It’s been four years since the Survey Corps retook Wall Maria, and Armin, Eren, and Mikasa saw the ocean. Now, Gabi, Falco, Reiner, and Zeke are fighting in Marley’s war against the Mid-Eastern Allied (and essentially, the whole world) as a result of losing against Paradis Island’s military forces within the Walls.
Missed the emotional climax of the Paradis arc? Revisit the exact moment the scouts finally reached the shore in my full Attack on Titan Season 3 Episode 22 Review: They Journeyed to the Sea.
Howdy, Howdy! I want to welcome all of you reading this to my Attack on Titan the Final Season weekly anime reviews!
So, just as a heads-up before I begin this review, I wanted to let you know that I have already read the manga from where the season 3 adaptation left off. I currently do monthly chapter reviews of the Shingeki no Kyojin manga as well, which you can read to learn my thoughts going into the new season if you are interested.
I do have some character bias based on how the story progresses, but for the most part, I don’t want that to get in the way of these reviews. ☺
Also, a very important point I need to make: I support Eren Yeager 100%.
Again, as the current manga story stands (with SnK Chapter 135), I support Eren Yeager and his cause 100%. I am a Yeagerist; I support the Yeager brother faction. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the season premiere!
Introduction: Crossing the Sea to the Final Season
The wait is finally over, and the paradigm shift we have all been anticipating has arrived as we cross the sea into unfamiliar territory. This premiere marks a massive turning point where the heroes we rooted for become the looming threat across the ocean, completely upending the genre of the series.
The true story of Shingeki no Kyojin begins right here in the trenches of Marley, and everything prior was merely the prologue.
The Glory of Attack on Titan Season 4
Oh. I’ve been sitting here now for about five minutes with a smile on my face. Just basking in the glory that is AoT Season 4. Other manga readers will know that this season will. Change. Everything. Even the show’s genre.
A Beautiful and Foreboding Adaptation by MAPPA
MAPPA steps into the director’s chair with a visual style that perfectly captures the escalating stakes and darker themes of this final arc. The studio utilizes a desaturated, high-contrast color palette that bathes every trench warfare scene in an unyielding sense of foreboding.
Combined with crisp character models and fluid animation, this premiere beautifully breathes life into the heavy text of the manga pages.
Clues Hidden in the Opening and Ending Themes
As I listen to Shock by Yuko Ando, I can’t help but think about how perfect this all is. Yes, I currently do have some gripes about the manga – but man oh man is this adaptation beautiful. I have read manga before and then watched the anime adaptation, but for this series, it’s particularly special.
I love the color scheme, the undertone of foreboding in each scene, and the gorgeous animation and character models.
I love that the OP is filled with nothing but death and destruction, with Eren’s Attack Titan on top. I love that the ED focuses on Falco and the wings of freedom to fly away.
I love the callback to Reiner thinking about how much he hated the walls on Paradis Island before leaping out of the plane and destroying the Middle Eastern Federation’s fortress wall.
What Was Falco Dreaming About?
Falco Grice’s sudden awakening in the middle of a brutal trench war introduces a fascinating mystery right from the premiere’s opening minutes. His vivid description of flying through the air with swords and slashing titans instantly caught the attention of manga readers because this sequence never occurred in the original source material.
This critical anime-only addition opens up major questions about how inherited memories and unseen forces are shaping the path of Marley’s newest Warrior Candidate.
Deciphering the Anime-Only Memory Hallucination
I loved Falco’s little speech about thinking he was actually soaring through the air, duel-wielding swords and slicing titan’s napes. I don’t remember reading that in the manga.
When Colt drags Falco off the battlefield, Falco tells Gabi and friends that he had a dream where he was flying around with a sword and that there were titans everywhere. Falco’s (presumed) hallucination of Ymir’s memories has been confirmed to be a requested insert from Isayama-sensei himself.
Connecting the PATHs: Is Eren the Bird?
Now while this doesn’t make much sense now, there is a theory that Eren Yeager is the bird Falco sees in the sky. Falco reaches out his hand and is ‘transferred’ the memories similar to the “Shock” by Yuko Ando ending theme animations.
Seeing the Past: Freckled Ymir and the Utgard Castle Connection
Many people seem to think that Falco was seeing the future with his dream, when in reality, he was actually seeing the past. Specifically, Falco was seeing the previous Jaw Titan Freckled Ymir’s memories from before the AoT Season 2 Battle at Utgard Castle.
Afterward, Ymir agreed to go with the Warriors to “give back” the jaw titan power she stole from Marcel back to Marley.
Falco may have received Ymir’s memories from AoT Season 1 during the fight to capture the Female Titan Annie Leonhart or even the Stohess District Raid. The battle at Utgard Castle would have been Ymir’s final battle with the scouts, where they were flying around without swords, and there were mindless titans everywhere.
After encountering Eren in bird form, Falco receives memories from the future from Eren using the Founding Titan’s Powers in PATHs after his death in the manga timeline.
Is Falco’s dream the first clue to an Anime Original Ending? If you want to know how future memories, the Founding Titan, and these specific anime-only changes connect to the bigger picture, check out my deep-dive analysis on Eren’s PATHS Vision Fully Explained: Do the Episode 78 Memory Shards Prove an Anime Original Ending (AOE)?
Could Falco’s dream be a little…hint so to speak for events yet to possibly come?
