Attack on Titan is easily one of the most controversial animes out there to date. The anime has been running since April of 2013, basically ten years at this point. The story is about a universe that has man-eating giants roaming around humans. To protect themselves, humans found safety behind massive walls that stopped the giants (called Titans) in their tracks. The walls worked so well that for 100 years there were no threats in the walls. But that security blanket was thrown into oblivion when a colossal Titan smashed through the outermost barrier, causing a magnitude of Titans to rush into the society. During this first attack, the main character, Eren Jaeger, watches as one Titan devours his mother. This single act has him vow that he will kill every Titan. On his journey, he makes friends that have survived this brutal world that help him with his vow. The anime follows Eren and his comrades on their journey and the audience watches as humanity’s last hope of survival.
Just writing that summary gave me such chills. It’s not an overreaction when stating that this anime was one of the biggest leaps in bringing anime into Western pop culture. It’s not hyperbole to state that this anime has everything you are looking for in a good show. It’s set in another universe where it resembles a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is trying to do its best under the circumstances. Every season the antagonist changes from Titans to regular people (that’s me trying to explain it without revealing the plot). The plot twists are something that I have never seen before. Also, the fact that Titan doesn’t even need to eat humans for nutrition they just do it because they want to just adds to the insanity of all of it.
I could go on and on about why Attack on Titan is easily one of the top 10 best animes ever (fight me about it, I don’t care if I stand by it) but this article isn’t about that. This article is about why your anime friends are going insane about March 2023. Because in less than a month from this publication, the (hopefully) finale of Attack on Titan will be airing.
Attack on Titan’s scheduling for seasons one through three was pretty standard. They would release their episodes in a weekly manner. Everything was all well. Then season four came out. And the scheduling… let’s just say it was a hot mess. There would be huge gaps in between episodes, which would let new watchers be able to catch up to all of the episodes up to that point I understand. However, for long-time viewers like myself, it had us dying in anticipation. The main reason everyone blames the gaps is the fact that the company that is producing Attack on Titan is now MAPPA and the fact that in Japan it is relatively common to make a season and take a huge gap. The last episode that was aired ended with the biggest cliffhanger. I won’t spoil it (because you need to watch it), but it’s a HUGE cliffhanger that left all of us Attack on Titan fans on the edge of our seats. Fans have essentially been waiting for the true finale for almost a year at this point.
With this in mind, if you have a loved one who you know is a huge Attack on Titan stan, please give them enough space to respectfully freak the f*** out on March 4.