Anime 38524 Shingeki No Kyojin Season 3 Part 2 Reviews Filter Check 3

[Spoiler Warning]

Prior to season 3, little was known about the origins of the titans, as the previous seasons focused on humanity’s survival in the face of impending doom. While bits and pieces were revealed through the Reiss family history, nothing about the titan’s origins were divulged. Until now! Yet, should we be pleased with these revelations, or disappointed with the paltry character development? Because let’s face it: Attack on Titan’s (AOT’s) characters are terribly written.

Starting with Eren Yeager, he’s gone from being a vengeful edge-lord who was consumed with killing titans at all costs, to a whiny, vengeful edge-lord ... who can’t think beyond his emotions. Rage, sorrow, and regret is his entire range of feelings. Besides his family lineage and transformation into a Titan, he serves no other purpose in the series.

After 2.5 seasons, I still don’t know who Mikasa is besides a cold-hearted, reserved girl who obviously loves Eren (that smile in episode 10, tho). She’s the female version of Levi, a proverbial bad-ass who is all style but no substance. Levi is brutally honest to his comrades and honestly brutal to the Titans. Like Mikasa, his combat skills are nonpareil to cover his overall vacuousness as a character. Also, while AOT built itself up on semi-realistic fights, it became too enamored with making Levi look ‘cool.’ His fight with the beast titan stretched the limits of human physics to the point of comical absurdity.

Erwin is the veritable “go get ‘em” leader with his hardened determination and unwillingness to surrender, despite the circumstances. His laser focus on accomplishing his goals makes him very one-dimensional (CHARGE!). I understand that he was constrained by the rock throwing of the beast titan, but a full-on kamikaze ‘attack’ seemed ill-advised (CHARGE!). Correct me if I’m wrong, but why couldn’t they help capture the armored titan and colossal titan first, then wait for the beast titan inside Wall Maria?—setting up an ambush, if he decided to come. If the horses were lost, who cares! Eren could have turned into a titan and carried his comrades back to Wall Sheena or Wall Rose.

As for Armin, he seemed somewhat relatable, given his initial trepidation and eventual growth as a self-confident strategist. But overall, he came off as extremely plain and ill-explored. Furthermore, due an in-universe plot device (i.e. the titan’s regenerative powers), his ‘sacrifice’ lost all emotional impact; speaking of which, it was humorous when Floch started calling everyone out at the award ceremony for being complicit in Erwin’s death. Dude knew how to rain on everyone’s parade at exactly the worst possible moment. But in all seriousness, it was a contrived rant that felt soap-opera-esque to drum up tension in a jejune final episode.

As for the aforementioned revelations — a primary reason a preponderance of people are watching AOT — they were interesting, but not enough so to counteract the paltry characters. You can only ‘horrify’ the viewer so many times before they become desensitized to it. Moreover, the progressively foreboding tone made the story feel mechanical. A good story needs to have some irrational flexibility, otherwise its contrivances felt forced and theatrical. The introduction of titan lore was fascinating and made sense within the context of the story; however, the overuse of ‘shock and awe’ has made Attack on Titan rather predictable.

While the animation exceeded most expectations, it should be noted that the colossal titan had some jankey aesthetics. The OP was a rehash of "Guren no Yumiya” — a creative block? — and the overall pacing was atrocious. It seemed like whenever the Survey Corps were in a battle, there was a million flashbacks that drag out the proceedings. But if the WWE can have lumbering, slow-witted ‘giants’ string along the audience needlessly for ratings, why can’t Attack on Titan? Quality aside, it certainly brings in the cash! Just understand what you are getting into.

This season of Attack on Titan is known to be one of the best arcs of the whole series (is that really saying much though), but the ones who have decided that is none other than the manga readers. That is the one and only reason why it is rated so highly, especially after the snooze ride of a third season. I will give my opinion as an anime watcher only. I do not care what happens after, this is just my thoughts of the anime so far. MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS
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Story 4/10: The story is quite simple, our characters want to rebuild the Wall Maria, ... as a representation that humanity has a chance against the Titans. As another addition, we also have the mysterious basement that has been a question for many since the first season.

Unless you still care for it even after 50 episodes, you will not be finding yourself anything worth your time. There is not much progression, and the anime uses inner monologue, and melodramatic statements of "realism" to its advantage, not letting anything happen just so that they are able to prolong the story further, despite being 10 episodes.
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Characters 3/10: One of my biggest problems for me. Character development is VERY subtle, which I have seen others comment on. That is not good writing since it happens so suddenly with no actual commitment to making the character look interesting. Actual development should be clear, showing that the character has actually changed for good or bad. Why watch an anime where the characters are not standing out?

The one that currently interested me is Erwin, he has one goal which he is basically willing to sacrifice all of his men to achieve. Eren and his gang of prepubescent children are not showcased for the most part, which can be a blessing for some, but it gives the feeling that there is no main character, no one to be focusing on. He still yells out stupidity with anger like "Do not look down on me", despite being towards the COLOSSAL titan. Does Sasha think it might be hilarious to yell out "Pervert"? Armin seems to be the only one who actually tries to have a brain, but he is a wimp who will always be overthinking everything and will ask himself "Why is everyone dying?" while trying to figure out a plan. Who knows, but supposedly this is so realistic.

When I said melodramatic earlier, I meant the creator of this show tries so hard for the characters to seem realistic, what do I mean by that? The soldiers, yes the ones that should already know that they are risking their lives, have the audacity to start crying their ass out while being attacked, they do not try to move or think for themselves. It is just an opportunity for Erwin to motivate them and seem like a badass. They will always be used as a shock factor, including Marco. He starts crying about "talking it over", when there's a broken window right beside him, did his legs just break or could he not move so that he would be able to at least try to run away? Nope, he has to be eaten in a brutal way. Characters also think if they yell out their thoughts and feelings, we the viewers, will automatically feel sorry for them.

