Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 2 Review: Less Action, But More Introspection| Shingeki no Kyojin Final
Stars: Josh Grelle, Yûki Kaji, Yui Ishikawa
Director: Hidekazu Hara
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
After a wait that lasted just under a year, Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is back to animate the schedule of the whole world. Born from the hand and mind of Hajime Isayama, Attack on Titan has become a true progenitor of the post-apocalyptic genre that has revolutionized the entire manga and animation sector, influencing the works that came out later. The testimony of its success, in addition to the incredible numbers of readers and fans around the world, was the airing of this second part of the final season obtained by the Crunchyroll platform which broadcast the episodes simultaneously with Japan.
An expectation and trepidation that have paid off: these last twelve episodes keep the pace set up since the first season and which has undergone a qualitative leap thanks to the MAPPA animation studio that has obtained the rights for the entire fourth season. The complex narrative goes well with a direction that prefers the introspection of the emotions of the characters that make the series worthy of the praise it constantly receives. An articulated story that needs further episodes arriving in 2023. We all know that Attack on Titan is a work of political fiction, a sub-genre that is not exactly common among the shōnen . Although the story told is completely fictitious, Hajime Isayama has chosen for his manga, as the main theme, something that is everything but fictional war.
Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Story
Attack on Titan resumes at the exact point where it stopped at the end of March last year with the arrival of Marley’s army, Zeke who managed to escape from the clutches of Captain Levi to reunite with his half-brother Eren, more determined Than ever to activate the roar of the Earth to follow the plan of his elder brother: to render the Eldians sterile thanks to the power of Ymir.
In these twelve episodes that make up the second half of the fourth season, never like now, Eren has an essential role. But, if you look strictly at the minutes, Eren appears very little. It could be said that Eren is the great absentee of the season, were it not that the whole narrative revolves around him and the episodes that see him as protagonist completely (and again) overturn everything that viewers knew until then.
Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 2 Review And Analysis
Making Eren’s emotions the face of the opening and the ending is therefore not a fallacious means to cover the few minutes in which he really appears, but wants to highlight how he and his actions is the only thing that matters to proceed to the ending. . Why has it changed? When did it change? Or has Eren always been like this? Attack on Titan departs from the classic notion of a hero, playing with the best known Greek narrative definition and shaping it to create a multifaceted protagonist whose opinion of him constantly varies, but never becomes inconsistent. Observing the path of the character it is easy to understand that the hatred of him for those who deprive him of freedom is genuine and lasting. Not only that, but that he would do anything to make the people around him happy at the cost of sacrificing human lives.
With the arrival of the Marleyans and the storylines of Falco and Gabi that intertwine with that of the protagonist group, the action scenes are dosed and concentrated in strategic points. In addition to the initial battle between Reiner and Eren and the backdrop of the devastated Island that never leaves the story, the narrative focuses more clearly on the psychological and emotional aspects of the war. As for the whole series, here too the concept of right and wrong, of good and evil, which are often divided by such a thin line as to be broken over and over again, returns in a pressing way. The doubts that the characters – and the public – come up with about Eren also affect the remaining protagonists.
The play of references that the author had made on Reiner, the person most psychologically affected by the war and his role as a soldier, affects everyone. The inhabitants of the island finally find themselves in front of their enemies, the people who for decades have tyrannized them without ever being seen and what both populations discover is that they are facing human beings: neither the demons of the island nor the tyrants of Marley. The central part of this second part is dedicated precisely to alliances as impossible as they are necessary, and to the continuous overturning of perspectives and views.
If Reiner has always been the scales of Attack on Titan , the character to refer to to show the complexity of war and the obligations to which the soldiers sent to the battlefield at a very young age are subjected, Gabi is the connecting link between Reiner (not by chance there is a blood bond between them) and Eren. Isayama shows her skill again by introducing, at the beginning of the fourth season, the double of Eren: a girl who joined Marley’s army with the clear intention of inheriting the Colossal Giant.
Gabi represents the entire population, subjugated and victim of a ferocious propaganda that wants the Eldians to be traitors and committed to paying war crimes never committed with their obedience. Gabi’s narrative arc is probably the most beautiful element of this second part of Attack on Titan, and also the one that best clarifies the dynamics called into play by the author. Everything works like a well-oiled cog where, we repeat at the center is a greater understanding of the character of Eren.
