Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Episode 1 Discussion

Harsha1314 said:
im afraid by animation standards this is peak for AOT s4. but cgi and titan action is going to have massive improvements from the next titan fights that we can be sure of especially for beast titan and maybe armoured? personally i think armoured titan looked good, maybe they'll reduce the rather slo mo scenes of him moving. Also i still stand by saying that the animation is great even for aot standards. maybe its the artstyle that u want to point out which im completely fine with but thats not going to change

Malikah said:


Well I hope so. And, yes, I agree that the armoured titan should have less slow motion scenes. I mean, he's supposed to be fast and strong, so let's not dull this down by giving him way too much slow motion scenes. As for the art style, I still hope for better facial expressions and even with the animation I was not impressed by that happy jump that Gabby did after blowing up the railways. It's a war and she could have been shot dead, so there are no times or spaces to be childish. Anyways, let's hope for the best in the future.

Selenehakz said:


Yeah, the same thing goes to the people who dropped the manga when chapter 91 first released due to the new perspective and when chapter 98-99 were launched, they joined again lmao. And from what I’ve seen from any manga readers who binged the series, they do agree that in order for chapter 98-100 became impactful, the start of getting into Marley’s perspective is necessary for the build ups

Harsha1314 said:
that gabi one is a classic "this is anime guys" scene and i totally agree her jumping was a little awkward even in the manga

Malikah said:


Well I hope so. And, yes, I agree that the armoured titan should have less slow motion scenes. I mean, he's supposed to be fast and strong, so let's not dull this down by giving him way too much slow motion scenes. As for the art style, I still hope for better facial expressions and even with the animation I was not impressed by that happy jump that Gabby did after blowing up the railways. It's a war and she could have been shot dead, so there are no times or spaces to be childish. Anyways, let's hope for the best in the future.

AlexConrado said:
Can someone explain to me who are the marlyans fighting against? I really didint uderstand, does that war have anything to do with marlyans vs paradis or is a different war?

UminekoBattler19 said:
Very good start, i knew that Mappa wouldn't fuck up this one. I think we will get what we deserve. Really good adaptation of the manga. First time for me, that i already know what is gonna happen. I just hope, they don't rush it too much.

AlexConrado said:
Can someone explain to me who are the marlyans fighting against? I really didint uderstand, does that war have anything to do with marlyans vs paradis or is a different war?

Fuji-O said:

It's funny because Gabi's happy jump and her facial expressions as well as the facial expressions of other main characters in this episode are almost exactly the same as in the manga. As a manga reader I love it but I can understand the anime onlys because they are used to WIT's artstyle even though MAPPA's artstyle is more faithful to the manga.

LeapingTitan said:

Sorry this turned into an essay but I would rather do it once like this rather than write a review and have to give a concrete rating on the first episode alone. Hope it was a good read!

Malikah said:


It's not the art style that is not suitable, it's the adding of this jump by the author within this situation. As I explained above, it's a war scene, so she cannot be acting how she pleases or how one would act in safer environments. In such circumstances, it's more suitable to have no time for such a thing and actually immediately start escaping her position after she blew the railways. But, to stand there jumping and screaming hurrah before starting to run is just inconvenient for the situation IMHO.

Momentay said:


But they did. Worst adaptation of the manga so far.

Fuji-O said:


Well it was foreshadowed throughout the whole season 3 that this is what the story is going to be about, although in the later episodes there will be definitely a lot of season 1 vibes too.

Fuji-O said:


Definitely the most faithful one though.

LeapingTitan said:
I’ve watched the first episode around 3 times on my own and over a dozen times from anime-only live reactions on YouTube. Those are always something to have a field day with every season, and are part of the whole enjoyment post-watching the episode on your own.

Obviously I’m only reviewing this based on the first episode, so it’s way too early to judge The Final Season as a whole. However, I will say that my strategy to keep my expectations low definitely worked. I was very hyped, don’t get me wrong, but after Season 3 Part 2, I realized that production and scheduling has never been this show’s strong suite and things behind the scenes were always chaotic. And it was my mistake to realize it this late and have unrealistically high expectations of the manga’s adaptation.

But enough about that. I’m just gonna say it right now. I absolutely loved this episode and was completely blown away by it. It was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish and boy, the staff wasn’t kidding when they said the first episode was like a movie. It definitely felt like that, and it went by in a flash. Now, on to the individual points.