Reiner is the one that angers me the most, he is known to have a double personality, perfect for contradictions in the whole show. Using mental illness as an excuse is the last resort you should use in a character. You can make him indecisive, include his opinion on both sides, and that would work MUCH better. My friend has called him the "Plot-Armored Titan" and I don't have any doubts about that name.
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Art 6/10: Not much to complain about here other than the atrocious CGI used in the colossal titan and horses, hopefully, there are a few glorious scenes (like Levi vs Kenny) upcoming.
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Sound 8/10: Perfectly fine, but it reuses the same OST for multiple scenes, losing its value for being a great tune.
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Enjoyment 3/10: I am currently enjoying it more than the second and third season because I am hoping for some crazy plot twists. So far though, it makes me glad I am only watching it weekly.
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Overall 4/10, TLDR: My only advice to you is to watch it if you have been a fan since Season 1, it has gradually lost quality despite the first one being Shounen as fuck, no excitement other than a few plot twists here and there.

Thanks for reading this far.

After years and years of foreshadowing, teasing and promising great things, Attack on Titan is back and ready to reveal its mysteries. Was it worth the wait though?

*This review will mention parts of season 1 and season 3. It will contain spoilers for the whole show*

I remember the times when I was excited for a new Attack on Titan episode. There were problems back then too, sure, but I was able to enjoy it regardless. That is because for everything I watch there is a limit to the bs I can take. I know this is a review for season 3 part 2, but some ... problems are so big they can ruin the experience of watching the whole franchise. The last season of Game of Thrones is proof of that. So, what am I talking about?

The first example is way back in season 1 when the show tricked us into thinking it was about the unlikely survival of humans vs giant mindless zombies. Then Eren turned into a titan and it turned into a standard shounen where the MC is special and has a hidden power. "Ok, whatever, it could have been great, but I guess this is how it is now" I said to myself as I accepted this new standard. The second example is in season 3 part 1 when they revealed that the reason people inside the walls don't know anything is the massive MIND WIPE made by some titan power or whatever. This is very lazy writing, only written because the author didn't know what to do with the cards he already layed out on the table. DO. NOT. MIX. MAGIC. AND. MYSTERY. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm saying it's hard to do properly. Take death note for example, there is a magic notebook that kills anyone as long as you have their name. There were rules set at the start, and while new rules were added later it doesn't matter because the mystery only exists in the show. We, as the audience, know everything, the mystery is there for the characters. We get to watch them figure it out. Meanwhile, in AoT the story is constantly baiting you into getting curious about what happens next and then treating you like and idiot for not figuring out the new magic trick the author cooked up.
To summarize this paragraph: in a mystery show, you shouldn't suddenly reveal crucial story elements to solve the riddles. Every plot element should be revealed early in the story and the viewer should have the chance to figure it out by gathering information laid out by the author or just make it an in-series mystery like Death note. That's how you make a good mystery.

The reason I talked about all this is because it's very relevant to season 3 part 2. We finally got answers for what's in the basement, but at what cost? Surprisingly enough, all of the reveals make sense if you accept what has happened in season 3. As you already read in the last paragraph, I don't accept it. In spite of that, I will give props to the author for not making up even more BS on the reveal. However, the reveal itself was done in a lazy way with a flashback of 2 people sitting in a chair and info-dumping years of foreshadowing. Not to mention it's extremely convoluted, so much to a point that a friend who read the manga had to explain every detail of it for twenty minutes to me and my friends (who are anime-onlys) to understand it. Chalk it up to the three of us being stupid, but nobody got it right away. Additionally, memories can travel through time now and Eren gets memories handed to him when he touches Historia's hand. What a cheap way to reveal information, it's just more proof that magic has no place in a mystery show. The author can add whatever he feels like to the story and it doesn't need to make sense because it's magic.

Not only are crucial elements of the mystery made up on the spot, other easily avoidable things are aswell. I will showcase a few examples: the hand-missile thingys used vs Reiner. They seem to be very effective at taking down the armored titan, but why weren't they used vs regular titans years prior? And why do they work in the first place when they clearly showed us in the 1st season that cannons have very little effect vs titans because of their regeneration powers? Going in melee range vs a titan seems like an inferior idea than to just blind-them with hand-missiles and then slice them. You can call it new technology, I call it convenient. Another convenient thing is the "Titans can live for 13 years" rule. I don't have a problem with the rule itself, just the way it was implemented. The author couldn't think of a natural way to justify Owl giving Grisha the titan power so he made it easy for himself and just made Owl die from the convenient curse. Furthermore, he didn't know what to do with the regular titans anymore so he just made them dissapear. Just like that, with one sentence. "We cleared them all out in one year" says Levi. I can't think of a more lazy way to do this. It's annoying to watch a show that tries to cut corners at every turn.

The action in this show is bad. The strategies, the animation, the character power levels and the payoffs. Ok, maybe the animation isn't bad, it's just worse than season 1. There are noticable animation inconsistencies in almost every episode. Most of it is decent though, but we don't come to Attack on Titan for just decent animation, do we? At least it's not the disaster that was season 3 part 1, where they blew all the budget on one sakuga scene and then the rest of the season looked ass. Everybody knows about CGI colossal titan, so I won't spend any more time on this.

The strategies are mega bad though, at least from the good guys. Let me start off with the positive, I like how the beast titan just stood far away, out of everybody's reach, throwing massive boulders. That was smart, he didn't put himself in danger, he didn't "get cocky" as anime villains tend to do. He even set up titans around the whole area so the good guys can't escape. Very smart play, bravo! The good guys, however, oh boy... So the plan is to jump from titan to titan to get to the main bad guy and solo him. Am I the only one that finds this 99% impossible and extremely idiotic? Not to mention they risked EVERYONE'S lives for this. Let me break down why everything is wrong with this: first off, the terrain. I remember in season 1 characters used to make comments about how they couldn't traverse an area because they didn't have any buildings to hook onto. Now that restriction is completely broken since apparently titans are a viable source of movement. If you hooked onto a titan before, you better hope you deal the killing blow or else you'd become a delicious snack. Instead of this, we have robot titans that stand in place and don't do a god damn thing even though they are SUPPOSED TO BE LOOKING OUT FOR HUMANS AND EASILY SPOT LEVI. They don't even have to fight him, they can just move out of the way and the whole plan is ruined. And what better way to present this than not to show it on screen at all... I'm not even being ironic here, there isn't any possible way to portray this scene without showing how flawed the strategy is. Realistically, even if somehow this whole situation didn't fail miserably, the beast titan could just see Levi jumping across the titans. I know they rode out and died just to cover levi with smoke, I only have a problem with the presentation of this scene. It looks like the soldiers shot smoke vertically in the air just to distract the titan and not to cover Levi. If this is really what they were going for, that makes the good guy strategy even more impossible than it already was, and the beast titan should get glasses. Pick your poison.

