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EP. REVIEW: Attack on Titan

Nice episode 56 write up from James, honestly.
He considers the possible implications and both Western and Eastern perspectives. Too many people, manga readers included, have knee jerk reactions and the vast majority don't see the series from an Asian viewpoint.

As a manga reader since before the anime was announced, taking into account the story presented so far as of chapter 118, it is likely that Isayama used Jewish imagery without being fully aware of Western sensitivity.

So much of Attack on Titan's imagery and themes has been built around a brand of imperialism adopted by the Japanese in the First and Second World Wars that the series has long been scrutinized for straying into glorification of a sensitive history. (It caused no small amount of controversy for Hajime Isayama when it was revealed that Dot Pixis was modeled after a Japanese Naval Officer from WWI who perpetuated war crimes against other Asian nations, such as China and Korea.)

I'm of two minds here because one one hand, I don't believe Mangaka necessarily have to have a Western audience in mind when creating a work, but on the other, Chapter 86 "That Day"(dealing with the next episode) was released in October 2016, when AoT hype was well established in the West.

FormX wrote:

Nice episode 56 write up from James, honestly. He considers the possible implications and both Western and Eastern perspectives. Too many people, manga readers included, have knee jerk reactions and the vast majority don't see the series from an Asian viewpoint. As a manga reader since before the anime was announced, taking into account the story presented so far as of chapter 118, it is likely that Isayama used Jewish imagery without being fully aware of Western sensitivity.

I'm of two minds here because one one hand, I don't believe Mangaka necessarily have to have a Western audience in mind when creating a work, but on the other, Chapter 86 "That Day"(dealing with the next episode) was released in October 2016, when AoT hype was well established in the West.

Quote:

After all of these years, I have faith that Isayama's story is building to a message that's more humanistic than “Soldiers Good, Foreigners Bad”.

I have bad news for you!

Uhh...read the manga much?

With fascism on the rise all over the world

ShatteredWorld wrote:

Uhh...read the manga much?

I have. It's real bad.

please use tags for source material spoilers.
spoiler[
Everything makes sense in the story. And yeah there are obvious allusions and inspiration taken form real-world history - such as the Jews and the ghettos and anti-Semitism. But this story is NOT about the Jews in our world - it's about a particular sort of people - the Eldians. Which doesn't mean that Isayama wants to make some direct comparison to the Jews, any more than that The Survey Corps is a direct comparison to the U.S. Marines, or that the Titans are a direct comparison to the Greek Titans. This is a fantasy world. And if someone wants to twist some things around and change some things up for a more interesting story, then I personally have no problem with it, because, again, not all metaphors are necessarily directly meant to be a critique or exploration about the actual people or events they take inspiration from, especially considering the story is not set in the actual historical events in the actual real world.]

jr240483 wrote:

considering on how long this part of the arc was in the manga, 10-12 eps might not be enough to cover every part of it so they might have to skip some parts. sure not the very important ones, but definitely some stuff that tends to drive some of the manga pursuits in a massive tizzy fit!

This arc is indeed long, but you have to remember that it's also very action-heavy. Action scenes usually take up a lot of space in manga, but once they're animated, they go by way quicker than dialogue-heavy scenes. In other words, when adapting arcs like this, you can cover larger chunks of the story in one episode.

Also, spoiler[by the time they reach the basement in either episode 6 or 7, they'll easily be able to adapt the lore-drop that comes after. 2-3 episodes are enough to cover Grisha's backstory]

Ethe wrote:

jr240483 wrote: considering on how long this part of the arc was in the manga, 10-12 eps might not be enough to cover every part of it so they might have to skip some parts. sure not the very important ones, but definitely some stuff that tends to drive some of the manga pursuits in a massive tizzy fit! This arc is indeed long, but you have to remember that it's also very action-heavy. Action scenes usually take up a lot of space in manga, but once they're animated, they go by way quicker than dialogue-heavy scenes. In other words, when adapting arcs like this, you can cover larger chunks of the story in one episode. Also, spoiler[by the time they reach the basement in either episode 6 or 7, they'll easily be able to adapt the lore-drop that comes after. 2-3 episodes are enough to cover Grisha's backstory]

but that is what i mean and is what some people disliked about the first part on season three! it skipped most of the dialogue parts and focused on the action heavy parts that it more or less had those manga pursuits pulling their hairs out of their heads!

god knows how they react if they decide to do this again for the marleyin arc (im sure im spelling it right) cause the way how THAT arc is, its definitely gonna need more than 12 eps!

Christ, did my eyes deceive me or was spoiler[the descendant of the Royal Family the same titan who killed Eren's mum]? If that's true, bloody hell...