The second part of Attack on Titan: The Final Season is 12 episodes long. It begins straight after the previous season, and you get two full episodes of fighting. While it is not quite the same desperate battles of the characters against the titans you still get big titan on titan action. Although with the advancement in tech and the introduction of more contemporary weapons, it’s lost a lot of its charms.
However, the fighting is secondary to the plot given that Eren is on the cusp of something big and important. There are still too many things that we don’t know about, and the season continues the trend of cutting off from the present day or the current scene to do some exposition. It’s not ideal, and what we find out wouldn’t blow your mind. One thing though is that the anime continues to give you some incredibly tense moments and cruel surprises. The fate that befalls some characters will leave you speechless, although you suspect that there might be one or two ways out of it.
As the viewer, you also feel the same frustrations as many of the characters. People whom you had trusted flipped around to betray you. With the invasion by an outside force, you now must make the decision on whether to help that very traitor to protect your city. Making it even more complicated are that it is not black and white. Every person has their own, often understandable, reason for fighting. It’s only really Zeke and Eren that are either still shrouded in mystery or have irrational reasonings.
Part 2 has some crazy developments. For better or worse, the anime keeps a lot of things in the dark and even when it explains things, it doesn’t explain everything at once, leaving a lot unsaid. This allows unexpected developments and plans nested within plans. It doesn’t get to the point of being too confusing or ridiculous, but it gets close. You’ll get things where Eren is portrayed as morally grey and even eventually becomes the villain, with some retcons coming out of the blue.
Another good thing the anime does it evoke emotions from the viewer from things such as characters doing all they can to do something that might not be the right thing. Even when you don’t fully understand their motivations, enough is show that you still feel some sort of support, such as Annie from the first season. There are idealistic themes being portrayed here about family and bonds.
Part 2 continues with the slow pacing that is interspersed with significant movements in the plot. Progress feels deliberate and meaningful. You know and feel that the story is heading towards its ending, and it makes you wonder how it can possibly end with all sides satisfied. It builds into the iconic scenes of giant titans walking in the background giving a chilling feel like the apocalypse is arriving, and it is.
Characters are a bit scattered, but the various groups and factions are slowly converging to a single point. Due to both sides hating against each other, understandably, given the situations when they were growing up, there is extra significance when the characters being to slowly set aside their differences. They don’t forgive each other, but at least they respect and see each other’s perspectives, which is an impressive thing to do. Characters are shown to constantly make extremely tough decision that you can see that it hurts them physically. They are backed into a corner and are forced to do what they must to survive and move forward.
The season finale has high stakes for its battles, so all the characters on both sides are giving it their all to protect and achieve what they believe in. the sad part is that you can understand the reasoning on both sides, and it is hard to pick one to win. You know which side will win of course, but it is still tough to see characters die, seemingly when they didn’t have to. It truly highlights the lack of a distinct right or wrong between the two factions.
The constant flashbacks are not great for storytelling pacing purposes. It’s kind of annoying when the last episode is dedicated as such, but it somewhat finally bridges the gaps in the events. By the end of this part, we have seen the whole process from start to finish and there shouldn’t be any gaps of knowledge left.
Overall, Attack on Titan: The Final Season - Part 2 is good. It can be somewhat slow in the middle but not largely so. Part 2 is bookended by some great titan appearances and battles, particularly the one that is towards the end of the season. These battles feel meaningful and isn’t battling for the sake of action. The finale showing the destructive power and impending doom from the titans is impressive and felt like what the series was building up towards.
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