 Attack on Titan is back, and I know this because you guys started watching this video again, which is nice. If you've watched that video, that's only up to the end of season 3. And I don't really talk about any spoilers or anything like that. As I'm sure you know, a lot has happened since then. When I was watching Attack on Titan season 3 part 2, I was like, this has got to be the best season of anime ever made. And I'm sure that's not too far off, but season 4 has been on a whole other level. Just a fair warning, this one does have spoilers. Only as I'm writing this, Attack on Titan is the most popular show on television. More popular than The Mandalorian, or Cobra Kai, or even WandaVision. And on IMDb, out of the top 5 rated TV show episodes of all time, 3 of them are from Attack on Titan. I can honestly say that at this point, Attack on Titan has transcended simply just being an anime, and has become one of the greatest pieces of media of all time. And I might even say that season 4 is the best season of television ever made. If you're caught up with the anime, which I hope you are, because if not, please click off this video unless you don't mind the spoilers. First off, for the past three seasons, our main characters have been chasing down this mysterious MacGuffin known as The Basement. And for those who don't know what a MacGuffin is, it's an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant and irrelevant in itself. Tease after tease after tease. The gang finally arrives at their destination and discovers the secrets that The Basement holds. Most of the time, the secret behind any given MacGuffin is no more interesting than the quest that let our characters there. But in this case, it literally opens up a whole new world. That's right. Junior High School. A beautiful world where our Attack on Titan characters live in a slice of life romance anime. Everyone's happy together, and they go to high school, and learn, and laugh, and get into all sorts of shenanigans. Also, they don't die. The end. Wasn't season 4 great? If only we were that lucky. Of course, by a whole new world I'm talking about Marley and the rest of the world that lies beyond the sea. For our characters, it even changed the entire perception of those who lived within the walls. It was always thought that life within the walls was a terrible way to live. If only they could escape the walls and live outside and reclaim their lands, life would be worth living. Our main characters fought towards this goal for years, only to finally reach the edge of their island and see that their true enemies were waiting for them across the sea, not really the peace and freedom they all expected. This drastic plot reversal at the end of a story is hard to pull off. It's always a gamble when you completely flip the plot on the audience and give them something that's completely different from what they expect. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it's really really bad. First off, let's just talk about the extremely bold decision to introduce an entire new cast of characters. In fact, we don't see the majority of the main cast until episode 6. Instead we follow someone who kind of knows someone that we knew in earlier seasons. Episode 6 in a 16 episode season. That's about 40% of the season. That's like watching Star Wars of the Phantom Menace and waiting 50 minutes for the main character to show up. That actually happens. That example. That's like getting into season 3 of High Q, expecting to see Hinata on Kageyama, but instead you follow this guy around for 5 episodes straight. It was bold, and it actually worked. The ratings for season 4, even the first couple of episodes, are still rated higher than even the average Attack on Titan episode, which is still quite high. No doubt they did this to drive home the point that in this war there's no black and white, no true victors on either side. Innocent blood is always shed in the name of one cause or another. No good guys, no bad guys, except for Gabby of course. Not to mention one of the greatest role reversals I've ever seen in media. If you've been keeping up since the beginning as an audience, you've spent a good 7 years getting to know these characters, and seeing them live together, fight together, learn together, grow up together, Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Sasha, Connie, Jon, and everyone else. They've been together forever. And at the end of season 3 we learn that the Marlians, the people outside the walls, refer to the people inside the walls as Eldian Devils. However, we know that this isn't the case, we know that they're actually caring, kind-hearted people who only fight for freedom. But in one of the most ironic twists of fate, the Marlians' fear becomes realized. The seemingly cold and calculated methods of attack used by the scouts, their strategy, their movements, all of a sudden describing them as devils doesn't seem too far off. And viewed from the perspective of children whose homes were destroyed by these devils, it's easy to see why they don't have the same positive views of the characters that we know and love. And I think it's just amazing how they've turned everything on its head without compromising the great story, pacing, and world-building. It really sets the feeling that everything is in fact coming to an end. A lot of the final season's imagery is in fact a callback to the first season. I mean, just by looking at the key visuals, it gives me chills. We see an obvious parallel here. In season 1 we see Eren against the backdrop of the wall during Reiner and Bertolt's attack, powerless to stop them. One of the final season we see more or less the same thing, except it's Reiner's hometown, being destroyed by Eren. Zooming in you can even see Levi, Hanji, and Mikasa chilling on the rooftops. This level of detail can be seen in other episodes too. The protagonists of both seasons are looking up at the sky staring at birds. The first episodes of both seasons feature a walled city being attacked by two Titans. Both show the same response to Eren losing control of his rage. Both the headstrong Eren and Galiard rush into battle confident to win but end up losing limbs. Eren to a Titan and Galiard to a human. And those are only a few examples, I'm sure there's so much more. There's so much going on here. It's so dense. Every single image has so many things going on. Again, it's like poetry so that they rhyme. Every season of