Acting in the Dark: Bryce Papenbrook, Eren's English dub voice actor, admits he doesn't know his character's endgame and how the story is going to end because he never read the manga. So he prefers to see it through the end.
Ascended Fanon: The 3D maneuvering soldier with afterimage effects in the opening actually wasn't supposed to be Jean, but rather a soldier representing humanity. However, given the number of people claiming it to be Jean, the production staff has acknowledged it as so.
Author's Saving Throw: Armin's final conversation with Eren was often translated as him thanking Eren for becoming a mass murderer for his friends' sake, and this interpretation was met with ridicule from the fanbase and regret from Isayama, who felt that he had inadequately conveyed what he intended. Hence, when it came to adapting the finale, Isayama made several changes to the scene, resulting in the final product where Armin understands he and Eren have both done unforgivable things, but offers to shoulder the burden of their sins together in the afterlife which is much more widely accepted.
The first line of the first OP Guren no Yumiya has been misspelled in numerous ways due to Linked Horizon's inexact pronunciation of German and inconsistent fansubs, one common one being "Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!" note "They are the food and we are the hunters!" The official spelling is "Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind der Jäger!" note "Are you the food? No, we are the hunters!".
The chorus to the Final Season OP My War was subject to this due to Indecipherable Lyrics, with many interpreting the chorus at the end of the opening to be saying either "monster" or "justice." However, the band admitted in an interview that they did not intend the chorus to mean anything.
In episode 4, Hannes' uniform has the Survey Corps symbol on it.
In the manga, the same mistake is done with Annie's uniform having the Survey Corps symbol during the scenes where Eren and co. attempt to trap her.
Jokes and theories about Erwin being a Shifter have cropped up after Chapter 57 when he placed his right arm on Reeves' corpse, despite it having been bitten off by a Titan a few chapters earlier.
In Chapter 71, Instructor Shadis's beard inexplicably disappears during a close-up on his face.
in Chapter 112, the room where Armin, Mikasa, and Gabi are in has a double-door that magically turns into a single-door when Eren walks through it, and then turns back into a double-door the next time it's shown.
A few egregious ones occur in Chapter 119.
A few chapters earlier, it was shown that the crater in Shiganshina District left by Bertolt's explosive transformation was turned into a makeshift lake. When an aerial shot of Shiganshina District is shown when Zeke turns all of the infected soldiers into Titans, the lake is nowhere to be found.
Another is when Eren breaks out of his Titan wearing both pants and shoes despite having both legs bitten off by Porco before transforming.
Breaking News Interruption: Episode 73's original airing was interrupted 19 minutes in for news coverage of an earthquake in Wakayama.
Career Resurrection: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Mikasa is this for her voice actress, Ana Lobo, who took a years long break from voice acting in order to raise her newborn child at the time, being this series her return to voicing acting.
Cast Incest: The Brazilian Portuguese dub has a real-life couple Lucas Almeida and Mayara Stefane voicing respectively Eren and Mikasa, giving to a new level what Mikasa thinks about Eren.
Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Grisha Jaeger is voiced by the Mexican stand-up comedian Carlos Ballarta; this also overlaps with Playing Against Type, as his role as Grisha is absolutely NOTPlayed for Laughs at all.
Creator Backlash: According to an interview that comes in the Blu-Ray box set of Season 2, the "Uprising" arc (manga volumes 13-16) was where Isayama felt "the most disappointed with his work" and hopes that on its animated adaptation in Season 3 he'll have the chance to wipe away that regret and replace it with something he's proud of. In context, the adapted Uprising arc changed in terms of pacing by cutting off some characterization from Dimo Reeves' negotiations with the Survey Corps and his importance in the district of Trost, and the journalists Roy and Beaure's impact on the reporting of the crimes of the government.
Hajime Isayama mentioned that his favorite character is Jean Kirschtein due to his ability to be blunt and say exactly what he's thinking despite the circumstances.
In a 2016 Japanese-only interview, Isayama said that Ymir was now his favourite character since he 'didn't need to think much to make it work and express her potential'.
Then in a July 2017 issue of Febri, Isayama said his current favourite was Reiner Braun and that who he deems his favourite character keeps shifting as time goes on.
Demand Overload: The release of the first episode of Season 4, "The Other Side of the Sea", caused Crunchyroll and Funimation's servers to crash for almost an hour.
