Warning: The following Review will contain some minor spoilers for Season 1 & Season 2 of the “Attack on Titan” anime.
Following the events at the end of Season 1 of Attack on Titan, Eren and the rest of Humanity’s last stand are about to face their biggest challenge yet.
Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening is the official Season 2 recap movie which condenses the entire story arc from the hit anime series’ second explosive season from just over four hours to a streamlined two hour runtime. It is the first AoT movie to hit UK shores as the previous two (which condensed the events of Part 1 & 2 of Season 1) never made it out over here (which is strange considering how immensely popular the product is with UK audiences).
As a huge fan of the anime, my key questions and concerns heading into this film were:
- How successful would the director (Masashi Koizuka) be in translating an appropriate pace to the story considering that each episode usually ends with a revelation or cliffhanger?
- What would be deemed acceptable to cut out from the anime in order to make a continuous and effortlessly smooth feel to the story?
- Would they add anything in as an exclusive for audiences?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised that one should have not been concerned at all as this was a perfect companion piece to another epic season of Attack on Titan.
First of all, Koizuka managed to seamlessly trim down over four hours of content to a slim two hours whilst still retaining the strong core present day storyline to continue uninterrupted. Many of the backstory episodes (including Sasha’s hometown return and the history of Ymir and Christa’s unbreakable friendship) were completely cut from the film but did not effect the pacing in any way. Instead, this allows audiences who want the core Attack on Titan experience to enjoy the action with the possibility of delving deeper into the history episodes at a later date if they so please.
As the series’ episodes frequently ends on huge revelations or nail biting cliffhangers, how would this transfer to a feature length film? With clever re-positioning of various scenes, Koizuka and his team were able to easily create a flowing narrative that nailed the impactful moments such as the reveal of other members of the cast that possess the ability to also transform into Titans just as Eren can.
As an added bonus for audiences of The Roar of Awakening, we were treated to a post credits scene which is currently unconfirmed if this will appear in the upcoming Season 3 of the Anime but was a welcomed addition to round off a wonderful experience of the hit franchise.
As a whole, Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening was a fantastic sleek version of Season 2 which allows a whole other audience who don’t have a lot of time to invest in the series to experience the core Attack on Titan story at its peak whilst also giving hardcore fans a new vision of the product.
I for one am incredibly excited to see where this story goes next.
