialog is awkward, the characters shout all the time when it's just not necessary at all, and they beat you over your head with their themes so hard it genuinely made it hard for me to even keep watching at times. Plus there are moments theart shows a character making a reaction face that's just...ugly. Not in a cool, horrifying way that communicates the tone of the scene, in a gross, "I don't even want to look at this" kind of way. Now, if you read my reviews of previous seasons, you'll notice all of these things existed in the series prior to this point. Those seasons made up for it with bombastic action scenes and powerful character moments. This season...doesn't. Okay, that's not completely true, Reiner got fleshed out a bit and it was pretty good, but that's literally it. The action was a major step down from previous seasons, the returning characters all get shoved to the background until the end, and the new characters...oh man do they suck. So if the things that made previous seasons great are missing, surely they replace it with something equally engaging, right? Right? No. We spend a ridiculous amount of time with two brand new characters, Gabi, who is somehow a less interesting and nuanced version of Erin McYells-A-Lot from season 1, and Falco, who's somehow a less interesting and nuanced version of Reiner. To be fair, I actually like what they're trying to do with these two, demonstrate how hate and war are a cycle that will continue from generation to generation...unless individuals each choose the hard path to not seek revenge and stop the violence. This is actually beautifully demonstrated when a father chooses not to kill the soldier who murdered his daughter in order to set a good example for his other children. It is then immediately ruined when one of his children immediately tries to exact revenge themselves, rendering his noble action meaningless. Gabi and Falco are equally confusing, you can make the case Gabi is only the way she is because of the environment she was raised in, but Falco was raised in the same environment and came out completely different, so she really doesn't have an excuse, she just sucks as a human being. Is that the point the series? Some people just suck? I guess that's a valid idea, but is it an entertaining one? No. And this is all just the surface level stuff I've been complaining about. The more you think about this season, the more it falls apart. Like how the 5 year time skip, and subsequent radical changes in personality, robs us of any connection we had to these characters, or how, at the end of the day, this whole season was almost completely pointless because they're still in the exact same situation they were in at the end of last season, except now the main character is an unlikable douchebag. So...if this season isn't fun to watch on a superficial level, and it's not engaging on a deeper level, what's good about it exactly? I genuinely can't tell.
Hbarca
03/28/2021, 01:03 PM
Welcome to the final season of Attack on Titan, except it isn't the final season there will be one final "final season" in 2022. So welcome to the panultimate season of Attack on Titan that they for some reason call the final season. A more fitting name might be "The exposition season" since that is mostly what happens in this one a lot of exposition, new characters and the background for said characters. In between the exposition there's titan drama and fight scenes which look great as the story slowly builds up to the cliffhanger to the final final season. Even though it is slow paced mostof the time, due to the new character introductions and the fact that there is a few years time jump from the last season to this one, I don't feel it ever gets right out boring. This is mostly due to the investment I allready have in the story, the beautiful art and well animated fight scenes. However as it trot along and it became clear that this in fact was NOT the final season the sens of it simply beeing required reading grew. Attack on Titan is still a solid show and I believe the final final season can be a 10/10, but this season left me slightly disappointed.
Mamiya-Takuji
03/28/2021, 08:52 AM
Attack on Titan: The Final Season is an ambitious project. Here we have the culmination of years worth of meticulous planning, foreshadowing and build-up. The narrative apex of what started out as a fairly straightforward survival story, now an intricate weaving of political drama, social commentary and grandiose action setpieces, with the best yet to come. To pull off a story of such epic scale on animation is not an easy task. Adaptations of the sort often struggle with several difficulties even getting off the ground, let alone actually doing justice to the source material. AOT has been blessed in this regard by an adaptationthat while not the most technically accomplished or smooth in terms of production, has remained consistently great thanks to its commitment to a strong artistic vision, incredible soundtrack and a genuine attempt at adhering to and properly conveying the events of its source material as well as it can. Not only did it do the manga justice, it often elevated scenes to another level thanks to the sheer strenght of its presentation. Shingeki fans are luckier than most. Momentum seemed to be in AOT's favor as we entered the most hyped up season of the show since its heyday back in season 1. Many fans were worried about the studio change at first, but also optimistic when it was revealed that MAPPA would be Wit’s replacement. 16 episodes later, I can confidently say that we got another strong adaptation on our hands, but not one without compromises or a fair share of vocal detractors and controversies. With a change of creative leads comes a different vision, so even if this season was produced under ideal circumstances, which it definitively was not, the difference in flair alone would’ve been enough to divide opinions. So in order to understand the full breadth of the situation, I will attempt to assess the oft-discussed schism between MAPPA and Wit, how their approaches differ, and then give my own thoughts on this season as a whole. As such, we need to first contextualize the circumstances surrounding the final season. ==THE PRODUCTION== AOT S1 was an effort of showmanship by then newcomer Wit Studio. Director Tetsuro Araki of Death Note fame, coming fresh off the heels of Highschool of the Dead and Guilty Crown, sought to form a team that would be up to the task of delivering the most bombastic and impressive action show they could make. From the gound up, it was meant to be Wit’s bold proclamation to the anime industry and fans around the world: we’re here and this is what we can do. Numerous as their production issues would end up being, and the staff nearly did almost collapse under the workload, they undeniably delivered a final product that all parties involved could be proud of. Season 4, on the other hand, is a bit of a different beast on a conceptual and philosophical level. It’s no industry secret that it had to deal with a tumultuous schedule. The team was hastily put together by getting everyone who was available at the time, which is the reason this season was particularly low on star animators and action directors when compared to previous outings. Not by the fault of director Yuuichirou Hayashi either, who’s just as capable at his job as Araki, but simply because the cimrcunstances surrounding the production wouldn’t allow for anything better. Rather than a showcase of the team’s full capabilities or a passion project, this was more about finishing off the job of another studio while trying to please the fans. I don’t mean this as a knock on the team at all, one can only imagine how daunting the pressure must’ve been, but it’s important to point out these distinctions. The fact that the final product turned out as good as it did, warts and all, is nothing short of a testament to the staff's incredible ability of making the best out of an awful situation. Nevertheless, the cracks do show and they only become more apparent the further we get into the final season. To take over the work of an accomplished team is a difficult proposition in itself, even moreso when said work is already extremely difficult to translate to an animated medium *and* has a history of hellish production cycles. To do so under turbulent circumstances, while needing to start from scratch, was bound to cause controversies. Though impressively enough, things started out pretty well for S4. There were the usual complaints about CGI and cut content here and there, but for the most part people seemed excited. That wouldn’t last when we got the first batch of episodes to “not live up” to expectations, resulting in assholes harassing the staff at social media. Sometimes even directors and animators who had nothing to do with the episodes said assholes had a gripe with in the first place. It was an embarassing situation all around. This eventually led to a state of affairs where fans of the season became perhaps too defensive at any criticism aimed at it while the more vocal detractors used it as an opportunity to lash out at the series in general. Amidst the harassment, the terrible schedule, the hyperbolic negativity masquerading as critique, insane amounts of trolling, and the fans and haters shouting at each other increasingly louder… Well, it became somewhat difficult to discuss this season's shortcomings in a level headed manner. To make matters worse, well intentioned fans pivoted to singing praises to MAPPA (#thankyoumappa trended on twitter) when they shouldn’t have. Praise the hard working staff, absolutely, they deserve it, but don’t validate MAPPA’s recklessness. Hardheaded as AOT's production committee may be, at the end of the day it was MAPPA who decided to take on such a huge project at the expense of their employees' wellbeing. When literally every other studio was sane enough to decline the absurd schedule imposed by Kodansha, even WIT Studio themselves, it was MAPPA who chose to throw their artists under the bus over prestige. It’s not the first time they’ve commited to more projects than they can reasonably handle either. Sure, they couldn’t have predicted the pandemic, but the schedule was already terrible even when not accounting for that. To defend them is to defend the anime industry's worst practices against its creators. Acknowledge their guilt if you want better for everyone involved. As a result, this season was a mixed bag in technical terms. A lot of attention has been drawn to the CGI titans which are, quite frankly, the one aspect the show handled the best. Most of them look very good and are well integrated within the anime’s visual style. They move well during action scenes and are animated in a way so as to mimick 2D movement, implementing techniques like frame skipping. Even the weaker ones like the Beast Titan are still considerably better than WIT Studio's attempts at CGI titans during seasons 2 and 3, which always looked jarring and out of place. This is one of the more frustrating aspects about the anime community: no matter how sensible their implementation or how good they look, people will still shit on 3D animation by the simple virtue that it isn’t 2D animation. What concerns me more is how bad the show can look some of the time. This season just isn’t as aesthetically beautiful as the previous ones, and it does not animate more fluidly to compensate either. There is an overreliance on bloom, chromatic aberration and other postprocessing effects, likely as a crutch to maintain a sense of visual consistency throughout the season. While that works well enough most of the time, it can just as often look like a blurry mess, specially during the latter half of the show. Flashbacks to previous seasons are smeared with effects to mask the shift in art style. Some of the compositing looks ugly. The colors either feel too muted or too overblown depending on the lighting. This is not to say the show can't look beautiful at times, and it does rely on good storyboarding to carry itself, but it never quite reaches the beauty of previous seasons or the full potential hinted at by the pre-release trailer. Some argue that MAPPA handles dialogue better, but aside from some Marley arc episodes the dialogue scenes in the Paradis arc are just as stiff if not more than WIT’s. Finally, the biggest loss of them all come in the form of the ODM gear sequences. These used to be among the most impressive visual displays of seasons past, full of fluid and dynamic camera shots mixing 2D and 3D animation. These are when the action animation directors really got to flex their muscles in their attempts to one-up each other, constantly pushing the envelope of what they were capable of. All of that is gone. ODM scenes now look extremely stiff and don't even attempt to mimick that same feeling of wild momentum. Even Levi, the show's favorite sasuga poster boy, didn't get a trademark jaw-dropping scene during what is likely to be his last big hurrah. Granted, it was always going to be difficult to follow up on Imai. The man wrote the book on how AOT’s action should look like and inspired his co-workers to follow on his footsteps. To match that while having to start your workflow from zero, without any of the specialists who had been building that skillset over the years, is a herculean task. But given more time I’ve no doubt the current staff could’ve done a much better job than what we got. I am sure that the consequences of the show's hurried schedule spread much deeper within the season's DNA than just its technical aspects. Less production time means less time for composing new music, rushed creative decisions, important scenes not receiving the priority they deserve, wonky transitions and pacing not getting corrected, and so on. As a result, S4 feels consistent but rarely exceptional when it comes to delivering memorable moments. While it sometimes elevates the source material, it just as often struggles to not crumble under its weight. It can be argued that MAPPA’s lows aren’t as low as Wit’s, but they never really come close to matching their highs either. ==A DIFFERENT APPROACH== So, all right, the season had exceptionally bad production problems. So what? I hear you asking. Just another day for the survey corps. Season 3 Part 2 had a fucked up schedule too and everyone loved it! This is true, though having a team who is already familiar with the material and has years of experience to fall back on makes all the difference. However, not all can be waved away under the umbrella of “production issues”. This is when we start getting into the more subjective aspects of this analysis that not everyone is going to see eye to eye with. Tetsurou Araki and Yuuchirou Hayashi are fundamentally different directors with their own sets of strengths, so it should be no surprise that their approaches to Attack on Titan are very different. Araki sports a boisterous style through and through, always aiming for bigger, faster and louder. Even in an anime about people writing on goddamn notebooks, he imbues it with such grandiosity and a kinetic energy that you rarely see matched elsewhere. A match made in heaven for Attack on Titan’s larger than life narrative, specially during those first few arcs more reliant on spectacle. It was that energy and confidence that fueled the first three seasons of Attack on Titan and made it such a tour de force that delivered its most iconic moments with gusto. Like his style or not, Araki delivered his scenes with such blaring confidence and pizazz that you couldn’t help but be swept away by his thunderstorm of emotions. Hayashi, on the other hand, takes a more understated approach to this season. I can’t say I am as familiar with the guy’s work so I have no idea if that’s just his signature or not, but it isn’t a bad match for AOT either. With the time-skip marking a significant shift in tone for the story, a more grounded style of presentation works well for the chapters covered here. Many people have described this season as feeling more like a “war movie”, and I can totally see what they mean by that. There’s this grounded grittyness to how Hayashi conveys the world of AOT. I can’t claim to be unbiased here. I loved Wit Studio and Araki’s “voice” for Attack on Titan and I was sad to see them go. It’s hard not to grow attached after so many years. Given the choice, I would pick them to animate S4P2 in a heartbeat. A part of me can’t help but wonder how certain scenes would’ve panned out with them in the driver’s seat. Would the low points be lower, but the highs much higher? Or were those highs impossible to achieve given the circumstances? How much can we chalk up to schedule, and how much to deliberate creative choices? One can only guess. A lot has already been discussed about the changes and when all is said and done it all boils down to preference. I’m not here to tell you how you should feel about either team, nor am I attempting to offer some faux-objectivist breakdown on who is better. I’ve just laid the facts and shared my views on the matter, you’re free to agree or disagree. All that said, Hayashi and his staff have every right to be proud of their work here. Henceforth, I will be judging them entirely on their own achievements from now on. Wit Studio can take a bow, they’ve more than earned it. Be aware that if you’re reading this review prior to watching the season, the next 2 sections will contain spoilers for the arcs they cover. Skip to Final Thoughts if you wish. ==THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OCEAN== The first few episodes of Attack on Titan: The Final Season do a fantastic job at setting the tone for the remainder of the show. More than any of the previous seasons, this feels like a war drama. While Titans are undoubtedly still the engine driving the main conflict, they take a bit of a backseat to the characters and the world they inhabit. Reiner’s character study during these first few episodes is perhaps the strongest character arc this season has to offer as he fills the role of the protagonist. His journey from big bro side character on S1, to antagonist in S2 and 3, to a deeply troubled and conflicted individual in S4 makes him one of the show’s stand-out characters to me. May his plot armor live long after the heat death of the universe, carrying all of our guilt and sins into the eternal void of space. While being significantly more slow paced than we’re used to, these first few episodes do a great job at slowly raising the tension as they progress. We are introduced to a whole new cast, setting and plot developments. The season’s more muted visuals actually work in its favor during this particular section of the story. There’s this foreboding atmosphere permeating every shot, a slow but steep climb of unease that signals something big is about to go off. No other episode encapsulates these feelings better than the first big turning point of the season: Declaration of War. Much has already been said about Declaration of War than I could possibly do justice during a series review. It is a masterful display on how to build tension and pacing, ultimately culminating in one of the AOT’s most defining moments. While I firmly believe the climax could’ve been done much better for multiple reasons (yes, poor ost choice being one of them, but not the only), it still stands as one of the best episodes the series has to offer. Marley’s climax only solidifies its greatness further by following up with The WarHammer Titan and Assault, the latter in particular being one of the series’ best action focused episodes yet, and finally concluding with Assassin’s Bullet, a hell of a gut punch to end this first half of this season. For better or worse, this is also when S4 peaks. ==AND HIS NAME IS...== Paradis comprises the second half of the season and is when the show starts to feel a little less polished. The animation is rougher, there are more stills and you can definitely feel the production starting to take its toll. Luckily enough, this section of the story is mostly focused on dialogue so these issues don’t negatively impact the show as much as they otherwise would. They do, unfortunately, remain noticeable until the end. Eren is the other stand-out character this season and the conflicts in this arc are entirely driven by him. Characters discuss and are motivated to act for or against him. Marley and War For Paradis marks a definitive turning point for his character from a reactive protagonist to an active force of change, an unstoppable agent of freedom. He becomes a fascinating character to watch as you never know exactly what he is thinking or what his true intentions are, arguably transitioning to the role of an anti-hero, villain protagonist or straight up antagonist depending on who you ask. His arc, alongside most other elements set-up during these episodes, unfortunately won’t see any pay-off until part 2 airs, so I won’t go into much detail. The biggest flaw of this arc and what ultimately holds this season back from living up to all it could be is that it ends just as things are about to hit their climax. The finale feels like any other regular episode and is definitely the least fullfilling one we’ve had so far. There is no resolution, just a big cocktease of a “to be continued”. It’s for the better considering the following events could not be done justice under the current schedule, but it still stings. Incomplete as it is, there are still some stand-out moments to be found here, from Gabi’s continued growth as a character leading to the confrontation at the restaurant, to Eren, Armin and Mikasa’s table scene, to Zeke’s flashback episode. YMMV on whether Levi vs Beast Titan round 2 stands among the greats or not as it is when you can most strongly feel the strains of this production with its jerky movements and unpolished feel due to a lack of in-betweens (and it’s not the only scene who suffers from this). I personally think they did a pretty good job all things considered and I’ll defend the use of K21 till my very last breath. ==FINAL THOUGHTS== I watched Attack on Titan back when it first aired in 2013. Episode 1 enraptured me in a way few anime premieres have done before or since. Whilst season 1 ultimately lacked in certain areas I thought were crucial for a story to truly carve its place among the greats, it was still a pretty cool action-horror thrill ride with a novel gimmick that left an impression on me. Maybe “too hyped up”, but frankly who gives a shit as long as you have a good time. I was excited at the prospect of a season 2 and anxiously waited for its announcement. Somewhere along the 4 years it took, I experienced other stories, found new hobbies and was at a completely different headspace than back when that first season aired. My interest had naturally declined and I believed myself to be over such a “basic” series. Season 2 came and went with some amount of fanfare but nowhere near as much as its predecessor, and so it was easy to ignore. Fast-forward to 2019 and I see the latest season of AOT carving its way up to MAL’s top 10. It got me curious but I briefly dismissed it as fanboy fervor. All the while, however, I kept hearing whispers. “Attack on Titan is actually really fucking good right now”, they said. “It’s almost like a completely different show now”, they proclaimed. “They revealed what’s in the basement”. All right, fine. I got curious enough to bite. I read the equivalent of season 1 through the manga in order to refresh my memory, laughed at the wonky art, and then jumped straight to season 2. I enjoyed it a bit more than I thought I would. Perhaps I had underestimated AOT after all. Season 3 had a few weak spots but somewhere along the way I found myself invested in those characters I previously didn’t care about. S3P2 exceeded all my expectations. I was a follower of Ymir once again and quickly switched to the manga. And now, a year and change later, here we are. When it comes down to it, I greatly enjoyed my time with Attack on Titan: The Final Season. It is by no means perfect. Its assortment of flaws are what stops me from giving it a higher score, and I would be lying if I said I’m not at least a bit disappointed at what could’ve been, but by no means does that make what we got bad. I’ve been waiting with bated breath to see some of these chapters adapted and for the most part they delivered. Those “certain areas” in which I thought AOT lacked all the way back in season 1 have been fully addressed at this point. This is the strongest the series has ever been in terms of writing and characters and it hasn’t even peaked yet. Even with everything stacked against them, director Yuuchirou Hayashi and his team stood up to the challenge and delivered something that, while lacking those same singular highs of the past, can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder among its peers. We got another quality adaptation when, by all means, this had all the ingredients of an unmitigated disaster. With the announcement that we’ll be getting part 2 this winter, I remain skeptical about whether this is a healthy schedule to deliver what are going to be by far the most resource intensive, difficult to adapt chapters of the entire show. I really don’t see why the rush to get this out the door when the manga is about to end and the hype is still going. At any case, here’s hoping for the best so we can finish this journey off with a bang. There is no “greatest anime of all time”. Not AOT, not FMA, not LOGH, not S;G, not HxH, not OP, not any of the animes in the entire top 100. There is no single “greatest anything of all time” across any artistic medium for that matter. For all the bickering, screaming and smug elitist posturing of every fanbase who deems themselves worthier than the other, the truth is the entirety of a medium’s richness cannot be properly distilled into a single work. You can have your favorite(s), but to proclaim it the greatest is haughty at best. There will never be a consensus on that, and it would be boring if it did. Even within individual genres there will be plenty of disagreements. What we do have, nonetheless, is a canon of works of exemplary quality whose legacy endures throughout the years. Those are the stories that stand the test of time, the classics, mainstream or cult. As it is, I can say I wholeheartedly believe AOT belongs to that group of exceptional anime. Regardless of how it ends, it has already delivered a narrative with more pathos than most.
prohli
03/28/2021, 08:47 AM
