Beneath are main spoilers for Assault on Titan’s divisive ending. Beware if you have not completed the anime!
There are anime on the market that really stand the take a look at of time, and a kind of is actually Assault on Titan. The ultimate season was launched between 2020 and 2023, and now, a brand new compilation movie titled Assault on Titan: THE LAST ATTACK, launched for a restricted time in U.S. theaters, compiles the final two epic episodes into one lengthy movie—however for each second that the ending and ultimate season destroyed me, the post-credits scene was an absolute pleasure, and the voice-actors agree.
Bryce Papenbrook and Trina Nishimura are the English dub actors behind Eren and Mikasa. In honor of the compilation movie’s launch, they had been in a position to voice over the characters as soon as extra within the newly added post-credit sequence – which takes place in an alternate actuality with the identical characters, simply in a traditional world. Papenbrook mentioned it was a “delight” as a result of it was a pleasure after all of the feelings he felt voicing the character:
For me, it was a delight as a result of I had gone via this cathartic expertise of laying my coronary heart out on the desk and letting the whole lot form of out…to shut my time with the present. After which to get a name, ‘Hey, you wish to work on Assault on Titan?’ It was, like, the very best factor ever. I am like, ‘Wait, what are we doing?’ So sure, it was an excellent shock, and I wish to remind everybody to all the time keep after the credit on exhibits and flicks like this. That is actually necessary.
The post-credit scene options the core three characters – Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. This time, they don’t seem to be troopers within the Scout regiment or experiencing essentially the most heartbreaking deaths identified to man – they’re merely youngsters going to see a film (Assault on Titan). As somebody whose coronary heart has been cracked over and over because of this present, I discover this pretty.
Trina Nishimura even commented that whereas they’re in the actual world now, there are such a lot of callbacks to the present itself and Assault on Titan’s ending of cyclical violence, in addition to characters that eagle-eyed followers can spot if they appear exhausting sufficient:
There are nods all through that scene that tie again all through the present. Should you’re watching carefully, it is nonetheless repeating the identical theme – that the human nature is cyclical and violence might be cyclical – and because it’s closing out, you see the development of the tree getting bigger and bigger and a metropolis being erected and a metropolis torn down and the tree getting bigger and the tree getting bigger, after which two little youngsters strolling into the tree on the finish. After which this ultimate, ultimate scene, the ultimate factor you see is the tree, and it is larger than the town. And I believe that is actually, actually cool. If in case you have a eager eye, you will additionally see sure characters, not simply, however different characters all through the scene. It is actually cool.
In relation to a number of the greatest anime to begin your journey on, Assault on Titan is a extremely nice choose. Nishimura is completely spot-on that even the post-credit scene remains to be linked to so many wonderful moments and characters all through the present.
There’s loads to like concerning the anime, from the most badass non-Titan characters to the precise Titans themselves to the worldbuilding that we get to expertise. However on the finish of the day, it actually is that this theme – that human nature and violence can simply turn into this countless cycle that’s exhausting to interrupt out of — that stands proud.
It is form of loopy that in some way a easy post-credit scene remains to be in a position to hit that message whereas nonetheless being a breath of contemporary air from the ache and drama we went via throughout this present.
Whereas Assault on Titan has come to a detailed, who is aware of what the longer term will maintain? No anime on the market will beat the AOT story arcs or the themes that this collection delivered. However for now, not less than I can bear in mind my favourite characters as on a regular basis individuals residing their lives as a substitute of dying on the battlefield. Yeah… I believe I am going to go and rewatch that post-credit scene as soon as extra.