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 adaptation
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that 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.
Mar 28, 2021
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 adaptation ... |
