











































Predator vs. Prey: The 
Human Monstrosity in 
Attack on Titan

The latest phenomenon in the anime world, Attack on Titan, takes a turn away 
from the cute, kawaii1 essence that Japan is known for and plunges into a dark, 

fantasy-like war setting, in which human existence is challenged. The fascination 
with this anime certainly did not stop in Japan. Instead, it became a worldwide 
obsession: memorabilia is sold in stores across the East and West, a two-part live-
action film was produced, and Netflix, one of the most popular streaming services 
on the market, added the anime to its queue. But what most fans might not realize 
is that Attack on Titan, while a uniquely contemporary entertainment series, also 
represents classic Gothic techniques. Rebecca Silverman, a renowned anime critic, 
says in a review for Anime News Network: “It’s actually an excellent mix of what 
18th century [sic] Gothic novelist Ann Radcliffe defined as horror versus terror: 
the one is physical, making you want to look away, and the other is intellectual, 
making you want to know what’s going to happen next.” Although the series strays 
from the typical ghost stories and creepy castles of the classic eighteenth-century 
Gothic that Silverman references in this quote, it employs Gothic undertones as it 
delves into the very core of death and survival. Specifically, Attack on Titan2 depicts 
the predatory Titan race in a manner that suggests humanity itself is monstrous. 
The Titans, with their eerie human-likeness, are the literal representation of this 
repressed fear.
 Attack on Titan tells the story of a post-apocalyptic society, set hundreds 
of years in the past. Humanity is at war with humanoid monstrosities known as 
Titans – giant creatures that share cosmetic similarities to humans but appear to 
lack a human level of intelligence. The Titans mysteriously appeared approximately 
107 years previous to the time in which the story takes place (“To You, After 
2,000 Years”). Humans are the Titans’ sole source of food, which results in the 
Titans annihilating a majority of the human race. The remaining portion of 
humanity manages to build a system of settlements within massive walls to protect 
themselves from the Titans. Within the walls, humans are able to enjoy 100 years 

Emily Griffis, Ball State University

1Digital Literature Review, vol. 4 (2017).     Ball State University. All Rights Reserved.
Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu.



of peace until suddenly everything goes awry, and the first wall is infiltrated by 
Titans. The anime follows the story of Eren Yeager3 and his friends, Armin Arlert 
and Mikasa Ackerman, who are just children when their home, the Shiganshina 
District on the edge of the outer wall, is destroyed by Titans and evacuated. Eren 
says, “humanity was reminded that day of the terror of being at their mercy and 
the humiliation of being trapped inside a cage” (“Wall: Raid on Stohess”). The first 
episode of the series sets the tone surrounding a desperate society depleted by fear 
before it skips five years into the future: the Titans are on the move again, Eren 
and his friends have completed military4 training, and the divide between Titan 
and human blurs when Eren unknowingly reveals his ability to transform into one 
of the monstrous creatures. The divide becomes more muddled when the audience 
discovers that Annie, a soldier in Eren’s graduating class, can also transform into a 
Titan, and she works to destroy the human race from the inside. By the end of the 
season, the divide between human and Titan seems to shatter, leaving characters 
and audience questioning what it means to be human and how different Titans are 
from themselves. 
 Although Attack on Titan is a series Silverman praises for its use of Gothic 
tropes, stating, “the violence is intense and the monsters are terrifying,” anime 
horror is unique from the Gothic form.  Anime has created a sub-genre over 
time, which anime scholar Rayna Denison describes in a chapter of her book, 
titled Anime: A Critical Introduction, as “Body Horror,” involving grotesque 
transformations and mutations of the human body. The Titans are representative 
of this theory and work to challenge the societal boundaries and expectations 
of the culture they are present in, which makes them a perfect contemporary 
representation of the Gothic theory of monsters. In the first chapter of his book 
titled Monster Theory: Reading Culture, Jeffery Jerome Cohen develops seven theses 
on monster representations in the Gothic. Four of these theses can be applied 
directly to the Titans. Let us start with Cohen’s first thesis: the “monster’s body 

