Attack on Titan Season 4's OP is a PERFECT Fit (進撃の巨人 The Final Season OP Analysis)

0:00 this is either gonna go really well or horribly wrong it's no secret that attack on titan's massive success and popularity have made it an easy target for haters and nitpickers within the franchises community especially with the final season having switched from studio wit to mapa those anti-fans are added full force with the harassment and hate messages but the one area i've always been confused in was the comments on the music as someone who pays close attention to music and sound direction as much as i'm able to i've never found anything in attack on titan's overall soundtrack that was offensive or off-putting honestly if i hadn't read any of the critical comments i wouldn't have even noticed where or why people were complaining because the formula has been working well enough

0:45 that even at its worst moments it's still perfectly fine and as it has with every season since the first one the opening seems to be drawing some attention as well though this time it's getting backlash that i can't really comprehend most of the comments are about the visuals which i can understand to a certain extent but god damn you better be ready for a classic bout of fisticuffs if you're telling me the music isn't good so to everyone saying the opening track isn't fitting or hype enough this one goes out to you [Music] literally the very first chords we hear are already more complex than the majority of music you hear in any genre

1:31 the track opens with a piano ostinato consisting of two chords in locrian mode to briefly explain modes everyone is aware of major which makes music sound generally uplifting and happy and minor which has a darker possibly sadder or angrier sound to it in general terms the c sharp minor scale that the song is written in is the relative minor to e major as they both contain all the same notes this means that there are five other scales that exist outside of these some of which you may have heard of if you're familiar with jazz music in simple terms what makes the locrian mode so difficult is the fact that you have to establish the home key on a note that desperately wants to view the notes around it more favorably due to the surrounding note intervals but back to boku no senso

2:17 the relative locrian mode of c-sharp minor is d-sharp locrian aside from the sections where the key changes the piano is always playing a locrian ostinato of c-sharp over d-sharp a half-diminished seventh to b-sharp over e an augmented fifth with a small ornamentation here and there not only are both of these highly dissonant and unusual intervals they match the sense of unease surrounding the premise of the final season it's been four years since reiner and zeke return to marley and tensions are growing as titan warfare is becoming less viable in the current state of the world the aldeans are used and manipulated by the brass and we the audience aren't really sure what's going on with aaron and the others from parody island this interval that constantly plays in the background of the track is like a ticking time bomb

3:03 waiting to explode at any moment only we have no idea how much time is left on the clock it's something lurking beneath the surface that we know is going to happen but when it will and how much damage it will cause is still yet unknown amongst a wash of ghostly vocals and heavy bass drum hits underneath the piano the vocal melody suddenly drops in from the high c sharp tying into the locrian ostinato before the rest of the band setup kicks in for the first musical explosion aside from the piano we're now focused quite heavily on the c-sharp minor scale with the meaningless vocal chanting outlining the c-sharp minor triad and the guitar and bass stepping mostly around c-sharp and g-sharp

3:52 as mentioned by composer noko himself the words during these chanting sections are completely meaningless and something he came up with in about 10 seconds this gives them a sort of primal sound as we're being attacked by an onslaught of unintelligible syllables akin to how primal warfare would have consisted of possibly battling against an enemy communicating in a language you didn't understand as the vocal chants get more and more aggressive a violin solo comes sailing in on the upbeat leading into the next four bars titan warfare is primal consisting of giant naked beasts running in and bashing their enemies

4:37 eating whatever they can get their hands on but the violin signals the start of something more sophisticated the nations at war with marley have begun developing anti-titan weaponry powerful enough to pose an actual threat to the force that took over the world not only that but the people of parity whose current plans and actions are unknown are masters of the omnidirectional mobility gear allowing them to fly quickly and fluidly through cityscapes much like how the violins melody comes in out of nowhere and rapidly flies up and down the tight space of an octave before leading into the first verse attack on titan's openings have all been written by revo the leader of linked horizon aside from red swan season three's first opening and this one by siensei kamatetan and

5:22 even when red swan stole the opening spot from linked horizon for the first time they still made their presence known in the ending so it should come as no surprise that the iconic openings and endings that revo has written are part of what made the franchise what it is today and it also means you can't play bravely default without intermittently wanting to scream so when the first verse comes in there's a nice little nod to the style of music that he had built up around attack on titan's themes that could go unnoticed if you aren't paying attention one of the most classic patterns in revo's writing is utilizing offbeats as much as he possibly can in guren no yumiya's intro you can hear this in the opening pattern as well as a slower more rock opera stylization of the choir chants leading into the first verse the first verse of guren nuyumiya is

6:09 especially important for understanding the homage in boku no senso demonstrating the rhythmic pattern and general melodic shape that we can hear in the newest opening i'm sure i didn't need to play more than three notes of that for you to know how the rhythm goes but now that you've heard it at length let's [Music] it may seem like an obvious similarity hearing them back to back like this but given the distinct change in art and music style for this season's opening

