“People are crazy for believing that these walls will protect us forever. Even though the walls have been intact for the past one hundred years, there is nothing that can guarantee they will not be broken down today.”
– Armin Arlert
In recent years, countless anime works have achieved remarkable success, spread and international acclaim, yet the first work that comes to mind when talking about anime is undoubtedly Shingeki no Kyojin, or as we know it, Attack on Titan. This work has reached a huge segment around the world including those who have never experienced watching an anime. This work, with its uniqueness, has been able to extend and reach various groups. The author was able to build the plot with a coherent structure and delve into the human soul through the characters he created, raise several philosophical issues, and analyze the way people perceive history and its impact on the present. In this article, we review some of the striking aspects of this story.
Introduction
Humanity faced a terrifying and mysterious enemy, a horde of titans that appeared out of nowhere, killing humans in particular, destroying their lands and devouring them for no apparent reason. Humanity is on the verge of extinction, the rest of them escaped to an island and were forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls for protection. Humans lived within these walls for an entire century, nevertheless, the peace they enjoyed was fragile, false, scattered by the winds when a huge titan appeared from nowhere and destroyed the first wall. What the people behind the walls know is that they are the last remaining of humanity and that they need to fortify themselves by staying behind these walls, protect and preserve it so that they do not perish. As depicted in the first episode, the author provides us with an initial idea and an opening into the mysterious world that we are about to delve into.
Inspiration: A Borrowing from Norse Mythology
In the first chapter, where we see Eren lying and dreaming under a tree, this tree branches into nine branches. This may not catch our attention at first, but as events progress, we perceive similarities between the story and the Norse myths related to the origins of the universe. It also crosses our mind if that tree is a symbol of Yggdrasil, the tree of life that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology. This is confirmed when the author revealed the character of Ymir Fritz, from which the power of the titans began, a power that consists of nine titans and it bears the same name as the first titan in those myths, Ymir. In one of the scenes, Armin talks about the outside world, mentioning lands of ice and seas of fire, as if, in his speech, he was referring to two of those nine worlds, the land of ice “Niflheim” and the land of fire “Muspelheim.”
Realistic Deduction
During his childhood, in which he spent in a rural mountain village in Japan, Hajime Isayama adhered to an idea that all living organisms must feed on other living organisms to survive. As harsh as this idea was, it is what he realized by observing nature. This is the world as he sees it, dazzlingly beautiful and cruel at the same time. Furthermore, we notice, from the beginning of his work, that most of the things in this fictional world are remarkably similar to our world. If we look attentively, life within the walls and people’s isolation within themselves and their limited knowledge of what is outside the walls is not different from our world. Rather, this is comparable to the cultural isolation of some societies in themselves. Perhaps the author’s upbringing and childhood, which he spent in that small, isolated village, also influenced the prevailing idea of the work; the main character’s desire to go out into the wider world.
On the other hand, we notice the resemblance of the general environment in the anime to German culture, especially historically. The architecture tends to have German characteristics, even the city within the walls was borrowed in its general form from a German town, besides a number of characters’ names, most notably the leader, Erwin Smith.
Of course, the society within the walls was not devoid of being a representation of dystopia, where we find conflicts, inequality, and classism. Although people resort to the walls to protect their kind, discrimination took place according to people’s social classes. The walls were divided into three; Wall Maria, Wall Rose, and Wall Sina which is the center within these circular walls. Moving to the other side, we find the “Marley” lands, in which there is an area specified to the detention of the “Eldian” minority, who are forced to wear badges bearing a star to distinguish them from the indigenous “Marleyans”. Through this concept, the work closely examines the idea of discrimination and ethnic purity.
From a philosophical standpoint, this world with its conflicts is similar to Schopenhauer’s pessimistic philosophy, as he sees that the conflict is something eternal and not only a person’s struggle with himself and his inner beings, rather there are many endless external matters, and a person will find himself surrounded by them. For him, the essence of the world is permanent evil, and it will only end in annihilation.
