Attack on Titan Final Season – The Long Goodbye That’s Worth Every Minute

Not many anime released in the past few years have managed to create an impact as big as Attack on Titan but the road to its finale has been a long one. It took almost a decade of waiting for the series to finally come to an end, and what a shocking one it was. The anime adaptation of Attack on Titan, unfortunately, faced a lot of hurdles in its journey and had to face the shift in animation studios as well.

However, on November 5, 2023, the journey finally came to a much-awaited conclusion with an ending that left us bawling our eyes out. Yes, it did take years to finish airing, but Attack on Titan gave us a lot of valuable lessons, an unmatched storyline, and characters that we are not forgetting anytime soon.

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Expectations From The Final Season

All the previous seasons of Attack on Titan were animated by Wit Studio who are well known for their craft. However, when the time came to produce the final season of Attack on Titan, the project was handed over to yet another famous studio, Mappa who also produced masterpieces like Jujutsu Kaisen. This decision led to some major skepticism among fans and the question whether the studio will be able to do the finale of their beloved anime complete justice.

Fans seemed to be divided over this decision. Some thought it would be a fresh approach and, since Mappa is a renowned studio, this might be the best decision. Others argued that the change in animation style would ruin the whole experience. The season also turned out to be a very long one, being split into four separate parts.

There were huge gaps between the releases, which made it quite frustrating to wait for the next part. But what these gaps eventually did was make the production quality significantly better and every episode was executed wonderfully.

Eren, One Of The Best Written Shonen Protagonists Ever

Attack on Titan’s main character, Eren exceeded all expectations by being an unconventional protagonist. At the start of the series, he was full of determination and wanted to exterminate all the Titans after losing his loved ones to those monsters. But as the episodes went on, we saw a major shift in his personality as the truths of the world he lives in were revealed.

His thought process became more and more complex and by the final season, we saw a completely different Eren. His decisions were most of the time extremely questionable, but he had his reasons. Eren became neither a villain nor a hero, but rather an anti-hero.

At the finale, he wanted the Rumbling to occur, which was a complete genocide. This skillfully portrayed how even the main characters can have their flaws and ideologies which made this show feel more realistic and truly captivated its fans. As the end of the series approaches, the reasons behind Eren’s morally complex decisions become more clear.

The season ended with Eren’s heroic sacrifice as he knew that this was perhaps the only way to stop the generational hatred. His decision to become a villain in the eyes of others to liberate his people is what makes his character so complex.

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Putting All The Differences Aside

The final season also gives us a very unusual alliance between Armin, Mikasa, Reiner, Jean and Annie, who used to be enemies. In order to survive, they knew they had to put aside their differences and work together. All of them had one goal in mind: to stop Eren.

This makes the whole sequence incredibly heartbreaking as Eren was a friend to them and it especially affects Armin and Mikasa whom Eren shares a close bond. Every major character had a role to play in the war and they had to fight even if they didn’t want to.

The Important Decision Mikasa Had To Make

Mikasa and Eren’s story is viewed by fans as no less than a tragic tale of love. Attack on Titan never fails to portray the immense amount of love Mikasa had for Eren. There was no doubt that she was ready to sacrifice everything for Eren. She believed in him when nobody would, which made her his biggest support.

In the final season, we saw the shocking moment of Mikasa going against Eren, which was completely out of her character. There is no doubt that Mikasa loved Eren a lot, but she also knew that she was the only one that could stop him. When the moment came, she had to sacrifice her love in order to save humanity.

Mikasa proved that sometimes loving someone also means letting them go. In her heart the Eren she once knew was long gone and she had to take this necessary step to free him and stop his violence.

Was The Ending Worth It?

We never really got the happy ending we were waiting for but that does not mean the finale was bad. Isayama managed to give us a heartbreaking ending which was beyond our expectations but it was definitely an unforgettable one. Indeed, it took a long time for Attack on Titan to end, but the result of this wait was the masterpiece of a finale we got.

The anime has undoubtedly managed to become so successful to the point that it would be hard for any other anime to come close to this masterpiece. Attack on Titan will definitely go down in history as a one-of-a-kind shonen and will be remembered for years. Even if it took a decade’s worth of wait, every second of the finale was worth it.

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Released

February 18, 2016

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

3d engine

ESRB

rp

How Long To Beat

10 hours

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

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