Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season

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). From the 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-pumpin…

Anything that ends with a pro-fash message gets a zero. Despicable, and it makes me even sadder to see so many people praising it. This series has been on the receiving end of "is it fascist" controversy since the beginning, which from the start I didn't buy, since it seemed to be a series about the ills of nationalism. Oh was I ever wrong. This ended in the worst way it could have and it sickens me to my stomach to see people defending a piece of media so unapologetically sympathetic toward fascism and ethnic cleansing. Though, I guess I shouldn't expect much better from such prolific anime fans. I guess I had hoped to see better on here. In the future, try to be a bit more critical of the media you consume outside of "story good/story bad." You may find yourself accidentally supporting media that endorses some truly despicable ideas.

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 of anything 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.

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 most of 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.

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 every time 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.

All right. What I am going to say is meant to make people understand that this isn't what they came for, nor will it ever be. Attack on Titan was very good at the beginning. Even now, it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's a good show, but this clearly doesn't make it the best show out there. People aren't salty that their best show is run over and destroyed by "The Final Season". It's simply the fandom. They took over, trolled the reviews, gave FMA:B, Steins;Gate, Gintama, HxH and many more a 1 because why not (because that makes sense) and pushed the fact that this season was the best down our throats as much as they could. I'm sick of the fandom and their religious cult around this show. Many people just don't give a fuck anymore about the series because of some fans' delusions. This is beyond insanity, just like their favorite main character, Eren Yaeger. You haven't learned anything haven't you, AoT fans? A good season is a good season. Pumping it to first place just creates disillusions for other people. I fully understand that the show was full of tension and excitement, but this is beyond complete and utter brain rot. Downrating some of the best shows ever made simply shows that you can't take criticism and actual facts about your show. The Attack on Titan fandom is the worst fandom out there, and a simple person who read until now understands this all too well. Anyone would. I know I'm being salty and toxic, but somebody had to say this. And some of you should accept this fact. Now that I'm done ranting and yelling at Eren Yaeger fans, I guess I should get into the review. Yes, it contains spoilers. Attack on Titan is the first name someone would think of when hearing the word "anime". It's so popular that it attracted non-anime watchers and has made itself the so-called "face" of anime. And it sometimes lives up to the hype. The story and the characters evolved as intended, the visuals look nice and I enjoyed most of the show. Starting with the plot: of course, it follows the manga very well, but it felt very stretched. I suddenly felt like I wasn't watching Attack on Titan at some point. The genre got completely switched from a full-action to a drama, and then back to full-action right at the end. It was meant to explain everything that was happening and evolve the plan of the Yaegerists. The story focused on only the scouts as the revolution began in the background, right behind their backs. It's a very well thought-out concept, but the execution was so poor that I almost died of boredom. 4 episodes were just talking, and talking, and talking, and oh my god, when was it going to end?! But, in spite of the very stretched dialogue and mediocre character development, these 4 episodes set up a good pretext for the revolution. It wasn't bad, nor was it good. It was too long, the characters got random character development and the drama went on and on until we reached the table scene. Other than that, there is symbolism. Like the argument between Nicolo and Sasha's father. The political problems of each country and their hatred took over Nicolo, making him a representation of Marley, meanwhile Sasha's father very calmly wanted to solve the issue, just like Eldians wanted to before Eren Yaeger came into play. It's a sweet little scene that caught my attention, and it was for a very good reason. +1 point for symbolism! Metaphors like this one are all scattered through the show, even if Mappa didn't highlight them as they should've. I'll let you find all of them. Moving on! My favorite subject: the characters. First and foremost, Eren Yaeger is not the greatest character out there, nor is he the best protagonist to ever exist. He's simply a hollow corpse that shouts "Free will! Freedom! Euthanasia!" whenever he gets the chance, thinking he's a deep and philosophical character. Indeed, he is a very well thought-out character. The transition to a villain (from the Scouts' perspective) was very nice from the mangaka, a nice plot twist that has never been done before (clearly sarcastic). But the biggest flaw that he has is that there's no more substance to him. He has reduced himself to an empty shell, a character without remorse or feeling; basically close to complete insanity, if it weren't for Zeke. He abandoned his friends and the Scouts for the sympathy of a long-lost brother from the Land of Marley. Saving Mikasa from the you-know-what incident back when they were kids was just a front Eren used to put up back then. Now, he woke up to "reality", as he calls it, and chose to fight against his own comrades. A very strategic coup-d'état. But this doesn't obstruct the clear mistakes and flaws in his character. I never wanted to have a husk of a protagonist lead an amazing revolution (and somehow succeeding). I thought the show would have a more complex character for Eren, but I have been disappointed once again. Mikasa and Armin are basically a joke right now. Mikasa grew from never wanting to leave Eren to never seeing Eren again. For a couple of episodes. Armin, now possessing the Colossal Titan, actually got some decent character development; him agreeing with Eren's ideology will probably advance the plot even further, but the difference here is that Armin isn't a husk. The things he believed in before are still there, but the new methods of the Yaegerists infiltrated his mind only to fill him with doubt. At least that's how I feel about the last scene. The one I'm most disappointed in though must be Hange. She went from a complete fanatic that was obsessed with titans, an actual character that I cared about and one of the funniest characters from the cast to just a tool for the revolution. She doesn;t even do her usual skits or random sparks that strike greatness. No smart ideas came from her this entire season. Maybe it was meant to be, but I can't control what the mangaka wants. I just give my opinion on what was good and what was bad, right? The sound design and animations are very clean. This time, Mappa had to deal with a massive show. The first 3 seasons were a very big milestone to achieve, and a hard one to overcome, but in this category (and this category only), they prevailed. The animations were a nice surprise, and the sound accompanying them couldn't be better. Unfortunately, this is the only side where Mappa actually did a decent job. As for enjoyment, I guess saying that it didn't really satisfy me is a good conclusion. The story was as expected, with some plot-holes and mistakes (that were usually rare); the characters were a complete disappointment and the sound and animations were above expectations. People come to see a very good show, mostly when they see a (currently) 9.09 score; a show that is very close to number one. But this isn't what they should be greeted with. It definitely deserves an 8.50, maybe even an 8.75, but going as close as Steins;gate and FMA:B is a shame for the anime industry. Maybe you'll find enjoyment in it more than I did. Maybe you're a Yaegerist reading this review only to flag it because of some harassment you thought I mentioned. Maybe you watched the series and didn't quite enjoy it as people said you would. I recommend we all rejoice and put a fist to our hearts, and one to our backs to say once again: "How in the ungodly fuck do you do a part 2 to a season called <<The Final Season>>?" Story : 6 Art : 8 Sound : 7 Characters : 3 Enjoyment : 3 Overall : 5

