The official English title of the highly acclaimedShingeki no Kyojinis a bit misleading. While “Attack on Titan” is a readily accepted translation of the official Japanese title,Attack on Titanuses that misdirection to divert the attention of viewers away from the main objective of the series, or its most central element.The reasons for that diversion are varied, and it has different effects on the way the story can be understood. This can be thought to be one of the many situations in anime where names are used as deliberate extensions of the plot itself. What picking apart the ambiguity can do is create a foray into the mind of the author regarding their intentions and in this case, the consequences are reflective of the eternally twisting nature ofAttack on Titan’splot.RELATED:Attack on Titan: Why Eren Laughed at This Beloved Character’s Tragic Death
Lost in Mistranslation
The Japanese title, “Shingeki no Kyojin” can be translated in various ways, due to an inherent ambiguity in Japanese regarding possession and the subject in that phrase. The words in the title can be broken up as “Shingeki”; which literally translates to “Advance” or “Attack” in a strategic sense, “no” which denotes possession on behalf of the subject, and “Kyojin”, which can be “giant” or more relevantly, “titan”.
RELATED:Attack On Titan: Falco’s Jaw Titan, Explained
It can be translated as “The Attack of the Titans”, which in the show’s early stages seems like a more fitting title than the official English “Attack on Titan”. However, this official English translation is part of the ruse and adds to the ambiguity since “Shingeki no Kyojin” can also be, more fittingly, translated to “Attack of the Titan(s)”, “The Titan of the Attack”, or “The Advancing Titan(s)”. Only after learning aboutEren Jaeger’s Attack Titanand the other eight in theAttack on Titanennead do we understand which translation the author Isayama Hajime was trying to divert from, and how the ambiguity affects the viewer’s understanding of the story. For one, the more obvious “Attack of the Titan(s)” restricts the story to being solely a tale of humanity’s survival in a dark fantasy setting, with the primary antagonist being exposed at the very beginning of the story in ways that are less convoluted, less exciting journey than the actual story.
“Shingeki no Kyojin”
“The Titan of the Attack”, or as we’ve come to know it, “The Attack Titan”, is one ofthe Titans in the enneadoriginally created in Eldia and is passed on from person to person through anthropophagy. The Titan is passed from Dr. Grisha Jaeger to his son Eren early in the first season, and viewers are slowly brought to speed regarding the significance and reasoning behind Grisha’s actions on the day the Colossal Titan destroyed the wall. Grisha Jaeger himself received the Attack Titan from Eren Kruger, an individual known to the Eldian Resistance against Marley as “The Owl” who reveals his true identity as an Eldian after several years of betraying and turning his own people into True Titans.
There are various reasons why the true direction of the series had to be veiled even as far as the title. However, the intentionality with whichAttack on Titanis written calls for viewers, at least those who are obsessive enough to look at the smaller details, to consider that the story’s various twists and turns often play upon this contrived mistranslation. “The Attack Titan” as a hidden true translation of the series title Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) deepensEren’s status as the protagonist of the showbut also tells us that the true main character is the person who wields the Attack Titan, or even the Attack Titan itself. The significance of one such individual is that they are capable of turning against oppressive regimes, following a path only they are privy to because their clairvoyance places them in a special position, both as a character and as an agent in their own universe.
In this latest season, Eren Jaeger’s influence over events in the storyline have been revealed to go as far back as his father’s slaughter of the Reiss family, and he is currently leading a global-scale catastrophe. Using theTitans revealed to be within the wallsenclosing the human settlements of Paradis Island, Eren Jaeger has officially announced death and ruin to the enemies of Paradis. “The Titan of the Attack”, “Attack of the Titan(s)” and “Attack on Titan” are only now as of The Final Season Part 2 in a position where they are all, simultaneously, fair and true of basic reflections of the true intention ofAttack on Titanas a story.
