What Makes Attack on Titan Popular?

attack on titan has some of the worst artwork I've ever seen in a popular manga there's a kind of stilted awkward quality to the way the characters are rendered with gaunt stiff facial expressions rigid scratchy line work and unexpressive posing it's something that its author Hajime isayama has repeatedly acknowledged in interviews and was even mentioned alongside his first publicized work when he won an award for his short ORS this section of text right here mentioning that the artwork featured was the worst in the awards history and it's not like Issei Yama can't produce a compelling composition when he needs to or that he hasn't improved over time which she has but looking back at these early volumes it's hard to imagine that anyone at the time would have been able to predict that this series was going to go on to become one of the most staggeringly successful in existence today globally attack on Titan has sold a recorded 66 million volumes and done so in a store years but even these sales figures belies the mass cultural penetration of this series a title with widespread mainstream success not only in Japan but in foreign shores as well leading to all manner of merchandise videogames a pair of live action movies nonsensical spin-offs and even a crossover with Marvel's Avengers hell I was watching a dating show with my parents on public Irish television and somehow it even came up there Oh no great stuff guys the series has reached such a point that for me personally the more interesting conversation now is not the inherent quality or lack thereof of the series itself but what are the factors that caused its explosive mainstream popularity in other words what makes attack on titan popular the simplest answer to this could be attributed to the success of the 2013 anime and while that definitely was the point where the series really took off the fact is that even before the anime existed in spite of the artwork attack on Titan was averaging at around 30,000 volumes sold which is an impressive sales figure for a brand new non Shonen Jump series and it did this while being published and be relatively unknown Basu Shonen magazine a publication with a circulation of only around 66,000 units meaning that attack on Titan sales were being driven nearly entirely by word of mouth alone so even before the anime something about this series was really resonating with a public at large and I think a big part of that can be attributed to the series core premise attack on Titan tells the story of a world infested with Titans massive lumbering humanoid entities that appeared suddenly one day and devoured most of the world's population causing the remains of humanity to take refuge behind the giant walls of the capital city it's a compelling premise but also one that's very simple with only a sentence or two it's very easy to put across the basic story and conflict of attack on Titan meaning that it's very easy for word of mouth to create intrigue around attack on Titans world which in turn means that a lot more people are going to end up checking it out and I think to really understand the appeal of this world we need to first examine it's starring character no not him not her either oh come on definitely not him there we go the titular Titans themselves as humans we are the unquestionably dominant species on this planet and I think what so many people find so compelling about the Titans is hello Shirley they take that away from us it's the same sensation as peering down on a train of ants except now we are the ants this is also an appeal that the Titans share with one of their major influences that of the Japanese kaiju roughly translated from Japanese meaning strange beasts cuz you are the massive monstrosities that are synonymous with 20th century Japanese cinema originally being inspired by 1933 s King Kong and 1953 's the beast from 20,000 fathoms the genre took its spiritual form with 1954 s Godzilla and in a single movie Tovah represented the national feelings of pain and inadequacy as Japan was brought to its knees by a massive foreign threat directly mirroring the post-world War two mindset of a harush Mascara nation kaiju are the living embodiment of national paranoia the threat that at any moment some strange unknowable danger could emerge and destroy our lives as we know us and this same fundamental fear is part of what makes the Titans so compelling as antagonists and also part of why the series carried so much appeal in its home country of Japan as Titans were a fresh take want to become one of the nation's best-loved fictional staples unlike kaiju though which tend to resemble animals or creatures of myth Titans resemble us there's an uncanny disturbing quality to the Titans appearance and this is one aspect in which I think sa gammas are actually really helped the series while he took influence from old horror manga like he'll teach in obey his scratchy disorientated lines did do a lot to carry the fear of these creatures and I think more polished renderings would remove some of that initial uncanny quality there's also the bizarre child likely a lot of the Titans seem to express when approaching humans which really drives home just how little of it as humans actually are to them the other major staple of pop culture attack on titan draws on with its Titans is of course the Western zombie zombies are a kind of catch-all metaphor for whatever you want them to be they've been used as an analogy for consumerism for disease for class devoid for nihilism whatever issue you might have with modern society a zombie can represent us which not only is an appeal shared by the Titan but also why in 2013 when the attack on titan anime aired america was in the throes of its love affair with zombie with season 3 of the world shatteringly popular Walking Dead about to air as well as the undead being the focal points of many major video game series of this time meaning that the West at large was primed and hungry for a fresh take on the undead and that was a role that the Titans fulfilled and in doing so made the show infinitely more marketable to a widespread American audience however I think the real appeal of zombies isn't specifically the creature itself but moreso the landscape it creates and by that I mean zombies often herald the fall of society most zombie media focuses not on trying to avert the end of the world but on what happens once the world has ended and society crumbles a setting where regular social norms fall away in favor of pure survival which in realistic terms may not sound all that appealing but in fantastical terms this kind of scenario is essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card for all your current social financial and professional obligations and no matter how terrifying the threat that brought it about maybe the idea of being able to abandon all current responsibilities and start again is a powerful one for people and also why I think the world created by the appearance of the Titans carries so much intrigue for people the Titans create a landscape completely devoid of modern societal worries the perfect fantasy to escape from day-to-day life and so it's the combination of two of the best love monster archetypes in existence than born the Titan a kind of perfect