I declare in advance that I will look at the production level of each episode of "The Last Season of Giants" from the perspective of the comic party, and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the animation adaptation and production from the perspective of the original comics. At the same time, it involves a lot of spoilers. Articles need to be cautious.
As a fan of the original comics, I have to admit that the production level of the first episode of "The Final Season of Giants" brought by MAPPA really makes me very satisfied. Although there will be a lot of nitpicking passages in my next comment, I must first thank the production staff of MAPPA for their courage and willingness to pick up the hot potato of "Attack on Titan", and at the same time the final animation quality is so dazzling. Really, really thank MAPPA for satisfying this love of our giant fans.
But it doesn't mean that I will "condone" MAPPA's mistakes in the animation adaptation. I will still criticize some of the storyboard performance and direction.
The first ~ third episodes long review: "Giant" final season e01~03 personal impressions
The fourth~sixth episodes long comment: "Giant" final season e04~06 personal impression
The seventh~ninth episodes long comment: "Giant" final season e07~09 personal impression
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Final Season Episode 13 "Children in the Forest"
The first impression of this episode: It is still those old problems, the old problems of MAPPA literary performances....
The thirteenth episode is adapted as follows: the first six pages of chapter 110 of the manga tell the truth about the villagers of Lajago Village turning into giants, the last 30 pages of chapter 111, and the parts from pages 1 to 17 and 33 to 37 of chapter 112. The total is about 1.3 episodes of adaptation.
In the next episode, it is estimated that it will cover the double climax of "soldier cuts the monkey 2.0" and "the main character trio talks" (I don't usually call the monkey cut by Ma Lai "cut the monkey 2.0", because the essence or acting). After the fourteenth episode is over, the final dramatic climax of part 1 of the final season of "Giant" will be over, and the next "Air Raid in Higanshina District" and the final "Di Ming" will have to wait until part 2 to see it. Of course, after going through so much, I don't have any expectations for the animation effect of MAPPA...
So let's talk about the differences between the adaptation of this episode and the original comics.
The first is the difference in the scene of the restaurant. In the original work, the private room and the corridor were separated by two wooden doors, while the animation was changed to a circular arch without any cover. In the comics, Armin's behavioral logic chain "hear the abnormal noise → push the door open → find the abnormality → call other partners" is very complete. In the animation, there is no cover, and any sound can be easily detected. So we can see that the effect of the animation is that Armin stood in the private room very abruptly and called other partners directly. Directly adapting the architectural space structure, and then weakening the character behavior logic formed by this structure, I really can't understand MAPPA's adaptation like this....
Another point is that when Nicolo handed the knife to Sasha's parents, he turned the knife around, keeping the knife's edge pointed at him and handing the handle to someone else. In the animation, this kind of knife-edge change to other people is too insignificant. The animation team may want to emphasize that Nicolo is too emotional here and ignores the details of etiquette, which is reasonable. But in the design of the comics, Nicolo calmed down after seeing Sasha's parents, and handed over the right of revenge to them, and this knife-handing action is the best proof that he maintains his calm and rationality.
Kaya stabbed Jia Bi with a knife. The normal posture of the three was changed to a triangular position by the production team, so the final result was like this, the whole picture was very awkward.
Speaking of facial expression painting, I have to criticize MAPPA again. It's still the same problem: "Isayama Line" is too hard. In many key literary and drama passages, the production team could not completely restore the delicate expressions of the characters in the comics. They could only restore it by frantically superimposing the Isayama lines on the faces of the characters, but this also seemed that the lines of the characters' faces were too messy, causing the audience to feel Watch the play on the way.
By the way, compared to the comics, Flock in this episode has a more "artistic" expression, more contemptuous and presumptuous. Although the effect is really good, it always feels like a deliberate "uglification" of the character of Flock. Does it prove that MAPPA's position is really a Korean school and a Malai school....
Is there a good show design? There are also. In the giant wood forest, the soldier's memory picture was specially placed on several trees in the background, acting as a "screen" effect. This is a very creative performance design, which well achieves the interaction effect between the character's psychology and the environment.
PS: The most beautiful thing in this episode is still Miss Pique....
