The Final Season: The First Season: The Finale
What They Say:
“Above and Below”
With the Jaegerists now in charge, Zeke’s master plan is revealed. But before it is put in motion, Eren recruits help to flush out any invaders in their midst.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Coming into this season finale knowing that we’re in the middle of an arc which will likely continue for most of the 13-14 episodes we were equally sure to get as a second half to this “final season,” there wasn’t much reason to expect anything resembling a typical season finale. Although the third season followed a similar broadcast format, its material happened to cover two arcs that were able to be neatly split between its halves, so even that first half did feel like a conclusion to one story before moving to the next one. Going into this episode, there was no chance of anything conclusive happening.
Despite this, cinematic quality of this episode’s direction is immediately apparent from its opening scene. Although it’s only a relatively arbitrary stopping point before the concluding chunk of the series arrives, the staff clearly went above and beyond for “Above and Below” (forgive me), beating the episode director count record the series had held since its first season finale by giving five directors the opportunity to put their all into making sure the season goes out with a bang before its final break. The lineup includes the season’s director Hayashi and chief director Shishido, the latter of whom previously helmed the season’s crown jewel, “Assault.” Now that we have some time to reflect back on this new team’s work on Attack on Titan, it’s easy to see that these creative flourishes are not rarities but the status quo of a crew that has more than proven itself worthy to inherit the impossibly high standards of the series. The love and care we see in this episode have been constants throughout this entire season, so feeling it so effectively before the series take some time off is the perfect way to spend that wait appreciating the work that’s been done and looking forward to a final stretch with no worries whatsoever.
Although I’m being conscious to recognize the fortune of being able to look forward to more Attack on Titan, something that won’t be a reality for much longer, it’s sure to be an excruciating wait, not only because of what happens in this episode but also because of what doesn’t happen. Zeke’s silent rumination is beautifully executed and the resolution of that scene creates a striking juxtaposition with its horrific imagery, but the biggest question from the previous episode’s cliffhanger is left unaddressed. That would’ve been a powerful season finale cliffhanger itself, but the ambiguity of the situation isn’t even acknowledged here, and that absence feels all the crueler.
Attack on Titan has long explored nuance in morality, but this season has taken those concepts to their most uncomfortable extremes, as is appropriate given its subject matter deriving from the historical wars humanity has embroiled itself in for millennia. Very few characters can still be classified as good or evil, and even fewer as heroes or villains. This is war, a game of mutual murder that warps the minds of each generation more than the last for as long as it defines their reality and demands that they find new ways of rationalizing their actions, to others but most of all to themselves. Every character is involved in – or at least affected by – this war in some way now, and most of the ones we’ve spent any time with have been explored as deeply sympathetic humans caught up in situations that force them to do unimaginably inhumane things for reasons that aren’t excusable but are utterly understandable.
If there are any main characters that still evoke the image of good guys, it’s the five spending this episode sitting helplessly behind bars while those with the least justifiable plans lord over them with newly grasped power that threatens to make their ideals possible. They don’t care to hide these heinous machinations from our core group of Scouts, either. Attack on Titan eschews most expected tropes altogether and subverts the rest, but this exchange could be interpreted as an example of the villains telling the heroes their master plans because they’re so sure that the heroes won’t be able to stop them. However, the difference here is that Yelena not only doesn’t see herself as the villain but also genuinely believes that her captives will be swayed by such a magnificent plan. She idolizes Zeke so zealously that she views his every thought as gospel no matter how she contradicts herself within a single speech.
Now that Armin has grown, acquired Bertholdt’s memories and perhaps some of this personality, uses the power of the Colossal Titan, and takes impassioned swings at Eren, it’s a good time for a reminder of how quick of a thinker he is, and how he can use that sharp wit rather craftily to outmaneuver an opponent. Everyone else is stunned by Yelena’s revelations, but Armin doesn’t miss a beat, playing on her self-delusion by feeding her desire for others to recognize Zeke’s ideals as divine salvation. Eren breaking Mikasa’s heart is the one thing to make Armin lose his cool, but in any other scenario he’s still the Armin we’ve come to expect to find the cleverest solution to problems that can’t be solved by brute force.
Speaking of Eren, this little finale gives him a chance to feel like the protagonist for a change, albeit one still shrouded in so much mystery and darkness that it’s still impossible to see him as a hero, an empathetic character, or anything close to the Eren we followed in the previous seasons. Whatever Eren’s deal really is, we’ll have to wait until the real final season to get any inkling. For now, he’s the leader of a group whose cause he almost certainly doesn’t support, ostensibly a sympathizer to Zeke’s plan, and at the very least the guy who Marley wants dead more than any other.
