Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 1 (2020)

The story begins from the perspective of the enemies the protagonists have been fighting since Season 1. For the first time we see directly how Eldians live in the nation of Marley, and why Reiner infiltrated Paradis. This reversal is the core of Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 1, and the most shocking narrative device that makes you see the entire story through new eyes.

What it’s about — Starting over from the enemy’s perspective

Attack on Titan: The Final Season began airing on NHK in December 2020, with MAPPA handling production. There was a studio change from Wit Studio to MAPPA, but the focus was on faithfully animating the final stage of the original manga. Part 1 covers events from the Marley arc through the Paradis expedition, with the transformation of Eren Yeager as the central axis carrying the entire season.

Direction — A studio change and the war of the Marley arc

MAPPA made some changes from the visual style Wit had established. Use of CGI titans increased and the character animation style shifted somewhat. There were debates about the quality of animation at the time of broadcast, but over time the reception has been re-evaluated more positively. The way the scale and brutality of war is captured in the Marley arc is impressive, and in particular the battle sequence in the final episode expresses this season’s climax with overwhelming force.

Performance & characters — Eren’s completely transformed voice

Yuki Kaji’s Eren is a completely different person in the Final Season. The quiet, cold, somehow resolute Eren is expressed by Kaji with a completely different vocal register from previous seasons — a superb piece of acting that conveys the character’s narrative arc through sound alone. Marina Inoue’s Mikasa is the character who witnesses Eren’s transformation most closely and struggles with it; her performance, suppressing while still revealing internal emotion, is convincing.

What the work says — There are no villains in war

What the Final Season of Attack on Titan says is that there are no villains in war. The fact that Reiner, the Armored Titan who was the villain of Season 1, is also a victim — and that the protagonists who were allies become perpetrators at a certain point — is dealt with directly in this season. The cycle of history, the transmission of hatred, and the choices individuals make within it are the core themes of this work. The very fact that a shonen manga addresses narrative complexity at this level is one of the reasons this series is special.

Ratings & reception

The overall IMDb rating for the Attack on Titan series reaches 9.1, making it one of the highest-rated dramas of any kind, including animation. TMDB score is 8.7. The Final Season dominated global streaming trends during its broadcast and is evaluated by both domestic and international fanbases as the most talked-about season in the series’ history.

What doesn’t work

Without having seen the previous seasons, it’s hard to enter the Final Season on its own. The shock of this season relies on understanding the full series context — without that background, the weight of the story doesn’t fully land. There was also ongoing debate about MAPPA’s CGI usage throughout the season. Since Part 1 continues into Part 2 and Part 3, watching only this part leaves no sense of completion.

Verdict

Rating ★4.0. For viewers who have followed Attack on Titan from Season 1, the Final Season Part 1 is an experience in which all the waiting that came before condenses. Even knowing where the story is headed, the shock of how it gets there doesn’t diminish. A viewer who simply feared titans in Season 1 arrives at the Final Season not knowing which side to root for — that is the achievement this series has pulled off. No shonen manga-based anime has ever so fundamentally dismantled the boundary between enemy and ally in its narrative. The development from the Marley arc to the Paradis expedition is the heart of Final Season Part 1.

Recommended for

• Those who have watched Attack on Titan from Season 1
• Those who want anime with high narrative complexity
• Those seeking works with serious thematic consciousness about the cycle of war and violence