Review of Attack on Titan Season 3

There’s a lot of new stuff to go through. This first part of Attack on Titan season three takes a break from fighting titans. It draws from the themes of war and sacrifice of the first season, and combines the world building of season two. Creating a fresh entry in the Attack on Titan story, with Wit studios animation and some more focus on building up characters. I mentioned earlier that at this point in the Attack on Titan story, the cast have stopped fighting titans and are forced to fight humans. A dilemma that I love, as these soldiers have seen the worst of humanityand understand the consequences of sacrificing human life. So when they are forded to kill human life, they question their morality throughout the series. You see the unfair treatment of the Survey Corp in the government, it’s clear that they have the most dangerous and most horrific job in the military. Yet they are discriminated against the most and paid the least. We see the government disband the survey Corp and frame them for crimes they didn’t commit. We consistently see themes of corruption, morality, and the lengths to which the government will commit unlawful acts to keep themselves in charge. The world building in this season is a vast improvement from the world building of season one and two. We get a slight more detailed understanding of the titans and their origin, a look into how the walls were created and the outside world. However, we still aren’t given enough to fully answer these questions. Allowing for the series to lead on viewers to keep on watching.

The sound design of season three part one is a definite downgrade from the previous two seasons. The sound design itself is still as great as ever, whether it’s standard sound effects or the sound of ODMG it’s still got good sound effects. The voice acting is brilliant, we have brilliant performances from several different characters in this new season. However, the soundtrack is what lags down the other sound categories in this first part of season three. By no means is it horrible, as it does sound and feel like music from the Attack on Titan world. While also conveying the basic emotions of any scene. It’s just that the soundtrack of season one and two are so much more recognisable and iconic. The Red Swan opening is a horrific downgrade. I don’t care about the visuals or symbolism in the opening. It’s a series that shows the bleak fight against human corruption and this opening feels like it’s the opening for a high school drama.

I’ve said once that the animation that Wit studios produced was arguably so good that when the studios changed for season four, there was an uproar of pissed fans. While I do believe Mappa’s work on season four was outstanding, Wit also has some animation that is top tier. Characters seamlessly blend into the environments even if the environments are cgi, the environments themselves are animated near flawlessly. The crystal caves, the rural setting of the world, the towns within the walls, all feel so detailed and alive. Wit studios truely shines with their action scenes. Whether it’s the battle against Rod Reiss, the fight in the crystal caves or the Levi fight against the military police brigade. All the action scenes were animated at a top tier level.

Characters like Historia, Eren, Erwin and Levi are given more of a chance to shine during season three. The new Levi squad works together and seeing them work in one of their toughest positions is something that really shows the bonds between the cast. Eren learns more about his Titan ability and the whereabouts of his father. Historia learns the truth of her family and completes her character arc in this season. We see Levi act as a true leader and bring everyone together, he’s the realistic character who understands it’s either do or die. Erwins reasoning behind his motives and his true character are further explained in more depth. Making his character far more interesting then a simple smart guy in a position of power. Majority of characters receive a lot more depth and complexity, allowing for characters to further evolve from their first appearances in season one. The introduction of Kenny was groundbreaking, to see a force that is more terrifying then Levi is something we haven’t really seen in Attack on Titan. His presence gives a level of true fear, as before you could easily say Levi could save everyone. But at that time, there was a force stronger when Levi that was against the main cast. The main problem being that they don’t expand on this character stronger then Levi past part one of season three.

Despite a slight downgrade in sound design, the fresh narrative, the return of Wit studios animation, and the return of memorable characters made this season something I could truely enjoy.

Overall, I rank this 8/10.