Attack on Titan’s Bryce Papenbrook & Trina Nishimura Talk The Last Attack, Show’s Ending

Attack on Titan voice actors Bryce Papenbrook and Trina Nishimura, who brought to life Eren and Mikasa in the English dub, spoke to ComingSoon about the hit anime series receiving a compilation movie called Attack on Titan: The Last Attack. Featuring a new post-credit scene and allowing fans to see the show’s ending on the big screen, The Last Attack will be in theaters from February 10 to February 13.

“Attack on Titan: The Last Attack brings together the last two episodes of the highly acclaimed anime series in a theatrical experience delivering the epic finale in a colossal-sized omnibus film,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Trina, this is so exciting for fans. These two specials were so emotional at home. I think Attack on Titan: The Last Attack is going to be a healing experience for everybody to kind of cry in the theater together. How special is it that fans kind of get this collective experience? It is just gonna be amazing to see fans watching it together.

Trina Nishimura: Bryce, myself, Mike McFarland, a lot of the cast, we’re all gonna be healing and crying at the same time in the same movie theaters.

We’re super stoked about being able to revisit this story and being able to see it in such an amazing format with the sound and seeing titans titan-sized. And I think it’s going to be really special. And cathartic in a lot of ways.

There is a little bonus situation after credits that we do wanna nod to. Everybody stay till after the credits. But I think it’s gonna be really, really special. I know Bryce has some plans for watching, so I’ll be watching in Texas. Bryce will be watching in California. I plan on watching with a lot of the Texas contingency. But Bryce has some cool plans for his own experience in LA.

Bryce Papenbrook: Yeah. I have two tickets for myself and my wife. My wife has been a fan of the show since the very beginning. She doesn’t typically watch anime but absolutely loves Attack on Titan. We got to those final two pieces of the story, and it was so intense. She’s like, “I’m gonna end it here, I’m done.” And I’m like, “Wait, you, you wanna stop now? Like, this is a decade of work. Don’t you wanna see our performances?” And she’s like, “Nope, that’s it.”

And I’m like, “Well, okay, if it goes to theaters, if it’s on the big screen, will you at least watch it?” Then she’s like, “Okay, fine.” And here we are. She hasn’t been spoiled. We haven’t talked about the ending. I can’t wait to see her reaction.

Bryce, as Trina was saying, there is a really great post-credit scene. How special was it getting to record as Eren again and thankfully under like a less heavy circumstance than this past season’s been?

Papenbrook: Yeah, when I received note that I was going back in to record Attack on Titan after I thought I was completed with the entire franchise, I was just excited. I didn’t know what to expect and it was really great to go back in and live as the character one more time.

Trina, Mikasa has her big goth gear. What was your reaction when you saw this look for her?

Nishimura: Having been an angsty teenage girl once myself it was really cool. I was like, “oh my gosh, that is totally something I would’ve rocked when I was younger.” And it was, it’s a cool look.

When I was young, goth and punk sort of attire and aesthetic wasn’t cool and it was like an alternative sort of style. But now that it’s mainstream, I think it’s really cool. I think it shows a shift in our society that the other can be accepted too, and that there’s room for everybody.

Similarly, when I was younger and even when we started recording Attack on Titan, anime wasn’t as mainstream as it is now. And I think that it’s a really amazing cultural shift that’s influencing, or reflecting that the art is reflecting back into society. That there is room for everybody and inclusion is really important and that you can dress in a way that like other people think is maybe not socially acceptable. But if you wanna rock it, you rock it.

And I think she is rocking that outfit.

Bryce, I wanted to ask you just about the incredible arc Eren had. Because when you start the series, he’s very much the protagonist, and everybody’s rooting for him. Then there’s just such a change throughout the series. There are a lot of episodes in the last season where you’re not even in it, you’re kind of just looming in the background. It gets very intense. How is just that experience of seeing such a shift? I cannot think of any other anime I’ve seen that had such a transformation. So how is experiencing that as an actor?

Papenbrook: Yeah, playing a character that has a 10-year arc that changes that much is incredible. You really don’t get opportunities to do something like that, let alone the beginning of the show. The first three seasons of the show, the level of intensity I was able to bring to the character was kind of unheard of. When Eren bites his hand in season one, I bit my hand so hard. I left bruises.

Eren in season two is more unhinged than ever before, so I unhinged my jaw in the booth ’cause I wanted the pain for Eren to come through. I was so excited because Mike McFarland, the director of our show, wanted a really disgusting, gritty sound. Normally you get in the booth, you rinse your mouth out, so all the nasty clicks and mouth noises aren’t coming through. But we didn’t do that for Attack on Titan.

If it sounded like there was blood in Eren’s mouth, we wanted it to sound like there was blood in my mouth. So I kept it as real as possible. And I describe the way I think about Eren from season one to three as angry. Like there is anger emanating from every fiber of his being and coming through in every single word he says in season four. That anger is still there, but it’s under this icy shell and he is cold, and that makes him terrifying.

So I didn’t play Eren as a bad guy, but he’s seen some things, and he knows some things, and that causes him to make decisions to act the way that he acts. So there’s this icy shell over everything. And to be able to go through that change and play him in four very distinctly different ways, itty bitty Eren, angsty, teenage Eren, much larger Eren, and what we see in season four, Eren it was just an honor to be able to go on that journey and help tell the story.

