Marcus Grant | Managing Editor
The new season of Attack on Titan is here. Coming out with its fourth episode this week, the show has been airing at 3:45 pm Eastern Time every Sunday. Fans all over are excited to see their favorite characters back and better than ever (for the most part) and manga readers can’t wait to see their favorite panels finally animated. Let’s look at what’s happened so far.
MAPPA is giving fans amazing animations as always. Like with their other shows, the show looks just like how Isayama originally drew them, which is always great to see. The intro, named “The Rumbling” by the Japanese metal band, SiM, is catchy and full of energy. On the other hand, the outro, “Akuma no Ko” (translated to “A Child of Evil”) by Ai Higuchi, is sweet and leaves the viewer reminded of the events of previous seasons. All around, very well done music-wise.
I’m going to warn any readers who aren’t caught up that the rest of this may contain slight spoilers (so you should watch them and then come back). The first episode, titled “Judgement” picked up where the last season ended off, showing us the results of Zeke’s attack on Levi and Eren’s reaction to Pieck. We also see Eren’s friends’ reactions to his actions.
Episode two was largely disappointing. The first half consisted of a recap of the episode from the week prior followed by Armin and Mikasa running up some stairs that went on for an impossibly long time. After the intro played, there still was not much plot that we got to see. Marley started their sneak attack. Falco confessed his love to Gabi after she realized that what she learned at home was not actually true. But that was really it (other than the drawn-out scenes of Eren walking excruciatingly slow).
Episode three was great. I was scared that we were going to see another episode where it didn’t feel like anything actually happened but this was not the case. The emotional scene between Colt and Falco was very touching and I knew I was going to feel sad but seeing it actually get animated really stung. Then, seeing Gabi’s reaction and how she chose to retaliate was great. The episode ended on a cliffhanger of Eren and Zeke meeting the founder Ymir at the paths.
Episode two caused a lot of viewers to worry about the pacing of this season. Like many people, I originally thought this season was moving pretty slow. I didn’t think we needed an episode that consisted almost solely of Eren walking only a few steps (forgive the exaggeration). Some have speculated that this means season four, part two will not be the end of Attack on Titan and that there will likely be a movie released covering the last couple of chapters. This is not confirmed but I have seen people in favor of this as well as people who just want to see the end of the show. It is up to MAPPA to decide how to best portray Isayama’s work.
I think it’s great that MAPPA is not shying away from showing the gruesome realities of war. Unlike with other seasons, we can get a true sense of the casualties and the sense of loss based on the images shown. It makes the show feel much more real.
Personally, I still like the show despite feeling that some aspects of this season are lacking. I’m excited to see how it will all come together in the end.
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