Shingeki no Kyojin, as known as Attack on Titan is an anime that everyone has seen at least 1 time and is very popular, well received and praised until today. This is one of the best anime shounen that come to existence. I always was a big fan of this anime series since the first time I saw it years ago. I waited so long for this final season to arrive and when it did I followed the season week after week. And now I have to say that I'm kinda dissapointed... The Final Season of Shingeki no Kyojin is overrated and overhyped. It doesn't mean that it is bad or anything like that but it's not a masterpiece or really great as many people are saying and reinforcing to death. Here I will explain why I think this season was not so good as it should be. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS!!! Be aware of that. Story 7/10: After 4 years have passed since the resumption of the Shiganshina district, we are now seeing the war between Marley and Mid-East Allied Forces. The battle is finally over and the side that emerged victorious is Marley. They are preparing new candidates to become the holders of the titan powers in Marley’s possession because of the end of Zeke and Reiner's 13-year tenure as the Bestial and Armored Titans. While some people of other countries are gathering there for an event to take place. The plot of this fourth season is interesting but the narrative's structure is a mess. First we see all the things that happen pos time-skip at once and only after the conclusion of the arc that we discouver the motivations that Eren had to left and attack at the declaration of War of Willy's Tybur. Why should I care about this explosive conflict between Marley and the Eldians on the Paradis Island if all the things that brought them to this point in the first place were presented in a flashback after the arc of invasion? This doesn't make sense. If I'm supposed to get attached to the history then make it that the things that made all this war happen in the first place are constructed step by step before the conflict finally explodes with those people that goes against each other. The way that was built up is the reason that I find it unimpressive. Another thing that I think it is a problem is the poor utilization and very few appearances of the pure titans. Do you remember when they were dangerous, when they represented a constant fear and generated a sense of chaos, panic and insecurity? Not anymore! Why? Because they never attack or appear at all, only when it is extremely convenient or necessary for the plot like in the forest arc that has the Levi vs Zeke battle. Zeke invoked them by using the ability of his titan's power to create his own army of Titans. It's okay that he can do that because we saw it before on other situation. I just think that the main reason why this show was unique and extraordinary once now is long gone. At least for me. Their presence was natural and really important on the AOT's world and universe as a whole as well and now they're just a tool to be used sometimes (when they appear). Lame. Now it is just a political conflict with war between nations without any Titans. :) What about the Titan shifters? Oh, man! I thought they were so strong and equally important but apparently they are not. The majority of them are just useless and powerless against Eren. Eren is invencibly. Do you know that he already has the power and abilitys of 3 titans? After the time-skip he had a battle with the Warhammer Titan that was apparently far stronger that his titan's form and he actually winned the combat with the help of Mikasa. One more time he wins a fight with in stupid way. He had help to win that combat otherwise he would be dead by that point. The only one that is actually a good and impressive Titan shifter is Zeke. Reiner? He is a joke. Whenever he is fighting you know he will lose. He's the armored titan but can't receive any damage whatsoever that he goes down 100%. Awesome! Always being destroyed in his fights. SUPER. \o/ What can we say about Annie that was literally frozen since season 1 after the final fight with Eren and never came back? Wonderful! Why Isayama would have to develop or utilize properly her in any creative or productive way when he can pretend that she doesn't exist for many years? hahaha Galliard is a guy that couldn't do nothing because he doesn't have any importance whatsoever, he will do anything against Eren even if he have some help of other Titan shifter. Do you know why? Because Eren is the protagonist and he will always destroy him. Jaw, Armored and Warhammer Titans were only there on the story to be defeated by Eren with virtually 0 effort. They were used as plot devices more than anything else. Colossus Titan almost never appear. Don't wait for more transformations of Armin. He once transformed at the invasion on Marley's arc and will transform only one more time next the end and that's it. ;D I could spend all the day talking about the bad use of them by the author. This is a shame. I would really like to see them being more important on the series. Anyway, the story is good more for the connection established by the construction of the plot previously on the first seasons. And for that I give here just a 7 out of 10. Art - Animation 6/10: Oh my God, I will have to be honest and tell the truth instead of those people that are pretending this part of the anime is amazing. It is not. Seriously. The animation quality dropped so much compared to what we had on season 1-3. Many scenes that you see the characters they are being static with few movements when they walking/ running or even fighting. The characters actions are limited and the art design is also inconsistent. Characters that look good in one scene or episode on another moment doesn't. The fight scenes are boring as fuck to watch. Eren vs Warhammer on the trailer was SO MUCH BETTER that is so depressing to see them clashing on the anime. Those 3D models of them were crappy. Real trash. The 2D Titan shifters were infinitely better looking than those new 3D Titans. Levi vs Zeke was okay, but on the manga was way more intense and imersive. On the previous seasons we had dinamic movements with fluid scenes of the DMT being used by the soldiers tropes, we had Annie vs Eren that was epic, we had top tier animation fights just like Levi vs Zeke (more like one-side fight but okay haha), we had the insane revelation of Bertholdt and Reiner as being respectively Colossus and Armored titan. Hell, even those cool action scenes of Levi facing Kenny and the gang on the streets were absolutely crazy. On this season we only have one or two scenes, three at max, that are great and very well animated on the episodes: Declaration of War, Sasha's Death and Zeke's past were 10/10. Anything else are average of below that...sad but true. Sound 4/10: The OST's that are used on this Final Season are less impactful than ever. I barely can even remember a moment when a song was playing that made it so remarkable as the many epic scenes with GOD tier soundtrack that we had before. The poor mix of them doesn't help either. Some moments we listen to OST's that felt totally out of place. The new opening has an okay music but nothing compared to classic openings like: Guren no Yumiya, Sasageyou and the underrated Jiyuu no Tsubasa. The song of the season 3 part 2 opening also smash this new one, too. The only thing that I found it amazing is the song of the ending, very good. For being only decent and average at best that I give here a 4 of 10. Character 7/10: This is one of the best parts of the anime series but is not very good. There are so many interesting and important characters like Armin, Hange, Zeke, Levi, Falco, Gabi; etc. I didn't mention the edgy lord MC cause I hate him. The problem of AOT is that the characters doesn't get much development as they could receive and when they are developed we don't know how, when or what happened that made them…

