This is one of the best anime shounen that come to existence.
I always was a big fan of this anime series since the first time I saw it years ago.
I waited so long for this final season to arrive and when it did I followed the season week after week. And now I have to say that I'm kinda dissapointed...
The Final Season of Shingeki no Kyojin is overrated and overhyped.
It doesn't mean that it is bad or anything like that but it's not a masterpiece or really great as many people are saying and reinforcing to death.
Here I will explain why I think this season was not so good as it should be.
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS!!! Be aware of that.
Story 7/10:
After 4 years have passed since the resumption of the Shiganshina district, we are now seeing the war between Marley and Mid-East Allied Forces.
The battle is finally over and the side that emerged victorious is Marley.
They are preparing new candidates to become the holders of the titan powers in Marley’s possession because of the end of Zeke and Reiner's 13-year tenure as the Bestial and Armored Titans. While some people of other countries are gathering there for an event to take place.
The plot of this fourth season is interesting but the narrative's structure is a mess.
First we see all the things that happen pos time-skip at once and only after the conclusion of the arc that we discouver the motivations that Eren had to left and attack at the declaration of War of Willy's Tybur.
Why should I care about this explosive conflict between Marley and the Eldians on the Paradis Island if all the things that brought them to this point in the first place were presented in a flashback after the arc of invasion? This doesn't make sense.
If I'm supposed to get attached to the history then make it that the things that made all this war happen in the first place are constructed step by step before the conflict finally explodes with those people that goes against each other.
The way that was built up is the reason that I find it unimpressive.
Another thing that I think it is a problem is the poor utilization and very few appearances of the pure titans.
Do you remember when they were dangerous, when they represented a constant fear and generated a sense of chaos, panic and insecurity? Not anymore! Why?
Because they never attack or appear at all, only when it is extremely convenient or necessary for the plot like in the forest arc that has the Levi vs Zeke battle.
Zeke invoked them by using the ability of his titan's power to create his own army of Titans. It's okay that he can do that because we saw it before on other situation.
I just think that the main reason why this show was unique and extraordinary once now is long gone. At least for me.
Their presence was natural and really important on the AOT's world and universe as a whole as well and now they're just a tool to be used sometimes (when they appear). Lame.
Now it is just a political conflict with war between nations without any Titans. :)
What about the Titan shifters? Oh, man!
I thought they were so strong and equally important but apparently they are not.
The majority of them are just useless and powerless against Eren.
Eren is invencibly. Do you know that he already has the power and abilitys of 3 titans?
After the time-skip he had a battle with the Warhammer Titan that was apparently far stronger that his titan's form and he actually winned the combat with the help of Mikasa.
One more time he wins a fight with in stupid way.
He had help to win that combat otherwise he would be dead by that point.
The only one that is actually a good and impressive Titan shifter is Zeke.
Reiner? He is a joke. Whenever he is fighting you know he will lose.
He's the armored titan but can't receive any damage whatsoever that he goes down 100%. Awesome! Always being destroyed in his fights. SUPER. \o/
What can we say about Annie that was literally frozen since season 1 after the final fight with Eren and never came back? Wonderful!
Why Isayama would have to develop or utilize properly her in any creative or productive way when he can pretend that she doesn't exist for many years? hahaha
Galliard is a guy that couldn't do nothing because he doesn't have any importance whatsoever, he will do anything against Eren even if he have some help of other Titan shifter. Do you know why?
Because Eren is the protagonist and he will always destroy him.
Jaw, Armored and Warhammer Titans were only there on the story to be defeated by Eren with virtually 0 effort. They were used as plot devices more than anything else.
Colossus Titan almost never appear. Don't wait for more transformations of Armin.
He once transformed at the invasion on Marley's arc and will transform only one more time next the end and that's it. ;D
I could spend all the day talking about the bad use of them by the author.
This is a shame. I would really like to see them being more important on the series.
Anyway, the story is good more for the connection established by the construction of the plot previously on the first seasons.
And for that I give here just a 7 out of 10.
Art - Animation 6/10:
Oh my God, I will have to be honest and tell the truth instead of those people that are pretending this part of the anime is amazing. It is not. Seriously.
The animation quality dropped so much compared to what we had on season 1-3.
Many scenes that you see the characters they are being static with few movements when they walking/ running or even fighting.
The characters actions are limited and the art design is also inconsistent. Characters that look good in one scene or episode on another moment doesn't.
