After literally years of patiently waiting for the anime to finish, I finally watched Attack on Titan in January 2025. I finished the run in mid-Feb and felt very strongly about it - especially the final series. After letting my initial feelings marinate for a few weeks, I'm ready to commit my thoughts on the series to words.
Overall assessment: the final series is terrible, in my opinion. Like honestly, really awful.
The 4th season pretty much trashes everything that was good in the previous 3 seasons (which wasn't everything, mind).
From the very start of the series, we basically get completely separated from the main character we've been on this insane journey with so far. First of all, he's practically absent throughout, especially in terms of his inner thoughts and feelings; secondly, he's acting and thinking completely differently to everything we've seen before. In my opinion, you can't do both: if he's going to have such a big personality shift, we should see it happen and understand why; if we're going to be given no insight into his mind, then it should remain somewhat unchanged from what we've learned about it. With what we got, the character journey we'd been on up to that point pretty much got trashed on the spot.
Alongside this, the objective we were chasing (freedom for humankind) got completely warped and lost the 2 things that made it so compelling:
1. the sense of scale and stakes - it was about humanity braking out of the wallsand achieving freedom; and
2. the absolutely terrifying and completely mysterious nature of the titans.
In season 4, the titans are a somewhat significant plot device but nowhere near the main objective. It very much becomes more focused on other things, which I personally found boring in entertainment but more importantly, is just such a massive shift from the initial premise of the series. Also, opening up 'the world' to include all of these other peoples and nations just makes the struggles within the walls seem insignificant and inconsequential. This is all typified and exacerbated by the fact that the walls turn into "millions" of Colossal Titans. Like, that thing was an unimaginable horror that seemed completely insurmountable before this - if there are millions of them, the impact of the 1 is completely lost.
Now I completely get a story goal changing (I in fact love a character losing what they *want* in exchange for what they *need*) but this was just so abrupt and honestly felt completely unrelated to the old story. Same thing for it ending up as Attack on Eren. It felt so random and there was no gradual heel turn that led us there.
And ultimately, the story just became generic and corny. Fighting for the freedom of the small cast we'd grown attached to somehow became literally saving the world - the most overused and boring storyline that exists. I couldn't help but wince during all the "let's save the world together" moments of teaming up with the Marleyans and the Warrior Cadets. Even the Nine Titans of old coming back to save them; that was very Naruto and basically made it feel like a kids movie. This again flies in the face of the early episodes, because part of what made the series so so great back then was the fact that these characters you were watching really, truly did get straight bodied. Like absolutely, unquestionably and sometimes unceremoniously killed - permanently. Having them survive as thoughts or spirits definitely undercuts that a little bit. What they did with Erwin and the scouts was fine but the Nine stuff was a bit disappointing.
Similarly, having all the Eldians at the last battle turn into titans, only to then have the transformation reversed again shat on the previous premise. If anyone got turned into a Titan, they were gone forever. Even in series 4, that includes Pixis and Levi's squad. So that just undermined some of that and used one of the previously most heartbreaking things in that universe for a bit of cheap shock impact.
And ultimately, the story just became generic and corny. Fighting for the freedom of the small cast we'd grown attached to somehow became literally saving the world - the most overused and boring storyline that exists. I couldn't help but wince during all the "let's save the world together" moments of teaming up with the Marleyans and the Warrior Cadets. Even the Nine Titans of old coming back to save them; that was very Naruto and basically made it feel like a kids movie. This again flies in the face of the early episodes, because part of what made the series so so great back then was the fact that these characters you were watching really, truly did get straight bodied. Like absolutely, unquestionably and sometimes unceremoniously killed - permanently. Having them survive as thoughts or spirits definitely undercuts that a little bit. What they did with Erwin and the scouts was fine but the Nine stuff was a bit disappointing.
Similarly, having all the Eldians at the last battle turn into titans, only to then have the transformation reversed again shat on the previous premise. If anyone got turned into a Titan, they were gone forever. Even in series 4, that includes Pixis and Levi's squad. So that just undermined some of that and used one of the previously most heartbreaking things in that universe for a bit of cheap shock impact.
