{"id":402023,"date":"2026-04-28T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/402023\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:54:10","slug":"attack-on-titan-creator-reveals-his-regrets-over-the-series-ending-in-new-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/402023\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack on Titan creator reveals his regrets over the series’ ending in new statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some protagonists stay true to their desires, while others are gradually molded by the world they live in. Eren Yeager<\/a> from Attack on Titan<\/a> is a blend of both. Nature and nurture morph him into the complicated character that he is, with rage against an unjust world fueling his tragic journey.<\/p>\n

Eren\u2019s leap from doomed protagonist to out-and-out villain<\/a> might be one of the most compelling aspects of Hajime Isayama\u2019s Attack on Titan. However, Isayama\u2019s recent statement about the series\u2019 ending brings some authorial doubts to the surface, as displayed<\/a> on a block print at Attack on Titan Museum in Hita City, Oita Prefecture. Read Isayama’s statement below:<\/p>\n

\u201cEren became a protagonist who committed mass slaughter on a scale rarely seen in other works of fiction. As for why I conceived such a story from the beginning, part of it was my desire to create a narrative with a major twist\u2014where the victim becomes the perpetrator.<\/p>\n

But a large factor was also my own immaturity and foolishness at the time, when I was in my early twenties. That aspect became the core of Eren’s character, leading to the point where he confesses not as someone forced into wrongdoing by circumstances, but as someone who harbored a desire to do harm.<\/p>\n

However, Attack on Titan had long since ceased to be mine alone, and Eren became a character loved by many readers. In the end, without fully committing to portraying him as a detestable figure, I found myself depicting him with a certain closeness and sympathy. As a result, I feel there remains a sense of insincerity in the story’s conclusion\u2014at least in my own assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eren
\n Image: MAPPA<\/p>\n

Isayama\u2019s statement might have been partially influenced by the backlash to the Attack on Titan manga\u2019s original ending, which was considered \u201crushed\u201d by some pockets of the fandom. To make amends, Isayama added eight extra pages<\/a> to the final chapter to offer further context, flesh out character arcs, and provide a more satisfying closure to this epic saga. This extended ending, although mostly well-received, remains controversial. As Eren\u2019s actions loom over this final chapter, it\u2019s natural for Isayama to second-guess the impulses that shaped such an iconic character.<\/p>\n

Despite Isayama\u2019s misgivings, Eren emerges as an appropriately complex villain<\/a>. The \u201csympathy\u201d that Isayama mentions is the source of nuance here. Eren wasn\u2019t born with the intention of slaughtering 80% of humanity \u2014 this twisted desire was born out of trauma-fueled radicalization.<\/p>\n

The tension between who Eren could\u2019ve been and who he chose to become in Attack on Titan lends the story its pathos. It also reinforces Eren\u2019s status as a well-written character. Moreover, the \u201cinsincerity\u201d that Isayama speaks of might\u2019ve been remedied with a more brutal exploration of Eren\u2019s moral downfall, but it would’ve also run the risk of turning a flesh-and-blood character into a bland, one-note archetype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some protagonists stay true to their desires, while others are gradually molded by the world they live in.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-402023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}