Hajime Isayama has etched his name among the greatest mangaka to ever live. Even though there were a few controversies surrounding the ending of Attack on Titan, he made some last-minute changes for the fans to bid farewell to Eren Jaeger in the most heartbreaking way possible. Even though the anime was based on human survival and fighting the Titans, it was initially planned to have a different plot.
Over the last decade, the Attack on Titan creator has let on several secrets about his magnum opus. One of his biggest secrets that most fans are not aware of is that initially, he had a different story. Instead of the humans vs. Titans, he was opting for Titans vs. Titans, and that too in the most logical way possible.
Hajime Isayama Wanted To Have Mixed Martial Arts In Attack on Titan
The Attack on Titan creator is a man of many talents, and he often finds inspiration from things he comes across. The concept of humans getting hunted by the Titans was always there at the back of his head, but he wanted a bit more. During an interview with MyAnimeList, Hajime Isayama revealed a different path, which he did not venture. He was asked about the changes that were made in the beginning of the anime.
He replied,
“In the beginning, what appealed to me was this framework of humanity being hunted to near extinction by man-eating titans. Like something out of The Village or The Mist. That, and since I’m a fan of mixed martial arts, I also wanted to draw the titans in hand-to-hand combat with each other. And not like stage combat you’d see in professional wrestling or Ultraman, either —I wanted to draw honest-to-god fights using logical moves you could kill someone with. But then, once I had drawn a few scenes like that and I got the urge out of my system, I realized I didn’t actually want to do those all that much [laughter].”
Even though Isayama sensei did not go for the mixed martial arts idea among the Titans, he could get over the idea altogether. The cadets used mixed martial arts during training, and the shape-shifting Titans used the method against each other, especially when Eren Jaeger fought with Reiner Braun. Every anime fan remembers Attack Titan’s choke hold on the Armored Titan.
Titans Became A Secondary Character In Attack on Titan
The mangaka opted for the mixed martial arts idea to be solely for the Titans since the anime was named after them. But as the story progressed, the human trio of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin got all the glory and were the ones who got to use the fighting techniques. Even though the Titans were bigger, the human characters were much bigger when it came to popularity.
It is hard to predict whether the anime would be better or worse if Hajime Isayama went along with his initial plan, but Titans going Baki Hanma over other Titans would have given the anime a different perspective. In the end, it would still have been humans vs. humans since the Titans were originally humans who were forcefully transformed into those flesh-eating giants.
Attack on Titan is available on Crunchyroll.
