Hajime Isayama began his Attack on Titan journey in September 2009 and ended in April 2021. The fans loved the narrative, and the plot twists made it even more intriguing. After the manga was adapted into an anime, its popularity increased. After running for ten years, it concluded and left the fans grief-stricken.
Even though Isayama gained worldwide fame, he still regretted a particular thing about his creation. The ending was thought to be too rushed, but more than the ending, he regretted building the Attack on Titan world. He felt that he could have done better if he had taken more time to do it.
Attack On Titan Was Not Perfect From Hajime Isayama’s Perspective
Attack on Titan became one of the greatest anime ever and broke several records during its decade-long journey. If the ending issue is ignored, it was the perfect masterpiece created by Hajime Isayama. The character designs, and the plot twists had everyone on the edge of their seats. But Isayama was not convinced with it. He felt that he needed to give more attention to details during world-building.
During an interview, he said,
“I came up with the original idea for the one-shot called “Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)” that won me my first-ever prize, and then I didn’t think about it for a while after that until I was 22 or 23 or so when my editor asked me to consider making that old one-shot into a long-term series, at which point I spent a half a year coming up with the details of that whole world. I still feel like it’s pretty shallow compared to the level of the sci-fi universes my older artist friends shared — like, I never read Mu [a Japanese magazine about all things paranormal] or any of that.”
Spending an entire six months on world-building shows his dedication to his work. In those six months, he did not focus on any other things. He assembled the pieces, laid out the designs, studied the possible outcomes, planned it, and yet he was unhappy with the result. Isayama was pretty committed to setting up the Titan world. The fans loved the background and the world, but he didn’t. It shows how much of a perfectionist he was.
Hajime Isayama Always Focused On The Details
Hajime Isayama had an elite mentality, which is depicted in his works. Attack on Titan is a detailed manga, yet there was never a feeling of it being too tedious. Popular manga mostly take a couple of years before getting an anime adaptation, but Attack on Titan took almost four years before making it on the big screen. Isayama’s fascination with sci-fi and Godzilla was visible in his magnum opus.
Even though he is so good at the details, the ending of Attack on Titan was a bit disappointing for the fans. The last-minute changes tried to clear up the mess, but the majority of the ending remained unchanged. While the ending and world-building were major regrets of the mangaka, he also regretted not giving Eren and Mikasa a proper kissing scene. Even the fans were left disappointed with it.
Attack on Titan can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