Development Hell: The Latin American Spanish dub suffered from this, since originally, the TV series was planned to be dubbed in Miami, FL by The Kitchen, the same voice acting studio who did the controversial Latin American Spanish dub of My Hero Academia's TV series, much for the horror of Latin American fans. However, Funimation, and later on, Crunchyroll, after hearing the monumental backlash against MHA's dub, decided to use the Mexican voice cast from the compilation films instead, which was much better received.
Fan Community Nickname: The Funimation-sponsored cosplay group that met at Anime Expo 2013 used the term 'Troops'.
After the production staff liked the idea of Jean being the backflipping soldier in the opening, Jean was shown performing that exact move as an escape maneuver when his group encountered the Female Titan.
Chapter 110 gives us two about fan favourite characters:
Zeke's ironic statement on Levi's popularity:
Zeke: I bet you're not popular with the ladies. [...]
Levi: [...] I've been popular before...
Hitch remarking on a sleeping crystallized Annie:
Hitch: How are you this popular when all you do is sleep?
Killer App: The anime series was one of the reasons to sign up for Crunchyroll.
Part of the previews for the finale included a sketch of what was claimed to be the manga's final panel, showing a man holding a baby and saying "You are free". While this panel does appear in the final chapter (being Grisha holding a newborn Eren), it's not the final panel, in either the original or updated final chapter.
In many interviews, and character guides, Mikasa is described as someone who loves Eren like a brother, for anyone who has seen the series, that is not remotely true.
The recap episode of the first thirteen episodes of the first season was never dubbed in English by Funimation.
As are the OVAs, but on the other hand, they're included in certain special English editions. Later averted in December, 2021 with them being made available for legal streaming and were dubbed to boot.
The series wasn't released in China due to its juvenile delinquency and graphic violence.
Only one exception in the Japanese version—Hannes's Japanese voice actor, Keiji Fujiwara, went on an indefinite medical leave in 2016. Kenjiro Tsuda took over his role for Season 2.
On the English side, Megan Shipman voices Sasha Brauss, instead of Ashly Burch in The Final Season.
Overtook the Manga: The people behind the anime were extremely worried about it given the manga's monthly release schedule, resulting in the slow pace that many fans complained about.
The same goes in the same dub for Rossy Aguirre as Hange Zoë; while also not an unknown on voicing rude protagonists, this is one of the few times one of her characters had to swear really hard when needed.
Production Foreshadowing: Season 2's ED contains a scene of Ymir Fritz's daughters eating her remains, the context of which wouldn't be revealed in the manga until chapter 122, over two years later.
Many members of the dub cast, like Patrick Seitz and Jessie James Grelle, watched the simulcast of the Japanese version. The most surprising example of this, however, is the dub VA for Eren Jaegar: since FUNimation was announced to be the English distributor of the series, no one could've expected Bryce Papenbrook, a California-based VA and huge fan of the series, to be announced as the leading man of the anime.
Director Tetsuro Araki himself is also a fan of the manga and was very excited when he got to direct the anime.
Yoshiki Hayashi of X Japan happens to be a fan as well. Then, it's announced that he, together with HYDE would perform the opening theme for the third season entitled "Red Swan".
Real-Life Relative: The baby that is carried by its mother and passed around to the crowd during the Rumbling is voiced by Yuki Kaji's child, who was born a year before the final episode's airing.
The Novelization of Levi's backstory, A Choice with No Regrets being adapted into a Manga, then being adapted into a two-part OVA.
The soundtrack composer for the anime was heavily influenced by the music of Dutch Symphonic Metal band Epica. In December 2017, Epica released a cover album of songs from the anime in Japan (worldwide release July 2018).
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous has an encounter in a location called Crimson Dust where what appears to be a wounded crusader suddenly transforms into an ecorche that looks very much like a titan.
The Dangers in My Heart: Moeko names Attack On Titan as one of the manga she's "knowledgeable" about during her student group's work study trip to Akita Shoten in Chapter 25/Episode 5.
Debusen: In Chapter 53, Mitsuru has a nightmare where he is stripped of his skin and compared to something out of "Attack on Titan".
In Turning Red, the climax of the film with Ming's panda form, from the form itself to the camera angles used in the stadium to even how Mei ultimately takes her out (air maneuverability, a weak spot to hit) is a near-perfect homage to Attack on Titan.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: When the turtles first visit April’s school, Donnie notices a sketch of Eren on one of the lockers. This even comes into play during the climax; Donnie realizes that the Kaiju-sized Superfly has a weakness similar to the titans - a blowhole on the back of his neck.
