History Manga / ShingekiNoKyojin

[[quoteright:268: http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/y4XzFuh_625.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:268:Make your choice: [[TheHunterBecomesTheHunted Will you be the hunter or the prey?]]]]
->''"On that day mankind received a grim reminder: we lived in fear of the Titans and were disgraced to live in these cages we called walls."''

Official English title: '''''Attack on Titan'''''

Eren Yeager is a boy who dreams of the world outside the city walls. This fantasy is fueled by the fabulous descriptions of his book-reading friend Armin Arlert. Even Eren's level-headed adopted sister, Mikasa Ackerman, can't talk him out of it. So what if there are [[SuperPersistentPredator human-eating]] [[HumanoidAbomination giants]] outside the city? As long as people know how to kill them, and the city walls keep the giants out, human civilization can slowly rebuild, and eventually reclaim the world.

That is, until a vastly bigger giant shows up, breaks the wall, and lets its smaller kin access the tasty two-legged treats trying to rebuild their world.

There is a reason why their city is the [[AfterTheEnd last human settlement]] on the planet.

Despite the action-y sounding premise, and there is a great deal of action, author Hajime Isayama has also woven a tight story around its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many, many characters]], and the strange, apocalyptic world they find themselves in. And failure. The characters repeatedly struggle to accomplish anything, often sacrificing lives and making major mistakes, [[ShaggyDogStory only to have it all come to naught in the end]]. But every so often, their persistence, wits, and a little luck, manages to pay off. Slowly, a complex portrait of the world beings to form, and reveals there is [[OntologicalMystery something more sinister to the weirder aspects of their world]]. In the end, it is primarily a story about how people deal with trauma, survival, loss, and death. As they fight giant, man-eating titans.

From its relatively modest beginning, the manga managed to become the 11th highest seller in 2011. A live-action film adaptation was announced and planned for a 2014 (or later) release, but now it seems to have been put on hold due to CreativeDifferences [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-12-13/director-nakashima-leaves-live-action-attack-on-titan between the director and the screenwriter, among other issues]].

Meanwhile, the [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2012-12-05/yuuki-kaji-yui-ishikawa-marina-inoue-lead-attack-on-titan-cast anime adaptation]] premiered on April 6, 2013, with YasukoKobayashi as head screenwriter.

Viewers living in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland may watch the anime legally at [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/attack-on-titan Crunchyroll]]. In a rare move, it is also [[http://www.funimation.com/attack-on-titan available on Funimation]] (which has licensed it for a future dub), along the usual lines of being subscriber exclusive and then free to watch at a later date.

Now has a [[Characters/{{ShingekiNoKyojin}} character sheet]] in need of love.

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!!This work provides examples of:

