Attack on Titan (Anime)

"Attack on Titan" (進撃の巨人) is a 2013 anime series based on the manga by Hajime Isayama under the same name, serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. It is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous Walls that protect them from Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures who devour humans seemingly without reason. The story centers around Eren Yeager, his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackerman, and their childhood friend Armin Arlert, whose lives are changed forever after the appearance of a Colossal Titan which brings about the destruction of their home town and the death of their mother. Vowing revenge and to reclaim the world from the Titans, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin join the Survey Corps, an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the Walls.

The anime is produced by IG Port's Wit Studio and directed by Tetsurō Araki, series composition by Yasuko Kobayashi, music by Hiroyuki Sawano, character design by Kyoji Asano, art direction by Shunichiro Yoshihara and sound direction by Masafumi Mima. The anime began airing on April 7, 2013 on Mainichi Broadcasting System and were later aired on Tokyo Metropolitan Television, Fukuoka Broadcasting Corporation, Television Oita System, Hokkaido Television Broadcasting, Television Aichi Broadcasting and Nippon BS Broadcasting. Both Funimation and Crunchyroll are streaming the series on their respective websites. Funimation has also licensed the anime for home video release in 2014. The English dub is also set to premiere in the Anime Boston convention on March 21-23. The anime is licensed by Funimation Entertainment for an English release.

In episodes 1-13.5, the opening theme song is "Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen" (紅蓮の弓矢) by Linked Horizon and the ending theme song is "Utsukushiki Zankoku na Sekai" (美しき残酷な世界) by Yōko Hikasa. In the episodes 14-25, the opening theme song is "Die Flügel der Freiheit" (自由の翼) by Linked Horizon and the ending theme song is "Great Escape" by Cinema Staff.

Episode 25 of the anime premiered on September 28th, 2013 and was screened in multiple Japanese theaters.

A second season of the anime began production and was set to be released sometime in 2016, but as since then been halted. According to director of the series, Tetsuro Araki, the reason behind this is for the original manga to complete, so the anime series can be consistent with the original material.

Trivia

 * At Sakuracon 2015, Wit Studio assistant producer Yūsuke Ueda revealed that there will be second season news soon, saying "I'm very sorry to say we can't say right now specifically at this point when it will be available, but I think at this point, if you are patient and wait and look forward to it, we will have some good news for you soon."