How to watch Attack on Titan in order
This mammoth show has finally ended.
*Warning: Full spoilers ahead for Attack on Titan season 4 part 3 special 2.*
Attack on Titan is finally over.
Fans have been on the edge of their seats for the last three years, after the revelation that the fourth season would be stretched across three years, each instalment becoming smaller as they went on.
It's hard to believe that the boy who watched his own mother get chewed up and swallowed by Titans would turn out to be the ultimate harbinger of destruction, but people tend to surprise in the most unusual ways. Eren soon diverted from his heroic beginnings down a dark path, with his ultimate goal of setting about ringing in the apocalypse, aka The Rumbling, due to a misguided believe that by doing so, Eren would usher in a new era of world peace for all involved. It's no surprise that didn't go quite according to plan judging by that season 4 part 3 ending.
The ending of the anime was something of intense speculation amongst AoT fans - would Hajime Isayama stick with his original conclusion, or would he break from tradition and give the series its own unique ending, giving fans both old and new a sharp jolt of surprise? While the anime's conclusion is now set in stone, Isayama's recent comments suggest that a new ending may be on the way for the manga. If you're feeling blue about your favorite anime being over, don't worry, there's one last celebration you can join in on.
We're here to help break down the best way to watch Attack on Titan's entire franchise in full, from the main series to its OVAs (Original Video Animation), and even its weird spin-off that tries to be cute but ends up being anything but.
Here's the best way to watch the iconic anime in order.
How to watch Attack on Titan in order
Here's our recommended watch order for Attack on Titan:
- Attack on Titan season 1
- Attack on Titan: Ilse’s Notebook (OVA)
- Attack on Titan: The Sudden Visitor - The Torturous Curse of Youth (OVA)
- Attack on Titan: Distress (OVA)
- Attack on Titan season 2
- Attack on Titan: Lost Girls - episodes 1 and 2 (OVA)
- Attack on Titan season 3: episodes 1-12
- Attack on Titan: No Regrets - episodes 1 and 2 (OVA)
- Attack on Titan: Lost Girls - episode 3 (OVA)
- Attack on Titan: Junior High (OVA)
- Attack on Titan season 3 - episodes 13-end
- Attack on Titan season 4 part 1
- Attack on Titan season 4 part 2
- Attack on Titan season 4 part 3
This order happens to line up almost identically with the order everything was released chronologically, too.
While several anime franchises include lots of skippable content (the Naruto filler list includes hundreds of episodes), don't even think about skipping any episodes in the main Attack on Titan run. Every scene and pretty much every moment ends up being pivotal in some way, even if you can't see why until years later.
The OVAs aren't quite as crucial, but they're interesting nonetheless - and always add something new to the overarching narrative. Because of that, we've decided to include them in the order they connect with the main story.
The fourth and final season, set four years after Eren and his friends learn the truth about their world, has been split into three parts so far.
The last chapter, Attack on Titan season 4 part 3, is being released as two specials, with the first released on 3rd March 2023.
If you're a fan of the English dub, the first special's dub has just been released and is available to watch on Crunchyroll, with a new trailer below to announce its premiere:
The final ever part of Attack on Titan arrived on November 4th 2023 at midnight in Japan.
For previous seasons, English releases fell roughly a month after the Japanese debut for each episode, but given the extensive gap between the Japanese original and the English dub, it may be some time before part 2's dub drops, potentially even 2024.
On 9th August 2023, we were given a short but very tantalising glimpse into the final ever episode of Attack on Titan with its mysterious 30-second teaser, available to watch below:
Not happy with that brief peek? Well, there's another trailer for you to watch, which released on 12th September 2023, below.
The ending of these specials should finally bring this decade-long story to a close. But, although we assume that, MAPPA have been saying that Attack on Titan is in its final season for quite some time now - and, so far, every time a season ends, it has revealed that the story will, in fact, be continuing.
The anime proved to be an incredibly faithful adaptation of Isayama’s manga, which is no small feat, so quite frankly they can take all the time they need to get it done right.
Fans wondered if the anime would receive a different ending to the manga - when Isayama ended the manga back on 9th April 2021, it was an incredibly divisive finale, so much so that Isayama even had to put out a public statement in response to the fans' passionate response on his Instagram.
"I am aware that the ending of Attack on Titan was quite controversial. I am open to receiving people's honest opinions. However, I would appreciate it if you'd be kind to me," he wrote.
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Ultimately, Isayama and Studio MAPPA continued as they have done since the show started, following the ending of the manga with some additional anime-specific scenes and improved the dialogue a little to enhance the original ending even further.
It gave Isayama a chance to tweak some of the things he implied he wasn't happy with the first time round, including the omission of Armin labelling Eren as a mass murderer, and giving a lot more emotional depth to their conversation about Mikasa.
Somehow, despite it being the same ending we've had in the manga, it's even more devastating to see the tragic love story of Mikasa and Eren finally come to the conclusion it was always destined - one would end the other, and Mikasa made the impossible choice to kill Eren for the greater good. She also kisses his head after she decapitates him, which equally shows just how deep her love for him is, and is also pretty damn gross.
We've also included Attack on Titan: Junior High here, as this spin-off is pretty well-known, but its jarring parody style wasn't to everyone's taste upon release - so this can easily be skipped.
What we haven't included is the anime movies released between seasons, because they're effectively just a recap of the anime and, honestly, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by missing out on all the vital details contained in each individual episode.
Again, these are a common occurrence in anime, with the Demon Slayer season 3 movie being criticised for recapping too much of season 2.
And then there's Shinji Higuchi's live-action movie, titled Attack on Titan, which took some pretty big diversions from the source material. Upon its release in 2015, Japanese audiences weren't impressed, to say the least.
With a critic score of 47 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and an even lower rating of 34 per cent from audience users, a sequel looks very unlikely, and that's the main reason why we decided to leave it out here in our recommended watch order.
How to watch the English dub of Attack on Titan
Fans of Attack on Titan can find English dub episodes on both Funimation and Crunchyroll.
On Crunchyroll, dubs from season 1 episode 4 onwards are only available on their premium service.
How to watch Attack on Titan in the UK
All episodes of Attack on Titan are available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide or Streaming Guide to find out what else is on.
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