With reference to philosophers’ opinions about pessimism and optimism, the history of philosophy has witnessed a number of trends, including those who encouraged optimism and believed that evil is resistible, and the world is good. In addition to others who tended to believe that this world is contaminated with evil, but that humans can create a better place for themselves. From this perspective, we can perceive the world in Attack on Titan as a struggle between optimism and pessimism, between hope and despair. Thus, the characters differ in their opinions due to intellectual conflicts, some of whom cling to hope as a virtue and believe in humanity and the possibility of alleviating the evil in this world they found themselves living in while pursuing the ideals of a better world for the future by avoiding the mistakes made in the past and stopping this cycle of conflict. While the others tend to despair at the possibility of lighting this murky world. As for the author, I see that he embraces the idea that this world oscillates between pain and beauty. Although the work tends to be a gloomy one, it is not devoid of stunning beauty and wonderful aspects.
The Many Facets of Truth, and The Concept of Good and Evil
Truth can be likened to a pyramid with many faces, where a person can only see one face at a time. One of us may see a certain face of the pyramid today and see another one tomorrow, every day he is impressed with what he sees and extremist about it considering all people except him to be wrong. The work discusses from a philosophical point of view the concept of truth, as it presents the idea that denies the existence of an absolute truth. It is enough for a group of people to believe in an idea for it to become a reality. Therefore, we stand facing one story that is narrated from different points of view and the history that differs depending on the place, with insufficient evidence to take sides. Rather, the author deliberately focuses on one side in the beginning so that you as a viewer tend affectionately towards it, only to find yourself in a moral dilemma when you realize that the other team is not vastly different from the previous one.
Here we recall the first season opening, i.e., OST, which starts by stating a direct question in German:
“Seid ihr das Essen?” “Nein, wir sind der Jäger!”
“Are you the food? No, we are the hunters!” An endless circle, which is precisely the idea and basic foundation of the first part of the story. These titans target humans as prey, and now humans take the role of hunters to eliminate these titans.
A good narrative plays a role in framing our emotions within the traditional framework in which we see the image of the enemy as brutal, ugly, terrifying, and does not seem to use a mind. Rather, it kills people just for the sake of killing and destroying without obvious reasons, therefore, these titans become pure evil that must be eliminated. As a consequence, the feeling of anger and shock grows bigger, and in this context, we notice the author’s tendency to hire the emotional shocks method, not only for the reader or the viewer, but also, we see the characters collapsing, panicking, and undergo shocking situations that signal psychological effects, impossible to heal. Psychological trauma is one of the main factors in this work, thus we notice the changing features of the characters and the clarity of their grief. By simply looking at a picture of the same character at the beginning of the story and in advanced stages, we clearly observe the sad and cruel difference to which the main characters of the story are exposed.
As we emphasized before, all of this makes us take one side of the story, until the author makes us face the other side, then we realize the other huge facet that we did not see at first, therefore, we reshape a completely new point of view. The strength of the work lies in the plot twist, it presents the idea that we have not seen the whole picture, merely one facet of the truth, this denies the existence of an absolute truth that can be considered logical and acceptable. Once the author takes you to the other side, you will start questioning and doubting the events that occurred from the beginning and perceive them completely differently, it will be difficult later to pick a side and eventually you will choose impartiality. In the end, as Marcus Aurelius says, “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
The concept of good and evil is one of the problems that have always preoccupied philosophers throughout history, understanding and explaining evil is a heavy and confusing task. Some thinkers have tried to develop a conception of evil, including Claudia Card, a philosophy professor, who defined it in a simple and general way, as “reasonably foreseeable intolerable harms produced by culpable wrongdoings”. An action is considered evil as long as it is caused by a person intentionally to cause material or moral harm and as long as he is responsible for doing so.
The concepts of determining good and bad will differ depending on the difference in reality, as what is good for one group may be bad for another, as illustrated in Attack on Titan’s plot, which also raises questions about the concept of evil and its comprehension. Can we, for example, set a fixed standard that determines, morally, when an action is completely good and when it is evil? And the most important question that the work revolves around, is returning evil for evil a wicked act? In the story, we have different groups of people, each of them believes that their moral values are the fixed standard that distinguishes between good and evil, or truth and falsehood. Those people have formed prejudices stemming from an ideology that fuels resentment and hatred – especially among the Marleyans– that will, perhaps, turn out to be the true evil in the end. It is a lesson to understand the importance of meditation and philosophical thinking before judging things from a limited perspective. Bertrand Russell says, “The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason.” Looking beyond the horizon that we are accustomed to staring at is necessary to perceive the world in a better way.
