What is (wrong with) Attack on Titan?
In the world of Attack on Titan (from now on: Shingeki no Kyojin), antisemitic tropes are not conspiracy theories but canonical facts, and genocide is a question up for debate. Like many others I felt uncomfortable with the direction the series took. In this piece I try to make sense of what exactly is wrong with it.
This review contains spoilers.
Spoilers. You were warned.
The story as it is written:
The story of Shingeki no Kyojin starts in a kingdom hidden behind giant walls. Outside these walls are titans, grotesque monsters that want to devour the humans inside the walls. However, the kingdom is a hermit kingdom and its inhabitants are not the last survivors of humanity, but the descendants of an exiled tribe. That island is loathed by the outside world, because of past crimes the island’s inhabitants may or may not have committed. There are no historians in the world of Shingeki no Kyojin. The first king of the island vowed to renounce war indefinitely. He also conveniently deleted the memories of his people. This works because the population is largely homogenous and more importantly, because of the unique traits of his subjects, which are: 1) they have the unique ability to transform into titans by injection of a certain fluid, 2) they are all spiritually connected with each other through their original ancestor.
Some descendants of that ethnic group remained outside the walls. The dominant empire of the outside world built ghettos that confine them and they have to wear armbands so that they are distinguishable from other citizens. The giant empire uses the supernatural titan powers of this ethnic minority as weapons of war. There are rumours, however, that one family of said minority pulls the strings behind the empire. This rumour turns out to be true.
A new powerful natural resource has been discovered on the island of the hermit kingdom. The hermit kingdom fears an invasion. It preemptively attacks the empire, which then forms a global alliance to destroy the kingdom. One member of the hermit kingdom, who has obtained titan powers that equal weapons of mass destruction, preemptively commits genocide against the inhabitants of the continent, murdering as many people as he can. Other inhabitants of the hermit kingdom try to stop him, but ultimately, they thank him for committing genocide.
What the story refers to:
If this reads like the lore of a religious cult or a crude conspiracy theory, it is because it kind of does. Isayama’s manga represents a confused mix of historical references and conspiracy theories, underpinned by a pessimist view of history. Unlike Saga of Tanya the Evil which takes place during an alternative WWI, where every actor is easily identifiable (Empire = German Empire etc.), Shingeki no Kyojin is a strange mess. Works like Itagaki Paru’s Beastars or Asano Inio’s Dead Dead Demon’s DeDeDeDe Destruction too work with ambiguous metaphors that can’t be resolved coherently. But Shingeki no Kyojin takes this to another level. Here is my attempt to disentangle some of what I laid out in my summary.
What is this hermit kingdom? An island nation who lost its memories of the past wars and feels threatened by its neighbouring countries. It’s Japan. The characters might have names like Jäger or Ackermann, but it is obvious that this manga is about Japan and the struggles it has with its own history (I will talk about the Azumabito clan later).
In the manga, the inhabitants of the hermit kingdom have forgotten about past war crimes and the outside world altogether, because of manipulation through titan powers.1 The Vow of Renouncing War, subtly visualised as chains that keep Eldians, the name of that ethnic group, under control, refers to Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which reads as follows: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”
Of course I am not the first one to notice “uncomfortable parallels to global anti-Semitism, far-right Japanese politics, and Isayama’s own personal politics.”2 The reference to Japanese politics brought up in the manga might be less obvious to those who do not know much about Japan outside of manga and anime
The setting of Shingeki no Kyojin constantly brings up two questions that have been integral to the discourse on WWII in postwar Japan: 1) How long do we have to feel guilty about war crimes of the past? (At one point in the manga, a character asks: “How long do you want to play the victim for something that took place 2000 years ago.” ). And 2) Should we change the constitution to be able to engage in wars again?
The ongoing debate about protecting/revising the Japanese constitution as well as the Japanese history textbook controversy on how to teach about crimes committed by the Japanese empire, including the comfort woman issue, are still heavily disputed in Japan. The Japanese left, in general, fights to protect article 9 and to acknowledge Japan’s responsibility for war crimes, while the Japanese right tends to oppose both.
Leaving Japanese politics for a bit, it should be easier for international viewers to spot references to historical antisemitism and antisemitic conspiracy theories in the manga. First, there is the depiction of the Marleyian ghetto and the Eldians who are forced to live there and have to wear star-embroidered armbands. These depictions refer both visually and narratively to Nazi ghettos during World War II. That is unambiguous. Marlyians are Nazis playing baseball and the “Japanese-Jewish” Eldians are their victims.