STORY/ADAPTATION:

Flawless. Everything was executed perfectly and went beyond my expectations. The thing that stood out to me the most was how many things were changed from the PV in terms of scene construction, camera angles, and overall storyboards. There was only one shot that we reused from the PV, namely the one with Zeke and Reiner inside the airship where they’re referred to as the spear and shield. Everything else was redone, which was a huge surprise. Wit was always very faithful to the original manga panels with how they used them as a big reference for most of their cuts, but this one changes them up a lot. Personally, I am 100% fine with it and as someone who has read these chapters in the manga dozens of times over the past few years, seeing them like this was a pleasant and very welcome surprise.

The anime-only additions here are notable and also quite welcome. Falco’s line in the beginning in particular stood out the most in the long-run, but the addition of the Eldians’ terror being shown as well as the scene before the ED was very welcome. I would like to assume that this was Isayama’s doing as whenever the anime usually adds/changes up things, it’s his request to do so. He sort of considers the anime to be the “definitive” version of the story that he, for one reason or another, couldn’t do in the manga himself when that particular chapter came out. Season 3 Part 1 (The Uprising Arc) is a prime example for this. Once again, I’m very content with what was done here and I trust MAPPA will do the story justice.

A small but very neat thing is the fact that we got to keep the title cards and the info eyecatches mid-episode. Really added to the whole sense of consistency.

ANIMATION:

When the initial trailer came out, many people were concerned about Shigeki Asakawa (Director of Photography)’s odd and excessive usage of blur filters on top of the scenes and were wondering if they would remain in the final product, given her track record with other shows like The God of Highschool. Luckily, that is not the case here as the scenes look very clean and the minimal blur on top adds a bit to the muddy/gritty atmosphere of what’s going on. Personally, I don’t mind it at all and I barely notice it anyway. MAPPA’s biggest strength to me is the usage of effects like blood and explosions. You feel the impact of everything and with such an action-packed episode, it made everything so much better.

The usage of 3D CGI for the Titan Shifters has been the biggest controversy surrounding this first episode. When I first watched it, it didn’t bother me at all. Personally I care more about a model fitting in the action sequence rather than how it looks for the most part. Right now I would say I’m neutral. It’s not the greatest CG ever conceived in anime but it definitely does not look out of place and is pretty decent. For the Jaw Titan, I couldn’t tell what was CG and what wasn’t for the most part. For the other Titans it’s more obvious, but it’s not too jarring. Obviously, if it was up to me and the production committee/NHK didn’t push their scheduling shenanigans onto MAPPA, I would have gotten every Titan in 2D, but you can’t have everything. If they choose to focus on more important scenes later on and cut corners in this first episode as a result, that’s understandable. I can live with it. And again, even then, it’s not that bad in my eyes.

Now, the character designs are just absolutely stellar. In multiple interviews, it’s been stated that they wanted to stay true to Kyoji Asano’s designs at Wit while also being consistent with Isayama’s style in the manga. And boy did they absolutely nail it. It’s exactly what as they said. Tomohiro Kishi could not have done a better job with the characters we’ve seen so far and I am beyond impressed with his work. I look forward to seeing the rest of the characters in this arc.

SOUND:

I’ve been following Kohta Yamamoto’s works for a few years now, ever since he started working with Sawano (and being mentored by him to an extent) in early 2017. Although he’s been involved with AoT before, particularly with the character songs in Season 2, whenever those two would collaborate on a project it would usually be because Sawano is too busy to compose a full soundtrack. So what usually happens is, Sawano does one track and variations of it (think ShingekiNoKyojin, ThanksAT and T-KT), and nothing else. Meanwhile, Yamamoto handles the rest of the music for the show. On top of that, Yamamoto’s style as a composer is different from Sawano’s as he comes from a rock/guitarist background as opposed to Sawano, who is a pianist and is classically trained. My biggest concern for The Final Season was that we would get a similar case as with the other shows where Sawano doesn’t put in too much effort, while Yamamoto essentially becomes the main composer. Although it looks like this is in fact the case after this first episode, let me explain why I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