PAYDAY 3: Three members of the Gold & Sharke bank's senior staff are named Erik Yaeger, Liam Ackerman and Reese Brown, in reference to Eren Yeager, Levi Ackerman and Reiner Braun, respectively.
Schedule Slip: The creators of the anime were caught completely off guard by how popular it was, resulting in a three year gap before they were able to make a second season.
Screwed by the Network: A variation where the show itself indirectly resulted in this for something else. When the Attack on Titan anime first started airing on Toonami (which at the time aired from 11:30 PM to 6:00 AM), it was placed at the prestigious 11:30 PM timeslot and preceded to bring in some of the best ratings for the block. The higher ups at Turner, seeing the show's ratings potential, told the production crew for Toonami to keep the show at 11:30 PM when it went into reruns. The result was lower ratings for the block overall, and it got bad to the point where [adult swim], in a knee-jerk reaction and an effort to counter the low ratings, decided to shrink the block down by 3 hours, resulting in Toonami now airing from 12:00 AM to 3:30 AM and most of the shows airing on the block going off the air.
Shrug of God: Isayama does this quite a bit, in combination with his trolling of the fandom. Among the things he has shrugged and left up to the fans or otherwise refused to clarify:
Hange's gender is whatever fans want it to be. (He also invited fans to decide any character's gender, including those with a stated one.)
Rumored to have stated that any and all pairings may be canon if fans want them to be.
Sleeper Hit: Since its debut, it has become one of the best selling shonen manga in Japan and positively exploding with the anime. In 2013 volume sales only the Pirate King survived the Titan onslaught as people furiously bought up the back issues.
Star-Making Role: For Bryn Apprill as Krista. This was the first role that got the attention of the English-speaking fanbase.
To a certain extent, Elizabeth Maxwell as Ymir got her noticed, but it was until her role as the Major in Ghost in the Shell: Arise that got her name known to the English-speaking fanbase.
Hajime Isayama enjoys messing with the audience, which includes releasing fake◊ volume◊ previews◊ and refusing to clarify Zoë's gender solely because it confused people.
Not exactly from Hajime Isayama, but there was an announce that dakimakura of Shingeki no Kyojin would be released. Of course anyone would expect to see Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Annie and the like, but when one was released...◊
And Isayama strikes again. He was asked to promote a new series so he drew an advertisement band for the first volume. This◊ was the result◊.
With the release of the second Guidebook, "Outside", the cast now have birthdays. Reiner's birthday is stated to be August 1st, which is celebrated as "Yaoi Day" by fans of the genre.
It gets better: Marco's birthday is revealed to be June 16th. That's exactly half of the year.
Isayama strikes again! When a fan at a Q&A event asked what type of woman Levi preferred, Isayama responded by questioning whether Levi liked women and suggested he just likes tall people. Which covers every single popular ship.
While this series was what cemented WIT Studio as a major anime studio, the creation of it was extremely taxing on the staff. The TV broadcast of season 1 was on an infamously short-staffed breakneck schedule and featured tons of cost-cuttingmeasures, particularly during the Battle of Trost arc. The final episode of season 2 needed a whopping 25 animation directors to pull it off. Season 3 had a completely unexpected six month break after Episode 12 aired, to the shock of the fanbase (except for the people who paid attention to Japanese TV schedules and realized it was coming a few weeks beforehand), and the second half of the season was only 10 episodes long when it had already been taken for granted that it would be a 24-episode season.
With the above in mind, rumors started circulating wildly in mid-May 2019 that WIT Studio was leaving the franchise after the conclusion of season 3. The genesis for these rumors was a public comment by a Chinese contracted animator on the social media giant Weibo where he made an unclear comment that this season would be the last for the studio, and then going radio-silent afterward (his wording was ambiguous enough that even Chinese readers flooded his account demanding clarification, to no avail). The rumors picked up further steam when Western anime leakers and anime industry watchers also started dropping hints that the same thing was happening (but again, furnishing no concrete proof). Finally, director Tetsuro Araki was outright asked at a concert shortly before the season's end if there would be a season 4: he confirmed an S4 was happening (which was proven by a teaser trailer at the conclusion of S3) but did not answer any questions about what studio would be doing it. These rumors were eventually proven true one year later: Season 4's studio was announced to be MAPPA on May 29, 2020. Things didn't improve much due in part to MAPPA's own notorious scheduling, which led to animators confirming crunching episodes just before their release.