predator in the fictional world of series but also a creature that based off past media was merely mathematically guaranteed to be a hit both in a tome of Japan and in the West the other major aspects of the show's appeal is the very particular way it treats its human characters the sheer size difference between your average human and your average Titan all but nagae any natural physical advantage one person would have over another meaning that if you want to be a toughest boy in attack on titans world you can do that and if you want to be a toughest girl well you can do that too there's an ungentle 'ti to hell the series treats its characters you can see this especially in the uniforms of humanity's Defense Force everyone regardless of gender wears the same basic stylish outfits and the reason this matters is because it gives the fantasy of being one of these soldiers the broadest possible appeal while also making the uniform itself one of the most infinitely cost playable in existence for years after release of the first season may it was impossible to go to a con and not see literally dozens of different takes on it and whether you want to keep it simple on a budget or go all-out you're probably going to look pretty goddamn good doing so it tends to suit all body types and ages meaning for at least a couple of years there this was the most desirable cosplay on the scene which only further enhanced the series global appeal as seemingly everyone wanted to and could be a member of humanity's Defense Force then there's the actual combat itself each encounter an attack on Titan is why the show's very nature a David versus Goliath as conflicts of the most extreme proportions with the actual aerial combat itself feeling entirely unique to practically any other style of combat in any series but it's also devastatingly simple to understand it has no internal rule set or nothing that needs prior knowledge to appreciate which means that while lacking in any real depth or nuance it can be quickly and easily viewed and enjoyed by the broadest possible audience the final part of the appeal of attack on Titans human characters is that they die a loss quite frequently and quite brutally and to understand the true mainstream appeal of this look at any big talked about moments from any huge TV show not aimed at a young audience and death is most likely going to play a significant role in us we as an audience just seem to get some deeply Makar Beck catharsis from watching fictional characters die and this is yet another reason why such a large number of people are so engaged with this series most of what we talked about up until this point our aspects shared by both the manga and the anime but where the series popularity really exploded was in 2013 with the airing of the anime and a key part of this was the series director Tetsuro Araki who was a damn near perfect choice to convey this kind of story and what I mean by that is attack on Titan is a series of moments it's not really something you watch to see characters slowly develop or to bathe in subtle atmosphere or to watch a narrative steadily progress rather it's a show of big flashy emotional outburst dramatic and often ludicrous plot twists and intense explosions of action and the reason that rocky not that one is so well suited to this kind of story is that these moments are just the kind of intense instances he's exceptional at conveying he knows just how to move a camera in a 3d space to maximize the energy and drama of a single second whether it's something as small as like taking the potato chip in Death Note or as massive as the colossal Titan swinging his arm and destroying the armaments of war Maria there's a velocity and an impact to hell he directs the scene greatly adding to the visual appeal of the show these moments are also complemented by arguably one of the best soundtracks of recent times which will be in great music also as a way of swelling and exploding that beautifully complements those moments of intense visual drama kind of like this [Music] [Music] although not hurting matters is that has three of the most fiscally intense open existence each one in its own way doing an oddly effective job of instilling patriotism for a country that does not exist what all this accounts for is that essentially the production of attack on Titan fix the series biggest issue its artwork these stilted stiff sketches of the manga are reborn as lavishly animated sequences thus removing the final barrier between attack on Titan and true mainstream success and with these restraints have gone this series was free to rampage across TV screens around the world which took the series sales from the tens of thousands well into the millions and cemented attack on Titan as a full-blown global phenomenon of course the handling of the animes adaptation aside none of this is to speak to the actual quality of attack on Titan story a lot of criticism gets levelled this series and in many cases I think rightfully so well there's several characters I personally really enjoy it's hard to ever really shake the feeling that what you're watching is a melodrama with many of the characters operating off a single core motivator and often being subject to irrational and sometimes even nonsensical emotional outbursts or actions the patient can feel staggered in a way that makes sections of the show a real slog while those intense moments we mentioned earlier are the driving force behind the show's narrative the space is connecting those moments are far less enjoyable as without any real character development to pick up the slack they kind of just act as empty hallways to the next major action scene or plot reveal and the overall narrative itself gets pretty out there later on and does lose a lot of the thematic purity of the first few episodes and I think ultimately how much you're going to enjoy attack on Titan is going to depend on your willingness to forego conventionally well written characters and a coherent well paced narrative in favor of a fantastical post-apocalypse world of spectacle mystery and bombast and if this video has done anything I hope it's highlighted for you why that trade so many people seem willing to make as sometimes people just want to inhabit a fantasy world where their own day to day problems feel a million miles away and through the multitude of different factors that we talked about today this is the world attack untighten provides and I don't think there's anything wrong with that hell it's why I like it and why I think at least attack on titan is popular [Music] friends as always I want to thank you for joining me today I hope you enjoyed the video and if you did consider heading over to patreon complex to / iPad where you can see your names listed with all these fantastically amazing people right here or come hang out on the let's fight about video game podcast for our landmark 50th episode where we will be heralding the dawn of a new probably terrible Sonic game or come find me on Twitter pipe a old friend take care of yourself and I'll see you next you [Music]

Channel: Super Eyepatch Wolf

Views: 788,527

Keywords: Attack On Titan, What Makes Attack on Titan Popular, Levi, Erin, Mikasa, Annie, Season 2, OP

Id: FaPSzvMO8Fo

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2017