Attack on Titan is an anime I have been heavily invested in since 2013 when its first season aired. While nothing for me has compared to the wonderful horror filled second season, I was very happy to see part 1 of the fourth and final season featuring some of the best episodes to date. With a big cliffhanger occuring at the end of part 1, I was excited to see how the show would wrap up over the final twelve episodes. Only, it turns out there was a secret part 3, something that wasn't announced until the final episode of part 2 had aired. While it is cool there is yet more to come, me and my friend felt a bit deflated expecting a finish to the story and instead being told to wait until 2023.
Due to the stop and start way I watched part 2, I had some confusion with what was happening. I initially watched the first three episodes, before a huge span of time passed until I got around to seeing the following six episodes, and then it was another few months gap between I finally got my friend pinned down to watch the final four episodes. There are unavoidable spoilers to follow with my garbled synopsis. Part 2 begins with Judgment in which begins the invasion of Paradis by the Marleyan military. This leads to a trio of high action, very exciting episodes, with Sneak Attack and Two Brothers following. With Eren on perhaps an unwise course of action, it is up to his friends and colleagues to make some unlikely partnerships in order to find a way to stop all the senseless killing between the two sides.
I think part of the reason I didn't enjoy this quite so much was due to sheer confusion at what on Earth was going on. I get that is a me problem, so I will try not to let it affect my thoughts on this too much. What is certainly true is that characters I have loved begin to do some questionable things with little explanation. Eren in particular has become a conundrum, not helped in that the second half of this latest batch of twelve episodes he barely even features, making his motivations unknowable. While the infuriatingly annoying Gabi unfortunately features in this a lot, we also get a lot of the every amazing Mikasa doing what she does best; killing with style. She has some of the more stand out moments here, one that really stood in the mind was a fast paced battle against some soldiers that was so quick that she ends up decapitating one soldier, and then impaling her sword through both the headless corpse, and the hapless comrade behind him. Armin also shines as the typical brains of course.
The animation is as fantastic as ever, the scenes with characters using the manoeuvre gear just seems to get better and better with each passing season. There is no skimping on bloody violence either, at one point blood is literally raining down on characters due to the carnage that has occured. There are lots and lots of titans also, always a good thing. The middle section of this part however goes to my least favourite aspect of the show, political machinations. There is much screen time devoted to a rift within the Paradis army, which to me got in the way of a good story, even if I felt it was needed. There were plenty of 'WTF!' moments peppered throughout. It all leads up to final episode The Dawn of Humanity which surprised me by being mostly set in the past, showing what happened upon the initial arrival of the Paradis infiltrators onto the mainland back in part 1. Have to say it was good to get some more screen time with Sasha, and the comedic feel was a bit of fresh air after some very serious episodes.
With likely nine more episodes to come next year I really hope that this all ends well. I don't like the paths some of the characters have taken, so I really hope there is more depth and perspective given to help me understand. Of course however, I am very excited to see 'Attack on Titan Final Season Final Arc' or whatever it will be called.
SCORE:
No comments:
Post a Comment