English Dub Review: Attack on Titan “The Final Chapters (Part 1)”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Scout Regiment finally makes it off Paradis and pursues Eren, who has transformed into the monstrous Founding Titan and leads an army of Colossal Titans across the world. With only a small vestige of humanity left, the remaining Scouts fight to preserve what’s left of their species from Eren’s wrath.

OUR TAKE

Attack on Titan began its destructive path upon anime and pop culture in April 2013 when the anime first aired and took the world by storm, and even after an extended hiatus between the first and second seasons, since 2017 there hasn’t been a year that we’ve gone without at least one episode. But after the manga finally concluded in 2021, fans knew the end had to be near for the anime as well, with the final season being split into two parts, then three, with the third consisting of two hour-long specials to bring this monstrous story to its close. Honestly, as much as I have enjoyed the show as a whole, including this recent special, I had actually fallen off watching because I had no idea when the end was actually coming. So, getting ready for this one gave me real incentive to watch the second part of Season 4, through which I realized just how little of that part has Eren, the once main protagonist turned antagonist, in it. After his major revelation about the nature of his Titan abilities, including being able to see into the future towards his unforgivable crimes, he makes a major powerplay to gain a cult of followers and take hold of his home’s future, even at the cost of everyone else in the world…and then pretty much vanishes for the majority of that chunk of the season, with only a little check in at the end regarding his stomp across the world…and the show was on pause for nearly a year (and more than a year over here in the states).

And just like the latter part of Season 4 Part 2, the majority of this first special of two is Eren’s friends and former enemies (what’s left of them at least) rallying together cut him off at the pass and confront him to save what little may be left of humanity as a whole, knowing that whoever’s left will most assuredly hate them for proving a centuries old prejudice of their people correct. It’s a moral dilemma that just about every character grapples with throughout the runtime, but chooses to save what lives they can anyway. And even then, every character gets a moment to reflect and/or go out like a badass. Armin and Mikasa think on their childhood friend and how he ended up at this point, their friends who they met in the cadet corp hang in there as best they can as every bad thing happens to keep them from getting to their goal, old enemies like Annie and Reiner are looked at in new light as the rest are put in tragically similar positions to them, and even the newer characters like Gabi and Falco (the latter of whom having recently gained a Titan ability himself) all take steps to end up at the final battleground, despite trying to avoid it before. It is truly hard to believe that we only have one episode, even an extended one, left of Attack on Titan as a whole. Said episode hasn’t been given a release date in Japan, but once it does, an American release likely isn’t far behind. And when it does, it’ll drop like a horde of skinless giants. We’ll see you then.