Attack on titan’s last season peaked almost everywhere, it managed to hype up the entire world. Now, when the final season started airing everyone was extremely hyped because of the revelations revealed in the past and seemingly this would be the final incarnation of the series. The new studio that took over the project did a fantastic job; this season is just as good as the previous season. Here are some of the key features about this season: Plot/characters: The story this time is from a different perspective, the villain's perspective. Watching this season really tells us that there are no villains in Hajime Isayama’s world but only people with different opinions. Reiner receives an incredible glow up and new levels of character depth as we’re introduced to a new world with new characters. Our beloved characters also return, and the second half of the show is set back inside the walls. Overall, there's an interesting change in the story of the anime. Big shoutout to SIGMA male EREN YEAGER, hating on your friends, killing civilians, calling your girl a slave and all of this just so you can be free. What an actual Giga Chad. Animation: The animation is great; the studios have changed and this time it’s not wit studio but MAPPA that's handling the production. The character designs are fantastic, and everyone looks great close up, but I’ve noticed as soon as the shot pans far away the characters look weird like it’s konosuba and not Attack on Titan. The first half of the series had some great animation, there were many scenes where they used rotoscoping and things looked very fluent but there were moments where character’s hands moved all wrong or were at the wrong place (episode 69 Sasha hands floating over her legs while she’s talking about inheriting the attack titan). The other thing that bothered a lot of other people was the CGI titans. After finishing the show and rewatching it again, I think that’s some of the better use of CGI in anime, though again it’s not perfect but very good nonetheless. Soundtrack/audio: Season 4’s soundtrack was composed by a new composer Kohta Yamamoto and it also had our previous composer Hiroyuki Sawano. The new composer did a great job and I think the track “Ashes on the fire” is a testament to that. Overall, the sound design, voice acting is great, and the old and new soundtracks work well with the scenes. Final opinion: This season has gotten very mature in terms of storytelling, character and world building. I regard this season in very high regard. The action scenes were high octane and the calm scenes with character and world development were great as well. Overall, the perfect season to an already perfect show. The only thing that I dislike is probably the way this entire 'final season' was released in multiple parts, that killed a lot of the hype by the end.

This season was a bit of a mixed bag in certain departments, while being pretty much perfect in others. Much like the majority of anime or media in general, rarely are there shows which are 100% perfect in all aspects, but we love the rest enough to look past it anyway. This has applied to pretty much every season of Attack on Titan so far for me, excluding maybe Season 3 Part 2 which I'd argue is the best and most even season overall. Let me go over which parts I thought were excellent and which I thought were somewhat lacking. I'll start with what I didn't like – the art and animation was a noticeable step down from previous seasons. There was far too much use of CGI titans and characters during action scenes. It was distracting enough to temper my excitement of what was going on, and thus my opinion of the scene overall. I'd say it was the best during the Warhammer Titan's first appearance. Certain dialogue-heavy scenes were also under-animated and somewhat lacking in frames. Comparing this to how polished and beautiful seasons 1 and 2 were in their animation quality and art direction makes it clear how many corners have been cut since, despite the action and storytelling demanding so much more. I will also say that I was somewhat let down by the soundtrack. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 all had at least three or four original themes that were masterpieces that I still listen to to this day. This season only had one or two that I thought stood out; I only hope this is supplemented by Season 4 Part 2's soundtrack. I didn't enjoy the music choice for Levi and Zeke's second encounter in the forest much either. However, this is all to say that I think the storytelling and character writing has never been better for this series. The seamless transition between different perspectives, flashbacks and exposition is some of the best I've ever seen without feeling like it's dragging, too serious or too tonally dissonant. The motivations and directions some characters take is so unexpected yet satisfying that you can never really predict what will happen next, or choose whose side you're on. The storytelling does an excellent job of showing you multiple perspectives without narrative bias so you as an observer can make the choice yourself; there are no true protagonists or antagonists in Attack on Titan anymore, only who you believe in. The writing, much like the rest of the series, is highly ambiguous and clever, constantly hinting at things that may or may not be answered until much later when it becomes narratively relevant. In my opinion, the storytelling is so good that it makes the "boring" dialogue episodes better and more investing than the action-heavy ones. If you're a fan of Attack on Titan in any way shape or form, this cour is guaranteed to blow your mind from a story perspective. However, if you're in it for the epic battles and god-tier animation/soundtrack, you may be somewhat let down by this season like I was; if it had been up to the standard presented by earlier episodes, this would've easily been a 10/10.

