20 Facts On ‘Attack On Titan’ Anime & Manga You Should Know

Where do we even start, right? Currently, the most buzzed-about anime series right. “Attack On Titan” has kept the bar raised with every new episode it comes in with its final season. Created by Hajime Isayama,” Attack On Titan” has established its name as one of the most successful anime ever for the past decade. The first volume of the manga was incredibly successful, leading the series into an anime adaptation. Attack On Titan has been applauded for its unique storyline, brilliant animation, variety of characters, and its dark tone. The series was listed by Crunchyroll in their “Top 25 best anime of the 2010s,” along with IGN and Polygon listing it in their own lists of best anime from the past decade.

Since Attack On Titan is on its road to finally wrap up with the ongoing season, we thought we might take a look back at the series and present you with some concrete facts related to it. So with no further adieu, let’s countdown the top 20 facts related to one of the biggest anime series of the past decade.

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20. The City in The Series Comes From A Real Place

So, according to the story of Attack On Titan, one of the last traces of humans live inside a city protected by massive walls built against the Titans. These three walls are called Maria, Rose, and Sheena. Wall Maria is eventually broken by Colossal Titan and even Second wall Rose too. But humans were lucky on the second time when Titans breached. Eren had joined the Survey Corps and transformed into a Titan for the first time, sealing the wall all over again.

The one thing intriguing about this city is that it is actually based on a real place in Germany. The city is Nördlingen and has existed for thousands of years. Much like the anime, it is one of the three cities that has a wall around its perimeter. Even we can see the Gothic style inspirations portrayed in the cities of Attack On Titan.

19. The Characters Are Based On Norse Legends

The series does look like it is set in Germany and comes from a Japanese creator, but the story very much represents the Norse Legends. Coming From a Viking Lore, it is said that there are giants who reside in a sea of flames and a land of ice, and gods had built walls to protect themselves from these giants. And Ragnarok, as in the apocalypse, takes place; these giants break through these walls to kill the gods. There has been a moment where Armin talked about the sea of flames and a land of ice. Pretty much compensating their situation with Norse Legends.

18. Some Characters Are Inspired From Watchmen

You might know how much Alan Moore’s Watchmen has inspired a number of graphic novels, and the same goes for Attack On Titan that has taken certain cues from it. The series contains two inspirations from the Watchmen, with one being Levi’s character that is pretty much inspired by Rorschach. The other character is Erwin Smith, who is inspired on the basis of Ozymandias as they both are technically superior and quite calculative with situations and making decisions and also don’t hesitate when it comes to sacrifice.

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17. Levi Is A Lot Older Than You Think

Okay, the character who has been heavily loved gave him his own spin-off series “Attack On Titan: A Choice with No Regrets” . But, the series still didn’t answer some questions about his life. Especially his age. Writer Hajime Isayama has unwillingly stated he is 30 years old. But, news from the very official Twitter account of “Attack On Titan” has quoted that Hajime Isayama won’t go deep into Levi’s age as it may be linked to a future storyline.

16. It Takes Cues From The Game Of Chess

If you have ever played chess, try to compare it with the series. You might evidently see some similarities. For example, take Eren as the king, the most important one who has been protected by his teammates no matter what. Levi is more like Queen, a character that is able to inflict great damage on the opponent on his own.

The other characters, too, have a representation from chess. Let’s take Mikasa, who represents Rooks, as she stands at the top looking after the Titans breach, while Armin and Jean represent the bishops, with one being black and the other being white. Erwine and Hange represent the knights, while the other characters are much like the pawns.

15. Zoe Hange’s Gender

Hajime Isamaya has stated that Zoe’s gender doesn’t matter much for the storyline. Although both the anime and manga have showcased her as a female, the revelation by Isamaya says that it’s handed in the reader’s mind whether the character is a girl or boy, and thus manga doesn’t use gendered pronouns for the character.

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14. Universal Studios Japan Had “Attack On Titan” Theme Park

Yes, you read it right, but unfortunately, it’s closed now. Universal Studios Japan brought this theme park to life. The guests who visited saw the gigantic monsters right in front of them and often had a chance to sit inside the hand of a Titan. The place recreated the showdown between Eren and the female titan using two statues standing at the feet of 15 and 14 tall. The park clearly gave the audience an experience of the terrifying world these characters live in the anime.

13. The Pilot Issue Was Quite Different From Series

Any Manga that is set to release needs to have a pilot issue that will help the reader understand the premise of the series and what they can expect from it. The series would be allowed to release on the approval of that pilot. Attack on Titan had a pilot issue referred to as Volume O and was submitted to one of the biggest manga, “Weekly Shonen Jump,” and got rejected due to its artwork at that time before it was picked up by someone else. The story of the pilot pretty much differed from what we saw in the originally released manga. The one difference which can be pointed out quickly was the absence of Omni-directional mobility gear that helped the heroes fly quickly from one point to another.

12. Attack Of Titan Has Crossed Over With Marvel

Marvel comics and all their entertainment media have always been evident with crossing over with each other. They have continued to so in today’s time and have seen much success. Even there was a time when they crossover with their rival, the DC comics. This brings us to the fact that they have even crossed over with our very own Attack On Titan, which is quite rare for an anime or manga to crossover.

The crossover between Marvel and Attack on Titan took place in 2014. It was titled “Attack On Avengers,” where Marvel Comics made a deal with Kodansha to release it. It was an eight-page comic that saw Titans attacking Manhattan city and Avengers arriving to rescue it. When the Colossal Titan emerges, the Guardians Of The Galaxy from space also join forces with Avengers to fend off the titans.