The fights against armored and colossal titan were also a disaster. Reiner should have been killed several times. Apparently laying on the ground and covering your neck is a good idea, especially when the enemy displays their strong explosion weapons. And, of course, the good guys "can't finish him off" because using more explosions to blow up the rest of his head or hands is too much work. Furthermore, everybody prefers talking about killing reiner than actually killing him. This is another presentation problem, Reiner is on his knees with a blown up face and neck, but nobody does anything even though they could. You don't have to tell me it's better presented in the manga, because I believe you. About the colossal titan fight, we see another example of bad strategies. So their plan is: Armin jumps in like an idiot and distracts Bertholdt while Eren sneaks behind and surprises him. That's it. Question: why doesn't Bertholdt just squish or punch Armin and be done with it? Why does he start emitting steam to make himself vunerable when he's a 60 meter titan fighting a single human? Because of the plot, that's why. The ONLY reason the plan succeeded was because Bertholdt literally locked himself in place for no reason. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? Every time the good guys win, it is because the enemy made a mistake, therefore it feels cheap. Mistakes can happen, sure, but they shouldn't happen on a basic level. The mistake should be a flaw in someone's strategy and not, for example, forgetting to reload your weapon.

On to the characters, most of them are the same as they were before. Bland and not really anything special. Eren used to be angry, saw the world black and white, "Kill all titans!" (a.k.a. a stereotype). Now he is more pathetic, whiny and blames everything on himself (a.k.a. a stereotype). He just shifted the most common MC personalities and he doesn't do anything. Most of his actions are directly controlled by the plot, he rarely reaches conclusions himself, and when he does, they are mostly worthless. Armin stopped being so whiny, which is always a plus. He is still, however, a pretty basic character. They tried to give him some significance by making him the leader, but this is meaningless since it keeps being forced onto him even though it looks like he doesn't want it. He did have the will to sacrifice himself, so he is a bit better than before. Mikasa is the worst one. All she ever does it cling onto f*cking Eren. Eren Eren Eren Eren, only Eren. None of the decisions are her own, she isn't even worthy of being called a character in my eyes. You would think she would mature over the years, but nope, always the same. It's a shame, since she could have been a great character. Now she is even worse than Asuna from SAO. Levi is the same, but more overpowered. The whole beast titan strategy wouldn't even work if levi wasn't so unreasonably strong. None of the other chacacters even come close. It would be fine if he was smarter than everyone else, but he has superhuman capabilties at this point. What he is able to do undermines the threat and fear of the titans. Erwin was my favorite character and he's dead now. He became very dumb before his death, thinking Armin is more valuable than himself for the purpose of survival. Either that, or he didn't want to become a titan, in which case I guess he didn't care about humanity after all.

The plot armor: It didn't diminish, it multiplied. I hate it when every single conflict ends with a draw, and it's not only plaguing Attack on Titan, it's very common in many other anime. Even though I already talked about some, I will put all of the plot armor instances from these 10 episodes here in one place, just so it's easy to see how many there is. Reiner when he's on his knees. Why not finish him off? Because the plot still needs him. Armin when he's burned by the colossal titan. Why didn't he die? Because the plot needed him for the Eren vs Levi conflict scene. This also applies to Erwin for surviving that long with his wound, although it's not that big of a deal since it's much more believable. The beast titan when levi captured him. Why did he manage to escape? Because apparently smoke OP, it's totally impossible to hear that sneaky titan coming to save him! Let's forget that Levi has just solo killed like 50 titans AND beaten the beast titan. But Levi needs to not hear right now, because the plot still needs the beast titan to survive. Reiner. Again. Just like the beast titan, he got snatched by the fast one. And once again, impossible to hear him in a city full of crumbling houses. This was such an eye roll. I also hate it when every time they capture an enemy titan, instead of killing him, they want to "question him". This is fine from the characters perspective, however, every time they mention it, I instantly look around at who is going to save them. And lo and behold, they get saved every single time. Because of all this plot armor, the world starts to lack consequence and fights become meaningless.

I didn't pay much attention to the sound, I just noticed it was misplaced sometimes. Animation and sound problems don't bother me usually, unless they are awful. The first time I heard the opening it sounded like a worse version of the first opening. Over time it grew on me and I see it has some differences that give it its own flavor. It's no SASAGEYO, but it's nice.

In conclusion, Attack on Titan is a story with lots of minor and major problems. The author always puts himself in a corner and then introduces new elements in the same episode they are needed to get him out. Mysteries are resolved by magic tricks and asspulls. You can't even turn your brain off to enjoy the action because the strategies are extremely flawed any rely on enemies making basic mistakes. Characters never change in any meaningful way. The sound and animation are decent but not good enough for Attack on Titan standards. That's it, don't tell me that the manga is better because this is not a manga review, I'm rating the anime only.

The show falls apart in this season/part. it fulls apart in the manga as well. ever since some specific country was introduced and hasyama tried to shove them into the plot with force again and again. the manga is even more boring. the plot is so boring yet complicated. like the entire idea of how the titan works. the lame ass WW2 refrences everywhere. yeha we get it already!. and eren. his motivation makes absolutly 0 sense and hes just a emo cry baby that think hes the center of the universe and convientlly everyone worship him.

you have a group of less then 10 ... soldiers who all have plot armor all over them. the rest of the soldiers are just cannon fodder for the titans.

certain kids who's names i wont mentioned just have to ruin the entire story. the entire anime is nothing but emo cry babies with psychopathic tendencies.

the best stories are simple. that is something hasyama dont understand. he think that by making the plot a clusterfuck its equal to good writinig. which its not.

it was a good show up until season 4. part 1 was bad but not that bad as this part

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS

This is the best season rated of the franchise. It looks like many people loved it. Is this justified? Let's find out. As this was a special season, we are going to give it special treatment. We will start first by looking at the plot holes that the author tried to "fix" from previous sessions and then we will focus on the plot holes from this season.

