Attack on Titan: Final Season – The Final Chapters Special 2 Review
The Battle of Heaven and Earth
Attack on Titan: Final Season – The Final Chapters Special 2 is the last part of the series. For real this time. It even covered chapter 139.5 at the end. So, there’s literally no additional manga content to go over.
In this review, I want to go over the main parts of the special, the iconic moments from the manga, and add a bit more context. Not everything is explained very well in this last part of the series. And, there’s a pretty good reason for that.
It seems like Isayama (my GOAT) had absolutely no idea what he was doing toward the end.
With that said, the first part of the special doesn’t have too much to discuss. It focuses on the large battle against the past generations of the Nine Titans on Eren’s back.
From what I remember, this is the first time that we really see how the various Titans work. For example, the Beast Titan doesn’t have to be a giant ape. That’s Zeke’s Beast Titan. There are many others, like the dragon Beast Titan we see for a second.
And, what’s cool about this is that it was hinted at way back in the OP of Season 2. Go watch it and you’ll notice a bunch of animals running alongside Zeke’s Beast Titan. These are previous generations of the Beast Titan. And, some of the interesting ones we see there are a whale and a tyrannosaurus rex.
The Warhammer Titan is similar in that it doesn’t always use a hammer. It uses various weapons throughout history. But then, there are some Titans that are less obvious. For example, what would you think Falco’s titan is? It’s a bird, so it’s the Beast, right? Wrong, it’s the Jaw Titan.
A Long Dream
The second part of the special is where we start getting into the iconic scenes. In my review of the first special episode, I mentioned how it was actually better than the manga. Well, I can’t say the same for this special episode.
For example, there’s the scene where Zeke starts talking to Armin about the origin of life. In the manga, he had me thinking he was about to drop a bombshell about Titans being aliens. The anime didn’t quite capture that misdirection, which I think is a shame.
Though, I’d still argue that the Titans are aliens. After all, there’s the worm. We never get a very good explanation of what the worm is other than “the will of Ymir.” But, we also know that the worm existed before Ymir. It was what infected her and led to the Titans existing.
Speaking of Ymir, her role is something that’s not explained very well. But, allow me to clear things up. As Eren or Zeke points out, Ymir followed King Fritz’s orders for the past 2,000 years because she loved him. Terrible writing, I know. But, we mere mortals can’t comprehend the genius that is Isayama.
This is important, though, because it ties into something else dumb that Isayama does. He makes Mikasa the protagonist of the series. Mikasa was “always” meant to be the one who saves the world. And we know that because Ymir chose her. But, why?
It’s simple, actually. Ymir was in an abusive “relationship” with King Fritz. And Mikasa is in an abusive “relationship” with Eren. So, Ymir wanted Mikasa to kill her lover as a proxy for herself and King Fritz. Or, something like that. It’s unclear if Mikasa kissing or killing Eren was the goal.
Toward the Tree on That Hill
I guess I should have mentioned that Mikasa kissing Eren’s head is another iconic scene. But, less because of the kiss and more because of Ymir smiling in the background. The anime did that scene justice. It would have been hard to mess up.
Unfortunately, these next two iconic scenes weren’t as good in the anime. The first is Eren’s “10 years at least” crying scene. It was always cringe to see Eren break down and say something that pathetic. Even Armin says as much. But, it just wasn’t as funny in the anime.
And, skipping ahead, the scene of the bird pulling on Mikasa’s scarf wasn’t as good in the anime, either. Though, that may only be because I already knew about it. After the final chapter of the manga came out, there were a lot of great bird Eren memes.
What was the scene that the anime butchered the most, though? For me, it was the scene of Levi saluting the ghosts of his fallen comrades. The manga version of that scene hit way harder than the anime version, even when I went back to re-read it.
I’m not entirely sure, but I think my issue with the anime version of this scene was the color. Seeing Levi’s comrades depicted in color made it feel less like he was seeing their ghosts. In the manga, everything’s in black and white. So, it looks like Levi’s seeing his comrades’ figures in the smoke itself.
And, the final scene I want to mention is the last scene of the anime. Even after the Titans were gone, war persisted. And in the post-apocalyptic world, we see a boy come across Eren’s grave. He enters the tree’s hollow, and this is exactly how Titans originated with Ymir.
Final Thoughts
I ended up giving Attack on Titan: Final Season – The Final Chapters Special 2 a 7/10. I genuinely think it’s a good piece of media. Even with the parts I felt the manga did better, it’s a good watch. But, I also recognize I may be a biased manga reader.
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