Over this past weekend, the streaming service known as Crunchyroll announced that Attack on Titan will be getting extended for another season, and fans have expressed very mixed emotions. Attack on Titan, a Japanese book series called manga, is set on an island terrorized by giants known as Titans. As the story progresses, the series’ protagonist, Eren Yeager, vows to kill all Titans because a Titan killed his mother and destroyed his town. Yeager later acquires a unique power to control all the Titans in the world, and he then changes his vow from killing all Titans to killing all of humanity to save his home island and protect the few friends and family he has left.
The anime initially came out on April 7, 2013, and fans have been awaiting the finale that aired this past Sunday, April 3, 2022. However, the Instagram account for Crunchyroll announced that the show would be continued into 2023, with fans speculating that it will be aired as early as the beginning of next year. There are several theories as to why the show was extended. Some fans speculate that the animation studio MAPPA booked too many new shows to animate and did not have time to make more episodes, instead opting to continue the Attack on Titan series. Another theory is that the producers had never planned to finish the show in this season and perhaps planned to make a movie with the rest of the material they had. No one expected the announcement made on Sunday that Attack on Titan would be getting extended.
Fans have waited nine years for this ending, and now they have to wait another one. A majority of viewers were displeased by Crunchyroll’s unexpected announcement. Many fans voiced their opinions online, with some people predicting that the show will never end and that the author and animation studio MAPPA are simply trying to get as much money out of the show as possible. Other fans are annoyed that this was supposed to be the show’s final season and feel as though they were lied to. Much of the Attack on Titan fanbase has been making jokes that the upcoming season will not be the final season, but that there will probably be two to three more just to tease the fans. However, some fans agree that although this isn’t an ideal situation and it isn’t what was expected, it would be worse if the show ended poorly or not at all.
Nick Kowalski, a sophomore homeland security student, has watched Attack on Titan since it was first released, has mixed emotions about the situation. “It’s good and evil. I would’ve hated for MAPPA to end the series abruptly and not give it the proper finale it deserves. They respectfully put the show to rest, but I just hate waiting,” said Kowalski.
Kowalski also mentioned that he is happy that there isn’t a movie in the works because that would probably take even longer to come out and would require fans to go see it in a movie theater. Many fans have voiced similar opinions online: while it is unfortunate that the show is taking so long to end, it deserves a proper ending after all this time. All good things take time and require patience. Fans have waited this long for the ending, so why not wait another year.
