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Anime Creator Kills Off Female Character in Revenge Toward Fans

attack on titan - titan

The fascist subtext of Assail on Titan tin't get overlooked

The story's twist exposes the ugly side of the manga and anime

Past Jun 18, 2022, iii:00pm EDT

Funimation

The mod manga and anime industries would not exist without Attack on Titan. Without Hajime Isayama's dystopian series and its massive, global fan base, Crunchyroll would've remained a curiosity instead of the global streaming powerhouse and anime product partner it has go.

Similarly, without rights to the anime — which concludes its third season this calendar month — Netflix certainly wouldn't have become a large enough player in the anime market to license all of Neon Genesis Evangelion . Ditto Adult Swim, which licensed Funimation's Assault on Titan dub for its Sabbatum night Toonami block (a revival of the honey afterwards-school anime block) and saw its fortunes rise so highly that Adult Swim was able to assist produce two follow-up seasons to the legendary anime FLCL.

But recent events within the manga accept given readers interruption. In particular, the major twist of the series, as well as what'due south been occurring since then, has drawn some uncomfortable parallels to global anti-Semitism, far-correct Japanese politics, and Isayama's own personal politics.

[Ed. notation: This commodity contains spoilers for both the Attack on Titan manga and anime. Information technology too contains descriptions of anti-Semitic imagery, the Holocaust, and state of war crimes.]

While aimed at a slightly older audience than the Big Three manga/anime of the early 2000s — Bleach, Naruto and One Piece — Attack on Titan made many more anime fans out of casual watchers, arriving every bit it did at the crest of the YA dystopian fiction wave in the Due west. And while that fever has died off from its circa 2014 high point, the series still has plenty of devoted followers who snap up every single video game, spin-off, and parody manga.

There was an original comics anthology by Western talent, featuring creators like Scott Snyder, Gail Simone and Ronald Wimberly; an original YA novel, Garrison Girl, by Rachel Aaron; and even a crossover with Curiosity in which the Avengers, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy fought Titans in New York City (a story devised by Isayama, with fine art by Gerardo Sandaval and a script by Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski). The serial, published monthly in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in Japan, is now in its final arc, simply there seems to be no terminate to the wider franchise in sight.

Just as with any long-running manga, the closer y'all get to its endgame, the easier it is to come across what the message of the series really is. And the message of Set on on Titan appears to have Anti-Semitic and pro-fascist leanings.

Given the cyclical nature of manga production and anime seasons, the fandom churr around Titan's themes comes and goes. And now that the anime'south 3rd flavor is simply getting to the commencement of where this all becomes clear, it's a skillful fourth dimension to unpack information technology all.

The big twist of Attack on Titan

For the series' outset several arcs, protagonist Eren Yeager was driven by two things: Showtime, to destroy every unmarried Titan he could find to avenge his mother's death and the destruction of his hometown. And second, to make his way back to the ruins of his house to apply a key his male parent gave him to observe what was subconscious in their basement. Fifty-fifty with all the complications thrown his way — including learning he could transform into a Titan — Eren never wavered in this.

In the series' 85th affiliate, Eren finally got his reply. Making his way to the basement at long concluding, Eren discovered a photograph (something he'd never heard of) of his father with another married woman and son. The post-obit chapters showed the journal of Eren'southward father, Grisha, revealing that he was actually from the outside world.

That is to say, what Eren and the other characters thought all along — that humanity was largely destroyed past the Titans, with its remnants sealed up backside three rings of walls to defend themselves from the monsters — was wrong. Grisha, the journal explained, was actually from the nation of Marley, and, like our main characters, was a member of a race known every bit Eldians.

The Eldians, the journal revealed, once ruled the globe, their reign stretching back nearly 2,000 years. In that era, a woman named Ymir Fritz somehow acquired the power to become a Titan (just exactly how has never been conspicuously said) and used it to found the nation of Eldia. 13 years later, Ymir died (the fate of all who can become Titans), which carve up her soul into the Nine Titans, whose power was given to ix subjects. Passing downwardly their powers through noble bloodlines, the Ix Titans established the world-conquering, blood-soaked legacy of the Eldian Empire, and, in particular, devastated the nation of Marley.

Infighting somewhen consumed the Titan dignity, and eventually, the 145th Eldian Male monarch, Karl Fritz, was aback of his people's legacy and how they'd conquered Marley. He orchestrated a civil war that destroyed the Eldian Empire, assuasive Marley to swoop in and acquire the majority of the Nine Titans.