PLOT HOLES FROM PREVIOUS SEASONS

1. Eren being a Titan: The show revealed us that Eren obtain the ability to turn into a titan after the events of the first episode thanks to his dad, so ... it can be concluded that Eren could have transformed into a Titan since the first season and many issues of the same could have solved without many innecesaries deaths. Plot holes 1 : Author 0

2. Titans: In my first review of the show, I mention that there's no clear reason of why the titans eat humans. Knowing in this point that the titans are, actually, humans, this have much less sense. Plot holes 2 : Author 0

3. Coordinate (Titan's control): In season two, we see how Eren was able to manipulate other titans. How was it possible? Because the mother had contact with a member of the royal family. It is a tremendous coincidence that it was a member of the royal family with whom she had contact and it was more convenient that after this they supplied the serum to Eren. Why couldn't it be another kind of titan? No fucking idea. Plot Holes 3 : Author 0

PLOT HOLES FROM THIS SEASON

1.Historia's Coronation: During this coronation, we watched more flashbacks and more characters with amnesia. It looks like the writer really enjoyed the use of amnesia with Eren and decided to use the same troope with more characters. Also, it's really convenient that the amnesia were for most of the main characters and the Eldians habitants. What was the reason of all this? I don't know. Is like the author tried to rewrite the story in the most forced possible way.

2. Eren's dad: It was supposed that Eren is his dad wouldn't have met after the first episode and how they justified this? Amnesia. It couldn't have more easily to avoid this plot hole and gave the father another role in the story? Mystery. Also, when this happened, the dad had amnesia too. So, why he wanted to go against the king if he, literally, didn't have his memories? No fucking idea. This one was a total nonsense.

3. Armin being the Colossal Titan: Is there a humanly possible way to explain this? No fucking idea, but it's made me laugh so hard. Additionally, how it's possible that he was able to survive after being burned alive? Mystery. A primal example of plot armor.

4. The mysterious basement: The revelation here is that the entire show is equivalent to a race war. In addition, they revealed that the king of that period observed the misdeeds committed by his people and he sent his entire ethnic group to the detour. What a cowardly and irresponsible king if you ask me. Didn't he, at least, try to make a pacific solution or have a counselor that advise and tell him how to fix the wrongdoing issue? I don't know. In the antiquity of other cultures (such as China), the king always had an counselor who, many times, was the indirect ruler of the same. Thanks to this king, the Marleyans want to behead the Erlians to the point of putting them in concentration camps. The anime, also, showed us the old eldians were bad guys and one-dimensional. If they are trying to do an attempt of grey morality, it couldn't have been better that they showed the positive and negative aspects from both sides? Why they showed only the worst? No fucking idea. I believe that the anime should have dedicated more chapters in this conflicts between Marleyans and Erlians in order to show more characterization and justify better the point of view from both sides. The way presented is really empty and immature if you ask me. In adittion, if the purpose of the show was always this example of race war, why didn't he show us this from the start and develop it appropriately? I don't know.

5. Eren against the humanity: It was very difficult to show how Eren progressively decides that he must go against humanity? Mystery. Basically, he came out of scene for some chapters and then returns as a new character, in other words, the character was rewritten.

6. Marleyans: If they were in a conflict against the Eldians, why didn't attack them during the 100 years that have passed? Mystery. Is it that there was not even one person who has had enough of this abuse and has thrown himself at them during all this time? It's all fucking nonsense if you ask me.

7. Fights: I hadn't mentioned this in previous reviews, however, in this season the writer outdid himself. How it's possible that the hand-missile used against Reiner wasn't used against other titans in the previous seasons? Mystery. Also, it wasn't supposed that the cannons were useless against the titans for their regeneration ability? Why it worked here? No fucking idea. How it's possible that Bertholdt wouldn't be able to crush Armin? Mystery. Well, if he actually managed to kill him, Eren and the script would have be mad with him. Why didn't they killed Reiner when they had a lot of chances to do it? I don't know. I suppose that the author felt sorry for him and did not want to kill him at that moment. Why didn't Levi kill the Beast titan? Mystery. I suppose that the author had better plans for that titan and it was not convenient kill him in that moment.

8. Titans rule: There was no other way to hand over the titan power to Grisha? I don't know. This 13 years rule have many contradictions if you watch the show in retrospective. Also, what a coincidence that many titans from previous seasons and episodes died for this rule. Did everyone agree when acquiring this skill? No fucking idea.

Well, that's it for now. What can we expect for the last season? Much more plot holes, attempts to cover plot holes from previous seasons, more laughs and more retarded aspects. I'm gonna wait to the end of the part 2 of the final season to make the last two reviews because it is possible that the author tries to modify some facts of the manga to please his audience. Until then.

I want to first note that I did enjoy season 3 part 2. I'm a big fan of the show. If you turn off your brain, ignore the pacing issues, and writing, you will find a lot of enjoyment in the show. That is the case for me.

However, I think that for the most part, making me feel suspense and a rush of emotions at every single moment, isn't a sound approach necessarily.

If there is anything that irks me most, it is the conclusion to part 2. The veil of mystery over the entire world suddenly dissipated. That is an appeal in the show, the ... fact that we are in this isolated world with so much mystery and uncertainty. It seems that everything around you is shedding slowly, but only ever so slowly. The fact that this entire shroud of mystery that is built up since the very beginning is dissipated so instantly through the revelations at the end of the season, concerns me. It doesn't sit right, especially with the tone and atmosphere of the show.

Regardless, great entertainment, but nothing to note further.

The following is posed to be a subjective constructive review of the 2nd Part of the 3rd Season of Attack on Titan. This review has been written around 2 weeks after finishing the 2nd part and thus will follow with vivid articulation of the premise and its categorisation. At the time of writing this review, it’s paramount to note that I watched the 1st season of Attack on Titan almost 7 years ago; therefore, I will avoid trying to make any grand connotation to the 1st season. Naturally, I might update this review should the consideration to re-watch Season 1 strikes me.