After the premiere of the first episode, both Sawano and Yamamoto tweeted that it was in fact Yamamoto who is handling the majority of the Marley Arc’s music. And after this first episode, I have to say I’m impressed. His initial track that he made for the PV was a bit off-putting to me because it sounded like every epic blockbuster Hollywood trailer background track ever, but after the way it was used in this episode alongside a few other tracks, I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised. It fits what’s going on, and overall delivers a fresh sound to the show that is very appropriate given the massive change in narrative. Back during S3 Part 1, Sawano stated in an interview that he was already burned out and had trouble coming up with new music for AoT given how many tracks he had already composed for it. Given how few new melodies were in S3 Part 2;s music, I think this should be clear. Especially now that we’re going into yet another season. To summarize, I think Yamamoto’s work here is a result of three conditions that just happened to line up perfectly. The change in narrative, which the new composer style reflects. Sawano being busy. And Sawano being burned out with AoT. Now personally I still believe we’re going to get at least one new original Sawano track with variations of it for the big climax moments this arc, and he may compose more music for the 2nd half of this 16-episode season, since that’s technically a new arc. But we’ll see. As a whole though, I’m satisfied with what I’ve heard from Kohta Yamamoto in this first episode.

The last point to make in regards to the sound is Masafumi Mima who, apart from Sawano, the voice cast, and some freelancers, is the only one from the previous seasons’ staff members to return here. And once again, his work here is absolutely phenomenal. The mixing and usage of sound effects in this episode was stellar and truly felt like I was watching a war movie. It enhanced the action tenfold and I could not want it any better. Music usage is something that goes through the director (Yuichiro Hayashi), but ultimately the sound director is the one who implements the track (instrument layering/stem editing) and does the mixing. The usage of Kohta Yamamoto’s music here was very well done, and although the track from the PV repeated quite a bit, it didn’t get repetitive at all. Also, the sound director remaining consistent here means we got to keep things like the titan transformation sound effects, which may be a small thing but was very welcome and added to the whole consistency.

OPENING/ENDING:

I’m gonna wait until Shinsei Kamattechan releases the full version of the opening in a single or album to fully judge the song, but boy do I love this opening. Although I’m not sure if the TV-size version is my favorite AoT opening yet, I have to say that it’s without a doubt the most fitting OP this show has had until this point. It perfectly showcases the themes of war that this arc focuses on and has this lowkey disturbing eerie vibe with the dissonant chords and mixing of the vocals that feels just as “mysterious” and “tense” as the show itself. I love it so much, honestly. Now, Isayama was a fan of Shinsei Kamattechan prior to them doing the S2 ED, and was the one who got them on-board to do it. Although that song isn’t really my thing it’s also a perfect fit, which leads me to believe that Isayama himself most likely chose the band again, namely to do this OP. And it’s fantastic. I love the song. The visuals also have a very distinct style with all the colors and white backgrounds and I love how it’s more metaphorical and symbolic (I guess “abstract” as well?) rather than flat-out just spoiling everything like the last arc’s OP did.

The ED by Yuko Ando is fantastic. The first time I listened to the full song on its own I couldn’t stop getting chills. Love the production aspects of the song and it’s just really nice altogether. The visuals are quite interesting especially towards the end and I also like them a lot. Not much else to say about the ED. It’s amazing. Go listen to it.

CONCLUSION:

As a whole, I kept my expectations extremely low prior to the premiere despite my hype. As a result of that, not only were they exceeded, I was absolutely blown away by this first episode in pretty much every way. It may still be too early to judge, but from what has been shown here so far, I am absolutely looking forward to see MAPPA adapt the rest of this amazing story, or about as far as they can get with 16 episodes.

Sorry this turned into an essay but I would rather do it once like this rather than write a review and have to give a concrete rating on the first episode alone. Hope it was a good read!

Harsha1314 said:
how can he quote it as worst. its just one episode and it was actually great with a lot of gorgeous shots such as the middle east alliances fort and inner set up. people like this will just keep giving everyone the wrong idea and i wouldnt be surprised if he is a completely different person after ep 4

CHAMPIONOFDEATH said:
Really good episode!

CGI was not as bad as Twitter and MAL whiners made it out to be. Yes no CGI would be better, but I don't know if I really wanted to wait 2-3 years for the final season when the manga will be over by then and all the hype for AoT would die down a lot.