6:54 it's easy to miss simple things like this and even for those who notice that something sounds similar it might not be clear why this pattern consists of a simple descending step around melody starting on a quarter note and quickly offsetting the melody on beat two until the end of the phrase the slight differences in melodic shape can be attributed to the actual nature of their respective seasons season one sounds like a call to arms in a losing situation whereas season fours utilizes the sharp seventh to add a little more tension and spookiness to the track it obviously doesn't sound uplifting but it also doesn't really sound like a losing situation due to the first melodic step moving up instead of immediately descending there's enough melodic movement that the melody could go anywhere as we see in the second phrase and the ominously whispered

7:41 fourth phrase but this pattern's lack of significant change keeps it ominous and uncertain if guren no yumiya was indicative of aaron's training and enlistment into the scout regiment boku no senso follows him yet again except that we don't know where he is or what his plans are this time around following the whispered phrase this is my last war the vocal chants come in again however this time they come descending in a completely new key d minor this can be seen as the explosion we've been waiting for as the piano ceases playing its locrian ostinato for the first time and all the other instruments jump back into it

8:26 in another homage to guden no yumiya acquire takes over the main melody without the lead singer the primal chanting and choir battling it out to be heard is an obvious representation of the imminent battles and war set to take place where the chants are erratic and quick the choir sounds structured and utilizes the syncopated pattern from guren noemia as a basis for the rhythm [Music] now these are all examples of how season one and four's openings are similar but

9:12 we also need to examine the nature of how they contrast each other even for non-manga readers like myself it was clear that by looking at the promotional poster for season four that aaron was going to be taking on a much different role than he had for the past three seasons where reiner's role would be seen from a new perspective as well thus changing the way we see both sides of the story this can be heard in the opening vocals in both guren noyumiya and boku no senso and how they oppose each other similarly to how boku no senso has the two vocal groups battling it out in the chorus where gurindo yumiya opens with the epic choir belting out the iconic chorus of the song acapella boku no senseo's first vocals are the gibberish primal chants backed by the band setup boku no senso also needs a few spooky

9:58 piano bars to set up those chants setting up an atmosphere and crushing it with the chanting while guren no yumiya actually uses the coral vocals to set up the atmosphere for the more intense follow-up [Music] as suddenly as it transitioned in the chorus jumps back into the key of c sharp minor for the outro where the locrian piano notes from before are now playing four times as frequently this gives off an effect like rain conjuring images of miserable trench

10:44 warfare from the first episode of this season or more fittingly a reign of debris from explosions and gunfire descending upon everyone involved in the battle this is accompanied by the singer's distorted voice screaming out my war with the choir accompanying him on the word war after repeating three times the chanting group crescendos in to shout out audastis a few more times before the song cuts off completely ending on the abrupt final syllable [Music] oh and if for some reason you're a bit skeptical of this actually being an homage to and reflection of revo's

11:31 iconic music style listen to this violin line in the chorus got it memorized now listen to this completely unrelated battle track from bravely default noko quite deliberately made these revo references to pay tribute to the man who created most of the iconic themes for the series and honestly i think he balanced the perfect amount of tribute and originality as far as lyrical analysis goes i'm not really one to judge how good or bad

12:18 lyrics are as long as they work with the song personally i can't really understand why people seem to be laughing at what they're considering to be hilarious engrish because as far as i can tell the lyrics seem pretty normal for a song of this nature if nothing else there are far better lyrics than i could write in english let alone in a language that i'm not fluent in so there's really nothing for me to criticize on that front without spoiling anything the banned singer seems to be singing from aaron's perspective mentioning his rebirth and the final declaration of war that will be waged against his enemies [Music] the choirs lines in the chorus are

13:06 actually full of spoilers once you understand what the angels disguised as devils means in relation to certain characters so i'll leave that explanation out of the analysis though if you really must know it's in reference to willie tiber's revelation in episode 5 of season 4. based on what we've gotten from attack on titan so far the final opening of the series is more fitting than anything we could have expected from what's proving to be a very subversive finale from creepy unresolving locrian tones to well-planned references from the earlier seasons boku no senso is probably the most fitting track to capture the essence of what the final season seems to be all about both meeting and subverting our expectations in every way it can this is definitely a song that i'm going to be listening to a lot more of once the full version gets released and i'm

13:52 pretty excited to see what kind of easter eggs and other compositional tricks are waiting to be heard but until then we'll just have to make do with the opening version so if you learned something from this analysis make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to my channel if you enjoyed the video and if you think i missed anything make sure to let me know down in the comments below if you like these kinds of opening and ending analyses then consider supporting me over on patreon and you'll have the chance to vote on what kinds of videos you'll get to see next thanks as always for watching and i'll see you in the next one [Music]

14:41 you