2Griffis

1  Kawaii means “cute” in Japanese, but it is also used to refer to a segment of Japanese culture that cele-
brates “cuteness.” The Kawaii culture swept the nation with characters, such as Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma, 
led to the rise of maid cafes and cat cafes and became so well-known that Disney World’s Epcot featured 
an exhibit on it in Japan’s pavilion. You can see a virtual tour of Japan’s exhibit here: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=lFuntOKQpXo.
2 Please note: this study focuses solely on the anime of Attack on Titan and only includes the story as told 
in Funimation’s adaptation. The manga series was not referenced for this paper. Citations attributed to the 
anime are based on the Netflix translation, and it is important to note that exact quotes may differ in other 
translations.
3 Depending on the translation, “Yeager” is also spelled “Jeager.”
4 The military is structured in three subcategories: the Military Police Brigade is the most coveted branch 
for its safe location positioned within the walls; the Survey Corps conducts missions outside the walls and 
comes into contact with Titans more often than the other branches, and the Garrison Regiment works 
between the two, keeping order within the walls and confronting Titans when required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFuntOKQpXo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFuntOKQpXo


is a cultural body” (Cohen 4). Attack on Titan is a Japanese creation and must be 
evaluated for what the existence of Titans might say about the country’s repressed 
communal fears. Cohen states “the monster is born . . . as an embodiment of a 
certain cultural moment–of a time, a feeling, and a place” (4). Attack on Titan 
specifically elicits fear and a thirst for survival. Cohen’s theory suggests that the 
fears and upsets present in Attack on Titan were created by and within Japan’s 
post-war culture. Denison has her own idea that nearly matches Cohen’s theory 
but addresses the genre of anime more specifically. She states that “anime horror, 
by extension, is . . . linked to traditions within Japanese culture as a means of 
explaining the overt sense of cultural difference” (155). Both theories seem to 
suggest that most anime is created based on a time, event, place, or communal 
difference associated with Japan. 
 Given Attack on Titan’s war plot and the feeling of impending doom for 
the human race, many scholars have linked this particular anime to World War II, 
specifically the bombing of Hiroshima. But what most scholars have not explored 
is the idea that the humans can be either the victim or the opposition. Thus, the 
Titans can also be placed in both roles: the attacked and the attacker. Let us start 
by considering Titans as representative of the bombs, or the opposition itself, which 
means the struggling human race featured in the series may be synonymous to the 
victims in the city of Hiroshima. This particular reading makes the anime unique. 
We are accustomed to hearing history recounted from the victor, but Attack on 
Titan is told through the eyes of the defeated. In her article, titled “What Does 
‘Attack on Titan’ Really Mean?,” published at The Artifice, Sara Roncero-Mendez 
writes, “Titans, in this light, can be viewed as the enemy occupation, who are 
stronger and more well-equipped than humans, who consume their lives for no 
good reason – not for hunger (need of resources) but for the seemingly mindless 
consumption of a people hopelessly outmatched.” Regarding the Titans as the 
enemy in a setting similar to the bombing of Hiroshima prompts the audience to 
evaluate their own monstrous tendencies in the act of war by looking through the 
eyes of the attacked, rather than the attacker. This is even more influential if we 
consider how popular the series has become in the United States.
 However, if we allow Titans and humans to switch roles, naming Titans 
as the victims of Hiroshima post-bombing and humanity as the opposition, the 
dynamic shifts. G.E. Gallas, a writer and scholar of cross-cultural storytelling, 
writes in a blog post that the Titans’ excessively high-temperature bodies, which 
give off steam as they heal themselves, might be a parallel to how the bombed 
victims’ skin “melted off ” from the radiation. The main issue with this theory, 
one that many tend to actively resist, is that considering Titans as victims calls 