Before you delve ... any further into this review, I must sign some precautionary advices for you readers:-

-I will be discussing spoilers, so go back and complete Season 3 Part 2 if you haven’t yet.

-This review is perceptually my own and shouldn’t necessarily convince or influence your point of view, if it does I’m in no way directly liable for it.

-I won’t be summarising any part of the story, whatever events I bring up will be solely utilised for the sake of analyses or dissection.

-This review is most likely going to be negative so beware of that before you read any further. If you’re a diehard SNK/AOT fan, this will very likely affect your amygdala and cause you to go into defensive mode. I will not be using any sort of profanity to drive my point but I’ll try my best to scrutinize as much as humanly possible.

-I don’t think Hajime Isayama is a bad mangaka, he’s quite talented. I just happen to not be enthralled by his execution. For that matter, if I’m criticising the animation or sound, I’m not necessarily stating that the production team is necessarily uninspired but rather in a pull-push situation where they could have made better tweaks.

-You’re free to respond to this or any of my reviews via this link. My only request for you would be to remain cordial.

-If my review somehow matches with someone else’s, know that it’s just a coincidence and has nothing to do with me. They just happen to have a similar viewpoint, that’s all.

With all those warnings put up, it’s time to delve into the review. Have fun and thank you for reading !

Introduction:

Attack on Titan is a medium that comes from a genre which appeals to audiences that fall between adolescence and post-adolescence(Reddit is definitely not a valid source, neither is this survey but, it serves as a decent conjectural highlight - besides being 6 years old). Survival between humans and other species isn’t a setting that’s anything new in the field of entertainment but Attack on Titan does slightly innovate itself by invoking the ‘David vs Goliath’ trope. Similar to survival horror games, the premise of Attack on Titan follows a background of hoarding monsters that feed on the cast like there’s no tomorrow - at least that’s how one would explain it to someone who hasn’t watched the series. This is a fine way of explaining the background albeit a bit on the edgy and mainstream side. The other element that is rampantly present within the setting is its counter, which is of course the military. Keeping in mind that the military is often a toying part of every survival horror series, their fate here isn’t begged to be much different. In fact, it follows a lot of the same types of conclusions when taking a closer look. What makes Attack on Titan stand out is its political paradigm, which is often emphasized throughout the entire series. The influence of politics in Attack on Titan is very significant and the last 3 seasons ( rather 2 seasons and 1 part) have done a lot to highlight that fact. But has this season lived up to that continuum ? Yes, it has and it continues to do so. It excels in presenting that element very well. If that were to be its only soft point, maybe this review would have been a lot more lenient but as seen, such isn’t the case. The centre of this part has been to reclaim the throne and glory - i.e. central point of story it left back in Season 1- I did say I wouldn’t touch upon Season 1; however, rest assured that this is the only time I’ll bring it up.
Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2 establishes a progression in its plot with the intention of serving a better world-building storyline but assassinates a lot of its core dwelling tropes and elements with contrivances in order to make up for its plot convenient narrative; it tries real hard to create a tragedy out of its characters but at best, makes their presence superfluous or substitutes their shining armour for trying to set up a grander narrative.

Plot: Storyline & Premise:

The best way to possibly explain the trampoline that Attack on Titan is jumping on is by referring to the 20th century horror classic, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley. Without explaining the story much, I’ll dive right into my parallels with Attack on Titan. Frankenstein’s central theme, as argued by many academics, happens to be the ‘tabula rasa’, coined by Enlightenment English philosopher, John Locke. Tabula Rasa is the notion that a being’s mind isn’t preconceived or predetermined but rather starts off like a ‘clean slate’ as referred to by most philosophers before Locke came to coin the term. So you may be asking, how is this relevant to Attack on Titan ? Attack on Titan isn’t the only medium where such a theme is posited, it’s in fact a renown theme that you’ll find in lots of anime mediums as well. Attack on Titan strikes down on this theme pretty well by setting up its ‘grander narrative’ but when all’s said and done, Attack on Titan doesn’t handle it as well as one would expect it to. For that matter, Frankenstein doesn’t do the best job of handling it either but the parallel to be drawn from both are the prejudices that both the monster ‘Frankenstein’ and the ‘Titans/Eldians’ face in their respective stories. Are Titans really innately evil ? Are Berthold, Annie, Reiner, and Zeke’s motives justified ? This season answers all that in a nutshell by the very end. It can be conjecturally postulated that Attack on Titan doesn’t seem to agree with Locke’s theorisation as much as it should. No one should really be blamed for trying to write stories where anti-fatalism is a strong theme; in general, it’s hard to write stories without any form of deterministic offset. The very fact that a writer writes is enough evidence to suggest a deterministic outcome; however, a display of the theme is another topic and in this regard, Attack on Titan doesn’t hold a very consistent ground of the theme. The cellar/basement revelation holds itself as evident for it, given how strongly it encourages a storm back to its chosen land, will, and being. The ostracized past that Eldians went through won’t serve any medium-rare steak to them after all. Through characterisation, Isayama tries to evoke the question of the Titan’s innocence yet when the revelation plays out, the innocence seems irrelevant altogether. It’s simply ‘kill or be killed’. It leaves no room for the theme to expand any further other than perhaps trying to mingle it with the incumbent progress of the story - in which case, it’ll have to explain a lot of hurdles in order to make up for it, should it actually attempt to traverse that far. Ideally, it’s expected to but the way it’s going on now, it’ll definitely appear contrived.

