Of all the possibilities for the future of Shingeki no Kyoujin, a split cour always seemed the most likely – and that’s what we’ve got. It was pretty clear that with no scheduling announcements of any kind we weren’t going to plow straight through to fall, but this franchise still prints Yen way too fast to end here. As long as Isayama keeps spitting out manga material I suspect this is more or less the course Attack on Titan will take for the rest if its run – half a year on, half a year off more or less.
This season finale was a week late of course (thanks to the Hokkaido earthquake), but in truth it didn’t feel that much like a finale anyway. Without question the most low-key cour of Shingeki no Kyoujin ends with a low-key final episode that’s roughly split between looking back and looking forward, with little of real consequence happening in the moment. The big event to come is of course the battle to retake Wall Maria (though one could argue it’s actually what’s going to happen afterwards, at the Jaeger house), so next season could well be a return to the show’s more bombastic ways. That’s fine, but to be honest I kind of enjoyed the break.
What did we actually have on offer in this finale? Well, I did LOL at Zachary trying to convince the others that his anal torture device should be unveiled as a work of public art. But I winced when about 5 minutes was spent with Levi trying to convince Erwin (WHY WON’T YOU DIE) that he was too indispensable to risk on the front lines of the Wall Maria operation. In the first place these are two of my least favorite characters in the cast, but more than that the whole idea that Erwin was some kind of precious resource is so laughable that I’m shocked the characters themselves don’t laugh at it. I’d be encouraging Erwin to be at the vanguard of every operation, preferably blindfolded and unarmed.
Then, we get about 7 minutes of the troops going crazy when served meat (no one could out-crazy Sasha, of course). This was a decent gag that went on way, way too long – which is how Eren and Jean felt about their brawl as they desperately (though silently) pleaded for someone to stop them. But no one did – not even Armin, who had the good sense to stay out of the way and let the idiots be idiots. We also had a bit of retrospection for the original trio, who’ve spent precious little time on-screen together lately. The best part of this was Armin slipping back into idealist mode for just a few moments, reminding us of why he’s the most interesting person in this series.
As Reiner and Bertholt await the touching reunion to come, Erwin leads the Survey Corps out to the most rousing reception they’ve gotten since- Well, since the first season. It seems a certain bet that things will go wrong on this expedition – Erwin is involved, after all – but one suspects that sooner or later Wall Maria will be retaken, because I’m not sure even Shingeki no Kyoujin can delay the opening of the door to Eren’s basement for another entire cour. I certainly hope not.
All in all, I certainly feel a lot better about this show than I did when the second season ended. This cour was less derpy, less overtly pro-fascist and more thoughtful than any so far. It didn’t match the sheer bombastic euphoria of the first cour of S1, when the novelty of all this was still fresh, but nothing ever will – I suspect that now, almost 50 episodes in, this is probably about as good as Shingeki no Kyoujin is capable of being. I would have liked to have had more Armin, of course, and less Levi – but on the whole this was a good season, and leaves Shingeki is a much better place than the last one did.
Season 4 Preview:
Orion Taylor
October 16, 2018 at 1:49 amUmm, did you watch the ED of this episode all the way through? (Like to the last second)
Orion Taylor
October 16, 2018 at 1:50 amoh, right, yes you did, nvm
U_ben
October 16, 2018 at 3:04 amFor me this episode highlights the contrasting characters, Levi vs Erwin and Eren vs Armin. Armin and Erwin are actually kind of similar.
They both have similar childhood backgrounds (parents “dissappeared” for trying to find out more about the outside world). They also both inherited their parents dreams (for armin, it is to explore the outside world, for erwin, to learn the truth). Of course the difference is Erwin ruthlessly covers his dream as a fight for humanity and sacrificing his comrades to achieve it.
Levi is rough and unapproacheable, but in my mind theres no doubt he fights for humanity, and unlike Erwin he actually cares about casualties.
The wild guesser
October 16, 2018 at 7:49 amYou know, the really ironic thing about giving this season praise is that this arc was probably the worst-received arc in the manga and at the time of publication led to a lot of people dropping the series.
I personally liked not only this arc in the manga, but it’s anime adaptation.
Guardian Enzo
October 16, 2018 at 8:31 amWithout speaking to the larger question, more and more of late you can pretty safely go with “whatever is broadly agreed about an anime, I will think the opposite.”
Simone
October 24, 2018 at 3:25 amIt’s not just that, the anime adaptation genuinely was better. It cut stuff, sped up the pace. The manga version was rather boring to me, at least at the beginning, but it felt far snappier here.
blargnobia
October 17, 2018 at 6:12 amGotta love Erwin making weird animal noises at an adoring populace.