* AffablyEvil - [[spoiler: The Beast Titan politely asks Mike about his equipment and removes it without harming him. He then proceeds to tell the other Titans that they may have their way with him, since he's finished with his business]].
* TheAce
** Levi, the WorldsStrongestMan.
** And, to a lesser degree, Mikasa Ackerman, who is regarded as being a level above her classmates.
* AchillesHeel: The Titans can [[HealingFactor regenerate any injury]] unless struck at their one weak point - the base of their necks.
* ActionGirl - There's more than a few tough ladies in this series, on account of the army not discriminating on gender, but [[OneManArmy Mikasa]] stands out above all others.
** Although usually portrayed as TheDitz [[CloudCuckooLander Sasha]] deserves a mention for being the only character so far [[BadassNormal to have fought one-on-one against a titan with no special equipment]] and lived to tell the tale.
* ActionPrologue: The beginning of episode 1 shows some human soldiers attacking a Titan.
* AdultFear: Even when humanity didn't have man-eating Titans to deal with for a hundred years, there was still a sinister presence in the world. Mikasa learned this the hard way with her [[DarkAndTroubledPast backstory]], where [[spoiler: she and her mother were targeted by slave traders who wanted to sell them as unique slaves ([[LastOfTheirKind since Asians were killed off by the Titans]]). They only managed to kidnap Mikasa since her mother was accidentally killed. If slavery wasn't sick enough, rape was also implicated, but traffickers said that Mikasa was "too young" for their taste while their client wasn't.]]
* AfterTheEnd - The giants have taken over the world and the surviving humans have regressed to barely knowing anything else about it.
* AllThereInTheManual - At the end of certain chapters, an extra page goes into detail on certain aspects of the world. Examples include a roughly to scale picture of the walls and how much area they protect and details of humanity's technology.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Titans seem to be this, in a feral sort of way. They devour humans for no purpose other than because they ''enjoy'' doing it. [[spoiler: Subverted, as the regular Titans are little more than mindless animals incapable of morality, while the Titan Shifters are complex and morally-varied characters.]]
* AMillionIsAStatistic - In the anime, late in episode 2, a narration is given that around 250,000 people, around 20% of the total population, are chosen to reclaim areas overtaken by the Titans. The narrator then continues that less than a hundred returned. One of the casualties is Armin's grandfather, who handed him his hat before heading out.
* AncientConspiracy: [[spoiler: Details are lacking for the time being, but the clergy of the cult of wall worshippers ''know'' something about the Titans that the rest of humanity doesn't... up to and including that they have been hiding the fact that the walls protecting them from Titans ''ARE MADE UP OF TITANS!'']]
* [[spoiler: AndThenJohnWasAZombie - And then Eren was a Titan...]]
* AnimalMotifs: A broader example than most; humanity is domesticated livestock and the Titans are predators. The thematic goal of the protagonists (as evidenced by Eren's MeaningfulName) is to become hunters, capable of fighting and living free rather than being shut up inside a pen, only as safe as their keepers allow. ''Guren no Yumiya" has a variety of animal metaphors in its lyrics along the same lines.
* AnyoneCanDie - And ''how.'' To give an idea, most of the main, secondary, and minor characters are members of a RedshirtArmy. The series is pushing towards LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, not because the cast is large but because everyone keeps getting killed off.
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: The humans think Titans are like this, since they never attack each other. [[spoiler:Until the Abnormal Titan shows up anyway...]]
* ApocalypseHow - The one that happened 100 years ago was a Planetary Class 1.
* ApocalypticLog - Played totally straight, in a side chapter, a Survey Corps soldier, Ilse, keeps writing in her journal even as a Titan is about to eat her.
* ArtEvolution - As time goes on, the art starts to get steadily more detailed and the action scenes start getting better, as well as the art of drawing faces.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority[=/=]ThePeterPrinciple: Deconstructed. Only the best students are allowed to join the "prestigious" Military Police Brigade that guards the innermost wall and the King. Therefore, the most skilled, in training anyway, soldiers are placed in a position of authority farthest from any actual fighting, while those less capable are more likely to be on the front lines. This situation is actually well known, and most who hone their skills high enough to be able to get the position were doing so just to be placed in a safe life. Eren bitterly notes the disconnect.
** Adding to this, since hand-to-hand combat skills aren't valued as highly as 3D Maneuver Gear piloting, students who want to join the Military Police Brigade prioritize 3D Maneuver Gear training over melee combat training. This means that the soldiers who would be expected to fight human-sized opponents more often are actually the ''least'' qualified ones to do so.
* AteHisGun: In episode 7, four soldiers are trapped inside a building with a Titan staring at them through the window. One of them is cleaning and reloading his gun. [[spoiler: As he finishes, one of the female soldiers asks what good that'll do at this point. He turns the gun on his mouth, then fires.]]
* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever - Most of the taller titans are about that size, only smaller than the Beast and the Colossal Titan.
* AttackItsWeakPoint - The only way to put a giant down for good is to destroy or carve out the base of its neck. Even [[BoomHeadshot destroying their head]] won't kill them. Later in the story, it's hinted that this is the weak point because that's where [[spoiler: the pilot goes]].
** The Armor Titan is nearly impossible to put down thanks to its armor, which is strong enough to shrug off cannon fire. [[spoiler:Then the heroes remember that armor has seams.]]
* AuthorAppeal - There's a clear love of MMA in this series. Several of the rejected volume covers are of Mikasa in MMA stances. It was taken up to eleven when [[spoiler: Eren was fighting Reiner, Eren was using locks and holds.]] In general, he draws characters with lean, athletic builds for all genders.
* {{Badass}} - Anyone who survives more than one encounter with a Titan in general. Notable mentions are Mikasa and Levi.
** BadassAdorable: Krista, who is the idol of the 104th ''and'' one of the top graduates.
** BadassArmy - Few armies can be more badass than a legion of dual-wielding, building-swinging swordsmen. Some of them have already killed dozens of Titans, and even so they are losing ground, because when fighting dozens of 50-foot-tall quasi-indestructible man-eaters, it only takes one mistake or one stroke of bad luck to wind up suffering a gruesome death. When fighting the intelligent ones, it gets much worse.
** BadassGay: Ymir and Reiner
** BadassNormal - Sasha as mentioned above. Many characters die fighting the titans even with special equipment like the 3D Maneuver Gear. She takes on one first with a hatchet and then with a bow and arrows, managing to wound it enough to rescue the young girl it was attacking.
** HiddenBadass: Levi and his squad in particular, who have dozens of Titan kills each and are a RagTagBunchOfMisfits. Bertolt, Connie, Sasha, and Krista from the 104th, who are all top-ranked soldiers while not seeming it at all most of the time.
** SubmissiveBadass: Bertolt, by his own admission.
* BaitAndSwitchCredits - The opening animation displays the cadets fighting the Titans with a remarkable degree of competency - something which has yet to be seen in the anime as of episode 7 (with the exception of [[BadassNormal Mikasa]]). Instead, we get the cadets doing things like abandoning all tactical knowledge as soon as a teammate dies. There are also not nearly enough skillful users of the 3D Maneuver Gear to actually get to a Titans' weak spot on its neck - something we see all the time in the opening.
* BarbieDollAnatomy - Titans. In this case, though, it's not a matter of censorship - they don't have sexual organs, so what you see is what you get.
** NonhumansLackAttributes: Besides their lack of nipples or genitalia, they're also noted to lack a lower digestive tract or [[FridgeBrilliance navels]].
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished - Averted. Many of the female soldiers depicted have fairly attractive appearances. If a Titan gets hold of them though, then they're messily devoured like everyone else.
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: The three Titan spies play with this, to different effects. Annie plays it the closest, having come to respect some of them enough that she's unable to kill them during her rampage as the Female-Type Titan. It comes back to haunt her, when Armin figures her out and reveals it. Bertolt manages to avert it, having remained emotionally distant enough to not show any sympathy over the suffering he's caused. On the other hand, Reiner ''brutally'' deconstructs it via SanitySlippage. His attachment to the others, and guilt over his crimes, causes him to begin suffering dissociative episodes since he'd rather be his Mask]].
* BerserkButton: Eren overhears a random soldier lamenting about having to share their limited food supplies with the large number of refugees. When the soldier says that the Titans should have eaten more people so there'd be fewer mouths to feed, he gets really angry and kicks the soldier. Armin's quick apology to them seems to calm them down.
* [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled Better To Die Than Be Eaten]] - One unnamed soldier decides to [[AteHisGun opt out]] of the story than be food for the many Titans trying to get into the building he and the rest of his comrades held up in.
** [[spoiler:Armin]] briefly considers this; he gives all of his blades and gas to Mikasa so that she can help take back the Titan-infested building holding most of their supplies, but asks to keep one for himself in case a Titan tries to eat him. [[spoiler:Mikasa throws the blade away and promises not to let him die, even though carrying him will be a big handicap for her and Connie.]]
* BigBrotherInstinct: Gender flipped with Mikasa and Eren. While neither of them slack off, ever since Eren saved Mikasa's life when they were younger, she's become extremely protective of him. [[spoiler: She's mostly responsible for stopping the female-type Titan from kidnapping Eren, and does the same thing again when Bethold goes into Colossal Titan mode with Eren in tow.]]
** Reiner is seen as the [[TeamDad big brother]] of the entire group, and readily takes on whatever is necessary to help them out. [[spoiler: It becomes a serious issue for him, since he's one of the Titan spies.]]
* BigDamnHeroes:
** In episode 6, Eren tries to do this for Mikasa in a FlashBack. [[spoiler: He manages to kill two of the abductors, but he's unable to do an ambush attack on the third one, who manages to grab him. Mikasa ends up finishing him off instead.]]
** In episode 7, [[spoiler: Mikasa is saved from certain doom after she runs out of gas for her maneuver system by the Abnormal Titan who kills two titans trying to approach her.]]
* BigEater: Sasha, who risks punishment for the sake of food. The Titans are a truly ''horrifying'' version, as they devour humans for no reason other than because they seemingly enjoy it. It's noted that they will continue to eat until their stomach is full, and then vomit so that they have room for more victims.
* BizarreAlienBiology - The Titans [[spoiler:and humans who can turn into titans]]; the fact that how they work makes very little sense is an important plot point, as one of the Survey Corps' stated objectives is to better understand Titans and how to better defend against them/kill them.
* BodyHorror: [[spoiler: Transforming into a Titan, seems to create nerves out of nowhere and are attached to the person's skin. It seems hard to get out of, but not impossible]]
* BoldExplorer: Eren dreams of joining the Survey Corps because they venture outside of Wall Maria, the outermost wall, and attempt to map it out or study the Titans. However, they have a high casualty rate as evidenced by the few returning members in the first episode, most of whom are injured. One of the bits of trivia given during the EyeCatch in episode 2 mentions that the territory outside of Wall Maria is unknown due to it being lands infested by Titans.
* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: Reiner]], once he's revealed to be [[spoiler: the Armored Titan]]. Eren even rants about how much he wanted to be just like him, and how [[YouMonster disgusted he is]].
** A common experience for young recruits. The Survey Corps seems awesome, until one realizes how low their [[RedShirtArmy survival percentage]] is and how often their missions [[ShootTheShaggyDog end in failure]]. The Military Police Brigade are corrupt and lazy, and anyone joining for honest intentions gets a rude wake-up call.
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Levi is left injured and sidelined after [[spoiler: blocking an attack from the Female-Type Titan]]. He still manages to win the fight, as evidence of how deserving he is of his WorldsStrongestMan reputation. Eren also tends to do this constantly whenever he [[spoiler: fights other Titans, but it rarely slows him down for long since he has a HealingFactor]].
* BuildingSwing: The 3D Maneuver gear is primarily focused on this, employing twin grappling hooks and gas propulsion to swing around.
** LeParkour: The more talented soldiers combine these techniques with the above to maximize their mobility while saving their gas.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Averted. [[spoiler: Bertolt actually brings up the subject of Eren's DoomedHometown, and is well-aware of what he went through. When Eren confronts him about it after TheReveal, he simply notes that Eren having to watch his mother being devoured is "unfortunate". He [[LackOfEmpathy doesn't seem to care]], though]].
* CallToAdventure: Eren wanted nothing more than to join the Survey Corps so that he could aid humanity in fighting against the Titans, but to also see the world beyond the wall. [[RefusalOfTheCall His mother vehemently opposed his plans and told him to stop.]] Little did they know that everything was going to change that day...
** TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: Precisely put, the debris caused by Colossal Titan's destruction of the gate fell ''directly'' on Eren and Mikasa's house, crushing their mother's leg and preventing her from escaping. Hannes comes and attempts to slay the Titan that was approaching, but in a moment of fear, decided it was best to take the children and escape, leaving their mother behind. Eren and Mikasa horrifically witness the Titan crushing their mother to death and then devouring her. Once Eren and Mikasa are safely on the escape ships, Eren vows to kill all of the Titans.
* ChekhovsSkill: In episode four, Annie uses a sweeping attack which knocks Eren down during a martial arts training session. He realizes this wasn't a skill they were taught formally, but uses it against Jean later that night during an argument in the mess hall.
** This ends up coming back into play later on, when [[spoiler: Eren recognizes that the Female-Type Titan uses Annie's fighting style]].
* TheChessmaster - Erwin. He dooesn't hesitate to [[WeHaveReserves sacrifice hundred of his soldiers]] [[spoiler:in order to capture the Female Titan]], declining to tell them about what they're fighting. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Armin, who says that a person needs to be one to [[WellIntentionedExtremist change something in the world]].
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Eren utilizes this trope in a FlashBack during episode 6. He pretends to have gotten lost and found the cabin by chance, causing one of the bandits to start talking to him a little less seriously. See ChildrenForcedToKill for what happens next...
* ChildrenForcedToKill: Part of both Eren and Mikasa's backstory. Mikasa's parents were killed by three human traffickers and Mikasa was kidnapped with the traffickers intending on selling her because she was of a rare Oriental race. Eren and his father found out about their whereabouts, and Eren was told to stay away from their hideout as Dr. Yeager notified the police. Instead, Eren took it upon himself to rescue Mikasa and ''stabs two of the men to death.'' Before they could escape, the third man came back and began choking Eren to death. Mikasa, who had been shell-shocked from the trauma the entire time, finally finds the courage and stabs the last man to death as well.
* ChildSoldiers - Due to the army's appallingly high mortality rate, its minimum recruitment age is ''twelve''.
* CleopatraNose: Annie and Reiner in particular, but a surprising number of characters have distinctive noses without sorting to {{Gonk}} for the sake of diversity. [[spoiler: Interestingly, all three of the Titan moles have this feature.]]
* CliffHanger: Episode four has one, where Eren is staring down the same Titan that tore into the wall five years earlier. Unlike then, he's really eager to defeat it.
* ColossusClimb - Given the premise, it should come as no surprise that a few characters try this. Given that Titans are [[LightningBruiser really, really fast]], though, it doesn't often work out too well for the climber.
* ConspicuousCG: The blood splatter and some 3D maneuver gear scene is done in CG.
** Also, when Colossus Titan clean the deck in episode five, the wall shattered in very obvious CGI.
** In the 5th episode, when the soldiers are running and jumping through the city, all the houses are obviously made with CGI
* CrapsackWorld - Actually, the world inside the walled city isn't too bad and the people are pretty nice, but the cramped living spaces and the constant threat of having all your loved ones or even the entire human race get [[{{Gorn}} messily]] obliterated by Titans makes the overall world pretty crapsack-y. See DespairEventHorizon, WeHaveReserves, and SenselessSacrifice to get the idea.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: Armin devises two in episode 8.