So season 4, how can I explain this. It is freaking mind blowing, the way the show took such a deeper and darker turn really surprised me, but this change was executed amazingly. Plot: In the first 3 seasons Attack On Titan was about killing the titans outside of the walls, and that plot was really original because there hadn't been any anime like it, not only that the details and the way Iseyama developed the plot made Attack On Titan so interesting, but this season the plot was by far one of the best plots in all of animanga. In season 4 the plot really changed and it focused on the humans in Attack On Titan, season 4 focused on deep topics like freedom, war, good and evil, and racism. The relationship between Marley and Eldia directly relates to how Jews were being treated by the Nazi's too. Instead of focusing on the scouts Iseyama decided to focus on the outside world. It allowed us to view Eldia from a different point of view, we get to learn from the perspective of the main antagonists of the first 3 seasons (Annie, Reiner, Bertholt, and Zeke) and we learn about how they were forced to do the things they did under the rule of Marley. It allows us to understand what they were going through during their time in Marley and the early years of the Paradis Islands mission. Characters: Boy oh boy, I can't wait to get into talking about the characters because Iseyama this sly genius, he really just blew my mind. (I used the characters that @Trump used but this is my own personal analysis of them.) Eren Jaeger: Eren in season 1-3 was that typical revenge shounen protagonist that wanted to avenge his mothers death. To be fair I wasn't a big fan of Eren that much, I thought that he was really cliche, but Iseyama man he made me shut my mouth in season 4. Eren development as a character is insane and he is now arguably one of the best animanga protagonist-antagonist. In season 4 Eren decides to become the devil. Eren realizes in order to obtain the thing he always yearned for which is freedom, he has to become the devil and do bad things. I don't agree with his actions, but Eren ideals are perfect which makes him such a complex character and his development is amazing. Gabi: Gabi gets a lot of hate, but personally I love her character, Gabi is a victim of false news and political propaganda. Even though she is Eldian herself based off the news she was fed as she was growing up, she views her own kind as devils. Throughout her entire life she has been manipulated by the countries she lives in into believing that Eldians are reincarnation of the devils. Gabi shows no sympathy toward Eldians and will kill them without hesitating just to prove to anyone else she is a worthy warrior candidate. We can start to see Gabi develop as a character when she comes in contact with the girl that Sasha saved, I love what Iseyama did there. Reiner: Iseyama, I am begging you. Just let Reiner die, he has been suffering, please let him die. Reiner is arguably one of the best written characters in Attack On Titan, Reiner is the embodiment of a modern day soldier. Reiner as a young boy was a nobody that wasn't even supposed to go to the mission at Paradis. As a kid Reiner wanted to show everyone that he was a true warrior he was blinded by the belief of becoming a hero of his country and when he came back you could see that it took a mental toll on him. Reiner comes back suicidal because he wants to atone for his sins, but at the same time he is conflicted because he has lost his will to live, but he wants to protect his hometown. I love what Iseyama did with Reiner. Zeke: I don't forgive Zeke because he caused the death of my favorite character Erwin Smith, but I feel bad for him. All Zeke wanted was a normal childhood where he was loved by his parents, but instead his father treated Zeke as a tool and forced his beliefs on Zeke. Zeke claims that Eren is brainwashed by his father, but in truth Zeke is envious that his father treated Eren with love and care, while Zeke was just a mere tool for restoring Eldia. It allows us to really understand Zeke's motives, and it allows us to show sympathy toward Zeke. In conclusion Season 4 was just a masterpiece, I read the manga so I know what happens, but Season 4 Part 2 will be even better. Iseyama really blew my mind with this, I don't care about the animation because MAPPA only had 6-8 to animate, but dang this season was amazing. Attack On Titan will go down as one of the best anime ever created.

What an utter disappointment. Cannot believe this season is rated as highly – for me, it is inexplicably all-over the place. We skipped years of important events and developments only to meet brand new characters for the first time. There is the same build-up we have already seen with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. The story now revolves around this new bunch of kids we suddenly are obliged to deeply care about. Suddenly, we are thrown into a flashback where we are told (yes, not shown) all the truth about the world “Across the Sea” and quickly “walked through” the events three years ago which lead to what we saw at the beginning of the season. Why choose a flashback instead of doing it the proper way and showing the actual events? In fact, the main story also plummets as soon as we discover the “secret” of the Titans and the motivation of the characters seems to be hanging in the air. Like a substantial part of the development was just cut off for no apparent reason leaving us with quite an unsightly piece to chew on for 16 episodes. Leaving all sense aside, the story itself loses pace and jumps from situation to situation without any relevance or rhythm. The anime seems to have switched from action to talk and from showing to telling which does nothing for the story. One of the anime’s strongest points - the fights and the incredible Survey Corps, are thrown so back into the picture that they seem completely blurred out. Every episode has at least 10 mins of sitting and talking unnecessarily without reaching anything meaningful. This is just bad storytelling or a really bad adaptation. The animation itself has taken a sharp plunge downhill with everyone looking alike, so overall, we end up with odd CGI and a bunch of potato-heads sitting and talking. Again, I am stunned this season is the best rated yet. I would honestly rather watch paint dry…

