Annie Leonhart (Junior High Manga)

Annie Leonhart (アニ・レオンハート) is a 1st year student at Marley Academy.

Appearance
Annie is a short girl. She has blue eyes and keeps her blonde hair tied back, for the most part, wearing her bangs over her right eye. While she is occasionally seen wearing casual clothes, Annie is usually seen wearing the standard Junior High uniform.

Personality
For the most part, Annie usually keeps to herself. She is known to over-react at times over trivial matters, but is able to recognize this and apologize when needed. She also suffers from performance anxiety (aka stage fright) and is often extremely reluctant to perform in front of a large scale audience.

Despite her mostly quiet and reserved nature, Annie is not afraid of confrontation. She can easily stand up for herself when others try to stop her, either from performing a task or trying to talk to a classmate.

Story
Annie is part of the first year class entering Attack Junior High School and is assigned as part of Class 3. During the welcome ceremony, Annie overhears fellow student Eren's love of cheese loaf; due to this being her favorite food also, Annie became too embarrassed to admit this after he stated it. She would begin to develop a grudge against Eren in response.

Later on, Class 3 takes part in a dodge ball tournament and Annie is able to knock out four other players, winning the match for her class. She overhears they will be going up against Class 4 (the class Eren is part of) and goes over to address them. Noticing Eren is gone, Annie is told by Armin that Eren's in the bathroom and will be part of their match. Annie swears her side will win and returns to her team; just before the match, she goes back over and is shown Jean as proof that Eren is there. Not buying it, Annie calls them out and is about to report them when Eren finally arrives. She leaves after declaring once more that Eren's class will lose. During the match, Annie is almost eliminated by Mikasa; she catches the thrown ball and promptly eliminates Armin. As the match winds down, Annie is surprised when Eren manages to eliminate her and win the match for his team.

Annie later joins the student council and quickly gets on the nerves of fellow student Hitch. Hearing that Eren is part of the Survey Club (in addition to the Wall Beautification Club), Annie stands up and declares that while the council takes notes and keeps tracks on clubs all over campus, the Survey Club has been the exception. She vows to have the club disbanded. Hitch and Marlowe follow her (despite her telling them not to) and discover Eren and the Club members on a field trip to Wall Rose. Both sides agree to a game of rock, paper, scissors to determine the fate of the Survey Club.

With each side earning one win apiece, Annie goes up against Eren as the deciding vote. When asked why she hates him so much, Annie refuses to give the reason why. They get stuck in a tie for thirty minutes before Annie loses her grip and prepares to get hit by Eren; however, Eren relents and asks her again why she hates him. Annie finally admits that he mentioned her favorite food as his first and that she could not bear admitting that to everyone. After hearing Eren apologize, she then realizes that the entire thing was blown out of proportion by her and admits defeat to Eren. The next day during lunch, Annie goes up to Eren, Armin and Mikasa and asks to sit with them. Warming up to Eren, she gives part of her lunch to him and they become friends.

Eventually, a school dance is announced and Annie decides to try to ask Eren to go with her. However, she is prevented by Mikasa from approaching him. Not backing down, Annie tries to get Mikasa to let her speak with Eren. They begin arguing and eventually Eren goes over to see what is going on. Unable to ask him with Mikasa glaring at her, Annie quickly comes up with an excuse to get Eren away from Mikasa and claims he has been appointed by the student council to observe possible Titan delinquent activities. Eren accepts and agrees to meet her after school; when Mikasa tries to include herself, Annie claims only those approved by the student council are allowed to. Walking away, she ponders how she managed to create such a grand lie in order to just get Eren alone. Soon, Eren comes and is ready to start; before Annie can reveal the truth, he spots a Titan and goes off to confront it. This happens several times until Annie tells Eren it was all just a ploy to get him away from Mikasa. Pulling out the flyer, she asks Eren to go with her to the dance, but he reluctantly says no. Crushed, Annie believes that it was all a waste of time and that he is already going with Mikasa; she is then surprised (along with Mikasa, who had been tailing them) that Eren was asked by Armin. Eren accepted (due to Armin's lack of confidence) and, knowing there will likely be other chances, proposes both Annie and Mikasa go together: both of them refuse.

Annie decides not to attend the dance due to not getting a partner and attends the athletic fair with the rest of the school, but quickly loses interest. She sees the event as pointless and goes to leave; however, Krista comes up to her and asks for her help in cheering on the underclassmen. Initially reluctant to, Annie eventually agrees. She is given a cheer uniform but is embarrassed at the thought of having people see her dressed in it and starts to reconsider; she goes to change, but Eren tells her she looks great in it. He tells her to do her best in cheering them on and, slightly blushing, Annie vows to try. However, hearing Eren remind Armin that they are going to the dance together causes Annie to ultimately run away.

Later on, Annie is approached by Bertolt after class and hears he is going with Reiner, Krista and Ymir to the upcoming summer festival. When asked if she wants to go with them, Annie stares off into space and notices Eren walking beneath them. After hearing she can invite someone as well from Class 4 (i.e. Eren), Annie agrees to go. Annie is confronted later by Hitch who reveals she knows Annie is going with someone to the festival, despite her dislike of them. Annie tries to brush it off as nothing but does confirm she is in fact going. While Hitch theorizes who could have taken a liking to her, Annie ignores her until Hitch brings up how she could be going with Eren: this causes Annie to immediately get defensive. They soon hear a sniffling sound coming from a nearby utility closet; investigating, they both find Bertolt spying on them from inside who immediately runs off crying. An embarrassed Annie reveals to Hitch that it was Bertolt who asked her.