** [[spoiler: The first is to help lure the Abnormal Titan towards the supply base, so it can help them relieve the siege. It works, as the Titan rushes towards the area when it sees how many there are congregated there.]]
** [[spoiler: The second is when he develops a plan to kill the remaining Titans in the supply base so they can restock their gas canisters. He has many of the remaining soldiers all inside a lift elevator, whose goal is to fire their guns into the eyes of the seven Titans, blinding them in the process. Then, a group of seven of their best soldiers hidden nearby would strike and take them down. It works, but Sasha and Connie miss the neck, so they don't quite finish off their targets. Fortunately Mikasa and Annie finish them off.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Auruo Bossard of the Survey Corps initially appears to be a washed-up, immature moron who can't even talk and ride at the same time. We then hear that he's got ''thirty-nine'' solo Titan kills and nine assists under his belt.
** Sasha Blouse, who looks like a complete moron during her first few appearances, actually gets into the top 10 of the class, and is able to fend off a titan without her gear at one point, using only a hatchet and arrows.
* CurbStompBattle: The Titans generally do this towards humans. Only in episode 6 do we start seeing them get taken down, mostly by ActionGirl Mikasa.
** [[spoiler: Eren's squad engages the Titans in Trost in episode 5 and...it goes horribly. Nearly everyone is killed with the exception of Armin, and even Eren is swallowed by a Titan. To add insult to injury, they weren't even able to scratch the Titans]]
* CruelAndUnusualDeath - Most characters have the choice of being crushed by Titans, torn apart by Titans, or eaten by Titans. Oftentimes all of the above. To add insult to injury, when someone is eaten, whatever's left of the remains is eventually just regurgitated back up.
* CryCute: Mikasa in episode 8, [[spoiler: after she find Eren alive.]]
* DaylightHorror: Justified. Since most Titans are [[PowerOfTheSun powered by the sunlight]], most of the chaos happens on clear, sunny days.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Mikasa is devoted to protecting Eren, often to his annoyance. Ymir is devoted to protecting Krista, though she would deny it most of the time. Reiner also claims to want to protect Krista, and offers this to Ymir as evidence that he can trust her.
* DecoyProtagonist: Eren is [[spoiler:eaten by a titan, but the trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when he transforms into a titan himself and attacks the other titans]].
* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Eren manages this during the battle with [[spoiler: Reiner]]. At least, [[spoiler: until he puts out a DistressCall and Bertolt [[DeathFromAbove falls on them]]]].
* DeliberatelyCuteChild: How Eren managed to [[spoiler: stab two men to death in order to save Mikasa.]]
* DespairEventHorizon - Exaggerated by the CrapsackWorld. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the characters.
** Mikasa suffers from this when she sees Armin in episode 7. [[spoiler: The tears streaming out of his eyes are more than enough of a clue for her to figure out the worst happened to Eren.]]
* DissonantSerenity - Their happy, smiling faces as they devour their way through entire towns are perhaps the creepiest thing about Titans. Some of them keep smiling even when they're being sliced into pieces or otherwise mutilated.
* DoNotGoGentle: Mikasa in episode 7 after suffering from a DespairEventHorizon [[spoiler: after hearing about Eren's death]] seems to give up at first when she runs out of gas for her maneuver system. However, she starts to actively resist as best as she can against the Titan trying to eat her after she starts remembering Eren telling her to fight back.
* DoomedHometown: Eren, Mikasa, and Armin's hometown gets breached by the Colossal Titan in the very first episode. Reiner and Bertolt also came from a town overrun by Titans, and are motivated by their desire to see it again someday. [[spoiler: May or may not be a complete fabrication as part of their cover]]. In more recent events, [[spoiler: Connie's]] village becomes one.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In the anime, Eren's dream is shown to be a variety of disturbing images of the Titans, dead humans, and ends with the scene of the Titan picking up his mother as shown later in the episode.
* DrillSergeantNasty: One can be seen in episode 3, yelling at and training the recruits. One of the officers inspecting them wonders why he's being so harsh to them. The other tells him that his job is to break down and strip them of their individual identities so they can be trained as soldiers conditioned to fight alongside one another. The first officer later wonders why the drill sergeant seems to be skipping some individuals. The second one tells him that the ones he skips have a certain look on their faces, as they're already broken down, meaning they're survivors of a Titan attack.
* DualWielding - The soldiers tend to dual wield their blades because killing a Titan requires two cuts.
* DumbMuscle: The Titans are very strong, but not very bright.
** [[spoiler: Horrifyingly averted with the Titan Shifters, who show exactly how much damage someone with the strength of a Titan and the intelligence of a Human can do]]
* DysfunctionJunction: Everyone is messed up. ''Everyone''.
** ThereAreNoTherapists
* EatenAlive - The threat facing any human who come into contact with a Titan.
* EffortlessAmazonianLift - Mikasa does this to Eren in the first volume in order to break up his fight with Jean.
* EmotionlessGirl - Annie. It's not that she can't have emotions, she just doesn't care about the world around her. When she gets angry, she looks creepier.[[labelnote:note]]Never bully Annie. Ever.[[/labelnote]] It's revealed [[spoiler:that her father put her through TrainingFromHell and asked her to hate the world]]
* EmpathyDollShot: A little girl drops her doll as her father is carrying her away during the evacuation of Trost.
** It says a lot about the setting that we have not one, not even two, but ''three'' characters that could be seen as this, each on their one particular flavor. First there's Mikasa, of the [[TheStoic stoic]] type [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold with a heart of gold]] ([[BreakTheCutie and]] [[ChildrenForcedToKill a lot]] [[BrokenBird of childhood trauma]]). Then there's Annie, of a more [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing passive aggressive]] variety. Finally we have Ymir, who come off as unemotional mainly due to being [[{{Ladette}} aggressively rude]] and somewhat [[GrumpyBear ill-tempered]].
* EnfantTerrible: Eren was an utterly terrifying child, murdering two grown men at the age of eight and not showing an ounce of remorse. Good thing he's on the side of humanity. Also, [[spoiler: Bertolt Hoover was ''eleven'' when he began his mission of genocide against the human race by kicking a hole in Wall Maria]]. He doesn't seem to have any particular remorse over it, unlike his allies.
* EvilCounterpart: [[spoiler: The HotBlooded guy that is a physical powerhouse, his meek but highly effective childhood friend, and the EmotionlessGirl that is the best fighter? We're ''not'' talking about Eren, Armin, and Mikasa]].
* TheExtremistWasRight: We're supposed to view the various arguments given by the opposition in Eren's trial as being paranoid ravings driven by the fear of the overwhelming might of the Titans. [[spoiler: And while they may have been wrong about ''Eren'' being sent to infiltrate their ranks as a kid, it would turn out this is very much true of a number of ''other'' trainees.]]
* EyeCatch: In the anime, some information pops up during these. However, its difficult to read it all unless you [[FreezeFrameBonus pause it]] first.
* FaceDeathWithDignity - [[AvertedTrope Rarely, if ever, happens.]] Being eaten by a Titan is a ''horrible'' way to die, and no one knows it better than the one about to be eaten.
* FanDisservice - The one and only female[[hottip:ish: Titans don't have any genitalia, so their "gender" is determined through secondary sex characteristics.]] Titan has a great figure and is obviously athletic. How obvious? Well, it's hard to ignore all those toned muscles, considering there ''is no skin'' to cover them.
* {{Fanservice}}: Noticeably averted for this genre of manga. We've essentially gotten none of it, guys and girls alike.
* FauxActionGirl: Another notable aversion (notable only because [=SnK=] is {{shounen}}, a genre especially prone to this trope). Most major female characters are at least as competent as the guys, and Mikasa and Annie can outfight nearly all their male peers. [[TheHeart Krista]] might fit it, but we have never seen her fight before so she could be either.
* FightingFingerprint: Annie's ruthlessly efficient fighting style is unique. Because of it, Armin [[spoiler:uses it as evidence that she is the Female Titan]], and after she taught it to Eren, he manages to pull one over [[spoiler: Reiner]] in their fight.
* FightsLikeANormal - In a nutshell, this is what makes [[spoiler:human Titans]] so dangerous. Imagine fighting a fifteen-meter-tall LightningBruiser. Now imagine fighting one that's also a champion-level boxer.
* [[spoiler: FinalSolution: The original goal of the Titan attacks. It seems to have been abandoned in favor of capturing Eren, at least according to Reiner]].
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: The anime provides a chilling example in the score. It might as well be the punctuation mark on the end of hope. The first episode also pointedly has the church bell ringing when the front gate opens, not long before the Colossal Titan appears.
* {{Foreshadowing}} - Very subtle, but it's there. You'll have to read between the lines with [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie]]. The same with [[spoiler:Eren's Titan mode, when the Female Titan fights, it use the same moves that Eren used in an earlier chapter.]]
** A particular subtle and brilliant example occurs in ch. 15. The recruits gather around Eren to ask him about the Titans, including the legendary Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan. As he is describing each, the panels focus on [[spoiler: first Bertolt and then Reiner, as he describes their Titan forms]].
** Also, in the anime, when the Colossal Titan appears there's a brief flash of lightning before TheReveal. [[spoiler: It hints at its true nature of being a Titan Shifter.]]
* FragileSpeedster: The soldiers are all supposed to be this, having to be light and fast in order to pull off the gymnastics demanded by Titan slaying. With the right moves, they can inflict serious damage on a Titan, but one hit from a Titan and they're down.
* FreezeFrameBonus: In the anime, during the EyeCatch, some information is gradually displayed, filling viewers in on various information, such as the three different walls. However, it passes after a few seconds, so it's difficult to read unless you pause it first.
* FromBadToWorse: More like from worst to utterly hopeless.
* GenderNeutralWriting: A common occurrence in the series. Fan translations often substitute in gendered-insults, to replace the more neutral ones used in the original.
* GenghisGambit: Explicitly averted. Eren and Commander Pixis discuss it, but Eren dismisses it as a "fairy tale," because he finds it hard to imagine a more appropriate situation for it, with the last society of humans left alive against utterly alien and unstoppable opponents, but humans seem just as prone to division, infighting and selfish short sightedness as ever. On the other hand, the usual divisions of race and gender seem to have fallen by the wayside, though the former may simply be because there's not much in terms of "race" left besides Germanic European, given the characters seen so far.
* GentleGiant: TeamDad Reiner, who towers over his squadmates and is built like a linebacker. His HeterosexualLifePartner Bertolt may also count, being incredibly tall, noted to be TheQuietOne and a follower at heart. [[spoiler: Horribly subverted, when it turns out both are not only Titan Shifters sent to infiltrate the human ranks... but the two Titans responsible for breaching the Walls in the first place.]]
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Happens often, especially from Mikasa to Eren. Understandable that so many people lose their cool considering [[CrapsackWorld the stress environment that they live in.]]
** At one point, Eren headbutts Mikasa and tells her to pull herself together when she begins questioning her abilities as a soldier.
* GhibliHills: Though it's a CrapsackWorld, it sure is a beautiful one. Might be justified beyond Wall Maria, since humans haven't lived out there for a century and Titans don't appear to do much to the land, but even within the walls, humans haven't had much environmental impact for it to leave a scar. It goes to show that the world isn't a nightmare world in itself: the Titans just make it so for humans exclusively.
* GildedCage - In Eren's opinion, the human city is this. Most of his peers are content to live inside the walls indefinitely, but he repeatedly compares it to a birdcage and is determined to see the outside world.
* GoodThingYouCanHeal - The Titans are regularly blown apart by cannon fire, sliced and diced by swords, and even injured themselves on a regular basis. But since they FeelNoPain and regenerate, very few things slow them down for more than a moment. Literally the only way to kill them is to do sufficient damage to the nape of the neck.
** [[spoiler: Eren, Ymir, Reiner, and Bertolt all suffer pretty [[AnArmAndALeg horrific]] [[SlashedThroat injuries]] and recover from them quickly.]] It contrasts starkly with how easily and horrifically humans are torn apart in battle.
* {{Gorn}} - Human-Titan battles get messy ''fast''.
* GoryDiscretionShot - Happens to Eren's mother in the first episode. While the audience doesn't see everything that happens, both Eren and Mikasa get to witness it in full as Hannes runs away with them.
** Also happens to both of Mikasa's parents in episode 6's FlashBack.
** Happens again in episode 7. [[spoiler: A soldier turns his gun on [[AteHisGun himself and fires]]. Blood splatters on the female soldier next to him who asked him why he was bothering to load his gun at that point. Another random soldier being eaten later in the episode is given this treatment as well, and viewers can hear the cries of fear from another one.]]
* GovernmentConspiracy
** The government has banned books about the outside world and has made it a taboo to even show interest in venturing outside the walls of the city.
** [[spoiler: The walls are filled with Colossus-class Titans. The leader of the Wall Cult is in on it, and the king gave the cult the authority to decide on a lot of what was done with the walls]].
** The military also return weapons not made to their specification, even if the said weapon is significantly improved.
* GrapplingHookPistol - A pair of these attached to a full body harness is standard equipment for the soldiers, being all that keeps them alive against the Titans.
* GratuitousGerman: The first line of the anime's opening theme: ''"Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!"''[[note]]''"They are the prey (lit: food) and we are the hunters!"''[[/note]] This is pronouced correctly and grammatically correct as well. [[note]] "Sie" is pronouced similarly to the American "Z", but in the opening it is pronouced as "Zie". The remainder of the pronuciation is correct. [[/note]]. However, what little German appears in the series proper seems to be actually researched, mainly in the names of the cast.
* GreenEyedMonster: Jean, who maintains a rivalry with Eren because of his crush on Mikasa.
* GrotesqueGallery - Titans are a seriously freaky-looking bunch.
* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: The goal to wipe out the Titans. [[spoiler: Only not so much. Reiner and Annie, at least, have guilt over the deaths required by their mission]].
* GutPunch: While not a DownerBeginning, the audience is nonetheless given a good punch in the innards during the very first episode. The overwhelming fear and despair present in the atmosphere make the first two episodes particularly hard to watch and imbeds a constant reminder of how bad humanity's situation is in our minds.
* InfantImmortality: Children are most definitely victims of Titan attacks, but [[InferredHolocaust we've been spared]] having to [[AMillionIsAStatistic see it on screen]].
* HairContrastDuo: Krista and Ymir. Reiner and Bertolt. Jean and Marco.
* HealingFactor - An ability inherent in all Titans until they're put down for good.
** This was the deciding factor in the first battles between Titans and humans, as humanity had possession of weaponry that could easily blow off Titans' heads but they just kept growing back.
** [[spoiler:Eren]] benefits from this ability after [[spoiler:becoming a Titan]].
* HeDidntMakeIt: [[spoiler: In episode 7, Mikasa meets up with Armin. She asks him what happened to Eren, and although he doesn't say anything at first, his tears clue her in that he died.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Armin suffers one during the first half of episode 6, [[spoiler: after being the sole survivor of his squad, and watching Eren get eaten by a Titan right in front of him.]]
* HeroicSacrifice - [[spoiler:Eren]] dives into a Titan's mouth to pull [[spoiler:Armin]] out. He succeeds at the cost of being swallowed whole ([[AnArmAndALeg minus an arm]]).
** The concept of this trope is very thoroughly deconstructed . A lot of characters attempt to bravely sacrifice themselves, so that their comrades and loved ones may live on. When they get to the "sacrifice" part, however, they suddenly start [[IDontWantToDie desperately clinging on to life, realizing that they would do ''anything'', so that they may survive.]] Unfortunately for the cast, folks usually reach this epiphany, mid digestion...
** Furthermore, the very conceit and morality of sacrificing your life is repeated attacked. There's one character who's called out for not asking for help, in the hope she might die and be remembered as someone who went down helping others. Her critic even admits that she might have conscious noble goals, but is still doing it for selfish reasons as well.
* HiddenDepths: A major part of the story. Almost every single character of some note gets a flashback or a bit of a shared flashback to show how varied and distinct the characters are, with many having a darker side to their outwardly noble intentions and actions or a more sympathetic origin for their flaws. This heavily ties into just how often characters are forced to confront traumatic experiences that can break them psychologically. [[spoiler: It's also important to note that a good chunk of them, especially those who've displayed a keen and sympathetic knowledge of the human condition or justice, are nonetheless infiltrators sent by the titans, forcing them to be completely reevaluated.]]
* HoldTheLine: Eren calls for the soldiers near him to get ready for battle near the end of episode four [[spoiler: after the same Titan that broke into Wall Maria shows up out of nowhere. Unlike five years earlier, this time he's trained to fight back, and is more than willing to jump into battle.]]
* HopelessWar: Humanity has gained absolutely nothing from the various battles against the Titans, so much so that joining the Survey Corps is considered outright suicide. They're not [[RedShirtArmy entirely]] wrong. [[spoiler: Eren using his Titan form to plug the hole in Wall Rose with a boulder is literally the first triumph in humanity history.]]
