Attack on Titan Season 4, The Breaking Point Has Been Reached

We finally made it, Attack on Titan has reached its fourth and final season of 2 parts. Attack on Titan Season 4 once again immediately picks up right from where the previous season left off yet with an interesting twist and once again tells viewers more than just battling titans, but also tackles some major political issues such as propaganda and how it affects humans, as well as a change of point of view.

Right from the start of the first part of the final season, we get a change of persppective to the anime as this time, it tells the story from another lens – the world beyond the walls. Once again, viewers might find the change very sudden and confusing yet it’s a clever way of introducing us to the world outside the walls and beyond the ocean and plays an important part in the world building of the anime.

Aside from the change of tone and location setting, the story also took a somewhat drastic change as many viewers will be left clueless and flabbergasted as lots of major plot twists are shown in this season – both in the first and second part. This is arguably one of the major selling points of the current season especially for the anime-only viewers.

On to the characters, many characters are introduced to the viewers as the world expands and they definitely have interesting personalities – one of them being a female version of Eren Yeager as a kid. Moving on, character development is huge here. Isayama did a great job on character writing as we can clearly see how every incident, has shaped each character emotionally thus, we can empathize with characters throughout both parts of the season easily

Now on to probably the most highly discussed aspect of the anime – the visuals and animations. Because of the switch of studios for this season, fans have been heavily criticizing and comparing the two studios’ art style and animations. Personally, it’s a pretty noticeable change – how everything is drawn is pretty much completely different to the past 3 seasons and it definitely will need some time to get used to the new art style. However, once used to it, it’s personally admirable and definitely matches the dark mood and tone of the season overall. Besides that, it’s MAPPA, the powerhouse studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen and Kakegurui so visuals are bound to be absolutely eye catching.

Speaking of visuals, once used to the new art style however, personally speaking, it actually resembles the dark tone which the manga tries to portray more closely. And another amazing part (some might even argue that it’s one of the best) is the fight and action scenes which keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Needless to explain, this is Attack on Titan, an infamous anime very well known for their beautifully choreographed action scenes.

There was never a dull or boring moment in the fight scenes, and it’s not just due to the visuals – the fights have great plot and direction, not just overly dramatic movements or useless power ups or any of that sort. Fights feel realistic and outcome is pretty unpredictable especially when paired with each episode’s cliffhanger ending leaving viewers wanting for more. Coming from a manga reader myself, despite being fully aware of what is about to happen in the anime, the fight scenes never failed to amaze and hype me up.

Now on to another great aspect (and personally my favorite part) of the anime, its characters. As mentioned previously, each character’s mentality was shaped differently thus each having distinguishable personality and ideologies. And since these ideologies clash, viewers are left to themselves to judge which is morally correct. It’s not just your classic story of the protagonist vs the antagonist, in Attack on Titan, everyone does things according to what they have been through and thus it shapes their morality of good and bad. Simply put, there is no right or wrong in Attack on Titan, only which a viewer’s subjective opinion of which ideology is more morally acceptable than the other.

Overall, Attack on Titan didn’t fail to deliver what fans expected to see. Great plot with crazy plot twists which leaves viewers on the edge of their seats, eye catching visuals, fight scenes that leave viewers glued to their seats and realistic character development as well as strong personas from each character with each of them having their own ideology and morale with the only “flaw” being very subjective which is different art as well as animation style and the need to adjust to it makes for an amazing fourth season for an anime thing huge and famous.

Our Score – 9/10

Title: Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) Season 3
Studio: MAPPA
Director: Hayashi, Yuuichirou
Voice Actors: Kaji Yuuki, Ishikawa Yui, Inoue Marina