With the official launch of the second part of the final season of the Attack on Titan anime on January 9, this phenomenal work that began in 2013 is finally coming to an end after nearly a decade (animation).
From the beginning of the god work recognized by most anime fans, to the controversial ending written now, "Attack on Titan" has come a long way. Just like its characters: there are highs and lows, once the grand ambition encountered insurmountable difficulties, how to write their own endings so as not to disregard the original intention?
The most important thing to talk about Attack on Titan is to understand the three main characters in the work: Allen, Mikasa, and Armin. (Spoilers included below)
It is not uncommon in Japanese manga to feature manga that resemble a trio of protagonists, the most classic of which is probably the Naruto-Sasuke-Sakura duo in Naruto. Compared with the way the protagonists and supporting characters are expressed in Japanese comics, designs such as "Naruto" and "Giant" can better express the emotions between the main characters - fighting for friends who grew up together is always more empathetic than fighting for justice and strangers.
The profound portrayal of emotion is the most infectious part of attack on titan.
Armin
Armin is the least existent of the three protagonists, and compared to the strong courage and sense of justice shown by Allen, Armin seems a little cowardly and hesitant. Is he really cowardly? Obviously not, as a child he was always bullied by bad boys as aliens because he was curious about the world outside the wall, and Armin would not change his persistence even if he was bullied; when he grew up, after learning that the world outside the wall was so dangerous, and understanding the dark side of the world, he did not give up pursuing his dreams.
His bravery is beyond doubt.
And Armin's problem is his kindness, he is not the kind of kindness that does not distinguish between the occasion and the enemy, but when Alan Mikasa helps him drive away the bad children, he feels guilty that he always needs help, but he can't reciprocate the kindness for them, and it is the kindness that his teammates give him the burden, he worries that he can't be good enough.
In this case, Armin will appear hesitant. He has a brilliant mind and thinks about things in a way that is above his teammates, and it is in this way that he can make plans that break through everyone's limitations. It is also because of this that he will think too much when he hesitates.
Throughout the work, Armin has been growing, from the unknown little person in the first season to finally taking over the position of the head of the Investigation Corps, but the growth is not achieved overnight, and it is inevitable to experience hardships and confusion on the road to growth.
Mikasa
For Mikasa, she grew up early from the moment her family was broken. She never had any moments of hesitation, she was so decisive and brave.
But the day her parents died, she was so deeply imprinted that she looked like a child who grew up overnight. She didn't think about the world outside the walls, she always hoped to go back to the days when she was with her parents; she understood the cruelty of the world too early, no matter what changes it was, it was difficult to change her heart; Mikasa regarded Alan as the last real relative, and used her life to protect him in this cruel world.
The problem is that Mikasa is too emotionally dependent on Ellen, and the friendship and love from childhood to adulthood are so deep that this emotion makes her always look at Ellen's behavior in a better direction, and even if there is doubt, she is always willing to believe in Ellen.
It wasn't until Ellen denied her feelings, until The Ground Sound was launched, that Mikasa changed from blindly following Ellen to making a choice herself little by little.
In fact, at this point, Mikasa has changed from a stereotypical flat character to a full three-dimensional character with his own rich feelings, but in the end, is it a bit too late for Isayama to highlight Mikasa's change and shape the tragic ending, so that Mikasa personally killed Alan's design.
Allan
As the first protagonist of "Giants", Allen's description of his growth is the most colorful. His growth is a bit of a clear node twist that the reader can feel very directly:
Childhood and dreams
845 Mega Giant invasion
The First Giant Crusade
Underground caves
· The award ceremony sees the future
See the sea
Travel to Marais
…
In these large and small twists, Alan only has a few scenes, such as growth and degeneration in underground caves, which are positive and positive; in most nodes, Isayama designs only those angry, frustrated, and desperate emotions for Alan; this creates that no matter how much Alan looks like a hot-blooded male protagonist in a traditional juvenile manga in the early stages of the manga or animation, but in fact he can only be a teenager who slowly slides down to a tragic ending.
Even when Armin first shared his dream with him, Alan's most immediate emotion was 'it's all so unforgivable':
Although Alan and Armin have the same dream of looking at the world outside the wall, their dreams are fundamentally different.
Armin's world outside the wall is more of a curiosity, a yearning for the unknown, and wants to know more about the world. But Alan was not like this, he did not yearn so much when he heard Armin talk about the water of the flames, the frozen earth, and he really saw the water of the flames on his deathbed, and it was only very calm.
What really fascinated him was that Armin had a dream. Alan's life inside the walls had always been boring, doing nothing every day, very ordinary and nothing special happened, and he didn't know what the meaning of life was. Armin brought him a dream that gave his life meaning.
Alan got the meaning of dreams and life from Armin—the beautiful outside the wall, the world that wasn't boring or boring, and the meaning of 'freedom' that came with it.
So when he went through so much suffering, the sacrifice of his teammates and companions, the death of respectable elders, and learned that the suffering in his hometown came from another human being; when he came to Marais, he collapsed when he learned that the world outside the wall was like inside the wall, or the boring and even dark oppressive world.
So when he saw that when the earth sounded, all the obstacles were gone, leaving only a fairyland-like, newborn world, he felt that he had found freedom. But this freedom is false and is based on violence and suffering. Allen originally looked at the world with good eyes, but the world of facts was cruel, resulting in a huge separation between personal cognition and the real world. And Allen can't accept such a split, which is his tragedy.
Isayama gives Alan a tragic ending, which is determined by the ambush line buried early in the whole work, but the ending of the work is too hasty to fully understand Allen's final transformation. This is also the regret of the giant's work and the role of Allen.
epilogue
Some say Attack on Titan is about "a group of kids struggling to fight their childhood trauma." In fact, putting aside the cloak of war and human nature in giants, the core exposed is such a non-complicated thing. Content like 'War and Peace' is too deep for Isayama to grasp the scale, and although the core theme has flaws, "Attack on Titan" is still relatively well completed. I also hope that the animated version of the giant can supplement the shortcomings at the end of the manga and make this work more perfect.