* HumanoidAbomination - '''''Titans.'''''
** A recap they are large, fast, mindless and came out of nowhere. They have healing factor, that destroying their heads does not really slow them down. The grossest part, is they probably do not need to eat humans. They have no digestive organs and after filling their stomach with humans, they just vomit it all out and eat more. They were able to eat most of the human race to extinction, to the point there is only one race of humanity left.
** Then there are the implications that Titans are [[spoiler:HumanAllAlong]]...
* HumansAreBastards: Both Eren and Mikasa learn this firsthand during a FlashBack in episode 6, [[spoiler: when Mikasa's parents are killed right in front of her, and then Eren kills two of the three bandits who attempted to kidnap her and sell her off as a slave. Mikasa, with some words of encouragement from Eren, kills the third bandit.]]
* [[spoiler: HunterOfHisOwnKind]] : [[spoiler: All the Titan Shifters are this, to one degree or another. Eren plays it absolutely straight, using his Titan form to fight for humanity, while Ymir eventually reveals herself and fights to protect Krista.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler: Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt kill Titans in order to maintain their cover.]]
* IDontWantToDie So much. Pretty much everyone who dies goes through this, whether or not it's a HeroicSacrifice.
* ImAHumanitarian - Titans. Human eating is theirs common activity. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], since they seemingly don't have any digestive organs nor derive any actual nutritional value from eating humans, and whatever's left of the remains is eventually just regurgitated back up.
** How can you tell a [[spoiler: Titan Shifter]] from normal Titans, other than their intelligence? [[spoiler: None of them have any interest in eating humans. Even when he goes berserk, Eren tries to smash Mikasa with his fists, but never attempts to grab and devour her, as a normal Titan would.]] The one exception to this is [[spoiler:Ymir, who ate a childhood friend of Reiner and Bertolt before their horrified eyes, and considering what we know of how Ymir fights, it could be that she simply lacked control over her Titan form at the time.]]
* IfWeGetThroughThis: Happens before the trainee's first mission in Trost. Sasha got her hands on big 'ol slab of meat (a luxury since so much land was lost to the Titans) and decided to stash it away for safekeeping. All the recruits decided that they would all share the meat once their duties were done with. Unfortunately, it wasn't Sasha's meat that ended up getting eaten later.
** Ymir jokingly asks Krista to [[LesYay marry her]] if they survive the battle.
* InherentInTheSystem: The major flaw of the military. Those who score the highest in things like 3D Maneuvering in training, and are thus best able to fight the Titans, get preferential treatment in becoming part of the highly coveted position of Inner-Wall Military Police Brigade to protect the interior and the king, and are thus the furthest from any actual combat where they could put their skills to use. Furthermore, Annie points out that while the corrupt and selfish soldiers may be immoral, they are ''normal'', and any system that expects and depends upon the vast majority of its soldiers to be moral paragons is doomed to fail. No specific entity or organization blamed for the situation: it's just what happens when [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority one's position in the organization is based upon who has the most skill in combat]] and a society is lulled by a hundred years of general peace.
** Furthermore, those savvy enough to figure this out prioritize their training, slacking off on the hand-to-hand combat skills that aren't graded as highly as 3D Maneuvering. Thus, those placed in the Military Police Brigade, and therefore the most likely to actually ''need'' to fight human sized opponents, would be less capable at doing so.
* InstantArmour - [[spoiler:Titan transformation]] is essentially a particularly bizarre and extreme version of this, [[spoiler:conjuring a colossal organic 'suit' around yourself out of thin air]].
* InvulnerableHorses: Although Titans ignore all other organisms, horses are vulnerable to injury or death since escape on horseback offers the best chance for a human survival, yet it's still no guarantee since Titans are that damn persistent to get at humans.
* {{Irony}}
** Eren has an all-comsuming hatred of Titans [[spoiler: but is a Titan Shifter himself, and several of his friends turn out to be the very Titans he hates]].
** [[spoiler: The [[NighInvulnerability Armored Titan]] is a villainous BruiserWithASoftCenter]].
** [[spoiler: The Colossal Titan is really an ExtremeDoormat with an officially ranked Self-Esteem of a 2 out of 10]].
* ItCanThink - When Eren first engages a Colossal Titan in battle, he notices that it purposely attacked the gate (the weakest point of the wall) and took out the mounted cannon atop the wall, and he realizes that the Titans must be intelligent.
** A similarly surprising moment comes when [[spoiler:the rogue Titan protecting the city puts its fists up in a ''boxer's stance'', and then scores a OneHitKill on an enemy with a carefully-aimed left hook to its weak spot]].
** The Female-Type Titan, when she [[spoiler: lifts up Armin's hood gently to see his face]].
** The ape-like Titan can not only think, it [[spoiler: speaks in an utterly polite fashion, and removes Mike's equipment with the intention of examining it later]].
* JustBeforeTheEnd - Very possibly. What with the constant threat of the Titans, and the very real possibility that another Colossal Titan could show up ''at any time'' and knock down the remaining walls, the end of the world feels very imminent throughout the series. [[spoiler: When the second wall supposedly falls, many people think the world is over]]
* {{Kaiju}} - The Colossal Titan. 60 meters (roughly 200 feet) of skinless steaming monstrosity.
* KillAllHumans[=/=]SuperPersistentPredator - Titans explicitly target humans alone, ignoring any other animals they come by. It's not even because they're hungry; they don't need to eat.
* [[LastOfHisKind Last of Her Kind]] - Mikasa Ackerman whose (mother's) race (called oriental) was wiped out by the Titans. Makes sense given that the walled city's region seems roughly analogous with northwest Europe, so East-Asian analog humans would have been for the most part much too far away to take refuge there in time.
** However, they may just be referring to the Asians who had been living in the region at the time the Titans appeared. It's possible that they were "wiped out" not by the Titans, but simply through centuries of mixing with the more numerous Central European analogs.
* LightningBruiser - Titans are far faster and swifter to react than their size might suggest, especially [[spoiler:the human piloted ones]].
** To put in in perspective, small flying insects, if they could think, might think ''we're'' slow and ponderous due to our size compared to them....but most of us are more then quick enough to slap them aside easily. The same applies to the Titans who do ''not'' move slowly simply because they are large, which makes them all the more terrifying to fight. The only thing that makes the strategies humans employ is how stupid they are. [[spoiler:The Human-Titans are almost impossible to kill thanks to having human intelligence, speed, and strength, only scaled ten times in size.]]
* LivingMacGuffin: Everyone wants Eren in some way, whether it be to [[spoiler: dissect him for information, use him as humanity's ultimate weapon, influence others and hide dirty secrets, or to kidnap him and bring him back to his fellow human-Titans.]]
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple - Eren accuses Franz and Hannah of this, which they [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend vehemently deny.]] [[spoiler: Turns depressing when Armin finds Hannah trying to revive Franz, Armin tells her to stop as Franz was cut in half.]]
* LovecraftianSuperpower - [[spoiler:Turning into a Titan.]]
* MadeOfPlasticine - Titans fall apart surprisingly easily. Don't think this makes them much less of a threat, though - their HealingFactor more than compensates. Particularly obvious when [[spoiler:Titan Eren punches another of his kind, and ends up taking off its head and losing most of his forearm]].
** [[MadScientist Zoë]] notes that the body parts of a titan are impossibly light, which might have something to do with this, [[LightningBruiser their speed]], and [[SquareCubeLaw how they even exist without collapsing in on themselves]].
* MartyrdomCulture: The military does not focus upon victory, but encourages soldiers to die as bravely and in as useful a fashion as possible. Many of the characters, similarly, seem obsessed with finding a way to die in as useful and meaningful way as possible.
* MauveShirt - Titans find recently introduced and named characters to be very tasty.
* MeaningfulName: Quite a few characters.
** Eren Yeager: "Holy Hunter".
** Armin: "Universal"
** Reiner: "Counselor/Warrior"
** Annie Leonhart: "Grace" and "Lion Heart"
** Connie Springer: "Steadfast" and "Lively"
** Krista Lenz: "Follower of Christ", "Laurels" (the Roman symbol for victory) Also, [[spoiler: Historia in reference to her family's knowledge of the Walls' secrets]].
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: More of ''neo''-medieval fantasy, as architecture, civilian attire, and government are reminiscent of the Middle Ages, but the military is more modernized,[[SchizoTech having 3D maneuvering equipment]], guns, and more modern-day uniforms.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Averted, both men and women die with alarming regularity, since the Titans aren't too picky who they choose to eat.
* MightyGlacier: The Colossal Titan is slower than the average Titan. [[spoiler: He can compensate for this by releasing [[PlayingWithFire heat from his body]].]]
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Annie, Bertolt, and Reiner. Ymir also secretly joined the human ranks, but independent of the others. She compares herself to her love interest, Krista, in that both rejected their pasts and tried to start new lives. How true this is, remains unclear.]]
* MoodWhiplash: [[HopeSpot Hope Spots]] show up frequently. One moment the situation can be hopeless, and the next moment we're treated to light-hearted character development. The reverse can happen just as often.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily - A universal feature of the Titans.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Around chapter 42, Reiner reveals that [[spoiler: getting Eren out of human hands is more important to the Titan Shifters than wiping out humanity. In fact, he says that ''they're willing to leave humanity alone'' if he comes with them willingly.]] [[spoiler: Eren]] likely would have come along ''willingly'' [[spoiler: just to see the outside world if not for the chance at stopping any more intelligent titans from attacking humanity's last stronghold]] had [[spoiler: he and the other titan shifters not ruined his life by getting his mother and countless friends eaten by titans.]] In the end, their actions ultimately [[spoiler: resulted in Eren becoming humanity's greatest weapon against their kind.]]
** Eren lampshades this, pointing out that their greatest mistake was [[spoiler: being the ones that taught him how to ''fight'']].
* NoConservationOfEnergy - Titans produce a large amount of body heat, yet they will only eat humans, who haven't been available to eat in large numbers for nearly 100 years. If the observations about them slowing down when they're deprived of light is any indication, their bodies act like solar panels to absorb and use energy.
* NoOntologicalInertia - A Titan's body quickly dissolves after their death. Arguably justified in that their excessive amount of body heat makes dead Titan flesh ''spontaneously combust''.
** Titanic organic "armor" on the other hand does stick around even after being separated from the Titan. [[spoiler: The walls were apparently made this way.]]
* NonActionGuy - Armin himself said that it was "a miracle" that he passed the simulated combat section of the military graduation exam. He makes up for this by being a GuileHero, coming up with vital strategies and [[spoiler: uncovering the identity of the Female-Type Titan, allowing them to lure Annie into a trap]].
* NorseMythology: Several, often subtle, nods towards it in the premise. A Germanic people battle giant {{Humanoid Abomination}}s of varying size and deformity, as well as the revelation that some of them are [[spoiler: seemingly human shapeshifters]] with the most significant ones less deformed and more [[ItCanThink intelligent]] than their DumbMuscle kin. Ymir's name in particular is drawn from a creation myth. This leads some unofficial sources to translate "Kyojin" as "Eoten".
** ClassicalMythology: Official sources translate "Kyojin" as "Titan", in a nod to the beings from Greek mythology. The Titan Cronus, in particular, was noted to have devoured his own children.
* NotBloodSiblings - Eren and Mikasa.
* NotEnoughToBury - In the first chapter, a woman runs up to the returning RedshirtArmy and begs them to tell her where her son is. The commanding officer gives her a small bundle which turns out to contain a severed hand — that's all that was left of him after the Titans got him.
* NotQuiteDead - [[spoiler:Eren]], and in a surprisingly better shape than before.
* NotSoDifferent: In episode 3, Eren is having a lot of trouble mastering the basics of the Maneuvering Gear. He asks various characters for help, but none seem to want to help him at first. Reiner and Bertolt, on the other hand, ask him why he's so determined to be a soldier, then tell him that they were also from a DoomedHometown. They go with him to help him a bit with some extra training at night in an attempt to help him pass the training. [[spoiler: This comparison becomes a bit more...interesting...when it's revealed that Reiner and Bertolt are also NotSoDifferent from Eren in that they're both Titan Shifters.]]
* OhCrap: The standard reaction to a titan's jaws closing in on soft human skull. Or just seeing one show up in general, which usually indicates things have really gone downhill.
** The moment that Colossal Titan and Armored Titan showed up out of the blue and easily eradicated 100 years of protective solace reminded everyone of their place in the world as prey items.
* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous German Chanting]] - The anime's opening.
* OnlySixFaces: Avoided, ''especially'' after the ArtEvolution and in particular among the main cast. Some of the varied facial features and body types are pretty impressive and the anime does an excellent job translating these.
* OntologicalMystery - How and why did the Titans appear over a century back? How did they become so numerous as to make humans an endangered species when they don't even have a way to reproduce? Why is their biology [[BizarreAlienBiology so improbably weird]]? Were humans more or less technologically advanced before the coming of the Titans? Where exactly in the world is the walled city? Is the setting another world where there are humans, or was it EarthAllAlong? [[spoiler:What's the deal with some humans being able to turn into Titans]]? Who (or what) is [[spoiler:Ymir]]?
* OurGiantsAreBigger - Our biggest giants also lack skin.
* [[spoiler: OurHeroIsDead]]: [[spoiler: Seems to be the case when Eren is eaten by a Titan during the battle of Trost while saving Armin, but subverted when we later discover he survived via his Titan-Shifting abilities.]]
* OutsideContextVillain: The Titans. What makes them particularly terrifying is that humans have [[BizarreAlienBiology very little understanding of them]] and [[OntologicalMystery don't even know where they came from exactly.]]
* ParentalAbandonment - Eren has to [[HarmfulToMinors watch his mother get eaten]] and his father goes missing shortly after. Mikasa technically suffers from this ''twice''.
* PeekABangs - Annie has the "concealing something" variety.
* PerpetualMotionMonster - Titans. While they do slow down from certain conditions, they never truly stop until their nape is destroyed.
* PowerIncontinence - It turns out that Eren's [[spoiler:Titan transformation the second time around]] was quite uncontrollable, even attacking [[spoiler:Mikasa, his sister.]] As it turns out, he's in some kind of dream state, where things are as they were before the Titans breached the wall. The last time, when he [[spoiler: killed the Titans]], was also apparently a dream-like state to him. In other words, his sub-conscious might exert some influence on his [[spoiler: Titan form]].
* PowerOfTrust - Horribly, horribly subverted. 'Trust' is synonymous with 'doomed, with extra grief and guilt on the side, hold the silver lining'. [[spoiler:Eren learns this the hard way in chapter 27.]]
* PowerTrio - Eren, Mikasa and Armin, of the ThreeAmigos variety. [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie provide a contrasting villainous example with their BigThinShortTrio.]]
** TheHero: Eren
** TheLancer: Mikasa
** TheSmartGuy: Armin
* ThePowerOfTheSun - Titans are solar powered. The researchers have to occasionally expose the captured specimens to daylight, so they don't die. They actually don't derive ''any'' nutritional value from humans, which leaves in-universe researchers just as puzzled as the readers. [[spoiler:This makes the nighttime attack on Castle Utgard that much more of a shock.]]
* PragmaticAdaptation: The anime is currently this, the first episode adapted all of chapter 1 and some of chapter 2. Episode 2 adapted part of chapter 2, and expanded on some elements. Episode 3 seems to adapt chapter 15 and 16, making the story chronological, instead of having them as flashbacks after the the [[spoiler:battle of Trost, allowing us to get to know the characters' whose lives are in danger]].
* PrimalFear - Mixes '''Giants''' and '''Being Eaten Alive''' together for a nightmare of a world.
** And in Eren and Mikasa's case, "being a small child and watching your parents get killed."
* RedOniBlueOni
** HotBlooded Eren, who is usually held in check and balanced out by EmotionlessGirl Mikasa.
** Reiner is the TeamDad, prone to acting without thinking things through while Bertolt is TheQuietOne. [[spoiler: A villainous example, with Reiner conflicted due to his attachment to their fellow Trainees while Bertolt appears to still be loyal to their mission]].
* RedShirtArmy - The Survey Corps, of which the main characters are an integral part. Their job is to literally "die as heroically as possible".