Alright I'll be talking about the final season, the manga and will also be acknowledging other anime like FMAB. First, let me talk about this season. The episodes were insane with the soundtrack, animation and the only drawback was the CG, which was pretty good too. So I'd give it a 9.5/10. Now let me address the manga and the hype around it. I've read every single chapter and it is honestly an incredibly well written piece of fiction with every single piece of the puzzle connecting. The characters are top tier and a few have had amazing development over the years. This season's change in perspectiveand showing that not everything is black or white and is just a spectrum is exceptional. A lot of anime just show the villain being a bad character and might show why they are doing so but not much. Whereas in AOT, you start to question whether the "bad" character is "bad" at all. After S3, I thought how could anyone push beyond this and boy did Isayama show me how. The story of S4 is phenomenal and it just gets better from here. S4P1 isn't even the pieck of AOT. So believe in the hype and just see how this goes, even if you don't like it now. Now, let me address other anime like FMAB. After finishing AOT(my 4th or 5th anime), it became my favorite and a lot of anime could have dethroned it from the #1 spot and I was waiting to see such an anime. I watched Code Geass and it was so good that it came close to being my favorite but I had to put it at #2 because of a few flaws. Then I saw the #1 anime on every anime list, FMAB and it being my 30th-ish anime, I had my expectations low because of all the trashy anime I had seen before it and it had a huge shot at being my favorite. After watching it, I saw why people call it a masterpiece and it was an incredible anime BUT it still wasn't good enough to beat AOT. It had a few flaws here and there, which is not that much because the overall story was phenomenal. But when I compare it to AOT, which I believe to be flawless (or at least having the least amount of flaws I have seen), it couldn't dethrone it. In my eyes, all 3 are masterpieces but AOT has proven itself to be #1 by having 3 of its episodes in the top 10 of IMDb and the only anime series in the top 10. So that was all I wanted to address in the review and again, this season is going to be amazing and I hope people can see why it deserves the top spot. Can't wait for part 2!!! (Btw this is coming from someone who once was not going to see the show, let alone make it his favorite)
SingleH
03/28/2021, 08:42 AM
If your expectation for Attack on Titan is an anime you can watch on a screen and hear with speakers, then this season will do you well, but if your expectations are a well directed, well organized story brought to life with beautiful animation crafted by a passionate team of talented artists and genius creatives, then you will be sorely disappointed, because unlike previous seasons, this production is so hideously ugly, you’d think Attack on Titan wasn’t the defining masterpiece of our era, which it most certainly is. There seems to be this odd and ignorant consensus pervading the fandom which suggests any and all criticismaimed at a poor product is somehow a direct insult to the workers who made it, and this is a shockingly immature worldview to espouse. Let me get one thing straight: you can say whatever you want about WIT Studio falling victim to Kodansha’s unfair and unreasonable production scheduling in the third season just like MAPPA is now, and how that lead to a double split-cour which ultimately wasn’t even enough to assure consistent quality throughout part two, but you must also admit pointing out these things is nothing more than a diversion from the far greater travesty of animation before you now. Attack on Titan: The Not-So-Final Season is a disgrace to the franchise which came before it on every visual level, and to say so is in no way to deride the overworked animation staff at MAPPA. Am I going to sit here and deny the existence of the throngs of rabid keyboard warriors on social media sending them death threats for producing such appalling CG and embarrassing 2D animation? No, but those people are foolish children with too much time on their hands, and by echoing their indisputably warranted criticisms, I and others like me are not justifying their acts of disrespect and harassment, so I urge you not to feel sorry for saying what you see clearly in front of you and criticizing it for what it is: an ugly, cheap anime. After episode six, I officially became a manga reader, since I simply could not let this atrocity be my first experience of Attack on Titan’s brilliant story, and what I found in the manga was absolutely stellar shot composition which I had previously thought was simply a product of Tetsuro Araki’s adaptation. Obviously, Araki’s heart-stopping visual direction and irreplaceable cinematic instinct made the anime adaptation what it ultimately was, but Hajime Isayama’s knack for framing an iconic single image when it mattered most still shouldn’t be overstated when the final season here has neither directorial flow nor memorable cinematics. The new character designs which pride themselves on their close resemblance to the original artwork found in the manga simply cannot use their adherence to the source material as a defense of their janky anatomy and inferiority to the beautiful artwork of Kyoji Asano, and the new music cannot use its passable composition as a defense of its utter incompatibility with Hiroyuki Sawano’s constantly recycled tracks. I understand this is a somewhat particular distinction to be made, but with the sheer amount of blatant animation shortcuts used throughout this season—not even counting the CG—season three part two looks like a studio trying their hardest while grappling with a ridiculous time table, whereas this looks like a studio using a ridiculous time table as an excuse to not try their hardest. But nevertheless, does the masterful writing save the day and make this thing worth watching? With how much is cut out, rearranged, and left unfinished, I would say no, but that doesn’t make it bad. If anything, the narrative has only gotten better and the themes have only gone deeper. With the basement and its contents finally revealed, the series had to occupy the world it so suddenly established and situate the story as we knew it within that world elegantly, and even with the content from the manga which got butchered in translation, it absolutely achieved this feat. As it demystifies Marleyan society and rationalizes the international bigotry towards the Eldian people, it builds the foundation for one of the most interesting and morally provocative conflicts I've yet to see portrayed in fiction, and it does so with complex characters who never fail to inspire emotion, or inspiration itself. While Attack on Titan: The Not-So-Final season is, indeed, not the final season, it’s still an adaptation of a manga, so it continues the story with more or less the same degree of excellence as the first three seasons did, and while it abruptly ends on a cliffhanger mid-arc, that’s more a testament to the fragile production than the source material, its quality of writing, or the acuteness with which said writing was brought to screen. One thing’s for sure, though, narratives as enthralling as this come once in a generation, and it’s a shame this one is receiving such paltry treatment. This review was originally going to be a lot more sentimental than it turned out to be. To cope with the extreme dejection I felt after watching such a dishonorable end to this once-great adaptation of an unequivocal masterpiece, I was going to try and write this review to examine the final season as a standalone work while simultaneously offering an all-encompassing retrospective on the modern classic that is Attack on Titan, but after WIT Studio dropped it and MAPPA shit it back out in such a visually repulsive and structurally incomplete fashion, I accepted the fact I couldn’t really do that anymore, and my enthusiasm burnt out along with the quality of the show itself. I’ve lost my motivation to even mind it anymore, and if the fact this season is among the highest rated anime on MAL didn’t make this obvious enough already, you all don’t seem to mind Attack on Titan anymore either. The reality that such a magnificently made work of art could receive such a stark downgrade yet still be well received by the exact same fanbase solely because they enjoy entertaining the mere idea of it is not only a sad reflection of the culture surrounding the work, but a cruel insult to the first three seasons which were only able to be the dazzling spectacles they were thanks to the back-breaking work ethic and tremendous talent of the original staff who so naively thought their admirable labor and impressive results weren’t lost on the audience, who’s appetite all can now clearly see as being apparently, totally mindless. Thank you for reading.
NextUniverse
03/28/2021, 08:38 AM
(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading) 最後の進撃が始まる。 Attack On Titan. But is it an attack on titans now, or maybe a bigger enemy at hand? I'm sure AOT needs no introduction, it is that one anime that has spammed up everyone's YT recommendations with drip memes, Eren table scene memes, 10 hour fuck Gabi videos and her getting beat up,ｔｈｉｃｃｋａｓａ if you dived that deep into the culture. When the first episode of the final season came out, it was so powerful not even telling my dad for the Crunchyroll to work was possible. When I say this anime is something else in termsof internal and external events, I mean that this anime is something else. God knows when we are getting another community and anime like this ever again. I am glad I was here to experience this bit of the trek with others like myself and beyond. I could go on and on about the moments shared. But I must write a review for now. Narrative: I may sound like a hardcore fanboy, but I am going to explain why I think this is a 10/10 narrative. I would also like to believe that people reading this review are aware of the references I will make to previous seasons. Ok cool. Starting off the final season, we get a bit of insight into the enemies on the other side of the sea. From initial impressions, it can be told that this nation, which uses children in warfare, is clearly lost in morale. And that is the slow building of this new true evil enemy of humanity, Marley. How AOT goes around building this empire of Marley is an interesting one. Marley has qualities of a fascist, imperialistic, tyrannical nation that can be converged to past real-life nations in human history. Those qualities don't just exist for the sake of it too, it is part of the long prejudice against Eldians, in which Marley exploits that to grow themselves and their dominance around the world. It is that which starts a whole chain of events. A serious chain. AOT FS story is focused on the cycle of hate, the consequences it has and the action people want to take due to it. Everything that has ever happened so far in the story from start to end (as of now) the cycle of hate continues to prevail in high life, all the while both sides suffer from nothing but losses. That is where the story really shines, the story plays two events on both sides of the spectrum, one we already know and love, Eren's side, and the other we are made to hate Gabi's side, it does a good job at making us hate Gabi's side of the story too, but when you look into it, who is wrong in this mindless loop of destruction? Both sides have given birth to a nation that seeks to exploit and dominate in an imperialistic fashion, the other gives birth to a literal bakemono, a Monster, the devil himself if you really want to go there. The story does a really good job of making those find more important questions. No one here's truly wrong because, in war, both sides believe in what they are doing to be the just cause of action. Both sides are deluded by their beliefs so much so that there isn't a spec of question as to if they might be ever so slightly wrong in their actions. Everyone becomes a victim of their surroundings. It is a fantastic way to really emphasize this world of AOT. From the start, it is clear that the hate got too many characters to the point of joining the army at a young age and leaders making up false stories for the sake of maintaining status. The world is cruel, and it sure as hell shows it here. Characters are really something else in AOT. I want to first get rid of two characters that I found obviously flawed in the anime. Those two being Mikasa and Armin. In simple terms, the former is still a hardcore simp, the latter is still a hardcore weakling. How they don't change after all these years is beyond me. If Eren's drip game can go from 0 to 100, wouldn't it make sense his childhood friends caught on? But in all seriousness, I never quite understood the purpose of Mikasa and Armin. They are annoying, part of the reason I don't like them too much, but I acknowledge that annoying =/= bad character. The bad qualities of them should I say lie in what purpose they serve to the story as of the Final Season in my opinion. Mikasa has some benefit of the doubt given to her, she is starting to open up that Eren's apparent downfall is not one that wishes the best of him in his future, she even goes out of her way to question whether or not he is doing the right thing, but again, for the sake of the story, she needs to brainlessly be there for Eren even when my boy is committing various war crimes in the former Eldian empire. She was going places but easily lost herself due to a static character within her. Her "development", if you can even call it that, is a stretch in my opinion. She makes no effort to do anything she wouldn't normally do for a nice change in character, especially during these god awful times that both sides have faced. To be fair, Mikasa is supposed to be this life devoting girl to Eren because he saved her, but no development is absurd on quite a few levels, making her less of a believable character. Armin is still the same dude he was from the start, I honestly don't know why he too hasn't changed, actually, it would make sense that having the successor of human's greatest leader would feel like a burden, but all that time to train apparently meant nothing, well okay then. No development here to be pleased of. Now, for the real MVPs. Eren. The dude is one of my favourite characters in the series, and not because he does an edgelord moment, but his change from the start to the end whilst still being consistent is quite satisfying and understandable to view. When Eren said he was gonna kill his enemies, he wasn't playing games. He did everything in his power to make that try and this season shows the beginning of such a change of heart. Gabi. The annoying girl? But is she really? I remember when it was very easy to hate on Eren because of quite a similar personality, I was the same in that boat. Everything she does is justifiable despite being executed in a way to annoy the audience. Past the clouds and she isn't really any different from other characters like Eren. Hate grew on her, and she is fighting for the sake of the people she cares about, sounds a little bit like Eren does it not? Overall, I think Gabi is quite an interesting character, though, unlike Eren, she is portrayed on the wrong side of the story, giving her a different experience than Eren's life, the person she is most similar to. Her character plays out quite well if I am honest, the truth which she faces, later on, the reaction of which makes for a tragic life for Gabi honestly. Great writing overall for her. Reiner. Gigachad hella swagger Reiner drip glow up. In seriousness, Reiner is one of the best characters in the series. He understands a lot more about the world and the harsh reality he has to face due to the brainwashing and control of Marley, he is a victim of the situation. A tragic one after what he has had to face during so. I feel quite bad for the dude but it goes to show like Gabi, he was part of the corrupted system which devalued his life so much that he was lost of everything. Zeke is one I want to get a little into too, later on in the story he plays a big role in everything that goes down, but there is more than meets the eye with Zeke. you being to understand his motives a bit more and why he did the things he does, an intriguing monke, to say the least. AOT uses a lot of explicit themes in the story to give it the acclamation it has, like revenge, hate, dystopia, but one of the more implicit themes to be shared is influence. I have noticed that every character in AOT as a child has been influenced in some way. Eren with his past trauma growing into hatred, Gabi the same without the trauma, more like a duty. Reiner the same, but it is based on duty rather than anything else, Zeke would get into spoilers, but you will see what I mean when you get there. AOT does well at this and has made for more believable characters in the grand scale of things, past experiences will have a lot on what you say as you grow up. It also makes me think that on both a superficial and intramural level, the story has something to share regardless of how deep you dive into it. There aren't a lot of stories out there like this one. One of a kind honestly. Audiovisuals: The visuals are an iffy situation, I would be a liar to say I enjoyed the visuals all the way, but notes to take into account are, watch this at a minimum of 720p HD quality, and try to get used to the CGI early on. The CGI really got to me in particular but I got used to it in the end, it is quite unfortunate that Mappa had been given a really bad schedule, it was borderline impossible to make great sakuga all the way through, welcome to the anime industry where money is a top priority, but that's a story for another time. I understand that there wasn't any substantial time for Mappa to even make 10/10 animation, but it doesn't excuse the fact that this isn't the best thing in the world. It isn't. So I didn't see this as anything of glory for the most part, however, even with a bs schedule, Mappa did actually have quite a bit of moment where there were just great scenes overall, their 2D animation and was still amazing to hold onto the tragic reality Mappa faced. They also have amazing camera work, which made most scenes that much more impactful. I could name a few but they would go into spoilers. This is a tragic category, but it is one that I still found some goodness in. I have been meaning to only give 10/10 audio to only Clannad's OST, but that changes today, not that numbers meant much to begin with, but you know. AOT FS doesn't suffer from any kind of lack in the soundtrack to the point where innovation is needed, it also has a wide range of sounds that feature more or less anything that produces a sound, basically, this has it all, the great sound is clearly prominent in this series and has clearly shown that these pieces were composed. So many great tracks to remember, be it due to controversy or just the hype surrounding the said OST brings. OP and ED are in the same boat, I can't say both tracks have left my head at all and on the visuals side of things they are completely memorable and original. Amazing sounds. Nothing less. I also need to talk about the seiyuus because they did an outstanding performance, it is burnt into the memory of how well they performed, generally amazing on everyone's side. You won't see acting like this in a good while I tell you, endorse it now whilst it is still there. Enjoyment: There are a lot of things very enjoyable about AOT FS. Most of mine comes from an external experience, in talking to fans about the philosophy of the characters, what might be upcoming and which side are you on. You can do this with yourself internally too, it depends on how you look at it really. Universal enjoyment is really what I just said, mostly about asking yourself the different questions this has to offer, there is no wrong answer which makes it all the more interesting. Random theories come out of nowhere but they could hold water. Is all fair in war? At the end of the day, AOT allows you to build your own enjoyment of what it gives to you. Other side factors directly within the anime include hype moments and fight scenes you are just dying for. Whilst they aren't the best, they are still extremely good and something that I find myself looking forward to at times. AOT needs to have its action here and there to satisfy both parties I guess. In saying that, I do have to point out that a lot of people get a bit bored with the slowness of episodes containing no action and serving as plot-based episodes, I would agree slightly, but it is the same slow journey that is worth the while. You just need to prevail. All in all, AOT does a good job of allowing everyone to enjoy themselves. There's something for all in this gem. Overall - 9.6 (10) ---------- TLDR Review: Story - 10: Philosophical questions, political troubles, generally very intriguing story to find yourself immersed in. Visuals - 9: Yes the CGI isn't the best, but it is actually used quite well, 2D animation still amazing and Audio - 10: Amazing OST, OP, ED and seiyuus. It is one of a kind here. Characters - 9.5: Slight hiccup in a few characters, everyone else Enjoyment - 9.5: Very minor complaint, sometimes episodes are less intriguing than others, but most of the time the hype is still there and this is something to look forward to. Overall - 9.6 (10) ---------- Before I cut this review off, I really want to put out there this amazing things have gone down with everything in relation to AOT, good or bad, these events were something to witness, getting a following like this again for new manga, which will eventually turn into popular manga, into anime, into popular anime, into a global success, doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. I am glad I was here when this season aired, experiencing all the events that went down lol. Truly monumental moment.
Kyxor
03/28/2021, 08:38 AM
Shingeki no Kyojin,a title with many hidden meanings, is a series where a mystery box is slowly unveiled as the characters get developed and the viewer gets more interested in the story as a whole. It isn't the kind of story where one can predict what can happen next. Marley? Eldia? Rumbling? I'd consider you crazy if you told me about these during the first 5 episodes of season 3 part 2. It should also be mentioned that it is a story that can make one question their own morality as the characters come into dilemmas, as there's no black and white, just shades of gray,every character is a villain to another character, no matter who they are. This creates questions on who's right and wrong on viewer's minds, and I'm a sucker for such stories. Now, time to get to rating individually. Story: 10/10 I feel like crying from joy and get pumped with adrenaline each time i think about the story of Shingeki of Kyojin as a whole. A story that has made me cry, made my heart race, and made my mind blow with all the plot twists and original story writing methods. Not only that, but the story as a whole changed my whole perspective as a human, to the better. From the edgy shitty little piece of shit I was, admiring to be ooo very cool dark and all, it has transformed me into a being thirsting for truth, thirtsing for discussion regarding freedom,peace history and all. So, for that, from my depths of my heart, I wanna thank the author, Mr.Hajime Isayama. Art: 10/10. I really really really like the more realistic approach to the human characteristics of the characters, makes them feel more relatable and also the colours convey the feelings that the viewer should be feeling. People keep complaining about the blur tho, which in my opinion is something that adds more realism and i enjoy it alot. Sound:10/10 Flawless, part of appleseed played in the end of the episode 4. I expect more reused and news from Hiroyuki sawano, and Kohta yamamoto is really splendid with both aciton themes and chill themes. I should also praise the opening, ''Boku no Sensou'', it is a visual horror which describes war, as war cannot be described exactly with words, the singer sung ''Ba-ba-ri-as-ras-ti-ti-ti-ras-ti-ba...'', and it's up to us to get the meaning of the song, just like the story. Character:10/10 Lord praise the realism in these characters- From Marco to Marlo, the unforgettable total side characters. We felt them as real people, Marco, if he was alive for longer could have become my favourite character of all fiction instead of Armin. All of the characters interact nicely and realistically, not to mention that everyone has developed from season 1. Eren overcame his feelings of anger taking over Mikasa overcame her feelings of love taking over Armin overcame his feelings of fear taking over Jean overcame his cockiness Erwin was explored emotionally more, unlike other tryhard stoic failed commander type characters. Levi is the seemingly perfect guy but has an endless ammounts of failures and flaws that aren't seen etc etc. Enjoyment: 10/10 How can you not enjoy a series where each episode expands it's world and progressess its plot as characters get developed and gets more build up that will lead into a really great episode? Attack on titan isn't the kind of anime to waste it's time on filler episodes. It never ever had an episode which never progressed the story. I never felt bored watching it nor rewatching it and nor will i ever be, for i happen to re-watch 2-3 episodes of specific arcs oftenly just for the enjoyment. Overall: 10/10 Thank you so much, Mr.Hajime Isayama. This has inspired me to draw, write, and apply poets into poetry contests at my school, Shingeki no Kyojin holds a very special place into my heart, and I'll probably be re-watching it on a yearly basis, as i'm also looking forward to buying the manga, the games and the blu-rays. Thank you so much once again, Mr.Hajime Isayama
Inferno792
03/28/2021, 08:35 AM