Another thing that was a key feature of the early seasons was the exact level of technology that was available. They could use compressed gas and had figured out cannons. That's exactly where they'd got to. Not only did that establish and characterise the universe of the series but also set the scene and context for the battle against the titans. So every tiny, miniscule victory or step forward vs the titans felt absolutely massive and was so hard fought, because they had to do it with so few tools. Of course, you expect the characters to create and invent new technology but it took way too big a leap forward in season 4. The invention of the lightning spear honestly felt right on pace and it was pretty much their trump card against the armoured titan, which again seemed an impossible task before that. That's as far as it should have gone, in my opinion. Suddenly jumping forward to having trains, airships, way more guns etc. just made it about a completely different type of fight. And swords are cool! Slicing through a titan's neck is infinitely cooler than hitting it with a missile! I think that's a big part of it for me, as well. Slicing with swords is very much fantasy, which is so so cool, whereas shooting with guns is incredibly real-world, which is bland.
On top of the world itself getting bigger, the story just completely changes focus as well. Suddenly it's all about the warrior programme, the euthanisation plan and the Rumbling. These are all ideas that are only introduced in season 4. So again, they just don't really close off the narrative that was built up in the 3 seasons prior. Not to mention, all of this centres around a bunch of characters that are either brand new or uninteresting. Do we really need to spend so much time finding out about Porco and Marcel, Gabi and Falco? As characters, they're fine but introducing and giving so much time to so many new characters out of nowhere is just random and not at all satisfying. Also making it so incredibly explicitly about the ethnic cleansing of Jews during World War 2 was such a bizarre choice. It came out of absolutely nowhere. Also, what started off as an amazing action-fantasy series ended up being a LOT about foreign diplomacy and geopolitics. So so boring.
And all of that is made way worse, for me, by the fact that the story itself is absolutely terrible. Eren's titan powers completely change and he becomes this ethereal, all-knowing sage and can see into the future (I also don't think the importance of Eren kissing Historia's hand is emphasised clearly enough). But then this means that he has seen everything that's to come and it's all predetermined and he has to become a global terrorist. First of all, if everything is predetermined, there is no point in following the story - no one we're watching is influencing it! But secondly, the first 3 seasons are very much about defying what's set out in front of you, so this feels like another betrayal. But okay cool, let's go with it. The ultimate driver of the story is the fact that the founder Ymir remained a subservient slave to a king out of love (abysmal writing btw) but that meant she spent 2,000 years suffering. And because she is all knowing as well, she determines that Mikasa is the only person who can put an end to her suffering by killing her, somehow. No one else. And in order for this to happen, Eren has to allow all of this other stuff to happen (such as murdering kids) to make Mikasa hate him so that she can make peace with killing him. And in the process, he has to kill 80% of the people on the planet, and in spite of this, humans will still all remain at war with each other for all eternity.
That's a fucking awful story. It's so pointless. Oh and it's all only explained literall in the last 5 minutes of the final episode. I'd say in general, I really enjoyed Attack on Titan's non-linear storytelling but this didn't work at all, in my opinion.
Also it's really unclear how this led to the end of the titan race. Does Armin say it's something to do with the choices Mikasa has made or was that maybe an issues with the subtitles on Crunchyroll? It does make sense that Ymir could and would do that to end the suffering but it just wasn't really well laid out/set up.
To be clear: Eren being a raging fuck is fair. It seems like a very natural conclusion for him to go too far for so-called revenge and kill masses of innocent people in a frenzy. But it's the fact he's composed and resigned to it and the fact it's prede-fucking-termined! That's what makes it so weak to me.
Throughout that finale, they just kept on lumping on more and more things to make it worse, as well. Like Eren saying he wanted Mikasa to pine after him for 10 years, Mikasa kissing Eren's severed head on the mouth, Eren saying he had to intentionally divery Dina Fritz's titan to make sure she killed his Mum. Like, all of that legit did not need to happen and just made the finale so much worse.
Although not exclusive to season 4, I also found all the internal "human" conflicts really boring as well. The Jaegerist insurrection honestly bored me to tears. Again, it's all centred around a very new character in Floch, so there's very little buy-in. And although it did result in some cool moments, it ultimately wasn't necessary. I'd say the same thing about overthrowing the government and installing Historia as the Queen, as well as the whole Kenny the Ripper subplot.