** Driven home in the cruelest way possible during Commander Erwin's speech he gave to the trainees that thought about signing up in the Survey Corps.
** OTOH, the experienced soldiers of the Survey Corps are also the BadassArmy (of the story), especially compared to the Garrison who man and reinforce the walls.
** The Garrison troops fall into this trope if the Titans breach a wall, and are killed pretty easily.
* TheReveal - Several.
** [[spoiler: Eren was the rogue titan.]]
** [[spoiler: Annie is the Female Titan.]]
** [[spoiler: Dormant, colossal titans are the foundation of the walls, lining the interior. An entire cult with info on all of this refuses to spill even though they, too, have lost loved ones like everyone else.]]
** [[spoiler: Krista is hinted at being one of the few to know what the Titans really are.]]
** [[spoiler: Ymir is a Titan, like Eren and Annie, and had killed the childhood friend of Reiner, who now is a fellow comrade of hers.]]
** [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertolt are the Armored Titan and Colossal Titan, respectively.]]
* {{Revenge}} - Why Eren wants to kill every Titan ''really'' bad.
* RousingSpeech: Subverted in episode 7. Mikasa sees that many of the remaining soldiers are too scared to fight, and she herself looks a little distraught. And instead of a big speech, she just insults them and tells them to die like cowards and heads off to fight more Titans. Several soldiers decide to join her, and eventually they all begin to follow her as well.
* SanitySlippage: All over the place, and not surprising at all considering what the characters go through.
* SceneryPorn - First episode and we're greeted with this.
* SchizoTech - Humans have cannons and flintlocks for ranged combat. On the other hand, they have pressurized gas grappling hooks.
** Tanks are shown in one of the flash backs about when the titans first appeared. They simply don't have to resources to squander on war machines or non-renewable gas-powered vehicles that would be even less effective then their current kill teams use, especially given the increasingly dire situation their last bastion is in. Not to mention, flintlocks and cannons use heavy shot that can unbalance the titans allowing for easier strikes against their weak points.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: The merchant in episode 6 whose cart is blocking the escape route for the civilians because its stuck in the narrow passageway. The civilians try to get a soldier to arrest him, but the merchant fires back by saying he's the one who brings the food for the peasants. He also tries to make Mikasa cooperate, but she instead forces him to remove the cart so the civilians could escape.
* SecretIdentity: Several of them.
** [[spoiler: Krista Lenz]] is actually [[spoiler: Historia Reiss, the bastard child of a prominent and influential Noble house privy to the secrets about the Walls]].
** [[spoiler: Annie Leonhart]] is [[spoiler: the Female-Type Titan]].
** [[spoiler: Reiner Braun]] is [[spoiler: the Armored Titan]].
** [[spoiler: Bertolt Hoover]] is [[spoiler: the Colossal Titan]].
** Ymir is [[spoiler: a Titan Shifter not connected to the other three]] and likely has many more secrets not yet revealed. [[spoiler: At least one Deviant Titan worships her, calling Ilse "Ymir-sama" and bowing before her when it thought she was Ymir]].
* SenselessSacrifice - Most of the Survey Corps' missions end up this way. Unfortunately, the human race is in such desperate straits that continuing suicide missions in the hope that something will pan out someday is probably more sensible than turtling behind walls that have been recently shown to be merely delaying the inevitable. [[spoiler:And then there's the fact that many of their most promising efforts have been intentionally sabotaged...]]
** A specific example: In the first chapter, a mother who has just found out that her son died in battle (and who has just been given [[NotEnoughToBury what's left of him]]) begs his commanding officer to tell her that her son didn't die in vain. He starts to reassure her, but almost immediately breaks down and admits that their mission [[ShootTheShaggyDog accomplished nothing]] and that his own incompetence resulted in an 80% fatality rate with zero gain. [[DarkerAndEdgier Just in case you were wondering what kind of story this is.]]
*** It also tends to get brutally deconstructed; one death ''can'' save many lives, but choosing to let yourself be killed so that the people you leave behind will praise you after you're gone is just another form of human complacency, doomed to gain nothing. The ''real'' heroes are the ones who stay alive to keep up the fight.
* SeventhEpisodeTwist: The appearance of the Abnormal Titan.
* [[spoiler: SheepInWolfsClothing: Subverted, and used by Armin as evidence that Eren is human regardless of his powers. Normal Titans tried to eat him in his Titan form, so that means they recognize him as being a human.]]
* {{Shonen}}: Despite the very grim story and the violence which would normally put a series like this into Seinen territory, this series runs in ''Bessatsu Shonen Magazine''.
* SlasherSmile:
** [[spoiler: Annie pulls an extremely creepy one when Mikasa correctly accuses her of being the female Titan.]]
** Played straight with Titans. They're already creepy looking enough, but when you're staring at one after it snatches you up...
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism - Zigzagged. On the one hand, humanity's prospects for the future and odds of winning ''any'' victories against the Titans are exceedingly grim, and characters drop like flies, usually suffering gory nightmarish deaths. On the other hand, the protagonist is a grimly determined optimist who has vowed that he will a) kill all the Titans as {{revenge}} and b) see humanity expand to the world outside the walled city, both of which are ideas that most of his peers consider suicidally idealistic, but so far he's doing pretty well with those goals.
* TheSpartanWay: Military training is a 3-year process, and it's casually noted that deaths are not only ''common'' but considered just a way of weeding out those who wouldn't have survived battle anyway. The 3D maneuver in particular is noted to result in quite a few training accidents.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS - Eren/Elen, Levi/Rivaille/Revi, Erwin/Irvin/Elvin, Krista/Christa, Arlert/Arlelt, Bertolt/Bertholdt... It would take too long to list them all.
* [[spoiler: StagesOfMonsterGrief]]: An underlying element of [[spoiler: Eren's]] characterization, as he learns to cope with his new status.
* StealthHiBye: The Colossal Titan is noteworthy for this, since no one can figure out how a 60m tall monster can simply appear and disappear in a cloud of smoke. This ends up being very significant, as this is one piece of evidence that leads them to realize the Colossal Titan is [[spoiler: a Titan Shifter with access to military training and equipment]].
* TheStoic - Mikasa
** NotSoStoic: Usually when Eren is in some kind of danger.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide - [[spoiler: Eren's Titan mode]]
* [[spoiler: SummonBiggerFish: For the protagonists, we have Eren and more recently Ymir. The Titans responded in kind with Reiner, Annie, and Bertolt.]]
* SquareCubeLaw - Titans are shockingly nimble despite their size because they weigh almost nothing.
* TakesOneToKillOne - Besides incredibly impractical human weaponry, the only thing that can easily damage a Titan is another one. Include itself, since titans often commit self-injury.
* TemptingFate:
** A priest preaches that the walls will remain impregnable as long as clergy's faith is held fast. They form a human wall, linking arms, and praying in a circle. A Titan promptly smashes through the walls of the church, crushing the people inside.
** In the first episode, Eren calls the Garrison soldiers cattle due to how lazy and unconcerned they seem to be, including some who are drunk on duty. One of them mentions that if they're seen fighting, then things have really gone downhill fast. Which is exactly what happens when the Titans breach the wall...
** And most {{egregious}}ly, before the Titan invasion: the heroes are discussing the Titans, and Armin says that even though the walls have stood for a century, they could still be broken today. After about 10 seconds of silence, a colossal Titan appears out of nowhere and busts a hole in the wall.
** In episode four, after Eren looks at a lot of things humans have done in the last five years since the Titans entered the territory behind Wall Maria. He notes that they're ready for another Titan attack. [[spoiler: The same Titan that showed up five years earlier then instantly pops out of nowhere in front of him, and immediately starts attacking. However, unlike five years ago, Eren is capable of fighting back, and ends on a CliffHanger with him staring right back at the Titan.]]
** In Episode 8, Jean goes off on a long speech about how Titans are Titans, and they shouldn't help the Abnormal berzerker, etc. Considering this corresponds to chapter 7, [[spoiler: the surprisingly helpful Titan was Eren.]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The [[spoiler: Titan Shifters]] are a ''major'' source of paranoia for the military, once people realize such a person could exist. How many of them there are, or what their true goals might be, are among the many mysteries of the series. But they are completely undetectable, unless they do something that blows their cover.
* ThickLineAnimation - It's not of uniform thickness, though, giving the impression of a brush pen.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Reiner and Bertolt. Jean and Marco, especially in the anime, prior to [[spoiler: Marco becoming the DeadSidekick]]. Krista and Ymir. All manage to subvert the trope, by being ''much'' more [[ChekhovsGunman important]] as the story goes on.
** ThoseTwoBadGuys: [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertolt are actually this.]]
* ThousandYardStare - As one might expect from a series as dark as this. Its noted in universe that the DrillSergeantNasty skips over the recruits who already have one. Many soldiers also display one once despair sets in.
* ThreeAmigos: Eren, Mikasa, and Armin.
* ToServeMan - The Titans think humans are very tasty. Evidence suggests that they don't even ''need'' to eat in order to survive, nor do they prey on any other animals besides humans.
* TriangRelations: Type 3 implied between Krista, Reiner, and Ymir, with [[AmbiguouslyBi Reiner]] (though we don't know if he really has a crush on Krista or is just messing with Ymir) and [[BadassGay Ymir]] both looking at Krista, but Krista herself never giving any confirmation on any possible romantic feelings.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour - Eren. He took it upon himself to save Mikasa, planning out how to kill the criminals that had abducted her. His explanation to his father: "I merely put down some rabid dogs. Sometimes they just happen to look like people."
* TryNotToDie - Mikasa says this to Eren before they part during the Titans' second invasion of the city.
* TykeBomb: [[spoiler: Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt were all still children when they began their mission to exterminate mankind. Annie is shown to have been in training since an early age, though it's unknown how early Reiner and Bertolt began to prepare for their mission]].
** LaserGuidedTykeBomb: [[spoiler: Eren becomes one for the military, and his memories of being injected with something by his father suggest he had a hand in Eren developing his powers.]]
* UncannyValley: [[InvokedTrope The author deliberately aimed for this when designing the Titans.]] Let's just say he succeeded.
** [[spoiler:Eren, a heroic Titan shifter]] looks ''less'' human than a normal Titan thanks to its skull-like face, making it a little less creepy. [[spoiler:Reiner, a Titan shifter who became sympathetic to his comrades in the Trainee squad despite his mission]] also looks less human. [[spoiler:Annie and Bertolt, who hate humans and are more loyal to their mission respectively]], are smack dab in the Valley.
* TheUnreveal: The identity of the "[[BigBad true enemy]]". [[spoiler: Ymir]] almost reveals it before being stopped, and later refuses to answer when asked a second time.
* UnskilledButStrong - Almost all Titans. They have very little intelligence but can do a lot of damage because of theirs gigantic size.
* UnstoppableRage - Eren snaps [[spoiler:when the female Titan kills all the people protecting him,]] and [[spoiler:becomes a titan so he can kill her.]]
** Mikasa whenever she thinks that [[spoiler:Eren has died at the hands of a Titan]]. [[spoiler:During the loss of Trost]], she essentially flies into a RoaringRampageofRevenge and cuts down a dozen of Titans before running out of gas.
* WaifFu - Mikasa. Eren too, actually, considering how scrawny he is.
** The ideal fighting style against titans --swinging through the air, trying to avoid being caught --actually means that WaifFu is ''preferable''. This also makes so many ActionGirl not only justified in context, but actually sensible.
* WallAroundTheWorld - Except for the very first scene, the whole story takes place within walled areas.
* WarIsHell: Big time.
* WasItAllALie: Eren wonders this after [[spoiler: Annie is revealed to be the Female-Type Titan]], and later when [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertolt are also revealed to be Titans]]. [[spoiler: Connie]] states he won't be satisfied until he can ask them face to face.
* WatchingTroyBurn: In episode 2, as Eren, Armin, and Mikasa, along with many other refugees attempt to flee Zhiganshina, they see smoke and fires rising in the distance, along with cries of terror as the Titans enter the human territory for the first time in a hundred years. Bonus points for their hometown actually being [[Literature/TheTrojanCycle surrounded by walls]] previously thought to be impregnable.
* WeakButSkilled - The only way the inherently much physically weaker humans can survive multiple Titans encounters is to be '''very''' skilled.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: Marco Bott]], the first member of the top ten of the 104th training squad to die, does so off-screen and with hardly any CharacterDevelopment. The horrific anonymity of his death serves as one of the triggers for [[spoiler: Jean's CharacterDevelopment]]. Of course, it's heavily implied that the reason he died somewhere where no one was there to see was because [[spoiler: Annie killed him]].
** Eren and Armin's squadmates Thomas Wagner and Mina Carolina are the first named soldiers to die in the battle of Trost, and both did so with little screentime. Nac Tius and Mylius Zeramuski also die with even ''less'' screentime, their names weren't even known before Armin recalled them later.
* WeHaveReserves:
** Recovery mission. The government sent half of the people inside the wall to die to the Titans. Horribly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] and [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as they just wanted to [[CrapsackWorld reduce the demand on the food supply to avoid starving]], and [[DespairEventHorizon they don't believe they're ever recapture the lost territory]].
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] by Commander Pixis, who gives his troops the option to leave [[spoiler:before the operation to reconquest Trost]].
* WesternTerrorists: [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertolt, and Annie certainly operate like terrorists. Their methods involved destroying vital structures, causing massive loss of life and destabilizing the enemy in the process. They then infiltrated the military, and worked to enter the Military Police Brigade, which would have provided them with complete access to the interior areas. Their sudden switch from extermination campaign to kidnapping Eren leaves all sorts of questions about their exact motivations and cause.]]
* WhamEpisode - Many of them:
** Chapter 9, [[spoiler:Eren is alive with all his limbs intact and was the Titan that attacked the other Titans]].
** Chapter 31, [[spoiler:The Female Titan is Annie.]]
** Chapter 33, [[spoiler:A Titan is within Wall Sina.]]
** Chapter 34, [[spoiler:Wall Rose has fallen.]]
** Chapter 38, [[spoiler:Wall Rose is completely intact, but the inside is swarming with Titans. Furthermore, the site of Connie's village, as simply as we can put it, '''[[MindScrew makes no sense whatsoever]] [[NightmareFuel to the Survey Corps]].'''. There's no blood, no corpses, so the only logical explanation is they all escaped. But the horses are still there, tied up, so they couldn't have. And the houses are destroyed, which Titans usually wouldn't do. And, [[NightmareFuel disturbingly enough]], there's a deformed Titan on Connie's house with limbs too shrunken for its body, that has no way it could have gotten there. Except it looks like his mother, and welcomed him back home...]]
** Chapter 40, [[spoiler:Ymir is a Titan as well - and, years ago, killed a childhood friend of two of her comrades.]]
** Chapter 42, [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertolt are Armored Titan and Colossal Titan, respectively]]
** Chapter 45, [[spoiler: Eren and Ymir have been captured by Reiner and Bertolt, who are now on a mad dash to Titan territory before the rest of the cast can catch up to them.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: In episode 2, Eren insults Armin for wanting to stay away from the danger while relying on meager handouts. He then throws the bread his friend's grandfather gave them, prompting Mikasa to punch him in the face. She tells him someone so weak who couldn't even of left the city on their own two feet, nor gotten the food without help, would be unable to even stand up to one Titan. She then force feeds him the bread, telling him to survive for now.
* WholeEpisodeFlashBack: The second half of episode 6, where Mikasa starts remembering how she first met Eren.
* WorldsStrongestMan - Levi. He is considered to be humanity's strongest warrior, and for good reason.
* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Mother]]: In chapter 46, Eren confronts [[spoiler:Bertolt]] with this, reminding him of the time he mentioned that a piece of the gate the Colossal Titan kicked landed on his house, breaking his mother's leg so she couldn't escape. [[spoiler:Bertolt's]] [[LackOfEmpathy cold response]] causes Eren to vow to make his death as painful as possible.
* YouMonster: Eren spends a good portion of chapter 43 monologuing about how much he hates [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertolt for having ruined his life but still having the gall to infiltrate the soldiers and act righteous.]]
* ZombieApocalypse: Borrows many of the key elements, from the [[HumansAreBastards very real risk of humans finishing each other off]] to the hordes of mindless beings devouring humans. While they aren't undead, Titans certainly have the key elements of being nearly impossible to destroy, and ignoring wildlife in favor of their favorite two-legged prey. [[spoiler: Also, the hints that the Titans that appeared within Wall Rose used to be the people from Connie's village...]]
----

