Attack on Titan is a popular manga and anime series about humans who live in cities surrounded by gigantic walls to protect them from Titans. For over a hundred years, nothing has managed to breach their defenses. But when the wall is breached by the sudden appearance of titanic creatures, humanity realizes just how small they are and must find an answer as they defend themselves from extinction.
Eren pointing at the ocean with a boy’s ghostly encounter with the outside world. He appears in the woods and sees a Titan in the distance. The boy runs through the forest, past a gate, and up a hill to see if he can find out what happened.
Attack on Titan has become a fan favorite anime. Its popularity is primarily due to its honest portrayal of the brutality and horror that humans face in the face of a potential extinction level event. Many fans have compared it to End of Evangelion, another popular anime series that deals with this same subject in a similar manner.
But while Evangelion uses its characters to explore many aspects of the human psyche and questions what humanity is, Attack on Titan gives its audience an action packed thrill ride in which the characters do not have time to wonder about their meaning in the universe. They are forced to fight for their lives and whatever scraps of their humanity they can hold onto.
What happens in Attack on Titan :
1. Humanity’s last resort:
Attack on Titan follows the soldiers of Trost, a city in the outermost wall who have been left in charge of stopping the Titans when they breach the defenses.
The attack begins as a giant Titan with an elongated head and no skin, who is referred to as “The Colossal” or “Colossal Titan”, punches a hole through Wall Maria and devours several of the scouts stationed there. One of these scouts is Sasha, a young girl who dies to protect her comrades. When news reaches Commander Erwin Smith that there are no survivors in Sasha’s squad, he immediately orders his men to kill all Titans on sight and stop them from entering the city.
Unfortunately, they are unable to stop the Titans from breaking through. Before they can enter the city, however, the Colossal Titan appears and knocks down another part of the wall, allowing all of them to get in. Commander Erwin orders his men to run for a nearby hill and orders civilian refugees to gather inside the city’s buildings. However, before they can make it far enough away from the breach, giant hands made of trees sprout from the ground and trap everyone in place. The people realize that these are Titans and that one is trapped under a boulder. As it struggles to free itself, everyone realizes that it has reanimated Sasha’s dead body into a Titan.
2. Humans in the city:
The city of Trost is at war with the Titans. Men are sent out everyday to fight titans and protect the wall. When they return, they have no face and their body is torn to pieces. As a result, most people throughout the city have become desensitized to death. The military and guards do everything they can to keep people from panicking, but when a fire breaks out in the middle of a large crowd, bloodthirsty men try to push forward as more people start dying by the second.
The military begins using civilians as a shield and orders them to run from the flames. At one point, Commander Erwin requests more soldiers from Wall Rose and receives the report that their orders for reinforcements have been canceled. This is due to the fact that the Witch of Wall Maria told them not to send anyone over to assist Trost in its battle against the Titans, because they will all die.
3. The people of Trost:
The citizens of Trost are terrified of both being eaten by Titans and surviving in this city protected by walls built around it by humans who hate them. The citizens try and hide from the people outside, as if they do not exist. They disappear into the back of every building and only come out in groups. Therefore, it is implied that the people of Trost are led by a single person who controls everything that happens in and outside of the city.
The people living in Trost realize that they must fight to survive and start killing each other when they steal food from others or break into other houses to find supplies. The Titans constantly terrorize the people by following them down dark alleys and attacking them at strange times, such as after dusk when darkness seems to have no purpose or reason for existing.
4. Children:
Young children are being kidnapped by Titans, which is noted by many citizens over the pain they felt with each of their deaths. As a result, children are protected by their parents and never go into the forest to play. However, the child Eren fights his way out of the basement where he is held captive and rescues a young girl named Mikasa. She asks him if his parents are dead but Eren replies that it does not matter, implying that he feels nothing for what is being done to them.