Trina, I wanted to ask you about Mikasa because there’s stoicism to her throughout a lot of that final season. But conversely, there’s also a very vulnerable side to her that we see, especially in the finale. Those extremes are kind of at odds with each other, but they also really form a real person. So how is putting that together for the last season of the show? Because it really shows in the performance.

Nishimura: Yeah, I think that what’s really one of the many things that is so special about Attack on Titan is Isayama-sensei, the creator of the source material. [He] so masterfully wrote these characters in that they are multifaceted just like a real person is, and that they do change and they do grow, and they do have many, many layers and many levels to themselves and their interactions with others, right? They get to change their mind, and they get to change their feelings, and they get to be real people. It’s really special. […] I think that her stoicism and vulnerability is what a lot of warriors carry with them. They have a job to do, and it’s not ideal, but they’re doing the best that they can to preserve the cause and uphold their mission.

I wanted to get into a bit more spoiler territory and talk about the show’s ending.

Bryce, I wanted to get both of your reactions here, but I figured you could go first. There’s this brilliant moment near the end where Eren gets decapitated, and Mikasa kisses him. Do you find that romantic?

Papenbrook: I don’t know if “romantic” would be the word that I would use. I think, “heartbreaking.” I think it’s heartbreaking because Eren got what he wanted. Eren made those terrible choices to save the people he loved. And I think in that moment, Mikasa understood as well. Maybe actually, she doesn’t fully understand till later, but I think the true feelings start to come out.

You see kind of this cabin scene, this alternate reality, this other timeline of what could have been. And it’s just heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see that that’s what had to happen for Eren to save his friends.

Yeah. It is such striking imagery. Trina, I would love to get your thoughts on that as well. Because it’s almost like a monkey’s paw scenario for the fans. You know, they’re all rooting for a kiss, and then that’s ultimately how it comes.

Nishimura: I think it’s really sad. The whole ending is so heartbreaking in so many different ways, but the intention behind it, right? Like the fact that Mikasa did what she did. It was based in love, like it was based in her love for him. And I don’t think anybody else could have done that.

And I think that it was so masterfully written that as you watch this from the beginning to the end, Mikasa’s dedication to her adoptive family in the first season. [Her dedication] to Eren and Armin was so strong.

Then her feelings changing throughout the series for Eren and evolving and everything like that. And at the end it was just like, I mean, of course everybody wants a happy ending.

Everybody wanted to stay at the cabin. I certainly did. But it was just the only way the show could have ended and continued to do the story justice. So I think do I, you know think that necrophilia is cool? No, no, I don’t, I don’t think that’s cool ever. But you know, it was obviously in that moment there was a lot of emotion and there was a lot going on and a lifetime of lead up to a very tragic ending. But it was just a beautiful ending, sad at the moment.

Bryce, I wanna ask about another conversation scene at the end where Eren’s talking to Armin, and he confesses his feelings about Mikasa. He’s like, “I hope she spends 10 years moping around before she finds another love.” It’s this wonderful scene because it’s just the two of them talking like they haven’t for so many seasons and so many episodes. Just being completely honest. How is it kinda recording that moment and getting back into that head space where it is just two friends talking? Because it feels nostalgic even though it’s a new scene.

Papenbrook: Yeah, it was a very challenging moment. And I think both Trina and I were really lucky in that the Crunchyroll marketing team was there with us in the booth during our final lines and captured some of that experience.

My method, like I said, was to feel what Eren was feeling. So I was absolutely broken. I tried to make all the words as real as I could. And I mean, that’s how Eren felt. He’s a teenager that had to go and make these horrible choices. And he got to kind of explain himself a little bit there at the end, and it just breaks your heart. I thought it was tragic and beautiful masterfully created by Isayama-sensei, almost like he wrote the story backwards, it fit and connected all the pieces so well, for Eren to have that deep down that he’s hiding I thought it was beautiful and horrible at the same time.

If you watch those clips you’ll see how much it affected myself and Trina and Mike McFarland, who had to live that moment with every single person in the cast. So it probably hit him the hardest.

Trina, speaking of the last lines of dialogue, you actually had the last line of dialogue in the series, which was, “Thank you for wrapping that scarf around me, Eren.” How was it doing that final line for you?

Nishimura: So we record the shows by ourselves and each individual actor records alone. And because of timing and a myriad of other issues, I was the final person to record on the series, which was really amazing.

I was really lucky because I got to hear Bryce’s performance and Jessie [James Grelle]’s performance and everyone’s final performances. But that final line was heartbreaking. When you go back and see the actual filming of Bryce’s final lines and my final lines, I’m watching my dear friend Bryce just fall apart and just like melt into a puddle behind the mic. And then hugging Mike McFarland, the director, and saying like, “That was amazing, thank you.”

In my mind, I knew people would see these videos, but I guess I didn’t realize how many people would see the videos. It is a testament to the love and care and time that everyone, the writers, the producers, the directors, the sound engineers, the mixers… it is a testament to all of the people and all of the creatives that were involved in bringing this story to life.

Five little words can break you, you know? While it was me that said those lines, like, it was a decade of work from countless, countless people that made this show possible and made five words mean something to people all around the world. I’m really grateful that I got to be part of that team.

Thanks to Bryce Papenbrook and Trina Nishimura for taking the time to talk about Attack on Titan: The Last Attack. Tickets are now available.