Personal Rating: 7.0
--split line--
Some memories that did not appear in the feature film:
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The Twelfth Episode of the Final Season "The Guide"
Views of this episode: To be honest, I don't even want to write a long review of this episode, it feels very unnecessary.
The content of the adaptation of the twelfth episode is: pages 7-44 of chapter 110 of the manga, and the first 15 pages of chapter 111, which is almost the amount of adaptation of chapter 1.2.
Compared with the original comics, the sequence of events in the animation has been changed. In the comics, the dialogue between Xiqi and Armin is advanced to the animation op, and then the plots of Irena, Han Ji and the artist are followed in chronological order.
At the same time, MAPPA specially combined the appearance of Pique at the end of episode 110 and the part where Han Ji and others went to the restaurant in episode 111 , so the different forces and characters that have transitioned back to the previous three episodes will finally be brought together, and in the next episode "Forest" In "Children Inside", the audience will see a very intense dramatic conflict, and the historical concept that Isayama wants to express.
Of course, this episode deleted the story of how the villagers in Lajago Village (Kony's hometown) turned into giants in the 110th episode of the comic, but this part should be added to the 13th or 14th episode. Therefore, Koji Seko is very shrewd in the composition of the series. He knows how to divide and classify the non-linear and multi-perspective storylines in the comics, and then sort out the complex storylines and design a dramatic climax that brings together moments. All in all, I am quite satisfied with the results of Koji Seko's adaptation of the play.
As for the remaining four episodes, according to the titles of "Children in the Forest", "Cruelty", "The Only Salvation" and "Heaven and Earth", part 1 of the final season has been determined to stop at Male's surprise attack on Higanshina District, where Reina and Ai The scene of Lun's confrontation is over. From this point of view, the thirteenth episode will be the final climax of part 1, and the fourteenth episode will be the last three-dimensional maneuver scene of part 1. I hope MAPPA can give the audience a last surprise (of course I don't have any expectations. ).....
First, let's talk about the famous scene in this episode. Most of the discussion around the twelfth episode is also about this part of the famous scene.
Does it really suck? Not really, but if you look closely, you can still see some ideas in the performance: the exquisite sunrise background, the specially set backlight lens, let the light outline the silhouettes of Allen and Yeager, the overall visual effect is still good ; It also made a parallel edit of Mikasa Armin's dialogue on the carriage and this scene, and with the variation of the soundtrack of the eighth episode, the atmosphere was also rendered quite well.
What's more, after going through the basement in episode 5, the 3D attack giant in episode 7, and the mirror image of Alan in episode 9, I basically don't have any expectations for the famous scene of Alan's half-naked clothes in this episode. . So the actual viewing experience is not bad. The first reaction is "the famous scene of MAPPA didn't collapse, it's OK" (the lower the expectation, the better the actual viewing experience, to put it bluntly, it is already numb).
But looking back and watching it carefully and repeatedly, alas, it is still the problem that my previous long comments were rotten: the production team's understanding of the role of Alan was deviated. Take a look at how MAPPA designed the details of Alan's dressing movements: he hunched his back as exaggeratedly as possible, raised his hands as high as Dapeng's wings, and his facial expressions condensed into a royal air, as if he wanted to take the entire Eldia into his pocket. . How to put it, "excessive force" is not enough to describe it, it is as outrageous as the core and extremely romantic idealistic character of the late "Giant" into a warlord with a high desire for power. How outrageous the dressing action looks now, exaggerated and superficial, also makes me more convinced that MAPPA deliberately shaped Allen to the liking of some audiences, and then lost more depth of this character in the process. the essence of it.
Perhaps it is because the connection between the picture and the lines will be stiffer if the original work is split, so I chose this medium shot + close-up slow-motion lens design to make the lines smoothly connect to the picture.
Another problem is that in the scene where Alan and Irena secretly meet in this episode, Alan turns out to be a ball head. In the comics, Ellen's image is in the same distribution state as 18. Between the various complex and entangled story lines in "Panda Island", and the narrative technique of obtaining the full picture of the incident through the replay of the memory interlude, Isayama also specially designed different hairstyles for Allen to help readers feel better. Good differentiated timeline.
