Review of Attack on Titan Season 3

re-posting my list-comment as review, originally written May 9th 2021: it's a little hard to rate just the first half of the third season on it's own, because I watched the entire thing in one sitting.. that fact alone should speak for itself though! So this includes the first 12 episodes of season 3! First off; animation-wise I feel like there was a huge development between season 1 and 3, and I feel like a big part fo that happened after season 2 and during season 3! This can also have to do with the locations and source material they were able to work with though.Alright; Season 3 is where you really get the satisfying payoff for sticking with the anime. Still - this goes for all seasons - the pacing is great and there's zero dead air. The third season manages to unveil a lot of secrets that you've been rooting for to learn about for a long time, while adding new questions and keeping the suspense for how it all pieces together! We also get to visit some details and characters in earlier seasons that I never questioned, but getting the added information and background feels extremely satisfying and rewarding.

This season has some elements that are very different from the first two seasons, mainly the focus on human-interaction and politics that wasn't as prominent earlier. All in all the story is just SO compelling that I'm willing to give this a 10, and at the same time I want to not give it a 10 to set apart just HOW MUCH I liked the second part of the 3rd season. That being said, I find it hard to judge the two separated, because (extremely mild spoiler?) the second part of the 3rd season is basically one very long episode cut up into several parts. I feel like both as standalone would be a 9 each, but together as a cohesive season it becomes a 10. The only deduction I wanna make is that it features the (for me) least memorable opening, inbetween some very iconic ones! the sound is STILL getting a 10 though, because the music within the series is just perfectly placed to draw you into the story throughout all seasons.