Attack on Titan we see our protagonists face a different type of foe. There's this running joke on YouTube that I see all the time that says, season 1, humans versus Titans. Season 2, Titans versus Titans. Season 3, humans versus humans. Season 4, Eren versus everyone. So what I've seen is, season 1 to 3, Eren is in danger. Season 4, Eren is the danger. In any case, this shift in tone is evident from the opening alone. I've already analyzed the openings for season 1 to 3 in another video. Is Attack on Titan the greatest TV show ever made? In season 1 we get the iconic song, The Flugel der Freiheit by Link to Horizon. We see a clear struggle between humanity and the walls versus the Titans surrounding them. Season 2, we offered up our hearts with Shinzo Sasageyo, also by Link to Horizon. The humans strike back, and they make a charge against not just your typical Titans, but sentient Titans as well. Season 3 part 1, Red Swan doesn't count, it's not a real opening. But the ending is also Link to Horizon. I mean, a Titan doesn't even show up in this opening, marking the first significant human versus human conflict of the series. Finally, in season 3 part 2, we get a fourth and hopefully not final banger from Link to Horizon, and we're back to where it all started in Shiganshina. Pretty triumphs, but with a heavy cost. The foreboding sea hiding the unknown that awaits on the other side. In each of these intros, besides Red Swan, because Red Swan doesn't count, we see some amazing battle scenes. People swinging around in their ODM gear, Titans getting clapped. Lots of lots of spoilers if you know what you're looking for and as each episode starts, we sit on the couch in anticipation for our favorite character to show up. But season 4's opening just literally hits differently. And there's no spoilers to be seen here, we just get explosions, crazy colors littering a monochrome landscape, marching soldiers, no intense action scenes, no recognizable characters just destruction, followed by more destruction. Finally ending with one recognizable figure, the Attack Titan, sitting above a mountain of death and destruction, and we get a close up of its face for only a quarter of a second, precisely 13 frames, before fading to black. Literally chills every time. And also, it's a bop, and honestly my emotions can be summed up in this 10 second clip. In season 4, everything comes together, no more loose ends here. We even get flashbacks looking to the past to answer our unanswered questions back in the first couple seasons. We see countries of the world, we see some Germans, we see Africans, we see Japanese, and these guys I guess are like, Ottomans, we see new characters. Are you serious? Old characters. I like this. This is cute. Levi. That's kinda small. We got old waifus. Impressive. We got new waifus. Buenos dias, Poco. I don't know what this is, but it's kinda hot. We got Armin, and we got another Armin, that's right, two Armin's. And while we get to revisit old characters and old locations, this season feels different. There's a tangible air of finality to it. You literally can't even compare the final season to the first season. It's as if it's a different anime. But there's one thing that hasn't changed, and from what we've seen so far, the amount of love and care that has been put into the final season is the same quantity and quality that we've seen in the first three seasons. People talk about season 4 comparing it to the earlier seasons calling it terrible, ugly, rushed when, in actuality, the series has literally only gotten better and better over time. And no doubt, in the case of season 4, we can thank Mappa for this. Mappa is the studio in charge of Attack on Titan season 4, and even after getting pooped on constantly by the internet, they still did an amazing job. Apparently the production committee asked for Witt Studios, the previous studio over Attack on Titan, to meet impossible deadlines which caused them to refuse, because they didn't want the series to diminish in quality in order to meet those deadlines. According to several articles, due to a lack of manga sales, the production committee in charge of Attack on Titan basically said that if no one takes Attack on Titan, they're most likely would be no final season. And so Witt was looking to unload the show on another party, and while many other studios turned down the offer, the only studio that was up to the challenge was Mappa. And they already had a big challenge on their plate right at the start due to the tight deadline, and all of this while also juggling other critically acclaimed shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and God of High School. One Mappa animator said that it takes three to four times as much work to make one Attack on Titan episode as one episode of other average TV anime. And let's not forget that this transition happened during one of the worst pandemics in history, but still, they were able to create an absolute masterpiece. No effort was spared to bring this brilliant story to life. The story is riveting, and has never really put me in a position where I was content at stopping when the to be continued message comes up. The characters that started as a bunch of lovable misfits have become not only vicious fighters with wings of freedom, but a mature, close-knit group of friends with bonds so powerful that I don't think love is even strong enough a word to describe whatever this is. The world building is beyond anything I could have ever imagined when I first started the first episode of the first season. And then the soundtrack just completely puts everything over the top. For all intents and purposes, Attack on Titan is a perfect series. Well, it probably will be. The only thing it needs to do now is not pull a game of thrones and just stick the landing. I think Gagic said it best when he said, this could be the anime that defines this generation. But you know what? I think it already has. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to leave a thumbs up, subscribe, and hit the notification bell. While you're at it, why not buy us a coffee? Or perhaps a cup of tea? Link is in the description. Finally, I know that we do a lot of different types of videos, but if you'd like more anime content specifically on this channel, please leave a comment below. Remember to offer up your hearts. Enjoy the rest of season four. It's going to be a roller coaster. And as always, thanks for watching.