Fritz took the majority of Eldians — the ancestors of the series' main characters — to the island of Paradis, where he rewrote their memories to make them remember they were the last of humanity, forcibly turned thousands of Eldians into Colossus Titans, and built the 3 walls over them. Dorsum in Marley, the remaining Eldians were herded into ghettos, forced to wear identifying armbands with star-shaped symbols (we'll come dorsum to that) and were shunned as second class citizens. Eldian criminals were taken to Paradis, injected with Titan spinal fluid, and turned into mindless Titans to ravage the island for eternity.

In the modern twenty-four hour period, Grisha, Eren's male parent, was swept up in a movement to topple the Marleyan regime and restore the Eldian monarchy. He even marred the purple heiress and had a son, Eren's older half-brother Zeke. Just when he was 7, Zeke betrayed his parents and their movement to the Marleyan government, and Grisha and his wife were taken to Paradis.

But while his royal outset married woman was transformed into a Titan (the same one who ate Eren's mother at Titan's start), Grisha was spared by a Marleyan soldier. That soldier was the head of an anti-Marley/pro-Monarchy motion, and he sent Grisha on a mission to detect the descendants of Eldian royalty in Paradis and steal the power of the Founding Titan.

Somewhen, Grisha accomplished his mission, simply to larn that his second wife had been devoured. He went mad with grief and injected Eren with Titan fluid, which gave him the powers of the Set on Titan and turned him into a mindless monster, whereupon he ate Grisha.

After Grisha's periodical gave Eren and his friends the knowledge that their civilization wasn't alone after all, they staged a massive military coup of their own government. Seizing control of Paradis, they began plans to close the 100-year technological gap between them and the residue of the world, and to reestablish the Eldian nation.

Currently, the Assault on Titan manga is in its final arc, with a four year time leap ending in Eren and his followers attacking Marleyan soil in forepart of international dignitaries, without the authorization of Paradis' government. Meanwhile, a hundred soldiers have formed a faction in back up of Eren's goals of Eldian restoration, assassinating the current regime caput and plotting to carry out Eren'due south program to create a New Eldian Empire via "The Rumbling." That is, helping Eren awaken every single Titan within the walls and utilize them to destroy the globe.

The good, the bad, and the very, very bad

Despite being wowed by Studio WIT's dynamic visuals and that undeniably badass first opening theme song, I could never go into Attack on Titan. But having read the entire manga, I acknowledge Isayama has some strengths. For one affair, his pencils are filled with pure energy and his inks are very expert at capturing the pure horror that envelops the characters fourth dimension and fourth dimension again. For another, the tension successfully generated before each big plot twist is enviable. All these elements are only emboldened in Kodansha Comics' English-language release, with Ko Ransom & Sheldon Drzka'southward nuanced translations and the legendary Steve Wands' potent lettering.

Merely well-dressed aesthetics and pacing tin can only practise so much earlier you start to detect the ideas bubbles underneath the surface. Isayama'due south work is total of anti-Korean, nationalist, pro-Japan subtext, parallels to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and subtextual references to Nazi Deutschland.

For ane thing, in that location'southward the and then-called Pure Titans: that is, the random Titans that menace our characters throughout the series. Nude, creepily smiling cannibals, these Pure Titans are mindless, not fifty-fifty needing to eat to live and then much as for fun. Many of them have grotesque or exaggerated features, from brusk arms to giant heads to ... large noses. And so at that place'south the Eldians living in ghettos, wearing star-embroidered armbands.

For another, military might is presented as the strongest, truest ability of all. This goes far and across the typical theme in Japanese action media of the group of friends banding together, doing their best, and changing the world. Frequently, the military — particularly the Survey Corps that Eren and the residuum of the primary cast belong to — is presented every bit full of pure rational-decision makers and unquestioned commanders. The conspicuously unhinged soldiers, like Titan researcher Zoë Hange and the goofball Sasha Blouse, are mocked. Only the certitude that they should lead is never interrogated.

