Shingeki no Kyojin: Chronicle

This movie is a recap of the first three seasons. Personally, I think its a great recap. It touches on all the important parts of the show while still keeping everything organized and concise. Would I recommend watching this instead watching the show to get into season 4? No. There are a lot of things that were missing that gives the characters their personality and drive. If you want to know what happens in the first three seasons while not wanting/caring to get attached to the characters, then I think this movie is the best way to do so but as a recap in a ... whole, it is well done and well made.

This season is one of the best seasons of AOT overall. I'm still living off this last episode high, but even so. Each word spoken is used and important. There are no filler episodes, no wasted screen time or useless still frames. Each part from the sound design, to the voice acting and character development. It's all amazing.

Firstly, the story. The anime introduces many concepts and tries to juggle them all at the same time. You have many different factions, ideas, plans, backstabings, idoligies, all clashing at the same time. Each one trying to come on top of the other. And its intresting how they ... all come down to two factions at the end. And that's what so amazing about it. The show doesn't try to mush all these concepts together, but rather tackel them one by one untill only two remain. Two decisions, all because of Eren. Which leads me to characters.

Each character is written so well. They feel almost realistic. In such horrible situations, you get to see the ugly side of these characters. Each person is dynamic, going through changes internally and externaly. That could be Theo strugleing with the fact that his entire view of the world is wrong, or Armin coming to the realization that his life might have been the wrong choice to save back in season 3. And I love that their decisions actually have conquences. That not every plan they come up with works. And don't get me started with their excellent voice acting.

You can really feel the spectrum of emotions that these voices portray. When they cry or outburst in anger, it feels real. As if the VA's are experiencing the situation themselves. But the voices are not the best thing about the sound design. The soundtrack is good even when you're not watching the anime. An insane OP accompanied with an impactful song for each scenario bumps the anime several times. Not to mention the carriages, horses, wind, leaves, echos, distant animals, all of the ambience. Its spot on. The anime is rarely silent, and when it is, the animation backs it up with something incredible.

The animation is as amazing as always. The ODM gear scenes is still fun to watch. There are not a lot of anime that are out this season thats has good animation. AOT is a clear exception, with great fight scenes, lighting and smooth movements. My only gripe is the 3D is not the greatest. Its not horrible, but it does take away sometimes. But not all the time. For example, the final scene of Eren rumbling destroying all those battleships. Its incredible. And the 3D doesn't take away from it at all.

In summary part 2 of season 4 doesn't disappoint in terms of the other season. Its many great qualities outshine my gripes. I found it very enjoyable to watch.

I encourage you, please don't waste your time to watch this.

You'd think that condensing 22 hours of anime into a 2 hour movie would be a bad idea, and it is. This movie is such a clusterfuck.

The movie starts with a quick 20 second narration that tells us that humanity is behind walls because massive titans lurk outside. Then immediately the wall is smashed and Eren's mother dies 2 minutes in. Eren then says he'll kill every titan, followed by a shot of him as a fully trained soldier 5 years later. The colossal titan immediately appears again and destroys the wall. We ... are at minute 4. Eren and a bunch of unnamed soldiers go to fight the titans but then get gruesomely killed. Why should we care about these people? We then get Armins character introduction, with him immediately swallowed by a titan. Eren then sacrifices himself to save this character we have seen for 20 seconds.

As you can see, the main problem of this movie is that it gives you absolutely no time to make sense of anything. Things fly past you at such an amazing speed that you can't keep up at all. Not to mention most character development was completely gutted to try and fit the entire story into 2 hours. Hannes is shown twice before his death. Reiner is shown twice before his betrayal and Bertholt once. I don't even think Annie did anything before she became the Female Titan. Importance is lost because of how little the movie makes us care for the characters.

And even as a recap this sucks pretty bad. You want to see some of the best fights from the show? All cut out except for Levi vs Beast Titan. The basement flashback scene takes about a minute and a half. The entire first half of season 2 is condensed into a single minute. Lot's of plot holes form as a result of condensing and may not be recognized by people who haven't watched the series in a while.

The audio and visuals are the same as in the anime, but the way they edited everything was extremely piss poor.

To sum everything up, do not watch this. There is no reason for anyone who has or hasn't watched the series to watch this. What really should have been made were 2 recap movies of the 3rd season. This movie just goes to show what condensing can do. This feels very similar to the Unlimited Bladeworks Movie, but even worse because of how much was actually cut and because of the terrible directing and editing.