Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan is the first season of one of the best-known anime of the 2010s. It is based on the manga by Hajime Isayama. Wit Studio made the show, with help from Production I.G, and Tetsuro Araki directed it. The 25 episodes aired in Japan on MBS TV from April 7 to September 29, 2013. In the United States, the English dub later aired on the Toonami block of Adult Swim, starting in May 2014. The season covers roughly the first 34 chapters of the manga.

The story takes place in a harsh world where people are no longer at the top of the food chain. Giant creatures called Titans roam the land. They look a bit like huge, empty-eyed humans, and they hunt and eat people. To stay alive, what is left of humanity lives inside a ring of towns, protected by three enormous stone barriers. Life inside is cramped and poor, but for a long time it has been quiet. Many people have started to believe the danger is gone for good.

That calm breaks in the first episode. A Titan of shocking size, later called the Colossal Titan, appears and smashes a hole in the outer barrier of a small border town. Smaller Titans pour in. A boy named Eren Yeager loses his home and his family in the chaos. Filled with rage and grief, he swears to fight back. Together with his calm, highly skilled adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman and his gentle, clever best friend Armin Arlert, he joins the army as a trainee.

Much of the season follows these three young soldiers as they train and then face real battle. The army is split into branches. The most daring branch is the Scout Regiment, also called the Survey Corps. Its soldiers ride out beyond the barriers to study the enemy, and many never come back. Soldiers fight using special gear that lets them swing through the air on wires, a bit like a grappling hook, while they slash at a Titan's weak spot with blades. The big battle in the Trost District, a town on the edge of the second barrier, is one of the most famous parts of the season.

The show is dark and often violent. Friends die suddenly, and the soldiers must make terrible choices under pressure. It is a story about fear, survival, and the cost of freedom. It also slowly builds a mystery. Where did the Titans come from? Why do the people inside know so little about the outside world? These questions grow bigger with each episode and keep viewers guessing. The cast is large, so many side characters, not only Eren, get their own moments of courage or panic.

The music is a big part of why the show felt so strong to watch. The opening song, Guren no Yumiya by Linked Horizon, became very popular, and the first single with the opening sold more than 100,000 copies in its first week. Hiroyuki Sawano wrote the dramatic score. For many viewers outside Japan, this season was the show that first pulled them into anime, and it remains a common starting point today.