Simone
October 24, 2018 at 3:28 amYou know, with Erwin I suspect he’s just a victim of bad writing now. He’s one of those “tell, don’t show” disasters – whenever someone wants to portray a military genius, the only way to make him credible would be hiring a military consultant. Instead we get everyone SAYING that Erwin is a genius, and this, combined with the need of this series to cram as many horrifying deaths as possible in each action scene, actually makes him ridiculous, because he never says or does anything especially smart, and people die like flies under his command. Isayama didn’t realise that if he wants to show us Erwin being a great commander he should dial down the death a bit, because great commanders don’t lose 80% of their forces in every mission.
Guardian Enzo
October 24, 2018 at 6:56 amI don’t disagree, but bad writing is bad writing. Isayama just isn’t a good enough writers to think his way out of the box you describe, and character is a low priority for him anyway.
Red butterfly
February 23, 2019 at 10:23 amI know I’m very late but still I wanted to leave a comment here. First, sorry for my English, I’m French and don’t use English very often. I’m rusted.
I read all your AOT reviews and I found your interpretation of the show really strange. I don’t know exactly where you picked up that AOT was “pro-fascist”, maybe it’s due to some “controversy” a few years ago in the US, revived a few days ago on Twitter and already dead now. Well, for what I could see from this revival, it was total bullshit by people who obviously didn’t read the manga or people who had watched the first season and didn’t understand and/or remembered what they were watching. The facts is that AOT is not and never was pro-fascist. I know some persons interpreted the theme of humankind versus mindless titans like an allegory of Japan versus the strangers (and I even saw an hispanic academic paper about it!) but that was an arbitrary extrapolation based on nothing more than the own imagination of those who defended that vision. The fact is that AOT is a work when things revealed themselves bit by bit and you never know what you’re talking about when you talk about an AOT plot point. That’s the game Isayama is playing: showing us we know nothing and we are easily misleaded. As a manga reader I know more than you but I won’t tell more because it would be spoilers. Let’s just say things are complex.
All I can say is that I understand why you think Levi and Erwin are the incarnations of the author ideology if you begin watching the serie with the idea that it is pro-fascist. They are just strong (physically for Levi, mentally for Erwin) characters, not fascist propaganda. Their development is not over yet, and they are subtler and more flawed than just plain caricatural badasses, especially Erwin. You’ll see in April.
I’m also a bit surprised because you seem to seek moral lessons in this anime, as if you wished “good” valors had to be especially defended by the show. Must it be the role a piece of art, albeit popular art?
You can see for yourself that Isayama didn’t forget to remind us that Armin and his ambitions to discover the world are still there, meaning they are important for the whole plot and story. Armin is also my favorite character – not because he is the voice of the politically correct way of thinking, but let’s drop it with my reasons here- and I can’t see how Isayama tried to humiliate him. If you think of that scene in the first episode of season 3, that was effectively weird, but that’s Japanese humor (very codified Japanese humor that played with Armin’s feminine appearance). The scene was more complete in the manga for the old perv later knows that Armin is a boy and tells him nonetheless he changed his sexual orientation and wants Armin to finish the job. Jean later refers to the molestation when Armin vaguely proposes a ruthless false flag plan that leaves his companions totally afraid saying “you’r getting weird since that old man touched you” or something like that. The scene is not very useful in the plot but rewrites a Japanese erotic work trope and doesn’t bother to be anything else than a joke. But that’s really the only scene when I can think Armin is in a humiliating situation. In the Trost arc, in season 1 he’s quickly becoming an important asset and never cease to be until now- where you are in the show. More than that, Armin moral interrogations are essential in the show and Isayama never fails to highlight them. Which doesn’t mean he wants to explicitly and heavily approve the politically correct part of Armin’s discourses, for Isayama interrogations are more complex than that. Remember Armin is the on to understand Erwin’s action in the Female Titan arc : he approves Erwin’s choice to sacrifice a hundred of men to save many more. Armin is not as idealistic as it may seems, he knows what sacrifices has to be made in a war against a non-reasoning enemy.
To conclude about Erwin. In a world like the one the characters live in, even if you loose 80% of your men, if you can advance and progress, it’s a victory. For the SC has to fight against titans but also against their own kind who refuses to let the SC do its work. Erwin is a commander who found a way to spare more lifes in the SC than his predecessors (via the Scouting formation), he also foresaw the presence of an enemy in their army and tried to lure them in a trap with the 57th expedition (and he found Annie with the help of Armin). He’s also very quick to make life-saving decisions, as we can see in the Uprising arc when the Levi Squad is hunted by the MP. Isayama doesn’t have the time to show everything Erwin has done for humanity, it’s physically impossible. You have to have the good faith to believe it. He’s supposed to be the head of the SC for a while now, it’s not for nothing.
Well, thanks for reading if you read it all and again sorry for the errors I surely made.