Reportedly, the production committee demanded the final season be produced on such an absurdly tight schedule that MAPPA was the only studio willing to take on the project. Given the industry is infamous for tight production schedules that place brutal demands on animators (and, as noted above, MAPPA being one of the worst perpetrators of this practice), that really says something about just how bad the demanded time table was. Sure enough, when the season aired, there was no shortage of the reports about how difficult the production was on everyone involved. Said final season had to be split into 3 parts with nearly a year's delay between each part (the manga still being published at the time of the season's initial announcement was also partly to blame, as the scope of the story expanded beyond what a standard two-cour season could cover).
Hajime Isayama first brought his pilot to Shueisha, with the hopes of having it published in Weekly Shonen Jump, but the editor who evaluated his work said that it was good, but not good enough for Jump standardsnote "This is manga, we want JUMP!" being his exact words; then, when Isayama gave his pilot to Kodansha, it was accepted in no time and published at Bessatsu Shounen Magazine, a monthly offshoot of their Weekly Shonen Magazine. The first two volumes sold more than a million copies combined. As a result, Jump, and consequently Shueisha, lost a giant new hit to its biggest rival.
The pilot itself, now called Attack on Titan: Volume 0, is extremely different from the series that we know today. For starters, third-dimensional maneuver gear don't exist in the pilot, and humans are fully capable of "jumping 10 meters" while fighting Titans.
When Annie is called out as the Female Titan in chapter 31, Isayama originally drafted her reaction to be along the lines of a (disturbing) Tearful Smile, as a result of being "relieved" she'd been found out. He regretted his decision of changing it and requested that a similar reaction would be added to the anime.
Isayama had originally planned to kill off Sasha in chapter 36, but later abandoned that idea. It was apparently so brutal that the editor went to the bathroom and cried.
In the same interview describing the initial plot of chapter 36, Isayama stated he originally had Eren knowing all along that he could turn into a Titan, but later dropped the idea. Overall, the manga has leaned on hinting that Eren was meant to inherit the Attack Titan, and that both said predestination and the eventual attainment of the Titan Power start affecting his decision-making
Isayama has also admitted in an interview that his original idea was to give Attack on Titan an "Everybody Dies" Ending, but has also admitted to seriously reconsidering that. Though the finale has an astronomical body count, several of the main cast make it out alive.
In an interview, Isayama revealed that Pieck was originally designed as a middle-aged man◊, but ended up as a young woman instead.
The guidebook released in 2017 revealed that Armin and Jean were originally a single character in the earliest version, and that the character was split in two to create the roles for those two characters.
Word of Gay: The official website confirms that Ymir's feelings for Krista are romantic in nature. Since then, Ymir's love for Krista was a plot point.
Word of Saint Paul: Anime Producer George Wada stated at the Animagic 2014 series panel that Krista and Ymir are a couple.
Write What You Know: The initial idea for the titans came from Isayama's short hitch of working at an internet cafe, when he came across a drunk customer and found it fascinating how hard it was to communicate with someone of the same species, which made him realize the most terrifying thing known to man is man itself.
Misc Trivia:
The walled city is inspired by the walled city of Nordlingen in Germany. The walls were inspired by Isayama's hometown, which is surrounded by mountains. Isayama wanted to go beyond the mountains, so he transferred his desire to Eren, who desires to go outside the walls and see the outside world.
At the Anime Boston 2014 dub premiere, Mike McFarland explained that the Dub Name Change from "3D Maneuvering Gear" to "Omni-directional Mobility Gear" (or ODM Gear) was not in fact the fault of the dubbing team. When they got the rights to dub it, they were given the name to work with by the Japanese team.
Some aspects of Erwin's personality were inspired by Ozymandias, but the primary inspiration for his character likely was Erwin Rommel. The fictional Erwin's birthday is on Rommel's date of death. Rommel was opposed to the mistreatment of Germany's Jewish population and was implicated in the plan to assassinate Hitler.
Similarly, some of Levi's personality was inspired by Rorschach.
Mikasa is referred to as being worth a thousand soldiers, which is meant to be a Shout-Out to Tomoe Gozen, a famous female Japanese warrior whom legend said was worth a thousand men on the field of battle.
, who felt that he had inadequately conveyed what he intended. Hence, when it came to adapting the finale, Isayama made several changes to the scene