Stepping back from the text itself, to what Isayama has said about the text, there are all sorts of uncomfortable parallels to real-world history. In a 2010 web log post, Isayama (who has always maintained the serial was inspired by an incident where he was accosted by a large, drunkard foreign human being at a cafe) admitted that a supporting graphic symbol, wily general Dot Pixis, was based on real-life Japanese general Akiyama Yoshifuru, who served in the Japanese Royal Army from 1916-1923. Considered a hero in Japan — with Isayama admitting he constitute the general an admirable figure — for his deportment in the First Sino-Japanese War, Yoshifuru was responsible for endless atrocities against Korea and China during Japanese occupations.

Equally the pop advice blog Inquire a Korean detailed in 2007, said anti-Korean atrocities (continued long later Yoshifuru's retirement) included the murder of so-Empress Myeong-Seong, rioting and massacring of thousands of Koreans living in Kanto subsequently the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and the notorious "Comfort Women," a euphemism for the hundreds of thousands of Korean women and girls who were kidnapped and used as sexual activity slaves by the Japanese army (something widely acknowledged by anybody but the Japanese authorities). With that and the before, centuries-long history of hatred between Japan and Korea, small wonder then that when Isayama revealed Yoshifuru equally an inspiration, and got into a Twitter flame state of war where he appeared to deny the notorious Nanjing Massacre, he was swarmed by death threats from Koreans.

For its part, China has but banned Attack on Titan outright.

Then in that location'southward the ultimate goal of the Yeagerists (who, incidentally, have a very fascist compatible sensibility) being to reestablish the Eldian Empire and take their bloody revenge on the world. Given the unavoidable implied parallels between Eldians in Marley and the Jews in Nazi Germany, the eventual apocalypse that the manga seems to be edifice towards is, subtextually, like something out of Alex Jones' darkest ravings. That is, to say, it's not hard to draw the line between the Yeagerists' (who Eren, incidentally, seems to tacitly endorse) programme of laying waste to the world and the much-beloved right-wing talking betoken that the Jews (or every bit they dog-whistle, "Globalists") either are already secretly controlling the globe or are plotting to through finances, Hollywood, or whatever BS that leaks out of their demented heads this week.

But why now?

These parallels haven't been lost on the viewing and reading public. In an essay for Women Write Nigh Comics presently subsequently the anime began, writer Vernieda Vergara pointed out that Isayama is former enough to have lived through the Great Recession (and, information technology should be noted, grew up during and after Japan'southward 1990s economical bubble flare-up). The ascent of his work also coincides with the election of current Japanese prime minister and right-wing hawk Shinzo Abe, who infamously reinterpreted Article 9 of Japan'southward constitution — written by the U.South. afterward WWII, it forbids Japan from having a standing army — to requite Nihon the ability to increment its cocky-defense forces and attack when ane of its allies is attacked.

But why are people seemingly only upset now, with the anime no longer at the elevation of popularity and the manga winding down? Well, for one, the series still has a devoted fanbase. For another, we alive in a world where hate groups, authoritarianism and nationalism are on the rise from the U.S. to Japan and beyond. And finally, since Titan exploded onto the scene, at that place's been a surge of anime with correct-wing leanings, from GATE (a sci-fi prove centered around heroic JSDF agents that was really used every bit recruitment fabric past the Japanese army) to the reemergence of the notorious Happy Science cult and the propagandistic anime films they fund to the themes some establish in 2022'south Studio Trigger hit Darling in the Franxx.

Put simply, this stuff is on people's minds and the signs are relatively easy to spot. As for why the outrage seems to occur in cycles? Well, like any pop Japanese property, there'south always the crowd who read the manga first and then the anime-only crowd. Given anime's long product fourth dimension — and Titan's backbreaking cycle in detail (with a four year gap between the first and second seasons) — conversations about its themes are bound to have some time to resurface. Combine that with Titan's staggered release beyond Crunchyroll, FunimationNOW, then DVD, so after Developed Swim, and this is a bike that will keep happening.

Now, no 1 can clearly say what Isayama'south true intentions are except for him. Merely it's difficult to ignore the underpinnings of dystopian fiction when it stares you in the face. It looms over you like the Colossal Titan, serving as a reminder that, fifty-fifty in fiction (maybe peculiarly in fiction), nosotros have a responsibility equally consumers to fully appoint with what a story might be trying to say. And to consider whether that'southward a bulletin we want to hear.

Tom Speelman is a freelance writer, proofreader & editor based in Lansing, Illinois. He'southward on Twitter @tomtificate and has written, among other things, the English adaptation for Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka by Makoto Fukami and Seigo Tokiya, available from Seven Seas Amusement. He encourages you to support your local library.