Attack on Titan: All the Differences in the Anime Finale!

After ten years, Episode 89, titled “THE FINAL CHAPTERS Special 2”, finally premiered, and the anime series has come to its deserved end. Isayama’s story is now over, and while many fans are still collecting their thoughts and impressions, we have decided to talk about the ending of the Attack on Titan anime. The final episode was announced to have some changes when compared to the manga, but what was the extent of these changes? Did the anime end differently, as a lot of fans expected? Keep reading to find out!

All the differences between the anime and manga finale

Now, for those of you who have seen the anime finale and read the manga, this article might be a good reminder; for those who have not read the manga, this article will provide you with an informative insight into what happened in the final episode of the Attack on Titan anime series and how much it altered what happened in the manga. Now, in short, we know that Hajime Isayama confirmed that the anime finale will be changing some details, and in this section, we are going to bring you a list of these changes:

• Armin’s and Eren’s dialogue: One of the more controversial moments in the manga was the final dialogue between Eren and Armin, in which Armin basically said, “Thank you for turning yourself into a mass murderer for our sake.” Now, this dialogue was heavily criticized, and even Isayama himself said that he was not satisfied with it. This is why the dialogue was expanded, and the controversial sentence was removed from the anime and replaced with Armin thanking Eren for showing him the world outside the walls. And overall, it added a bit more substance to the whole conversation and made it significantly better.
• The river of blood: In that same scene, in the manga, Armin – at one moment – punches Eren in the face, and he falls down in the water, and the water disappears, leaving only the footprints left by the Titans. In the anime, a river of blood appears, representing the blood of Eren’s victims and their remains, which adds an extra layer to the horror of his story and the things he did in the series via the Rumbling.
• Futuristic Paradis: As the end credits start rolling, we see a futuristic Paradis that looks like something from a cyberpunk anime. The manga was not specific as to the number of generations that have passed since Eren’s death, but the anime seems to indicate that many generations have passed, although – sadly – despite the technological marvels, the anime did not change Paradis’ fate as the place was completely destroyed even in the anime.
• Character end scenes: Finally, as the series ends, we find out that the main characters have participated in the rebuilding of the town and that they were not just passive observers. We see Gabi and Falco plant a tree, as well as some other characters helping out, which makes the whole experience more wholesome.

With this, we have covered the main differences between the anime and the manga, and we can now proceed to tell you more about the ending of the anime as a standalone unit.

Did the anime end differently than the manga?

So, now that you’ve seen the changes, you can probably determine for yourself that the original manga ending did not alter; we can also confirm that many fans demanded that Isayama compose a new ending for the anime that would replace the manga canon. So, when Isayama stated that the anime would have a different conclusion, many fans were ecstatic because they expected Isayama to rewrite the problematic finale and write a more just ending for everything.

But that did not happen, and we must admit that the alterations were minor, and the original ending was preserved in its entirety. Some scenes were prolonged or even added, some dialogue was changed somewhat, and the overall sense is that some contentious moments from the last battle against Eren were handled better or more easily, but the story did not change.

These additions improved several explanations and allowed for a smoother transition between scenes and talks, but the tale was not altered. The overall ending is the same, and neither Isayama nor MAPPA participated in the plot. So, if you were hoping for a completely different ending, we’re sorry to disappoint you. But, on a lighter note, we do know that Isayama has announced an additional manga chapter that is going to come out next year so that one might provide us with some additional information about the ending and it might clear some things up better.

Be that as it may, this is all we have to say when the differences between the anime and manga finale are concerned. The anime kept the controversial ending; it changed some details and expanded on some of the scenes, giving it all an additional layer, but the original ending was left unchanged, and that is it. The extra chapter might reveal some additional information, but don’t go on hoping for a complete rewrite of the series’ finale.

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