Attack on Titan is a modern masterpiece. It’s not just a piece of fiction which has thrown quality season after season, it’s also one of the very few anime to have broken into the mainstream, so much so that people who do not watch anime at all have experienced and loved it. The emergence of the first season of Attack on Titan drove the series’ popularity to levels rarely seen before in the medium. The long wait before the release of season 2 was a major reason (along with certain pacing issues with the manga at the time) for the dying interest in the seriesat the time. By the time S2 aired, Attack on Titan wasn’t the global phenomenon anymore. One Punch Man had broken the mold in a similar vein to AoT S1 and become the new big anime amongst casuals and non anime watchers. Then came Season 3, and the series was roaring back. The interest in the series had never been higher, and fans flocked back in droves to have their questions answered. Many began viewing the first two seasons in new light once the revelations showcased the intricate planning and immense foreshadowing that had gone under their noses when they’d watched it first. For me, Attack on Titan was always great. Never has an anime made me feel so hopeless if I viewed the world from the perspective of the characters. The absolute mystery surrounding the titans for most of the first season along with stunning animation for fights, memorable OST for almost any scene and emotional dialogue delivered by passionate voice actors made for an unforgettable experience. Season 2 and 3 bring in more revelations, slowly unfolding the mysteries of the world and the titans and shifting the themes of the series. Season 4 has another tonal shift - much greater than previous ones - and it handles it with aplomb. A change in studios has often led anime series to ruin. The aforementioned OPM was one of the recent big victims of it, but other popular series like Seven Deadly Sins have also suffered due to it and never recovered. Fortunately, MAPPA have handled the transition well. They haven’t been perfect (more on that later), but all in all, they’ve done a good job producing a new season of what is probably the most popular anime of the last decade. The start of S4 might have left some people wondering where the original cast went. There’s not just a change of cast in the first few episodes, but also a switch in perspectives. We’re no longer seeing things from the side of Paradis and the Scouts. Instead, we now see it from the view of Marley’s warriors, who’re training to inherit the titans from their predecessors once their time runs out. Gabi and Falco want to inherit the armor but Reiner, i.e. the plot armored titan (Sorry, had to use this once I saw it on Reddit) can’t catch a break. Someone, grant him his wish to die. Eren’s growth as a character is one of the highlights of Attack on Titan as a series. He wasn’t always a fan favorite because of his hotheaded nature, but as time went on, his perspective of the things around him changed, most noticeably multiple times throughout season 3. Come season 4, his character undergoes a paradigm shift; calm and sympathetic, yet ruthless. As his famous quote goes, “I won’t stop moving forward until all my enemies are destroyed.” He’s a lot more distant, not just to everyone else in the show but also to the viewers. Unlike previous seasons, his thoughts are a mystery and the season clearly displays the divide between him and the other old Scouts. The handling of his growth as a person and a titan shifter is outstanding, firstly in the manga and then in the anime. Yuki Kaji, the voice actor, supported this exponential growth by exceeding expectations on character delivery. I especially love how well he’s transitioned seamlessly along with Eren as a character and nailed almost every line. There’s hardly a line Eren has spoken in season 4 that isn’t extremely significant to the story. Oh Gabi! Where do I even begin? She’s supposed to be the female parallel to pre timeskip Eren, but apart from some core traits like being stubborn, she isn’t really that similar to him. Gabi hates the Eldians from Paradis for no other reason other than that she thinks they’re devils and should suffer for the crimes of their ancestors. Eren was stubborn, headed into almost unwinnable battles without a second thought. However, his reasons to hate the titans were justified. His mother was eaten in front of him by a titan, his home destroyed and tens upon hundreds of his comrades butchered by titans in cold blood. He fought for his freedom, and humanity’s. Gabi, on the other hand, hates Eldians without having seen any of them. She kills people for glory, just for some useless praise. And without spoiling anything, I’ll also add that she’s a hypocrite with her iconic line that’s become prevalent in memes now “But did you see it happen?”. In her defence, she’s a twelve-year-old girl who’s been brainwashed so it’s hard to not give her some benefit of the doubt. But boy, is she annoying! She’s actually portrayed a lot better at the start of the Marley arc in the anime than in the manga, so I didn’t dislike her as much. She’s neither a bad character nor a great one, but she serves her purpose. Onto Falco, then. My cute, lovable boy, are you sure you had the same upbringing as Gabi? He’s her polar opposite, able to empathize with his enemies and an antithesis for every one of Gabi’s morals. He views things from a wider angle, often showing maturity way beyond his years. He might not be as naturally gifted as Gabi but he’s a whole lot more likeable. From posting letters for injured people to helping his enemies who shun him instead, this good boy has it all covered. He’s one of the beautiful things in this cruel world. Pieck is the new waifu that every fan seems to be simping over; Reiner and Zeke share the title of best character amongst the Marleyans for me. Their internal struggles and motives, some of which are only seen by viewers, make a significant contrast to their outer persona, and this holds especially true for Zeke. Jean remains the character who makes the viewers question their morals because he questions his own and that’s what I love about him. He’s another one who’s come a long way since the cadet days. Did you think I’d have forgotten Floch? He might’ve been a forgettable side character who didn’t even have a distinct design before S3 P2 (Isayama has himself admitted as much), but he’s one of the stars of season 4, running the show like the chad that he is. He’s an extremist and his actions are brutal; at times, it seems as if he’s doing it to sate his own ego and hate towards those who’ve imprisoned him and his race behind the walls. But despite all this, he’s one of the most entertaining characters post time skip. He’s unpredictable, spunky and has the audacity to pull off stunts that might’ve had your jaws slacking on the floor more times than one. And who can forget the “shh?” King Floch has unquestionably engraved his name as an Attack on Titan legend. There are so many excellent characters in Attack on Titan that the review would be too long if I talked about all of them, so I’ll stop here. The character designs in Season 4 see a distinct change, and that’s not all to do with the timeskip or the change in the studio. It’s a mixture of both. To anyone who’s read the earlier chapters of the Attack on Titan manga, it’s no secret that the art at the start was mediocre. Wit Studio did a great job of enhancing the character designs and the art in general, especially in S1. MAPPA on the other hand have stuck closer to the manga art style for characters (apart from beautifying Armin as compared to the manga, their reasons for which I’d like to know). So there’s a slight change in the art style because they’re following Isayama’s art a lot more closely. The animation of S4 has been the most talked about point, and for good reason. I’ll mince no words: some of the CGI was downright terrible. There was some genuinely impressive CGI like the Jaw titan, but some very important scenes involving the Attack Titan and Beast Titan were horrendous. It’s not the animators who’re to blame for this but the greed of the production committee and the manga publishers who wanted to have S4 airing before the end of the manga to boost sales. For almost any other anime, I would’ve let even the terrible CGI scenes slide, but this is Attack on Titan, one of the most popular and highly acclaimed anime ever, and surely it deserved the best treatment possible. Unfortunately, it didn’t get that. Does it make the season bad? Of course not since the season covers one of the best arcs in the manga and the adaptation itself was faithful with top tier voice acting. Could better animation elevate S4 of Attack on Titan to higher levels? Greatly. My biggest problem with the titan CGI was that it just broke immersion. One moment we had fluid 2D animation, the other we had some janky CGI lacking weight, which made me pause and check if I was still watching Attack on Titan. I’ve re-watched these scenes multiple times and every time, I came to the same conclusion: Attack on Titan deserves better. Remember the marvelous scenes with ODM gear we got in the first three seasons or the titan fights or Levi vs the Beast Titan? Unfortunately, we don’t get that level of animation in season 4, and while understandable given the time constraints, it’s disappointing nevertheless. The CGI wasn’t always as bad, but had enough prevalence in the most important moments (Eg: Attack Titan vs Warhammer Titan) to be a stain on an otherwise stellar season. We have some new and honestly breathtaking tracks added to the already great OST from S1 - S3. One of the highlights in the sound composition this season is that there were different composers depending on whose perspective a scene is shown from. For Paradis, we have Hiroyuki Sawano back with all our favorites from previous seasons while Kohta Yamomoto handled the Marleyan side, giving us bangers including Ashes on the Fire. I missed the old OST in the first few episodes because I was worried they’d underuse S1-S3 OST, but they did not. It wasn’t used much because the initial episodes take place from the perspective of the Marleyans. Honestly, having different composers for either side of the conflict seems like a superb choice and helps immersion. The only real criticism I have about the sound was the OST choice in some scenes in the latter part of the season. And no, I’m not talking about the basement scene here. I thought the basement scene OST choice was great. Similar to the OST, it took a while for me to warm up to the OP, but looking back now, it’s great and suits the themes of S4. This was a common opinion amongst the community; the majority seemed to have disliked My War for the first couple episodes, then it just grew on people and now it sets the tone for the rest of the episode. Now that Attack on Titan’s final season (Part 1) has ended, it’ll be intriguing to see what route MAPPA takes for the rest of the adaptation. There’s anywhere between 13-16 episodes of content left to cover, depending on the pacing. Will the production committee see Attack on Titan as a chance to make hundreds of millions of dollars in a movie format or will we have Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 (lol), only time will tell. I’m not against either, as long as they take enough time and pour passion into making it. I don’t mind waiting longer if it means getting the best production values. Hopefully, that’s the case.
An1meDweeb
03/28/2021, 08:26 AM
Tl;Dr: AoT S4 interrogates its own past, proving to audiences just why this giant deserves to stay relevant, 7 years after its premiere. Using the Basement reveal to great effect, S4 opens our eyes to more perspectives in this miserable conflict. Constantly drawing parallels to precedents from past seasons, AoT isn't afraid to recontextualize its formula and challenge ideas that were once accepted without second thought. It's not the strongest AoT has ever been, but has every opportunity to achieve those peaks in a sequel as inevitable as the incoming war. 8/10~ *** Walls have long been synonymous with the cruel world of Attack on Titan (AoT). Fromthe series' opening moments, these monolithic structures tower over a civilization fighting for survival. On its last legs, mankind makes a final stand with aspirations as high as the barriers themselves: to defeat the enemy and claim the freedom that they rightfully deserve. But in almost 60 episodes of high-octane television, the franchise's trademark bravado gives way to a sinister realization. Perhaps the Walls were never meant to keep the devils out, but to trap them in. With the secrets of the Basement uncovered, the stakes have been reinvented. Just as freedom seemed ever so tangible for Eren, Mikasa and Armin; S4 places yet another obstacle in their path - one which will take them far beyond the shores of Paradis, and one which will irrevocably tear down the lines between hero and villain. There is no longer Right or Wrong on the battlefield; only Fear persists. "War makes monsters of us all." This review is spoiler-free for plot details in S4, but will refer to all prior seasons. With all that out of the way: "Susume." To understand how AoT's latest chapter succeeds, we first need to discuss the game-changing Basement reveal. Naturally, I was skeptical of whether author Hajime Isayama could address the many questions dating back to his story's beginning. The secrets of Grisha's household was always a big driving force for Eren's journey, and it'd be difficult to look back on past episodes fondly if Isayama dropped the ball with his big twist. Thankfully, the Basement reveal proved to be a masterclass in mystery-box storytelling. Providing satisfying answers without the use of plotholes or retcons is a big achievement, but alone isn't what makes these revelations so stellar. Rather, the genius of this premeditated twist lies in how it introduces a new perspective from which we can experience this grand saga unfold. Once the truth came to light, AoT would be changed forever. S4's introductory arc hits the ground running on uncharted territory. It doesn't take long for the show to make us realise we're a long way from Paradis. Aerodynamic ODM hijinks are traded for conventional trench warfare, monsters from millenia past make way for modern weapons of destruction, and familiar war-torn faces are replaced by new ones - those of young, sprightly children on a siege battlefront. S4's opening salvo boldly thrusts its audience onto enemy soil; but make no mistake, this is AoT through-and-through. While the context has changed dramatically, the same themes and ideas introduced since the very beginning are being expanded upon and reimagined. AoT reinvents the wheel and finds sympathy for the devil. In contrast to the rapid-fire info dump in the S3P2 episode "That Day," our return to Marley patiently details the various struggles of the evil nation's inhabitants. The use of Titans in warfare kept Marley prosperous for a century, but history teaches us that empires are destined to fall. Other nations have levelled with the former tyrant, and their scrappy spoils of war mark a massive fall from the iron-clad world dominance held in ages past. To a nation edging towards the brink of collapse, their neighbors in Paradis pose a fearsome threat that would certainly prove fatal. With attempts at seizing Eren's rogue Founding Titan only resulting in further colossal losses to their military strength, Marley's position of power lies solely in their control of the narrative. The country's false account of Paradis' past atrocities pits the greater world against an unknown threat, and Marley's Eldians against their own blood. With this backdrop in mind, we observe the tragedy of a disjointed race of outcasts born into a world that seemingly has no place for them. Eldia is a house divided, with neither half fully able to stand against their Marleyan masters. Both groups are products of mass subjugation, and S4 claims that the internment Eldians may have received the short end of the stick. In spite of the King's Vow and a vicious fight for survival against the Titans, Paradis is Paradise, because its human inhabitants are spared from ever doubting their place as the good guys. Contrast them with the marginalized Eldians of Marley, whose dehumanized existence is defined by sins of the past. It's an uphill battle, as they are cast down the lower rungs of a merciless social ladder and conditioned to accept self-hatred as a necessity of life. Breaking out of this systematic oppression is what motivates the Warrior candidates, Eldian militants devoted to proving their Marleyan allegiance on the battlefield. With false anti-Eldian propaganda forced down their throats, these soldiers can only repress their humanity as they vie for the coveted Warrior status. Even this best-case scenario confines the "lucky" few to 13 years of relentless battle, perpetuating a vicious cycle as one Titan Shifter makes way for the next. It's sad to take in the imagery of child soldiers Gabi and Falco, as they cling onto their flimsy rhetoric in a vain attempt to find order in the sick chaos that surrounds them. While Gabi's abrasive actions drew the ire of countless seething fans^, the script's portrayal of these tragic figures is commendable, especially given the risks involved in fleshing out antagonists so late into the narrative. While the sinful children turn to their history books for solace, that comforting illusion of being in the right has begun to show its cracks for some. The battle-hardened Reiner finds himself caught in an ideological crossfire. His cryptic origins are finally explored in-full during this season, detailing the misfortune of having to fight alongside both his motherland and his foes. His split-personality disorder emerged as a result of his time spent behind enemy lines, and coming to terms with Marley's subjugation of Paradis pushed our Armored Titan to his psychological breaking point. Reiner, Gabi and Falco are all forced to confront the suffering dealt by their war cause. No longer is there any comforting doctrine to absolve them from their sins. Warrior Commander Magath says it best, in what is probably my new favorite line in all of AoT: "There is no doubt that Eldians are the spawn of the devil. And there is no doubt that we are devils ourselves." Marley's generational sins are coming back to haunt the nation. It's no coincidence that S4's opening arc closely mirrors the invasion that kicked off the franchise. Much like that first battle in Shiganshina, S4 uses its own powerful moments of despair as a launchpad for the ensuing conflict. This time around, the parallel is recontextualized, as S4 turns the invaders into the invaded. We're presented injustices without innocence, as Marley reap what they sow. At the same time we're shown an enemy coerced into violence as a means of escaping a system of oppression. It's not enough to absolve the internment Eldians of their wrongdoing, but speaks volumes about how Isayama has chosen this new phase of his story. S4 pulls the curtain on everything we thought we knew, finding tragic ambiguity in a conflict that was once simple. AoT achieves this not only through finding sympathy for the devil, but also by smashing its façade of heroism. The franchise's identity has long been rooted in these soldiers' self-sacrificial blazes of gory glory. Adrenaline-pumping hype was all but guaranteed, as badass scouts sliced-and-diced their way through hordes of giants to the beat of Sawano's steampunk OST. Laying their lives on the line and giving their hearts, mankind would stop at nothing to keep moving forward. Eren and his comrades were fighting for freedom, and as massive manga sales figures (of over 100 million!) would indicate, us passionate fans were rooting for 'em. As I mentioned before, Paradis' place as the good guys was always certain. Rarely were we asked to call our heroes' past actions into question, because their goals were clear and good - kill Titans and claim freedom. But what happens when that fleeting freedom gives way to an unforgiving destiny? S4 is a sobering deconstruction of its own winning formula. As a Marleyan insider makes the full extent of Eren's powers public, all of Paradis face a dilemma regarding their fate. The mysterious plan could finally secure freedom for the Eldians, deterring the world from annihilating the devils' island. In this new context, old trends make a resurgence. The military remains suspicious of the insider's true motivations, and their inaction seeds distrust among the masses. While us audience members may know that Paradis' government is working for the nation's best interest, it's hard to ignore that their puppet monarchy was achieved through a fascist takeover of the old system. How is their inefficiency that much better than the conspiratory ways of the Reiss reign? Their weak attempts at diplomatic relations are insufficient at appeasing the people, resulting in the emergence of a cult. Dubbed the Jaegerists, this secret society enacts a coordinated strike on the military government. The cult hails Eren and the insider's scheme as divine salvation, and their near-deranged devotion bears strong resemblance to the Wall Priests from past seasons. A chilling demonstration of their desperate faith cemented itself as one of my favorite moments in the entire franchise; as an anti-militant mob chants the ever-familiar "Shinzo Sasageyo" back at their opponents, turning a noble call to action into a bloodthirsty mantra. As the domestic chaos ensues, we're moved to wonder just what Paradis stood to gain from "giving their hearts." Glorified in the past, AoT's heroes are rebuked in the present. Hange, starting out with hopes of changing the old ways that preceded her, now finds herself caged in Commander Erwin's shadow. Armin is forced to accept that diplomacy with other nations will prove ineffective in securing safety for Paradis, as he harnesses the Colossal Titan's destructive power. His loyalty is called into question, with his connection to Bertholdt's memories drawing distrust. Isayama also doesn't spare Mikasa from his scrutiny, as her formidable character comes apart in decisive fashion. Meanwhile, Levi is forced to eat his own words as he laments over the vain loss of countless comrades over the years, because he could never have determined whether trusting in Eren's power was right or wrong until he arrived at the bleak outcome of the present. And as for Eren himself, the strong-willed fighter has been overhauled and nearly unrecognizable. He has emerged as the most resolute figure out of the entire cast, as well as the most inhuman. Eren represents a naive wish for freedom taken to its ideological extreme, and the revelation of his true intentions takes the franchise to the darkest it's ever been. What is right has become unclear, what is wrong has proven necessary. And it's in the death of those moral constructs that we are able to observe a world driven by fear and hatred above all else. Marley and Paradis are nations trapped in a realist zero-sum game; even though Armin's hopes for diplomacy and cooperation yield the optimal solution for both sides' concerns, fear of the unknown dictates their decisions, leaving them with no other outcome than mutually-assured destruction. Just as lost children stumble their way around a forest, so do soldiers struggle to make the right choice in the heat of battle. All we have are our instincts, the greatest of which being fear. AoT's consistency appears to be a double-edged sword in some aspects. AoT's weaknesses are just as present as its strengths, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. Flaws that I'd attribute to the series don't feel like mistakes, but rather a natural consequence of the kind of story Isayama intends to tell. For example, the show's characters are still mostly one-note and thinly-written, but act as superb vehicles for AoT themes as a result. The worldbuilding and narrow political thesis behind the Marleyan-Paradis conflict only functions off unrealistic conditions, but it's because fabricated reality that we're able to witness this truly epic thought experiment. Even though former AoT director Tetsuro isn't on-board this season, it seems that his over-the-top facial reactions and melodrama still found their way into S4. While AoT certainly handles most of its large-scale battle sequences more effectively than its smaller confrontations, it's in these unnerving expressions that showcase our suffering characters giving into their inhuman instincts. For a "battle shounen," the amount of action in S4 is surprisingly lacking, but I'm pleased to see that myself and many others have grown so invested in the painstaking depiction of Isayama's twisted world. The few action sequences we do get do fall ever so slightly short of the gold standard we've grown to expect, but MAPPA have done a mostly remarkable job in handling its animation. CGI usage isn't as rampant here as Twitter makes it out to be, with its infrequent recurrences still blowing the industry standard out of the water. Plus, the change in art direction serves the show incredibly well, capturing a more modern time period while still facilitating Isayama's distinct style. *** STRAY RAMBLINGS (SPOILERS): - ^Real talk, Gabi gets too much hate. It's definitely justifiable to hate her actions and character, but she holds up as a great vehicle for expressing Isayama's message about the dangers of basing your life around political rhetoric and propaganda. Observing audience reactions surrounding her character reminds me of Skyler White from Breaking Bad. The vitriol unjustly targeted at antagonists that are doing their job as, well, antagonists - that just baffles me. The memes are admittedly fire tho, I'll give ya' that. - Scene of Connie and Sasha realizing their mutual stupidity is basically me and my last two brain cells in college. - The entire Hizuru plotline didn't click for me. The foreign ambassador is probably the least friendly diplomat I've ever seen, going as far as to lick her lips at the mention of "national resources." Anyways, the real issue is that it straight-up doesn't work for Mikasa at all. Like, maybe it's a female-empowerment thingy where our girl is revealed to be some badass princess or whatnot, but Mikasa is never given a reason to care about their proposition, so the whole thread just feels kinda awkward. - Totally get what the Niccolo motif was going for (he's a chef, Sasha eats his food, etc.,) but associating dinner with her death wasn't really cool when Connie did it the first time, nor was it any less cringe when it gets rehashed in later episodes. - Floch is a dumbass. 'Nuff said. - Remember when everyone was malding over "My War?" Me neither, that song is a certified banger! For me, "Guren no Yumiya" is still gonna be the song I'd associate with the series, but Shinsei Kamattechan's track is the bop I'd put on loop. - THANK GOD IT'S NOT A MOVIE SEQUEL. Simulcast is a godsend for people that actually enjoy watching stuff without getting spoiled, and I'm already struggling to keep myself safe. Imagine having to go months without the internet before a theatrical release… yeesh. - BEST GIRL: Enjoy your meats and potatoes in Heaven, Sasha. Fly high. *** Oof, this season really made me grateful for taking up an intro course on Political Studies. I've been relatively late to the AoT hype train, but I don't regret not picking up sooner, as there's so much that I likely wouldn't have appreciated back when I was younger. In any case, I'm well-aboard seeing this massive saga conclude. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present~

Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season 進撃の巨人 The Final Season

2021 winter | Episodes: 16 | Score: 8.8 (1402601)

Updated every Mondays at 00:10 | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Streaming: Crunchyroll | Netflix

Synopsis

Voice Actors

Ishikawa, Yui

Inoue, Marina

Kaji, Yuuki

News

Reviews

DISKOWN
07/07/2024, 08:05 PM
Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 1 represents a significant low point for the series. The persistent issue of low-quality CGI, which has plagued the show since its inception, is more pronounced than ever, remaining visually unappealing and disappointing given the series' stature. The dynamic action sequences that defined the previous season have been notably stripped down, diminishing their impact. Critical plot points are often conveyed through flashbacks, disrupting the season's pacing and coherence. Following the time skip, character motivations undergo drastic changes that are inadequately explained within the season. The captivating sense of mystery and intrigue that characterized earlier seasons is conspicuously absent, replaced bya less compelling focus on political intrigue that fails to engage. Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 1 falls short of expectations. It presents disappointments across several fronts. While it briefly touches upon themes of sacrifice and the ethical implications of warfare, highlighting how individuals can be dehumanized and transformed into 'monsters' through the cycle of violence, the overall experience leaves one questioning the series' future direction and whether it merits continued investment.
Erenmid100
05/24/2024, 05:25 AM
THE DEFINITION OF "GOOD BECUSE IT'S FAMOUS" The most ovverated piece of fiction of all time. Ok , being bored is subjective so I wiil not use that argument. 1. MC development is approsimative, he makes no sense choice. 2.Nothing original(titans aren't original) 3 dimensional movment isn't original too Spider-man said something? 3.conclusion is a literally copypaste of Code geass 4. Eren's idology start well then go ⬇️ 5. Eren writing is the biggest problem in the anime it's funny how many side characters in Aot are written better than him. 6.Only good thing what I can say are animation of s1/s2, in s4 i never seen a CGI worse than that.7.dynamic are totally random ------ I don't get how people like this garbage. I rate 1 just bc u can't rate below but my real rate is 0. Drinking lava or rewatch Aot? I choose Lava. Ps(sorry for grammar Eng isn't my lenguage)
SupremeSyncLord
12/16/2023, 05:08 PM
To me, aot ended at the last episode of season 3. After that point, it just wasn’t attack on titan anymore. Let me start by getting something straight. The plot for this season was not bad. In fact, it was actually good. However, the transition from season 3 to final season took away most of what I loved about aot. Most of the things I loved about aot was the whole tone, with people dying left and right, and humanity fighting a losing battle against titans. I also enjoyed the reveals of when a trusted ally was actually a titan all along. It’s these momentsthat I enjoy of aot, as well as the hype. Another problem might have been the fact that season 3 part 2 was the peak of the show. The problem when a show has their peak a lot earlier than the end of the show is that everything after that peak just seems so stale. Everything that came after s3p2 felt like it didn’t hit as hard as it, and wasn’t a proper successor. I couldn’t help but compare every episode to those pure hype and emotional and mind blowing moments from s3p2. Which is why I think that if aot would have ended there, I might have liked this anime a lot more. Now ik that a lot of things were unresolved at the end of s3p2, but if the story was written differently, the anime definitely could have ended when they saw the ocean for the first time. As I said, this season had a good plot, but just because it had a good plot doesn’t mean I found it entertaining. The amount of politics felt like a bit too much, and the whole Marley arc felt pretty dumb to me. The entire theme of the show changed, which put me off. Now, I might have liked this season if everything that came before it didn’t exist. I went into the season preset in my mind everything I like about aot, and none of that was present here. I enjoy different shows for different things. If a traumatizing anime like re zero were to turn into a comedy, I wouldn’t like it. I’m not saying I don’t like comedy, but I just don’t enjoy it in a show like re zero. Same thing here for aot. I enjoyed them fighting titans and the big reveals and that pure hype, none of which was present here. There were a few episodes that were actually good, which prevented me from rating this season lower. When I think of aot, I think of s1-3, because I know for a fact that this is not aot.
Graine
10/22/2021, 07:14 AM
SPOILERS for Attack on Titan seasons 1-3 (and Claymore, for comparison's sake)! I can see that many of the negative reviews for AOT season 4 are awfully nitpicky. I'm not gonna engage in nitpicking and I am not going to latch on to the show's plot holes either. I feel like there are broader and more important elements for me to critique than the minute details. If stuff like the physics of the 3D Maneuver Gear bother you, I don't know how you made it this far with the show. What happened to Attack on Titan reminds me a lot of what happened to Claymore (manga) manyyears ago. The entire setting you knew, the one you thought you should care about, turns out to be just a small island in a larger world. A fly in an evil empire's militaristic soup. The monsters that you remember once sending shivers down your spine are revealed to be just weapons of war - things that can be created and even controlled. The lens, through which you observe the story, is now zoomed so far out, that all the struggles, drama and horror you went through with the show's characters before, now seems terribly small and insignificant. But. Claymore at least had the decency to brush aside it's awful attempt at a shocking plot twist after it didn't really land for anybody. It wrapped up the story in the confines of the setting it had already established. The damage had been done and the twist had made everything worse, but at least it remained a concise story. Attack on Titan on the other hand doubles down on it's twist hard. While I kinda want to commend it for sticking to it's guns, the fact is that this is not even the same story anymore. This is an entirely new setting with new stakes and rules. Even new cast, really. There are enough new characters that get introduced during season 4 to fill up the entire character roster of an average anime series. I got nothing against expanding the scope of a series. It can keep things fresh and interesting. But this isn't expanding. There is a difference between expanding and just throwing the original premise in the trash. Ever since season 1 ended, almost every new detail we have learned about the world has made the once cool and compelling setting less and less interesting. Was the Colossal Titan something that caught your attention back in the day? Thought it was menacing? In the endless cycle of the series trying to one-up itself, not only have we already seen bigger titans, but now we hear that there are literal millions of Colossal Titans. Millions. Did you happen to enjoy the main characters' struggle in the cool walled-off world of fascism, cruelty and cover-ups? Too bad. You were just watching bunch of recluses on an island - a society, held together by memory altering magic powers. Thought the silent terror of the unintelligent, man-eating titans was really horrific? Did you get invested in the fight against them? They are just killed off-screen. All of them. The great threat to mankind done and dusted, without so much as a montage sequence to commemorate the oocasion. We still get the transforming super titans... But those turn out to be nothing more than glorified mecha suits by the end. In a way, it's actually worse than just having mecha suits, because at least a vehicle could be lost or irreparably broken, so there might be some tension related to losing one. But with the titans, you can just keep conjuring them up as long as the "pilot" stays alive. Here, there are no lasting physical consequences to either the pilot or the vehicle outside of death. Let's talk about the utilization of Eren in this. I don't know if it was the call of the writer(s), the director or the voice actor, but being "jaded" is translated to being "boring and monotone". No matter what you thought about Eren as a character in the previous seasons, it was actually kinda fun seeing him get agitated - spitting out (often hollow) threats and making bold claims. Screaming in rage or in terror. Crying his eyes out. Whether you thought he was oblivious, stupid or annoying, the character had some energy to him. Almost every single line of Eren, as delivered during season 4, sounds like he is one second away from falling asleep. You might call it character development - I call it yet another thing ruined. Not all development is good development and a stagnant character is better than a boring, passionless edgelord. I think I can just barely swallow the shift in Eren's morality, but not in his behavior. As a direction to take Eren towards, this could have worked, but it's pushed way too far. The most frustrating thing about Season 4 is that, in a vacuum, there are still some neat things going on. The presentation is still more than fine and some of the dramatic peaks were undeniably effective and decently set up. There are even some deeper themes being explored than what we are used to in the show's previous seasons. As a detached, individual anime story, this could have been all right. But because this exists in the Attack on Titan "universe", it is hard for me to pay attention to anything that is going on beyond a once-so-awesome series that has systematically driven itself into the ground.
SEJEEDZ
09/16/2021, 04:42 AM
What was a good mindless action packed show surrounded by mystery and a sense of dread regarding the unknown evolved into a complete convoluted mess of increasingly confusing proportions. I feel like I wasted my time trying to find something interesting in what turned out to be the author's desperation to piece things together while trying to keep up with the series' hype and popularity rather than trying to tell a good story. Although one thing did remain consistent, and it was the excessive use of convenient plot twists to turn the story however which way desirable. This makes it painfully obvious each and everytime it occurs that the writer does not have any foresight on how to progress the story and is making it up as he goes along based on the feedback he receives from the series' fanbase.
slime3000fly
04/09/2021, 08:41 AM
Seasons from 1 to 3 were one of the best anime i have ever watched. I had highs hopes, that final season will be better or as good as the previous seasons. However after watch all 16 episodes i have to say that it was a big disappointment. This season can be a separate anime. There aren't any significant between season 4 and the previous one. You meet old characters but they behave completely different than they used to and we don't know why. New characters are boring. They have one feature and that's all, they doesn't change at all during the whole season. Ontop of that every hero behave very stupid and only stupidity push plot forward. When it comes to animation is ok but nothing more. In season 1-3 animation was masterpiece and one of the reason why Attack on titan was so popular. It provides a lot of enjoyment to watch like characters fight, everting looked like a dream. Nevertheless the biggest problem of this season is story. Plot is just far-fetched, problems that appears beacasue of stupid characters, perfect timing of every action and some magic story armor for some of the heroes. In the past due to story we had fights, now due to fights we have story. To sum it up i can only say that big expectacions met big disapoinmened.
BruZZo
04/07/2021, 10:46 AM
Attack on Titan: The Final Season is at best a step down for the series, and is at worst an insult to the first 3 seasons and all the care that was taken to realize this story's potential. Little bit of backstory here. When I decided to rewatch the series during this summer I had expected to not be impressed and simply feel completely vindicated in my sleeping on this huge titan of a show. I ended up watching all of it in one day, and even a hateful spiteful bastard such as myself who will let his intitial preconceptions taint my view ofanything had to swallow my pride and admit that seasons 1 - 3 of Attack on Titan, while certainly having its downsides, is a beautiful piece of work with ample amounts of directorial flair, gorgeous visuals, engaging characters, and a plot that kept my eyes glued to the screen from beginning to end. Attack on Titan: The Final Season is not what I wanted, and I have a hard time believing that this is what anyone wanted. Make no mistake- this is not just a visual downgrade from WIT Studio, this is an ugly, ugly show taken on its own merits disregarding the seasons that came before it. It honestly has taken me for a loop the fact that more people aren't seething that this is what Attack on Titan has come to. The character artwork is static and completely devoid of any kind of intensity of emotion. In an attempt to make the show more manga-accurate, we now have scenes of intense drama where it is difficult to ascertain the feelings of the characters and just how the events are affecting them on an emotional level. Their eyebrows move very little, their eyes appear glazed over, and the heavy shadows over their facial features, something that should be reserved for an intense emotion, are just there all the time and make every character look completely stone-faced and bored. Character designs are homogenized, with little in the way of proportions or features that could inform us about their character, and the way they move is stiff and lifeless. The animation itself is where a lot of the bigger issues come to rise. People who tolerate the CGI in this season seem to misunderstand where it is the issues lie when it comes to this stuff. The CGI looks bad because there is a heavy visual disconnect between the humans and surroundings and the CGI of the titans. The momentum of the fight scenes is floaty, the textures are abnormally smooth and don't retain the same shading that the rest of the show does, and they move so quickly and appear so weightless that you'd be forgiven for forgetting that they're supposed to be giant huge monsters. When it's used on human characters, for sequences like the 3D Maneuver Gear scenes, it looks even worse. All of the intensity of motion and exhilarating action from the previous seasons has been reduced to someone clicking on a stiff 3D model of a character and swinging it around with reckless abandon. Episode 5 or 6, where it's the huge fight and Eren finally gets ready to fuck shit up, is the absolute worst offender of everything I've just said. A mockery of a fight scene that is so incomprehensible and poorly staged that I almost dropped the show right then and there. As a result of the poor visual presentation of the show, the story suffers as well. The boring direction and shot flow only serves to amplify the series' needless complexity, with all this founding titan and curse of Ymir and Marley and all this other shit that amounts to nothing. Nothing about all these different titan powers serves to heighten the emotion of the story, nothing about the Ackermans being this special race serves any purpose to add something truly substantive to the story, and so on. The story fails to land due to poor handling and long, essay-like episode scripts that only bore the viewer with an endless onslaught of information that goes nowhere in the end. Attack on Titan's visual direction was the hook that got people invested in the story, and now that there's no hook, the story falters. Put it this way: Anime is a visual medium. The visuals of your show matter as much as your story does. You can make whatever story you want, with whatever masterful subversions and deep characters your brain can muster, but if the visual component is lackluster and fails to sell the viewer on the ideas being put forth, I would consider that a failure from a production standpoint, which is where the heart of my discontent with this season lies. Attack on Titan, a show that has been renowned for it's INCREDIBLE visual direction, a show that has made big emotional moments hit so much harder and leave a lasting impression on you, has been reduced to a great studio fundamentally mishandling the visual aspect of this show. I'm sure Mappa tried their hardest and did what they could given the time frame, but what we have is still what we have. this is the Attack on Titan: The Final Season that we are going to get, and there are no do-overs. This is the legacy of this show now. Anime, similarly to TV and film, is a medium that fuses its many different aspects together with each other to create something beautiful; a gorgeous dance between sound, visuals, and storytelling that come together to create a truly resonant piece of work. I am speaking as someone whose life has been changed by the media I've consumed, whose understanding of the world has been deepened through the great works of art that I have enjoyed. Art, in all its forms, is as necessary to the human condition as breathing. As humans we seek to be understood, to express ourselves. At a fundamental level, art is an extension of ourselves and what we feel, and is a beautiful way to funnel our creativity and emotions into something that other people can latch onto and feel the emotions of the creator through their work. Despite my preconceptions on the series, please know that it doesn't bring me any joy or happiness to see a truly resonant work of art be reduced to this. To have, what was most likely going to be an incredible story, given such a rushed adaptation. Perhaps if I had been more invested in the first 3 seasons I'd find something more to like about this season, but to me this show's flaws are abhorrently obvious and apparently that's a hot take of some kind. I try not to cast aspersions towards anyone's intent for liking a show, but the fact that this season, with it's flaws so brazen, has rocketed up the ranks on MAL's top 50 is a testament to the brainless, idiotic hype culture that has surrounded this show for years now. Calm and honest critiques on the show's quality are thrown to the wind in favor of vague, generalized statements on how this show is a masterpiece, and only serves to stain the legacy of this show by showing how reactionary and impulsive this community really is. TL;DR Unengaging, unimpressive, and unsatisfying. Ladies and gentlemen, Attack on Titan: the defining masterpiece of our era.
ten-gen_simp
03/31/2021, 09:53 AM
I finally got round to catching up to this anime after the part finished, and let me say it was disappointing. the characters are mediocre at best but i cant get emotionally attached to a women who hasn't done anything since season 2 (Sasha) Gabi on the other hand is the most well written character in S4 and you can care for a 12 year old girl only doing what she was told do, also all her friends DIE in front of her and grown ass men want to beat her up think of someone else's point of view for once in there lives I wasreally hoping the levi would die in that explosion with that stupid fucking monkey, he only in the series to show the "TrAgIc FiGhTiNg BaCkStOrY" to the audience his fighting style is to become a Beyblade Reiner has more plot amour than goku on steroids, he should of died like 8 times he is so trash he has amour then get it punched off of him immediately it is literally cardboard man-kasa the worst tom boy of the 21st century she isn't even hot she simps over eren like 40 yr old hogs that watch this show simp over v-tubers eren is the single most annoying person in this dumpster fire of a show he is so replaceable it isn't even funny there nothing special about his goofy ass the fandom is even worse than the show. there isn't even a point to be so angry that a good studio had to animate this trash show i'm surprised they even decided to animate this god awful show, how dose it feel that you get angry at hard working people drawing day after day to then serve you beautifully presented shit on a plate overall a 3/10 the fandom, the plot, the characters and every thing else is just so bad. this is overrated as all fuck
MrRohling
03/30/2021, 04:31 PM
Look how they massacred my boy Everything got worse in this season. I'm just really sad with happened with this anime. You can barrely notice that the music is there. It's absolutelly meh. The animation is awful. It seems that the dialogue scenes received more attention than the fights. The story got worse but it's bearable at least. The worst part is the pace of the anime, it's almost frozen, nothing happens on the epsodes. My gf sometimes couln't watch and I was able to condense everything that happened in 1 or 2 sentences. There is nothing more to say about this, so here goes MAL rules
mike1412
03/29/2021, 12:58 AM
