Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3 Part 2

The unknown is always too easy labelled as a threat, and it is easy to join that particular chorus who claim it, mainly due to fear, fear of failure and concern of personal cost.
On the basis of that postulate, the journey resumes for our SnK characters, as they prepare to undertake a fierce battle against those who want to annihilate humanity...however, is that these guys objective?

It is well known the one-of a kind storytelling attributes this adaptation has: the understated foreshadowing –great for those who like to re-watch shows-, the captivating epicity, the more than famous plot twists; nevertheless, it never stops to amaze ... me the ability –and specially, in this season- they have had to build, step by step, a huge storyline that is both fascinating and enjoyable, while being able of connecting the dots that had been scattered during the 3 seasons prior to this one -all of this without making the story messy and confusing-.
While I am on this subject, I have to bring to the table the marvellous combination of this storytelling with the animation and music. One of the most overlooked aspects, not only in anime, but also on the film industry, is the ability of a motion picture to use this or that piece of music, sound, silence and/or frame in this or that given moment to capture the audience and, what can I say, Shingeki no Kyojin does it extremely well on this season.

Speaking about music, this asset is and has been one of SnK’s hallmarks. Not only the use of it –as I mentioned before- but the compositions per se are just one of a kind. Am I the only one who listens to them on a daily basis? And if this was not enough, WIT studio decided to bring into the equation some of the old soundtracks from season 1, which we will all agree were masterpieces.
Furthermore, speaking about other technical aspects, the animation has made quite an improvement, leading to great results. This made some of the events –including fights- that took place over the course of this season something special: backgrounds were depicted in a really wonderful way, movements and facial expressions were really fluid and seemed pretty natural (including the Omni-directional mobility gear animation where camera rotations and 3D movements were executed to perfection) and pace was used fantastically well –that episode 54 fight it’s a great example, where Levi moves so fast that it takes time to the physics to actually catch up with him, making it look like he moves at the speed of light-. This, accompanied by an amazing sound design, a cast sounding as good as they do and a very good characterization, makes Shingeki no Kyojin a really wonderful series to watch. And don't forget what a banger the OP was.

Moreover, I’m glad that, between the chaos of war, they have set aside some time to explore the inner conflicts of some of our characters, their convictions and motivations, the reason for them to fight, as well as exploring on how their decisions not only changed –and will change- their lives and made them who they are now, but the lives of the people around them. Characters like Levi, Armin or Erwin, who had not have so much screentime-development over the course of the show gain in importance on this season -it was about time-, without laying aside others like Eren -who finally shows a glimmer of manhood and logic-, Mikasa, or even our titanic traitors -if you know what I mean-, as they also meaningfully develop. For instance, side characters no longer feel like side characters.

So, while I’m not in a position to say that I would never see something like this in awhile, I can say that this season was, hands down, a dazzling, breathtaking piece of animated work.

I don't like writing negative reviews, and before I start I have to say that I gave this a positive average score. However, not everybody think that Snk is the best thing out there, and I feel it's necessary to give voice to "other" opinions too. Mine, in this case.

The show is nice. The animation is good and it's very entertaining. I'll give it that. However it has a lot of flaws, and this season, while it's in some aspects more interesting than the previous ones, it's also lacking a bit.

My biggest probleme with this anime is more of an adaptation issue. ... I may criticise some aspects of the story itself, but what I find specially disappointing is the narrative structure of the animation.

The narration style tries to make the plot more mysterious by giving small fragments of information here and there instead of going for the big punctual revelations, and that's supposed to be original, but the truth is that once you start to put all the pieces together, it feels like they are doing it so they can hide the weaknesses of the plot. When you put the pieces together, you can see that the story has many incoherences. During the previous seasons I expected those incoherences to be fixed with deep and surprising answers, but as the show progresses, the answers never seem to come, and when they do, they are always partial and disconnected. Basic narrative rule: If your plot is lacking something (as it seems to be the case) at least try to compensate it with a good hype. First mistake: Fragmenting the revelations is the death of hype.

In this season, now that we know more about what is going on, we can see that the story is not that deep, and the reasons behind the action are not that plausible, maybe because, at a psychological level, the characters are not fully developed either. Their personalities are very basic and random, they don't learn or evolve, and so their actions are lacking of meaningful purpose.

When watching this show, I always feel like something huge and awesome is going to happen right around the corner, but it never actually does. All the supposed important information the main characters have gotten and all they have achieved... truth is, I don't care... They drop a plot twist about a random character that has had almost no screen time at all until then. How are we supposed to get effectively empathetic with characters we don't know? Basic narrative rule number two: When you drop a bomb about something, make sure your public actually knows something about that, otherwise the impact will be completely pointless. That happens when the distribution of information is poorly done.