3Griffis



for sympathy from the audience. But if we attempt to visualize the Titans as the 
Japanese nation, as Gallas suggests, we must consider the act that initially led to 
the bombing of Hiroshima; many think it was the United States revenge for Japan’s 
attack on Pearl Harbor. In this case, that means the hunted versus hunter dynamic 
in Attack on Titan is actually the exploration of what it means to be the bombed 
versus the bomber. The humans in the anime are the Titans’ prey, but humans are 
also the Titans’ predators, in the same way that Japan was both enemy of and victim 
to the U.S. In the anime, Jean5, a fellow soldier, says “If he [Eren] wipes out the 
Titans by turning into a monster like that, is that really a victory for humankind?” 
(“Wall: Raid on Stohess”). Jean effectively names revenge as a monstrous quality. 
The commander of the Garrison Regiment, General Dot Pyxis6, comments, “If 
humankind perishes, it won’t be because Titans devoured us. We will perish because 
we annihilated one another” (“Icon: Battle of Trost”).
 While there is speculation surrounding both of these theories, Cohen 
makes it clear that “the monster signifies the gap between the time of upheaval 
that created it and the moment into which it is received, to be born again” (4). 
The Titans are created around sixty-five years post-bombing, which suggests that 
Japan is still attempting to recreate the sense of national identity that it lost in the 
aftermath. Attack on Titan narrates this with the lack of racial representation in 
the series. In fact, it is explained that most races were wiped out when the Titans 
first appeared, which accounts for the lack of African, Indian, or Asian characters, 
among others (“The World She Saw”). Most characters are European, and due to 
the wild success of the series, fans around the world have attempted to trace the 
ethnicity of different characters. Based on names and appearances, twelve of the 
fifteen main characters are thought to be German (Al-Ani) while Mikasa is known 
as the last character of Asian descent left in the world (“The World She Saw”). It 
is significant that Mikasa is the only surviving Asian in a world dominated by the 
white race, since Japan would have felt alone and secluded after the Hiroshima 
bombing. But it is also significant that most of the Caucasians in the show are 
thought to be German. Germany was one of Japan’s allies in WWII. The bond 
between the two countries solidifies the relationship between Mikasa and
Eren. As a child, Mikasa’s parents were murdered before she was kidnapped and 
forced to be sex slave (“The World She Saw”). Eren rescues her, murders her 
capturers, and accepts her as a surrogate sister (“The World She Saw”). Since that 
day, the two share a bond that prompts them to fight for and protect one another. 

4Griffis

5  Depending on the translation, “Jean” is also known as “John.”
6  Depending on the translation, “Pyxis” is also “Pixis.”



There are multiple times in the anime in which Mikasa or Eren fail to save each 
other. Their relationship is indicative of Japan’s struggle to regain a cultural identity 
among failed allies post-bombing.
 The Titans are not just monsters manifested from a cultural fear but also 
monsters that can be representative of fears worldwide, and the rest of Cohen’s 
theses explore this theory, starting with his second: the “monster always escapes” 
(4). This theory can be applied to the Titans in two different ways; the first is their 
implied immortality. Titans are so formidable because they are nearly impossible 
to kill. Cohen states, “No monster tastes of death but once,” and the Titans are no 
exception (5). They “completely ignore all other lifeforms” (“First Battle”) and show 
no interest in livestock or wildlife, but since they were able to survive 100 years 
without feeding on humans, it is determined that they don’t need to eat, drink, or 
even breathe to survive (“Special Operations Squad”). This is further supported 
when it is discovered “they don’t have a digestive track, so once they’ve eaten their 
fill of humans, they vomit them out” (“Primal Desires”). The only known way to kill 
the monsters is to do severe damage to the napes of their necks (“First Battle”). The 
soldiers are trained to take slices out of the neck at a certain depth and size with 
special flesh-slicing blades, but coming so close to the Titans’ mouths is almost 
never worth the risk and results in many soldiers’ deaths. With no other weaknesses, 
the Titans tower over the humans with insurmountable power. As Cohen suggests, 
they always escape, and they always come out ahead (4).
 The other, simpler way of viewing Cohen’s second thesis lays in the Colossal, 
Armored, and Female Titans. All three of these Titans are unique and separate 
from normal Titans. They are all skinless, intelligent, and unbelievably strong. 
After Eren shows intelligence and unusual strength as a Titan, it’s speculated that 
all three special Titans are also humans in a monstrous form (“Female Titan: 57th 
Expedition”). Cohen believes, “We see the damage that the monster wreaks, the 
material remains, but the monster itself turns immaterial and vanishes, to reappear 
someplace else” (4). This is important in the case of these three special Titans 
because each of them exhibits intelligence and war strategy equal to or greater than 
that of the human race. Each of these three Titans help the rest of the mindless 
Titan race reach the human population. For example, normal Titans are not able 
to breach the walls erected around the human settlements, but the Colossal and 
Armored Titans destroy them and then disappear  (“To You, After 2000 Years”).
 Next is Cohen’s sixth thesis: “fear of the monster is really a kind of desire” 
(14). While monsters are dangerous and feared, they might also “evoke escapist 
fantasies” (Cohen 14-15). The humans in Attack on Titan harbor an unfathomable 
hatred for the Titans, especially the unknown Colossal and Armored Titans, but 