(I apologize in advance for my poor English)This season of AOT was really overhyped by the fandom and any criticism of it just means that people say you are too dumb to understand it OR "you should be grateful for what you have got ". Animation - Hands down the worst it has been in the 4 seasons of AOT. Very choppy animation at some places (for example the forest fight), along with hideous CGI for ALL the titan shifters this time, the camera angles and the editing all feels so amateur and like it is done with no passion at all. Still frames formost of the dialogue scenes with that boring brown filter ... I thought we were done with that. If you look at the various shots and camera angles that WIT gave us, along with the audiovisuals they were absolutely stunning, but MAPPA is just a step-down. And it's not that they can't do it, just look at the CGI of dorohedoro and the animation of jujutsu kaizen. The war hammer titan fight was an absolute joke, I was laughing my ass off during the fight. They hyped us up with the trailer only to completely under deliver. I will definitely not be trusting the trailer of S4 part 2. Soundtrack- Soundtracks have always been one of the strongest areas of AOT, but this season the same soundtrack that was revealed in the S4 trailer is SPAMMED FOR EVERY SINGLE ACTION SCENE (maybe with a few small changes ). It feels really weird and lazy. Not only did MAPPA come up with no new tracks for this season but they don't even use the full arsenal available from previous seasons. K21 during the forest fight and the piano soundtrack before the war declaration were the only fitting soundtrack moments this season. Kohta Yamamoto and Hiroyuki Sawanos partnership obviously didn't work out this time. Character- In this season we are introduced to many new characters who are basically like mirror images of the ones we knew from Seasons 1 to 3.Gabi especially is supposed to be like a younger Eren hotheaded, brainwashed and ANNOYING. I understand the intention from Isayama but it all feels very heavy-handed and not subtle at all. Characters are now just info-dumping machines and have a grim face 24/7 (Eren I am talking about you ). Zeke is supposed to be the smartest character in the AOT universe but the number of times he has gotten his ass handed to him by an amathophobic Beyblade (ya I think Levi is really an average character) now is ridiculous. The author has obviously dumbed down a LOT of the characters for certain others to take the spotlight. Mikasa has to be one of the worst female characters I have ever seen. She is like a pokemon whose only cry is "Ereh". After 3 seasons I still know nothing about her character. Historia is now just sidelined and her only job left in the story is to give birth. Annie is irrelevant, still in that crystal just waiting for the final battle so she can make a comeback. Reiner is the only redeeming character in this mess, his development and perspective that we get to see from both sides are brilliant although the plot armour Isayama has given him is pretty ridiculous. All in all the bland new characters we are introduced to along with a drastic change of the ones we already knew without really seeing much of it doesn't make me very happy. Story- I never really like the barebones politics in AOT. The story just feels like a mash of Norse mythology, Nazi-Jew racism, code geass(you'll know what I mean), Gender Blue etc. The world-building is so shallow. 3/4 seasons we spend on an island that we are made to believe is the only part of the world with life and after the basement reveal everything changes so drastically that I am sure anime-only watchers must have found it jarring. TBH I don't even care about the rest of this "world". Isayama must have a good story in his mind but the way that it is told in this convoluted mess is not fun to watch at all. The flashbacks have also increased tenfold in this season. The biggest problem I have with AOT is the concept of PATHS. Every single asspull is conveniently explained away using PATHS. This gets worse and worse as the story progresses. Eren is the GOD of this world now with the attack titan, war hammer titan and founding titan and there is absolutely no sense of danger at all. The only way he can be beaten is if he does something stupid himself since he already knows how everything is going to end. I just want to ask Isayama - how many more times will we see Eren vs Reiner, with Eren beating his ass and then Reiner being saved by plot armour ?? But one thing I have to give Isayama credit for is the foreshadowing . Enjoyment / Overall - Considering all the other mediocre anime this season, I thought AOT would be a ray of hope but the obvious step down in animation and soundtrack, along with the completely different cast of bland characters, info-dumping and flashbacks galore - it felt like i was reading a boring history book and finished it just for the sake of it. This anime doesn't deserve to be #1 on MAL. Season 3 part 2 was better in almost every single aspect - animation, soundtrack, character moments, dialogue, story etc
Valinis
03/29/2021, 12:56 AM
Oh boy. Possibly the most over-rated series this season by a long shot. As someone who has enjoyed the Shingeki series quite a bit I was so disappointed by this final season, and I really don't understand why it's receiving such raving reviews. #2 of all time? Really? It's going to be a sad day when this inevitably overtakes FMA Brotherhood in the #1 spot that's for sure. Where to begin... there's so many things I dislike about this season. The majority of this season follows the story of side characters we've never seen before and honestly don't care about at all. Most them are extremely one-dimensionaland very dislikeable with few redeeming qualities. What little screen time the main characters get is super underwhelming and none of them are even remotely the same people from the previous seasons. This season may as well have been a totally separate cast from a different point in time. The story is a mess and really uninteresting. The exciting action between humans and titans is basically non-existent and is replaced by boring politics. Perhaps reading the manga makes the story good, but if your anime requires the viewer to go out of their way to do extra research on the side then honestly it's just bad writing. The art is pretty bad in comparison to the previous season. This is largely due to a different studio handling this final season. Shingeki already suffered terribly from character individuality and MAPPA really haven't done a good job making characters unique. Everyone has the exact same face. The sound is fine I suppose. The theme songs suck though. All in all very disappointing. Give it a watch so you can add it to your list but it's far from the masterpiece the fans are making it out to be.
kairyu_gen1
03/28/2021, 06:58 PM
I'm just going to say it: This season sucked. I'm not some AoT hater, while the series has had its bumps, I've given every previous season a positive score. I like Attack on Titan, but the hype for this extremely flawed "final" season is absolutely ridiculous. Let's start with the most pervasive problem; this show just isn't fun to watch. The dialog is awkward, the characters shout all the time when it's just not necessary at all, and they beat you over your head with their themes so hard it genuinely made it hard for me to even keep watching at times. Plus there are moments theart shows a character making a reaction face that's just...ugly. Not in a cool, horrifying way that communicates the tone of the scene, in a gross, "I don't even want to look at this" kind of way. Now, if you read my reviews of previous seasons, you'll notice all of these things existed in the series prior to this point. Those seasons made up for it with bombastic action scenes and powerful character moments. This season...doesn't. Okay, that's not completely true, Reiner got fleshed out a bit and it was pretty good, but that's literally it. The action was a major step down from previous seasons, the returning characters all get shoved to the background until the end, and the new characters...oh man do they suck. So if the things that made previous seasons great are missing, surely they replace it with something equally engaging, right? Right? No. We spend a ridiculous amount of time with two brand new characters, Gabi, who is somehow a less interesting and nuanced version of Erin McYells-A-Lot from season 1, and Falco, who's somehow a less interesting and nuanced version of Reiner. To be fair, I actually like what they're trying to do with these two, demonstrate how hate and war are a cycle that will continue from generation to generation...unless individuals each choose the hard path to not seek revenge and stop the violence. This is actually beautifully demonstrated when a father chooses not to kill the soldier who murdered his daughter in order to set a good example for his other children. It is then immediately ruined when one of his children immediately tries to exact revenge themselves, rendering his noble action meaningless. Gabi and Falco are equally confusing, you can make the case Gabi is only the way she is because of the environment she was raised in, but Falco was raised in the same environment and came out completely different, so she really doesn't have an excuse, she just sucks as a human being. Is that the point the series? Some people just suck? I guess that's a valid idea, but is it an entertaining one? No. And this is all just the surface level stuff I've been complaining about. The more you think about this season, the more it falls apart. Like how the 5 year time skip, and subsequent radical changes in personality, robs us of any connection we had to these characters, or how, at the end of the day, this whole season was almost completely pointless because they're still in the exact same situation they were in at the end of last season, except now the main character is an unlikable douchebag. So...if this season isn't fun to watch on a superficial level, and it's not engaging on a deeper level, what's good about it exactly? I genuinely can't tell.
Hbarca
03/28/2021, 01:03 PM
Welcome to the final season of Attack on Titan, except it isn't the final season there will be one final "final season" in 2022. So welcome to the panultimate season of Attack on Titan that they for some reason call the final season. A more fitting name might be "The exposition season" since that is mostly what happens in this one a lot of exposition, new characters and the background for said characters. In between the exposition there's titan drama and fight scenes which look great as the story slowly builds up to the cliffhanger to the final final season. Even though it is slow paced mostof the time, due to the new character introductions and the fact that there is a few years time jump from the last season to this one, I don't feel it ever gets right out boring. This is mostly due to the investment I allready have in the story, the beautiful art and well animated fight scenes. However as it trot along and it became clear that this in fact was NOT the final season the sens of it simply beeing required reading grew. Attack on Titan is still a solid show and I believe the final final season can be a 10/10, but this season left me slightly disappointed.
Mamiya-Takuji
03/28/2021, 08:52 AM
Attack on Titan: The Final Season is an ambitious project. Here we have the culmination of years worth of meticulous planning, foreshadowing and build-up. The narrative apex of what started out as a fairly straightforward survival story, now an intricate weaving of political drama, social commentary and grandiose action setpieces, with the best yet to come. To pull off a story of such epic scale on animation is not an easy task. Adaptations of the sort often struggle with several difficulties even getting off the ground, let alone actually doing justice to the source material. AOT has been blessed in this regard by an adaptationthat while not the most technically accomplished or smooth in terms of production, has remained consistently great thanks to its commitment to a strong artistic vision, incredible soundtrack and a genuine attempt at adhering to and properly conveying the events of its source material as well as it can. Not only did it do the manga justice, it often elevated scenes to another level thanks to the sheer strenght of its presentation. Shingeki fans are luckier than most. Momentum seemed to be in AOT's favor as we entered the most hyped up season of the show since its heyday back in season 1. Many fans were worried about the studio change at first, but also optimistic when it was revealed that MAPPA would be Wit’s replacement. 16 episodes later, I can confidently say that we got another strong adaptation on our hands, but not one without compromises or a fair share of vocal detractors and controversies. With a change of creative leads comes a different vision, so even if this season was produced under ideal circumstances, which it definitively was not, the difference in flair alone would’ve been enough to divide opinions. So in order to understand the full breadth of the situation, I will attempt to assess the oft-discussed schism between MAPPA and Wit, how their approaches differ, and then give my own thoughts on this season as a whole. As such, we need to first contextualize the circumstances surrounding the final season. ==THE PRODUCTION== AOT S1 was an effort of showmanship by then newcomer Wit Studio. Director Tetsuro Araki of Death Note fame, coming fresh off the heels of Highschool of the Dead and Guilty Crown, sought to form a team that would be up to the task of delivering the most bombastic and impressive action show they could make. From the gound up, it was meant to be Wit’s bold proclamation to the anime industry and fans around the world: we’re here and this is what we can do. Numerous as their production issues would end up being, and the staff nearly did almost collapse under the workload, they undeniably delivered a final product that all parties involved could be proud of. Season 4, on the other hand, is a bit of a different beast on a conceptual and philosophical level. It’s no industry secret that it had to deal with a tumultuous schedule. The team was hastily put together by getting everyone who was available at the time, which is the reason this season was particularly low on star animators and action directors when compared to previous outings. Not by the fault of director Yuuichirou Hayashi either, who’s just as capable at his job as Araki, but simply because the cimrcunstances surrounding the production wouldn’t allow for anything better. Rather than a showcase of the team’s full capabilities or a passion project, this was more about finishing off the job of another studio while trying to please the fans. I don’t mean this as a knock on the team at all, one can only imagine how daunting the pressure must’ve been, but it’s important to point out these distinctions. The fact that the final product turned out as good as it did, warts and all, is nothing short of a testament to the staff's incredible ability of making the best out of an awful situation. Nevertheless, the cracks do show and they only become more apparent the further we get into the final season. To take over the work of an accomplished team is a difficult proposition in itself, even moreso when said work is already extremely difficult to translate to an animated medium *and* has a history of hellish production cycles. To do so under turbulent circumstances, while needing to start from scratch, was bound to cause controversies. Though impressively enough, things started out pretty well for S4. There were the usual complaints about CGI and cut content here and there, but for the most part people seemed excited. That wouldn’t last when we got the first batch of episodes to “not live up” to expectations, resulting in assholes harassing the staff at social media. Sometimes even directors and animators who had nothing to do with the episodes said assholes had a gripe with in the first place. It was an embarassing situation all around. This eventually led to a state of affairs where fans of the season became perhaps too defensive at any criticism aimed at it while the more vocal detractors used it as an opportunity to lash out at the series in general. Amidst the harassment, the terrible schedule, the hyperbolic negativity masquerading as critique, insane amounts of trolling, and the fans and haters shouting at each other increasingly louder… Well, it became somewhat difficult to discuss this season's shortcomings in a level headed manner. To make matters worse, well intentioned fans pivoted to singing praises to MAPPA (#thankyoumappa trended on twitter) when they shouldn’t have. Praise the hard working staff, absolutely, they deserve it, but don’t validate MAPPA’s recklessness. Hardheaded as AOT's production committee may be, at the end of the day it was MAPPA who decided to take on such a huge project at the expense of their employees' wellbeing. When literally every other studio was sane enough to decline the absurd schedule imposed by Kodansha, even WIT Studio themselves, it was MAPPA who chose to throw their artists under the bus over prestige. It’s not the first time they’ve commited to more projects than they can reasonably handle either. Sure, they couldn’t have predicted the pandemic, but the schedule was already terrible even when not accounting for that. To defend them is to defend the anime industry's worst practices against its creators. Acknowledge their guilt if you want better for everyone involved. As a result, this season was a mixed bag in technical terms. A lot of attention has been drawn to the CGI titans which are, quite frankly, the one aspect the show handled the best. Most of them look very good and are well integrated within the anime’s visual style. They move well during action scenes and are animated in a way so as to mimick 2D movement, implementing techniques like frame skipping. Even the weaker ones like the Beast Titan are still considerably better than WIT Studio's attempts at CGI titans during seasons 2 and 3, which always looked jarring and out of place. This is one of the more frustrating aspects about the anime community: no matter how sensible their implementation or how good they look, people will still shit on 3D animation by the simple virtue that it isn’t 2D animation. What concerns me more is how bad the show can look some of the time. This season just isn’t as aesthetically beautiful as the previous ones, and it does not animate more fluidly to compensate either. There is an overreliance on bloom, chromatic aberration and other postprocessing effects, likely as a crutch to maintain a sense of visual consistency throughout the season. While that works well enough most of the time, it can just as often look like a blurry mess, specially during the latter half of the show. Flashbacks to previous seasons are smeared with effects to mask the shift in art style. Some of the compositing looks ugly. The colors either feel too muted or too overblown depending on the lighting. This is not to say the show can't look beautiful at times, and it does rely on good storyboarding to carry itself, but it never quite reaches the beauty of previous seasons or the full potential hinted at by the pre-release trailer. Some argue that MAPPA handles dialogue better, but aside from some Marley arc episodes the dialogue scenes in the Paradis arc are just as stiff if not more than WIT’s. Finally, the biggest loss of them all come in the form of the ODM gear sequences. These used to be among the most impressive visual displays of seasons past, full of fluid and dynamic camera shots mixing 2D and 3D animation. These are when the action animation directors really got to flex their muscles in their attempts to one-up each other, constantly pushing the envelope of what they were capable of. All of that is gone. ODM scenes now look extremely stiff and don't even attempt to mimick that same feeling of wild momentum. Even Levi, the show's favorite sasuga poster boy, didn't get a trademark jaw-dropping scene during what is likely to be his last big hurrah. Granted, it was always going to be difficult to follow up on Imai. The man wrote the book on how AOT’s action should look like and inspired his co-workers to follow on his footsteps. To match that while having to start your workflow from zero, without any of the specialists who had been building that skillset over the years, is a herculean task. But given more time I’ve no doubt the current staff could’ve done a much better job than what we got. I am sure that the consequences of the show's hurried schedule spread much deeper within the season's DNA than just its technical aspects. Less production time means less time for composing new music, rushed creative decisions, important scenes not receiving the priority they deserve, wonky transitions and pacing not getting corrected, and so on. As a result, S4 feels consistent but rarely exceptional when it comes to delivering memorable moments. While it sometimes elevates the source material, it just as often struggles to not crumble under its weight. It can be argued that MAPPA’s lows aren’t as low as Wit’s, but they never really come close to matching their highs either. ==A DIFFERENT APPROACH== So, all right, the season had exceptionally bad production problems. So what? I hear you asking. Just another day for the survey corps. Season 3 Part 2 had a fucked up schedule too and everyone loved it! This is true, though having a team who is already familiar with the material and has years of experience to fall back on makes all the difference. However, not all can be waved away under the umbrella of “production issues”. This is when we start getting into the more subjective aspects of this analysis that not everyone is going to see eye to eye with. Tetsurou Araki and Yuuchirou Hayashi are fundamentally different directors with their own sets of strengths, so it should be no surprise that their approaches to Attack on Titan are very different. Araki sports a boisterous style through and through, always aiming for bigger, faster and louder. Even in an anime about people writing on goddamn notebooks, he imbues it with such grandiosity and a kinetic energy that you rarely see matched elsewhere. A match made in heaven for Attack on Titan’s larger than life narrative, specially during those first few arcs more reliant on spectacle. It was that energy and confidence that fueled the first three seasons of Attack