I spent the last part of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 watching Attack on Titan with my son. I’m glad he talked me into watching. As I said before, I’d seen parts of the first horrific episode, but I’ve grown squeamish in my old age. Attack on Titan is a violent show, but it’s hard to craft such a stunning condemnation of war, hate, and violence without depicting war, hate, and violence in all its horror. In addition to spoilers, there will be some discussion of upsetting subject matter including the death of children.
Attack on Titan spends more time on character development and the aftermath of violence than the violence itself. At first glance, the show is about a group of survivors fighting giant man-eating humanoids in a fictional world similar to our own. Eventually a more complex story of generational abuse, bigotry, and war emerges. There’s a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle references to everything from the Holocaust to the bombing of Hiroshima to more recent atrocities. We sometimes see former victims becoming villains, or villains attempting to save others despite acknowledging they themselves are past saving. And a whole lot of people caught in between making good and bad decisions that are often the best they can do with the information they have.
Much of Attack on Titan‘s heart reveals itself through the words and actions of minor characters, especially as major characters lose their way. One subplot involves a man who finds out the girl his family has taken in was responsible for killing his daughter. When given the opportunity for revenge, he instead explains his daughter “went into the world, became a soldier, shot people far yonder, and got herself shot. In the end, though she left our forest, the world is a great, big forest where everyone’s fightin’ for their life. I reckon Sasha died ‘cuz she wandered in the forest too long. We’ve got to keep the young-uns out of the forest. Otherwise, ain’t nothin’ gonna stop it from happening again. That’s why it’s up to us adults to shoulder the sins of the past.”
Sasha, a supporting character, was a scout trained to fight titans. Before that she rescued a girl from a titan, and her family took Kaya in. Most of the people on the island were Eldians and believed themselves to be the last of the human race. Eventually the scouts learn that there’s a whole world of people off the island. Worse, they believe all Eldians to be devils due to a curse that turned some into titans. Those people include other Eldians who live in camps in the nation of Marley and want to prove themselves worthy as soldiers to Marley, like the girl Gabi who kills Sasha. Kaya is less forgiving until Gabi saves her from a titan. Not only does the scene mirror Sasha rescuing Kaya, but Kaya briefly mistakes Gabi for Sasha. This mirroring not only reinforces their shared humanity but paves the way for reconciliation between two characters who previously wanted each other dead. Personally I have a hard time with Gabi’s incurious acceptance of Marley’s abuse and rhetoric, but don’t begrudge anyone peace.
Another earlier subplot involves a man coming to terms with the fact that he’s not the main character, even in his own life, and attempting to diminish a woman he once had feelings for. Her reply: “Is it wrong to not be special? When it comes to my child, it’s fine if he’s never great. He’s so cute! So to me, he’s already special. Because he’s…born into this world.”
The sad irony is the child is the main character, Eren, a tragic hero who nearly ends the world years after his mother Carla dies. Without her guidance, he develops a superiority complex and wants to become mankind’s savior, even if it means becoming a villain. What distinguishes him from other literary and real life villains is that he knows he’s doing the wrong thing and killing innocent people, but he insists he sees no other way to protect the people of his island than by killing everyone else who perceives them as devils. After he made his decision, but before he carries out his plan, he witnesses a refugee child being beaten and questions the point of saving someone he will later kill. He chooses to save the child, but we see this act of mercy juxtaposed with the child being crushed to death due to Eren’s war on humanity.
Eren’s half-brother Zeke wants to sterilize all members of their race on and off the island to bring peace instead. Zeke’s plan is less overtly violent, but it’s still genocide, and horrific in its own right. And then there’s all the other characters questioning whether humans should live at all because the fighting will never end until “there is one or less.” While individuals sometimes make bad choices, denying agency is always the wrong choice. On some level, Eren understands this. He insists he’s free because he’s no longer confined to the island or a metaphorical cage of ignorance, but he has allowed himself to become imprisoned by his own hubris and what he perceives as an inescapable fate. As much as he tries to convince his friends they have no free will, and that he hates them for it, he does not use his power to enslave them, even though – or perhaps, because – they can stop him. And they do.
For a time, we see a world at tentative peace as the surviving twenty percent recognize one another’s humanity, and their own culpability in creating devils of each other. Alas, Eren’s remaining supporters who only knew the fear and isolation of the island assume control, and the lessons of the past are forgotten as war returns. But so does hope.
What is nature if not cyclical?
You can find a deeper dive into the themes of the anime and manga here.