The Self and Its Formation
What is self? What shapes it? Are we what we imagine ourselves to be, or is a large part hidden deep within us and is only discovered when we encounter something that causes it to be revealed? Does the self remain one throughout our lives or are we a combination of multiple selves at every stage of our lives? The work shed light on a notable theme which is the human self and its formation. In a slow pace, the self is slowly formed, from the desires we have, the life paths we take and the sharp turns in it and from our motives. The environment plays a significant role in the dreams and motivations that grow within a person, thus, what could someone, who lives inside what resembles a cage, dream of except freedom? However, life is constantly changing, and in the midst of this overwhelming chaos, a person no longer distinguishes well what is right and what is wrong, what his true identity is, and what he lives and struggles for. “Those who can’t abandon anything, can’t change anything” This saying is repeated in the story, as it explains the inevitability of change in life, and that whoever continues to try to reject and deny this change cannot progress. Yet, the plot heads another dark and gloomy path, as loss and defeat are two essential elements in this murky story, where characters encounter severe losses, such as homes, loved ones, dreams, and the worst thing is when we realize that the most significant thing the characters give up or lose – forcibly – is themselves.
The narration includes a display from up close of what is inside these characters who are unable to avoid harsh situations and events that attack their most fragile and vulnerable components. Here we review two figures to examine this idea:
Searching for Meaning: Erwin Smith
Terror Management Theory (TMT) was originally proposed by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski. The theory suggests that a person falls into a psychological struggle to realize the inevitability of his own death, as intense anxiety about mortality makes him counter biological reality with more significant and enduring forms of meaning and value. Most of the characters follow this approach, as humans live encircled by the desire to prove themselves and to feel that they are respected and appreciated. Possibly, most of the characters’ behaviors reflect this desire.
The character of the thirteenth commander of the Survey Corps, Erwin Smith, was tightly developed, making many fans respect him. In the beginning of the work, we see his ability to influence others and help them find meaning in their lives. He remained driven throughout his life by a personal dream, which is to discover the truth outside the walls, however, upon reaching a certain point, he began to examine his previous life, question most of his decisions and think of all the comrades and soldiers whom he led to death. Regret is an emotion with which a person feels that his life would have been better if he had made different choices in the past. Misery surrounds Erwin and he begins to conjecture whether the life he lived had any meaning or was it merely a selfish life to achieve a personal goal?
This existential anxiety regarding the meaning of life will continue to besiege humans, especially those with higher self-esteem. Humans will, consciously or unconsciously, seek to leave a legacy behind them, a meaning to their existence, which might lead us to most of our human interactions and life behaviors. Psychologists have argued that this existential anxiety about mortality is what drives us to form relationships and strive in life. Therefore, in the end we see Erwin courageously give up his dream, precisely when he has become so close to it, for one reason, which is to crown his life with meaning.
The Blurring of The Self: Eren Yeager
We must realize that understanding the world of Attack on Titan is an essential key to understanding the characters in it. Hence, in order to understand the main character that the work focuses on, Eren, we have to look at the world through his eyes. This character seems to be an accumulation of contradictions to many but studying it from various aspects shows us that the core of the work centers within him, and that he is the most complex, psychologically rich, and most developed character. If the development of characters is an essential factor in making the plot good, then this factor is represented here, and we must note that the character development intended does not necessarily mean developing into a “good” or “morally acceptable” character, but rather it means the growth of the character and its adaptation to external factors while maintaining the cohesion of its structure. Thus, this character is precisely the one through which we can see and understand the storyline of Attack on Titan. If we were to subject Eren to some kind of a rule, it would be difficult to determine his true self first. Did the circumstances he experienced shape the self he became? Or is this self the truth that he has always been, but it was not revealed until he faced certain circumstances? This might be an ethical issue that we cannot answer accurately.
