Attack on Titan Director Explains Why Animating Yelena’s Face Scene Was So Important

The director behind Attack on Titan’s fourth and final season opened up about the need to nail Yelena’s standout face in the anime! The final season of the series is quickly approaching its end as each of the episodes have been heating up towards whatever the final endgame for it all turns out to be. The series has been focusing its attention on a small group of unlikely allies as they band together to somehow take on Eren and the Founding Titan’s power, and through all of this and the first half of the season fans have seen a whole new side to everyone.

This was especially true for the mysterious Yelena. While she was introduced late into the series as someone who was working with Marley while actually sneakily working with Zeke, she continues to be one of the most curious additions to the cast as she’ll play a role in the finale. She rarely breaks her poker face, and when she did, it became a huge moment among fans as her face was brought to life in the anime in such an ominous way. As the director behind the series explained, the anime team made sure to knock that out of the park in order to hit that same surrealist comedic peak of the original manga. 

Speaking about the production of Attack on Titan: Final Season Part 2 in a special video for fans, director Yuichiro Hayashi opened up about the work that actually went into animating Yelena’s face for this scene. As it turns out, the director’s prior work on Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler (which has some of the wildest facial animations seen in the anime) really helped to bring this look to life, “Because I have had experiences with works like Kakegurui, I’m pretty good at stuff like that…,” Hayashi began. “When you see that face, you wonder what kind of emotion’s behind it…Also in that desolate scene, there is a moment of comic relief, or rather horror. Having a moment like that is unique to this series. And we want to recreate the manga’s atmosphere to the animation. Like a surreal comedy.”

So while a comedy isn’t the first thing you’d associate with Attack on Titan’s final season, it’s certainly part of the greater DNA in bringing the anime to life overall. But what do you think? What did you think of Yelena’s face in the anime? What are you hoping to see from her in the final episodes? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!