on Titan and made it such a tour de force that delivered its most iconic moments with gusto. Like his style or not, Araki delivered his scenes with such blaring confidence and pizazz that you couldn’t help but be swept away by his thunderstorm of emotions. Hayashi, on the other hand, takes a more understated approach to this season. I can’t say I am as familiar with the guy’s work so I have no idea if that’s just his signature or not, but it isn’t a bad match for AOT either. With the time-skip marking a significant shift in tone for the story, a more grounded style of presentation works well for the chapters covered here. Many people have described this season as feeling more like a “war movie”, and I can totally see what they mean by that. There’s this grounded grittyness to how Hayashi conveys the world of AOT. I can’t claim to be unbiased here. I loved Wit Studio and Araki’s “voice” for Attack on Titan and I was sad to see them go. It’s hard not to grow attached after so many years. Given the choice, I would pick them to animate S4P2 in a heartbeat. A part of me can’t help but wonder how certain scenes would’ve panned out with them in the driver’s seat. Would the low points be lower, but the highs much higher? Or were those highs impossible to achieve given the circumstances? How much can we chalk up to schedule, and how much to deliberate creative choices? One can only guess. A lot has already been discussed about the changes and when all is said and done it all boils down to preference. I’m not here to tell you how you should feel about either team, nor am I attempting to offer some faux-objectivist breakdown on who is better. I’ve just laid the facts and shared my views on the matter, you’re free to agree or disagree. All that said, Hayashi and his staff have every right to be proud of their work here. Henceforth, I will be judging them entirely on their own achievements from now on. Wit Studio can take a bow, they’ve more than earned it. Be aware that if you’re reading this review prior to watching the season, the next 2 sections will contain spoilers for the arcs they cover. Skip to Final Thoughts if you wish. ==THE OTHER SIDE OF THE OCEAN== The first few episodes of Attack on Titan: The Final Season do a fantastic job at setting the tone for the remainder of the show. More than any of the previous seasons, this feels like a war drama. While Titans are undoubtedly still the engine driving the main conflict, they take a bit of a backseat to the characters and the world they inhabit. Reiner’s character study during these first few episodes is perhaps the strongest character arc this season has to offer as he fills the role of the protagonist. His journey from big bro side character on S1, to antagonist in S2 and 3, to a deeply troubled and conflicted individual in S4 makes him one of the show’s stand-out characters to me. May his plot armor live long after the heat death of the universe, carrying all of our guilt and sins into the eternal void of space. While being significantly more slow paced than we’re used to, these first few episodes do a great job at slowly raising the tension as they progress. We are introduced to a whole new cast, setting and plot developments. The season’s more muted visuals actually work in its favor during this particular section of the story. There’s this foreboding atmosphere permeating every shot, a slow but steep climb of unease that signals something big is about to go off. No other episode encapsulates these feelings better than the first big turning point of the season: Declaration of War. Much has already been said about Declaration of War than I could possibly do justice during a series review. It is a masterful display on how to build tension and pacing, ultimately culminating in one of the AOT’s most defining moments. While I firmly believe the climax could’ve been done much better for multiple reasons (yes, poor ost choice being one of them, but not the only), it still stands as one of the best episodes the series has to offer. Marley’s climax only solidifies its greatness further by following up with The WarHammer Titan and Assault, the latter in particular being one of the series’ best action focused episodes yet, and finally concluding with Assassin’s Bullet, a hell of a gut punch to end this first half of this season. For better or worse, this is also when S4 peaks. ==AND HIS NAME IS...== Paradis comprises the second half of the season and is when the show starts to feel a little less polished. The animation is rougher, there are more stills and you can definitely feel the production starting to take its toll. Luckily enough, this section of the story is mostly focused on dialogue so these issues don’t negatively impact the show as much as they otherwise would. They do, unfortunately, remain noticeable until the end. Eren is the other stand-out character this season and the conflicts in this arc are entirely driven by him. Characters discuss and are motivated to act for or against him. Marley and War For Paradis marks a definitive turning point for his character from a reactive protagonist to an active force of change, an unstoppable agent of freedom. He becomes a fascinating character to watch as you never know exactly what he is thinking or what his true intentions are, arguably transitioning to the role of an anti-hero, villain protagonist or straight up antagonist depending on who you ask. His arc, alongside most other elements set-up during these episodes, unfortunately won’t see any pay-off until part 2 airs, so I won’t go into much detail. The biggest flaw of this arc and what ultimately holds this season back from living up to all it could be is that it ends just as things are about to hit their climax. The finale feels like any other regular episode and is definitely the least fullfilling one we’ve had so far. There is no resolution, just a big cocktease of a “to be continued”. It’s for the better considering the following events could not be done justice under the current schedule, but it still stings. Incomplete as it is, there are still some stand-out moments to be found here, from Gabi’s continued growth as a character leading to the confrontation at the restaurant, to Eren, Armin and Mikasa’s table scene, to Zeke’s flashback episode. YMMV on whether Levi vs Beast Titan round 2 stands among the greats or not as it is when you can most strongly feel the strains of this production with its jerky movements and unpolished feel due to a lack of in-betweens (and it’s not the only scene who suffers from this). I personally think they did a pretty good job all things considered and I’ll defend the use of K21 till my very last breath. ==FINAL THOUGHTS== I watched Attack on Titan back when it first aired in 2013. Episode 1 enraptured me in a way few anime premieres have done before or since. Whilst season 1 ultimately lacked in certain areas I thought were crucial for a story to truly carve its place among the greats, it was still a pretty cool action-horror thrill ride with a novel gimmick that left an impression on me. Maybe “too hyped up”, but frankly who gives a shit as long as you have a good time. I was excited at the prospect of a season 2 and anxiously waited for its announcement. Somewhere along the 4 years it took, I experienced other stories, found new hobbies and was at a completely different headspace than back when that first season aired. My interest had naturally declined and I believed myself to be over such a “basic” series. Season 2 came and went with some amount of fanfare but nowhere near as much as its predecessor, and so it was easy to ignore. Fast-forward to 2019 and I see the latest season of AOT carving its way up to MAL’s top 10. It got me curious but I briefly dismissed it as fanboy fervor. All the while, however, I kept hearing whispers. “Attack on Titan is actually really fucking good right now”, they said. “It’s almost like a completely different show now”, they proclaimed. “They revealed what’s in the basement”. All right, fine. I got curious enough to bite. I read the equivalent of season 1 through the manga in order to refresh my memory, laughed at the wonky art, and then jumped straight to season 2. I enjoyed it a bit more than I thought I would. Perhaps I had underestimated AOT after all. Season 3 had a few weak spots but somewhere along the way I found myself invested in those characters I previously didn’t care about. S3P2 exceeded all my expectations. I was a follower of Ymir once again and quickly switched to the manga. And now, a year and change later, here we are. When it comes down to it, I greatly enjoyed my time with Attack on Titan: The Final Season. It is by no means perfect. Its assortment of flaws are what stops me from giving it a higher score, and I would be lying if I said I’m not at least a bit disappointed at what could’ve been, but by no means does that make what we got bad. I’ve been waiting with bated breath to see some of these chapters adapted and for the most part they delivered. Those “certain areas” in which I thought AOT lacked all the way back in season 1 have been fully addressed at this point. This is the strongest the series has ever been in terms of writing and characters and it hasn’t even peaked yet. Even with everything stacked against them, director Yuuchirou Hayashi and his team stood up to the challenge and delivered something that, while lacking those same singular highs of the past, can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder among its peers. We got another quality adaptation when, by all means, this had all the ingredients of an unmitigated disaster. With the announcement that we’ll be getting part 2 this winter, I remain skeptical about whether this is a healthy schedule to deliver what are going to be by far the most resource intensive, difficult to adapt chapters of the entire show. I really don’t see why the rush to get this out the door when the manga is about to end and the hype is still going. At any case, here’s hoping for the best so we can finish this journey off with a bang. There is no “greatest anime of all time”. Not AOT, not FMA, not LOGH, not S;G, not HxH, not OP, not any of the animes in the entire top 100. There is no single “greatest anything of all time” across any artistic medium for that matter. For all the bickering, screaming and smug elitist posturing of every fanbase who deems themselves worthier than the other, the truth is the entirety of a medium’s richness cannot be properly distilled into a single work. You can have your favorite(s), but to proclaim it the greatest is haughty at best. There will never be a consensus on that, and it would be boring if it did. Even within individual genres there will be plenty of disagreements. What we do have, nonetheless, is a canon of works of exemplary quality whose legacy endures throughout the years. Those are the stories that stand the test of time, the classics, mainstream or cult. As it is, I can say I wholeheartedly believe AOT belongs to that group of exceptional anime. Regardless of how it ends, it has already delivered a narrative with more pathos than most.
prohli
03/28/2021, 08:47 AM
Alright I'll be talking about the final season, the manga and will also be acknowledging other anime like FMAB. First, let me talk about this season. The episodes were insane with the soundtrack, animation and the only drawback was the CG, which was pretty good too. So I'd give it a 9.5/10. Now let me address the manga and the hype around it. I've read every single chapter and it is honestly an incredibly well written piece of fiction with every single piece of the puzzle connecting. The characters are top tier and a few have had amazing development over the years. This season's change in perspectiveand showing that not everything is black or white and is just a spectrum is exceptional. A lot of anime just show the villain being a bad character and might show why they are doing so but not much. Whereas in AOT, you start to question whether the "bad" character is "bad" at all. After S3, I thought how could anyone push beyond this and boy did Isayama show me how. The story of S4 is phenomenal and it just gets better from here. S4P1 isn't even the pieck of AOT. So believe in the hype and just see how this goes, even if you don't like it now. Now, let me address other anime like FMAB. After finishing AOT(my 4th or 5th anime), it became my favorite and a lot of anime could have dethroned it from the #1 spot and I was waiting to see such an anime. I watched Code Geass and it was so good that it came close to being my favorite but I had to put it at #2 because of a few flaws. Then I saw the #1 anime on every anime list, FMAB and it being my 30th-ish anime, I had my expectations low because of all the trashy anime I had seen before it and it had a huge shot at being my favorite. After watching it, I saw why people call it a masterpiece and it was an incredible anime BUT it still wasn't good enough to beat AOT. It had a few flaws here and there, which is not that much because the overall story was phenomenal. But when I compare it to AOT, which I believe to be flawless (or at least having the least amount of flaws I have seen), it couldn't dethrone it. In my eyes, all 3 are masterpieces but AOT has proven itself to be #1 by having 3 of its episodes in the top 10 of IMDb and the only anime series in the top 10. So that was all I wanted to address in the review and again, this season is going to be amazing and I hope people can see why it deserves the top spot. Can't wait for part 2!!! (Btw this is coming from someone who once was not going to see the show, let alone make it his favorite)
SingleH
03/28/2021, 08:42 AM
If your expectation for Attack on Titan is an anime you can watch on a screen and hear with speakers, then this season will do you well, but if your expectations are a well directed, well organized story brought to life with beautiful animation crafted by a passionate team of talented artists and genius creatives, then you will be sorely disappointed, because unlike previous seasons, this production is so hideously ugly, you’d think Attack on Titan wasn’t the defining masterpiece of our era, which it most certainly is. There seems to be this odd and ignorant consensus pervading the fandom which suggests any and all criticismaimed at a poor product is somehow a direct insult to the workers who made it, and this is a shockingly immature worldview to espouse. Let me get one thing straight: you can say whatever you want about WIT Studio falling victim to Kodansha’s unfair and unreasonable production scheduling in the third season just like MAPPA is now, and how that lead to a double split-cour which ultimately wasn’t even enough to assure consistent quality throughout part two, but you must also admit pointing out these things is nothing more than a diversion from the far greater travesty of animation before you now. Attack on Titan: The Not-So-Final Season is a disgrace to the franchise which came before it on every visual level, and to say so is in no way to deride the overworked animation staff at MAPPA. Am I going to sit here and deny the existence of the throngs of rabid keyboard warriors on social media sending them death threats for producing such appalling CG and embarrassing 2D animation? No, but those people are foolish children with too much time on their hands, and by echoing their indisputably warranted criticisms, I and others like me are not justifying their acts of disrespect and harassment, so I urge you not to feel sorry for saying what you see clearly in front of you and criticizing it for what it is: an ugly, cheap anime. After episode six, I officially became a manga reader, since I simply could not let this atrocity be my first experience of Attack on Titan’s brilliant story, and what I found in the manga was absolutely stellar shot composition which I had previously thought was simply a product of Tetsuro Araki’s adaptation. Obviously, Araki’s heart-stopping visual direction and irreplaceable cinematic instinct made the anime adaptation what it ultimately was, but Hajime Isayama’s knack for framing an iconic single image when it mattered most still shouldn’t be overstated when the final season here has neither directorial flow nor memorable cinematics. The new character designs which pride themselves on their close resemblance to the original artwork found in the manga simply cannot use their adherence to the source material as a defense of their janky anatomy and inferiority to the beautiful artwork of Kyoji Asano, and the new music cannot use its passable composition as a defense of its utter incompatibility with Hiroyuki Sawano’s constantly recycled tracks. I understand this is a somewhat particular distinction to be made, but with the sheer amount of blatant animation shortcuts used throughout this season—not even counting the CG—season three part two looks like a studio trying their hardest while grappling with a ridiculous time table, whereas this looks like a studio using a ridiculous time table as an excuse to not try their hardest. But nevertheless, does the masterful writing save the day and make this thing worth watching? With how much is cut out, rearranged, and left unfinished, I would say no, but that doesn’t make it bad. If anything, the narrative has only gotten better and the themes have only gone deeper. With the basement and its contents finally revealed, the series had to occupy the world it so suddenly established and situate the story as we knew it within that world elegantly, and even with the content from the manga which got butchered in translation, it absolutely achieved this feat. As it demystifies Marleyan society and rationalizes the international bigotry towards the Eldian people, it builds the foundation for one of the most interesting and morally provocative conflicts I've yet to see portrayed in fiction, and it does so with complex characters who never fail to inspire emotion, or inspiration itself. While Attack on Titan: The Not-So-Final season is, indeed, not the final season, it’s still an adaptation of a manga, so it continues the story with more or less the same degree of excellence as the first three seasons did, and while it abruptly ends on a cliffhanger mid-arc, that’s more a testament to the fragile production than the source material, its quality of writing, or the acuteness with which said writing was brought to screen. One thing’s for sure, though, narratives as enthralling as this come once in a generation, and it’s a shame this one is receiving such paltry treatment. This review was originally going to be a lot more sentimental than it turned out to be. To cope with the extreme dejection I felt after watching such a dishonorable end to this once-great adaptation of an unequivocal masterpiece, I was going to try and write this review to examine the final season as a standalone work while simultaneously offering an all-encompassing retrospective on the modern classic that is Attack on Titan, but after WIT Studio dropped it and MAPPA shit it back out in such a visually repulsive and structurally incomplete fashion, I accepted the fact I couldn’t really do that anymore, and my enthusiasm burnt out along with the quality of the show itself. I’ve lost my motivation to even mind it anymore, and if the fact this season is among the highest rated anime on MAL didn’t make this obvious enough already, you all don’t seem to mind Attack on Titan anymore either. The reality that such a magnificently made work of art could receive such a stark downgrade yet still be well received by the exact same fanbase solely because they enjoy entertaining the mere idea of it is not only a sad reflection of the culture surrounding the work, but a cruel insult to the first three seasons which were only able to be the dazzling spectacles they were thanks to the back-breaking work ethic and tremendous talent of the original staff who so naively thought their admirable labor and impressive results weren’t lost on the audience, who’s appetite all can now clearly see as being apparently, totally mindless. Thank you for reading.
NextUniverse
03/28/2021, 08:38 AM