AND STILL....HEAVYWEIGHT ANIME CHAMPION OF THE WORRRRLLLLLDDDDDD... HUNTER X HUNTER (2011)!!! Imagine that you go to a new pizza joint that is all the rave. You order your favorite style of pizza and they serve it to you. It's piping hot, fresh ingredients, buttery flaky crust, it's one of the best pizzas you've ever had. And then just as you lift the last piece up, a fat roach that was crawling under the crust scurries out from under it and jumps into your lap, into your pants, and crawls around on your legs. You shake it out and step on it. You're appalled, disgusted, the thing has been crawling on you, all on your food. You demand to speak to the manager and the Manager says: "Sorry about that. I tell you what: We'll give you a coupon to get a free pizza. But, you can only redeem it after Winter of 2022.". That's Attack on Titan. It was so close, closer than any anime has been in years to beating Hunter X Hunter as my favorite anime of all time. (A Pizza that was never finished...*sigh*), but at the very last minute, they not only totally screwed the pooch, but they also have the nerve to make you wait almost a year to finish watching them screw it. A season that appeared to be a fantastic final arc of revenge for the citizens of Paradis that we have watched suffer relentless torture for years; suddenly spirals into a quagmire of flawed logic, senseless motivations, and just confusing decisions that make little to no sense whatsoever. Instead of the bloody, brutal, and oh, so fulfilling comeuppance for the nation of Marley you expect (and the anime teases after the first few episodes), you're left at the end scratching your head as to "why?". Or, you would be if you weren't so astonished at the balls of them to actually make you wait nearly ANOTHER YEAR for a conclusion. Note to Attack on Titan creators: When you say "Final Season", FINISH THE DAMN SEASON. Then you can do your cash grab "After the Final Season Movie." This was nothing but a calculated decision to keep the AoT on the minds of fans for another year, so they can sell stuff before wrapping up the show and seeing their fanbase move on to other things. It's a trash tactic. But this show will NOT be on my mind, because the ending is so dumb, so bereft of any logic, I have no desire to wait a year to see it play out. And that's really sad to say seeing how much I loved this anime over the years. But, I'm not going to reward stupidity and greed. HERE COME THE SPOILERS: So, what makes Attack on Titan: Final Season so stupid? AoT has spent years building up great characters forged by the pure hell that Marley unleashed on them, without them ever knowing why it was happening to them. When Season 3 revealed what the reason was, and what was truly going on, it was one of the most stunning swerves in Anime History. So, when the Final Season comes around, you figure that everything is going to come to a satisfying conclusion from the moment Eren reveals himself to Reiner in the Liberio Internment Zone. And man, what an enthralling, captivating, and amazing battle that was. Almost as good as Perfect Game in season 3. When the Scout Regime busts in to back up Eren, and you watch them just wreck Marley, it was fantastic to watch. You didn't know how they planned to bring Marley down exactly, seeing how they were a superpower, and Paradis is just a small island, but you figured they'd have some kind of masterplan. After all, it appeared as though Eren and the Scouts had been infiltrating and setting up this attack for years. But, when a much more sullen and "broken" Eren finally returns to the airship, you could already tell something was amiss. The tearful Mikasa, Armin hesitant to reach out to take Eren's hand, something was wrong. And then when Levi kicked him in the face, you realize this wasn't a part of some masterplan from the Paradis brass to eliminate the enemy that nearly drove them to extinction. It's revealed that Eren has actually gone rouge, joined up with his brother Zeke of all people, and purposely drew Paradis into attacking Marley by making them come and rescue him because he's the Founding Titan and they can't let him die or fall into the hands of Marley. Okay, okay...I can get with this. My thought was "Clearly, Eren and Zeke have hatched a plan where Eren will eat all of the Titans that Marley has, get taken back to Paradis, then when the world attacks Paradis because Eren killed all their dignitaries, Zeke and Armin (Who is secretly in on the plan, so I thought), would feed Annie to Eren, then sacrifice themselves, allow themselves to be eaten by Eren, and then Eren would become the reincarnation of Ymir or something, and destroy the militaries of the world with his power, ending the threat to all Eldians. Then in some noble sacrifice, do something with his power to eliminate all Titans everywhere (keeping his mission to destroy all Titans from the first season) and then sacrifice himself. Thus destroying the nation that tortured them, saving Eldians from becoming Titans, and dying with a noble sacrifice as a tearful Mikasa cries over his and Armin's grave. The End. Sure, things didn't go according to plan in Marley and they only got one, but during the war, Eren will get the Cart and the Jaw, with the help of the Beast and Colossal titan, and then they'll finish their noble plan." WRONG. Instead, Erin sits in his cell for most of the season back in Paradis while everyone tries to figure out why he sided with Zeke, pretty much their greatest enemy. Eren just broods there while the anime focuses more on the Marleyans inside of Paradis. The mysterious and fanatical Yelena, the super irritating Gabi (A brainwashed warrior candidate, who I want to die so badly because of who she killed.) her sidekick Falco, Niccolo (A captured chef), and Zeke. What should have been the war to end all ages, was instead replaced with political intrigue, flashbacks and stories of morality, and choosing peace over bloodshed. Because Eren stayed locked up by the military so long, a revolution forms around him as a savior type figure, with Eldians seeing him as the savior that dealt a huge blow to their oppressors. Only thing is, this was all a part of the plan. Eren was plotting the revolution with Floch, Zeke, and Yelena. Eren helped to mastermind an assassination and coup plot that not only killed Zachary but nearly killed Mikasa and Armin in the process and killed several scout recruits. Not ONLY this, but the man was actually plotting with Zeke, Floch, and Yelena to poison the military and police with wine tainted with Zeke's spinal fluid. The poison makes it so that if he yells, it turns them into titans that Zeke can control. Something Zeke used to kill ALL of Levi's men. All of them. Eren was actually down with Zeke poisoning the entire leadership of his country that he fought at all costs to protect for years and turning them into the very titans he despised. Historia could've drunk the wine. Pixis DID drink it. Hange, Levi, anyone. Hell, Jean and Connie almost drank it. Eren was suddenly down with the transformation and death of anyone he knew, even close allies. So, surely, there has to be some kind of heroic motivation that Eren has for all of this. And it has to be a pretty good one, because not only is he killing Eldians, threating to turn people into titans and throwing the whole country into turmoil after making them a target for extermination by all nations of the world, he also beats the living hell out of Armin, and tells Mikasa he's hated her since she was a child, because she's a slave to Ackerman blood and only protects him because of the memories of previous generations of Ackermanns. Clearly, he's being so villainous because he knows that the will and memories of the founder and previous titans are controlling their fates, so he wants to free them from it. Or, he has to separate himself from his friends so they don't get caught up in his coup to destr…

Let me make this clear. the animation and art is perfectly fine, very standard for anime and frankly, I don't believe that with how messy, and poorly planned out and thought out the source clearly was, it deserved anything better. No, the fault is definitely in the story as set by the source material. Frankly, I don't give a damn about a bunch of nobodies with an obnoxious attitude, or about just about any characters in this season of the show... save Levi. (And maybe Armin, and a bunch of dead characters, but...) That was why I kept watching, but it seemed the story seemed hell-bent on keeping the most interesting character out of it for several episodes and then his presence was spotty afterwards. It's not like his or any other person's conclusion was going to be anymore satisfying in the manga (I mean, have you seen chapter 139?). Besides, let's be honest, i've seen the art in the manga - it's scratchy and frankly unappealing at every possible level... I really don't believe that the show could have done this series a /visual/ diservice if they tried. A manga elitist might blame these failures on the anime, but, really, the fault lies with the source and has always lain. In much the same way you can't blame children for the faults of their parents, you can't blame an anime for the faults of the manga.

