It still feels too soon for the final season to be showing on Toonami & from what I can tell by the episode numbering in Japan this far my fears that this season will be rushed seem to be reality. I was hoping we would get the pace of Seasons 1&2 with Volumes 23-26 being given at least 10 full episodes that would have the 1st of 3 intro themes. A few months ago I was under the impression that this series could stretch a lot further, & I'm still wanting this final season to be at least 33 episodes in length. The Rumbling Arc (Volume 31 onward) needs to be at least 13 episodes & I wouldn't be opposed to using filler to extend this season to 36 Episodes. I'm still hoping for this final season to feel like a fully fleshed out epic. I'm going to be disappointed if this ends up only being 27 Total Episodes covering Volumes 23-34. I'm hoping that Chapter 138 won't be the end & that we end up getting a 35th Volume.
I got into this series back in 2014 & I've both read the manga & seen the anime. I remember back when Season 2 referred to Female Titan Arc & Clash of the Titans Arc was a manga exclusive continuation. I will say that Season 3A was really disappointing compared to the manga because of how rushed it was in the anime adaptation & it's a weird feeling to be about to watch The Final Season in English even though the manga is still ongoing. I thought the Pandemic would have delayed the Final Season a lot more than it actually has. I'm going to have to update this blog as the season progresses, although I get the feeling that this may not even finish this year.
Update After watching 3 Episodes: Ok "The Other Side of The Sea" was excellent, flawlessly capturing the epicness of the war Marley was fighting in Volume 23. The 2nd Episode "Midnight Train" rushed things a little bit, although it wasn't that bad & even though Gabi doesn't sound like Pan from Dragonball GT, I still think the voice actress chosen for her is a good fit & the same can be said for the other VAs Funimation chose to cast. Now for the negativity, the 3rd Episode "Door of Hope" was trash compared to the manga chapters in Volumes 23 & 24. 2 full episodes worth of content was squeezed into a single episode needlessly. The entire plan to infiltrate the walls was skipped, even though it was in the manga & several of the scenes that did make it in could have been extended.
We should have gotten to see more of various scenes like Reiner's Cadet Training, & the battle demonstration of Marley's Titans. Reiner's plan to infiltrate the walls of Paradis should have taken nearly 4 minutes to show. Annie had transformed outside the walls during the process & exhausted herself, & the Smiling Titan that Dina Fritz became was clearly noticed by the warriors in the manga, yet not the anime. Annie's searches at night could have been expanded on, with aspects of that from the manga being skipped. We could have seen more of the 5 years they were inside the walls to pad episode length as well. I'm sure I can't be the only guy here who wants this final season to be much longer & stretch things out like Seasons 1&2 did.
Update after watching 12 Episodes of the Season.
The 4th Episode was fine, although felt rushed. The 5th Episode:"Declaration of War" was great. The 6th Episode: "The War Hammer Titan" was excellent although it ended at a weird point & would have been better if it ended with either Galliard trying to eat Eren or Lara Tybur impaling him. The 7th Episode: "Assault" was very close to how I imagined the episode when reading the manga & an excellent episode. The 8th Episode: "Assassin's Bullet" was nearly perfect with the only real flaws being how a few things were animated. The 9th Episode: "Brave Volunteers" should have increased the speed of the Tea Scene & possibly pushed a few things at the end to the next episode to avoid skipping the scene from the manga where the concept of a port is explained.
Episode 11:"Deceiver" was excellent, although it should have shown Flashbacks of Sasha saving Kaya in Season 2 in addition to having Falco explain why he ran away from home with his sister. The 12th Episode:"Guides" shouldn't have skipped the scene of Zeke explaining the reasons for his actions. I admit I wasn't expecting Season 4 Part 1 to be 16 Episodes or for it to stretch until halfway through Volume 29. I'm hoping this means we can expect Season 4 Part 2 to be similar in length. While we have no idea what the final number of chapters will be, the anime resuming in Winter 2022 suggests that the series will likely end with either 36 or 37 Volumes unless it gets delayed.