During the winter break of my freshman year of high school, I was mindlessly scrolling through streaming services, desperate to find entertainment in the confinements of my quarantined home. After what seemed like hours of searching for something, anything, I stumbled upon my brother’s Funimation queue. I saw a dark image of a boy surrounded by fire, looking up to the giant before him. My curiosity was ignited, and with the click of the “play” button, I was utterly hooked on the series Attack on Titan.
The story describes a place where the last of humanity is forced to live behind three enormous walls protecting them from the man-eating Titans on the other side. After a century of peace from these Titans, the walls of the city of Shiganshina are broken by a Colossal Titan that appears and vanishes into thin air. The opening of the wall creates an opportunity for a multitude of Titans to enter the city, resulting in the gruesome deaths of hundreds of citizens. One of the victims included the mother of the protagonist, Eren Jaeger. Her death sparks a vengeful dream, and Eren vows to slaughter all the Titans to avenge his mother.
This series was the only thing I watched for an entire week. From the moment I woke up, I would get up in a frenzy and head to the nearest TV to spend my whole day watching episode after episode. I was so enamored by this show that by the end of the week, I spent my last day watching the series for 12 hours, completing about 30 episodes in one sitting. Every ending left me fixated, hungry for more, uttering the infamous phrase, “Just one more before I go to bed.”
The entire experience was captivating and the only thing I could talk about for the longest time.
For the next year and a half, I spent my Mondays keeping up with every new episode, soaking up the lore like a sponge. Once I was caught up with the entirety of the show, it was announced that in the next year, the final ending would be released in the form of two specials. However, at this point, I no longer had self-restraint. The anime is an adaptation of its original manga (Japanese graphic novel), which was available online. Every time I had an itch to spoil something for myself, I was able to pull back, but after such a heavy cliffhanger, I couldn’t bear waiting. I finished the story on a shady website containing the last few chapters.
Although I was heartbroken and in tears at the end, I knew that seeing it brought to life through animation would elevate my experience and emotions. Despite this, when 2023 came, and both specials were released, I couldn’t bring myself to watch them. I felt that the excitement I had been building up would vanish, and I would have nothing to look forward to once I finally saw my favorite series come to a close. I always gave myself excuses, saying I would never have a perfect dark, loud, comfortable, and uninterruptible setting to watch it to its fullest potential. However, In December 2024, Crunchyroll announced that Attack on Titan: The Last Attack, would be premiering in the USA and Canada for a one-day screening. The movie consisted of the two specials I refused to watch, so the excuse I used for a year was no longer viable. It gave me the chance to see the movie the way it was meant to be seen, and I was on the edge of my seat while I was waiting for the tickets to be released.
On January 31st at 6 AM, I booked my tickets for February 10th, 2025, at 6:30 PM, and I started my binge of the series to refresh on the characters, the foreshadowing, and the overall plot of the show. I commuted from my dorm to the theater, getting there right in time to witness the ending of my beloved anime. The experience was wonderful. The screen was giant, the sound system was terrific, and what’s more, the movie was in 4DX. Every accelerating movement rocked the chairs back, forth, and side to side. Every gust of wind was felt on our faces, every strike of lightning lit up the room, and every blood splatter resulted in water spraying the audience’s faces. I cried an estimated seven times and never once took my eyes off the screen. The final moments of the film had me bawling silently in my seat, and I only decided to get up when the screen finally went black, and the room was no longer dark.
I found this series during a dark period of my life. It was the height of the pandemic, and I shut indoors much longer than I wished for. I felt trapped and unmotivated in a space that felt like time never moved. I thought it was the beginning of the rest of my life, and I no longer had anything to look forward to. Watching Attack on Titan gave me something to look forward to in quarantine; it was a stepping stone that helped me get pulled out of my depression. Although it isn’t perfect, the story is beautiful. The author did a wonderful job imagining a creative world; the characters were wonderfully fleshed out, and the story will stay with me for a long time.
I can talk about this series for hours at any time of the day. It is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story. It will always be dear to me, and I will always remember it as the show that gave me a little more will to live as a human and not just as a body.