Writer's Blog #3 - Attack on Titan

I've been thinking a lot about Attack on Titan, especially from a literary perspective.

If you haven't seen the anime, I think you should skip this article.

It will be hard to watch - when people talk about reading and getting emotionally invested, I think of anime like:

1. Attack on Titan
2. Death Note
3. Bungo Stray Dogs
4. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
5. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
6. Vinland Saga

They're hard to watch, have mature themes, ask uncomfortable questions and maybe reading Moby Dick is easier.

I also use GIFs from these series, in this article, for those who'd rather skip.

This is probably why I never got past season 1, of Game of Thrones - I felt it had a huge focus on sensationalizing R-rated material, instead of asking the viewer a ton of difficult questions, and torturing us.

It's the difference between a villager, torn between his feelings, the very real future of his village, and the perceived infinity of the British Empire, versus RRR.

Lot of Tollywood movies embrace concepts that are trivial, unoriginal, or directly plagiarized, especially compared to anime, and I find this behavior disrespectful as both an artist, and a fan of older stories.

Anyway, back to the realistic hellishness of anime, especially the concepts that are more original to it.

No more spoiler warnings.

It's not too late to turn back - for you.

Watching more anime since 2023, I've been noticing a trend that I thought was unique to Attack on Titan, but I'm seeing it almost in all literary anime.

This observation, in some ways, has reduced the specialness of some tropes.

The idea of a foundational power, is something I've seen again in a different anime (if you know, you know).

I don't know which came first, but Attack on Titan was my first exposure to a weird, unique, consistent magic system that was tied very well to the world and plot, so it took a special place in my heart. There are some things that can only happen in Attack on Titan, because of the Titan:

1. Omni directional devices, to kill titans, powered by physics, gas, intense training and hard work.
2. Titan powers, which forms the core magic system, but not the core of the world itself. The core of the world are people, their choices, and the world as they know it, the objective reality in their world, the suffering intrinsic to human existence.
3. Strategies that use horses, smoke signals and food supplies, in a medieval sense, to overcome titans and reduce loss of human life, for our viewing pleasure, and how necessity is the mother of invention, for plot, character and world-building reasons.

Similarly, the domain expansion in JJK is something I've seen before, and again later, in order of me having fun, not in the order of release on the Gregorian calendar.

However, I suspect Satoru Goju saying 'Domain Expansion: Infinite Void' stole my heart, as opposed to pocket dimensions in other anime.

I also suspect Gege's view on domain expansions, giving buffs to their attacks is there in Pokemon too.

When a Pokemon does 'Rain dance', the power of all water moves increases, though you are now 1 move behind.

A water Pokemon, with high special attack, will now have 3 buffs:

1. Water Pokemon, will have stronger water moves (STAB - Same Type Attack Boost)
2. Hydro Pump, which is already powerful, and is a special attack
3. Rain dance, boost

You don't want this to hit you on turn 2 😭

In JJK, I suspect Pokemon, inspired his gamified power system - using a Domain Expansion takes lot of energy, but not only does it counter another Domain Expansion, it gives you a guaranteed hit.

In Mahito's case, you are literally in the palm of his hand, maybe because the domain is an expansion of your personality, past, choices, and techniques.

Some anime that I think share the idea of a simulated, alternate or constructed reality:

1. Hunter x Hunter
2. Fate / Stay Night
3. Pokemon (Gyarados - use rain dance!)
4. Maybe, Attack on Titan's co-ordinate system. But the above 3, especially (1) and (2), are very JJK.

Anyway, I saw this video as part of my literary education, and I really liked it.

I left my first public comment on YouTube, on the video, and I think it's worth reading.

Hi, this is a perfect breakdown. I agree, 99.99%, and I am glad you took the time to find manga references that back your claims.

The way I see it, in 2 lines - Eren was a coward, and got punched by Armin in the end, for being a loser.

Reiner was not, and got punched for his past, and decided to live anyway.


The pattern you mention, is a pattern I keep seeing in a lot of anime, where the hero takes it on himself, to save the world, typically through a very destructive way, where in fact that destruction is the lack of internal strength.


I will take Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, as a good example, and also an old one, to not spoil other anime.

But, this pattern is there almost everywhere, either with a positive outcome, or negative.

Edward destroyed his and his brother's life, because of a lack of internal strength. Very arguably, he was a prodigy, a child, and his mom died. He didn't have the wisdom to know that wanting something can't replace the magic ingredient, just because his world was unfair.

In return, he destroyed his own world, and his brother's physical future.

The anime starts out with a mature Edward, and shows his past as a lesson learned, very quickly, and he assists others. Contrast this to Scar, who takes a different path, while Edward joins the military with a promise to not kill anyone, even though it's unsafe to do so, and his need for alchemic research was pure.

Eren, on the other hand, destroyed everyone's future, failed to save Sasha, and would rather destroy the world, than make the difficult choices to save himself. He was used by everyone from the start, and I believe you were completely on point about Mikasa and Armin.


Interestingly, Eren's trust was always fragile. For example, when Squad Levi was hit by the female titan, way back when, he used that experience to solidify an argument that he needs to save others. Commander Erwin, Captain Levi - they all constantly talk about cutting him, using him, and protecting him, to further Erwin's agenda, which was a formal, well thought out strategic version of Eren's emotional desire to conquer for no reason.


Erwin is just a smarter version of Eren - looking back, I question the need to discover for the sake of discovery, when you have people reporting to you.



But trust isn't fragile - people are.




At any time, Eren could have turned back. The ending was the ending, for plot reasons, which manifested in Eren being a coward, and never being strong.


As Armin notes towards the end, Eren was always Eren. We (the audience), are just noticing it now, because what good was left, was kicked out in favor of what was easy.



Sasha died because in Eren's future, people are like him, and he needs to save them. But a future where people are not like him, or he is not Eren, will give a different outcome, and he didn't want to grow, until this vision changed, much less facilitate this by being a leader.


I think this is why Levi says 'the look on Eren's face, reminds him of gangsters in the underground'.

Levi had a harder life - he was actually (visibly) special, and I think he is short because he never ate enough. His focus on cleanliness must also be a knee-jerk response to his lack of control.


He survived the war in the end.

Finally, I disagree Eren was not special. He has the will to break himself, time and again, to keep moving forward, which is pretty rare.

I see Eren, Mikasa and Armin as embodying Spirit, Body, and Mind.

The trope is one where a major character, commits to a long, well-calculated plan, that usually ends in his demise, and that of the world - or at the very least, the world as we see it.

This trope is at least in 2 anime - in 1 of them, the line between a conflicted hero, a morally grey idealist, and an anti-hero are blurred too fast, too often.

In another anime, the same trope comes in the form of an arch-villain, with the heroes racing against the clock to stop the villain, only to realize that the villain wanted to frame them positively so they can succeed for the next major villain.

Sounds like the conspiracy theory that Palpatine did what was needed to prepare the galaxy for another invasion.

The person who made the video, liked my comment, too.

I am glad that worked well.

Thanks for reading!