The MAPPA animation studio, which took the reins of Attack on Titan in 2020, once again proved to live up to the high expectations from fans , both of the manga and the anime itself. The visual elements follow the narration step by step, always preferring directing techniques that emphasize the various intertwining stories and the different levels of complexity of the original work. The sequences where the action reigns supreme are not confusing, but are performed with a preference for panoramas and long shots that give space to the shot and show in detail what is happening. The gameplay and complexity of the narrative results in scenes during which the characters interact as the war progresses in the background.
As the parties involved and the characters increase, the relationships between them become complicated, change, even in an inexorably irreparable way. All this, however, always in a very coherent and well explained way. Psychological introspection therefore becomes a fundamental tool for understanding not only the reasons that push the characters to behave in a certain way, but also the complex dynamics that make up a painting that, in addition to white (human beings) and black (the giants), also provides for the presence of all other colors (Marley and the other nations).
In short, the initial and simplistic good-bad dichotomy is replaced by a dense network of human relationships much more complex than it appeared to the inhabitants of Paradis in the past. It should also be emphasized that the black-white status quo is presented, in the end, as false, and with this sense Isayama is not only telling us a story, but is also telling us something else: to reduce our worldview to good dualism.- bad is a mistake, because it does not allow us to see (and, therefore, to fully understand) the reality of things. Isayama therefore wants to push his readers to reflect on the complexity of social and human relationships and not only.
Although Isayama has chosen to talk about war, from every single table we understand that he is strongly opposed: if not, he would not have written a story that highlights the horrors associated with it. Isayma brings together in his work a gloomy, pessimistic and no escape vision of life, a vision so dark that it no longer even foresees the presence of the good ones, because everyone, without distinction all, is stained with abject acts and the blood of many, very many people. Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 develops, in fact, starting from a horrendous situation and taking them to its most extreme consequences, in an escalation of madness and violence that is rarely seen in a shōnen.
In addition to the so-called “physical” brutality, there is also that linked to the dynamics between the characters and their factions: the individuals involved often, initially, manifest intentions and take sides, but often the cards on the table are reshuffled. We thus discover that their intentions were not sincere, but conveyed by personal interests or the common good, but not everyone has the same opinion on what is best to do to protect the Eldians.
If, on the one hand, the common desire for the inhabitants of Paradis is the protection of their people, on the other hand the factions at stake propose different solutions. Once this is established, however, Eren will do something that will reshuffle the cards in play. From that moment on, each character will act independently, even going so far as to ally with old enemies and kill those who until a moment before were companions. Again, Isayama is showing us typically human dynamics, as well as another cruel aspect of war: the fact that he is able to push people to do acts that, otherwise, they would not even take into consideration, given how abominable they are.
As often happens during real conflicts, alliances can break down and recompose in different ways, and the way in which all this is presented to us in Attack on Titan Finale Season Part 2 is particularly effective precisely because it draws inspiration from absolutely real dynamics demonstrating the author’s interest in the matter and the interiority of his characters.
Shingeki no Kyojin is Hajime Isayama’s dramatic awareness of the limitless and hopeless cruelty of human beings, of which he relentlessly shows us the worst sides: prejudice, racism, marginalization, war, betrayal, disloyalty, lack of moral principles. Furthermore, in Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2 a very important and sensational revelation is also made which, once again, shuffles the cards on the table. Fans of the anime look forward to finally discovering what the epilogue of this story will be, which becomes more and more compelling, while readers of the manga are curious to find out how the final conflict will be animated.
Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 2 Review: The Last Words
However, the use of close-ups is most appreciated for Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin). Following the path of greater introspection of the protagonists, the imaginary camera dwells on the faces of the characters when the story requires that emotions speak for them. Although the dialogues explain what happens without frills – even using the narrative voices, the close-ups deepen the words even when there would be no need for the latter. Especially as regards Eren, in the last episode, much importance is given to his reactions and to her face, to the detriment of his interlocutors. The result is a high-level series where direction, animation and narrative are at the service of Isayama’s brilliant mind.
