“Amphibia” Season 3: The Froggy Isekai Adventure Comes To A Bittersweetly Satisfying End [Review]

Amphibia season 3 is the final season of this froggy adventure on Disney+, and boy, does it deliver. It’s easily one of the best conclusions to any isekai stories in existence, with an ending that is a bit on the bittersweet side, but is ultimately very satisfying to watch.

Amphibia Season 3: Details

Amphibia season 3 is the 18-episode (split into 31 segments) long 3rd and final season (you can read reviews for season 1 and season 2 here) of this animated adventure high fantasy comedy series. Matt Braly (Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Big City Greens) returns as the creator, producer, writer, storyboard artist, and even voice actor (he voiced Chuck the “I grow tulips” frog, as well as some other minor characters) for this final season. Tara Badawy also returns as another producer. T.J. Hill (The Owl House) also returns to compose the music for this final season. Doug Petty returns in spirit in the form of the opening theme music. Hill, however, composed “Anne’s Theme Remix” as the ending theme music for season 3, with Brenda Song, Justin Felbinger, Bill Farmer, and Amanda Leighton performing for the vocal portions. Lastly, Disney Television Animation is the production company behind this final season.

Amphibia season 3 features the voices of Brenda Song as Anne Boonchuy, Justin Felbinger as Sprig Plantar, Bill Farmer (the voice of Goofy) as Hopediah “Hop Pop” Plantar, and Amanda Leighton as Polly Plantar. Other notable voice cast includes On Braly (Matt Braly’s mom) as Mrs. Boonchuy, Brian Sounalath as Mr. Boonchuy, Anna Akana as Sasha Waybright, Haley Tju as Marcy Wu (and Darcy), Troy Baker as Captain Grimothy “Grime”, Katie Crown as Ivy Sundew, Michelle Dockery as Lady Olivia, Zehra Fazal as General Yunan, and Keith David as King Andrias Leviathan.

Amphibia season 3 premiered on October 2, 2021 and last aired on May 14, 2022. You can watch it only on Disney+.

Warning: spoilers for Amphibia season 3 below. If you want to watch Anne’s froggy adventures reach its conclusion for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve returned from the world of Amphibia. Possibly for the last time.

Amphibia Season 3: Plot Summary

Amphibia season 3 picks up where we last left off, with Anne and the Plantars now stranded on Earth with no way to get back to Amphibia. Even worse: they’re stuck with the memory of Marcy with a lightsaber impaled through her chest, courtesy of King Andrias, leaving the music box now in his clutches. Fortunately, there’s good news. At least Anne reunites with her family. This also gives the Plantars a place to stay in Los Angeles. Since, you know, it’d be difficult for humanoid frogs to rent a hotel room? Unfortunately, while Anne and the Plantars explore Earth, Andrias has other ideas. He correctly deduces that Anne is the biggest threat to his plans. Thus, he sends a robot assassin to take care of her permanently. The assassin fails, thanks to Anne’s new Super Saiyan mode. However, the attempt shakes everyone up.

Thus, Anne and the Plantars’ new goal is to get back to Amphibia to stop King Andrias. A bunch of (mis)adventures later results in Anne and co. acquiring an interdimensional portal machine. All it took was Anne powering it with her Super Saiyan powers, and now Anne and the Plantars are back in Amphibia. Only, it’s not the Amphibia they remember. Robots and automated factories have overrun this Amphibia, turning it into a toxic wasteland right out of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. All thanks to King Andrias and his cross-dimensional conquest ambitions, of course.

Isengard Reborn?!

Fortunately, there is hope. While Anne and the Plantars were missing, Sasha and Grime had to go into hiding in Wartwood. At first, they just wanted to use the town as a pitstop while they made their way to the toad army remnants. But guilt forced them to defend the town after King Andrias’ frog robots invaded. The townsfolk’s war-like tendencies though result in them destroying the robots. Thus, Sasha and Grime recruit them to be the new resistance. By the time Anne and the Plantars return, Sasha is a combat-hardened general in charge of an experienced Vietcong-style guerilla force.

