Attack on Titan (Manga)

Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人) is a manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It was first published in 2009 and is serialized in Bessatsu Shounen Magazine, being currently on its 19th volume.

Title
The original Japanese title "Shingeki no Kyojin" has a dual meaning. The literal meaning is "Advancing Titan(s)" (or more literally "Advancing Giant(s)"). However in Japanese, it can also be taken as "Advance Toward the Titan(s)" which is what the localized title resembles: "Attack on Titan".

Plot
Around a century before the beginning of the series, a mysterious race of giant, man-eater humanoids known as Titans suddenly appeared and nearly exterminated humanity. In order to protect themselves from this threat, the few survivors built three concentric walls, called Maria, Rose and Sheena, and encaged themselves in this limited territory, forgetting everything about the outside world and the history before the building of the walls.

In the present, a boy named Eren Yeager, his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their friend Armin Arlert, dream about seeing the world outside the walls some day; but their peace is abruptly interrupted when an unusual 60-meter tall Colossus Titan and an Armored Titan breach the outermost wall, and Eren sees his mother dying in the resulting devastation. Eren vows revenge against the Titans and later enlists in the military branch Survey Corps, accompanied by both Mikasa and Armin.

As the story progresses, more mysteries surrounding the true origin and nature of the Titans as well as the lost history of the world are addressed, and the reader gradually discovers that the Titans are probably not the real enemies. Eren and the Survey Corps find themselves as the only remaining hope for humanity, as they fight to discover the answers to these secrets and stop the forces that want to bring about the destruction of mankind.

History
Hajime Isayama came up with the idea for the Titans some day when, while working at an Internet cafe, a drunk customer grabbed him by the collar. He said he was inspired by the lack of the ability to communicate even though the person was of the same species, and thought that the most familiar and scary animal in the world is actually the human. This is the feeling he conveys through the Titans: threatening beings which, despite their humanoid appearances, lack any means of reasoning or communication.

The scenery for the story was inspired by his own hometown, which is surrounded by mountains. One day, he wanted to go beyond the mountains, which reflects Eren's wish to go beyond the walls in the series.

Isayama first draw a 65-page draft of the story in 2006 and offered it to the Weekly Shōnen Jump department at Shueisha, but he was advised to modify his style and story to be more suitable for the magazine. He declined and instead took it to Kodansha, where it was accepted and began serialization in its monthly publication Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, starting from the September 2009 issue. It was the first series he had ever published.

His monthly schedule consists of one week for storyboard and three weeks for drawing. For designing the Titans, he gets aid from a reference book for various human expressions; as well as inspiration from real-life models such as Yushin Okami for Eren's Titan form and Brock Lesnar for the Armored Titan. He said that he chose giants as the theme for its work because "they are kind of gross".

Isayama has revealed that the story is planned way out in advance, and that he can even mark down in which specific volume certain situation is going to happen; although it is properly fleshed out until he is working on it. He had also planned a tragic ending for the series in which everybody would die, similar to that of the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist; but after the manga and anime gained so many fans, he began to worry about the impact that such a conclusion could have on them, and now he is unsure of whether he should go ahead with it. However, he admitted that he still likes the idea.

In September 2013, he stated that he wanted to end the series in Volume 20; but in June 2015 he claimed that the manga was "60% finished" at that point, and in September of the same year his editor Kawakubo Shintaro estimated that there were "about three years worth of manga chapters left"; which, if true, would mean that the manga would be ending around late 2018 or after 26+ volumes.

Reception
Since its serialization, it has become a best seller in both Japan and the United States. Its popularity has also inspired an anime adaptation and a number of spin-offs; including 5 manga series (one of which received its own anime adaptation series as well), 6 novels, 6 visual novels, 2 live-action movies, a live-action web miniseries and a one-shot crossover with. A second season of the main anime is expected to be released at some point of 2016 or 2017.

As of July 2015, the manga had 52.5 million copies in print, with 50 million copies in Japan and 2.5 million copies overseas since it was first released.; reaching the top 50 of the best-selling manga series in history as the 35th best-selling overall and the 16th still ongoing at that point (despite being the only series in the top with less than a decade in publication, being just in its 6th year). Volume 12 received a first printing of 2.5 million copies, making the series one of the only two manga series ever to get an initial print surpassing 2 million, next to One Piece. Volume 13 sold 2,750,000 copies in its first printing and holds the first print run record for its publisher,.

Since 2013, after the boost in its popularity following the release of the first season of the anime, it has consistently ranked among the 3 best-selling manga series in Japan per year. In the first half of 2014 it reached the top of the chart, ending One Piece ' s five-year reign as the highest selling series in that period. The author, Hajime Isayama, was surprised about this and thanked the readers. It finished the year in second place with almost 12 million copies sold. In the first half of 2016, it ranked 3rd, making it the highest selling monthly manga overall and the highest seling manga by Kodansha, surpassing by more than 1.6 million copies the second most popular title by the publisher, The Seven Deadly Sins.

Its numbers since 2011 are as follows:


 * 2011 - 11th (3,766,194 copies sold).
 * 2012 - 15th (2,682,504 copies sold).
 * 2013 - 2nd (15,933,801 copies sold).
 * 2014 - 2nd (11,728,368 copies sold).
 * 2015 - 3rd (8,778,048 copies sold).

Attack on Titan won the in the shōnen category in 2011, and was nominated for the 4th  Award and both the 16th and 18th annual. The 2012 edition of Kono Manga ga Sugoi! named it the 8th best manga series for male readers, while the 2014 edition named it the 6th best. It ranked #1 in the Yomiuri Shimbun ' s Sugoi Japan Awards for favorite manga series in 2015.

Kodansha has credited the series for the company's first revenue increase in 18 years, while  called it a "once-in-a-decade hit".