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we must question whether this hatred is manifested by the pain they cause or the 
power and strength they hold compared to human vulnerability.
“We distrust and loathe the monster at the same time we envy its freedom,” Cohen 
explains (15). This rings true in Eren’s character, who exclaims that “anyone who’s 
seen the outside will have achieved the greatest freedom in the world” (“Primal 
Desires”). He either envies the Titans for making the outside their home or 
despises them for preventing him from doing the same. Their desire for the Titans’ 
strength might reflect humanity’s mindless desire to be able to control nearly 
everything that happens to them and others, as well as the monstrous techniques 
used to achieve this goal as a way to compensate for their physical weakness.
 However, out of all seven theses, the fifth, that the “monster polices the 
borders of the possible,” is the most applicable to the situation narrated in Attack 
on Titan (Cohen 12). As mentioned above, the remaining portion of humanity has 
enclosed themselves within walls in order to survive. The system consists of three 
different walls; the outer wall is known as Wall Maria, which falls to the Titans at 
the beginning of the series. The second layer is Wall Rose, which is evacuated after 
a second Titan attack later in the series, and the innermost wall, the most coveted 
location, is known as Wall Sina and serves as a home for the rich and noble. Cohen 
theorizes that “the monster prevents mobility, delimiting the social spaces through 
which private bodies may move . . . . To step outside this official geography is to risk 
attack by some monstrous border patrol or to become monstrous oneself ” (12). The 
Titans are a literal representation of keeping humanity within walls, limiting the 
geographical area that they can populate, and they continue to limit it each time 
the Titans attack because a wall must be evacuated. The citizens find themselves 
working to keep each other inside the walls, even after a century of peace. Thus, 
the boundary limits set by the Titans are enforced by the humans themselves. For 
example, when the Survey Corps returns from an unsuccessful mission, a bystander 
comments “that’s what they get for going outside the walls” (“The Defeated: 57th 
Expedition”). The walls start to become not just a necessity for survival but a sense 
of comfort and security.
 The world outside the walls is a mystery to most of humanity, and it is 
illegal for a citizen to leave the walled-in settlements or even possess knowledge of 
what lays outside them (“First Battle”). Armin’s grandpa has a secret book about 
the outside world that once belonged to Armin’s parents. Eren and Armin find 
themselves reading through the book frequently as children, planning their future 
adventures outside the wall (“First Battle”). Although it is never stated why Armin 
was raised by his grandpa, it is hinted that his parents were slaughtered by the 
government for owning the book. Armin and Eren have to hide their own desire to 