The self is formed and built through knowledge, and if a huge rift occurs in this cognitive structure, or it collapses completely, it is likely that the self will also differ, as new thoughts and emotions will emerge. If we look closely at Eren’s character, his previous perception and awareness of the outside world was washed away to be replaced by a completely new concept, where his idea of the world around him changed and thus his idea and awareness of himself differed. We can draw a conclusion, that the self is changing and renewed, or we can liken human life to a story divided into several chapters, where we may live each chapter with a different self.
Eren has always been driven by anger, starting with deep-rooted anger at everyone who trapped him inside those walls. We see, in all stages of his life, that what moves him and drives him to live is the presence of his enemy, starting with the titans, then the traitorous friends, followed by the beliefs that restrict people around him and finally the entire world. It could be said that while he was seeking to seize a place for his existence in this world, he formed this dark self, which the conflict contributed to creating, so his existence became dependent on the existence of this conflict alone.
Symbolism of The Ocean: The Meaning of Freedom and Loss of Self
The goals and motivations of the protagonists differ, as we see a character whose ultimate goal is to go out and discover the unknown world and knowledge, while another character struggles to protect a person dear to him, and others struggle because of their sense of the importance of adhering to duty. Each of them has a unique dream that appears and disappears, and in the end, everyone strives for a peaceful world, even though this world seems far-fetched and more like a fantasy to them.
Because human curiosity is a nature that is difficult to curb, we naturally long for the mysterious unknown, and for the other side, even if we are not sure that it is more beautiful. These children have grown up dreaming of the wonders of the wider world, searching for a way out of these walls to discover what is beyond. One of the important symbols used by the author is evident in this context: “The ocean” and the quest to reach it. An enormous area of salt water that the people inside the walls have never seen or even imagined anything similar to.
The importance of this symbolism lies in two aspects. First, the way we see things is different. Even if a group of people stand in front of one painting, they observe it and understand it differently. It was Armin who introduced his friend Eren to that ocean outside the walls. He kept talking about it with an eagerness for knowledge and a longing to discover the outside world. For Armin, this ocean was important, as both knowledge and discovery have always been his motivations for moving forward. Nonetheless, the ocean was not as important for Eren, for his ultimate goal was to have the freedom to go out and see it, this was his strongest motivation. Anger grows little by little inside him because these mysterious things that he has yet to understand rob him of the freedom to live as part of this world in which he was created.
Second, on their way to the ocean, each character loses a large and important part of themselves, and things no longer have the same meaning, the road was rough, dark, and soul crushing. Finally, we watch, or read, the scene of reaching the ocean, which Hajime Isayama talked about in particular, where Armin holds a shell he picked up from the ocean and speaks with some joy. But without turning around, Eren stares miserably towards the distant horizon, saying: “Beyond that ocean lies freedom. That is what I always believed, but I was wrong”. The importance of this scene lies in the collapse of dreams to be replaced by harsh reality. In addition, the characters get past their childhood dreams to face this shocking, inevitable truth that crushes the soul, will this conflict end or will it continue forever? Is it worth it? The shell that Eren ignores and does not pay attention to represents that collapsed dream, disappointed expectations, and the innocent and dreamy stages of childhood and adolescence that they bid farewell to without returning.
Conclusion
It is difficult to cover this work and pinpoint all its aspects and understand them just in several pages, as one idea can have multiple interpretations. The plot, in turn, contains many philosophical, political, social, and even psychological ideas and topics that deserve contemplation, review and study. Presenting these ideas by the author does not mean supporting them, but rather an attempt to reinforce the idea of the importance of humanity.
What distinguished this work from other works is the remarkable intellectual richness and the philosophical and psychological introduction that does not make the reader and viewer express his thoughts superficially, but rather tries to understand them and explore the depths of this world and the wonderful and cohesive narrative structure. Every small detail in this work has a meaning behind it, or an idea that will be revealed later. Additionally, each character in this work is a character with integrated dimensions, however, the reflections herein were only the presentation of a small part of a huge, multi-faceted story.
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