Besides, for a show that relies so strongly on the "emotions of the sacrifices made in war" most of the conversations are pretty empty and lacking deep insight of human emotions. They use so many words to give so little information. The characters almost never say anything that may help to grasp their personality or the basis of their actions any better. Even when they talk about something important, they never let the conversation completely flow towards what the audience actually needs to hear in order to empathize or be effectively amazed by the plot twists, and while that's a narrative resource that can be nice to use now and then to create intrigue, it's almost impossible to build 3 seasons systematically using that resource.

This might not be a problem for people who already read the manga, but it may make it frustrating for someone who hasn't. I guess it might work if you are watching it merely for the action. The story almost never stops, they are always on the move and there's always something going on, so it's overall entertaining, even though at a deeper level it has flaws.

I've watched it because honestly, it's very easy to watch, but I think for a full experience with the story, it might be a better idea to read the manga. Again, this is my personal opinion and it's ok if you watch the show and think otherwise. I respect that. But just know that not everybody thinks that this is the ultimate show and that's to be respected as well.

[Spoiler Warning]

Prior to season 3, little was known about the origins of the titans, as the previous seasons focused on humanity’s survival in the face of impending doom. While bits and pieces were revealed through the Reiss family history, nothing about the titan’s origins were divulged. Until now! Yet, should we be pleased with these revelations, or disappointed with the paltry character development? Because let’s face it: Attack on Titan’s (AOT’s) characters are terribly written.

Starting with Eren Yeager, he’s gone from being a vengeful edge-lord who was consumed with killing titans at all costs, to a whiny, vengeful edge-lord ... who can’t think beyond his emotions. Rage, sorrow, and regret is his entire range of feelings. Besides his family lineage and transformation into a Titan, he serves no other purpose in the series.

After 2.5 seasons, I still don’t know who Mikasa is besides a cold-hearted, reserved girl who obviously loves Eren (that smile in episode 10, tho). She’s the female version of Levi, a proverbial bad-ass who is all style but no substance. Levi is brutally honest to his comrades and honestly brutal to the Titans. Like Mikasa, his combat skills are nonpareil to cover his overall vacuousness as a character. Also, while AOT built itself up on semi-realistic fights, it became too enamored with making Levi look ‘cool.’ His fight with the beast titan stretched the limits of human physics to the point of comical absurdity.

Erwin is the veritable “go get ‘em” leader with his hardened determination and unwillingness to surrender, despite the circumstances. His laser focus on accomplishing his goals makes him very one-dimensional (CHARGE!). I understand that he was constrained by the rock throwing of the beast titan, but a full-on kamikaze ‘attack’ seemed ill-advised (CHARGE!). Correct me if I’m wrong, but why couldn’t they help capture the armored titan and colossal titan first, then wait for the beast titan inside Wall Maria?—setting up an ambush, if he decided to come. If the horses were lost, who cares! Eren could have turned into a titan and carried his comrades back to Wall Sheena or Wall Rose.

As for Armin, he seemed somewhat relatable, given his initial trepidation and eventual growth as a self-confident strategist. But overall, he came off as extremely plain and ill-explored. Furthermore, due an in-universe plot device (i.e. the titan’s regenerative powers), his ‘sacrifice’ lost all emotional impact; speaking of which, it was humorous when Floch started calling everyone out at the award ceremony for being complicit in Erwin’s death. Dude knew how to rain on everyone’s parade at exactly the worst possible moment. But in all seriousness, it was a contrived rant that felt soap-opera-esque to drum up tension in a jejune final episode.

As for the aforementioned revelations — a primary reason a preponderance of people are watching AOT — they were interesting, but not enough so to counteract the paltry characters. You can only ‘horrify’ the viewer so many times before they become desensitized to it. Moreover, the progressively foreboding tone made the story feel mechanical. A good story needs to have some irrational flexibility, otherwise its contrivances felt forced and theatrical. The introduction of titan lore was fascinating and made sense within the context of the story; however, the overuse of ‘shock and awe’ has made Attack on Titan rather predictable.

While the animation exceeded most expectations, it should be noted that the colossal titan had some jankey aesthetics. The OP was a rehash of "Guren no Yumiya” — a creative block? — and the overall pacing was atrocious. It seemed like whenever the Survey Corps were in a battle, there was a million flashbacks that drag out the proceedings. But if the WWE can have lumbering, slow-witted ‘giants’ string along the audience needlessly for ratings, why can’t Attack on Titan? Quality aside, it certainly brings in the cash! Just understand what you are getting into.