(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading) 最後の進撃が始まる。 Attack On Titan. But is it an attack on titans now, or maybe a bigger enemy at hand? I'm sure AOT needs no introduction, it is that one anime that has spammed up everyone's YT recommendations with drip memes, Eren table scene memes, 10 hour fuck Gabi videos and her getting beat up,ｔｈｉｃｃｋａｓａ if you dived that deep into the culture. When the first episode of the final season came out, it was so powerful not even telling my dad for the Crunchyroll to work was possible. When I say this anime is something else in termsof internal and external events, I mean that this anime is something else. God knows when we are getting another community and anime like this ever again. I am glad I was here to experience this bit of the trek with others like myself and beyond. I could go on and on about the moments shared. But I must write a review for now. Narrative: I may sound like a hardcore fanboy, but I am going to explain why I think this is a 10/10 narrative. I would also like to believe that people reading this review are aware of the references I will make to previous seasons. Ok cool. Starting off the final season, we get a bit of insight into the enemies on the other side of the sea. From initial impressions, it can be told that this nation, which uses children in warfare, is clearly lost in morale. And that is the slow building of this new true evil enemy of humanity, Marley. How AOT goes around building this empire of Marley is an interesting one. Marley has qualities of a fascist, imperialistic, tyrannical nation that can be converged to past real-life nations in human history. Those qualities don't just exist for the sake of it too, it is part of the long prejudice against Eldians, in which Marley exploits that to grow themselves and their dominance around the world. It is that which starts a whole chain of events. A serious chain. AOT FS story is focused on the cycle of hate, the consequences it has and the action people want to take due to it. Everything that has ever happened so far in the story from start to end (as of now) the cycle of hate continues to prevail in high life, all the while both sides suffer from nothing but losses. That is where the story really shines, the story plays two events on both sides of the spectrum, one we already know and love, Eren's side, and the other we are made to hate Gabi's side, it does a good job at making us hate Gabi's side of the story too, but when you look into it, who is wrong in this mindless loop of destruction? Both sides have given birth to a nation that seeks to exploit and dominate in an imperialistic fashion, the other gives birth to a literal bakemono, a Monster, the devil himself if you really want to go there. The story does a really good job of making those find more important questions. No one here's truly wrong because, in war, both sides believe in what they are doing to be the just cause of action. Both sides are deluded by their beliefs so much so that there isn't a spec of question as to if they might be ever so slightly wrong in their actions. Everyone becomes a victim of their surroundings. It is a fantastic way to really emphasize this world of AOT. From the start, it is clear that the hate got too many characters to the point of joining the army at a young age and leaders making up false stories for the sake of maintaining status. The world is cruel, and it sure as hell shows it here. Characters are really something else in AOT. I want to first get rid of two characters that I found obviously flawed in the anime. Those two being Mikasa and Armin. In simple terms, the former is still a hardcore simp, the latter is still a hardcore weakling. How they don't change after all these years is beyond me. If Eren's drip game can go from 0 to 100, wouldn't it make sense his childhood friends caught on? But in all seriousness, I never quite understood the purpose of Mikasa and Armin. They are annoying, part of the reason I don't like them too much, but I acknowledge that annoying =/= bad character. The bad qualities of them should I say lie in what purpose they serve to the story as of the Final Season in my opinion. Mikasa has some benefit of the doubt given to her, she is starting to open up that Eren's apparent downfall is not one that wishes the best of him in his future, she even goes out of her way to question whether or not he is doing the right thing, but again, for the sake of the story, she needs to brainlessly be there for Eren even when my boy is committing various war crimes in the former Eldian empire. She was going places but easily lost herself due to a static character within her. Her "development", if you can even call it that, is a stretch in my opinion. She makes no effort to do anything she wouldn't normally do for a nice change in character, especially during these god awful times that both sides have faced. To be fair, Mikasa is supposed to be this life devoting girl to Eren because he saved her, but no development is absurd on quite a few levels, making her less of a believable character. Armin is still the same dude he was from the start, I honestly don't know why he too hasn't changed, actually, it would make sense that having the successor of human's greatest leader would feel like a burden, but all that time to train apparently meant nothing, well okay then. No development here to be pleased of. Now, for the real MVPs. Eren. The dude is one of my favourite characters in the series, and not because he does an edgelord moment, but his change from the start to the end whilst still being consistent is quite satisfying and understandable to view. When Eren said he was gonna kill his enemies, he wasn't playing games. He did everything in his power to make that try and this season shows the beginning of such a change of heart. Gabi. The annoying girl? But is she really? I remember when it was very easy to hate on Eren because of quite a similar personality, I was the same in that boat. Everything she does is justifiable despite being executed in a way to annoy the audience. Past the clouds and she isn't really any different from other characters like Eren. Hate grew on her, and she is fighting for the sake of the people she cares about, sounds a little bit like Eren does it not? Overall, I think Gabi is quite an interesting character, though, unlike Eren, she is portrayed on the wrong side of the story, giving her a different experience than Eren's life, the person she is most similar to. Her character plays out quite well if I am honest, the truth which she faces, later on, the reaction of which makes for a tragic life for Gabi honestly. Great writing overall for her. Reiner. Gigachad hella swagger Reiner drip glow up. In seriousness, Reiner is one of the best characters in the series. He understands a lot more about the world and the harsh reality he has to face due to the brainwashing and control of Marley, he is a victim of the situation. A tragic one after what he has had to face during so. I feel quite bad for the dude but it goes to show like Gabi, he was part of the corrupted system which devalued his life so much that he was lost of everything. Zeke is one I want to get a little into too, later on in the story he plays a big role in everything that goes down, but there is more than meets the eye with Zeke. you being to understand his motives a bit more and why he did the things he does, an intriguing monke, to say the least. AOT uses a lot of explicit themes in the story to give it the acclamation it has, like revenge, hate, dystopia, but one of the more implicit themes to be shared is influence. I have noticed that every character in AOT as a child has been influenced in some way. Eren with his past trauma growing into hatred, Gabi the same without the trauma, more like a duty. Reiner the same, but it is based on duty rather than anything else, Zeke would get into spoilers, but you will see what I mean when you get there. AOT does well at this and has made for more believable characters in the grand scale of things, past experiences will have a lot on what you say as you grow up. It also makes me think that on both a superficial and intramural level, the story has something to share regardless of how deep you dive into it. There aren't a lot of stories out there like this one. One of a kind honestly. Audiovisuals: The visuals are an iffy situation, I would be a liar to say I enjoyed the visuals all the way, but notes to take into account are, watch this at a minimum of 720p HD quality, and try to get used to the CGI early on. The CGI really got to me in particular but I got used to it in the end, it is quite unfortunate that Mappa had been given a really bad schedule, it was borderline impossible to make great sakuga all the way through, welcome to the anime industry where money is a top priority, but that's a story for another time. I understand that there wasn't any substantial time for Mappa to even make 10/10 animation, but it doesn't excuse the fact that this isn't the best thing in the world. It isn't. So I didn't see this as anything of glory for the most part, however, even with a bs schedule, Mappa did actually have quite a bit of moment where there were just great scenes overall, their 2D animation and was still amazing to hold onto the tragic reality Mappa faced. They also have amazing camera work, which made most scenes that much more impactful. I could name a few but they would go into spoilers. This is a tragic category, but it is one that I still found some goodness in. I have been meaning to only give 10/10 audio to only Clannad's OST, but that changes today, not that numbers meant much to begin with, but you know. AOT FS doesn't suffer from any kind of lack in the soundtrack to the point where innovation is needed, it also has a wide range of sounds that feature more or less anything that produces a sound, basically, this has it all, the great sound is clearly prominent in this series and has clearly shown that these pieces were composed. So many great tracks to remember, be it due to controversy or just the hype surrounding the said OST brings. OP and ED are in the same boat, I can't say both tracks have left my head at all and on the visuals side of things they are completely memorable and original. Amazing sounds. Nothing less. I also need to talk about the seiyuus because they did an outstanding performance, it is burnt into the memory of how well they performed, generally amazing on everyone's side. You won't see acting like this in a good while I tell you, endorse it now whilst it is still there. Enjoyment: There are a lot of things very enjoyable about AOT FS. Most of mine comes from an external experience, in talking to fans about the philosophy of the characters, what might be upcoming and which side are you on. You can do this with yourself internally too, it depends on how you look at it really. Universal enjoyment is really what I just said, mostly about asking yourself the different questions this has to offer, there is no wrong answer which makes it all the more interesting. Random theories come out of nowhere but they could hold water. Is all fair in war? At the end of the day, AOT allows you to build your own enjoyment of what it gives to you. Other side factors directly within the anime include hype moments and fight scenes you are just dying for. Whilst they aren't the best, they are still extremely good and something that I find myself looking forward to at times. AOT needs to have its action here and there to satisfy both parties I guess. In saying that, I do have to point out that a lot of people get a bit bored with the slowness of episodes containing no action and serving as plot-based episodes, I would agree slightly, but it is the same slow journey that is worth the while. You just need to prevail. All in all, AOT does a good job of allowing everyone to enjoy themselves. There's something for all in this gem. Overall - 9.6 (10) ---------- TLDR Review: Story - 10: Philosophical questions, political troubles, generally very intriguing story to find yourself immersed in. Visuals - 9: Yes the CGI isn't the best, but it is actually used quite well, 2D animation still amazing and Audio - 10: Amazing OST, OP, ED and seiyuus. It is one of a kind here. Characters - 9.5: Slight hiccup in a few characters, everyone else Enjoyment - 9.5: Very minor complaint, sometimes episodes are less intriguing than others, but most of the time the hype is still there and this is something to look forward to. Overall - 9.6 (10) ---------- Before I cut this review off, I really want to put out there this amazing things have gone down with everything in relation to AOT, good or bad, these events were something to witness, getting a following like this again for new manga, which will eventually turn into popular manga, into anime, into popular anime, into a global success, doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. I am glad I was here when this season aired, experiencing all the events that went down lol. Truly monumental moment.
Kyxor
03/28/2021, 08:38 AM
Shingeki no Kyojin,a title with many hidden meanings, is a series where a mystery box is slowly unveiled as the characters get developed and the viewer gets more interested in the story as a whole. It isn't the kind of story where one can predict what can happen next. Marley? Eldia? Rumbling? I'd consider you crazy if you told me about these during the first 5 episodes of season 3 part 2. It should also be mentioned that it is a story that can make one question their own morality as the characters come into dilemmas, as there's no black and white, just shades of gray,every character is a villain to another character, no matter who they are. This creates questions on who's right and wrong on viewer's minds, and I'm a sucker for such stories. Now, time to get to rating individually. Story: 10/10 I feel like crying from joy and get pumped with adrenaline each time i think about the story of Shingeki of Kyojin as a whole. A story that has made me cry, made my heart race, and made my mind blow with all the plot twists and original story writing methods. Not only that, but the story as a whole changed my whole perspective as a human, to the better. From the edgy shitty little piece of shit I was, admiring to be ooo very cool dark and all, it has transformed me into a being thirsting for truth, thirtsing for discussion regarding freedom,peace history and all. So, for that, from my depths of my heart, I wanna thank the author, Mr.Hajime Isayama. Art: 10/10. I really really really like the more realistic approach to the human characteristics of the characters, makes them feel more relatable and also the colours convey the feelings that the viewer should be feeling. People keep complaining about the blur tho, which in my opinion is something that adds more realism and i enjoy it alot. Sound:10/10 Flawless, part of appleseed played in the end of the episode 4. I expect more reused and news from Hiroyuki sawano, and Kohta yamamoto is really splendid with both aciton themes and chill themes. I should also praise the opening, ''Boku no Sensou'', it is a visual horror which describes war, as war cannot be described exactly with words, the singer sung ''Ba-ba-ri-as-ras-ti-ti-ti-ras-ti-ba...'', and it's up to us to get the meaning of the song, just like the story. Character:10/10 Lord praise the realism in these characters- From Marco to Marlo, the unforgettable total side characters. We felt them as real people, Marco, if he was alive for longer could have become my favourite character of all fiction instead of Armin. All of the characters interact nicely and realistically, not to mention that everyone has developed from season 1. Eren overcame his feelings of anger taking over Mikasa overcame her feelings of love taking over Armin overcame his feelings of fear taking over Jean overcame his cockiness Erwin was explored emotionally more, unlike other tryhard stoic failed commander type characters. Levi is the seemingly perfect guy but has an endless ammounts of failures and flaws that aren't seen etc etc. Enjoyment: 10/10 How can you not enjoy a series where each episode expands it's world and progressess its plot as characters get developed and gets more build up that will lead into a really great episode? Attack on titan isn't the kind of anime to waste it's time on filler episodes. It never ever had an episode which never progressed the story. I never felt bored watching it nor rewatching it and nor will i ever be, for i happen to re-watch 2-3 episodes of specific arcs oftenly just for the enjoyment. Overall: 10/10 Thank you so much, Mr.Hajime Isayama. This has inspired me to draw, write, and apply poets into poetry contests at my school, Shingeki no Kyojin holds a very special place into my heart, and I'll probably be re-watching it on a yearly basis, as i'm also looking forward to buying the manga, the games and the blu-rays. Thank you so much once again, Mr.Hajime Isayama
Inferno792
03/28/2021, 08:35 AM
Attack on Titan is a modern masterpiece. It’s not just a piece of fiction which has thrown quality season after season, it’s also one of the very few anime to have broken into the mainstream, so much so that people who do not watch anime at all have experienced and loved it. The emergence of the first season of Attack on Titan drove the series’ popularity to levels rarely seen before in the medium. The long wait before the release of season 2 was a major reason (along with certain pacing issues with the manga at the time) for the dying interest in the seriesat the time. By the time S2 aired, Attack on Titan wasn’t the global phenomenon anymore. One Punch Man had broken the mold in a similar vein to AoT S1 and become the new big anime amongst casuals and non anime watchers. Then came Season 3, and the series was roaring back. The interest in the series had never been higher, and fans flocked back in droves to have their questions answered. Many began viewing the first two seasons in new light once the revelations showcased the intricate planning and immense foreshadowing that had gone under their noses when they’d watched it first. For me, Attack on Titan was always great. Never has an anime made me feel so hopeless if I viewed the world from the perspective of the characters. The absolute mystery surrounding the titans for most of the first season along with stunning animation for fights, memorable OST for almost any scene and emotional dialogue delivered by passionate voice actors made for an unforgettable experience. Season 2 and 3 bring in more revelations, slowly unfolding the mysteries of the world and the titans and shifting the themes of the series. Season 4 has another tonal shift - much greater than previous ones - and it handles it with aplomb. A change in studios has often led anime series to ruin. The aforementioned OPM was one of the recent big victims of it, but other popular series like Seven Deadly Sins have also suffered due to it and never recovered. Fortunately, MAPPA have handled the transition well. They haven’t been perfect (more on that later), but all in all, they’ve done a good job producing a new season of what is probably the most popular anime of the last decade. The start of S4 might have left some people wondering where the original cast went. There’s not just a change of cast in the first few episodes, but also a switch in perspectives. We’re no longer seeing things from the side of Paradis and the Scouts. Instead, we now see it from the view of Marley’s warriors, who’re training to inherit the titans from their predecessors once their time runs out. Gabi and Falco want to inherit the armor but Reiner, i.e. the plot armored titan (Sorry, had to use this once I saw it on Reddit) can’t catch a break. Someone, grant him his wish to die. Eren’s growth as a character is one of the highlights of Attack on Titan as a series. He wasn’t always a fan favorite because of his hotheaded nature, but as time went on, his perspective of the things around him changed, most noticeably multiple times throughout season 3. Come season 4, his character undergoes a paradigm shift; calm and sympathetic, yet ruthless. As his famous quote goes, “I won’t stop moving forward until all my enemies are destroyed.” He’s a lot more distant, not just to everyone else in the show but also to the viewers. Unlike previous seasons, his thoughts are a mystery and the season clearly displays the divide between him and the other old Scouts. The handling of his growth as a person and a titan shifter is outstanding, firstly in the manga and then in the anime. Yuki Kaji, the voice actor, supported this exponential growth by exceeding expectations on character delivery. I especially love how well he’s transitioned seamlessly along with Eren as a character and nailed almost every line. There’s hardly a line Eren has spoken in season 4 that isn’t extremely significant to the story. Oh Gabi! Where do I even begin? She’s supposed to be the female parallel to pre timeskip Eren, but apart from some core traits like being stubborn, she isn’t really that similar to him. Gabi hates the Eldians from Paradis for no other reason other than that she thinks they’re devils and should suffer for the crimes of their ancestors. Eren was stubborn, headed into almost unwinnable battles without a second thought. However, his reasons to hate the titans were justified. His mother was eaten in front of him by a titan, his home destroyed and tens upon hundreds of his comrades butchered by titans in cold blood. He fought for his freedom, and humanity’s. Gabi, on the other hand, hates Eldians without having seen any of them. She kills people for glory, just for some useless praise. And without spoiling anything, I’ll also add that she’s a hypocrite with her iconic line that’s become prevalent in memes now “But did you see it happen?”