The fight scenes are boring as fuck to watch.
Eren vs Warhammer on the trailer was SO MUCH BETTER that is so depressing to see them clashing on the anime. Those 3D models of them were crappy. Real trash.
The 2D Titan shifters were infinitely better looking than those new 3D Titans.
Levi vs Zeke was okay, but on the manga was way more intense and imersive.
On the previous seasons we had dinamic movements with fluid scenes of the DMT being used by the soldiers tropes, we had Annie vs Eren that was epic, we had top tier animation fights just like Levi vs Zeke (more like one-side fight but okay haha), we had the insane revelation of Bertholdt and Reiner as being respectively Colossus and Armored titan.
Hell, even those cool action scenes of Levi facing Kenny and the gang on the streets were absolutely crazy.
On this season we only have one or two scenes, three at max, that are great and very well animated on the episodes: Declaration of War, Sasha's Death and Zeke's past were 10/10.
Anything else are average of below that...sad but true.
Sound 4/10:
The OST's that are used on this Final Season are less impactful than ever.
I barely can even remember a moment when a song was playing that made it so remarkable as the many epic scenes with GOD tier soundtrack that we had before.
The poor mix of them doesn't help either.
Some moments we listen to OST's that felt totally out of place.
The new opening has an okay music but nothing compared to classic openings like:
Guren no Yumiya, Sasageyou and the underrated Jiyuu no Tsubasa.
The song of the season 3 part 2 opening also smash this new one, too.
The only thing that I found it amazing is the song of the ending, very good.
For being only decent and average at best that I give here a 4 of 10.
Character 7/10:
This is one of the best parts of the anime series but is not very good.
There are so many interesting and important characters like Armin, Hange, Zeke, Levi, Falco, Gabi; etc. I didn't mention the edgy lord MC cause I hate him.
The problem of AOT is that the characters doesn't get much development as they could receive and when they are developed we don't know how, when or what happened that made them change. Mikasa never gets any good treatment.
She is pretty much the same she always was. This is clear as the day when we saw her stopping Armin that was trying to go against Eren on their reunion.
That shit pissed me off. Armin is now someone who almost never wants to fight or plan an surprise attack on his enemies or make something tactically genius (like he constatly did before) and instead of those things he only wants to talk and to choose diplomatic solutions. I like him a lot, I always did, but I miss him being more active.
Eren...what can I say about this motherfucker? He is a completely different character now.
We didn't see him changing with our own eyes on the actual history itself, he changed off-screen on the time-skip process. We see some points here and there that may helped him to get to what he is now but only through flashbacks. His development is so sudden and radical that is almost unbelievable. Seems forced sometimes.
He choosed to left and disapear of Paradis Island, infiltrate the enemy's nation by himself, without any help and in the last hour he invited everybody for his rescue and backup for when he would being attack all the people there were present at the declaration of war.
He killed innocent people. He killed civilians that were Eldians slaves.
And he couldn't care less about what he did.
If Eren demonstrated any emotion or stop at any time whatsoever to think about his actions I think I could sympathize more with him. I know, war is war, right?
True but doesn't mean that when he is doing something I have to praise or accept anyway.
He didn't had a good development.
More than 3 seasons with almost 60 episodes and 10 years going by so he could grow up and do anything but cry and scream all the time.
But whatever, enough of talking about him.
Other characters like Connie, Sasha (RIP), Mikasa, Historia, Pieck, Galliard; etc doesn't get any good screen time to be developed.
Enjoyment 6/10:
It was okay for the most part but that's it.
Not epic or incredible anymore. I lost almost all the interest on this series.
The great old but gold times when I finished an arc or a season and get 100% hyped to continue watching is beyond gone.
I'm not even sad that this Final Season of the anime has finished, it's actually a relief that I will not have to watch this anime for a while.
If I would describe my enjoyment with this Final Season of AOT with one phrase:
"Worth it for being Shingeki no Kyojin, but if it was another anime with the same history and some ajusted things, would be a mediocre show."
Overall 6/10:
I would give at least an 8 or 7 but I actually give a 6.
It's an okay season, good at best. But not as good as anything that came before.
Sorry but that's what I think. I'm dissapointed with this season.
I'm not hyped as I was anymore and only thinking about AOT makes me sad.
If you are a fan of the series is a must watch.
If you are not than it's better to watch other anime instead.