I'm not a "Attack on Titan" fan so, if you disagree with me - no problem, I know this serie could be great for most people. Let's start with fact that AOT could be much better. In my opinion theres'e too many retrospections and they start in wrong moments. Sometimes I didn't know is it retrospection or not. However there were some great retrospections I've enjoyed. Other thing is boring moments. I don't know am I only one who is bored with some parts of aot but overall it wasn't boring serie. In first 2 seasons I had problem with remember characters. It's not a disadvantage but my stupidity however that's why i didn't enjoy 2 first seasons. But the worst was season 3. I don't understand why it was that boring for me. About that season - in my opinion it was the best season of whole serie. There weren't many boring parts and even retrospections were interestring. And finnaly i started to understand whole serie. I like how that season references to history events. Overall "Attack on Titan" wasn't bad anime but in my opinion it could be much better.

This is a review on the whole story, not just this portion of it. Shingeki no Kyojin, when it began, presented a very enthralling mystery. People living locked inside cities with very tall and thick walls to protect them from the roaming titans outside the walls trying to eat them alive. Nobody knew why things came to be this way, nobody knew about the world outside the walls. The mystery just kept getting thicker and thicker and it seemed like unravelling it will take a long time and it will be really interesting. Which was only an illusion, things did not get better with the story, they got worse instead. Some people rate the anime as bad, some rate the art as bad, some rate the manga as bad. I rate all of it, altogether as bad - the story itself and what the author envisioned fell flat on its ass as it went on. In a way it would have been better if the story ended prematurely, unfinished, because as it evolved and came to a conclusion is just disappointing and annoying. For me the art, music and everything is OK, it looks well enough to see stuff and hear stuff, complaining about things look is outright pretentious, ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by anyone possessing at lest to barely functioning brain cells. The problem is the story and I will briefly explain why it is disappointing without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen the whole story. The problem is as the mystery began unravelling, it devolved, it was not epic, it was not shocking, it became stupid. Characters started switching alignments (or were depicted as such) - characters the audience thought as good became bad, bad ones became good and so on and so on. These tropes are what has been happening in Latin American telenovelas (soap operas) for the past 30 years - dumb plot, characters changing sides, needless drama, lots of useless talking and declaring intentions, people going on verbal essays on who they like or hate, who they agree or disagree with. It's just very simplistic drama, procured by a severe lack of imagination, aimed at a simpleton audience who will gasp at every moment and observe the story with eyes and mouth wide open the entire time. It just doesn't work anymore when you've been there dozens of times before, it's just the same old, same old, disappointing, annoying... in other words "How to kill your story 101". Whoever enjoyed the story of Shingeki no Kyojin, good for you, but this is not the first time for me when an anime/manga/story has gone for far too long for its own good and has devolved into a senseless drivel. Seen it happen with Hunter X Hunter, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Boku no Hero Academia, One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100, Shaman King, Yu Gi Oh! and a few more. Sometimes stories just have to be concise and just end when they have to rather than go on for long enough so that their authors have a chance to ruin them just so they can artificially prolong them and make more money out of them. TL;DR - Started out amazing, ended up into a huge disappointment and a steaming pile of trash.

The Miserable Final, or Final of the Miserable: On Attack on Titan: The Final Season The previous seasons of Attack on Titan were not just a breath of fresh air to several genres at once, including dystopia and dark fantasy, but also have universal virtues, namely, a grandiose (titanic, colossal, as it were) plot and unprecedented lore. A strange, striking story, combining both sublime humanistic pathos and horror elements, was built on a gradually unfolding, consistent exposure of a diegetic world initially presented as a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity was allegedly almost completely exterminated by giant Goyaesque creatures called Titans. The unfolding story showed that the world was not what it seemed, and that the mysterious events that marked the beginning of the devastating Titan invasion (the fall of Shiganshina) had a hidden logic associated with the true state of affairs. The presence of unknown forces set in motion by this logic created the impression of multidimensionality, significance, and depth of the plot. As a result of the exposure of these forces, it was revealed that the remnants of humanity behind the walls were the descendants of people capable of turning into Titans, “the subjects of Ymir” living on the Island of Paradis in complete isolation from other nations and in utter ignorance of their existence. Moreover, it turned out that the Titan invasion that led to the tragic collapse of a long-lasting illusion had been organized by the nationalist militaristic state of Marley, the opponent of the subjects of Ymir, or the Eldians. Undercover agents infiltrated protective troops of Paradis Island turned out to be Eldians who had been indoctrinated with the anti-Eldian agenda and whose task was take possession of the most fearsome weapon of Ymir’s descendants, the power of the Founding Titan. Thus, the universe of violence turned out to be generated by the opposition of political forces, or by political struggle, the main form of which in Attack on Titan is war. Attack on Titan: The Final Season brings the story to its close and does it in an unexpected way, again changing the perception of what is happening. The denouement is revealed from the perspective of “antagonists” (Zeke, Reiner, etc.) whose motivation was still largely unknown up to the last season. The humanistic potential of such a narrative solution is obvious. Unfortunately, its implementation can be considered, in some ways, the exact opposite of the author’s intention. Instead of righteous and sympathetic goodies of the previous seasons, characters repulsive to varying degrees (with the exception of Falco) come to the fore. All of them are victims of chauvinist propaganda, including Zeke Yeager who, in addition, in his youth was influenced by the defeatist and anti-natalist Tom Xaver. Actually, the heroes of Attack on Titan: The Final Season exist in one of two modes: they either blindly act according to some preposterous and obscure ideal or do not act at all. One of the new protagonists, pigheaded and obdurate Gabi Braun, performs only one significant action, which is the murder of Sasha Blouse. Her further presence in the story is not marked by anything worthy of note. For the time being, Attack on Titan: The Final Season is an attempt to criticize violence as a means of political transformation of the world. The problem is that alternative ways of such transformation are not specified in the series. And although the story is not over yet, it seems that H. Isayama has already played his best cards.

