The second part of the final season of one of the currently most popular anime is all finished. It is crushing, nostalgic and puts emotions above all else as it leaves the viewer even more attached to the characters and left missing the ones that are gone.
Part two of the season has started by continuing the cliff-hangers of part one, answering some questions, and making us ask even more – particularly those viewers who have not read Hajime Isayama’s manga, and have no clue as to what will happen next.
Attack on Titan, originally titled Shingeki no Kyojin in Japanese, has been a fan favourite since its premiere in 2013 due to the one-of-a-kind plot, well-written characters, unpredictable plot twists, and the phenomenal score, which makes every flashback more emotional and every battle more epic.
The music in the final season part two is particularly good – with, arguably, the best opening and ending of the whole series. The Rumbling and Akuma no Ko (translating to “Child of Evil”) are impossible to skip, being nostalgic and heart-breaking, adding an aura of finality to the episodes. Which is a shame they have been wasted as intro and outro of a part that turned out not to be the final one after all.
MAPPA, the studio producing Attack on Titan, has announced the (hopefully this time) final part of season four will premiere in 2023; something the fans did not expect back in January when the season picked up. The reactions have been mixed, with some tired of waiting year after year for new episodes, and others glad to be getting any new content at all.
The most recent batch of episodes is good, belonging with the rest of the series. However, some episodes are lacking in certain aspects. They are tedious, with a clear attempt at creating a melancholic mood and focusing on emotion rather than action. However, while the attempt is there, this has not been executed without flaw. As aforementioned, the episodes come out a little dull, as there’s so many of them one after another. Emotional scenes are good, but they should be evenly spread, not all put together.
A name that must be mentioned is Yūki Kaji – the voice actor of Eren Jaeger, the main character. He has proven himself an amazing actor by pouring his heart and soul into voicing Eren since the first season, but in season four he has truly shined. Eren’s gut-wrenching, ear-piercing screams in episode 80, From You, 2,000 Years Ago, are enough to make you pause the video and reflect on your entire life while taking a deep breath because of how absolutely, disturbingly affecting they are.
Kaji’s performance is breath taking, attention-grabbing and steals the show, even despite Eren’s surprisingly small amount of screen time, which has peeved many fans in the second part of the final season. Out of twelve episodes, he only appears in seven. For a main character, he seems to be missing from his own series, similarly to Boba Fett in The Book of Boba Fett. It looks like male protagonists in 2022 TV have a new trend – vanishing.
Taking over season four from Wit Studio, MAPPA changes the animation style slightly, showing time has passed in in the characters’ lives, but makes the titans’ design more 3D-looking. The titans seeming to be taken straight out of video games, which, while their movements are shown in slow motion, makes them even more inhuman and unnatural. And certainly, all the more terrifying. This change of animation style marvellously highlights the change of perspective, making the viewer as disturbed as they were back in season one, not used to the image of huge monsters devouring people.
Unless you have a good reason not to, Shingeki no Kyojin is definitely worth the watch.
Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 3 premieres in 2023.
Featured Image Credit: MAPPA/Funimation
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