A force that, with some reinforcements from the toad armies, some fungus frog zombies, Tritonio’s band of thieves, olms, and Domino 2; is big enough to fight King Andrias’ robot army. Meanwhile, a small strike force will sneak into the flying castle via back way in, and rescue Marcy. Oh, and defeat King Andrias before he carries out his invasion of Earth. Unfortunately, when they get to Marcy, something is very wrong with her. As it turns out: a being known only as the Core has possessed Marcy to use as a biological computer. This conglomerate being calls itself Darcy (Dark Marcy), and the shock of this combined with Darcy’s powers defeats the entire strike team and imprisons them. Thus, King Andrias is able to use the music box to invade Los Angeles, Earth.

Battle: Los Angeles ~ The Froggy Studio Ghibli Version

The sight of King Adrias’ aerial armada in the skies over Los Angeles stuns Earth into silence. The silence quickly turns into screams though as King Andrias sends his forces down to conduct a terror attack. This includes both his frog robot soldiers, as well as a pair of mind-controlled giant herons. The US military finds itself unable to effectively fight them due to a combination of magic and advanced technology. Thus, Anne and co. now find themselves in a 2 stage fight. The first is against King Andrias’ forces, and the second is against the king himself. Fortunately, they win both, and Anne and co. force King Andrias and his armada to return to Amphibia. With Darcy defeated as well, all seems fine…except when it looks like Amphibia’s moon is getting closer.

Apparently, the Core realizes that it has lost this war. So it wants to make sure that no one wins by making Amphibia’s moon pull a Majora’s Mask. Anne, Sasha, and now free Marcy break the jewels in response; letting them all go Super Saiyan to push back the moon. Unfortunately, they’re still not powerful enough. Anne then sacrifices herself to use all the power of the jewels to blow up and push back the moon. This kills Anne, but then the scene cuts to Anne in some kind of bizarre afterlife. The local god then congratulates her, and offers her a job as the new god. Anne refuses, citing a desire to live a normal long life before even considering the job. The still-unnamed god accepts, and returns her to the living world as a reborn backup copy with all memories intact.

The End

After celebrating the ultimate salvation of Amphibia, Anne, Sasha, and Marcy then return to Earth. However, this time, it’s permanent due to the jewels having expended much of their form. The show then makes 2 time skips. The first is 9 months later, when an older Sprig sets off on a new adventure with Ivy on a new continent after witnessing Wartwood unveil a statue of Anne.

The second takes place 10 years later, with Anne, Sasha, and Marcy now 23 years old. They have a reunion at the Aquarium of the Pacific, where Anne works as a herpetologist in her own amphibian exhibit. The trio leaves with a little pink frog Anne named Sprig happily watching over them. The credits then play, showing Amphibia recovering from its ecological disaster, and finally ending with a reshot BFF photo between the adult Anne, Sasha, and Marcy. Thus ends Amphibia season 3, and the show as a whole.

Amphibia Season 3: The Good

The story of Amphibia as a whole has been getting better with each successive season. Amphibia season 3 is where they take that story to new heights. I feel like this season is when the show stops having younger viewers be their primary audience, and now has a story primarily geared towards older viewers. Season 3’s story has a depth, complexity, and darkness more akin to The Owl House than anything else. In fact, I would go so far to say that Amphibia season 3 is what Dana Terrace wished she could’ve gotten for The Owl House season 3 if Disney hadn’t pulled the plug on her.

Speaking of darkness, scenes like Marcy getting impaled and Anne’s death also add to the story of Amphibia season 3. It allows Matt Braly to give us a much more complex and emotional story than if Disney hadn’t allow them. It’s why The Owl House is great, and why Amphibia season 3 is just as great.

It’s not just story either. The animation of Amphibia season 3 sees a marked improvement over the previous seasons. In particular: when Anne, Sasha, and Marcy go Super Saiyan/Magic Knight Rayearth on Amphibia’s moon. The fight scene there looked more like something out of a really high budget anime than the usual Disney fare. This combination of great animation combined with great story (including great characters) is what makes season 3 the best of the seasons.

Amphibia Season 3: The Bad

While I have made complaints about the previous seasons, none of them apply to Amphibia season 3. This final season is just perfect in so many ways. My one and only complaint isn’t even about this show, but rather, I just wish The Owl House could’ve gotten a final season as long and as satisfying as this one.

Source: Disney+