Eren Jaeger is a boy who dreams of the world outside the city walls. This fantasy is fueled by the fabulous descriptions of his book-reading friend Armin Arlert. Even Eren's level-headed adopted sister, Mikasa Ackerman, can't talk him out of it. So what if there are [[SuperPersistentPredator human-eating]] [[HumanoidAbomination giants]] outside the city? As long as people know how to kill them, and the city walls keep the giants out, human civilization can slowly rebuild, and eventually reclaim the world.

* ApocalypticLog - Played totally straight, in a side chapter, a Scouting Legion soldier, Ilse, keeps writing in her journal even as a Titan is about to eat her.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority[=/=]ThePeterPrinciple: Deconstructed. Only the best students are allowed to join the "prestigious" military police that guards the innermost wall and the king. Therefore, the most skilled, in training anyway, soldiers are placed in a position of authority farthest from any actual fighting, while those less capable are more likely to be on the front lines. This situation is actually well known, and most who hone their skills high enough to be able to get the position were doing so just to be placed in a safe life. Eren bitterly notes the disconnect.
** Adding to this, since hand-to-hand combat skills aren't valued as highly as 3D Maneuver Gear piloting, students who want to join the military police prioritize 3D Maneuver Gear training over melee combat training. This means that the soldiers who would be expected to fight human-sized opponents more often are actually the ''least'' qualified ones to do so.