6Griffis



see the outside world for fear of being discovered, and Armin even compares living 
inside the walls to “living like cattle” (“To You, After 2000 Years”).
 But one question still stands, and the idea of the outside world being “illegal” 
only sparks more curiosity: Where did the Titans come from? As of this writing, 
the anime is just beginning its second season, so many questions raised by fans 
are still open-ended, including the question of the Titans’ sudden and mysterious 
appearance. But, throughout the twenty-five episodes of the show, viewers might 
develop a complicated distrust for the government. The structure of the leading 
force is not explained, but it is clear that there is a class of nobility and a king 
that lives in the interior of Wall Sina. When Eren first meets General Pyxis, the 
commander tells him a story, beginning with, “Before the land was controlled 
by Titans, it [was] said that humankind fought endless ethnic and ideological 
wars,” and then goes on to suggest that someone of power proposed the idea of 
a natural predator of humans so that the human race might unite as a common 
force and cease fighting among one another (“Icon: Battle of Trost”). Eren seems 
to understand the story better than Armin and Mikasa and explains, “The Titans 
are not our only enemy” (“Icon: Battle of Trost”). This suggests that the Titans 
were created by someone of power for the purpose of controlling the humans and 
uniting them, instead of appearing naturally like the characters originally believed. 
 Given the near extinction of humanity, the Titans might have backfired 
against their creators, or the endangerment of the human race might have been the 
plan all along. Assuming the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan are actually 
humans in the same way that Eren and Annie are, these Titans must be people 
of power that have the ability and the desire to control the Titans’ actions against 
humanity. Normal Titans are not able to breach the walls surrounding the human 
settlements and only capture Wall Maria and Wall Rose when the Armored 
and Colossal Titans use their intelligence and strength to target and destroy the 
mounted cannons as well as the entry gates on the walls. Every time these two 
special Titans help the other Titans attack, it seems to serve as a warning against 
transgression in human society; the first attack of the series serves as a warning 
against exploration outside the wall after humans got too comfortable with 100 
years of peace. After the attack, Wall Maria was evacuated, placing hundreds 
of citizens inside Wall Rose with little provisions. Pyxis again suggests the 
government played a part in the attack, stating, “Calling it an ‘operation to reclaim 
[Wall Maria]’ sounds well and good, but in essence, it was the government’s way 
of cutting down the large numbers of unemployed people that it couldn’t support” 
(“Icon: Battle of Trost”). The audience is left with the dreaded expectation that this 
will not be the last time the government interferes in society. If we accept Cohen’s 

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thesis that the monster polices boundaries, and if we believe that the government is 
behind the Titan attacks, then the government, by definition, is the real monster.
 But this theory only raises more questions: how were the Titans created 
and, aside from their appearance, how human are they? This is not explained in the 
anime, but assuming that the Titans are representative of the fear of humanity’s 
monstrous tendencies, and given the newly discovered ability of humans to 
transform into Titans, it makes sense that all Titans may be former humans. The 
most eerie evidence of this is that Titans are all shapes, sizes, and ages, and
they differ in appearance from one another, just as humans do. They even possess 
an impossibly light weight given their size (“Special Operations Squad”), and 
they have no reproductive organs, making it unclear how new Titans are produced 
(“First Battle”). If we believe that something cannot be created from nothing, we 
need to consider that all Titans might once have been humans, either devoured 
humans transformed or former humans that forgot their sense of humanity. Armin 
insists, “There’s one thing I’m convinced of. A person who can bring about change 
is a person who is willing to give up something precious. Someone who, when faced 
with having to overcome a monster, is willing to abandon even his own humanity. 
A person who cannot give up anything can change nothing” (“Erwin Smith: 57th 
Expedition”) But the main force that drives this theory is that the only known 
weakness of Titans is located in the same place in which Eren and Annie control 
their own Titan forms – the nape of the neck. In fact, the only two known humans 
who are able to transform, Eren and Annie, seem like the only two characters who 
choose to confront their fears instead of repressing them, which might explain why 
they are able to transform and maintain control of their Titan forms.
 Hange Zoe7, a squad leader of the survey corps, sheds some light on the 
obvious similarities between Titans and humans and prompts the audience to 
read into them. She tells the story of a tribe of cannibalistic humans that came 
before the Titans and highlights the main difference between the two: the humans 
took the time to cook their prey and enjoy it, while the Titans devour mindlessly 
(“Special Operations Squad”). It is interesting that Hange draws this connection
because it suggests that the human consumption of humans is worse than the 
Titans’, even though the Titans consume more in an extremely short amount of 
time. But the humans knew what they were doing, and they took extra care to 
make sure they enjoyed it. The Titans seem to have no other nature than bloodlust. 
Although they have shown the ability to learn new physical skills, they cannot 
make emotional connections and show no remorse at the many deaths they cause 

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7  Depending on the translation, “Hange” is also known as “Hanji.”