The initial setup of this season seems quite great from a bird’s eye point-of-view. You have pretty much what’s left of the highlighted cast going back to Shiganshina District. I will be honest in saying that I totally expected the story to roll this way and, I didn’t mind a single bit of that prediction. In essence, that would be the least of my worries. Given how this was an arc where we should have been handed some developments, huge portions of it remain amiss. It’s pretty much expected for military genre based series to have multiple and meaningless deaths here and there, Attack on Titan doesn’t do much different or does it ? That’s where the issue lies, it does which simulates a fortitude that isn’t developed enough to strike the plot progression. First off, sacrificing a good amount of the side characters for the motive or move of a main character doesn’t supply them with characterisation, it’s simply them shining in their essential breath. The character I’m speaking of is Erwin of course. While I liked how he sacrificed himself and his subordinates for the sake of the main cast, perhaps substituting his glory for another time would have been appropriate. I’m not by any means fangasming over him, I’m simply saying that wasting his death in this Season was uncalled for and solely a result of plot armour, nothing more. The contrast in this regard comes with the characterisation of Armin. The writing didn’t give Levi a well enough reason to not inject Erwin with the Titan fluid, it was simply an assumption Levi ran off of - even if Erwin refused it. Erwin’s refusal was definitely appropriate but Levi’s decision was still rash and illustrated poorly.

The major issue of this part comes from how the fights carry out in Shiganshina District; don’t get me wrong when it comes to making antagonists overpowered. That is a fine and decent way to develop your protagonist and a good setup as well. That is a remark that can be attributed to any series really. While this part could have been a showstopper due to its setup for major fights, it neutralises the consequences of it poorly. Reiner’s initial defeat is quite warranted given how long Eren prepared himself for that battle. The inconceivable power of Beast Titan was overwhelming enough to facilitate the casualties but given how thick the Ackerman plot armour is, Isayama could have milked Levi further without the need for Erwin to intervene since Levi pretty much always gets a guaranteed win. Armin’s sacrifice was surely a peak point in the season and something everyone can appreciate from the series: in fact, the highlight of this part has been mainly Erwin and Armin. Erwin’s convictions painfully glamourized his death while Armin’s willingness to step away from his hesitation and taking command of the Survey Corps leads to a very decent progression of the military setting of the series. This is the kind of progression one loves to see from this series but sadly, it’s not enough to overpower the other flaws. As for Eren and Mikasa, there’s not much to highlight in the first part. While Eren gets his spotlight during the fight with Reiner and at the revelation, Mikasa has remained as bland as she has been for most of the series, it’s like she exists solely to babysit Eren whenever she gets the chance.

While Berthold meets his lackluster unwarranted end at the hands of Armin, Zeke serves to live another day with Reiner. And it’s all thanks to………………………………..
Ah yes ! Mouthful Pinocchio with Invisible Armour Titan - Plot Armour of course. Cart Titan has to be one of the weakest plot devices I’ve ever witnessed. At first I thought Reiner’s consciousness transference plot device was bad enough but Cart Titan came to serve him another plot device. Reiner’s relevance slightly shines in later seasons but the fact that he was almost dead is excruciating to express even now. On top of that, Zeke almost meets his end but gets hing fangled by the Cart Titan. Yes, some could say that this is a brilliant way to stretch the relevance of their characters but what's the point of setting them up in this season if all the storyline had to do was get the revelation from the basement ? Like seriously, Isayama could have avoided this arc altogether and the series would still have been able to progress on a linear note. The battle was simply meaningless for this part, all it did was simulate an excuse for fight scenes. The relevance of Part 2 is mostly contrived, very contrived. I can’t even express how painstakingly forced this part was but to that extent, it at least tries to highlight some of its ‘submission’. Even then, it’s very delicate to ignore how this whole arc could have been much shorter and minimised. The worst part is what little intrigue they evoked simply vanishes the moment you learn the truth behind the Titans’ existence.
I don’t have much of any complaints about the revelations apart from the fact that it’s simply another thematic mess and, if you haven’t read the 1st paragraph of this subsection then I urge you to go back and read that. That will convey my raw thoughts on the revelation.
Despite Part 2’s short comings, I expect Season 4 to deliver what it has on its palette. There is still time for redemption and, I hope Isayama has used it to cover up for those illy executed plot devices.

Characterisation:

As discussed in the previous subsection, this part has been a grand highlight of primarily two characters: Armin & Erwin. While Eren’s characterisation has been set up in this season, it wasn’t executed so I can’t touch upon his characterisation as much as I would like to but, he probably needed some development for the event leading up to Levi’s Dilemma. On that note, Levi’s Dilemma perhaps highlights the Ackerman trait a bit, albeit it would be disregarded as simply a human dilemma. Throughout this arc, again and again Isayama illustrates how much of a zombie Levi is and leaves no room to iterate that resonance through its entirety. An e.g. would be when Levi asks Erwin to give up his dreams for the sake of the main cast. While some would say that this is a strong representation of the Ackerman clan, others might clay together the opinion that Levi is simply an archetypal representation of the Ruler. While Levi himself doesn’t appear suitable enough to be a ruler, he illustrates his conviction towards law & order time and time again.

Armin’s characterisation is depicted largely through his command of the Survey Corps and his ability to strategize in the midst of battle; while at times hesitant, he is quick to come up with decisions that ultimately maximizes the danger to safety ratio for his squad’s scenarios or situations. The first highlight of his brilliance is displayed when he reveals Reiner’s location at the beginning of the fight: the art of deduction runs well in him and it can be argued that such is a setup for his future role as the commander. It’s easy to see why he gets contrasted with Erwin in this arc as his bravery at the very end to Berthold triumphantly turns the battle around for the Survey Corps. This peak moment in the season is a display of what Isayama’s hand can do when he puts some mind to it.

Erwin, the other of his brilliantly written characters comes to display but ends up in an unpleasant tragedy. Erwin perhaps takes the most devastating decision in this season overall. The border between his dreams and his liability as a commander to lead his squad into triumph truly illustrates the conduct his character is supposed to play. While leaving a good portion of the initiation to Armin, he still has to rush for a decision against the rest of the adversaries and when he does take the dire decision, his character stumbles yet knows what to overtake. Although Armin may have made the decision to solely sacrifice himself for a friend, Erwin’s utilitarian decision to decoy Zeke so that Levi can flank ultimately puts himself in a stable that is not worthy of anyone else’s taking. It’s a fair representation of how hard decisions are in a battlefield and Erwin warrants that extremely well.