** BadassAdorable: Christa, who is the idol of the 104th ''and'' one of the top graduates.

** HiddenBadass: Levi and his squad in particular, who have dozens of Titan kills each and are a RagTagBunchOfMisfits. Bertholdt, Connie, Sasha, and Christa from the 104th, who are all top-ranked soldiers while not seeming it at all most of the time.
** SubmissiveBadass: Bertholdt, by his own admission.

* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: The three Titan spies play with this, to different effects. Annie plays it the closest, having come to respect some of them enough that she's unable to kill them during her rampage as the Female-Type Titan. It comes back to haunt her, when Armin figures her out and reveals it. Bertholdt manages to avert it, having remained emotionally distant enough to not show any sympathy over the suffering he's caused. On the other hand, Reiner ''brutally'' deconstructs it via SanitySlippage. His attachment to the others, and guilt over his crimes, causes him to begin suffering dissociative episodes since he'd rather be his Mask]].

** [[spoiler:Armin]] briefly considers this; he gives all of his blades and gas to Mikasa so that she can help take back the Titan-infested building holding most of their supplies, but asks to keep one for himself in case a Titan tries to eat him. [[spoiler:Mikasa throws the blade away and promises not to let him die, even though carrying him will be a big handicap for her and Conny.]]

* BizarreAlienBiology - The Titans [[spoiler:and humans who can turn into titans]]; the fact that how they work makes very little sense is an important plot point, as one of the Scouting Legion's stated objectives is to better understand Titans and how to better defend against them/kill them.

* BoldExplorer: Eren dreams of joining the Scouting Legion because they venture outside of Wall Maria, the outermost wall, and attempt to map it out or study the Titans. However, they have a high casualty rate as evidenced by the few returning members in the first episode, most of whom are injured. One of the bits of trivia given during the EyeCatch in episode 2 mentions that the territory outside of Wall Maria is unknown due to it being lands infested by Titans.

** A common experience for young recruits. The Scouting Legion seems awesome, until one realizes how low their [[RedShirtArmy survival percentage]] is and how often their missions [[ShootTheShaggyDog end in failure]]. The Military Police are corrupt and lazy, and anyone joining for honest intentions gets a rude wake-up call.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Averted. [[spoiler: Bertholdt actually brings up the subject of Eren's DoomedHometown, and is well-aware of what he went through. When Eren confronts him about it after TheReveal, he simply notes that Eren having to watch his mother being devoured is "unfortunate". He [[LackOfEmpathy doesn't seem to care]], though]].
* CallToAdventure: Eren wanted nothing more than to join the Scouting Legion so that he could aid humanity in fighting against the Titans, but to also see the world beyond the wall. [[RefusalOfTheCall His mother vehemently opposed his plans and told him to stop.]] Little did they know that everything was going to change that day...

* TheChessmaster - Irvin. He dooesn't hesitate to [[WeHaveReserves sacrifice hundred of his soldiers]] [[spoiler:in order to capture the Female Titan]], declining to tell them about what they're fighting. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Armin, who says that a person needs to be one to [[WellIntentionedExtremist change something in the world]].

* ChildrenForcedToKill: Part of both Eren and Mikasa's backstory. Mikasa's parents were killed by three human traffickers and Mikasa was kidnapped with the traffickers intending on selling her because she was of a rare Oriental race. Eren and his father found out about their whereabouts, and Eren was told to stay away from their hideout as Dr. Jaeger notified the police. Instead, Eren took it upon himself to rescue Mikasa and ''stabs two of the men to death.'' Before they could escape, the third man came back and began choking Eren to death. Mikasa, who had been shell-shocked from the trauma the entire time, finally finds the courage and stabs the last man to death as well.

** [[spoiler: The second is when he develops a plan to kill the remaining Titans in the supply base so they can restock their gas canisters. He has many of the remaining soldiers all inside a lift elevator, whose goal is to fire their guns into the eyes of the seven Titans, blinding them in the process. Then, a group of seven of their best soldiers hidden nearby would strike and take them down. It works, but Sasha and Conny miss the neck, so they don't quite finish off their targets. Fortunately Mikasa and Annie finish them off.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Auruo Bossard of the Scouting Legion initially appears to be a washed-up, immature moron who can't even talk and ride at the same time. We then hear that he's got ''thirty-nine'' solo Titan kills and nine assists under his belt.
** Sasha Braus, who looks like a complete moron during her first few appearances, actually gets into the top 10 of the class, and is able to fend off a titan without her gear at one point, using only a hatchet and arrows.

* DeclarationOfProtection: Mikasa is devoted to protecting Eren, often to his annoyance. Ymir is devoted to protecting Christa, though she would deny it most of the time. Reiner also claims to want to protect Christa, and offers this to Ymir as evidence that he can trust her.

* DefeatingTheUndefeatable: Eren manages this during the battle with [[spoiler: Reiner]]. At least, [[spoiler: until he puts out a DistressCall and Bertholdt [[DeathFromAbove falls on them]]]].

* DoomedHometown: Eren, Mikasa, and Armin's hometown gets breached by the Colossal Titan in the very first episode. Reiner and Bertholdt also came from a town overrun by Titans, and are motivated by their desire to see it again someday. [[spoiler: May or may not be a complete fabrication as part of their cover]]. In more recent events, [[spoiler: Conny's]] village becomes one.

* EnfantTerrible: Eren was an utterly terrifying child, murdering two grown men at the age of eight and not showing an ounce of remorse. Good thing he's on the side of humanity. Also, [[spoiler: Bertholdt Fubar was ''eleven'' when he began his mission of genocide against the human race by kicking a hole in Wall Maria]]. He doesn't seem to have any particular remorse over it, unlike his allies.

* FauxActionGirl: Another notable aversion (notable only because [=SnK=] is {{shounen}}, a genre especially prone to this trope). Most major female characters are at least as competent as the guys, and Mikasa and Annie can outfight nearly all their male peers. [[TheHeart Christa]] is the only major character who fits this trope, and in her case, it's [[JustifiedTrope justified]]--Ymir deliberately slacked off so she could get into the Top 10 of their squad.

* {{Foreshadowing}} - Very subtle, but it's there. You'll have to read between the lines with [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie]]. The same with [[spoiler:Eren's Titan mode, when the Female Titan fights, it use the same moves that Eren used in an earlier chapter.]]
** A particular subtle and brilliant example occurs in ch. 15. The recruits gather around Eren to ask him about the Titans, including the legendary Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan. As he is describing each, the panels focus on [[spoiler: first Bertholdt and then Reiner, as he describes their Titan forms]].

* GentleGiant: TeamDad Reiner, who towers over his squadmates and is built like a linebacker. His HeterosexualLifePartner Bertholdt may also count, being incredibly tall, noted to be TheQuietOne and a follower at heart. [[spoiler: Horribly subverted, when it turns out both are not only Titan Shifters sent to infiltrate the human ranks... but the two Titans responsible for breaching the Walls in the first place.]]

** [[spoiler: Eren, Ymir, Reiner, and Bertholdt all suffer pretty [[AnArmAndALeg horrific]] [[SlashedThroat injuries]] and recover from them quickly.]] It contrasts starkly with how easily and horrifically humans are torn apart in battle.

* HairContrastDuo: Christa and Ymir. Reiner and Bertholdt. Jean and Marco.

* HopelessWar: Humanity has gained absolutely nothing from the various battles against the Titans, so much so that joining the Scouting Legion is considered outright suicide. They're not [[RedShirtArmy entirely]] wrong. [[spoiler: Eren using his Titan form to plug the hole in Wall Rose with a boulder is literally the first triumph in humanity history.]]

* [[spoiler: HunterOfHisOwnKind]] : [[spoiler: All the Titan Shifters are this, to one degree or another. Eren plays it absolutely straight, using his Titan form to fight for humanity, while Ymir eventually reveals herself and fights to protect Christa.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler: Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt kill Titans in order to maintain their cover.]]

** How can you tell a [[spoiler: Titan Shifter]] from normal Titans, other than their intelligence? [[spoiler: None of them have any interest in eating humans. Even when he goes berserk, Eren tries to smash Mikasa with his fists, but never attempts to grab and devour her, as a normal Titan would.]] The one exception to this is [[spoiler:Ymir, who ate a childhood friend of Reiner and Bertholdt before their horrified eyes, and considering what we know of how Ymir fights, it could be that she simply lacked control over her Titan form at the time.]]

** Ymir jokingly asks Christa to [[LesYay marry her]] if they survive the battle.
* InherentInTheSystem: The major flaw of the military. Those who score the highest in things like 3D Maneuvering in training, and are thus best able to fight the Titans, get preferential treatment in becoming part of the highly coveted position of Inner-Wall Military Police to protect the interior and the king, and are thus the furthest from any actual combat where they could put their skills to use. Furthermore, Annie points out that while the corrupt and selfish soldiers may be immoral, they are ''normal'', and any system that expects and depends upon the vast majority of its soldiers to be moral paragons is doomed to fail. No specific entity or organization blamed for the situation: it's just what happens when [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority one's position in the organization is based upon who has the most skill in combat]] and a society is lulled by a hundred years of general peace.
** Furthermore, those savvy enough to figure this out prioritize their training, slacking off on the hand-to-hand combat skills that aren't graded as highly as 3D Maneuvering. Thus, those placed in the Military Police, and therefore the most likely to actually ''need'' to fight human sized opponents, would be less capable at doing so.