(“Erwin Smith: 57th Expedition”). Hange’s story compromises the monstrosity 
of the Titan race and instead demonizes the tribe of cannibals. Nevertheless, the 
comparison between the two groups is inescapable, and the Titans might be a result 
of the mindset of the cannibalistic tribe taken to the extreme. Either way, Hange’s 
story suggest that every individual may have a repressed Titan within them.
 Hange is one of the most interesting characters because she continues 
to raise questions about humanity in terms of Titans. She even captures Titans 
and studies them, continually asking the audience to juxtapose the two races and 
consider who is really the monster: humans or Titans. The study of the Titans 
themselves is a monstrous act correlated with the sort of experimentation you 
would find in a classic eighteenth-century Gothic novel like Frankenstein, with 
the Titans pinned to the ground by massive nails driven through their bodies and 
ropes wrapped around their necks working to restrain them (“Special Operations 
Squad”). Hange conducts studies to find their weaknesses, determines that they 
can feel pain, and even attempts to communicate with them, constantly speaking 
to them, touching them, and telling stories like one would with a child (“Special 
Operations Squad”). But Hange does connect to her subjects on a deeper level. 
Although it is hard to determine whether the Titans also connect to her, Hange 
repeatedly treats her subjects like children by mourning their deaths when 
experiments go wrong and even naming them; the most recent ones are known as 
Sonny and Bean (“Special Operations Squad”). She tells Eren, “They have such 
cute smiles. I really did them wrong” (“Special Operations Squad”). If Hange can 
see them and accept them in ways she would also accept a human, what does this 
mean for the rest of humanity and humans’ ability to become Titans?
 When Eren reveals his ability to transform into a Titan, Hange is one of the 
first to accept him for who he is. Other humans fear that Eren is a traitor or spy 
for the Titan race, but Mikasa still trusts him and says of Eren’s Titan form, “What 
I saw appeared like the manifest anger of humankind,” suggesting that no matter 
the form, Eren has the good of humankind on his mind (“The Small Blade”). 
Eren holds a bloodlust for Titans that other soldiers around him cannot match. 
He first discovered his ability to transform through his will to live; wasting away 
inside of a Titan’s stomach, he realizes, “I refuse to die here. I have to see it…the 
outside world” (“Night of the Graduation Ceremony: Humanity Rises Again, Part 
2”). He transgresses the borders of the expected, but, instead of succumbing to the 
punishment of monstrosity like others before him, he embraces humanity’s natural, 
monstrous tendencies and uses them for good to ensure the survival of his race and 
to make his dreams come true.
 As Silverman eloquently states, Attack on Titan is “both gorgeous and 

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appalling in its visuals, juxtaposing idyllic pastoral landscapes with scenes of 
unimaginable cruelty and bloodshed.” But the anime is anything but simply 
a means of entertainment. It uses Gothic elements to address the monstrous 
tendencies of humankind, forcing the audience to sympathize with literal monsters 
while simultaneously envisioning themselves as one. We must look below surface 
level and consider what makes a monster a monster; the appearance of a monster 
and the acts of a monster are separate. Eren may take on the form of a monster, 
but his actions while in that form are anything but monstrous. On the other hand, 
many humans who do not even have the ability to transform into a literal monster 
spit out monstrous words or act in monstrous ways. Eren realizes that the survival 
of the human race is impossible without the eradication of the Titans, but
the Titans will never disappear without first accepting the monstrous as part of a 
constructed self. 
 The first step to the human society accepting a monster within is to accept 
Eren and his half-monster status. Ian, a squad leader in the Survey Corps, defends 
Eren, stating, “Tell me then, how the hell do we defeat the Titans?! What other 
way do we have to change the situation? What other way can we preserve what 
makes us human and still win against the Titans [sic] mind-boggling power?” 
(“Wound: Battle of Trost”). But another fellow soldier questions, “It’s not that 
I wasn’t ready to give my life…But, what is it that I’m dying for?” (“The Small 
Blade”). The Titans, as well as the inner monstrosities of the human race within 
Attack on Titan, cannot be defeated until every human is able to answer, “What is it 
that I’m dying for?”

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WORKS CITED

Al-Ani, Maysam. “Attack on Titan: Fan Reception of Religion and Race.” The 
Artifice, 4 Nov. 2015, https://the-artifice.com/attack-on-titan-fan-reception-
religion-race/. Accessed 23 Nov. 2015. 

Cohen, Jeffery Jerome. “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).” Monster Theory: Reading 
Culture, edited by Jerrery Gerome Cohen, University of Minnesota Press, 
1996, pp. 3-25.

