Attack on Titan: Final Season

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.

(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.

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.

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.