Thread by @AttackOnFans

🚨 MANGA SPOILERS 🚨

Hiromu Arakawa × Hajime Isayama interview summary (THREAD) 👇👇👇

Hiromu Arakawa asked for the readers and the fans long-standing questions, such as where the inspiration for "Attack on Titan" came from and how the idea for 3DMG was born.

In this regard, Hajime Isayama, who has always loved watching American dramas and Hollywood movies, said that before the serialization, he was influenced by the history of the war in the early 1900s because he read the novel "Clouds above the Hill" written by Ryōtarō Shiba.

He was also influenced by the movie "The Village", in which Joaquin Phoenix played the role of Lucius Hunt, who believed he was living in the Middle Ages. But the truth is that he was isolated from modern society, and this became the setting for the creation of "Attack on Titan".

As for the 3DMG, Isayama really liked the idea of transforming a broken vacuum cleaner into a weapon, like the "Rockman DASH" game he had played in the past. So he used the machine's mechanism as the basis for the 3DMG design.

Isayama mentions the subjective sense of desire for "destruction". In the climax, Eren intends to destroy the existing civilization in order to rebirth a new world through the Rumbling.

In view of this, Arakawa asked him: "As author, does your work reflect your self-worth?"

«I think it reflects my personal desire to express myself through "destroying things". I'm not talking about destroying civilization or annihilating mankind, but "turning the world upside down."»

He was influenced by Minoru Furuya's work and perhaps the ending reveals this fact.

In the past, in the variety show "Osamu Hayashi no Ima desyo!", discussed about the fact that what is conveyed behind "Attack on Titan" is the common "ideological war" in today's society, and the conflicts caused by different nationalities and values.

For this reason, Arakawa also couldn't help but praise Isayama:

"You can let many people read and accept this subjective consciousness, that's also a very powerful thing. Your manga has a strong writing power that makes you want to keep reading."

Arakawa also compared Isayama to Picasso, as both are able to express strong emotions in their works, giving the audience a great strength and making a deep impression.

In fact, Isayama had "Guernica" painting in his old house and said it always struck fear into his heart.

However in the final chapter, the conversation between Eren and Armin not only made the readers change the evaluation of this work, but also made the readers fall into polarized comments.

Therefore, Isayama later decided to add pages in the volume 34, in order to rationalize it.

Isayama's own ideal arrangement is for Armin to end the series of battles in "Attack on Titan".

But because the story was not well-drawn when it was first serialized in Bessatsu Shonen magazine, it was decided to add some pages to make the most complete conclusion to the story.

Arakawa identifies with Isayama because she understands how difficult it's to portray war in the final part of a story and what its future consequences would be like.

This happened to her when she drew Fullmetal Alchemist. Characters' jobs from both mangas have only just begun.

Both mangakas identify with their characters. They also feel that they would like to give a proper death to each of the characters who die in their stories.

But that, somehow, those characters are still "alive" and have not completely disappeared during the story at all.

End of the summary, thanks for reading! 🤗