For real, the overthrowing the government had zero consequences on the story. Historia was the key person. It could have just been explained that she was sent away as a kid but then the Royal Family accepts her back after she learns the truth or something. All the stuff they did was quite unneccessary - the 'False King' had literally 0 dialogue, I'm quite certain. But all the important and good stuff (Grisha killing the Reiss family) did not need a military coup in order to be told. And the same for Kenny. That legit drives about an hour's worth of PVP fighting (again, kinda shits on the main premise of the series) and does not affect the story in any meaningful way. We could have learned about the Ackermans several other ways.
They also completely wasted all the intrigue they built up with Zeke. He pops up like a whack-a-mole and then gets his head sliced off. And that's just the end of that. He was a very interesting and pivotal character but then just kinda ended up being a pawn to Eren/Ymir. Pretty disappointing.
Throughout that finale, they just kept on lumping on more and more things to make it worse, as well. Like Eren saying he wanted Mikasa to pine after him for 10 years, Mikasa kissing Eren's severed head on the mouth, Eren saying he had to intentionally divery Dina Fritz's titan to make sure she killed his Mum. Like, all of that legit did not need to happen and just made the finale so much worse.
Although not exclusive to season 4, I also found all the internal "human" conflicts really boring as well. The Jaegerist insurrection honestly bored me to tears. Again, it's all centred around a very new character in Floch, so there's very little buy-in. And although it did result in some cool moments, it ultimately wasn't necessary. I'd say the same thing about overthrowing the government and installing Historia as the Queen, as well as the whole Kenny the Ripper subplot.
For real, the overthrowing the government had zero consequences on the story. Historia was the key person. It could have just been explained that she was sent away as a kid but then the Royal Family accepts her back after she learns the truth or something. All the stuff they did was quite unneccessary - the 'False King' had literally 0 dialogue, I'm quite certain. But all the important and good stuff (Grisha killing the Reiss family) did not need a military coup in order to be told. And the same for Kenny. That legit drives about an hour's worth of PVP fighting (again, kinda shits on the main premise of the series) and does not affect the story in any meaningful way. We could have learned about the Ackermans several other ways.
They also completely wasted all the intrigue they built up with Zeke. He pops up like a whack-a-mole and then gets his head sliced off. And that's just the end of that. He was a very interesting and pivotal character but then just kinda ended up being a pawn to Eren/Ymir. Pretty disappointing.
And lastly, I won't hold this against them too much because it seemed like a forced production issue, so not a conscious writing choice, but the animation in season 4 was pretty terrible at some points. Like a lot of the character drawings honestly looked really bad. I noticed it in particular on Armin and Erwin across the two studios. And lots of perfectly side-on headshots, which looked terrible. Looked like a lot more pinning drawings down and rotating or sliding them around in the final season, instead of redrawing. And of course, WAY too much 3D modelling. Certain titans did look good in certain shots (the Armour, for sure) but the way they moved, ultimately just looked uncanny and did not fit in with the rest of what was going on. Then, in that mission in Marley and a couple other places, they even 3D modelled the scouts and that looked fucking terrible. I will say though, in the 2 finale episodes, the animation was noticeably significantly better.
As for the 3 early season, I can't say anything less than I absolutely loved them. I was thrilled, intrigued, hyped, invested, all of it. I loved the horror and intrigue of the titans, the sincere sense of hopelessness you felt for humanity and the scouts, even the brutality of the fights and deaths. I especially loved the strategic manouevering as the scouts learned more about the titans or even just gambled on their hunches.I loved the varied and interesting characters, like Erwin and Annie.
The series also just had some incredible moments. Like Eren and Mikasa having to watch Hannes being eaten alive after having just felt so optimistic about how different things would be with all the progress they'd made. Another amazing moment is the entire sequence after Reiner and Berthold's reveal. The emotional impact there is amazing and I have to say, that's a great example of how the anime actually added an awful lot to what was present in the manga. They elaborated on a lot of the drawings (surely completely redrawing most of it), as well as making some amazing decisions from a directing point of view, like how the ribs of the Colossal formed around the wall or the flashes of the titans' faces as they transformed. And the music! Honestly the music for the series was absolutely incredible, probably some of the best I've heard in any series of movie ever. Just do have to note very quickly though that the decision Isayama took to have the big reveal be abrupt and anticlimactic really didn't work for me. I appreciate that he tried to do something to subvert expectations but that was just too good a plot point to undersell like that.