After arriving at the festival with Krista, both Bertolt and Reiner are taken aback by how pretty each girl looks, but Eren soon arrives and compliments Annie's appearance. She is soon surprised with everyone else when many of Eren's classmates arrive (including Mikasa) and reveal they invited themselves. Annie soon gets into a competition with Mikasa over Eren's attention while ignoring Bertolt completely. When Bertolt disappears, Annie decides to go off to look for him and finds him at a cookie cutting booth crying to himself. After getting noticed, Bertolt quickly apologizes but Annie brushes it off. Sitting at a nearby bench, Annie reveals that she does not really like going to festivals and wonders why Bertolt asked her to go. As he tries to come up with a reason, Annie tells Bertolt that she feels comfortable around him and that she does not need to make conversation; in fact, if not for Bertolt inviting her, she probably would have left early. After watching some fireworks, Annie goes with Bertolt back to the cookie cutting booth (at his request).

Several weeks later, Annie is dismayed to see Eren exercising with Mikasa and is initially unresponsive to Bertolt trying to get her attention. When he claims Annie was staring at Eren, she glares at Bertolt and goes to leave. Annie is caught off guard when Bertolt offers to exercise with her and is surprised when he shows off his six-pack abs. However, Annie mentions she exercises herself and punches Bertolt in the gut, leaving him gasping for breath.

As the Culture Fair draws near, Annie takes part in the Class Three bakery stall. After being assigned as a waitress at the stall, Annie becomes embarrassed and tries to hide herself when she notices Eren come by. She starts to blush after Eren invites both her and Krista to watch him and his group perform in the Battle of the Bands, only to have Mikasa drag him away. Right before the Battle of the Bands begins, Annie is selected along with Bertolt, Reiner, Krista and Ymir to fill in for a band that did not show up; Annie is humiliated beyond belief when she is assigned the role as singer. As she slowly approaches the mic on stage, Annie sees Eren and hears him cheering her on. When several members of the audience overhear this, they insist Annie declare to Eren that she likes him; Annie becomes flustered and lowers her head in embarrassment, wishing they stop. Suddenly, Bertolt comes forth and takes the mic away; after he starts to badly sing off-key, Annie quickly falls unconscious along with Eren, his group and all the audience members.

After Annie and the others regain consciousness, they return back to the bakery stall. Hitch arrives and mentions that Annie made a previous appointment with her; Annie soon finds herself caught between both Hitch and Krista who each proclaim they can show Annie a better time at the festival than the other. While at a planetarium exhibit, Annie is slightly put off by Hitch's comments towards her and makes it known. Krista then takes them to a petting zoo where Ymir tags along too; while Annie does not show much interest initially, she does want to try milking a cow and soon finds herself enjoying it. Annie notices Hitch wallowing in a corner of the enclosure and soon runs off, prompting Annie to chase her. Annie soon finds Hitch getting ready to leave and invites Hitch to a cat cafe; despite Hitch enjoying herself there, she insists that Annie stand in front of her in order to maintain her reputation. Krista and Ymir soon find them there and Annie watches with skepticism as Hitch tries to convince Krista that she was trying to recruit the kittens as her servants. Later on, she hears and sees Bertolt making animal sounds after he calls out to her; she is confused as to why Bertolt is doing so and when he runs off after Reiner joins in, wonders if Bertolt wanted Reiner to make a different sound.

Getting fed up with Mikasa constantly butting heads with her, both are offered the chance to resolve their differences by going to Armin's famed kotatsu that can potentially bring peace to them both; Annie sees it as a pointless gesture, but becomes more receptive upon hearing Marco say Eren is already inside. Both Annie and Mikasa enter the room and find both Armin and Eren underneath the kotatsu; they briefly join forces to destroy it, confusing Eren and causing Armin to cry.

Relationships

 * Eren Yeager - At the start of the year, Annie held a grudge against Eren due to his actions during the welcoming ceremony; this only intensified after a dodge ball match where her side lost to Eren's. Eventually, Annie admits that she over-reacted and drops her grudge. They eventually are able to reconcile and become friends. It is believed that Annie has developed a crush on Eren, due to her wishing to invite Eren to a school dance and her constant blushing when Eren compliments her looks and for cheering her on during several competitions.
 * Mikasa Ackerman - Annie and Mikasa see the other as rivals, although Annie was initially less driven by the two's rivalry. She does not appreciate Mikasa's numerous attempts to prevent her speaking with Eren, standing up to her several times.
 * Bertolt Hoover - One of her friends from childhood, Annie has an interesting relationship with her classmate Bertolt. Annie acknowledges that while she does not feel like being around him all the time, she feels comfortable around him and appreciates the fact she does not feel like she must force a conversation with him. It is unknown if she is aware of Bertolt's crush on her.
 * Krista Lenz - Another of her classmates, Annie has a stable relationship with Krista. She does take offense with Krista's care-free attitude and willingness to share secrets, but does try to help Krista when she is in need.
 * Hitch - A member of the student council, Hitch is always in Annie's face encouraging her to be straight forward.