Attack on Titan has given Eren Jaeger more power than he could ever dream, with the brother of Zeke and former member of the Scout Regiment convincing Ymir to lend him her power, but Eren had to go through a difficult situation to attain these abilities. Before he was able to make contact with his brother Zeke to access the power of the Founding Titan, Eren literally had his head blown off his shoulders thanks to the young Marleyian Gabi, with the director of the final season detailing the difficulty in animating this scene.
The director of the final season of Attack on Titan, Yuichiro Hayashi, went into detail about the creation of this terrifying scene, stating that it was the scene in which he “invested most of his energy,” as Gabi let loose with a salvo that nearly brought Eren Jaeger’s journey to an end:
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“Actually, that scene is where I invested most of my energy. Eren’s head gets chopped off…the whole sequence is like a series of slow-motion clips. In that scene, there is a moment as if time stops after his head flies off. When I read the manga, I didn’t realize time had stopped. That’s because manga is a single drawing. But even in anime, it’s quite difficult to hold time, and mostly they just hold the frame by separating A cell and B cell. I thought it’s difficult to express it with just a single drawing.”
Hayashi also expanded upon the use of smoke during this pivotal moment from the battlefield which added a much-needed level of contrast:
“Therefore, I decided to express the still moment by using smoke that fills the screen during the battle. The smoke is filling the air, but then when time stops, the cloudy sky becomes totally clear. Like a clear winter air. That’s how I made the contrast…We tried all kinds of stuff in that…Everyone worked very hard and it turned out wonderful.”
If you haven’t watched the full interview that features the director of Season Four alongside CG Producer Yusuke Tannawa, you can watch it below:
What did you think of Eren’s disturbing death scene in the fourth and final season of Attack on Titan? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Titans.