As for the change of this hairstyle in the animation, I think it is the pot of the production team. Don't say anything about the view that "Isayama Chuang had instructed MAPPA to change his hairstyle", but I am very curious about why a professional animation production team made such a mistake in this kind of plot and character understanding, it's really weird (the last look How to draw BD, whether it is Isayama's inspiration or a complete drawing bug will be known soon).
Another point, I saw that the twelfth episode was finally determined, and the "Isayama line" drawn by MAPPA for the characters was too much. I don't know why, but in terms of visual effects, the Isayama line of the final season animation is very rigid, like a mechanical arrangement. Similar to the "Araki Line" in the JOJO animation of the David Club next door, the painting effect of this facial line is deliberately exaggerated, resulting in a very abrupt overall look and feel.
Another small regret is that the hints in the eyes of the great artists in the comics were not made in the animation.
Was that episode really that bad? Not necessarily, at least Xiqi looks a lot better than the comics.
Irena and Pique are as good-looking as ever.
In the scene of the artist's death, Tomoji Sakai contributed a rare high-level painting in recent episodes of "Giant".
At present, there are the last four episodes left in part 1 of the final season, and the most shocking part of the work of "Giant" can't be seen until part 2. Anyway, after these three months of intense follow-up and writing a long review, my mentality has basically been flat, and I don't have any expectations for the next few episodes of animation.
But in any case, the animation in the final season has really helped the comics sell a lot, and for this, it is worth thanking MAPPA. So as an audience, if you really want to deeply understand the character's state of mind and what the author wants to express, go to the comics, and that is the complete "Giant".
Of course, there is no need to worry about how bad MAPPA is doing. After all, it is already great that the final season can be born in this world.
Personal Rating: 6.8
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The tenth episode of the final season, "Righteousness" and the eleventh episode, "The Hypocrite"
First of all, I would like to express my apologies to all the viewers of the final season of "Giant". Due to the Spring Festival holiday last week, I had to prepare for the exam of subject 4, so I didn't have time to write the review of the tenth episode. In addition, the tenth episode itself is relatively bland, so I plan to write a long review together with the eleventh episode this week.
In terms of content, these two episodes are still transitional episodes dominated by literary dramas, emphasizing the rhythm and foreshadowing of literary dramas, and completing the relationships and behavioral motives between the characters through recollection and interlude, and always affect the next story trend.
Of course, limited by the 24-minute volume of an animation episode, some scenes and lines had to be cut. So it depends on whether Koji Seko can preserve the essence of the text in terms of content selection, and from the experience of these two episodes, it is quite satisfactory.
Let’s talk about the main adaptation content of the tenth episode: the first to the 29th and last pages of the 107th chapter of the comic, and the 1st to 32nd pages of the 108th chapter, which is probably the amount of adaptation for one episode of 1.4 chapters. However, it can still be seen that the plot has been cut, and the rhythm and lines of some clips are also slightly rushed, resulting in the general look and feel of this episode.
Of course, what is more unexpected is that the tenth episode will choose this storyboard as the ending shot. It feels that the production team may be deliberately making up for the "missing" relationship shots of Allen and Gek in the previous episodes.
In the adaptation of the eleventh episode, the opening part of the pre-op is based on pages 39~43 of chapter 107 of the comic, and the whole chapter of comic 109 is used as the main story of this episode, and then it focuses on pages 33~38 of chapter 108 Jia Bi and Fa Erko's scene, and chose the last six pages as the easter egg after ed. Therefore, it is still roughly the amount of adaptation of 1.4 episodes. But thanks to the exquisite plot arrangement and high-quality performances, the eleventh episode is better than the tenth episode in terms of narrative rhythm and viewing experience.
In the last long review, based on the title released by MAPPA, I predicted that the next 11th and 12th episodes of the animation will first broadcast the political struggle within the island of Pa, and then focus on the story line of Jiabi and Falco. But I didn't expect that the title of the eleventh episode was "Hypocritical People", but it was adapted from the cartoon content of "Guide". According to the preview of the next episode, the title is "Guide", but the corresponding comic is "Hypocritical Person".
