The Tartan

Looking back at 13 years of man-eating titans: A review and analysis of “Attack on Titan: The Final Chapters Part 2” and beyond

This article contains spoilers for “Attack on Titan: The Final Chapters Part 2,” including content from earlier seasons.

At long last, the final (the real final, I promise) portion of the award-winning anime “Attack on Titan” is here. As many may know, it has been a full decade since the first episode of the series aired way back in 2013, and 13 years since the manga began in 2010. But the finale of the season only aired on Saturday, Nov. 4. This 84-minute special is broken up into three episodes, “The Battle Between Heaven and Earth,” “The Long Dream,” and “Toward the Tree on That Hill,” each detailing the final battle and struggle between humans and titans.

Since the manga ended in 2021, many fans have debated their satisfaction with the ending of this epic. A significant amount of people were woefully disappointed and even angry with the ending, fueling a sort of movement for the anime adaptation to have an “anime-only ending.” For the two years leading up to this finale’s release, fans looked for clues of such a development in every corner of the second part of the final season. Even in Hajime Isayama’s involvement in the production of the final seasons, many fans became confident that the anime would take a different path than the manga. However, as fans now know, this was not the case.

In this feature-length finale, we saw the culmination of hundreds of years of suffering for the Eldians in a jaw-dropping battle between our beloved main cast and Eren Jaeger, the boy who sought freedom. This included the whole of what the manga promised us and more with the addition of some scenes and dialogue to bring everything together, as well as the inclusion of nostalgic musical scores from Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto.

After an eternity of chasing after Eren and his horde of titans pillaging the Earth, our favorite characters Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Jean, Connie, Reiner, and Pieck finally make it to the front of the horde and confront Eren. In a battle that lasts for two-thirds of the special, the remaining members of the Survey Corps are put to the ultimate test, needing to decide whether or not they can kill their childhood best friend in order to save humanity. Each character is effectively put through the ringer by Eren, who summons the titan shifters of past generations to stave them off until Mikasa makes the call to sacrifice the love of her life for the greater good. After several painstaking twists, Eren and Mikasa’s years spent together at a log cabin in Paths, and the final conversation between Eren and Armin, the Rumbling was put to an end, and the curse of Ymir was lifted by Mikasa’s decapitation of the Attack Titan. Our story of a stupid, arrogant, suicidal maniac comes to an explosive end with the obliteration of 80 percent of humanity and the heartbreaking cries of his loyal comrades.

The supposed “clues” I mentioned earlier of the anime’s divergence from the manga, including the addition of new scenes and dialogue, were not indicative of a complete change in the story’s conclusion, but instead were added to flesh out certain aspects of the finale in ways that I felt were incredibly satisfying. Even fans like Jacksepticeye, who initially did not like the ending of the story, cite these changes as enhancing their understanding and enjoyment of the finale. But there has also been a long, worn out debate about Studio MAPPA’s adaptation of the manga.

Some die-hard fans consider MAPPA to have done a poor job of adapting the story, many longing for the nostalgia of Studio WIT’s adaptation. While I do understand and agree to some degree that the sudden change in style was a bit jarring and took some getting used to, I actually love MAPPA’s adaptation and appreciate just how much time and dedication they put into bringing the story to life. This change did come at a significant time-jump in the show and at an abrupt change in the tone of the story, which aided the change for me and also helped to show just how many liberties WIT took with the first two-thirds of the story. There are both good and bad changes, but for the sake of deconstructing the popular argument that WIT is better, I’m going to focus on the changes that I thought hurt the story.

While it has been a while since I’ve read the manga, it is still easy to see how WIT left out significant aspects of the main cast’s character arcs and even changed character design. More specifically, much dialogue was added or left out, leading Mikasa to seem more one-dimensional and obsessed with Eren, a significant scene of Historia’s outcry after Ymir abandoned the Survey Corps was entirely removed, and Hange’s canon ambiguous gender identity was entirely overshadowed by the addition of distinct female features in the first three seasons. Like many fans, I did appreciate their intensely detailed ODM gear scenes, although I feel that in these last few parts of the final season, MAPPA has done great work to emulate the immersive aspect of these scenes. Building off of that facet of their adaptation, their faithfulness to the manga art style is truly captivating and honestly a reason why I don’t understand a lot of the hate. All-in-all, I understand both sides to the argument and I don’t have a favorite. Both studios did a great job in their adaptations for their respective story arcs; I don’t believe either studio could have brought the story to life like the other did.

Finally, what some don’t expect to get out of an anime about 50-foot giant genital-less humans trampling people, is its final message. Following the end of the last episode, “Toward the Tree on That Hill,” is a time-lapse of the future after titans have been eradicated, featured as the credits roll, depicting a future in which war continues even after the obliteration of 80 percent of the world’s population. But the scene we are left with after the credits is particularly striking. Earlier in the episode, after Eren is decapitated and dies, he tells his fellow Subjects of Ymir that the curse of the titans is no more, and no titan shall ever roam the Earth again. However, in this end credits scene, we see a boy hiking with his dog over the ruins of Paradis where he finds the tree Eren and Mikasa were buried under, which has transformed into the same tree where the original Ymir was granted her titan powers. Once the camera pans up to reveal the entirety of this gargantuan twisted tree, the final end card flashes, reading “The End,” and we are left to think about what this means for the future. Essentially, we are told that no matter what, even if so much damage is done as to wipe four-fifths of humankind off the face of the Earth, the cycle of violence and destruction will always continue.

While this isn’t the inspiring message that less intensely dark shows leave us with, I believe that “Attack on Titan” can tell us a lot about ourselves, even if we aren’t soldiers faced with unimaginable scenes of death and giant titans. This is not only a story of war, but a story of friendship, selfishness, and sacrifice. I, for one, am going to miss this story’s unpredictability and its loveable tortured characters. And I hope that if your view doesn’t align with my interpretation, you’ve at least gained an appreciation for animation, music, and convoluted storylines.