Attack on Titan is one of the most popular anime ever made. The manga first came out in 2009 and was a huge success, animated by Wit Studio in 2013. However, the second season took four years to come out because the manga’s author, Isayama, was still writing the story’s early arcs and the studio decided to wait until they had enough source material to adapt.
On IMDB, the series has an overall rating of 9.0, making it one of the best rated TV shows ever on the website. There are also episodes with 9.8 ratings, filling many of the spots in IMDB’s best ranked TV episodes. The story evolves in a brilliant manner and completely changes its tone from the first season to the last as the protagonist becomes the antagonist, really taking the viewer through a journey. And now, it has all come to an end. The final episode came out this past weekend.
When the manga originally ended in 2021, many fans were left disappointed with its conclusion. They felt it did not reflect the brilliance of the plot and was not true to some of the characters. Isayama published a modified version of it when the final paperback volume came out, filling some gaps and making it more open-ended. It left more fans content, but many still thought that Attack on Titan deserved an excellent ending. Many amazing TV shows have bad/mediocre endings (like Game of Thrones), ruining it for loyal fans. People who loved the anime were hoping for it to get a Breaking Bad level final episode. The anticipation of a possibly different conclusion excited many people.
Mappa Studio (in season 4, Mappa replaced Wit) played it safe and the ending was really close to the conclusion in the manga, but with a few changes. The main one was in a scene between Eren and Armin; in the manga it was fast-paced and disliked by fans. In the anime, the scene was slower paced and the dialogue made sense, being crucial to the plot. The other scenes had smaller changes, but this time people did not seem to be nearly as bothered as they were in 2021.
When the last chapter came out, there were many discussions in social media filled with hate from fans. They started small, but grew as more people started to like those posts. However, anime watchers who never read the manga seemed to enjoy the ending. On IMDB, the episode has 42,000 reviews, averaging an 8.4 rating. It is still too early for conclusions, but the positive reception of the anime’s ending shows how much people can be influenced by a few hateful discussions online.
The show’s ending was indeed great. It is definitely not perfect, but it really feels true to the Attack on Titan plot and is a satisfying conclusion overall. Without getting into many details, in the end, Eren calls himself a slave of freedom, which is a very interesting concept. He fought so much for freedom during the whole series that he lost sight of himself and became a slave to the concept he idolized so much. Even more than in the manga, the final episode leaves enough room for fans to make their own interpretation of it.
So in the end, Attack on Titan concluded in a great way and will most likely be talked about for many years to come. Isayama gave us one of the best stories ever made in all media, which is not just about weird looking giants who eat humans and the humans who fight back. It is about the constant fight for freedom and how beautiful and ugly that can be. That is something that feels extremely modern in today’s world. There are always wars going on for different reasons and it always comes back to the very concept of freedom. Attack on Titan makes you think about real conflicts with different eyes. So Eren’s journey is over after 10 years, but it will always stay in its fans’ hearts. As Erwin Smith (and Isayama) wanted, “Dedicate your hearts!” to whatever you find meaning in and remember the true purpose of this story.
