Highlights
- The final season of Attack on Titan delivers a satisfying and action-packed conclusion to the series, with impressive animation and choreography in the battles.
- The return of animators from the earlier seasons adds a nostalgic touch to the finale, particularly in a dynamic and visually stunning final fight scene.
- While some fans may be happy with the ending, others may feel unsatisfied and question the purpose of the story, as the narrative leaves some important questions unanswered and lacks a clear resolution. The overall rating for the ending is 3/5.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Attack on Titan Final Season THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 2, now streaming on Prime Video.
Ending a story is hard and ending it in a way that satisfies the majority of the audience is even harder because even if the creator sees the destination clearly, the journey can change everything. This is more or less the fate of Attack on Titan, the ending of which series creator Hajime Isayama always knew was coming, which became a prison of sorts in his years-long journey to reach it.
In 2013, director Tetsuro Araki helmed Titan's adaptation at WIT Studio, creating one of the most sensational TV anime in years; a certified classic whose production would set a dangerous standard. Now, 10 years later, director Yuuichirou Hayashi and the team at Studio MAPPA have seen through the unenviable mission of finishing what WIT started, with admirable results.
The (Honest-to-God) Final Chapter
Attack on Titan has been in the process of ending for almost three years, a span in which the subtitle "Final Season" has felt more like a parody of itself with each new installment. Granted, it was likely for the best, as the release model has allowed for this production to maintain a baseline of quality from a studio that's already spreading itself mighty thin.
Consequently, Part 2 gets off to a roaring start, picking up right where it left off eight months prior, with the remaining heroes descending right on top of Eren's gargantuan Titan form. As such, there isn't a lot of ceremony to the commencement of the final battle, and the experience might be served better by watching Parts 1 and 2 together to set the mood for the ending. These characters all fighting together hits so much harder with the preceding tension fresh in the mind.
Granted, it doesn't take much to get invested in the battles as they are. The transition from WIT Studio to MAPPA might have been divisive among fans but as director Hayashi has proven thus far, CGI need not be a blight upon this series. The creativity and choreography of the action, plus the blending of 2D and 3D, are both strong across the board.
The characters are in a dire race to eliminate Zeke and stop Eren. The only problem is that they have no idea for certain where Zeke and Eren's bodies are in the labyrinth of bright white bone they find themselves atop. Worse yet, a near-infinite army of Titans is emerging from the Attack Titan's body to stop them; the previous generations of the Nine Titans.
Even atop the bright, sun-drenched stage, which normally might appear too sanitized to be scary, the artwork manages to evoke a sense of unease through the unique designs of these Titans. It's a grueling boss rush that continues Attack on Titan's tradition of adding insult to injury for the leads. But keeping with that tradition, there are glorious moments of hope as well which narrowly save the story's torments from becoming exhaustive (if such a thing is possible at this point).
Even more impressively, however, this finale has seen the return of creative staff who worked on Titan back during the WIT days, namely the king of ODM fight scenes himself, Arifumi Imai. Imai is one of the animators who defined "Attack on Titan" in animation during its first season. He would go on to contribute to the series' visual high points across the second and third seasons, even as the show began to stray from the unrealistic standard set by the first.
So it's immensely beautiful and nostalgic to see Imai return to animate one last glorious fight scene - and not just any fight, but the final attack of the entire story. It's a dynamic composition with ambitious camerawork, keyframes so impactful that one can practically feel them, and vibrant colors that make it seem as though WIT never stopped working on the series. (SPOILER ALERT: See his cut here)
The first half of this special is more or less exactly what fans should have expected. It's a glorious battle that exemplifies what MAPPA has brought to the table while honoring what came before. Even better, the cast is more united than ever against a common foe, delivering a cathartic and often emotional climax. On that alone, it should be perfect, but manga fans have already known for a while that it wouldn't be, and there's plenty more screen time after the dust settles.
What Was It All For?
Granted, plenty of people like this ending, and this conclusion is so dense that it's not inconceivable that fans would be able to walk away from it happy. The ending toes the line between nihilism about the inevitability of suffering, and hope for the triumph of the human spirit despite endless folly. From the get-go, that's fairly on-brand, as that's more or less the debate that the entire philosophy of the story is predicated on.
However, for a lot of people, this ending can leave one with something of a void that begs to question "What was the point of this?" To the show's credit, the text asks that very same question of itself, and it isn't that the story doesn't have answers - it's more about what those answers are. By the end of the story, an inconceivable amount of human life has been extinguished by individuals whose responsibility is hard to ascertain, for reasons that ultimately feel weak.
It feels like the story is saying "It happened because the writer wrote it that way." This indecision on the part of the storytelling deals a crippling blow to Eren, who is too important to be disregarded as a mere villain, but whose actions are too horrendous to be outright forgiven. It's almost as if his character is nonexistent during the final scenes because nothing meaningful can be discerned about what his and others' suffering was meant to achieve.
That aforementioned line between nihilism and hope atop which the story labors is maddening in the closing half-hour. Some of the final scenes can genuinely leave the viewer satisfied while another preceding or following it can give the impression that nothing was learned. Rather than some tragically beautiful depiction of the yin-and-yang of life, the message comes off as spineless and indecisive, high on the emotional highs that brought everyone to this point.
One would hope that these problems with storytelling would be abated by the intercourse of sound and visuals that have been the backbone of this series since the beginning. The music is as strong as it has ever been, and the vocal performances - especially Marina Inoue as Armin - are at their peak. Yet, even as a salve, these elements struggle to alleviate the frustration.
The toughest realization upon grappling with Attack on Titan's ending is that it, like many controversial endings, will likely not fully come into focus until years from now. Perhaps once audiences have had more time to reflect on the story in its entirety, this ending will be looked upon more favorably. Until then, it's an imperfect end to a series that should be no-less celebrated for the incredible journey that led here.
Rating: 3/5
