Attack on Titan is not just one of the most popular anime and manga franchises of the last decade, it is one of the most popular anime and manga franchises of all time. The series has fans all over the world and features an action-packed story full of plot twists and betrayals, complex characters, an amazing soundtrack, fast-paced combat, and of course the large, terrifying Titans.
Some fans of the series have often wondered about how the creator of Attack on Titan, Hajime Isayama, got the idea for the story and the setting and how it developed into a manga. Over the years, Isayama has provided insight into his inspiration for the series and its history as well.
How did Attack on Titan go from a one-shot to a full-fledged manga?
Initially, the series was a one-shot of 65 pages written by Isayama when he was just nineteen years old. It was only a few years later that his editor asked him to expand it into something larger, which became the Attack on Titan we know today. Speaking on this process to Mangabrog, Isayama said:
“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.”
Once everything was ready, they presented it to Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump, the top-selling manga magazine in Japan, in the hopes of getting it published. Rumor has it that they were rejected though, as the magazine asked them to make it more age-appropriate keeping in mind their audience. Instead of doing that, Isayama took Attack on Titan to Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, their rivals in the manga industry, where it found its home after starting publication in September 2009.
What was the inspiration for Attack on Titan?
As a child, Isayama was inclined towards physical education and combat sports, but his small frame made it difficult for him to compete well, as he always lost in sumo against larger opponents. This made him self-conscious about his body. Commenting on this to the Asahi Shimbun, Isayama said, “I recognized I was inferior. I adored the strong, and I had this underlying desire to change my physique”.
This idea hit home when he was working at an internet café in Tokyo when a larger, foreign customer who was irate about something grabbed him by the collar. Describing the incident in the same interview, Isayama said, “I felt the fear of meeting a person I can’t communicate with”. This fear was then channeled by him into Attack on Titan, where both size and being unable to communicate with the enemy (Titans), at least initially, were constant themes.
Source: Looper