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11. It is Banned In China

Okay, in case you don’t know or might know, the Chinese government has relaxed its stance on censorship in their country revolving around any international media they accept. This has made the country one of the most important markets for entertainment media. But still, the animes like Attack On Titan and Death Note were banned from streaming on all the international sites of China due to the nature of its violence that is portrayed.

10. The Series Represents A Kind Off Zombie Apocalypse

Well, you might consider it just another fantasy show from the manga or anime. But if you took a closer look at the behavior of these giant monsters, they kind of represent a creature popular in American Media. Zombies! Titans are pretty much similar to the brainless zombies that are pretty much popular in the West and much like Titans are hell-bent on destroying and eating people’s brains out without thinking and having communications with each other. Simply, brainless! Attack On Titan just gave us the giant version of them, which scarier than zombies in itself.

9. The Manga Came 7 Years Before The Series

Attack On Titan has become one of the biggest giants to come out of the anime industry in the past decade. Created by Hajime Isayama, Attack On Titan was initially just a one-shot in 2006, which earned the 19-year-old Isayama his first-ever prize, the Magazine Grand Prix’s Fine Work award. It took three or four years when Isayama’s editor asked the writer to revisit the title to make it into a full-fledged series. Isayama took one and half year to create all the setting revolving around the series we are watching and reading today

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8. An Appearance Of Titan Is Based On Their Personality

Throughout the series, the Titans are considered to be emotionless beings who are bent on destroying everything in their path to satisfy their hunger. They don’t have feelings or ever communicate with each leaving them just being nothing but giants roaming the earth. But, in fact, the appearance of theirs can say a lot about these Titans. For example, Ymir’s Titan form doesn’t have lips that represent the fact that she constantly needs to talk. If we take Reiner’s Titan form, it represents his primary goal as a warrior is covered in armor.

7. It’s The Youngest Best Selling Manga

The success of Manga has to be applauded that we were met with such a great series. Initially, when Attack on Titan debuted in  2009’s Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, it was heavily applauded horrifying antagonists with such an interesting setting and a mysterious plot that hooked the viewers a lot. The first issue saw Attack On Titan becoming a global success and made the manga enter the best-selling manga of the all-time list.

Attack On Titan debuted in 2009, selling 66 million copies to date and even today dominates its weekly and monthly sales in Japan. The one manga that rivals Attack On Titan and has kept itself under its belly is One Piece, which is still the best-selling manga of all time.

6. There Are Six Prequels

In case you don’t know, the series has almost six light novels that serve as prequels for the mains story. All these novels are written by different authors than the original creator, and many fans don’t consider it canon. The very first of them was the trilogy called “Before The Fall,” which featured a story from 70 years ago before the original events of the manga. The novel focuses on the inception of the Survey Corps and the creation of omnidirectional mobility gear.

After the “Before The Fall” trilogy, which was later adapted into manga, “Attack on Titan: Harsh Mistress of the City” followed in with two parts. These novels focus on the aftermath of the destruction of Wall Maria and stories and conditions of people suffering from the events. The final novel is titled “Lost Girls,” which told the stories of Mikasa and Annie Leonhart.

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5. The Big Titans Are Based On Popular Martial Artists

Creating huge, muscular, and brutal Titans like the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan is something that intrigued the fans. They are a lot, in fact, a lot scarier than the other Titans altogether. So, where did the creator Hajime Isayama got inspiration from? These big guns are pretty unique in themselves, right. Like the Armoured Titan, who indeed has armored plates across its body, which also makes him immune to the human weapons

Hajime Isayama has confirmed that Armoured Titan was pretty much inspired by popular professional wrestler Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar is considered one of the most brutal wrestlers from the WWE in his own right, with also an impressive MMA career. On the other hand, Eren Yeager’s titan form is also based on another MMA fighter Yushin Okami.

4. The Reason Heroes Are Slim And Short

In case you might have noticed, the main characters who are bent on slaying the Titans doesn’t include much of the muscles. They are short and slim and kind of questions us on their inclusion in the army against the Titans. So the best answer would be that the heroes are seen flying around to slay the titans right. This kind of technique might require a much lighter body rather than a muscled one leading to the fact that our heroes are slim and short.

3. Eren Yeager Is Based On Every Bullied Kid Ever

Isayama has revealed that he wrote Attack On Titan on the basis of his experiences as being bullied by the kids at school. He has imagined Eren as the small kid who gets picked up by bullies, in this case by the Titans, unnecessarily. Here, Titans are many big and terrifying beings hell-bent on the destruction of humanity. In the story, we can see Eren being the person who, instead of giving up, brings the fight to these bullies, as in the Titans.

2. The Creator Was Inspired From An Altercation

So, it’s been said that Hajime Isayama was inspired to write Attack On Titan when he was working at an Internet Cafe. There was a time when an irritated customer approached Isayama, and both had an altercation. The customer grabbed Isayma by his collar, and Isayama revealed that nothing he said was going towards the customer resulting in the fallout. This altercation gave Hajime the idea of an enemy that can’t be communicated with.

1. The Wall Is A Bigger Mystery Than Titans

Attack On Titan as a series has kept the viewers glued to the fact of the existence of Titans. What are they? From where did they come? and everything. One mystery that slips off everyone’s mind is of the Walls. The huge built structures that are used to prevent these titans from coming in. As a fan, you may know, there are several informative messages during the series that gave us glimpses of some important aspects portrayed in an episode. In one of the final episodes, it showcased a story about the gigantic wall. A story that is quite scary to itself.

The bumper commercial sticker of the series revealed a story from the year 784. It told about a miner who dug under Wall Sina hoping to find a better life outside the city. But no matter how deep he dug, the wall never seemed to end. The digging soon led him to a layer of bedrock made of the same material as the wall.