This review may contain spoilers.
A rollercoaster of a season that feels like 20 minutes. So much happens in such little time and the story hasn't fully ended despite being called "the final season".
The world in the series gets expanded once more and we get more context to the reasoning behind the actions of certain characters or events that happened in the past.
The characters are okay and two new "main characters" with opposing ideologies are introduced.
The animation is good and the new art style makes the characters look older, which fits due to the story continuing after a time-skip.
The sound is okay and has two soundtracks which stand out.
Like
The world in the series gets expanded once more and we get more context to the reasoning behind the actions of certain characters or events that happened in the past.
New characters from the "enemy" their side get introduced, a few more titan shifters and Gabi and Falco. Up till the end of the third season we have this perspective that the people accross the sea are evil and want the people of Paradise to stop existing. In this season we see more how the people are brainwashed to think think the people from Paradise are evil monsters. Gabi symbolises that brainwashing while Falco realises that the people probably aren't evil through the influence of Reiner who struggles with his beliefs since he also realises the people aren't evil, but the brainwashing from childhood still keeps him in his old belief state.
The declaration of war moment stands out the most this season. How Reiner and Eren talk with one another and what they talk about gives more gravity to the situation.
A part of the Paradisian citizens want their nation to become Eldia again and use the titan power to achieve their goals, like their Eldian ancestors did. It's interesting to see how the old cast of the survey corps don't like this idea and just want the fighting to stop.
Dislike
None
Like
It's interesting to see how Eren as hero is turning into a villain. Given how much he went through, it would have been weird to see him not have some kind of PTSD or depression. He feels more like a real human being the way he is now.
Reiner suffers from multiple issues, like PTSD and survival guilt, due to all what happened. It also makes him and his actions feel more human like.
Gabi and Falco, in a sense the main protagonists of this season, each represent a different ideology. Gabi is fully brainwashed and Falco is more sceptic of the situation.
Dislike
The part where Mikasa is suddenly a distant relative to a leader of Hizuru feels a bit like plot convenience. It would have been better if somewhere in the series it was mentioned before. Maybe in an OVA where Eren and Mikasa do something and Eren sees her symbol and asks her about it.
Like
The characters look older with the new art style which fits because they are older in the story as well.
The animation in the opening song is special. The imagery is unsettling, but it's still artistic with the coloured explosions and the combination of the 2D imagery and 3D soldiers that get destroyed at a certain point.
Dislike
It would have been nice if the titans weren't CGI. The CGI itself isn't terrible when compared to the CGI in Berserk (2016) or EX-ARM, and at times I didn't realise a titan was in CGI until I rewinded a bit and looked again.
The shading is sometimes weird on characters. Image one in the link looks alright, but the shading in image two looks out of place. It happens a few times through the anime. When it is done well it's great and adds that manga like shading feel, but when it's not good it stands out in a bad way.
Like
The opening song is an unique experience. The song is unsettling and combined with what you see it gives this dreadful feeling. Here's the opening song: https://youtu.be/NnNxIr6Ifdo
The main soundtrack reminds me a bit of YouSeeBigGirl. It starts with an air-raid siren like sound which is nice since this season is set in a 20th century war like setting. Here's the soundtrack: https://youtu.be/289H9XqmmpM
Dislike
None
Like
There's a fan version of the main soundtrack which is really well done. The titan scream in the song adds a nice touch. Here's the soundtrack: https://youtu.be/Md0WKA05dkw
Dislike
None
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