For all that one could say about Shingeki no Kyoujin’s final act – and Lord knows, that’s a lot – one thing that’s easy to sleep on is just how weird this series gets. Don’t get me wrong, AoT was always a strange one, what with Isayama’s drunken-subway faces and random passages of surreal dialogue. That’s definitively part of its charm. But while those things are still with us, the plot itself is getting weirder and weirder. Maybe when series are as massively successful as this one editors lose most of their terrifying sway over a mangaka’s life, but I think there’s more stuff happening here than there really needs to be.
I don’t know about this whole Mikasa-Hizuru thing, which seems very tacked-on to me and lacking any urgent purpose in the larger story. It’s cool to tie Japan into things I suppose, and it allows the author to turn some of his historical revisionism inwards in a more direct way. But it’s very left field to have Mikasa reveal that tattoo at this point in the anime, and indeed to bring Hizuru in as a major player in the first place. I suppose you had to have some kind of revelation about Mikasa’s past because it’s been kind of hanging out there since the start of the series, but this all feels very disconnected.
Much more reassuringly familiar are the absurdist conversations, like Hange’s “two fights” with Eren (though that was mostly a monologue to be fair) and the Conny-Sasha “idiot” exchange. That was one of the funnier passages from the entire series I think, as the light came on in Conny’s eyes when he realized Sasha was such a big idiot that she didn’t even realize she was an idiot. Conny was involved in another very funny moment when little Levi visibly seethed at seeing how tall Conny had gotten. That kind of stuff makes me wish AoT would try and be intentionally funny a little more often. Hange’s comment about how Erwin “only made one mistake” was by contrast unintentionally funny – and that Isayama clearly believes it himself is properly disturbing.
As for the overarching plot, again, I just feel like it’s more complicated than it needs to be. At its heart this is really about Eren going in two years from where he was (trying to save Historia from a cruel fate and obsessing over not passing on his burden to any of his friends) to deciding that basically wiping out civilization with The Rumbling was the only answer. Just show us that – show us how all Armin’s theoretical doors get slammed shut in his face, and how his transformation alienates Eren from the others, and cut out a lot of the excess baggage.
Shingeki clearly gets at something with these intimate moments, like the old gang (in flashback) riding the rails and trying to pretend there’s hope for the future, and Conny and Mikasa clashing over Eren’s reaction to Sasha’s death. “Intimate” isn’t a word you hear used in reference to this series very often, but it’s something Shingeki can be surprisingly good at. Everything about this series is “big” and has been from the beginning, right down to the title, but I think it works best when it doesn’t try too hard to deliver what it probably thinks the audience is expecting.
Derrick
February 16, 2021 at 3:50 amthis anime sometimes felt Kafkaesque
sonicsenryaku
February 16, 2021 at 4:55 am“Just show us that – show us how all Armin’s theoretical doors get slammed shut in his face, and how his transformation alienates Eren from the others, and cut out a lot of the excess baggage”
Wait, I thought the overarching plot IS showing exactly what you’re asking for. By excess baggage are you just referring to the allegories you find distasteful?
Guardian Enzo
February 16, 2021 at 7:43 amIt’s buried under too much misguided allegory and unnecessary plot twists for their own sake. That’s the problem.
blargnobia
February 16, 2021 at 5:58 amThe Hiruzu subplot is really nonsensical. That country has, I assume, been doing okay in the 100 years or so that Paradise has been isolated, but they’re somehow interested in a random expat because of a very-important-but-never-forshadowed tattoo. It’s like Sword and the Stone happening in the background of some other story.
Unrelated, but giving Sasha a love interest post-mortem never sat well with me. She was essentially a joke character, and now that she’s dead Isa’s trying to make her more human with that Marley cook guy and her dad’s ridiculous “she wandered out into the forest” speech. (The anime did include the speech, right? I haven’t been watching.)
Da_j
February 16, 2021 at 7:00 am“because of a very-important-but-never-forshadowed tattoo.”
Except it was, in Chapter 5 (was altered into an embroidery in the anime) , and the bandage has been shown multiple times since. Not that I’m defending it or anything as I still see some broad issues overall, but an ass pull this was not.
sonicsenryaku
February 16, 2021 at 9:35 amExactly; there is a very stark line between asspull and retcon. I think there’s plenty of conversation to be had about this being a retcon (which happens in long narratives of all strokes and qualities quite a bit) and the efficiency to which Isayama was able to make it relevant; but it would be incorrect to state that the narrative never set this up to some capacity. That being said, I think its introduction into the story, while it could lead to some interesting possibilities, was a bit awkwardly introduced. This felt to me like Isayama always wanted what was underneath Mikasa’s bandages/embroidery to have relevance and didn’t quite figure it out in the planning of his story until all his creative ideas started coming together while serializing the story
blargnobia
February 16, 2021 at 10:03 amI completely forgot about that–thank you for pointing out which chapter it was introduced in.