In an Oct. 18 release from the BBC's website, Hajime Isayama (諫山創), manga artist and creator of the manga, light novel and anime series "Shingeki no Kyojin" or "Attack on Titan" told BBC about his trials to become a manga artist and the source of his idea for the series. Isayama admitted that, after being rejected by publishers, he nearly threw his creation in the garbage bin until Kodansha's "Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine" accepted his drafts and it began serialization in 2009.
He revealed in the interview that he moved to Tokyo when he was 20 years old to fulfill his dream of becoming a manga artist but he became depressed at some point because, when he offered "Shingeki no Kyojin" to publishers, he was told repeatedly that, while his story is satisfactory, his drawing skills are not.
"Shingeki no Kyojin" is a post-apocalyptic dystopian story where survivors from all over the world reside inside three walls: Wall Maria, Wall Rose and Wall Sina, the origin of which is a mystery. Another mystery to the human beings is the existence of Titans, non-sentient gigantic beings who appeared out of nowhere, have no sexual organs and like to feast on humans for no particular reason despite their inability to digest anything. One would ask: why? Where on Earth did Isayama get the idea for such monsters and how did his story become so popular worldwide.
According to Isayama himself, he first conceived of the idea of Titans when he played a computer game where the whole universe was attacked by aliens and he thought that it would be more interesting if the enemy were giant monsters that ate human beings instead. There was no mention of the game's title, at least with how it was dubbed by the BBC.
"Shingeki no Kyojin" follows Eren Yaeger, his foster sister Mikasa Ackerman and their childhood friend Armin Arlert from the day Wall Sina was destroyed by a mysterious, sentient Titan dubbed "The Colossal Titan" who stands over 50 meters tall.
So what exactly are Titans? What is their true purpose? Why are they smiling and naked? If they don't need to eat because they can't digest, why do they eat human beings and why does it seem fun for them? Will all the loose ends be tied up eventually? Only Isayama knows for now.
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