Attack on Titan - Season 3

Okay, so we are halfway through season three, and the rest of the season is supposedly coming out in six months, so why not review this first half of the season now, and then review the second half of season three in the spring... Before I even started watching this third season, I had heard from a few people that the Royal Government 'Uprising' arc was bad. I didn't really get it, because usually a bit of a political power struggle and some internal feuding adds some kind of depth to the narrative, which I think is a good thing as it balances out all the fighting... Yeah, although it is all about the timing! The biggest problem I have with the whole first half of the third season (and this means the Royal Government 'Uprising' arc), is that it is a beautiful example of the meaning of "anticlimactic". What does that mean exactly? Well, here is another of my great “romantic” analogies for the sake of comparison. Imagine that you have a beautiful partner (a lady in my case) who is almost everything you desire and even her personality is attractive, so you decide to “go for it" as they say. So you are fooling around, get down and nasty, let us say “getting to know each other better” if you know what I mean? Everything is going just great, and then as all the foreplay gets you to that place, when you are already as hot as a car roof in the middle of a hot summer day (going for that big "storyline"), out of the blue, your sweetheart starts telling you about the risk of STDs. Sure, it is related to the subject matter, it might be interesting and informative for some (if it is presented well), however, at this point, just when you are expecting something a little different, it kills the mood and dampens all the enthusiasm you had, and so brings you crashing back down to earth (or in the worst case, underground). So what was going on in this part of Attack on Titan instead of actual titans? Well, perhaps some informative scenes regarding the world on the other side of the wall, the introduction of some more interesting characters, or perhaps finally unraveling the mystery around the basement and the key? Well, actually there was a big boring history lesson (regarding the Reiss family)! There was also a pretty boring military coup. Then there was the discovery that the toughest people around do not go by the name Norris (because Chuck), they go by the name Ackerman, and they are just everywhere like they have been breeding like rabbits, in every nook and cranny. There are some action-packed scenes like the Levi bar scene which is easily the best scene from all the first eight episodes. There is also one very strange titan, plus a bunch of lore around it, and it concerns things I had been suspecting for a really long time. I consider it a positive thing that Eren is not as hysterical and a lot more of a thinker now. Armin has finally stopped crying... but what exactly is the point of Armin now, and why was he even there for this part of the season?!? Oh, and Mikasa is just all about "EREN", so not much has changed there, although she was in a scene during the final episode where I thought she was kind of cute for a minute or so (when the guys were fighting). Unfortunately, only the last two episodes reminded me of why I think this anime series is actually very cool, mostly because of these series "Severus Snape" (the elaborate subplot from the penultimate episode...), the happy and emotional party where Sasha was once again very entertaining, and the departure itself, which I found quite emotional, and I did smile contentedly when Erwin raised his one and only hand at the end. I am not going to say it was a let-down, because it was still quite interesting at times. It is just that somehow it has dampened my spirits, and I am starting to get the impression that the cool and five-star story arcs that manga readers have not been sleeping on for a couple of years now are only going to come when, in the Game of Thrones, winter is really coming to Westeros, and frankly speaking, both are dragging on now... The first half of season three - 6.5/10. EDIT 01.07.2019 - THE SECOND HALF OF SEASON THREE. I am very glad that this time the fans were not lying and that, unlike other anime series where I am always hanging on for some great scenes (like with Sword Art Online), there were some moments that were really worth five stars. The entire second half of the third season is action-packed and intensely dramatic, plus it also has some rather poetic and philosophical moments. It provides most of the answers the audience has been waiting for (and some of which they may have already partially guessed). The action-packed scenes are good, it is sometimes a bit too dramatic, but so be it. The poeticism in contrast to all the action and drama is pleasing, and the philosophical element of the show? Some important decisions are bound to inevitably cause rifts, and not only between the characters themselves. Plus, like me, perhaps you are going to disagree with some of the paths the narrative is going to take. However, I guess that is the point: a well-written production is supposed to provoke the audiences to show emotions, encourage thinking and lead to a discussion! So even though I am maintaining my position, and I could go on about how everything is not as I would like it to be, I am going to move on and embrace manga artist Hajime Isayama’s vision. This means that the second half of season three could have been awarded five stars, and so the final rating would end up somewhere around 9/10. However, that would not take into account the fact that there is still that first half of the third season to consider, and that part did not really grab me. So, I am definitely not going to go higher than four-stars as the rating for the whole of the third season, although it is a strong four-stars - 8.3/10. (10/15/2018) (less) (more)