Whatever else we think about Shingeki no Kyoujin, can we at least agree that the manner in which it’s been adapted is something of a joke?  The second season came at least three years later than it should have to cash in on the hype.  It practically destroyed a great studio in Wit, and the only one that would take up the mantle is a notorious black company.  And now we’re working on our third “final” season – which is really a slap in the face to fans in the series, any way you slice it.  It’s funny and infuriating at the same time.  But then, so is the series a lot of the time.

If we want to search for the bright side, I suppose – as comically absurd as it is – finishing in another “final” season is better than in a movie.  This way at least we don’t have to fork over twenty bucks and brave a pandemic (I wouldn’t have but some people would) to see the conclusion as it happens.  Of course by the time it airs (2023, ROFL) the manga will have been over for so long that my guess is that most non-manga readers will have been spoiled anyway.

This really is hilarious, the sheer “Groundhog Day” absurdity of it – not one, not two, but three “final” seasons.  It really is the sort of joke Togashi would dream up, except here it’s not intended as self-parody.  It’s appropriate I suppose for the series that gave us the “Trost” debacle, one of the most galling temporal loops in anime history.  It all makes what actually happens in the story seem rather trivial to me, but I know a lot of people still care about that if the aggregator scores are to be believed.  The really sad part is that I do myself, else I would gave dropped this anvil long ago – I’ve soldiered on this long that I genuinely want to see how Isayama chooses to wrap up this unholy mess.  But that desire is dwarfed by irritation over the sheer idiocy of the way it’s being handled.

Choosing to end on this flashback sequence was kind of weird, too, though I assume that’s how it’s placed in the manga.  I guess this would have to have taken place between the end of Season 3 and the start of the “first final” season, though even then I’m not sure the logistics of it make sense.  I suppose the point of this is to try and humanize Eren’s decision to commit the most evil act in human history by showing how he only did it as a last resort.  And, you know, he cries over the fact that the millions of innocents he’s murdering actually have faces and names and booze.

I guess of the many questions I have about the final arc (whenever it actually happens) the most important is whether Isayama will actually have the balls to take a position and stick to it.  Is he going to hedge his bets and stick to the idea that everyone is to blame, or is he going to boldly assert that genocide is not an acceptable alternative under any circumstances?  He has the right to take a completely Nihilistic approach in the end if he chooses to – it’s his story.  But I have the right to be disappointed by that, if he does.

Honestly, Shingeki no Kyoujin has been a part of my consciousness for so long now that I genuinely will miss the absurdity of it when it’s gone.  But it’s long past time for that to happen – enough is enough.  There will never be a meeting of the minds on this series – elements of Isayama’s allegories and historical perspective which seem indisputable and self-evident to me will never be acknowledged by many.  The same with his enormous flaws as a writer of characters.  C’est la vie.  Its impact – both narratively and culturally – is something I certainly don’t dispute.  It’s a beast to be sure, in more than one sense.

That said, however, the farcical manner in which the conclusion is being drawn out discredits everyone involved in it and disrespects the audience, whatever that audience thinks about the work itself.  Shingeki has often played as unintentional self-parody (at least to me), but turning the franchise itself into a joke over the adaptation is criminally negligent.  However big this series is – and that’s pretty damn big – it’s been reduced in stature by the titanic (pun intended) mistakes in adapting it.  A lot of people really should feel ashamed of themselves about that.