setz's Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 2 Review
By the time of me creating this review, Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 2 ended yesterday, on April 3rd, 2022. I waited a day to create this review so I had a bit more time to collect my thoughts on this part, as I have a good bit to say.
___This review contains spoilers. If you haven't watched the season yet, I highly advise you go watch it and stop reading this review. Also, this is more of a casual review as it is my opinion. You don't have to agree with it. I don't really care if you dislike the anime. This is just what I think.
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Introduction
Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 2 had a lot of hype surrounding it before it came out. Everyone was excited for it and while it was airing, it was a really big deal. I would go to school and I would hear so many people talking about the new season. Same goes with both MyAnimeList and Anilist. Coming out every week, all of the AOT fans could be excited for that fresh episode every Sunday for new AOT content. Did it live up to the hype? Let's see what I think about that.
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Story / Plot: 9/10
As far as plot goes, there was its ups and its downs. The story continues off from the crazy ass cliffhanger from the last part, where Pieck declares Eren as the enemy. Eren goes in his titan form, huge fight happens, planning goes down with Onyankopon, Mikasa, etc. As the first 3 episodes go on, they try to stop Eren as Eren and the Yeagerists do their thing, where the Yeagerists were trying to go with Zeke's plan. This spans through episode 1-2. This part was pretty cool. It was a good start for what was to come. It was quite dialogue heavy in the first episode but it turned out fine. No complaints.
From episodes 3-5, Eren is in a tight corner. He is then shot through the neck and his head gets decapitated. Zeke, however, grabs his head, bringing them to the paths with Ymir. They flashback Grisha Yeager's past and learn that Eren actually caused Grisha to slaughter Frieda and the other children. Eren kissing Historia's hand in season 3 was actually foreshadowing this. Then we learn the Attack Titans' special power can actually see through the memories of it's previous users. Due to this, Grisha tells Zeke to stop Eren. Then there's another flashback: Ymir's origins. Ymir ran away from her village because everyone accused her of letting a pig loose. She falls into a tree that gives her the power of the Titan. The king takes advantage of this. When she dies, her children eat her to gain the Titan powers. Eren (In the paths) then convinces Ymir to give him the power of the Rumbling. Then The Rumbling starts. This is without a doubt the greatest trio of episodes in anime history. I don't think any anime episode will top episodes 3-5 of this season. From the crazy moments in episode 3, to (in my opinion) the greatest plot twist in anime history in episode 4, to the single handedly craziest moment in anime history for episode 5. Incredible.
Episode 6, the craziness dies down. There's a very awesome ODM gear moment that reminds me of how it was in Season 1. It was just a lot of really cool action. Nothing much else to say.
Now I cannot really tell you wtf happened episodes 7-9. It really died down there. Annie came back and there was a weird pie scene. Connie had this stupid plan to take Falco and feed it to him to his mom? Idk it was weird. This was a part that I couldn't really grasp around my head and I enjoyed it way less than any of the other episodes. This is one of the downs of the season.
Episodes 10-12 were really good. Levi's remaining squad and some people like Yelena and Onyankopon come together to stop the yeagerists. There was a lot of cool action during episode 10-11 and the yeagerists end up defeated. Episode 12 was a flashback episode that took place right after Season 3 Part 2 ended (the ocean scene.) They visited the world outside Paradis and meet a nice village. It talks a bit more of Eren's intentions as well. The final scene is another crazy ass cliffhanger where it shows The Rumbling in action. This was a nice conclusion to the season. It was mostly good but episodes 7-9 and just some wacky strange minor things that happened throughout made the score for this a 9 instead of a 10.
___Animation / Artstyle: 6/10
Now animation was real inconsistent. Now I do like MAPPA's artstyle way better than WIT's but my god sometimes the animation really was wack. Choppy is an understatement. CGI was fine at least besides some moments, like Reiner running towards Gabi in episode 5. The Rumbling CGI was fine. If it was shit there, this would've been a 4. A very obvious moment when animation was kinda rough was during the first half of episode one. It's noticeably off. Really off. It get's better though. But then it'll become off again. And then better. And then off again. The cycle continues. If you wanna find some specific screenshots of some wonky animation, @ChrisHacker ‘s review has some screenshots that show how strange the animation is at times (shoutout to ChrisHacker.) It's mostly with the small details though, but these small details are still noticeable. It doesn't do well on AOT's behalf.
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OST: 10/10The OST for this part was fucking sick. Genuinely. I do think that the OP and ED that we got this season are the best that AOT has ever had. I know for a fact that The Rumbling is gonna be a classic for ages. The ED was also kinda emotional with its' foreshadowing. Some other amazing tracks you have were The Fall of Paradis, Call Of Silence, the song that played when Reiner and Annie were titans on episode 10, and the song that played episode 6 during the cool ODM gear scene (couldn't find name of them.) It's all so nice to listen to and there's not a single bad song to it.
Enjoyability: 10/10Watching this season was a real treat. The hype that I (and many other people) got watching it weekly was super high. Since every episode was good, it was so exciting seeing what the anime had in store next. All the crazy moments in Attack On Titan had me on the edge of my seat and it gave me multiple emotions, from joy to sadness. Most anime fan's would really enjoy this part (it was enjoyable while it was weekly) as it is really fucking good.
___ConclusionYes, it did live up to the hype. It truly was a big time in the anime community when this was releasing and it's gonna be remembered for a long time. Is it the best anime for (technically) 2021? Hell no. Fruits Basket: The Final Season gets that. But it's a competitor. It sucks that we have to wait another whole year for the actual ending of AOT but nonetheless, the part is, in my opinion, the peak of Attack On Titan. (the fact that we have to wait another year will NOT affect the score)
I did give it a 100 in my personal list but due to the rating format I have going on here, its actual score is a 90.
Personal Score: 9.5/10
Overall Score: 9/10
Anyways, this is my opinion. Don't take this all too seriously. Watch it for yourself and base your own opinion off that. People have different opinions and that's fine.