Review of Attack on Titan: Final Season - The Final Chapters

I'm glad it's over. I haven't liked Shingeki no Kyojin's story ever since the big reveal at the end of Season 3. I felt that direction was a massive letdown from where the story was taking us at that point; and even though yes all of the hints were there, I felt that taking the show in the direction it went stripped it of a lot of the best things that made it what it was in the early goings of the series. Going in the direction that the show went turned most of the themes it was trying to discuss into repeats of themesI had already explored elsewhere in other mecha anime. The story beats became predictable, and the conclusion of the story became a long, messy, and drawn out slog that kept trying to justify its own length unsuccessfully.

And yet, despite how much I wasn't enjoying the story for the last couple seasons, I cannot help but give the series as a whole a solid grade because of how quality the animation and sound design is. Attack on Titan will set the bar for many years to come. just like Evangelion did before it, for how far you can push this medium in terms of grand and epic stories, and what you can make them look and sound like.

I may not have ended up liking Attack on Titan's story at the end of the journey, but I am thankful for the journey I was able to go on with it anyway. It was a huge part of my getting back into anime back in 2013, and it has my full endorsement as a modern classic that every fan should eventually see. It doesn't mean every fan will enjoy it to the same extent, but every fan should at least be able to appreciate it for what it is.