Antisemitic conspiracy theories have found their way into the manga as well. The Eldians are able to transform into man-eating monsters and they are all connected through a supernatural power with their ancestors. In the world of Shingeki no Kyojin this is no conspiracy theory.
What about the Jewish World Conspiracy? At the time the Tybur Family, Eldian nobles that live as honorary Marleyans, are introduced in the manga, there are rumours in the story that this family might be pulling the strings behind the empire. And as it turns out, this is canonical as well. In the world of Shingeki no Kyojin, the Jewish World Conspiracy is not a conspiracy theory, but a canonical fact.
Who wants to start a war:
At the heart of Shingeki no Kyojin is the story of victims of history fighting for freedom. There has to be a just reason for that fight. Otherwise it would be an act of aggression. But to depict a war against Japan (or a fictional placeholder for Japan), there needs to be a justification to turn the country into a victim first.
In Code Geass, another globally popular anime, the Holy Britannian Empire invades Japan and turns it into a colony, which is then renamed to Area 11. The reason behind this invasion is to secure Sakuradite, a rare mineral used as power source that this fictional Japan has an abundance of.
Shingeki no Kyojin is a bit more subtle, but not much. The hermit kingdom is attacked and later about to be invaded by the Marleyian Empire to 1) Secure weapons of mass destruction (Titan powers) 2) Secure a new magical natural resource, so called Iceburst stones.
It is an obvious fiction, because in reality Japan has virtually no natural resources. But without this gimmick, the whole victim charade would be unconvincing. It enables Japanese viewers, descendants of a former colonial power, to identify as victims of colonialism instead of the perpetrators behind it.
Here, I have to talk about the Azumabito and the Hizuru nation, the ethnical Japanese of this world. They are the only nation outside the walls that tolerates Eldians. But it becomes clear quickly that their representative, Azumabito Kyoko, seeks to profit from the magical natural resource found on the island. She is greedy and literally drools at the thought of enriching herself.
One of the ongoing self-critiques of Japan’s postwar is that Japanese people had forgotten their values and traditions after losing WWII and instead succumbed to greed and materialism. You can find such criticisms on both sides of the political spectrum: Some prominent examples are Mishima Yukio and Ishihara Shintarō on the (far-)right and Ōbayashi Nobuhiko on the left. Particularly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami such sentiments rekindled and many Japanese writers and intellectuals hoped for a return to “traditional values”. The Azumabito represent the materialistic, greedy and opportunistic “bad” Japanese that such national self-critiques are concerned with.
The Pros and Cons of Genocide
In the last part of the manga, Eren, our protagonist, wages war against the whole world. His friends try to stop him, but ultimately they acknowledge that he’s been doing it for their survival. (Eren’s best friend Armin says in the end “Eren. Thank you that you turned into a mass murderer for us”). In this manga, the pros and cons of genocide are openly discussed and ultimately, with some hesitation, the pro side wins.
You could argue that the Eldians had no other choice than preemptively committing genocide in order to survive, but that is besides the point. The question you need to ask yourself is not: “Does genocide makes sense in this fictional world?” But instead: “Why is this fictional world constructed in such a way that genocide becomes a viable option?”
What remains in the end are no new insights, but truisms like: “History is written by the winners”. Or: “Every nation has blood on their hands”. They all divert attention from the guilt and responsibility left behind by the Japanese Empire. A Japanese author being even remotely vague about the illegitimacy of genocide should be reason enough to view his work critically. On the other hand, I don’t think Isayama’s historical stance is original or unique in the Japanese context. I do think he lacks the intellectual and artistic capacity to responsibly deal with the topics he chose to depict and the weight of responsibility that comes along with it. Doing so, he spreads talking points of the Japanese far-right to a global audience that, in many cases, does not even recognise what they refer to.
I finished Shingeki no Kyojin last year. I hesitated to read the final arc. A friend told me it wasn’t worth my time. But I felt like I had to put it to a close and finish the series. And. It was really as bad as she told me. Even if you ignore everything I discussed in this text, what awaits you at the end is ultimately just some terrible writing, as bad as the poor art quality the manga originally became known for. Isayama apparently doesn’t want to start a new series and I strongly feel it’s for the better.3
To my surprise there was a critical remark in the manga, implying that homogenous populations are easier to brainwash.
Tom Speelman: “The fascist subtext of Attack on Titan can’t go overlooked”., https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/18/18683609/attack-on-titan-fascist-nationalist-isayama-hajime-manga-anime
Source: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2022-11-30/attack-on-titan-creator-hajime-isayama-at-anime-nyc/.192086
Strongly argued!