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 very stoic Levi.
 * Several cadets, such as Eren and Jean, are shown to have trouble with omni-directional gear due to it being so new. In the manga, they are more than familiar. The only difficulty either have had is that their gear 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 a post-apocalytic future of a world more comparable to our own, in which Titans invade humanity, the reason for humanity being more advanced compared to the manga. In the manga, humanity's technology within the Walls is some hundreds of years less advanced than modern technology, with the world beyond the Walls being no more advanced than that of our world's early 20th century.
 * The location of the story is changed from Paradis Island 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 Dawk, 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 Scout Regiment due to the money their families would receive, among them Sasha Braus. In the manga, Sasha joined the Scout Regiment due to a dispute with her father. She was going to join the Military Police, but because all of her friends joined the Scout Regiment, she followed them, despite having an extreme fear of the Titans.
 * Two years pass between the time the Colossal Titan first appears and the main cast joining the Scout Regiment, 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 that cut her when Eren tried attacking her in Titan form. In the movie, it is a large blue bruised mark on the left side of her abdomen, caused by being bitten by the Smiling Titan.
 * There is a fence several feet from the Walls that the Garrison uses as a sentry. This does not appear to exist in the manga, as the Garrison instead use cannons.
 * The outer districts have gates that allow the Scout Regiment to travel out of the Walls, which was how the Colossal Titan was able to kick a hole in the Wall. However, due to the Scout Regiment only being formed after the Colossal Titan's attack in the movie, the gate does not exist.
 * The Garrison in this continuity appears to only use rifles as a defense, whereas this usually belongs to the Military Police, whose job is to protect the inner Wall. Since they never encounter Titans, they use rifles instead.
 * The Scout Regiment is formed two years after the attack by the Colossal Titan. In the manga, it had existed for many years before the Colossal Titan's attack.
 * The Colossal Titan is the only Titan to destroy the Wall. In the manga, it was both the Colossal Titan, who destroyed the outer gate, and the Armored Titan (who does not appear in the first movie), who destroyed the inner gate.
 * Omni-directional gear is presented as a new invention in the movie, created after the breach, whereas in the manga, omni-directional gear has existed for many decades. In the spinoff novel Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, omni-directional gear is said to have been created around thirty years after the building of the Walls.
 * 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. In the manga, the Walls are named 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 an original Titan character of bloated appearance. While a bearded Titan similar to that of the manga appears in the movie, it is not responsible for this.
 * It takes the Colossal 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, due 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, that being a Titan attacking Ymir and Rod Reiss's Titan form, compared to Mikasa, who has killed 9 Titans in the manga.
 * Mikasa was the first of the trio to join the Scout Regiment 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 Scout Regiment, whereas in the manga, one is required to join the Cadet Scouts 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 became orphans. 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 Jaeger in the manga, although it tried to eat Mikasa and Eren in the Clash of the Titans arc. Its only known victims are Carla and Hannes, who is film replacement is Souda.
 * The Titans only ever roar or moan on occasion in the manga, whereas in the movie, they are able to laugh as well. In one scene, there is a Titan with the physiology of a baby that communicates via cries, laughs, etc. However, several Titans, mostly Intelligent Titans and Abnormals can communicate this way in the manga.
 * 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, Hanna 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 Colossal 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 is smile.
 * Humanity is depicted as being more advanced in this continuity, having working vehicles and explosives. While things such as explosives exist in the manga, they do not to the extent they do in the movie. The most advanced technologies within the Walls at this point in the manga are omni-directional gear, the Executioner from Hell, and the Thunder Spears. However, the world beyond the Walls possesses technology equivalent to that of our early 20th century, such as airships, biplanes, and ironclads.
 * Jean is depicted in this continuity as having basic skill when wielding his omni-directional gear in the movie, whereas in the manga, he is exceptionally skilled. He also did not have a fear of the Titans, although he did get cornered by some.
 * Shiganshina does not exist in the movie, although it could have been renamed. Its story significance is replaced with Monzen.
 * 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 his Titan, he is covered in the flesh and guts of his Titan form, whereas in the manga, this does not exist as when a human leaves their Titan body, only the area around their eyes are burned, due to the flesh merging with the eyes and when their Titan forms are defeated, everything in it, except the human, evaporates.
 * In the movie, Souda is able to recognize Eren's Titan, due to his fighting style. In the manga, nobody knew the identity of his Titan until Eren emerged from its nape and merely assumed it was an Abnormal. They also did not think that Eren would fuse with his Titan, although he almost did in The Uprising arc due to too many subsequent transformations. In the manga, Annie Leonhart's identity as the Female Titan was deduced by witnessing her unique fighting style, as Annie retained this even in Titan form.
 * 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 Eren's 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 did not try to escape Eren, as he has the power of the Titans and eating a person with Titan abilities is the only one way a mindless Titan can return to human form.
 * The Scout Regiment did not 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 was not 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 do not fight over the person, although they appear to do this if they are intelligent Titans.
 * Eren emerging from his 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 omni-directional gear was badly damaged to the point of being unusable.
 * 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.