Attack on Titan: Anime is Mainstream
By Jennifer Iacobino
It has never been cooler to be a nerd. Sharing your favorite fandoms is now an icebreaker rather than a deal-breaker. But the question I asked myself was why this former one-way ticket to the outcast lunch tables is now a powerful card to have in your social pocket. So much so that Attack on Titan, an Anime based on a Manga of the same name, finally made its way to the top of my watch list. Anime after all was a genre few venture into, I myself was intimidated by subtitles, cheesy reactions and the constant yelling of dialogue. But after two episodes snagged the #2 and #3 spots on IMDB’s top episodes of all time, sandwiched between Breaking Bad, Star Wars Clones Wars and Game of Thrones. I realized I like so many had said the same about High Fantasy until Game of Thrones came along. What about these genres has captured the attention of the mainstream audience? To that, I say it’s balancing out its opposite, Reality TV.
Reality TV dominated nearly every network for the past 20 years. The industry was so saturated in these programs that scripted shows adopted their method to bridge the gap, i.e. the mockumentary genre. But one of the largest criticisms of Reality TV is its repetitive nature, its lack of depth, and the emphasis on memorable moments rather than emotional investments. Many fans of reality shows love to “turn off their brain and escape.” The void that reality show left was a perfect hole for fantasy to fill.
Fantasy offers people an escape from their own life. Thrones made characters speaking different languages sexy and deep, Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo to credit, made political drama interesting, magic dark, and sword fights nail-biting, mostly in part of beloved characters being on the other end of it. Watch parties on Sunday nights became a regular occurrence. But rather than anchor their interests on turning their brain off, fantasy lights it up. Invest in this character, now watch them suffer and succeed. Ask this question and leave clues to generate endless hypotheses and theories to discuss at ad nauseam. Create a world they recognize, but fresh enough that they want to dig deeper, to understand more, and then leave pearls of knowledge for them to find.
Attack on Titan is an anime that was first published in 2009 as a Manga, a Japanese graphic novel, and remained a hidden gem until it too found its way to television in 2013. Now approaching its last season, they offer the previous 3 on Hulu where many non-anime fans like myself have been drawn to this gory, dark, and deep storyline. Similar to Game of Thrones, there is a wide cast of characters up against a magical and formidable foe, the Titans, not so unlike white walkers. Only a handful of things can defeat them, and only a handful of people are skilled enough to survive their encounters. Both shows rest the narrative on underdog heroes, Thrones on the children of the lords and ladies of Westeros, Attack on the newest class of cadets to the scout’s regiment. Both generations are deeply impacted by the magical and tragic events that befell their worlds, Eren lost his mother to a titan attack, Dany lost her family in a massacre of her Targaryen royal family. Mikasa, a loyal and skilled soldier who is an orphan because of her heritage, finds a counterpart in Jon Snow, a bastard with unquestionable honor. Armin, a shy genius, does not differ from Sam the Slayer, the underestimated friend to Jon Snow with unquestionable intelligence and spurts of bravery in the name of those he cares about. Then there is the one we all love to root for, neither the underdog nor the hero, a morally ambiguous character that charms us with his skill, leadership, and turn of phrase, it’s easy to guess I mean the genius dwarf Tyrion and the brooding Captain Levi.
They are both set in strange yet familiar worlds. Thrones in a medieval time that we recognize through fairy tales and history books. Its world populated with cultures we can vaguely guess their inspiration from our real world and a mythos that works within its magic system, the white walkers, the dragons, and the prophecies of royal blood and religion. Attack similarly is set in a self-contained world behind great walls, that harbors all that is left of humanity after the titans descended from above and nearly destroyed them all. There is no magic on the ground level. Titans are a distant mystery, and the royal line is more political than mystical, at first. The magic is used sparingly in the narrative, there are no wizards that command the elements or wands that make magic a part of every day. Both stories exist in post magic worlds where the average person is just that. As the plot moves forward these magical elements move closer to the forefront as our characters are unknowingly the source of the magic.
The pacing of each show is character-centric. Leaving plot pieces to slowly inch closer to their season endpoint while entire episodes are dedicated to the backstory, emotional arcs, small goals of their characters. They hook you instantly, whether it’s a moment of tragedy like Eren, a moment of badassery like Captain Levi, or a moment of loyalty like Mikasa. The narrative understands that world-building is a slow art, but character devotion is instantaneous. You can walk into a show and understand nothing but the initial premise and will wait for the plot to bloom, the magic system to reveal itself like a slowly rising bread. But character, if you are not interested in them then you may switch to the next thing on your watch list.
That may be the one thing the two genres have in common, reality and fantasy. Characters. Though reality shows do not focus on arcs or the development of those characters, they do however understand that a character people like will get them coming back for the next episode. Fantasy genres have redemption arcs, tragic arcs, heroic arcs, and little subplot side character arcs open and shut in a single episode. But they understand that even though they may not be a major player, they are still a piece in the larger game. Their role may be to drag a hero off the field of battle, lose a duel, or make a suicide mission have stakes. Both shows understand true tension comes from creating a world so dangerous that when a character that they spent an episode on is in contact with that danger you can genuinely fear for them, not just because of your brief attachment but because they are fleshed out enough that you can see them dying and moving the plot forward. When they die, spoiler warning there is a lot of death in Attack, you genuinely feel like their story was cut short, reflecting the genuine tragedy of death. As eloquently put in season one of Thrones, “all men must die”. That same adrenalin rush of danger, the serotonin of relief when they survive, it hooks you.
There will come a time when people want reality again when the media will be saturated with depth and the audience will look for shallower waters, but for now, nerds can bask knowing that what they have always loved is okay to bring up on first dates and that it will inspire more stories that they can sink their curious teeth into even after the spotlight of the mainstream has moved on. I myself have added numerous Anime’s to my watchlist because of Attack on Titan and I eagerly await for its conclusion to satisfyingly unfold.
The final season of Attack On Titan premieres on Dec. 7th, 2020.