Eren’s characterisation rests and meanders solely in the revelation for now, it can’t be discussed as much here since it leads to spoilers for the following season. However, his place in this season as expected was relevant along with most of the cast but his character barely develops through the first half, the 2nd half gives way to his character to learn more about the history of the series. It’s through his characterisation that the audience learns much about the world outside. In that regard, his characterisation is decent.
The only character I can’t say much about would be Mikasa since her role as iterated in the previous subsection, is solely to babysit Eren, that’s it. Her role isn’t prioritised in any other vein or form. She might as well be irrelevant other than that.

The most stagnant characters however, were Jean, Connie, and Sasha. Their roles have been and always seems to be in the preservation of side characters and chess board pawns, they help out with the main cast’s plans and execute it, then viola, they’re done ! Hange, being a commander doesn’t need much highlighting since their characterisation is directly tied in with Armin’s & Erwin’s. Their character probably should have ended in this arc but like most things, it would have still been unjustified.

For the cast of the antagonists, there isn’t much to say here other than how badly they were utilised. Yes, it’s true that Reiner as a character has some depth and so does Zeke but their place within the storyline isn’t as well executed, making them old rusted cookie cutters. As mentioned in my Plot subsection, their relevance in this season was quite unwarranted, it in fact didn’t have any place. But if I were to dedicate that line even now, it would be a bit contradictory considering that they did aid in giving those major characters a boost.

Now, for some honourable mentions who won’t be discussed for obvious reasons:
Cart Titan, Titan Injection, Reiner’s Consciousness Transfer, Zeke’s Hierarchy Of Survival Tips

Animation:

I’m not very good at judging animation or art style, so you’ll have to bear with me for this one and the next.
It seems as if the quality of Attack on Titan’s animation gets worse each Season. Apart from the mention of the character stickers pasting on to the background, the showstopper has to be the C.G.I. Horses and Colossus Steak. My god, I laughed so hard when I equated Colossus Titan to a Steak, that must have been one of my worst thought out jokes of this year so far.
Given merit where it deserves, the art style is definitely decent and you won’t find me complaining too much about it. It’s not terrible but it’s not great either, that’s all that you’ll read from me in regards to its visuals.

Sound:
Again, I’m not a good judge of this either, I tend to leave this for last since it doesn’t pique my interest as much. OSTs are a bonus for any series, in my humble opinion. I typically don’t count them up against any anime. With that being said, the soundtrack of this season so far has been pretty repetitive and at times, tedious. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of Sawano. I love everything he composes but come on, don’t recreate the same opening from the first season. That kind of says that Sawano doesn’t want us to experience his creation to its fullest extent, instead he teases us with some iterations. I don’t mind his stuff but this season’s OST hasn’t been much thrilling.
Apart from that, I don’t have much to say in regards to the sound quality, it’s quite decent at the very least.

Conclusion:

To sum it all up, Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2 is a wasted effort on a storyline that could have been avoided for more innovative paths or takes. The resolution was met but the cost for it was abhorrent writing. While the arc itself is a poor one, some of the setups such as the revelation and Armin’s revival bear some fruit on what can be expected in the next season. This part undermines Attack on Titan and degrades it to perhaps its lowest point ever. Should such a progression path be taken again, it may as well put an end to the series’ list of potentials. In conclusion, this is the worst arc of the series.

Ama keep this review short.

I feel bad Studio Wit cuz the time and effort that went into this Anime was a lot of waste. They were given an Anime with a shit story and tried to compensate with good animation and soundtrack.The soundtrack is genius btw. This is the season where all the "bullshit" started. I have read the manga and I tell you, its a lot of bullshit.... Read the manga for yourself to find out what I am talking about. But this is the season where Eren becomes the person we know in season 4.

The only character I care about is Armin. And ... I felt sad when he was about to die. I can't wrap my head around how thicc Eren's plot armor is, you'll get what I am talking about when you read the manga. I wish everyone who hyped up this season a "F*CK OFF". This anime doesn't deserve 3rd place on MAL (20/8/21).





Oh you read my review all the way, thank me for wasting your precious time.

(Review of the series thus far.)

Let me get something straight. I will be watching season 4, And not ironically either, I'm genuinly curious as to how it'll turn out and gave story and art some pretty good scores despite the visual quality of the animation as a standard dropping heavilt, Let me explain.

Now, For less critical individuals who can still identify as intellectuals, will still enjoy this show ,greatly in fact, But for someone who wishes to work in media with no distinct talent for it and have thusly spent my entire teenage years analyzing and spending hours reading reviews and debating about animation, sound ... design and writing. I cannot enjoy this show without at least a tad of guilt and sadness, Genuinely. So let's start with the story.

Story-9
Now if you were to tell me the key plot points alone I would instantly be extremely engrossed, But only if you told me briefly, And I think that's what "Story" is, Art is execution. It doesn't feed you new information without explaining it at least somewhat with previous scenes and occurrences that we've distinctly seen, And so no plot points are forced. It has a bit of everything and always ramping up with feasible occurrences, And I can kind of believe the concept of ODM gear due to it honestly seems reasonable to try and figure a way to cut the nape accurately. And then training people in that, Though that's conceptual. It's actually handled like shit.

Art-4
I really wanna give it lower, But the sakuga(Most polished pieces of animation) are breathtaking and the backgrounds that aren't CGI are some of my favorites ever, Even if it did get old using the same colors it still looks bearable. I had to scoff at 90% of last season anime for having unoriginal stock backgrounds. But what really matters is how they use animation in the minute to minute scenes. There's little to no story told in the animation, And what is, is poorly done horror is done with sweat drops and "uh-oh" faces when its not them being eaten, Bodies hardly move nearly as frantically as they should in horrifying situations. Bodies haven't looked gross or mortified to me once, I didn't see one interesting bit of someone being eaten, Not grinding of the teeth, Not intestine slurping, Nothing actually gross, Its only fake gore. [Redacted]'s body wasn't nearly as "burnt" as it should have been and was merely charcoal, It should've been popping and dripping with mixtures of melted skin and blood. THE COLOSSAL TITAN WAS CGI! their faces were zoomed in on and given shadows to show the majority of trauma, Anger, Anguish, etc. No actual genuine expressions ever since season 1(The best by far visually.)