The other additional animated scene, not in the manga of Jean reading the newspaper with his hat down low in Marley, was also a great touch.
The Manga Adaptation is Great So Far!
It’s been nothing but unbridled praise so far in this review – I know.
You don’t understand how long I’ve waited to see all of this animated. To see how the characters were meant to be colored, to hear their voices, to be able to witness life being breathed into the pages I’ve been reading for almost a year now.
The manga readers from the very beginning must have had such a hard time waiting for the anime adaptation.
Marley vs. the Mid-East Allied Forces
Another thing I want to applaud the show for is letting the audience see right off the bat how horrible the Marleyan military is to Eldians and even their Warrior Candidates. This sort of mistreatment does come through on the pages, but added with the music and tension surrounding each scene, it really hits home.
It was especially heart-wrenching when Falco (who is genuinely a good kid) is trying to save an enemy soldier, and Udo translates what he’s muttering.
The Eldian kids look so dejected, while their Marleyan supervisor just laughs. I know the kids are Warrior Candidates, but it’s not their fault they were brought into this war.
In the Attack on Titan Season 4 premiere, Marley is actually fighting a war against the Mid-East Alliance.
The fight introduces two new central protagonists: Warrior Candidates Gabi Braun (cousin to Armored Titan Reiner Braun) and Falco Grice (nephew to an Eldian Restorationist who helped Grisha and was turned into a titan on the wall at the end of Season 3).
Why Is Marley at War with Other Nations?
Due to Zeke, Reiner, and Bertholdt’s failure to recapture the founding titan in Shiganshina on Paradis Island, Marleyan Warriors lost some of the status they had around the world.
Marley is generally disliked by other nations because of their imperialist tactics, and the Mid-East Allied Forces took advantage of the Warrior’s perceived weakness to begin a war with Marley.
The Tragic Reality of Eldian Child Soldiers
The premiere pulls no punches in showcasing the horrific psychological and physical toll inflicted upon Marley’s young Warrior Candidates. Watching children like Gabi and Falco dodge artillery fire and carry explosives across deserts exposes a deeply disturbing system of state-sanctioned indoctrination.
Stripped of a normal childhood, these kids are weaponized by an empire that simultaneously brands them as monsters and demands their absolute loyalty.
Why should a child have to be at war for four years?
Why should a child have to run barefoot across the desert, dragging explosives that could have blown off her foot just to prove herself to an enemy state?
Children shouldn’t have to go to war. To be soldiers. To be so indoctrinated and brainwashed from an early age that they don’t even have the luxury to form a personality. To even be told – rather, reminded– in the heat of the battle that they are monsters and deserve what is coming to them is just cruel.
As most of you will soon learn anyway, Gabi is Reiner’s cousin.
Gabi wants to inherit his Armored Titan.
Gabi’s need to prove herself a ‘Good Eldian’ in the eyes of the world by stopping the ‘Island Devils’ who are giving Eldians everywhere a bad name is a driving factor of her personality. Besides this, she has no other ideals. She has no other thoughts. No other feelings.
She’s a perfect child soldier, unfortunately.
With utter loyalty to her nation.
I believe that the Braun family has a propensity for mental illness, and this all adds to the child soldier, who is Gabi Braun.
I won’t say anything else, but just know that I’m not going to hate on that little girl. She is just a child who never had a chance to know any better. In all future reviews, despite what may happen, I have no interest in trashing that poor child.
The cycle of child soldiers didn’t start with Gabi and Falco. To understand the tragic history behind Zeke’s loyalty to Marley—and the mentor who secretly pulled the strings—read Grooming the Beast: How Tom Ksaver Orchestrated Zeke’s Betrayal of the Yeagers.
Conclusion: The Real Story Begins Now
But, I do have an interest in next week’s episode. I’m thinking maybe 4 – 5 more episodes and then we’ll be back to the Paradis crew?
(Update: just saw on Anichart that it’s only 16 episodes. So maybe 2-3 episodes before the festivities start?)
Either way, Attack on Titan Season Four is really Attack on Titan Season One. All of the events that have happened in the past three seasons have just been a prologue.
The real story begins now.
And like the previous Season One, if you look closely in the coming episodes, you should see hints of what is to come. Just as Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt were shown (as refugees after and) before the attack on Wall Maria in episode one, so were the new infiltrators…because horses can cross the sea.
But, I’ll leave this one here.
What are you most excited to see this season? (let’s keep this spoiler-free, please!)
Which of the new Marleyan Eldian titan shifters do you like the most? Zeke Yeager (the Beast), Reiner Braun (the Plot Armor), Porco Galliard (the Jaw), Pieck Finger (the Cart)…?
We’re in Reiner’s hometown now…Are you digging the new batch of Warrior Candidates? And…can horses cross the sea? (AKA Jean in Marley?)
Jean has come a long way from the boy who just wanted an easy life in the interior. Look back at his early character motivations and why he changed paths in Why Did Jean Kirstein Want to Join the Military Police?
Ready for the next episode? Keep reading as the Marley arc intensifies, and we dive into the dark politics behind the Warrior program in my next breakdown: Midnight Descends on Marley – Attack on Titan S4 Ep 2 Review.
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below, I’d love to hear from you! Also be sure to follow us for more Attack on Titan the Final Season weekly anime reviews.
☆ In Asian Spaces ☆ Ephesians 6:12 ☆
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