So...I’m reviewing this a lot sooner than I expected.

As some of you may know, Attack on Titan Season 3 was originally billed as a two-cour season, similar to the first season which premiered way back in 2013. However, following episode twelve, it was revealed that the season would be split cour, with the second half set to air in Spring of 2019.

This review should have come sooner, but I’m having trouble typing since I’m suffering nasty from Titan-Slaying withdrawal.

Attack on Titan is going to be a hard show for me to review, because I love it so much to the point where I’m sure the show really isn’t that good, but the hype gets me pumped so much that I can see no wrong and I’ll be screaming “Sasageyo!” as Mikasa cuts the nape or achilles heel of some giant titan. I like to call this Shounen Hype Syndrome. It’s the same thing that made me see DBS as absolutely amazing even though looking back, it had quite a few rough spots.

So yeah, a bit of bias, no problem though.

After the the jaw-droppingly awesome second season, I feel that season three (or rather, this half of season three), dialed it back a bit, but I still think it was a bit better than the first season. The stakes were still high, the revelations weren’t as insane as the second season’s but still great, and the fights were as great as ever. While Titan Eren wasn’t utilized that much, it’s a bit of a refresher because it shows that Attack on Titan can still have marvelous fights while not relying too much on Titan vs. Titan.

I’ve been told that Attack on Titan has a distinct shift where it starts being more of a thriller and human vs. human as opposed to the bleak Man vs. Nature conflict of the beginning of the first season. I can kind of see it here: the first antagonist of the season is Kenny the Ripper - an infamous serial killer who, along with his task force, is tasked with taking out the scouts who are caught up in a smear campaign. The fact that their equivalent of the ODM gear is specifically made to fight humans instead of Titans drives this point home. While I can start seeing the series shifting, it feels naturally and doesn’t seem like it betrays what makes AoT what it is. If you loved season 1 and 2, you’ll love 3.

(You probably won’t love the opening though, that’s just bad. Here’s to hoping they change it for the next cour.)

In general, backstories seem to be the focal point of season three so far. I personally think they’re handled well. I was more invested in these backstories than Ymir’s in season two, even though I acknowledge that her’s was really important to the plot. They just seem to compliment the present action very well.

One thing that I took notice of was that the main trio was out of focus, a bit. Naturally, Eren got the most screen time of the three, but Mikasa and Armin seemed just like they were warming the bench. I hope they’re up to bat in the second cour. Though, this isn’t too much of a problem - AoT has a large cast of characters and I cared about them now more than ever.

Episodes were still fast-paced and were over in the blink of an eye, making me want more and then lamenting that I had to wait a week for the next episode.

While, again, the action and revelations weren’t as good as season 2, this season was amazing in its own right.

Production is still top-notch. Characters look great and action is fluid. It’s part of the reason that I’m not that upset over the hiatus. As they say, it’s not easy being beautiful, and if it takes half a year for Wit Studio to give us more quality episodes, I will wait.

Patiently

Agonizingly

9.5/10