Attack on Titan / Shingeki No Kyojin

About

Attack on Titan (Japanese: 進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin ; lit. “Advancing Giants”) is a manga series first created by Japanese author Hajime Isayama and an anime series produced by anime studio Production I.G. Set in a post-apocalyptic, medieval fortified society from an alternate history, the story follows Eren Yeager, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman and their friend Armin Arlert, who all enlist in the military to join the humanity’s epic battle for survival against a race of gigantic, destructive humanoids known as the Titans.

History

In an interview with the Nihon TV program Zip!^[22], Isayama said that the idea for the Titans came from an encounter he had with a drunk customer while working at an internet cafe. Unable to understand or communicate with him, Isayama said he was inspired by his utter inability to communicate with a fellow human who spoke the same language, leading him to conclude that “the most familiar and scary in the world is actually the humanity.”

In September 2009, the original manga series ran on the Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine and later published as a standalone book on March 17th, 2010. The popularity of the series soon paved the way for an anime series adaptation to be produced by Production I.G and directed by Tetsurō Araki, who is most well known for his work on series such as High School of the Dead and Death Note. The anime mini-series premiered on April 6th, 2013 and the finale episode aired on September 28th, 2013. In addition to the manga and anime series, a live-action film adaptation has been announced, with no release date disclosed as of yet, as well as several visual novels for PlayStation 3.

Online Relevance

Since the airing of the anime series, Attack on Titan has garnered an international following on the web and a particularly strong presence on English-speaking communities like Tumblr^[1], Reddit^[2], 4chan’s /a/ Anime and Manga board^[3], DeviantART^[10], Fanpop^[4], My Anime List^[5] and FanFiction.net^[6]. In addition, there are a number of referential hubsites about the series, such as the Shigeki no Kyojin wiki^[7], TV Tropes^[8] and Anime News Network.^[9]

Sink Fandom on Tumblr

In early July 2013, Tumblr users began sharing stock photographs of sinks under the tag “sink fandom,”^[19] a tongue-in-cheek fandom born out of confusing “SNK,” which is the English initialism for the original series title “Shingeki No Kyojin,” with “sinks.” On July 19th, the single topic blog Fuck Yeah Sink Fandom^[18] was launched. On July 20th, Tumblr users SlipperyDipper^[15] and Whovian9and34^[16] posted compilations of sink images, gaining more than 49,000 likes and 56,000 likes within the first week.

Related Memes

Attack on Titan Opening Parodies

Attack on Titan Opening Parodies, locally known as Guren no Yumiya, refer to a series of remix videos and MADs based on the original opening sequence and title song of the show, which can be found on YouTube^[11] and Nico Nico Douga^[12].

What Is It Eren?

What Is It Eren? is a meme which originates from a panel in Chapter 14 of the Attack on Titan manga^[20], in which Jean Kirschtein is shown replying to Eren after making a speech detailing his motivations to join the military police.Due to the exaggerated facial expression made by Jean, the panel was subject to parody, prompting the creation of several different parodies, as well as a Tumblr single topic blog^[21].

Attack on Titan Photo Fad

The Attack on Titan Photo Fad refers to a series of group pictures in which people re-enact scenes of skirmishes between the humans and the Titans in forced perspective. The meme originated in April 2013 after Japanese Twitter users began sharing photos of themselves staging the familiar scenes from the opening credits sequence.

Attack on Titan Poster Parodies

Attack on Titan Poster Parodies refers to a number of parodies involving a promotional poster used to advertise the show, featuring Eren standing in front of the Colossal Titan, which is in the process of destroying the walls. After a live-action parody was created by concept artist Kouji Tajima^[14], inspired by the upcoming live action movie based on the series, a number of other parodies were made, featuring characters from other fandoms.

Cleaning Levi

Cleaning Levi is a nickname given to the character Levi. He has been featured in many of fan works and parodies for this franchise.

Moe Titans

Moe Titans refers to a number of background Titans from within the show who have gained popularity within the fandom, due to looking significantly less intimidating than other titans from within the show, instead seeming more moe in appearance. These moe Titans have gained popularity on Tumblr^[13], spawning a number of fan art.