Attack on Titan, The Movie: Part 1/Movie and Manga Differences

The movie was based upon the manga series from the beginning up to around the middle of the Battle of Trost District arc. Because it had included many original concepts, the number of differences have been slightly minimized for the sake of fitting details onto one page.

Differences

 * Mikasa and Eren are a couple, as opposed to adopted siblings.
 * In the movie, Eren mentions that he barely remembers his parents, who died when he was young. In the manga, Eren's parents lived much longer, and raised him into adolescence before dying.
 * Shikishima, Levi's replacement, is more lively compared to the near-emotionless Levi.
 * Several cadets, such as Eren and Jean, are shown to have trouble with Vertical Equipment due to it being so new. In the manga, they are more than familiar. The only difficulty either have had is that their equipment was broken.
 * Mikasa never became a squad leader in the manga, although she could be seen as the head of the 104th Training Corps due to being at the top of the class.
 * The movie takes place in the near future in which Titans invade humanity, the reason for humanity being more advanced compared to the manga. In the manga, it takes place in an alternate reality in which Titans appeared and due to driving them to near-extinction, drove humanity back hundreds of years technologically wise.
 * The location of the story is changed from Germany in the manga to Japan, as the movie was made for a Japanese audience.
 * The leader of the Scout Regiment is Hans, Hange Zoë, as opposed to Erwin Smith. Erwin is absent in this movie, as is Nile Dok, the head of the Military Police Brigade, although he is replaced by Kubal.
 * Several of the recruits appeared to have been forced by their parents to join the Survey Corps due to the money their families would receive, among them Sasha Blouse. In the manga, Sasha joined the Survey Corps due to a dispute with her father. She was going to join the Military Police, but because all of her friends joined the Survey Corps, she followed them, despite having an extreme fear of the Titans.
 * Two years pass between the time the Colossus Titan first appears and the main cast joining the Survey Corps, whereas in the manga, five years had passed; three years for training, and the other two years were spent waiting for Eren, Mikasa, and Armin to be old enough to apply to the Military.
 * Jean's father appears in this continuity, whereas in the manga, only his mother appears and it is unknown what has happened to his father.
 * While Mikasa does possess a scar in the manga, it differs. In the manga, it is a tiny pink scar underneath her right eye, caused by a piece of debris to cut her when Eren tried attacking her in Titan form. In the movie, it is a large blue bruised scar on the left side of her abdomen, caused by being bitten by the Smiling Titan.
 * Sasha's mother appears in the movie, whereas only her father has appeared thus far in the manga.
 * There is a fence several feet from the Walls that the Garrison uses as a sentry. This doesn't appear to exist in the manga.
 * The outer districts have gates that allow the Survey Corps to travel out of the Walls, which was how the Colossus Titan was able to kick a hole in the wall. However, due to the Survey Corps only being formed after the Colossus Titan's attack in the movie, the gate doesn't exist.
 * The Garrison in this continuity appears to only use rifles as a defense, whereas this usually belongs to the Military Police, who's job is to protect the inner wall. Since they never encounter Titans, they use rifles instead. The Garrison does use rifles in the manga, but mostly in Wall Sheena.
 * The Scout Regiment is formed two years after the attack by the Colossus Titan. In the manga, it had existed for years before the Colossus Titan's attack.
 * The Colossus Titan is the only Titan to destroy the Wall. In the manga, it was both the Colossus Titan, who destroyed the outer gate and the Armored Titan, who doesn't appear in the movie, who destroyed the inner gate.
 * Vertical Equipment is presented as a new invention in the movie, created after the breach, whereas in the manga, Vertical Equipment has existed since the year 775.
 * The Wall is simply three walls, built in varying designs. The manga has them as concentric with outlier districts, so as to draw the Titans away from the three Walls. The Walls are named in the manga; Maria, Rose, and Sheena; whereas in the movie, only the districts are named. They are referred to by which position they occupy in the movie, with Wall Maria being called the Outer Wall.
 * Mikasa was a quiet, sullen girl since the death of her parents in the manga. In the movie, this only happens after the breach, due to her failure to protect a baby from the Titans and getting a large scar on her side due to a bite from apparently the same Titan.
 * Mikasa never had a bite mark from the Titans in the manga. The only extreme injury she has so far ever received from them was several cracked ribs due to being grabbed, knocked off her horse by a Titan, and having her injuries aggravated by horseback.
 * The Titan that tried to eat Armin and succeeded in eating Eren was the Bloated Titan, an original character. While the Bearded Titan appears in the movie, it isn't responsible for this.
 * It takes the Colossus Titan multiple kicks to break a hole in the Wall. In the manga, it takes one concentrated, precise kick.
 * Mikasa is referred to by the nickname "the Goddess" in the movie, do to her Titan slaying skills. In the manga, the nickname belongs to Historia Reiss, who received it for her cute looks and kindness as opposed to fighting Titans. In fact, Historia has only killed 2 Titans thus far that being a Titan attacking Ymir and Rod Reiss, compared to Mikasa, who has killed 9 Titans in the manga.
 * Mikasa was the first of the trio to join the Survey Corps due to her supposed death at the hands of the Smiling Titan, whereas Eren was first in the manga due to special circumstances.
