There’s no way to substantially criticize Attack on Titan without spoiling at least some of the plot, so here’s your warning.

When the first season aired, I couldn’t understand why my peers loved it so much. I tried watching it, I did, but it bored me out of my 14-year-old mind. Years later, I gave it another shot and ended up enjoying it, but still missing the overwhelming praise. It wasn’t until season four that I began to see the appeal of Attack on Titan, then watch it all wash away as it went on.

Time travel, brainwashing, character motivations, magic system, and the ever-changing sequence of historical events require a spreadsheet to follow. Everyone is double, triple, quadruple crossing each other like we're back in the second season, which made that the most entertaining part of the show for me. It leaned into the series' absurd premise—it was like a murder mystery, except the murderer was a giant bloodthirsty cannibal, and there were ten of them. Almost a decade later, we’re still revealing betrayal after betrayal. It’s old hat by now, and even a generous viewer would struggle to call it surprising. The repetition could be forgiven if the characters involved were multilayered enough to justify lazy writing.

The truth is, the cast is still flimsy. In part one of the final season, Reiner was the best character because his backstory was placed well in the plot, his motives were justifiable, and his subsequent redemption felt earned. But he is on the sidelines this time. Armin and Mikasa are not strong enough characters to carry the show. She is bland, and he is practically a stand-in for the author. Other side characters serve as speed bumps in part 2, such as Connie (do you remember him?). He deals with grieving his mother, trapped in the body of a titan, but his episode leaves no lasting impact beyond satisfaction for fans of the character. Though Levi returns, he is practically only present in spirit because his injuries rendered him immobile. Levi should have died, simple as that. There was no way he could’ve survived his injuries in part 1, but it was far from the first time he was protected by plot armor. We’re constantly reminded that the good guys aren’t immortal because dozens of faceless soldiers die violently, but it is seldom a main character. I’m going to speculate here, so take it with a grain of salt, but I worry that the author feared killing off popular characters would cause too much backlash or people to drop the series, so he kept them alive—at the expense of tension.

Reintroducing Annie halfway through part two was also an interesting choice—her reveal was practically a carbon copy of the manga’s panel with uninspired directing, which was a bad omen of how the production showcased her revival. Annie hasn’t been relevant since the second season. It’s like the author read complaints about the cast lacking depth and decided to dump it at the last minute. Spending 10 minutes of a 23-minute episode on the backstory of someone who hasn’t been relevant in four years destroys the pacing. It wouldn’t be so bad if the visuals were at least cool to look at, but it was flat still images lacking animation. The ninth episode of part two is emblematic of the poorly directed drama scenes. Most of it is spent hashing out grudges and speaking about the past, which amounts to dull conversations animated like a slideshow. MAPPA’s artists certainly can draw frightened, concerned, and infuriated facial expressions like no other modern studio, but an entire episode of intense faces lessens the effect they once had. The use of a melancholy piano track for background music served as a reminder that the score seldom suits each scene half as well as it did in the first three seasons. MAPPA poured talent and resources into the score. However, the editing and placement fail to do it justice.

The recurring problem with MAPPA’s Attack on Titan is that when we’re not in an action scene, it’s boring as hell to watch. I’m not a picky person when it comes to anime visuals. As long as it doesn’t detract from the writing, it’s okay in my eyes. The matter is, the directing is subpar outside of the titan fights, and even the 3D titans struggle to keep up with the choreography. The CGI titan artists come out unscathed because their work is not as prominent this season, and the worst CGI is obscured by fog, blood, and fast-paced action. The infamous "rumbling" looks like an army of giant turkeys, which I should've expected because nothing this show hypes up is as exciting as we're led to believe. 2D art for some of the Titan battles worked, as did the 2D blood. Due to the animators’ constrained deadlines, entirely 2D art was impossible. The 3D blood just looked terrible. Even during action scenes, the directing always feels off. The shot composition never feels quite right; shots either linger too long, not long enough, or are positioned in the wrong order. The flow of action is cut off, making the pacing seem choppy. Even choppier than the pacing is the theme of this season.

The central theme of season four is a condemnation of nationalism. This anime is NOT pro-nationalism. The first two seasons of attack on titan present pro-nationalism imagery in the openings and cool as fuck titan wars, which is later subverted. The third and fourth seasons tear down these messages by portraying soldiers as clones, giving the role of the main character to child slave soldiers, blatant allegory to Nazi Germany, making the fascists the antagonists, and discovering that the titans were once real human beings. These revelations are executed mainly successfully.

The opening of season four, part 1, immediately establishes the anti-nationalism theme: Soldiers are shown as uniform statues destroyed instantly. Following the cliffhanger at the end of season three is a time skip, which worked well for several reasons. First, switching visuals from WIT Studio to MAPPA’s grittier art style helps darken the tone. Second, Gabi and Falco refresh the story and themes by introducing two new protagonists. They are Eldian kids who are conditioned to believe they must become soldiers to defend Marley, a stand-in for Nazi Germany. There are slight issues in basing the Eldians on Jews because they are genetically different from Marleyans. The ability to become titans sets them apart—this fucks with the allegory, which is further complicated in part 2 when the Eldians try to genocide the Marleyans led by Eren fucking Yeager.

For the first three seasons, Eren was the protagonist. Now he is the antagonist who strives to murder man, woman, and child so long as they’re Marleyan and anyone who stands in his way. You will undoubtedly find people defending Eren’s actions because he looks like a badass and has super cool time travel powers. Now, there will always be people who misinterpret the text. Unfortunately, many people unironically support Eren and his followers, the Yeagerists. It’s not just a few conspiracists and crazies on dark corners of the internet—and that says something about the show’s struggle to balance portraying almost every character as morally grey versus sympathetic. Eren’s waltz through time in season 4, part 2 shows us how he was forced into his role at a young age by Grisha; this absolves him of some responsibility; however, his choice to persuade his father to claim the founding titan by murdering the royal family puts their blood on his hands. One could suggest Eren is a psychopath, but tantamount to arguing that Hitler was a sociopath. These statements are untrue because mental illness absolves them of criticism, and they both have a love for their people, although horrifically misguided and tainted by bigotry. Whether or not the show chooses to portray Eren sympathetically or condemn him remains to be seen, and could make or break the final season.

Attack on Titan: The Not So Final Season Part 2 is, to the surprise of no one, far from the last we'll see of this anime. It would take an immensely forgiving fan to praise the mediocre art and animation wholeheartedly. Given that I am not, and never was, a fan of AoT I can happily say I'm looking forward to whatever nonsense they hash out in the next season. Regardless if the story and characters are still haphazardly written, it will surely be an entertaining ride.