One criticism I do have is the OST. Haven't heard anything from previous seasons and all we have heard was the song from the PV months ago. I hope it's just like that for this one episode, because the song used did fit this episode nicely. Just hope we get more AoT sounding OST's coming up.

Fuji-O said:

I agree, besides few weird looking CGI shots of the beast and armored titan I have no problems with the adaptation. The 2d animation, ost, voice acting are top tier. Also the anime exclusive scenes added by MAPPA to clear up some things and the amazing shots of the backgrounds and the overall atmosphere were amazing. I love that they are 100 % faithful to the source material and even add some exclusive scenes to make the plot and the narrative better.

Fuji-O said:

Jumping and screaming hurrah during the dangerous situation in the middle of a war might be unsuitable for a normal person but this is Gabi we are talking about here. Nothing about her or her psyche is normal. You will learn that she is one of the most psychologically unstable and emotionally driven character in the series, logic and composure aren't her forte lol. EDIT : After rewatching the episode I noticed that she is even kinda laughing amd grinning while being shot at ! Gabi is crazy.

AnimeFanTalk said:
I'm just here to make sure the anime butchers the final season and you all are forced to read the manga 2 get the real experience :)

Satyr_icon said:
"Hey character with momentary amnesia lemme borrow ya real fast so I can give a bit of exposition"

2 minutes into the episode haha fucking wow, now this looks promising.

KuroAme54 said:
The new OST looks promising from what i have heard. I liked the new OP and the fact that it's spoilers free. It was obvious that were trying to stick to Wit's character designs & drawing (I wouldn't mind if they tried something new tho). I liked the AHEM scene.

sponny said:
Just want to give a shoutout to the Biggie G, my madlad Maths teacher who decided to play the premiere of the first episode instead of doing Math work.

MAPPA's CGI may be pretty well-made, but WHERE THE FUCK IS LINKED HORIZON 😡😡😡😡😡😡😔😔😔😔🥴🥵🥵🤨😭😭😭😢😤😤😤😠😡

I am in shambles.

Catalano said:
I did expect a new world but it looks too advanced for Paradis people, I don't think Eren and his gang can kill all unfortunately, they don't even have the resources for that. Marley are shit and should die but apparently all people here hate eldians, they have to do something about it.
Anyways, not into this war, it's just making me angry seeing good eldians getting killed by scum, I got angry enough in Grischa's flashback and I don't want more, I hope we get to see Eren soon enough.
The cg is not bad but after 59 episodes of drawings of course I will be sad seeing this shit, the shifters lacked impact for me, or maybe it was because I hate those fvcking traitors

yaegerist-15 said:


you are right with the cgi but if you look at the reiner vs eren fight in s3 p2 you will see that the quality of the hand drawn fights went downhill, studio wit had also problems and they gave up on AoT because they didnt believe they could handle the final season, as a manga reader I can say: its necesarry to relly on cgi because mappa only had 8-10 Months and the later parts are so big and complex, its difficult to make everything in 2d

Gator said:
Just came back from a season 3 part 2 marathon with two friends and we watched this episode immediately afterwards.

Tbh it did not meet my expectations. I was aware that the setting would change, but it really felt very fillerish to me. Unless they wanna introduce a completely new main cast, which I certainly hope they won't do. Else this battle seemed to be one of little importance and dedicating a whole episodes to something like this in the final season? With only assumably 16 episodes overall? A bit underwhelming, but I won't judge just yet.

Gator said:
Just came back from a season 3 part 2 marathon with two friends and we watched this episode immediately afterwards.

Tbh it did not meet my expectations. I was aware that the setting would change, but it really felt very fillerish to me. Unless they wanna introduce a completely new main cast, which I certainly hope they won't do. Else this battle seemed to be one of little importance and dedicating a whole episodes to something like this in the final season? With only assumably 16 episodes overall? A bit underwhelming, but I won't judge just yet.

keragamming said:
All I will say is the pay off will be worth it, manga readers didn't like these chapters especially since its monthly so the wait was cruel but luckily for you its the anime adaptation and you will only have to wait a week not to mention they seem like the adaptation will be 2 chapters per episode so they pay off will be quick for you.

Keep in mind this season won't adapt the entire manga.

Zenhashi said:
[Man, I should have watched at least a recap on youtube, or some episodes of the previous season. I was like "What the heck is going on? Who the fuck are these random characters?"
Really felt like filler.