Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2has ended, and with it came another announcement:Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3is coming next year. While arguments could be made that a multi-episode final run would be a fitting way to end the series, theAttack on Titananime and its producers are running a risk withFinal Season Part 3. It could even be a big mistake.
Attack on Titan Final Season Part 2ended on a cliffhanger that effectively covered the events of the manga’s 130th chapter. The thing is, theAttack on Titanmanga only has a total of 139 chapters. This means thatAttack on Titan Final Season Part 3would only be adapting nine chapters, a surprisingly small amount of material compared to previous seasons. It is an amount, perhaps, that is best covered in a feature-length film instead, similar toDemon Slayer’s “Mugen Train Arc.” There are arguments that can be explored in favor of and in opposition toAttack on Titan Final Season Part 3.
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The Pros
It should be noted that whileAttack on Titan Final Season Part 3will only be adapting nine chapters from the manga, the said chapters are extremely plot-heavy. Chapter 139 alone, which features a time skip following the aftermath of the “War of Paradis Arc,” featured several jumps in the plot that it almost felt disjointed. In a way, a lot of the criticisms surroundingAttack on Titan’s ending could be traced back to Chapter 139. This is something that theAttack on Titananime adaptation now has the potential to address fully.
Since the pacing ofAttack on Titan Final Season Part 2effectively slowed down to a point whereevery episode practically adapted one chapter, it seems reasonable to infer thatFinal Season Part 3would follow the same formula. The franchise’s fanbase will likely appreciate some extra episodes to fully explore the events and themes covered in the manga’s 139th chapter.
The anime could even go beyond the events covered in Chapter 139. Interestingly enough, this is actually something that a good number ofAttack on Titanfans seem to prefer. So polarizing wasAttack on Titan’s ending that following the publication of the manga’s final chapter, thousands of fans launched aChange.orgpetition asking author Hajime Isayama for a completely different anime ending. The validity of online petitions aside, the multi-episode format ofFinal Season Part 3should provide theAttack on Titananime and its producers with enough runway to focus on creating the best ending and epilogue possible for the now-iconic series.
The Cons
With only nine chapters to adapt, theAttack on Titananime and its producers are essentially playing with fire. It’s one thing to take time and explorethemes that were covered in specific chapters, but it’s a completely different issue when the pacing of the anime suffers because of it. Being the penultimate season of theAttack on Titananime,Final Season Part 3has big shoes to fill, and mistakes in pacing would likely be criticized heavily by fans and viewers alike. These issues, in a way, could be avoided ifAttack on Titanutilized a feature-length film as itsfinalfinal final ending instead.
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A feature-lengthAttack on Titanfilm that runs for about two hours would be the perfect length to cover the final nine chapters of the manga. TheAttack on Titanfranchise has become as large as its titular giants over the years, so it would be quite fitting to end it with a film that features movie-grade quality and absolutely no compromises. A film would likely be better forAttack on Titanand its producers on a financial level too, considering the massive success enjoyed by films such asDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, which covered about 13 chapters of its source material, proved extremely successful at the box office, earning a worldwide gross of $503 million on a $15.8 million budget. Hailed for its stunning visuals and quality,Mugen Trainalso accomplished the rare feat of making the audience fall in love and mourn a new character in the span of two hours. If any, theDemon Slayermovie all but proved that anime films could be a good way to cover crucial portions of a manga — and if done well, they could be extremely profitable.
Final Thoughts
That being said, producing a movie instead ofAttack on Titan Final Season Part 3could be a double-edged sword. Films typically take time to make, so the wait time for a feature-length film would likely be longer than the wait forFinal Season Part 3. Anime films typically launch in Japan first as well, which could result in fans outside Japan waiting for an extended period of time.Mugen Train, for example,followed a staggered international releasefollowing its launch in Japan in October 2020.
TheAttack on Titananime series has always had quality in spades as well. Since its days with WITStudio all the way to its handover to MAPPA, theAttack on Titananime has constantly featured comparable quality to a feature-length film. And considering the care that MAPPA has been taking withAttack on Titan Final Season Parts 1 and 2, one could infer thatAttack on Titan Final Season Part 3would be just as gorgeous and cinematic as its predecessors. In this sense, perhaps a multi-episodefinalfinal final season does make sense.
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