. In her defence, she’s a twelve-year-old girl who’s been brainwashed so it’s hard to not give her some benefit of the doubt. But boy, is she annoying! She’s actually portrayed a lot better at the start of the Marley arc in the anime than in the manga, so I didn’t dislike her as much. She’s neither a bad character nor a great one, but she serves her purpose. Onto Falco, then. My cute, lovable boy, are you sure you had the same upbringing as Gabi? He’s her polar opposite, able to empathize with his enemies and an antithesis for every one of Gabi’s morals. He views things from a wider angle, often showing maturity way beyond his years. He might not be as naturally gifted as Gabi but he’s a whole lot more likeable. From posting letters for injured people to helping his enemies who shun him instead, this good boy has it all covered. He’s one of the beautiful things in this cruel world. Pieck is the new waifu that every fan seems to be simping over; Reiner and Zeke share the title of best character amongst the Marleyans for me. Their internal struggles and motives, some of which are only seen by viewers, make a significant contrast to their outer persona, and this holds especially true for Zeke. Jean remains the character who makes the viewers question their morals because he questions his own and that’s what I love about him. He’s another one who’s come a long way since the cadet days. Did you think I’d have forgotten Floch? He might’ve been a forgettable side character who didn’t even have a distinct design before S3 P2 (Isayama has himself admitted as much), but he’s one of the stars of season 4, running the show like the chad that he is. He’s an extremist and his actions are brutal; at times, it seems as if he’s doing it to sate his own ego and hate towards those who’ve imprisoned him and his race behind the walls. But despite all this, he’s one of the most entertaining characters post time skip. He’s unpredictable, spunky and has the audacity to pull off stunts that might’ve had your jaws slacking on the floor more times than one. And who can forget the “shh?” King Floch has unquestionably engraved his name as an Attack on Titan legend. There are so many excellent characters in Attack on Titan that the review would be too long if I talked about all of them, so I’ll stop here. The character designs in Season 4 see a distinct change, and that’s not all to do with the timeskip or the change in the studio. It’s a mixture of both. To anyone who’s read the earlier chapters of the Attack on Titan manga, it’s no secret that the art at the start was mediocre. Wit Studio did a great job of enhancing the character designs and the art in general, especially in S1. MAPPA on the other hand have stuck closer to the manga art style for characters (apart from beautifying Armin as compared to the manga, their reasons for which I’d like to know). So there’s a slight change in the art style because they’re following Isayama’s art a lot more closely. The animation of S4 has been the most talked about point, and for good reason. I’ll mince no words: some of the CGI was downright terrible. There was some genuinely impressive CGI like the Jaw titan, but some very important scenes involving the Attack Titan and Beast Titan were horrendous. It’s not the animators who’re to blame for this but the greed of the production committee and the manga publishers who wanted to have S4 airing before the end of the manga to boost sales. For almost any other anime, I would’ve let even the terrible CGI scenes slide, but this is Attack on Titan, one of the most popular and highly acclaimed anime ever, and surely it deserved the best treatment possible. Unfortunately, it didn’t get that. Does it make the season bad? Of course not since the season covers one of the best arcs in the manga and the adaptation itself was faithful with top tier voice acting. Could better animation elevate S4 of Attack on Titan to higher levels? Greatly. My biggest problem with the titan CGI was that it just broke immersion. One moment we had fluid 2D animation, the other we had some janky CGI lacking weight, which made me pause and check if I was still watching Attack on Titan. I’ve re-watched these scenes multiple times and every time, I came to the same conclusion: Attack on Titan deserves better. Remember the marvelous scenes with ODM gear we got in the first three seasons or the titan fights or Levi vs the Beast Titan? Unfortunately, we don’t get that level of animation in season 4, and while understandable given the time constraints, it’s disappointing nevertheless. The CGI wasn’t always as bad, but had enough prevalence in the most important moments (Eg: Attack Titan vs Warhammer Titan) to be a stain on an otherwise stellar season. We have some new and honestly breathtaking tracks added to the already great OST from S1 - S3. One of the highlights in the sound composition this season is that there were different composers depending on whose perspective a scene is shown from. For Paradis, we have Hiroyuki Sawano back with all our favorites from previous seasons while Kohta Yamomoto handled the Marleyan side, giving us bangers including Ashes on the Fire. I missed the old OST in the first few episodes because I was worried they’d underuse S1-S3 OST, but they did not. It wasn’t used much because the initial episodes take place from the perspective of the Marleyans. Honestly, having different composers for either side of the conflict seems like a superb choice and helps immersion. The only real criticism I have about the sound was the OST choice in some scenes in the latter part of the season. And no, I’m not talking about the basement scene here. I thought the basement scene OST choice was great. Similar to the OST, it took a while for me to warm up to the OP, but looking back now, it’s great and suits the themes of S4. This was a common opinion amongst the community; the majority seemed to have disliked My War for the first couple episodes, then it just grew on people and now it sets the tone for the rest of the episode. Now that Attack on Titan’s final season (Part 1) has ended, it’ll be intriguing to see what route MAPPA takes for the rest of the adaptation. There’s anywhere between 13-16 episodes of content left to cover, depending on the pacing. Will the production committee see Attack on Titan as a chance to make hundreds of millions of dollars in a movie format or will we have Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 (lol), only time will tell. I’m not against either, as long as they take enough time and pour passion into making it. I don’t mind waiting longer if it means getting the best production values. Hopefully, that’s the case.
An1meDweeb
03/28/2021, 08:26 AM
Tl;Dr: AoT S4 interrogates its own past, proving to audiences just why this giant deserves to stay relevant, 7 years after its premiere. Using the Basement reveal to great effect, S4 opens our eyes to more perspectives in this miserable conflict. Constantly drawing parallels to precedents from past seasons, AoT isn't afraid to recontextualize its formula and challenge ideas that were once accepted without second thought. It's not the strongest AoT has ever been, but has every opportunity to achieve those peaks in a sequel as inevitable as the incoming war. 8/10~ *** Walls have long been synonymous with the cruel world of Attack on Titan (AoT). Fromthe series' opening moments, these monolithic structures tower over a civilization fighting for survival. On its last legs, mankind makes a final stand with aspirations as high as the barriers themselves: to defeat the enemy and claim the freedom that they rightfully deserve. But in almost 60 episodes of high-octane television, the franchise's trademark bravado gives way to a sinister realization. Perhaps the Walls were never meant to keep the devils out, but to trap them in. With the secrets of the Basement uncovered, the stakes have been reinvented. Just as freedom seemed ever so tangible for Eren, Mikasa and Armin; S4 places yet another obstacle in their path - one which will take them far beyond the shores of Paradis, and one which will irrevocably tear down the lines between hero and villain. There is no longer Right or Wrong on the battlefield; only Fear persists. "War makes monsters of us all." This review is spoiler-free for plot details in S4, but will refer to all prior seasons. With all that out of the way: "Susume." To understand how AoT's latest chapter succeeds, we first need to discuss the game-changing Basement reveal. Naturally, I was skeptical of whether author Hajime Isayama could address the many questions dating back to his story's beginning. The secrets of Grisha's household was always a big driving force for Eren's journey, and it'd be difficult to look back on past episodes fondly if Isayama dropped the ball with his big twist. Thankfully, the Basement reveal proved to be a masterclass in mystery-box storytelling. Providing satisfying answers without the use of plotholes or retcons is a big achievement, but alone isn't what makes these revelations so stellar. Rather, the genius of this premeditated twist lies in how it introduces a new perspective from which we can experience this grand saga unfold. Once the truth came to light, AoT would be changed forever. S4's introductory arc hits the ground running on uncharted territory. It doesn't take long for the show to make us realise we're a long way from Paradis. Aerodynamic ODM hijinks are traded for conventional trench warfare, monsters from millenia past make way for modern weapons of destruction, and familiar war-torn faces are replaced by new ones - those of young, sprightly children on a siege battlefront. S4's opening salvo boldly thrusts its audience onto enemy soil; but make no mistake, this is AoT through-and-through. While the context has changed dramatically, the same themes and ideas introduced since the very beginning are being expanded upon and reimagined. AoT reinvents the wheel and finds sympathy for the devil. In contrast to the rapid-fire info dump in the S3P2 episode "That Day," our return to Marley patiently details the various struggles of the evil nation's inhabitants. The use of Titans in warfare kept Marley prosperous for a century, but history teaches us that empires are destined to fall. Other nations have levelled with the former tyrant, and their scrappy spoils of war mark a massive fall from the iron-clad world dominance held in ages past. To a nation edging towards the brink of collapse, their neighbors in Paradis pose a fearsome threat that would certainly prove fatal. With attempts at seizing Eren's rogue Founding Titan only resulting in further colossal losses to their military strength, Marley's position of power lies solely in their control of the narrative. The country's false account of Paradis' past atrocities pits the greater world against an unknown threat, and Marley's Eldians against their own blood. With this backdrop in mind, we observe the tragedy of a disjointed race of outcasts born into a world that seemingly has no place for them. Eldia is a house divided, with neither half fully able to stand against their Marleyan masters. Both groups are products of mass subjugation, and S4 claims that the internment Eldians may have received the short end of the stick. In spite of the King's Vow and a vicious fight for survival against the Titans, Paradis is Paradise, because its human inhabitants are spared from ever doubting their place as the good guys. Contrast them with the marginalized Eldians of Marley, whose dehumanized existence is defined by sins of the past. It's an uphill battle, as they are cast down the lower rungs of a merciless social ladder and conditioned to accept self-hatred as a necessity of life. Breaking out of this systematic oppression is what motivates the Warrior candidates, Eldian militants devoted to proving their Marleyan allegiance on the battlefield. With false anti-Eldian propaganda forced down their throats, these soldiers can only repress their humanity as they vie for the coveted Warrior status. Even this best-case scenario confines the "lucky" few to 13 years of relentless battle, perpetuating a vicious cycle as one Titan Shifter makes way for the next. It's sad to take in the imagery of child soldiers Gabi and Falco, as they cling onto their flimsy rhetoric in a vain attempt to find order in the sick chaos that surrounds them. While Gabi's abrasive actions drew the ire of countless seething fans^, the script's portrayal of these tragic figures is commendable, especially given the risks involved in fleshing out antagonists so late into the narrative. While the sinful children turn to their history books for solace, that comforting illusion of being in the right has begun to show its cracks for some. The battle-hardened Reiner finds himself caught in an ideological crossfire. His cryptic origins are finally explored in-full during this season, detailing the misfortune of having to fight alongside both his motherland and his foes. His split-personality disorder emerged as a result of his time spent behind enemy lines, and coming to terms with Marley's subjugation of Paradis pushed our Armored Titan to his psychological breaking point. Reiner, Gabi and Falco are all forced to confront the suffering dealt by their war cause. No longer is there any comforting doctrine to absolve them from their sins. Warrior Commander Magath says it best, in what is probably my new favorite line in all of AoT: "There is no doubt that Eldians are the spawn of the devil. And there is no doubt that we are devils ourselves." Marley's generational sins are coming back to haunt the nation. It's no coincidence that S4's opening arc closely mirrors the invasion that kicked off the franchise. Much like that first battle in Shiganshina, S4 uses its own powerful moments of despair as a launchpad for the ensuing conflict. This time around, the parallel is recontextualized, as S4 turns the invaders into the invaded. We're presented injustices without innocence, as Marley reap what they sow. At the same time we're shown an enemy coerced into violence as a means of escaping a system of oppression. It's not enough to absolve the internment Eldians of their wrongdoing, but speaks volumes about how Isayama has chosen this new phase of his story. S4 pulls the curtain on everything we thought we knew, finding tragic ambiguity in a conflict that was once simple. AoT achieves this not only through finding sympathy for the devil, but also by smashing its façade of heroism. The franchise's identity has long been rooted in these soldiers' self-sacrificial blazes of gory glory. Adrenaline-pumping hype was all but guaranteed, as badass scouts sliced-and-diced their way through hordes of giants to the beat of Sawano's steampunk OST. Laying their lives on the line and giving their hearts, mankind would stop at nothing to keep moving forward. Eren and his comrades were fighting for freedom, and as massive manga sales figures (of over 100 million!) would indicate, us passionate fans were rooting for 'em. As I mentioned before, Paradis' place as the good guys was always certain. Rarely were we asked to call our heroes' past actions into question, because their goals were clear and good - kill Titans and claim freedom. But what happens when that fleeting freedom gives way to an unforgiving destiny? S4 is a sobering deconstruction of its own winning formula. As a Marleyan insider makes the full extent of Eren's powers public, all of Paradis face a dilemma regarding their fate. The mysterious plan could finally secure freedom for the Eldians, deterring the world from annihilating the devils' island. In this new context, old trends make a resurgence. The military remains suspicious of the insider's true motivations, and their inaction seeds distrust among the masses. While us audience members may know that Paradis' government is working for the nation's best interest, it's hard to ignore that their puppet monarchy was achieved through a fascist takeover of the old system. How is their inefficiency that much better than the conspiratory ways of the Reiss reign? Their weak attempts at diplomatic relations are insufficient at appeasing the people, resulting in the emergence of a cult. Dubbed the Jaegerists, this secret society enacts a coordinated strike on the military government. The cult hails Eren and the insider's scheme as divine salvation, and their near-deranged devotion bears strong resemblance to the Wall Priests from past seasons. A chilling demonstration of their desperate faith cemented itself as one of my favorite moments in the entire franchise; as an anti-militant mob chants the ever-familiar "Shinzo Sasageyo" back at their opponents, turning a noble call to action into a bloodthirsty mantra. As the domestic chaos ensues, we're moved to wonder just what Paradis stood to gain from "giving their hearts." Glorified in the past, AoT's heroes are rebuked in the present. Hange, starting out with hopes of changing the old ways that preceded her, now finds herself caged in Commander Erwin's shadow. Armin is forced to accept that diplomacy with other nations will prove ineffective in securing safety for Paradis, as he harnesses the Colossal Titan's destructive power. His loyalty is called into question, with his connection to Bertholdt's memories drawing distrust. Isayama also doesn't spare Mikasa from his scrutiny, as her formidable character comes apart in decisive fashion. Meanwhile, Levi is forced to eat his own words as he laments over the vain loss of countless comrades over the years, because he could never have determined whether trusting in Eren's power was right or wrong until he arrived at the bleak outcome of the present. And as for Eren himself, the strong-willed fighter has been overhauled and nearly unrecognizable. He has emerged as the most resolute figure out of the entire cast, as well as the most inhuman. Eren represents a naive wish for freedom taken to its ideological extreme, and the revelation of his true intentions takes the franchise to the darkest it's ever been. What is right has become unclear, what is wrong has proven necessary. And it's in the death of those moral constructs that we are able to observe a world driven by fear and hatred above all else. Marley and Paradis are nations trapped in a realist zero-sum game; even though Armin's hopes for diplomacy and cooperation yield the optimal solution for both sides' concerns, fear of the unknown dictates their decisions, leaving them with no other outcome than mutually-assured destruction. Just as lost children stumble their way around a forest, so do soldiers struggle to make the right choice in the heat of battle. All we have are our instincts, the greatest of which being fear. AoT's consistency appears to be a double-edged sword in some aspects. AoT's weaknesses are just as present as its strengths, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. Flaws that I'd attribute to the series don't feel like mistakes, but rather a natural consequence of the kind of story Isayama intends to tell. For example, the show's characters are still mostly one-note and thinly-written, but act as superb vehicles for AoT themes as a result. The worldbuilding and narrow political thesis behind the Marleyan-Paradis conflict only functions off unrealistic conditions, but it's because fabricated reality that we're able to witness this truly epic thought experiment. Even though former AoT director Tetsuro isn't on-board this season, it seems that his over-the-top facial reactions and melodrama still found their way into S4. While AoT certainly handles most of its large-scale battle sequences more effectively than its smaller confrontations, it's in these unnerving expressions that showcase our suffering characters giving into their inhuman instincts. For a "battle shounen," the amount of action in S4 is surprisingly lacking, but I'm pleased to see that myself and many others have grown so invested in the painstaking depiction of Isayama's twisted world. The few action sequences we do get do fall ever so slightly short of the gold standard we've grown to expect, but MAPPA have done a mostly remarkable job in handling its animation. CGI usage isn't as rampant here as Twitter makes it out to be, with its infrequent recurrences still blowing the industry standard out of the water. Plus, the change in art direction serves the show incredibly well, capturing a more modern time period while still facilitating Isayama's distinct style. *** STRAY RAMBLINGS (SPOILERS): - ^Real talk, Gabi gets too much hate. It's definitely justifiable to hate her actions and character, but she holds up as a great vehicle for expressing Isayama's message about the dangers of basing your life around political rhetoric and propaganda. Observing audience reactions surrounding her character reminds me of Skyler White from Breaking Bad. The vitriol unjustly targeted at antagonists that are doing their job as, well, antagonists - that just baffles me. The memes are admittedly fire tho, I'll give ya' that. - Scene of Connie and Sasha realizing their mutual stupidity is basically me and my last two brain cells in college. - The entire Hizuru plotline didn't click for me. The foreign ambassador is probably the least friendly diplomat I've ever seen, going as far as to lick her lips at the mention of "national resources." Anyways, the real issue is that it straight-up doesn't work for Mikasa at all. Like, maybe it's a female-empowerment thingy where our girl is revealed to be some badass princess or whatnot, but Mikasa is never given a reason to care about their proposition, so the whole thread just feels kinda awkward. - Totally get what the Niccolo motif was going for (he's a chef, Sasha eats his food, etc.,) but associating dinner with her death wasn't really cool when Connie did it the first time, nor was it any less cringe when it gets rehashed in later episodes. - Floch is a dumbass. 'Nuff said. - Remember when everyone was malding over "My War?" Me neither, that song is a certified banger! For me, "Guren no Yumiya" is still gonna be the song I'd associate with the series, but Shinsei Kamattechan's track is the bop I'd put on loop. - THANK GOD IT'S NOT A MOVIE SEQUEL. Simulcast is a godsend for people that actually enjoy watching stuff without getting spoiled, and I'm already struggling to keep myself safe. Imagine having to go months without the internet before a theatrical release… yeesh. - BEST GIRL: Enjoy your meats and potatoes in Heaven, Sasha. Fly high. *** Oof, this season really made me grateful for taking up an intro course on Political Studies. I've been relatively late to the AoT hype train, but I don't regret not picking up sooner, as there's so much that I likely wouldn't have appreciated back when I was younger. In any case, I'm well-aboard seeing this massive saga conclude. If you happen to like my verbose rants, feel free to check out my other reviews for seasons past and present~

Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season 進撃の巨人 The Final Season

North American Anime & Manga Releases For February

'Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season' Continues with Second Part

'Shingeki No Kyojin: The Final Season' Announces Additional Cast

Fall 2020 Simulcast List [Update 12/1]

Fall 2020 Preview

MAPPA Produces Final 'Shingeki no Kyojin' Anime Season, Compilation Film Announced

Final 'Shingeki no Kyojin' Anime Season Announced for Fall 2020

Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season 進撃の巨人 The Final Season

North American Anime & Manga Releases For February

'Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season' Continues with Second Part

'Shingeki No Kyojin: The Final Season' Announces Additional Cast

Fall 2020 Simulcast List [Update 12/1]

Fall 2020 Preview

MAPPA Produces Final 'Shingeki no Kyojin' Anime Season, Compilation Film Announced

Final 'Shingeki no Kyojin' Anime Season Announced for Fall 2020