_In this review there will be minor spoilers for this season and what happens after this season. So, please beware. I will also be discussing the production quality by comparing it to past 3 seasons of because for people in the future that are planning to watch it should know that the right to produce AOT after Season 3 was gone to MAPPA instead of Wit Studio.
There are some some aspect of the story won’t focus on them because that will spoil the story like character development etc. But I will keep on editing this review if I found a way to discuss the missing topic without spoiling it to everyone else._
STORY
Story wise I would say this was the best season by far. And we realize what the story was really about from the beginning of the first episode of AOT: ‘Cycle of Hatred’. The Titan eradicating humanity wasn't really the actually story. It was about telling us that children should not be treated depending on the sin of their parents and ancestors. It is the ideology of a foolish and a cruel person.
This shows us that the oppressed can become the oppressor.
But someone of the teaching this story give make no sense. Because one of the things the story is teaching is:
Spoiler, click to view
Be completely evil. Leaving no victims will break the ‘Cycle of Hatred’.TIME SKIP
So, now Imagine there is extreme sense of suspense on what will happen next or can they accomplish their task safely. At the same time as the event unfold you are seeing other perspective of people life, relationships and other details that make them more then someone that pass away later on or just show up in front of the screen. Because there is no problem of time management and pacing. Since, all the things are enwrapping all together.
This is something that Isayama didn’t do. Instead, he skips to a time where we are only given 4 episodes to understand a whole new set of casts and their lives. Because certain event needs to quickly match each other. So, due to which some details became mysteries or shown through recollection. And majority of the flash back is important detail but aren’t as suspenseful as the current event. And mysteries didn’t even turn out to be really mind blowing and interesting as the current event apart from one. Which doesn’t even require to have the time skip to be a mystery there were other ways of doing it.
Why is that so; because we know what became of those situations and event I the end. There was no suspense or mystery do what will be do now or what he is planning/doing now. We know what their conclusion is. So, there is no suspense or drama while watching it.
(Spoilers for HxH)
Spoiler, click to view
For example, a good amount of time was spending to find out what Eren and another character talked about. Just it turned out to be nothing special compare to what is going around. Waste of the time. For example, if Togashi wrote HxH Chimera Arc in such a manner that we only see the perspectives of the Hunters. So, we don’t know what is happening to the Ants and what development in their characters went through; what situation they are in; and what their reaction was as the whole invasion happened. And then we get to see Netero easily take the King to the desire site to fight them. So, we don’t get to see the great development of Meruem and why he easily followed Netero to the desired site. We also don’t get to see that actually Hunters didn’t have it easy in getting Meruem. They almost engaged in to a fight with two of the strongest guards. If it wasn’t for the circumstances that they avoid it and some of the Hunters are trying their best to holding two guards back; so, they don’t interfere. And we won’t get to see why Pouf, Pitou, and Youpi are going crazy over a girl until the very end of due to the flashback. So, at the moment we won’t realize how much of a big deal that little girl is. And we won’t have conflicting emotions like we did when we saw Pouf trying get rid of her. Or when Gon threaten to kill her in front of Pitou. The drama or tense won’t be the same after realizing unlike seeing it unfold with knowing all of the importance these events have to who and why. And rooting for one side would be easy. While, harder to recognize the dedication and care for other side.BAD FORESHADOWING
In term of foreshadowing Isayama is one of the best Mangaka today. Not the best because sometime he forces foreshadowing. Which are basically spoilers. Foreshadowing is a detail which is not a clue and you won’t find any meaning in it until the event it was foreshadowing happens.
Clues are some details you piece together to solve a mystery. But the following scene falls into the spoiler’s category:
Spoiler, click to view
Eren says ‘fight’ two time in front of a mirror after the military arrest him and Hange comes to check on him. And Hange found it suspicious; think he is plotting something: which have two phases: he is telling himself or someone else to win both times.OP and ED
The composer and the singers did a great effort for both opening and the ending. It is really fun to listen them. And the ending is really well done. It’s pretty emotional hearing it.