** [[MadScientist Hanji]] notes that the body parts of a titan are impossibly light, which might have something to do with this, [[LightningBruiser their speed]], and [[SquareCubeLaw how they even exist without collapsing in on themselves]].

** Eren Jaeger: "Holy Hunter".

** Annie Leonhardt: "Grace" and "Lion Heart"

** Christa Lenz: "Follower of Christ", "Laurels" (the Roman symbol for victory) Also, [[spoiler: Historia in reference to her family's knowledge of the Walls' secrets]].

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner. Ymir also secretly joined the human ranks, but independent of the others. She compares herself to her love interest, Christa, in that both rejected their pasts and tried to start new lives. How true this is, remains unclear.]]

* NotSoDifferent: In episode 3, Eren is having a lot of trouble mastering the basics of the Maneuvering Gear. He asks various characters for help, but none seem to want to help him at first. Reiner and Bertholdt, on the other hand, ask him why he's so determined to be a soldier, then tell him that they were also from a DoomedHometown. They go with him to help him a bit with some extra training at night in an attempt to help him pass the training. [[spoiler: This comparison becomes a bit more...interesting...when it's revealed that Reiner and Bertholdt are also NotSoDifferent from Eren in that they're both Titan Shifters.]]

* PowerTrio - Eren, Mikasa and Armin, of the ThreeAmigos variety. [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie provide a contrasting villainous example with their BigThinShortTrio.]]

** Reiner is the TeamDad, prone to acting without thinking things through while Bertholdt is TheQuietOne. [[spoiler: A villainous example, with Reiner conflicted due to his attachment to their fellow Trainees while Bertholdt appears to still be loyal to their mission]].
* RedShirtArmy - The Scouting Legion, of which the main characters are an integral part. Their job is to literally "die as heroically as possible".
** Driven home in the cruelest way possible during Commander Irvin's speech he gave to the trainees that thought about signing up in the Scouting Legion.
** OTOH, the experienced soldiers of the Scouting Legion are also the BadassArmy (of the story), especially compared to the Stationary Guard who man and reinforce the walls.
** The Stationary Guard troops fall into this trope if the Titans breach a wall, and are just as easily killed as the Scouting Legion trrops.

** [[spoiler: Christa is hinted at being one of the few to know what the Titans really are.]]

** [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertholdt are the Armored Titan and Colossal Titan, respectively.]]

** [[spoiler: Christa Renz]] is actually [[spoiler: Historia Reiss, the bastard child of a prominent and influential Noble house privy to the secrets about the Walls]].
** [[spoiler: Annie Leonhardt]] is [[spoiler: the Female-Type Titan]].

** [[spoiler: Bertholdt Fubar]] is [[spoiler: the Colossal Titan]].

* SenselessSacrifice - Most of the Scouting Legion's missions end up this way. Unfortunately, the human race is in such desperate straits that continuing suicide missions in the hope that something will pan out someday is probably more sensible than turtling behind walls that have been recently shown to be merely delaying the inevitable. [[spoiler:And then there's the fact that many of their most promising efforts have been intentionally sabotaged...]]

* SpellMyNameWithAnS - Eren/Elen, Levi/Rivaille/Revi, Irvin/Erwin/Elvin, Christa/Krista/Crista, Arlelt/Arlert, Bertholdt/Berthold... It would take too long to list them all.

* [[spoiler: SummonBiggerFish: For the protagonists, we have Eren and more recently Ymir. The Titans responded in kind with Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt.]]

** In the first episode, Eren calls the Stationary Guard's soldiers cattle due to how lazy and unconcerned they seem to be, including some who are drunk on duty. One of them mentions that if they're seen fighting, then things have really gone downhill fast. Which is exactly what happens when the Titans breach the wall...

* ThoseTwoGuys: Reiner and Bertholdt. Jean and Marco, especially in the anime, prior to [[spoiler: Marco becoming the DeadSidekick]]. Christa and Ymir. All manage to subvert the trope, by being ''much'' more [[ChekhovsGunman important]] as the story goes on.
** ThoseTwoBadGuys: [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertholdt are actually this.]]

* TriangRelations: Type 3 implied between Christa, Reiner, and Ymir, with [[AmbiguouslyBi Reiner]] and [[BadassGay Ymir]] both looking at Christa, but Christa herself never giving any confirmation on any possible romantic feelings.

* TykeBomb: [[spoiler: Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt were all still children when they began their mission to exterminate mankind. Annie is shown to have been in training since an early age, though it's unknown how early Reiner and Bertholdt began to prepare for their mission]].

** [[spoiler:Eren, a heroic Titan shifter]] looks ''less'' human than a normal Titan thanks to its skull-like face, making it a little less creepy. [[spoiler:Reiner, a Titan shifter who became sympathetic to his comrades in the Trainee squad despite his mission]] also looks less human. [[spoiler:Annie and Bertholdt, who hate humans and are more loyal to their mission respectively]], are smack dab in the Valley.

* WasItAllALie: Eren wonders this after [[spoiler: Annie is revealed to be the Female-Type Titan]], and later when [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertholdt are also revealed to be Titans]]. [[spoiler: Connie]] states he won't be satisfied until he can ask them face to face.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: Marco Bodt]], the first member of the top ten of the 104th training squad to die, does so off-screen and with hardly any CharacterDevelopment. The horrific anonymity of his death serves as one of the triggers for [[spoiler: Jean's CharacterDevelopment]]. Of course, it's heavily implied that the reason he died somewhere where no one was there to see was because [[spoiler: Annie killed him]].
** Eren and Armin's squadmates Tomas Wagner and Mina Carolina are the first named soldiers to die in the battle of Trost, and both did so with little screentime. Nack Teaz and Millius Zermusky also die with even ''less'' screentime, their names weren't even known before Armin recalled them later.

* WesternTerrorists: [[spoiler: Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie certainly operate like terrorists. Their methods involved destroying vital structures, causing massive loss of life and destabilizing the enemy in the process. They then infiltrated the military, and worked to enter the Military Police, which would have provided them with complete access to the interior areas. Their sudden switch from extermination campaign to kidnapping Eren leaves all sorts of questions about their exact motivations and cause.]]

** Chapter 38, [[spoiler:Wall Rose is completely intact, but the inside is swarming with Titans. Furthermore, the site of Conny's village, as simply as we can put it, '''[[MindScrew makes no sense whatsoever]] [[NightmareFuel to the Scouting Legion]].'''. There's no blood, no corpses, so the only logical explanation is they all escaped. But the horses are still there, tied up, so they couldn't have. And the houses are destroyed, which Titans usually wouldn't do. And, [[NightmareFuel disturbingly enough]], there's a deformed Titan on Conny's house with limbs too shrunken for its body, that has no way it could have gotten there. Except it looks like his mother, and welcomed him back home...]]

** Chapter 42, [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertholdt are Armored Titan and Colossal Titan, respectively]]
** Chapter 45, [[spoiler: Eren and Ymir have been captured by Reiner and Bertholdt, who are now on a mad dash to Titan territory before the rest of the cast can catch up to them.]]

* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Mother]]: In chapter 46, Eren confronts [[spoiler:Bertholdt]] with this, reminding him of the time he mentioned that a piece of the gate the Colossal Titan kicked landed on his house, breaking his mother's leg so she couldn't escape. [[spoiler:Bertholdt's]] [[LackOfEmpathy cold response]] causes Eren to vow to make his death as painful as possible.
* YouMonster: Eren spends a good portion of chapter 43 monologuing about how much he hates [[spoiler: Reiner and Bertholdt for having ruined his life but still having the gall to infiltrate the soldiers and act righteous.]]
* ZombieApocalypse: Borrows many of the key elements, from the [[HumansAreBastards very real risk of humans finishing each other off]] to the hordes of mindless beings devouring humans. While they aren't undead, Titans certainly have the key elements of being nearly impossible to destroy, and ignoring wildlife in favor of their favorite two-legged prey. [[spoiler: Also, the hints that the Titans that appeared within Wall Rose used to be the people from Conny's village....]]

* FightingFingerprint: Annie's ruthlessly efficient fighting style is unique. Because of it, Armin [[spoiler:uses it as evidence that she is the Female Titan]], and after she taught it to Eren, he manages to pull one over Reiner in their fight.

* AchillesHeel: The Titans seem to be MadeOfIndestructium except for their one weak point - the back of their necks.

Eren Jaeger is a boy who dreams of the world outside the city walls. This fantasy is fueled by the fabulous descriptions of his book-reading friend Armin. Even Eren's level-headed adopted sister, Mikasa Ackerman, can't talk him out of it. So what if there are [[SuperPersistentPredator human-eating]] [[HumanoidAbomination giants]] outside the city? As long as people know how to kill them, and the city walls keep the giants out, human civilization can slowly rebuild, and eventually reclaim the world.

Official English title: '''''Attack on the Titan'''''

Eren is a boy who dreams of the world outside the city walls. This fantasy is fueled by the fabulous descriptions of his book-reading friend Armin. Even Eren's level-headed adopted sister, Mikasa, can't talk him out of it. So what if there are [[SuperPersistentPredator human-eating]] [[HumanoidAbomination giants]] outside the city? As long as people know how to kill them, and the city walls keep the giants out, human civilization can slowly rebuild, and eventually reclaim the world.

Despite the action-y sounding premise, and there is a great deal of action, the author Hajime Isayama has also woven a tight story around its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many, many characters]], and the strange, apocalyptic world they find themselves. And failure. The characters repeatedly struggle to accomplish anything, often sacrificing lives and making major mistakes, [[ShaggyDogStory only to have it all come to naught in the end]]. But every so often, their persistence, wits, and a little luck, manages to pay off. Slowly, a complex portrait of the world beings to form, and reveals there is [[OntologicalMystery something more sinister to the weirder aspects of their world]]. In the end, it is primarily a story about how people deal with trauma, survival, loss, and death. As they fight giant, man-eating titans.

Despite the action-y sounding premise, and there is a great deal of action, the author has also woven a tight story around its [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many, many characters]], and the strange, apocalyptic world they find themselves. And failure. The characters repeatedly struggle to accomplish anything, often sacrificing lives and making major mistakes, [[ShaggyDogStory only to have it all come to naught in the end]]. But every so often, their persistence, wits, and a little luck, manages to pay off. Slowly, a complex portrait of the world beings to form, and reveals there is [[OntologicalMystery something more sinister to the weirder aspects of their world]]. In the end, it is primarily a story about how people deal with trauma, survival, loss, and death. As they fight giant, man-eating titans.

* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler: Reiner is a Titan spy, but becomes genuinely attached to the others, and suffers a VillainousBSOD as a result. Annie shows signs of it as well, having spared Armin during her rampage. Bertholdt, the third spy, seems to have managed to avoid this for the most point and criticizes Reiner for no longer being "a warrior"]].

* GentleGiant: TeamDad Reiner, who towers over his squadmates and is built like a linebacker. His HeterosexualLifePartner Bertholdt may also count, being incredibly tall, noted to be TheQuietOne and a follower at heart. [[spoiler: Horribly subverted, when it turns out both are not only Titan Shifters sent to infiltrate the human ranks.......but the two Titans responsible for breaching the Walls in the first place.]]