The release date of Attack On Titan Episode 88 has been confirmed as 2023.
Instead of an Attack On Titan: The Rumbling movie wrapping up the storyline as some had predicted, the finale of AoT Season 4 Part 2 revealed the Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 3 anime TV series.
The announcement was made after Attack On Titan Episode 87 was released on April 3, 2022.
The number of episodes for Attack On Titan: The Final Season Part 3 was not initially announced, but it was said to be a short track.
What is a ‘cour’, you may ask? For those unfamiliar with the lingo, a “cour” is a quarterly block of TV broadcasts based on the physical seasons usually consisting of 10 to 13 episodes.
Part 1 consisted of 16 episodes while part 2 had only 12 episodes. Since Episode 87 adapted the previously skipped Chapter 123: Island Devils and Chapter 130, there are 9 more manga chapters to adapt. That’s enough content for the anime to run for at least two to three hours, meaning part 3 could have about 9 episodes in total.
The ending of the movie Attack On Titan has been rumored for over a year based on the violent closing act
The announcement of Shingeki no Kyojin Season 4 Part 3 was not such a big surprise. Attack On Titan Episode 87: The Dawn of Humanity is named after manga Chapter 130, the final chapter in Volume 32.
The problem is that the end of the manga was in chapter 139. In addition, the anime adaptation has rearranged the presentation of events and skipped the flashback arc of Chapter 123: Island Devils.
With 10 chapters left to adapt, there were only two options for closing with a TV show: making hungry anime fans wait for Attack On Titan: The Final Season Part 3 or “pull a World Trigger anime”. The latter option would have meant the announcement of a surprise Part 2 extension in the spring of 2022, similar to how World Trigger Season 3 was originally announced as 12 episodes, but was unexpectedly extended through 2022 with two additional episodes.
But even way back in 2020, many anime news outlets felt that an Attack On Titan movie ending was needed instead. For example, Alter DAC correctly leaked the episode count for part 1 (while still wrong about the stop point) and then directly claimed that an Attack On Titan movie ending the series is necessary.
“The public broadcasters have strict rules in Japan. And considering how explicitly violent the final arc is, it’s not very likely that the anime sequel will be in TV format,” he tweeted.
Does this mean Attack On Titan Episode 88 and beyond will censor the ending? Please note that certain scenes of extreme violence may be censored for the Japanese TV broadcast and then shown in the final Blu-Ray release. Streaming platforms like Crunchyroll also don’t have to censor, although they often do for certain series like Redo or Healer.
Why Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 3 Episode 1 Release Date Is In 2023
Studio MAPPA has been given a seat on the anime production committee for the final season of Attack On Titan. A committee is a group of companies that have invested in an anime project that shares both the risk and the rewards.
As such, MAPPA has every interest in making the Attack On Titan finish as successfully as possible. They should also have more control over how the story ends.
Whether the last nine chapters were adapted by an Attack On Titan: The Rumbling movie or a Shingeki no Kyojin Season 4 Part 3, the real problem has always been the availability of Studio MAPPA. They have grown rapidly over the past few years and in early March 2022 they even announced that they were opening a dedicated sub-studio focused on providing CGI art for their projects.
Undoubtedly, Studio MAPPA already has enough projects in the pipeline in 2022. There are Chainsaw Man, Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku, Dance Dance Danseur, Kakegurui Twin, Alice and Therese’s Illusion Factory and the movie Yuri on Ice.
Considering that Jujutsu Kaisen 0’s box office in Japan broke the records previously set by Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, it was not surprising that Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 release date was also announced for 2023. There is also the upcoming Zombieland Saga movie about aliens in the works.
Therefore, in order to keep up the animation quality by giving the “final” season a good production schedule, the release date of Attack On Titan Episode 88 will be in 2023.
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