Towards the end of last year, after a few bait and switches, the actual final episode of hit anime Attack on Titan aired. As the convoluted title suggests, Attack on Titan - The Final Chapters: Special 2, this ending had been stretched out somewhat. It has taken three or four months to get my best friend (who I have watched the entire show with) to agree to sit through the feature length episode, with this last one clocking in at an hour and a half. Probably not a surprise to anyone, but as a warning, there will be almighty spoilers for anyone not up to date with what has been going on.
Special 1 ended with the combined forces of Paradis island and outside forces on their way to battle Eren, who had initiated 'the rumbling' (essentially releasing a cataclysmic rampage of thousands of giant titans to destroy the entire world). In his gigantic titan form, Eren was leading the charge, determined to wipe out everyone outside of Paradis island. The initial plan is to stop Eren, rather than kill him, as among the defenders are some of his former best friends, including Mikasa and Armin. It turns out it isn't just Eren and Zeke they have to contend with however, as the source of the titan power, Ymir, has lent her power in the form of summoning the hundreds of key titans of those who have come before. These unfavourable odds soon make it seem like victory might be impossible.
As I had hoped, most of the last episode is an epic battle, and with most the fighting taking place on Eren's titan form back, this literally finally lived up to the title 'Attack on Titan'! As expected, the animation was top notch, with no end of epic moments. It was so cool to see the army of ghost-like titans for both friendly titans and humans to battle. There were less notable deaths than expected, but still got a couple. There is a lot of action here, but thankfully there is also a lot dedicated to the finale of the story, both with some intelligently placed explanations for things which had been going on that hadn't been obvious to the viewer, and a neat way of kind of showing what happens to the world going forward into the future, obviously for spoiler reasons I can't say anymore than that.
My issue going in had been that Eren was my second favourite character, but later episodes had seen him turn into almost a cartoon like antagonist hell bent on world destruction. I hoped there would be something to hold onto to at least make his actions more relatable, and I'm darn glad there was, with some neat flashback scenes being shown to the viewer for the first time that explain his thought patterns and why he did what he did. By this point my friend hated Eren, but much like Light in the fantastic Death Note anime, I could understand his actions at least in some small way, even if parts of those actions may have been quite misguided and narrow sighted. Of course, when you are shown scenes of mass death as a result of his actions, it can be hard to identify too much with his reasoning!
Having been watching Attack on Titan for ten years, much of the story I was a bit lost with. It is complicated at the best of times, so catching it every few years with a new season, and with those seasons being fragmented, has meant my understanding of the overall story isn't the best. After some time has passed I look forward to watching the whole ninety something episodes again. The only thing stopping this final from getting a ten out of ten is the inclusion of Gabbi, a character who I detest and who ruins every scene the character ever appears in!
SCORE:
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