“The Defeated: 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls, Part 6.” Attack on Titan, season 
1, episode 22, Funimation, 11 Oct. 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298575?trackId=200257859. Accessed 31 Aug. 2015.

Denison, Rayna. Anime: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury, 2015. 

 “Erwin Smith: 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls, Part 4.” Attack on Titan, season 
1, episode 20, Funimation, 27 Sept. 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298573?trackId=200257859. Accessed 31 Aug. 2015.

 “Female Titan: 57th Expedition Beyond the Walls, Part 1.” Attack on Titan, season 
1, episode 17, Funimation, 6 Sept. 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298570?trackId=200257859. Accessed 30 Aug. 2015.

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episode 5, Funimation, 31 May 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
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Gallas, G.E. “Attack on Titan: Analogy to World War II.” G.E. Gallas Blog, 30 
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 https://the-artifice.com/attack-on-titan-fan-reception-religion-race/
 https://the-artifice.com/attack-on-titan-fan-reception-religion-race/
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298575?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298575?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298573?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298573?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298570?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298570?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298558?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298558?trackId=200257859
https://gegallas.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/attack-on-titan-analogy-to-world-war-ii/
https://gegallas.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/attack-on-titan-analogy-to-world-war-ii/
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298564?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298564?trackId=200257859


“Kawaii Cute Culture NEW Exhibit at Epcot’s Japan Pavilion.” YouTube, uploaded 
by MouseSteps/JWL Media, 21 Oct. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=lFuntOKQpXo. Accessed 19 April 2017.

“Night of the Graduation Ceremony: Humanity Rises Again, Part 2.” Attack on 
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netflix.com/watch/70298557?trackId=200257859. Accessed 29 Aug. 2015.

 “Primal Desires: Battle of Trost District, Part 9.” Attack on Titan, season 1, 
episode 13, Funimation, 2 Aug. 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298566?trackId=200257859. Accessed 30 Aug. 2015.

 “Special Operations Squad: Prelude to the Counterattack, Part 2.” Attack on Titan, 
season 1, episode 15, Funimation, 16 Aug. 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.
com/watch/70298568?trackId=200257859. Accessed 30 Aug. 2015.

Roncero-Menendez, Sara. “What Does ‘Attack on Titan’ Really Mean?” The Artifice, 
15 Aug. 2013. https://the-artifice.com/what-does-attack-on-titan-mean/.  
Accessed 16 Oct. 2015.

Silverman, Rebecca. “The Spring 2013 Anime Preview Guide” Anime News 
Network, 3 Apr. 2013, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-
guide/2013/the-spring-anime/rebecca. Accessed 15 Oct. 2015.

“The Small Blade: Battle of Trost District, Part 3.” Attack on Titan, season 1, 
episode 7, Funimation, 14 June 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298560?trackId=200257859. Accessed 29 Aug. 2015.

“To You, After 2000 Years: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 1.” Attack on Titan, season 
1, episode 1, Funimation, 3 May 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298554?trackId=200257859.  Accessed 29 Aug. 2015.

“Wall: Raid on Stohess District, Part 3.” Attack on Titan, season 1, episode 
25, Funimation, 1 Nov. 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298578?trackId=200257859. 

 

12Griffis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFuntOKQpXo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFuntOKQpXo
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298557?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298557?trackId=200257859
 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298566?trackId=200257859
 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298566?trackId=200257859
 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298568?trackId=200257859
 https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298568?trackId=200257859
https://the-artifice.com/what-does-attack-on-titan-mean/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-spring-anime/rebecca
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2013/the-spring-anime/rebecca
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298560?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298560?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298554?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298554?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298578?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298578?trackId=200257859


“The World She Saw: Battle of Trost District, Part 2.” Attack on Titan, season 
1, episode 6, Funimation, 7 June 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298559?trackId=200257859. Accessed 29 Aug. 2015.

“Wound: Battle of Trost District, Part 8.” Attack on Titan, season 1, episode 
12, Funimation, 26 July 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
watch/70298565?trackId=200257859. Accessed 30 Aug. 2015.

13Griffis

https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298559?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298559?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298565?trackId=200257859
https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298565?trackId=200257859

