Review of Attack on Titan
Jessie Ju
Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written andillustrated by Hajime Isayama, which was recreated into an anime last year. Theanime basically talks about human beings who fight against titans inside thewall in order to survive. I watched it five times at least and it deeply movedme. There are three points that moves me the most.
First of all, Attack on Titan makes me realize that theworld is cruel and the weaks are theprey of the strongs. There is always the law of jungle wherever I go around theworld. This is also the reason why some people live a happy life and somepeople don’t. At first I thought the titans were too bloody, but I soonconvinced myself. In some extent, human beings are playing the role as thetitans do. Human beings don’t have natural enemy on this planet, so they killother animals, as many they want. However, this situation changes completelyafter they meet those titans. That is the first time those human beings feelthe threat of death. As the main character Eren Jaeger states in the firstepisode: “On that day, mankind received a grim reminder. We lived in the fearof titans, and were disgraced to live in these cages we called walls.” In thisquote, Isayama uses diction to indicate the idea that human beings are likeanimals in this case. They live in “cages we called walls” instead of just“walls”. We are like those other animals in the world. We finally start torealize the importance of life after we meet titans. Obviously, Attack on Titansatirizes the heartless of human beings and their behaviors.
On the other hand, Attackon Titan teaches me the importance of having the courage to fight againstenemies. Sometimes it can be fairly hard to have the courage. In most people’sdaily life, we don’t really have a group of people that is our enemy. However,we still have things to fight on. A typical example for me is those classesthat I have to take and all the skills that I need to learn. Most students facethe same enemy as I do. For myself, I really wanted to give up studying hardinitially. I didn’t realize that studying hard is fighting for my future. Whereas,after I watched Attack on Titan I realized that people should fight for abetter life, and they should not be afraid of going to the front and takeactions. As Eren Jaeger says: “If you win, you live. If you lose, you die. Ifyou don’t fight, you can’t win!” In this quote, Isayama uses motivation toindicate the idea that life is not easy and people have to fight to make aliving. Eren’s motivation of fighting is to win, to beat those titans and savehuman beings. There are no such situations in ordinary people’s daily life.However, similar situations are everywhere, like the example I just stated. Inaddition, one doesn’t have to be physically strong to fight. Levi is a greatexample of this statement. He is only 1.6 meters tall, and he is so skinny thatmost people don’t think he can join a battle and kill titans. However, hebecomes the Heichou (like a leader of an army) of the Survey Corp and killsthousands of titans. It’s the same principle in terms of studying or working. Idon’t have to be highly intelligent to study well. Only if I dare to meet thosechallenges, have a great attitude about the thing that I am doing and try mybest, intelligence is definitely not a problem.
Last but not least,I learned more about curiosity in Attack on Titan. It is human beings’instinct. Isayama uses perspective to prove this point: “Nothing can suppress ahuman’s curiosity.” Said Eren Jaeger. He does an extremely great job onfighting on titans was not only because of his courage, but also because he hascuriosity about the things outside the walls. An analogic example is still the studyingand working one. If one wants to do a great job and have good accomplishment,he should never be afraid to try new things. I believe this is one of a spiritthat a scientist must have. Thomas Edison failed hundreds of times andeventually invented the light bulb. As a person who is fairly interested inscience, I suppose that curiosity is the beginning of researching. If I want todo a research and discover something new like Eren does, I have to be curiousand try new things. Eren wants to know what’s it like outside the walls, and Iwant to know what’s it like outside of the textbooks and the school, so that Ican get more knowledge and study better. Either being a soldier in the SurveyCorp or just being an ordinary high school student, the sense never changes. Inconclusion, curiosity is inside everyone’s spirit and we should definitely digit out and explore the world outside.
All in all, Attackon Titan gives me so many things that other animes and mangas can never giveme. Watching Attack on Titan is not only a visual enjoyment, but also a lessonin one’s life.