Highlights

WIT Studio's tenure on Attack on Titan helped turn the series into a global phenomenon with memorable characters.
The Return to Shiganshina Arc was a key moment highlighting the growth of Eren and his allies in reclaiming Wall Maria.
Sacrifices made in the battle showed the stakes involved, with iconic moments such as Erwin's speech and Levi's fury.

WIT Studio's tenure helming the production of the anime adaptation of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan, was a significant contributor to why the series became a global phenomenon over the course of its decade-long stint on the airwaves. Characters such as Eren Yeager, Levi Ackerman, Erwin Smith, Reiner Braun, and Mikasa Ackerman became well-known faces across the world over this period, and much of this fame can be attributed to the anime's success.

The recently aired series finale, titled Attack on Titan Final Season THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 2 — produced by MAPPA Studio — was undoubtedly a landmark moment in contemporary anime. Leading up to it, Attack on Titan hit many soaring highs, with the Return to Shiganshina Arc standing out among them in particular. As the culmination of the main plot threads that had been set up in the first episode and manga chapter, the Operation to Retake Wall Maria was a highlight of the series, and here's why that is the case.

Attack On Titan Character Deaths That Rocked Anime's Foundation Eren Erwin Petra Sasha - Featured

Attack On Titan: 10 Deaths That Rocked The Anime's Foundation, Ranked

Although Attack on Titan has no shortage of character deaths, these, in particular, left a lasting impact on the series and its fandom.

Bringing The Story Full Circle

Manga Chapters	71 - 90
Anime Episodes	49 - 59

From the very beginning, when the Fall of Wall Maria took place, Eren Yeager's main objective was to reach the basement in his old home within Shiganshina District, as his father, Grisha had instructed him to. Although Eren and his allies knew little of what actually lay within the basement, they were always operating on a hunch that it held secrets about the origins of Titans. However, the act of reaching the basement involved a dangerous journey through territories where Titans ran rampant — a feat that was not within Eren's grasp at the start of the story.

Another important objective that Eren, Armin, Mikasa, and the Survey Corps, by extension, sought to attain, was the reclamation of Wall Maria, which would only be possible through an operation to seal the holes in the Walls of Shiganshina District, created during the attack of the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan. In essence, the success of this operation would signify how far humanity within the Walls had come since the darkest day in their history, representing the reclamation of everything they had lost in the Fall of Wall Maria.

Following the coup d'état that replaced the Royal Government with a military regime under the new Queen Historia Reiss, the Survey Corps were in prime position to finally attempt this ambitious mission. At a time when the main cast had begun to come into their own as soldiers, the Operation to Retake Wall Maria would be the most telling test of how much they had grown. This was all the more poignant since they had to take on the combined forces of the Armored Titan, Colossal Titan, and the Beast Titan.

A Gripping Battle With Difficult Choices

Even though the Survey Corps had a reasonable chance of succeeding in their goals with their combined combat experience, Hange Zoe's newly developed Thunder Spears, and Eren's Titan hardening ability, the road to victory was filled with obstacles. Despite how the Return to Shiganshina Arc represented the Survey Corps' greatest triumph since the Fall of Wall Maria, it did not lose sight of the core principles that made battles in Attack on Titan so engaging.

Annie Zeke Eren Attack On Titan Characters Better In The Anime - Featured

Attack On Titan Characters That Are Better In The Anime

The series' impeccable anime adaptation has got more than a few things right over the years when it comes to its characters.

Riveting match-ups between former allies turned enemies, along with a fearsome new threat in the form of Zeke Yeager's Beast Titan, ensured that the tide of the battle was never one-sided. Even with all the new weapons in their arsenal, the Survey Corps spent much of the battle on the back foot, desperately holding on for life while creating openings to strike. This reflected Hajime Isayama's commitment to ensuring that the series' power scaling never felt like it became too conveniently skewed in Eren and the Scouts' favor. After all, the Survey Corps were taking on three battle-hardened Titan shifters who were well versed in the strategies used by Paradis' military against Titans.

Obtaining Victory At A Brutal Cost

Ultimately, it took a great deal of sacrifice to grind out victory, as the majority of the soldiers deployed to Shiganshina were wiped out over the course of the battle. The deaths in question were not limited to supporting characters either, as both Erwin Smith and Armin Arlert had to give up their lives in order to secure a hard-fought victory for the Scouts. Here, it was not just the matter of their sacrifices that made them feel so meaningful, but the circumstances involved, along with their actual depiction in both the manga and anime.

For Erwin, his sacrifice was a gamble where he was leaving the outcome of the battle in Levi's hands, after giving up on his dream of learning about the world beyond the Walls, to prove his late father right. This came when the Scouts were pinned down while taking heavy losses from the Beast Titan's long-range attacks, with no countermeasures against them. A difficult choice made in the heat of battle to take down the Beast Titan, Erwin's gamble exemplified his knack for developing bold strategies in clutch moments, which was also echoed in the sacrifice made by Armin to defeat the Colossal Titan.

In the latter case, Armin's act of giving up his dream of seeing the world alongside Eren, was a testament to the resolve he had developed as a soldier, as he deceived Eren into thinking that he was not willing to lay down his life. While the manga's portrayal of both sacrifices was immensely moving, the anime elevated it to stratospheric levels. The anime episodes covering these events in the battle, were two of the series' highest rated releases, constituting the gripping climax of the Return to Shiganshina Arc.

Erwin's final speech while leading his troops to their death, along with Armin and Eren's defeat of the Colossal Titan are nothing short of iconic moments in contemporary anime, and for good reason. In Erwin's case, his sacrifice was followed by one of the most emphatic anime beatdowns in recent memory, as humanity's strongest soldier, Levi Ackerman, unleashed his fury upon Zeke, and he would have fulfilled his promise to Erwin, if not for the Cart Titan's intervention. Levi's failure to keep his word to Erwin would haunt him for years even after the time skip, acting as his single greatest character motivation for the remainder of the series.

The All-Important Basement Reveal

Even after this, the drama was not over, as the argument over whether Armin or Erwin deserved to inherit the Colossal Titan, proved to be an even more tense moment than the conflict preceding it. While Armin's eventual revival may have been contentious for some, it was a clever ploy by Isayama to set up future development for his character, which would only be completed in the final story arc of the series.

Finally, the actual basement reveal was the culmination of years of suffering, sacrifice, and struggle, as the truth behind the Titans and the world beyond the Walls was laid bare in Grisha Yeager's notes. All of a sudden, the world of Attack on Titan was a lot bigger than it had been before, and Eren began to see new threats to Paradis' existence on the horizon.

Although it may not have been apparent at the time, the changes in Eren's character were already being set in motion, and they would not come to the fore for four more years until after the time skip. All in all, Return to Shiganshina was the perfect way to wrap up all the plot threads that made the initial story arcs of Attack on Titan such exemplary pieces of self-contained storytelling while carefully setting up its characters for the trials they would face in the future.

Attack on Titan is available to stream on Prime Video.