The first half of Season 4 is disappointing. Most of the primary complaints I have observed are related to the art and CGI. The style change took a while to digest but fine, static as it is. Season 4 is mostly disappointing to me for the same reason the manga is (as expected). The pivotal transition from story of survival to Nazi-reminiscent, politic-fueled wartime epic at the end of Season 3 is executed in an incredibly lackluster fashion. I quite like the idea of a direction which expands the story and breadth of the SNK universe; it is great to reveal the rest of the world and it generates a fruitful way to draw the series towards its' end. But the story that resulted is not not nearly as good as it could have been. The timeskip that takes place and subsequent drastic change of character personality, introduction of many new characters on a whim, etc, left me feeling entirely unattached. The decision to turn practically all of the characters away from the morals and values instilled through 59 previous episodes, all at once, is such a cheap cop-out. In many ways it feels like an entirely different story. By intended design or not, it's not as fun to watch. Naturally, I found myself not caring and it ended up being difficult to get through some of the later episodes in the first half of Season 4. I will unfortunately ride it out. Feel free to disagree.

Attack on Titan, it feels like everyone is pointing a gun at you the moment you decide to write a review about the show and especially now that the first half of the final season started airing. Attack on Titan has been the talk of the hour for years, but now, more than ever. So Here's one that won't offend anyone. Story (9/10): Attack on Titan might have started its fame because of the action and hype-driven battles, but that shifted bit by bit till it became the classic literal masterpiece that everyone likes to claim it to be. The final season started from the get-go on a much darker tone than we used to, more mature and with higher stakes than ever. It's no longer a tale about the boy that wants to slaughter Titans, as every insignificant move can result in a worldwide conflict, the politics got more involved and an essential part of the story, even more so than season three, the revelations from the past season did not only impact the characters, but also the world and the passage of events. Season by season, Attack on Titan only got more deserving of rewatches, as every season lead you to restart the series from season one episode one in fear that more things might have gone past you with little context or clue, the show has almost become a metaphor of its former self, heroes are not villains and vice versa, trust no one even the characters you empathized with for three earlier season. Art (7/10): This is a controversial one. It's either Mappa's efforts into utilizing CGI more were a big mess or Wit studio put the bar higher than what Mappa could deliver on. What the series was famously praised on in the earlier season was the phenomenal use of dynamic 3D cameras and the blend of 2D and 3D animation to the point of being impossibly noticeable is all gone, all that remains are grotesque and ugly 3D models used for the environment and Titan models, calling it ugly in this circumstance doesn't necessarily mean bad, it was decent 3D animation, far from bad, however, not as good as the three earlier seasons spoiled us about. I guess no matter how big production is, a studio change leaves grave marks. The character designs are closer to the Manga's so that's a plus for Mappa, however, Wit did a flawless job on that that the Anime became so many people's headcanon. The animation was the weakest part of this season, but not as bad as something that would ruin the experience, this season has more focus on the plot than action so it can easily be overlooked as it did not hinder what's important. The story. Sound (8/10): Another controversial aspect of the show, I don't want to call out an entire fandom, but some people are just as mad as to send death threats to the show's staff just because they did not put their favorite OST on a certain moment, guys, grow up. The opening and ending theme songs followed the show's trend of actually keeping up the quality. The opening was something very, very different from what we're used to which I thought reflected perfectly the hellish atmosphere that engulfs this entire section of the story. Characters (9/10): The best thing about a time-skip season is seeing how much the characters changed, Attack on Titan hit the nail so hard on this one that the cast is practically different people with the same names. Take these three characters as an example, Eren, Zeke, and Reiner. Eren has definitely grown so much in the past three seasons but that did not come close to what he has become. Entire mood and charisma change, he really reflected the burden the entire island's expectations on him, he is no longer someone who wants to slaughter the Titans because of what they robbed him of, he is the key and hope of everyone that has been living on Paradise since ay one, thus making him an unstoppable force that won't fudge in front of anything and anyone who's holding him back. Taking a look at Zeke, the bastard hated the bad guy who did so much damage to the protagonists and their cause, cursed by so many fans has won back a great deal of following by showing a growth unmatched by most characters ending up as a non-shallow fellow who also has dreams and aspirations worthy of respect. The same goes for Reiner, the traitor backstabber that appears to be like the sweetest most loving big brother figure and mentor, he grew through his struggles and is still suffering from them as he shifts between both sides of living and death, he's had enough, but to what end. And it does not stop at that three characters,s every single character introduce earlier even for a split of a second got time to shine and show how much it has progressed. Other than the familiar faces we grew to hate and love, so many new characters were introduced, and even moments after their introduction felt like fellas that we knew since day one, perhaps due to the parallel similarities in the case of Eran and Gabi for example, but that's a discussion for another day. Enjoyment (9/10): It's apparent, anyone watching four seasons of a show loves it enough to give it as many chances like that. Season four was a breed of its own, quite symbolic that everything changes even the story shifts as the production studio changed, signaling a metaphorical end to an era and the beginning of a new one. A round every conversation's conclusion lies a shocking revelation or a story changing confession, things changed faster than most people can keep up and it's a point of strength in Attack on Titan's case as it was made from the ground up to make more and more sense as you keep rewatching it over and over again. Overall (8.4/10): A good show gives, but a great show keeps on giving, Attack on Titan doesn't o that by the seasons but by the episode, no wonder it got to the place it's now. It's almost Attack on Titan IS the Anime fandom at this point, everyone is talking about it, every conversation is revolving around it, it's almost as anyone not into it is not even in the Anime fandom, to begin with. I know that's a toxic thought to share, I don't believe in it but everyone makes it out to be the absolute truth. This season is a wild card, it's either liked or loved, nothing in between, people who adore the previous season may detest it, and people who disliked all earlier seasons might fall in love with it, that's how different everything was about this season.

