It’s no doubt that 2019 was the best year for anime thus far with so many unique shows and sequels. Ufotable demonstrating the beauty of animation through Demon Slayer, Bones showing us what it means to be a good person in the sequel to Mob Psycho 100, and most notably, Wit Studio giving us two of the strongest story-driven anime entries before the decade ended with Vinland Saga’s conflicting tale of reaching for Heaven in Hell and finally flying out of the birdcage and reuniting with the flock in the climax that was Attack on Titan Season 3 (part 2).
With Historia as the new ruler, the Survey Corps are tasked with the final objective to find the truth of what’s in Eren’s basement. This 10 episode journey takes everything we so far know about our characters and world, and puts them to the test. It uses everything that made Attack on Titan special, from the amazing camera movement, voice acting, and interesting environment established in the first season, the character writing and development of the second, and the expansion and showcase of what would happen when everyone found out about what Titans are in the first half of Season 3. Using all of it together, Isayama crafts a beautiful arc that shows us the best outcome of several years of work.
Usually, I try to talk about most aspects of a show, for example, Linked Horizon, cinema staff, and Hiroyuki Sawano’s amazing musical performances, getting you hyped and scared for the next episode, giving you time to breakdown and understand what you witnessed and preparing you for the next attack, or maybe the spectacular Levi animation we see every episode he’s in by Wit. Although they’re all great, and I would love to talk about them in depth more, there’s something that S3P2 does that exceeds anything else the series provided thus far.
In season 1, each and every character felt very bland, only having the Ackermann’s really be memorable for how cool they were everytime they showed up on screen. Armin, Sasha, Jean, the entire cast fit the context of the show, but it never felt like they grew. Reiner’s boldness, Erwin’s crazy mindset, Eren’s dream of killing every last titan, we never got to explore any of that because of pacing.
As episodes went by, I found myself getting more and more interested in AOT. Isayama had plans for everything and it all just made sense. Questions would be asked and answered at an appropriate time, and were never just one-sided conversations. As more and more information is revealed, Isayama uses your temptation and pulls you in, making you more fascinated by how these “bland” and “one-dimensional” come into this gigantic world. Season 2 gave more depth into said characters, and actually makes you invested in these characters. Whether it was Sasha’s episode where the main reason she joined the survey corps was to explore all the different types of food or the episode in the forest with Reiner, showcasing the deeper reason why he’s scared, it applied real world logic into a fictional world that worked coherently. Time and time after again, the world expands in an understandable sense, with S3P1 showing us who’s going to be in power and in charge of the future for the people of the walls, whether it was the power hungry Kenny, the scared Rod, or the confused Historia and how whoever became the ruler would affect EVERYONE.
Everything was built up and for this next part and showcased Isayama’s best writing yet. S3P2 takes everything that made the previous entries so interesting, removed the problems we had to take to get there, and puts it into overdrive. Sawano’s hype and fearful music, Wit’s bombastic action, the VAs fantastic performance, all of it played a part of the bigger explosion of this part and contributed to the most important factor of S3P2, the characters.
Every character feels and is important. How exactly is this mixed cast from S1 and background characters going to affect this battle? What exactly is our plan to take down the Beast Titan before it can take us down? Are we going to go home with everything or nothing? It’s not just the main cast you’re concerned about though. What and who is Zeke? What’s going to happen to Annie if Bertholdt doesn’t win? And, the one of the trio that peaked me the most, what’s going on with Reiner? Everyone one of these former dense characters becomes a critical point and it genuinely doesn’t feel like there’s a main character because of it. And this can best be seen in the episode Midnight Sun.
If this was an option that was showcased towards us in the first season or so, we would just brush it aside as a simple moment of shock like the rest of that season and it itself wouldn’t lead towards anything. When I saw Floch, a character we had never seen before, show up with a character on his back who’s developed both in the story and for the viewer, I thought something like that would happen. But I was proved wrong. It’s because he’s a character we’ve never seen before, it’s because he’s dense and one-dimensional, it’s because he has the mindset of S1.
Erwin is a horrible and selfish person, but because of how horrible he was, he managed to use people to his will and control them, even pushing them towards a suicide charge in order to see his dream. And Floch knows that. It’s because of Erwin’s insane plan that they managed to get this far and in order to get the quickest way to freedom is through him. Armin is the other side of the coin, and morally, he’s much better than Erwin. But will he be able to do what Erwin did? Will he be able to convince people to throw away their lives for one person’s dreams? Will he be the one to set the cast free? In a moment of panic, stress and fear, he witnessed his friends and allies get killed while noticing what happened when the Colossal Titan did so. He was aware of his allies, tools, and area to devise an on-the-spot plan to take down the biggest threat to the Survey corps. So, between him and Erwin, who is the bigger savior of humanity? To this day, I still don’t know who was the best choice, and because of that, it provided two certain moments that fascinated me the most.
The first is with Erwin and Levi. As Hange and the rest of the squad pull Eren away, all in disbelief and pain, with Eren being the most pained. As Levi walks towards Erwin to revive him, we hear nothing. No music and no background noise, it’s just Levi reflecting on everything up until this point, from Erwin’s dream to Kenny’s death. He lifts up Erwin’s arm, ready to save him. Just as he’s about to save him, Erwin slaps the syringe away, raising his hand up like he did and asking the question:
“Teacher, how do we know there’s nobody outside of the walls?”
Levi stops and realises what he’s doing. Up until this point, everyone has always died for a dream. The survey corps, dying to obtain safety, Kenny, dying as a slave for power, and now Erwin, dying for a paradise of truth. Through the countless comrades killed by titans and killed by Levi, he too is going down a path of dream of horrible actions that will lead to death. Erwin, a devil of a man who was constantly well aware of what evil deeds he was doing is finally dead. It was time for him to rest.
The other thing about Midnight Sun that interested me the most involves Eren Jaeger, and ties into my conclusion as well. During S1, I hated Eren, because out of ALL the bland characters, he was the one that pissed me off the most. Sure, it was realistic to want revenge, but not being able to kill a single titan despite wanting to do so was pathetic as hell. However, as time went on and on, I slowly began to like him more and more. He was constantly like that because of how scared he was of everything and because of everything he was taught before. When watching the episode, I realised that he too had changed. He’s not upset because he’s scared, but because he’s angry. How many people are going to die because of lies? Why does his friend have to die? Why can’t everyone just go see the ocean together?
“If we kill all of them over there, will we finally be free?”
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