Oh and the voice acting! Eren's voice actor for sure (Yuki Kaji) but honestly, the whole cast did an incredible job. It's a super intense script with a lot of powerful moments, both subtle and direct and I have to give them full credit for bringing incredible energy and emotion to the whole thing!
I think that's everything I have to say. It's an odd feeling, having enjoyed the series so much and then finishing it feeling so let down. But I've made my peace with it now and do accept that I loved the early seasons and hated the final season. That's TV. That's art. That's life, ain't it? I also think it's worth admitting that I really can't imagine any story that could have perfectly cashed the massive cheque written by the very first season. There's no explanation for the titans that could have matched the intrigue and wonder from that first episode. So although I do think the ultimate explanation could have been significantly better, I don't think it ever had a chance at being perfect.
When I did finish watching the series, I was pleased to stumble upon Attack on Titan: Junior High, which actually helped me to pacify some of the frustration. It's a really fun show that takes all the characters (and VAs!) from the main series and just puts them in a silly comedy spin-off set in a high-school. Honestly, I think every viewer should cool off with it after watching these kids go through so much. And it is funny and very sweet too!
Other thoughts:
-Who was in the Okapi in the finale? Presumably it was a previous Beast Titan but why were they given so much prominence?
-Season 4 really overdid it with the moments of realisation of "oh these people aren't demons after all". Like they had this happen about 5 times and even 1 would have been a bit too on-the-nose.
-It was a bit unclear what the author's broader message was through the series. Like, yes clearly it's all anti-war but then comes across as "well war is inevitable so what do you expect" (which to me is a very clear and quite right-wing justification for war).
-Also a massive criticism has to go to the poor and very clumsy use of the oppressor vs. oppressed narrative. Because the metaphor and real world applicability completely breaks down when one of the races in question actually *is* different. That's the whole flaw of racism: that so-called 'races' really aren't very different from each other. Yet in this, there is one race - verifiable by blood test no less - that can turn into giant brainless killing machines. It's even more fucked up when that race is the allegory for Jews. Then to top it off, of course someone comes along in their world and makes everyone's racist fears come true, effectively justifying it all. So yeah, that is a massive L all round for the series.
-Mikasa loving Eren romantically is a crazy kind of fucked up emotional incest. They gave themselves plenty of chances to decide to make it a strong sibling love but chose to make it romantic at every turn. It's gross.
-What was the deal with that bug millipede thing? Wasn't necessary at all and again, you could have cut out that transforming gas moment in the finale.
-Also, how did the first King create that many Colossal Titans? Using the founder's power? Does that mean more than the original 9 could have been made? Either multiples or even new types of shifting titans.
-Did they ever explain the titans being able to move at night in season 2?
-Why did Eren attack Mikasa when he first transformed to move that boulder?
-"He suddenly transferred his consciousness into his nervous system" was also one of the dumbest and most unnecessary ass pulls I've ever watched. Why not just NOT have the scouts cut off his head??
-Why did it need to be Mikasa to kill Eren? It literally could have been anyone - Eren's a fucking idiot.
-What was Ymir (the scout) even thinking when she fled with Reiner and Berthold? She knew that Eren had founding powers and that she would definitely get killed if she went back to Marley. Also the story just subtly implies (by Porco having the Jaw) that she was killed and they never even acknowledge it.
-I also think Zeke's Beast Titan would have been significant;y improved with a few very minor tweaks (shorter arms, more normal or possibly even more beastly proportions, getting rid of the massive hips/pelvis). That thing was terrifying but these features just made it really goofy looking. Remove them and it would be such a complete horror.
-I enjoyed lots of the small character stories, like Connie and Sascha being dumbasses, the several implications that Jean is in love with Mikasa and the really great and interesting friendships Hanji, Levi and Erwin. Also loved Ymir and Historia's romantic love, which was very honest and altruistic from both of them.