This operation of changing the title is actually quite interesting to think about: maybe the production team is also deliberately strengthening this textual direction by reversing the title of the single episode. In the comics, "hypocrites" refer to various characters who conceal their true goals in military and political struggles, while "leaders" refer to the ironic relationship between "Sasha-Kaya-Jabi" of guidance and redemption. of. After changing the title of the animation, can it be seen that the "leader" refers to Ellen, and the "hypocritical person" directly points the finger at Jia Bi and the militaristic education behind her? This textual contrast is also worth reconsidering.
By the way, let's predict what kind of adaptation plan MAPPA will give in the remaining episodes. As far as the titles of the eleventh and twelfth episodes "Hypocritical People" and "Guide" are currently given, the next few episodes will also adopt the adaptation volume of 1~1.5 words per episode, and the twelfth episode can be up to 12 episodes. Do the paragraph of the restaurant meeting. At the same time, considering that the "Pa Island Arc" before episode 112 was dominated by literary dramas, it is estimated that a large number of cuts in the plot lines are inevitable. At present, it is revealed that part 1 of the final season of Giants has only 16 episodes. According to the current speed of progress of the plot, it is estimated that it will be very difficult to achieve the big scene of Marais surprise attack at the end of chapter 116 of the comic, and the famous scene of chapter 119 is even more unlikely. . If MAPPA and the production committee behind it are really determined to advance the plot to episode 119 or even episode 122 in the remaining episodes, it means that there must be a lot of wonderful literary and drama deletions and rhythm. Experience a huge discount.
Hanging very, very hanging. Now it seems that part 1 may be the safest choice to stop at the scene where Allen confronts Reiner. As for the ending of part2 "Ground Sounds", we may have to wait for a long time to see it (after all, under the constraints of the construction period, MAPPA has done his best to finish the existing 16 episodes)...
Then, let's discuss a more noteworthy issue in the tenth episode: the difference between the image of Alan created by MAPPA in the animation and the comic. Let's take a look at the image of Alan written by Isayama. From the moment he walked into the basement, from the moment he kissed the back of the queen's hand, from the moment he looked at the sea, Alan was rarely as obvious as in the past. emotions exploded. To be more direct, Allen in the later period is basically Sima's face, and it is difficult to find a large emotional fluctuation from his expression (so the bitter smile in episode 8 and the episode of expressing his heart in the sunset in this episode are so critical. , which is an important window for the reader/viewer to understand the mood of Allen in the later period). On the other hand, this kind of portrayal of deliberately masking emotions may to some extent make the reader's understanding of the character of Allen further, and there will be an "illusion" that he is really mature (although it is true, And this "illusion" is obtained by comparing it with the animated image of Allen in the first season). So under 19 Lun's grim exterior, those emotional moments (wry smiles and blushes) are all the more precious. The more precious it is, the more it will cause the reader/viewer to think about the meaning behind it.
For example, in the opening scene of Allen being annoyed by Han Ji, we can clearly see the difference in attitude between animation and comics.
The difference between the middle and the Toyokoku meeting is even more obvious: I did not expect that Kaji Yuki would still have a strong aggressiveness when matching this part, which was quite different from what I expected (especially when referring to the manga After Allen's facial expression). He has clearly seen the future since he was 16 years old, and his emotions have gradually become introverted. He will no longer explain all his sorrows and joys like in the past (like Alan, who was only roaring in the impression of many people in the first season). So for me, it's still against the harmony, of course, it's just a personal opinion, maybe Isayama thinks it's not a big problem when he listens to the voice actors' dubbing. It depends on how the audience perceives it.
The same is true for the image of the soldier in this episode: the expression of the soldier in the comics is obviously more helpless, and there is not much emotional fluctuation on the surface; and the animation specially adds a gesture of crossed hands to the soldier, as well as contemptuous eyes and unhappy expressions. tone. How should I put it, the comics deal with self-deprecating jokes, while the animation is a bit nasty, like a grumpy woman.