This ambiguous allegiance makes his encounter with Gabi and eventually the outsider whose presence was teased several episodes ago all the more fascinating. That same complexity that has resulted in almost every character struggling with some sort of internal crisis allows every character to just as believably shift their unique configuration of allegiances at any moment. Eren’s relationship with the Jaegerists, with Zeke, and with the Scouts are all uncertain, but his ideologies are highly unlikely to be the same as a single other character’s. Gabi thought she had the world figured out, but recent events have finally forced her to accept that there may be more to the Paradis Eldians than the propaganda that had been drilled into her throughout her short life so far. Pieck’s position, then, could just as easily inspire her to side with any fellow Eldians as with her Marleyan oppressors.
Pieck has probably been the least explored Warrior so far, so this time focused so strongly on her without any of her colleagues around is a good opportunity to flesh her out, even if her claims aren’t entirely sincere. As the Cart Titan in the latest battle of Shiganshina, she was presented as the least human and least likable intelligent Titan, but in this season, we’ve seen her as a lovable eccentric with a much sunnier disposition than the other Warriors, even though spending so much time as a Titan seems like it would cause someone to lose their mind pretty quickly. Now we see some layers to her character, and we become invested in her stake in the battles to come, as well as her interactions with Eren and Gabi.
Rather than save everything for one big reveal at the end, the episode gradually and subtly clues the audience in on Pieck’s true plans, which actually makes the suspense tenser. Whatever Eren has planned, he’d be hard-pressed to make a case for himself as anything but an enemy to the Warriors at this point, and he doesn’t seem the least bit interested in such an exercise. He denied Reiner the death he yearned for, he told him they were the same, and he held his hand to lift him up. These two surely could’ve become allies for any number of reasons, but circumstances have always forced them to stand on opposite sides as eternal archenemies. What will finally become of this paradigm is as uncertain as any of what’s to come in the rest of this story for those following the anime first.
As I’ve alluded to several times, this finale did come with the announcement of its continuation’s airing time, as I had hoped it would. We’ll be waiting until next winter, longer than I wanted, but at least we’re not just left wondering. The rest of the content should take about 13 or 14 episodes to cover at the current rate of adaptation, so I could see a few episodes airing before the end of the year, just like what happened with this season. As I also mentioned before, having to wait the rest of the year will give us time to appreciate looking forward to new Attack on Titan anime for one last period. With each season, the series reaffirms how lucky we are to be experiencing it in real time these years, and there’s no telling the next time we’ll have another anime series of its caliber. Few series in general can match some of these monumental episodes or the consistency with which this series delivers them. In many ways, there’s truly nothing quite like Attack on Titan, and empty attempts to recapture its spark like Kabaneri only serve to highlight what makes it so singularly special. So yes, it will be painful to wait ~9 months to see the rest of this season, but not nearly as painful as it’ll be to know that there will never be more. And yet that sense of finality is essential to secure the legacy of any masterpiece.
In Summary:
The Final Season has ended… except of course it hasn’t really. As temporary as this ending is, it’s still an important moment to set up a climactic conflict that could change everything and for us all to take stock of what an incredible journey we’ve been on before diving into its true final season. This episode is a microcosm of the entire season and, to that end, even the series: a passionately directed, brilliantly written, and powerfully affecting piece of art that weaves together universal themes of humanity’s folly, the rich motifs in which they manifest within the story, and complex plot threads that are maintained with enough consistency to convey a well-realized world.
I entered this season with trepidation over its less promising main staff following a season of such high quality that I was sure it couldn’t be matched. The season is certainly different in a number of ways, and the changes to the story couldn’t have coincided with the stylistic alterations more serendipitously. But in many ways, this new team has managed to elevate Attack on Titan’s most central themes to new heights while transitioning it to more nuanced, worldly storytelling just as masterfully as the most bombastic of its action spectacles. Episodes like “Assault” join the likes of “Hero” in the ranks of greatest TV episodes of all times, and the two episodes preceding it were nearly as amazing. I never want the grade of an A+ to be taken for granted, but this season has demanded that highest of grades for nearly half of its episodes. This is easily one of the greatest anime of all time, and at this rate, the season to end it all could end up being even better than those that came before.
Grade: A+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Funimation, VRV, Hulu
