Review: Attack on Titan comes back strong with “Judgment”

Attack on Titan is back for its final episodes, and the premiere serves up both the giant-on-giant battles and the character drama the show is known for.

Here we are at the beginning of the end: “Judgment” is the premiere of the (second half of the) final season of Attack on Titan, the anime where horrifying giants beat the snot out of each when they’re not making slow ponderous speeches about power and politics. The show has been going strong since 2013, and I’ve dipped in and out. I was transfixed by season 1 thanks to its stark depiction of a people hopelessly outmatched by a primal force far beyond their ken; the dead-eyed, bloodthirsty titans showed up in more than a few of my nightmares. I kind of dropped off in season 2 when the show moved away from the existential terror of the titans and dug deeper into its lore, but the third season got me back on board, and the fourth and final has made some very bold moves.

Namely, it’s turning protagonist Eren Jaeger into “the bad guy”; what else do you call someone who closes himself off from his friends and joins forces with extremists to, if you can believe what you hear, help commit a slow genocide against his own people? Of course, Eren’s exact motives are a point of contention, but events have set him against his former comrades in arms, and divided the loyalties of those of us watching at home. It reminds me of how Game of Thrones tried to have Daenerys Targaryen take a “heel turn” in the home stretch of its final season, only Attack on Titan is doing things much more slowly and deliberately.

Attack on Titan is a giants-beat-each-other-up show with a lot on its mind…but it’s still ultimately about giants beating each other up. The newest episode, “Judgment,” services both sides. We open with Eren, now in Titan form, squaring off with the titan shifters from Marley, who are attacking Paradis in coordination with the Marleyan military in an attempt to reclaim the Founding Titan. Pieck, Galliard and Reiner all train their sights on a super-powered Eren, and it’s as spectacular a battle as anything the show has given us. Something about these massive beings screaming bloody murder as they try to punch each other out of existence…it never gets old, and the show knows how to sell it, from the swelling orchestral music to the gruesome visual details (no animators like drawing deformed faces as much as the ones on this show).

The show also loves cliffhangers, so of course we don’t get to see the end of the battle here in the premiere. A confident Eren is backed into a corner by the Marleyan warriors…but I daresay he’ll get out of that. We have a few more catastrophes to run through before we wrap this up.

The rest of the episode is given over, basically, to exposition. Onyankopon, one of the anti-Marleyan volunteers, releases the members of Eren’s old Scout squad — Armin, Mikasa, Conny, etc — from prison, where they’ve been thrown for opposing Eren’s takeover of the government; essentially, they’re enemies of the revolution. Again, I like how the show plays with our sympathies; should they support Eren after what he’s done? And what does he intend to do next? (Although I could do without Mikasa’s genetic destiny quandary; I think having to go up against her childhood friend would be conflict enough.)

So the conflicts are juicy, although I’ve never thought the show was especially good at delivering exposition; it strikes me as odd that everyone slows down to work out the nuances of their feelings while a battle rages outside. Then there’s the arcane nature of the lore itself. It could be the subtitles, but I’ve always had a hard time tracking all the details, e.g. what bloodline needs to combine with what power to create what effect. As long as I have a good enough grasp to get to the next giant throwdown I’ll be fine.

“Judgment” is a strong opening to this final stretch of episodes. Attack on Titan has never lacked for nerve, and I expect the ending to go big.

Episode Grade: B+

Attack on Bullet Points

• The new opening song, which I can only describe as “death metal pop,” is a serious step-down from the last one.
• Levi is left for dead after Zeke’s transformation a couple episodes back, but I think he’ll be okay. Hange dives with him into the river while Zeke’s men are distracted.
• Speaking of Zeke, he had a strange vision of a woman sculpting his body out of soil. I’m sure we’ll get more on that as the season progresses.
• The show has really pulled a coup with Gabi. She openly hates the people of Paradis and killed Sasha, a beloved character. But she had such a warped upbringing and has shown such resourcefulness that I can’t help but root for her. I hope she comes around and expands her horizons a bit.

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