Then when the protagonist team discussed countermeasures, compared with the comics, the animation specially softened Kony's extremely oppressive expression and strengthened Mikasa's tone at the same time, which was equivalent to switching the expressions between the two characters. Of course, if the production team had It is to make the actual effect more in line with the characters of Kony and Mikasa, which makes sense.
As for the scene of the train conversation under the sunset, I was satisfied as a whole, and the atmosphere and mood were in place. The only regret is that MAPPA still doesn't have enough ability to translate the emotion carried by the comic Alan's expression into animation, which really, really makes me tangled.
The thorns are almost finished, so let's talk about the characteristics of the various performance clips in these two episodes.
The first is the chasing battle of Armin to prevent Sasha from drinking all the water under the hot sun. The drawing is very cute (it is my favorite part in the tenth episode).
At the meeting, Ms. Kiyomi's drooling gesture in the manga was changed to licking her lips.
In this episode, the production team also specially emphasized the element of "red wine" in the picture many times, and added several close-up shots, laying an important foreshadowing for the outbreak of the next two episodes.
In the eleventh episode, Jia Bi attacked the guard. The number of paintings is very high, and the movements are very smooth. You can clearly feel the intention of the production team for this character (mistake).
In the clip of Reiner waking up later, the production team deleted a very interesting action...
However, the metaphor of this line and the storyboard in the Marais military meeting after ed has reservations.
Regarding the memory picture of Mikasa's childhood being rescued by Allen, MAPPA specially redrawn it, and the overall atmosphere is even more weird and horrifying. And the line of "It's all right, don't worry" was changed to "It's all right, Mikasa". This kind of change in details is very noteworthy. Is it because the production team deliberately hinted that Mikasa's memory is deviated, or is it a detailed change that Isayama Chuang specifically explained to the production team, laying a foreshadowing for the end of the comic? But one thing is for sure: the memories here will largely determine the direction of the dialogue between the protagonists and the trio.
PS: I have to praise KAJI's dubbing, the same sentence can match two different feelings, it's too strong
Jiabi in the stable is particularly interesting, and it satisfies the audience's substantive demands for the character. Huajiang Xiashu's three tones of "Jia Bi" here are very funny, especially the third one, the sense of helplessness is too good.
The highlight of this episode naturally focuses on Jia Bi and Falco, and the conflict of ideas between Jia Bi and Kaya is the core focus of this episode. So in the face painting, MAPPA put a lot of thought into it.
You don't need to guess to know that someone is going to say something like "the right-wing anti-war defeat", let's first think carefully about the difference between some Japanese netizens who deny history and direct victims like Kaya, and then repeatedly compare Marais with The sinful guidance of the "fifty steps to laugh a hundred steps" of the Pao Royal Family, and whether the use of the Eldians in the war is really voluntary, and who controls the spinal fluid that they transformed into giants. After thinking about it clearly, continue to read, the part where Isayama Sou really expresses his view of history is in the back.
The next important dramatic climax will revolve around Jia Bi and the Sasha family, and it will be a controversial point in the plot that will make the audience very noisy. At the same time, there are many opinions comparing Jia Bi and Allen, here I want to say that this point of view is actually quite outrageous. The role that should really be compared with Jia Bi is Reiner. You can compare the mental journeys of these two people on the island and on the island, and they are surprisingly consistent.
Also, don't put it aside to worry about whether Jia Bi has a tendency to "whitewash". To tell the truth, the characters in "Giant" in the later period, whether it is Pa Dao Fang or Malai Fang, have long since said no "innocence", they are all very complicated people who bear countless blood debts and sins. It is also under this premise that the process of the fragmentation and reorganization of the world outlook of a single character and the values of life and life can be so interesting.
Oh, and by the way, a lot of the backgrounds in these two episodes are especially beautifully drawn:
Episode 10 Personal Rating: 7.3
Episode 11 Personal Rating: 8.3
--split line--
Finally, add some content that was deleted in the animation:
The dialogue in which Gek states to Ms. Kiyomi that he is an "Aldia Restorationist" (may also be completed in later episodes).
Part of the dialogue between the top military and political leaders in Koh Phangan.
More deep-rooted reasons why Armin decided to talk to Allen.
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