Now let me say something of a hot take, Art may mean visual but I also think it has to do with pacing, Storyboarding can be taken as either-or and is also what controls how the story gets from point a-b but also how its visuals are used. I would know, I've debated watching Shirobako.
So why in the fuck did they think what should have been charred in and out the body and a person with a hole in his stomach would be fine to live a little bit longer with no one showing active concern for any time constraints? That is where I lost my investment, At least to the anime, My time is another story.

Sound-3
Music in the op's and ed's dont count. They're always good-great on that spectrum. I can remember anything from the ost, Don't even know if there WAS music I was so detached in season 3pt 2 it was ridiculous. Hand tightening is the stock rubber sound, all explosions and damage sound the same with little difference between and overall un-impactful and made the massive flesh mechs sound minuscule when fighting, Granted the choreography and sakuga saved nearly every action scene from feeling dull.(Well done)

Character-4
the initial hate was feasible thanks to season 1's take on it, And so were everyone else emotions. every character has some line of thinking visible in their actions and sometimes (though ugly and too obvious) facial expressions. At least to supporting cast. (Contradictory but what I mean is when they're supposed to express something so they show a little bit or way to much) but now everyone's drive is all mish-mashed and confused, People arent as degenerate as they should be, People's view of characters though supposed to be the honest interpretation of someone is inaccurate or way too irrational/bias without the character being distinctly written to be that way. [Redacted] was the best of them all 10/10 loved him to the end, Even if the end was a little anti-climatic and ruined his death for me. So I lied, didn't love him till the end, Fuck.

Enjoyment-5
I liked it more then I should have, and will be, Like I said, Watching season 4, If only for the rumors of the massive amount of change in Erens character, Who despite the transitions being done poorly, The overall states of him are usually very entertaining.

Overall/TL;dr-4
I can't give it lower than this(even if it's actual quality deserves it), It tried to be different and high quality but failed due to whatever, It was close, Real close. Some better quality control, more/better thought out world-building, time and maybe a few staff swaps and it could have been my favorite show ever, I'm a sucker for the concept honestly. Alas, It failed to deliver what feels like it was almost... The greatest anime ever created, Just like the reaction to season 1 told everyone. So. Fucking. Close. But no cigar.

First review rate me 10 stars on anime yelp byeeeeeeeeeee

Shingeki no Kyojin, or Attack on Titan (which is a mistranslation, it's actually The Attack Titan) Final Season is an absolute trainwreck but it has been the case since Season 1 ended.

The story is dreadful, completely morphed from Season 1 which was the entire appeal of the show. It is full of plot holes and plot conveniences. Use of amnesia plot device to explain everything away is lazy writing, and nothing makes any logical sense. I'm certain the story is written to be woke and designed to ride on the blind following of liberals. Adds several liberal ideologies that have no place in the show ... and have zero relevance to the plot. Devolves to absolute stupidity like time travel, amnesia, magic, sorcery. The plot twists are silly and not entertaining for an intellectual audience.

Regarding the Art, and this is a problem with the source material itself, too many of the characters have the same 'thousand yard stare' dead eyes, it's like the eyes are copy pasted on to all those characters. Their eye expressions never change, and that is just excruciating to watch.

Can't complain much about the Sound, it was ok.

Characters are dumb, poorly written, and I didn't even care if they lived or died. Ton of new characters introduced also dumb and poorly written that I just can't care about. Too much focus on bad characters. Almost none of the characters endear themselves, they aren't interesting and can't carry the story. None of the characters are realistic and relatable, many are just one-dimensional. The more detail that is shown about certain characters, the more unlike-able they become.

Enjoyment, I can't rate it any lesser than 1 or I would have given a zero. Who likes to see characters they don't care about stand around and talk for lengths just infodumping things you don't care about to make an already convoluted and illogical plot even more so. The titans fighting can be cool at times but who really wants to sit through all the garbage to see a few seconds of Titan fights.

Overall it's a 1/10 for me. AoT should have never come back after Season 1 because now we all we have is a titanic piece of turd that people keep polishing and presenting to you as gold.

They say that this arc is a masterpiece, the best of simps no kyojin, at least I, I don't know in which head that can be said, it is a terrible arc like the whole work and now I will explain why:

Superficial sections such as art or sound are fine, although I managed to notice one or another frame that would serve for a meme, and being superficial details I would not add many points for that.

The only reasons why I see that they praise this arc is for Failed Zzzmith and Inutil Arlert, and at least for me two good characters do not save ... an entire work, in the other sections they fail, everything is so convenient, predictable and stupid, many Sometimes they repeat things that are already obvious, or that at the time of the syringe, those two are dying Zzzmith and Arlert but obviously as one is the protagonist and the other is secondary, it is quite obvious who they are going to save, and that they are still alive despite the fact that They are equal or more wounded than the other soldiers, but of course, we both need them alive to create a false drama.

I won't bother talking about the others too much because they are terrible, like the sacrifice of a minor character like Moblit and Hange's reappearance being both predictable and convenient, Connie and the Titans making jokes in the middle of seriousness, Sasha being a burden, Jean doing nothing but saving Hange in an equally convenient way, Eren and Mikasa being unbearable and selfish, not respecting the decision that their friend made, Levi jumping to kill Reiner instead of capturing him, and being able to carry so many titans and To the titan monkey despite being bleeding too much, Floch despite the fact that his salvation is very convenient seemed to me better than the others, especially his speech in chapter 12, the antagonists were better worked, although they do not save this disaster either, and the pure titans well Zeke made them look foolish. In conclusion the characters at least the vast majority are terrible from beginning to end.


The revelation that there is life behind the walls was a shit, so much suffering, sacrifices, corny monologues to reveal just something that everyone denied, and with Grisha's exposition, it is more of the same than anyone could deduce, but how Simps No Kyojin treats his audience as retarded is explained like this, and the story (at least up to this point) is well planned but the execution is a mess in its entirety.
Conclusion: This arc is a disaster just like the entire work, terribly unbearable characters, plot and narration being a shit that treats viewers like idiots, horribly executed story, more blatant conveniences and inconsistencies than previous seasons, revelations that serve to make gets too long, and it has no end, everything was left on the air for later seasons that would be worse than this.

2/10