But the opening song was generic. You may ask ‘how is it generic?’; so, let’s first discuss ‘what is generic?’
Basically, music that lacks a strong, distinctive personality and "standoutish" qualities. Generally used for bands that feel interchangeable with other bands of the genre.
Whereas Wit Studio hired composers and singers that use all sorts of instrument that usually aren’t use in a single type of song and have more unique theme in their opening. Like the season 2 opening theme was a National Anthem to feel patriotic for a country that doesn’t exist.
That’s not just it; the opening didn’t had amazing visuals and animation every previous AOT opening have. It looked like an animation project whose foundation was made but details weren’t added. But I am just telling you this since there is a drop is quality. Wit Studio OP quality isn’t the standard for average opening.
SOUND EFFECT
MAPPA did an poor job on the sound design in comparison to Wit Studio. It’s ignorable but at the same time a downgrade.
Some of the recorded sound doesn't match few actions. There is a moment when a Titan rip apart the cord that was attached to another Titan. When the Titan tear it apart it mean a sound as it was soft tissue being ripped not a huge sturdy cord at least a meter thick in diameter, which clearly had tough muscle. Since it was underneath a lot of rubble and didn't looked damaged. It should have sounded something like tight rope being torn apart.
And the sound of ODM gear hook when it shoots into brick and cement structure is similar as a bullet or a metal rod hitting another metallic object.
MUSIC COMPOSITION and SOUND DIRECTOR
Wit Studio did the great job by hiring Hiroyoki Sawano. He creates the perfect music to match the theme of the moment by using every instrument they have in disposal to create different style of song. Like when we are shown Grisha's past then the music change to Jazzy with guitar like of 1920s music. Which perfectly fit for town and the era he grows up in. Making us feel his nostalgia.
But the music not just matches the moment; also enhances the mood and the hype because of perfectly hitting key note and beats coordinating with scene making the moment more mind blowing and breathtaking. Like season 2, when Reiner and Bertholt revealing their true identity. It didn't just shock many viewers but blow them away thanks to the sound director. It was an epic moment.
Let’s also look my favorite Beast Levi vs Zeke's Titan.
(Watch this video with no other audio apart from the full OST of the fight with the scene to see the use of music composition and coordination.)
But even though Hiroyoki Sawano staying for the final season; there weren’t as many good OST as there were in previous season because the time wasn’t enough for to compose new song or reuse old one making them suit for the different other theme.
And the sound director also didn’t a great job as many scenes that would go well with use already existing OST were music less. Which took away the intensity of the scene. Since, music is the sound language. It pours out more emotion. Not taking the opportunity to make the any scene more memorable for the viewers is a bad idea.
They also keep reusing a piece of music specially composed for this season in a lot of scene. Which is not like it is a great like YOUSEEBIGIRL. It was generic so the sound director did a poor job there. He should have use all other previous album to balance the use of all the music out. Instead of havng one over used.USE of CGI and CAMERA ANGLES
(Watch this video first for reference.)
Wit Studio didn't overuse CGI. They mainly did to animate Rod Reiss’s and the Colossal Titan. But not like they did to animate every Titan's important scenes like MAPPA did; they did in a poor job compare to some Anime that combine 2D and 3D animation. Unlike some show few things are CGI but rest are drawn. And combine in such way they are tolerate able. MAPPA used it even on simple thing they could have animated it in 2D. Like even on scouts using ODM gear. And the model is so stiff it doesn’t look like they have any air resistance. And the only problem with Wit’s CGI model was that Colossal Titan always had lips on his CGI version. Thankfully they 40% of the time they draw the Colossal Titan or else it would been really hard to look at it. And the Reiss’s Titan had arm that look like their stretching like gum and his Titan looked like a Turkey couple of time. But even he was drawn time to time.