** Spoilers alert ** Story (6/10) | Story-wise, after an amazing third season, I was expecting way more. It's not bad, but it's not excellent either. The problem lies in the fact that there wasn't a smooth transition between S3P2's story and S4's story. The change was way too sudden. I'd be fine if I was given two or three episodes where I get explained what events happened that allowed the characters to have the means and capacities to attack Marley, which, just FYI, is 100 years ahead of Paradis technology-wise, has a way bigger army and many allies it can count on. For me, this is a huge plot hole. It's not like we don't get an explanation for some action of some character that result in a minor event happening, we're talking about the events that led to the attack that started the entire plot of this season. As much as I'd like to, I can't oversee this. Other than that, the story is a solid 6.5-7/10 throughout the entire season. I particularly appreciated how the author and the animators managed to portray important topics such as racism, classism, etc. so masterfully and in a way that feels real. Really good job on this. Characters (5/10) | The problem with the characters is the same as the story: their personalities changed too much too fast. The main problem here is Eren. In S3P2 he was protective towards Mikasa and his friends, he didn't want them to get hurt. In S4 we have this depressed dude that doesn't give a shit about anyone, emotionally abuses his sister and his best friend, and is ready to sacrifice them to win the war. When I was watching those parts, I couldn't believe I was watching the same character I saw in S3P2. Then there are the new characters. During the attack on Marley, we notice that the team has expanded and more characters get introduced. I'm honestly fine with not getting backstory from most of them. It'd be a mess to do it and it's ok. What is not ok is not giving any backstory for characters like Yelena. At the end, what we know about her is that Marley took control of her origin country, that she wants revenge and that she is a genius. Period. Nothing more. I actually liked both Falco and Gabi, their personalities definitely stand out, and the show did a really good job making us understand how they think and why they do certain things. They also got used to give us an insight about what life is in Marley, how Eldians are treated, how they live, the consideration Marleyans have for them and the abuses they receive from people. Really good characters. Sound (8/10) | What can I say? It's Attack On Titan, it's obviously going to have great voice acting and music. The opening for this season can seem a bit weird at first, but after listening to it a few times you start to like it. Best opening in the entire franchise for me. Art (7/10) | I'm not the kind of person that likes to compare different shows, but I think it's fair to compare a season with one of the past ones. The art is still good, it's MAPPA after all, but nobody can deny that the show looks weird and too different from what we are used to and that this season the animation is worse compared to what Wit did in the previous ones. The only exception I can think of is Reiner, he looks badass. Enjoyment (7/10) | Overall, I enjoyed watching this. I think it's a worthwhile show if you want to watch something fun and action packed. It's like a drug, there's no "one more episode and I'll stop", you'll binge the entire season in a single sitting like I did, there's no way around, but I have to say that it left a bitter taste, and I sincerely hope that next season will be better. Value in % of each category: a. Story: 25% b. Characters: 25% c. Sound: 5% d. Art: 10% e. Enjoyment: 35% Final rating (weighted): 6.30 -> 6 (rounded) Thanks for reading! Hope you liked my review.

I have never understood the hype around this show, and trust me I've given it many chances, even reading till 103 chapters of its dog shit art trying to gleam any value from it. So let us start with this review. Take this review as a summary of all seasons because I will be talking about all of them in this review. This is my first review but I'll prolly write some more in coming days. Story, Messaging, Tones: 2/10: Nothing about this series is standout in terms of what messages it tries to show you. You can honestly learn more meaningful shit from a 7th grade history class. Its actual structure has no impact on the reader, and gives me no actual reason to care for anything that is happening. Ever "dark" moment had me sitting there still not giving a shit. Oh those guys are titans, wow. Oh his mom got eaten and coincidentally by an important titan, shiver me timbers. Maybe those are super important moments to others but for me they fell flat. Mostly because the characters involved may as well been side characters and sometimes they were. Tons of no names or poorly developed slugs to be killed off for sad and pathetic shock value. The actual idealogical tones behind this series is also piss poor, mostly because one side is literally just a child raging out. Some game of thrones level decision making on who to kill as well, its literally him spinning a wheel. Art:2/10 Worst new gen art I've ever seen. I know it's subjective, but when I can't tell characters apart and CGI looks like a fucking upgrade compared to the source material I have no idea how its appealing. Characters switch facial proportions and half of characters look the exact same to the point where I get confused on who actually died. The titans are the only well done thing in terms of design, since they are recognizable and vey visually appealing. The scenes they are in and how they are presented could use a ton of work though. Season 1/2 are an upgrade to the original source materials art, the final season still is an upgrade but such a small one It's sad. Sound: 3/10 Original openings were at least catchy but not really a bop that I could groove with. This most recent intro has terrible visuals and the singer is kinda trash but at least it has a decent tune to it. The osts are mostly misses with a few hits. Then we got that stupid Levi one, wtf was that. Made my ears and eyes bleed. Nothing standout on sound and below average if I was being honest. Character: 1/10 I hate every single character in the show. Zeke is the one character that is somewhat tolerable but even he is not well developed in the least, he seems like a Bondrewd who stopped developing at age 3. Eren has always been a piece of shit. Starting off as a crybaby, into a plot armored dumb ass, and now a literal child hitler. His motivations are garbage, his development is nonexistent, and he annoys me with his presence on screen. Even if they were trying to make him a villain he has to be the worst villain in all I've watched. Mikasa and Levi were interesting originally cus they were just cool, and then they got no character development from then on. Levi had three personality traits clean, short, and gets mad. Mikasa had one personality trait Simp. Mikasa and Levi were also completely ruined by the reveal that both of them got all their powers from being born that way as super humans and not having any actual skill or training required to get them that far. I guess thats how you justify your characters power when your power-scaling is literally just Eren ass pulls to win every fight or is just god and better than everyone and everything. Every other character is unremarkable, especially Reiner who is just an idiot whose circumstances are his own damn fault. Enjoyment: 2/10 This could be used as a form of chinese torture. It was agony watching these seasons, and I only did so because a bunch of dumbass people who think they can recommend shit would not shut up about the only anime they have ever watched. I gave this shit like 5 chances. Well above my usual 1 to 2 at most. Overall: 2/10 Its the average of the other areas, that simple. I've seen worse but thats not a high bar to cross so honestly kill me. Never recommend me this type of garbage every again.