 * It takes two years for Eren and Armin to join the Military, whereas it takes 3 years in the manga. They also appeared to have to only joined the Survey Corps, whereas in the manga, one is required to join the Cadet Corps and then choose a branch to join.
 * Armin and Eren were both separated after the Titan invasion, whereas in the manga they stayed together in the coming years as they both lost family. Mikasa was also not believed to have been eaten in the manga and stayed with Armin and Eren.
 * The Smiling Titan is only responsible for the death of Carla Yeager in the manga, although it tried to eat Mikasa in the Clash of the Titans arc. Its only known victims are Carla and Hannes, who's film replacement is Souda.
 * The Titans communicate solely via roars in the manga, whereas in the movie, they communicate via laughs, moans, etc. In one scene, there is a Titan with the physiology of a baby that communicates via cries, laughs, etc. However, several Titans, mostly Titan Shifters and Abnormals can communicate this way.
 * Due to there being an entire cast of Japanese actors, several characters were removed and others were added, although they retain their roles. Most characters removed were due to their Westernized appearances, which would have been harder to cast. For instance, Hannah and Franz are absent, but two new characters, Lil and Fukushi, take their places and assume similar roles. Hannes is absent in this movie, but the character Souda takes his place and assumes a similar role.
 * This also applies to the Titans. Since a majority are played by actual people, with the exception of the Colossus Titan and possibly the Rogue Titan, they all have similar appearances, with added deformities. The one common physical trait for all Titans is pale skin, black hair, black eyes, and some sort of deformity. For instance, while the Smiling Titan appears similar to the manga counterpart in terms of having a large fixed smile and a skinny appearance, it still conforms to having black hair, black eyes, pale skin and an added deformity that being it's smile.
 * Humanity is depicted as being heavily advanced in this continuity, having working vehicles and explosives. While things such as explosives exist in the manga, they don't to the extent they do in the movie. The most advanced technologies at this point in the manga are Vertical Equipment, which runs on pressurized gas and the Titan Guillotine.
 * Jean is depicted in this continuity as having basic skill when wielding his Vertical Equipment in the movie, whereas in the manga, he is exceptionally skilled. He also didn't have a fear of the Titans, although he did get cornered by some.
 * Vehicles such as vans don't exist in the manga. The most advanced modes of transportation in the manga are carts and horseback.
 * Shiganshina doesn't exist in the movie, although it could have been renamed.
 * Mikasa is shown to heavily respect Shikishima (Levi's replacement) as a commander in this movie, even possibly having romantic feelings, whereas in the manga, she despises him at first, but grows to respect him over time. The two are also related in the manga, both hailing from the Ackerman clan.
 * When Eren is pulled from the Rogue Titan, he is covered in the flesh and guts of his Titan form, whereas in the manga, this doesn't exist as when a Shifter leaves their Titan body, only the area around their eyes are burned, due to the flesh merging with the eyes for full optical vision and when their Titan forms are defeated, everything in it, except the Shifter, evaporates.
 * In the movie, Souda is able to recognize the Rouge Titan as Eren, due to his fighting style. In the manga, nobody knew the identity of the Rogue Titan until Eren emerged from its nape. They also didn't think that Eren would fuse with the Rogue Titan, although he almost did in The Uprising arc due to too many subsequent transformations.
 * Mikasa receives the scarf on the day the outer wall falls. She had worn the scarf for at least a year prior to this occurring in the manga. While in both versions Eren gave her the scarf she wore it in the manga after Eren rescued her from her kidnappers and Grisha invited her to live with them, the scarf being seen to her as a symbol of love and protection.
 * In the movie, the Titans, after incurring significant losses from the Rogue Titan, retreat which saves the rest of the present cast. This is in stark contrast to the anime and manga where Titans seem to lack any apparent sense of self-preservation in a tactical or strategic sense. They also didn't try to escape Eren, as he was a Shifter and eating a Shifter is the only one way a mindless Titan can return to human form.
 * The character of Shikishima functions as a replacement for Levi, although compared to Levi, Shikishima shows more emotion, compared to the cold, sarcastic Levi.
 * The Survey Corps didn't learn until much later that all Titans were once human until much later in the manga. The movie appears to take place around the middle of the Battle of Trost arc and the secret wasn't discovered until the beginning of the Uprising arc.
 * The Titans are seen as eating multiple people at the same time. This has yet to be shown in the manga, as they only eat one person at a time. They also don't fight over the person, although they appear to do this if they are Shifters.
 * Eren emerging from the Rogue Titan was slightly different compared to the manga. In the manga he appeared out of the nape unconscious but well. In the movie he screams when he emerged and proceeds to faint. In the manga he lost his boot, jacket, and his Vertical Equipment was badly damaged to the point of being unusable, after emerging because of the extreme heat of his Titan form.
 * In the manga, Levi is known as Humanity's Strongest Soldier, due to having the largest Titan kill count. In the movie, his replacement, Shikishima, is known as Humanity's Strongest Man.