Not long ago MAPPA finally unveiled the trailer and release date forAttack on Titan Final Season Part 3, but it also came with yet another split. The story created by Hajime Isayama has developed a huge and loyal fan base that has helped both the manga and the anime adaptation top every chart over the last decade.Now they are eager to watch the conclusion of the anime, almost two years after the manga ended. Final Season Part 3 Cour 1 premieres on March 3.RELATED:The Best Anime By Studio Mappa
Before MAPPA There Was Wit Studio
With the 4 part split of the Final Season some people might forget that this tendency started with the previous studio in charge of the animation forAttack on Titan, Wit Studio. Founded by George Wada in 2012 they got themselves a massive job right off the backwithAttack on TitanSeason 1in 2013, their first ever television series. The first season went smoothly as they were just getting started and didn’t have a lot of other projects, although they had to considerably expand their roster along the way. Season 2, however, had to wait until 2017 and counted with less than half the episodes in comparison with Season 1.
At that time the reasoning was much more simple. They wanted to give the manga time to continue the story. Enough time so when the next season came out the manga would still be a couple of arcs ahead. Although Isayama had been working closely withWit Studio to bring the best adaption possible, and they were surely aware of what was going to happen later in the story, they wanted to keep it this way. It paid out for Season 3 where Isayama wanted to do some things differently because he wasn’t 100% with how he did it in the manga, that’s why some aspects differ in the anime. This changes though, were one of the many motives behind the beginning of the splitting format.
Wit Studio’s intention for Season 3 was to release the 22 episodes in one run. Just like in Season 1, they hired the extra talent to avoid falling behind, but it still wasn’t enough. They had a lot of ongoing projects at the time,The Ancient Magus' Bride,After the Rain,Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Usand theAttack on TitanSeason 2 recap movie. In addition, after the huge gap between the first a second season no one wanted to wait for long, so they agreed to a 2018 release date. To sum it up, inevitable production problems forced them to an unexpected split of Season 3 into two parts, one in 2018 and the other in 2019. Wit Studio earned themselves fame for complicated productions, delays andlosing series to MAPPA.
The Massive Work-Load
Failing to stablish a proper and realistic schedule was one of the main reasons why Season 3 began the division in parts. Wit Studio contract wasn’t renewed and after all the production problems and the public impact of the show most other studios were hesitant to even consider doing the next season ofAttack on Titan. MAPPA is without any doubt one of the most polemic animation studios for a number of reasons.They are known for taking anything that is thrown at them, overworking their employees and underpaying.Attack on Titan Final Seasonwasn’t an exception.
Despite having twice the number of employees in comparison with Wit Studio, they also have twice, if not more, ongoing projects and a rather dangerous employee turnover due to the lack of pay and the amount of working hours. It wasn’t hard to predict the struggles of the Final Season although this many divisions would have probably been the worst possible outcome, even worse considering the unpredictable element of the pandemic, also an important factor. In the case of the latest split, MAPPA said in an official announcement that the work-load was the main reason for yet another delay.
Attack on Titan has always been a difficult series for the animators. The fight scenes and the combination with 3D animation for the biggest Titans and backgrounds added to the high expectations and demands of the public foran all-time popular show, it’s not every day’s work. And when your work-load also includes other huge hits likeJujutsu Kaisen,Chainsaw Man,Vinland Saga, all of them coming out in a short time span. There is only so much that can be asked from the animators. From the management at MAPPA, that’s a different story.
Branding And Marketing
At the core of the Attack on Titan production problems there is a quite simple issue that could have been easily fixed from the beginning. Season 3 was condemned to be the way it was, because it was planned correctly to be 22 episodes long. The division was the ultimate catastrophe of a long series of events. With the Final Season, it’s not exactly the same.
It’s unclear if the nomenclature for “Final Season” was introduced by Wit Studio plans, or the Production Committee or was the result of a market study. The facts are that with only Parts 1 and 2 the episode count is the largest ofany other season ofAttack on Titan, with two more parts pending. Flashy names create anticipation, hype and gather new fans that were maybe waiting for the show to reach its latest stages to start watching. Keeps it “on the loop”, merchandising sales spike, tons of pieces are written about it. It works, temporarily.
Honesty is appreciated over mere empty promises. Even before the pandemic hit they must have been aware that making the entire Final Season in one run was simply not possible. At least not without creating a new entire division of MAPPA with hundreds of workers exclusively dedicated to work on it every day, which is also not possible given the payment issues within the company and the animation industry in general. It’s easy to wonder how the public reaction would have been if instead of different parts of the Final Season they were just independent seasons with 16 and 12 episodes respectively. Taking into account that Season 2 was also 12 episodes, not that crazy of an idea.
Attack on Titan Part 3 Cour 1is the ultimate example of poor planning. At this point, it might seem to a lot of fans that they are trying to extend the time frame where the show is still relevant, add a few more cliffhangers along the way and increase revenue. In some ways it might be true, but regardless of that it’s important to keep in mind all the mistakes that have been made along the way. From Wit Studio’s production collapse, to MAPPA’s auto-inflicted work-load, to the branding of the never-ending Final Season.