The overuse of CGI combines with poor camera angle made the Armor Titan look weightless. Now compare it to other 3D Anime like 'Kengan Ashura’. We can imagine of the impact of the attack and the pain coming from that attack. There model and use of CGI was not bad but was completely mediocre if compare to shows like ‘Advent Child’, ‘Garden of Words’, ‘Levius’, and ‘Lupin the 3rd: The First’.
But MAPPA animator are great in using CGI to create amazing animation/visuals effects. Like rains and explosions.
The camera angles were also weird. Just by choosing the wrong position to draw a scene. Could make something huge will feel small and weightless. And since we have Titans on this show means it is bound to get it right.
Even in the scene they got it right for the Titan, we still have problem of getting weird POV. So, for example it would be great to see the battle by seeing it from the battlefield or a third person view. Looking through behind someone with the camera being over him. But you give us an overview of the battlefield. Now, you can’t properly see what is going on.
And sometime we got weird POV where the camera is flying by some Titan Armpit. Instead of focusing on one scout and what he goes through in the battlefield. Instead of focusing on someone it bounces from one another.ART STYLE and THE USE of 2D ANIMATION
Unlike the previous seasons they art style was more faithful to the Manga. But Isayama himself admitted that he was artistically weak. Even though he improved he can only draw Titan beautifully. But still time to time we can see his weakness even in the Titan because he can not apply the shading technique at all. So, when they animated the show, we clearly saw a lot of mistakes. It was as almost the lighting in every scene didn’t matter. The shade and brightness of the color was most of the independent of the light sources. And just like Isayama animators draw line across characters faces to create shading. Which look ugly.
And they didn’t even use re-design for many characters and Titans. So, Mikasa looked like a man and not Asian at all. Eren looked like a Latino at time. Instead of a German. But characters like Zeke and Reiner looked better; matching their race and age respectively.
And the Female, Armored, Jaw, and Attack Titan looked better even than the Wit version. And those design were amazing. Which mean if they had got shading and color rendered properly, they would have looked mind blowing.
And the atmosphere and back ground of some scene was absolutely gorgeous.
But that’s all the praises. Not let get back to pointing out blunders. The facial expression is just ludicrous. This shows us that not all the time adaptation should be faithful the Manga in story or art style. Many reactions like anxiety, urgency and shock were similar. In those reactions they always stare with open wide eyes. And everyone have the same nose not just similar in structure but also in size. That is why on children it look big.
But thankfully children version of some characters are more realistic.
EXECUSION
So, was all this excusable because of budget, time constrain and the plague going around? MAPPA had the animators that could have animated all the scene with the CGI in 2D. If we look at 'God of High school' animation. It was fluid, with great choreography, consistent, and had a great art style. Wit Studio had 34 employees working on AOT (Full time employees and Interns). While MAPPA had 200+ employees Full time employee, interns and free lancers. From which they could have selected a lot of staff members to work on complete season 4 in 8 months with great quality. Wit Studio released Season 1 with 25 episodes 306 days after starting it production right after they were form in June 1, 2012 as their first project with mistakes that easily fixed in the Blu-ray edition (which mean they were small mistakes). Then what was the cause of this low-quality production by MAPPA.
That is because MAPPA recently have a bad habit of blowing their budget on adapting to many shows on the same time. Which effect the technical aspect of this season. Since, the staff was overworked.
And other projects also felt that setback as well. MAPPA board of Directors and executives made every unprofessional business decision. Instead of focusing on one show that is going to become a cult classic and already have a fan following. Spending all the budget and assigning staff member it requires to create a quality production in 8 months. They tried to adapt shows whose source material no one care about and didn't had potential to do a decent job as well. A total of 5 projects were animated with it.
Not that they are just making errors while creating a project. They also overwork and under paid their staff member. Which is disagree. Because all that for nothing but their personal greed.
Plus, all that could been fixed if they should had delayed it. If they didn’t want to layoff some projects. Since, it was on it's height of its popularity. In order to make sure to make all money before it loses even a bit of popularity because the Manga was coming to an ending. The executive at N.H.K gave them only 8 months.
A delayed project is always better than the rushed project. But they fail to recognize that.