[FIRST IMPRESSION] Attack on Titan Season 3

Plot:

Recovering from their latest attack, Eren and the others stay in a small hideout in Titan territory. Hanji carries out experiments to discover whether they’d be able to put Armin’s plan into action, using Eren’s hardening ability to seal the hole in Wall Maria and taking back Shiganshina from the Titans. Pastor Nick is found murdered in Trost District, with Hanji suspecting that the Military Police were guilty thanks to signs that Nick’s killers had tortured him before he died. Levi is also suspicious, surmising that people within the government are trying to take down the Survey Corps for fear that they’ll discover Historia’s true identity. Erwin tips off Levi from inside the Interior. He’s been arrested and they’re next. Quickly, everyone evacuates just before the Military Police show up. They head towards Trost, trying to keep Eren and Historia safe, but they both appear to have been abducted… Meanwhile, Levi comes across a figure from his past: the serial killer, Kenny the Ripper.

 

Impression:

What can I say? Attack on Titan just seems to improve with every season. I thought that season 2 was going to be the series’ peak but from the looks of the first episode, season 3 will rival if not surpass its predecessor. The animation quality has stayed consistent and I already commented last year that it had made a big jump from the first season. It’s particularly noticeable in the fight scenes towards the end of the episode and everything just feels so fluid and natural. I think that was definitely needed, especially to show the effective teamwork of the new Squad Levi. Again, the detail in the faces is good and I’m glad they kept that up from last time. I get the impression that instead of having a break between animating each season, it was all done in one chunk because of how alike they are but I could always be wrong. I also like how the story is still neglecting to focus on Eren for any extended period of time, letting characters like Connie, Hanji, and Armin contribute a bit more. Specifically in Armin’s case, it’s great to see him grow from fandom laughing-stock to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Captain Levi and having his opinions heard. He may have just pulled an anime Neville Longbottom.

Even though some things may be the same from season 2, the tone certainly feels different and for me, there’s no real surprise there. As someone who’s quite far ahead in the manga. I’ve already noticed some moments of foreshadowing that anime-only fans could’ve missed and I won’t go into details here for fear of spoilers. All I will say is that things will be different this time, shifting from a dark fantasy show, to a dark tale of political intrigue with some fantastical elements thrown in. I’m looking forward to seeing the more ‘human’ side to this story because even though we’ve seen a lot from the human characters so far, we haven’t seen as much of the world outside the Survey Corps bubble. External politics affect everything, and it’s about time we saw more of its influence.

I didn’t particularly notice anything spectacular about the music yet but it’s still only episode 1 and a lot of the time was spent setting up the rest of the season. Here’s hoping they pull off what they did last year with YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T because that was amazing. I may be slightly uncomfortable with the fact that the opening isn’t a big powerful Linked Horizon song but give it a few weeks and I’ll probably be singing this one too.

 

Similar to:

ACCA 13-ku Kansatsu-ka –  Civil unrest simmers under the surface and the protagonists may end up becoming pawns in the political game.

Tokyo Ghoul: re – Man-eating ‘monsters’ live among humans, some even enlisted to fight against their own kind. The question is: where does humanity end, and where does it begin?

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