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Attack on Titan has characters analogous to the Jewish and that annoys me (massive manga spoilers)

ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
20,440
In the last arc of Attack on Titan, it's revealed that the outside world still exists, that humanity isn't extinct, and that the people we've followed have had their memories of the outside world erased after they lost a war against the people they were oppressing and fled to an island.

It's also revealed that the people in the manga are from a race of people that used to rule the world and are the only people that can turn into Titans. These people are... The Jews.

Attack-on-Titan-Jewish-armband-comparison.jpg


They are not called Jews directly, but uhhhhhhh, it's not fucking subtle at all. The series is drowning in "Jews in Nazi Germany" imagery and it's a WW2 story now.

I'm annoyed because:

A): Jews have a reason to be oppressed in the Attack on Titan world because they were brutal oppressors in the past and can turn into horrible monsters

B): Right after the main characters (who are obviously coded as Jewish) arrive in Attack on Titan's Germany, they start committing war crimes for almost no reason.

I don't like Attack on Titan trying to steal Jewish imagery like this while also having their coded Jewish protagonists having a reason to be discriminated against and then immediately doing war crimes for no reason. Jews in Nazi Germany were hated because of bigots in Germany, not out of a desire for revenge against Jews being violent and oppressing Aryans or something.

Quit stealing historical imagery and then trying to make your fictional world grey when the history was not grey at all, fiction writers.

MOD EDIT:

Brazil said:
The thread title has been edited to be a little less loaded.

Attack on Titan definitely has a lot of analogies to the Jewish people's plight and World War II in general, and while that might be an issue in an of itself, it's a bit of a stretch to paint the manga as anti-semitic without question.

The previous thread title gave no room for discussion or interpretation, and people who are familiar with the manga and disagreed with the thread's initial premise were being unfairly hostilized by some who aren't readers and had only the information provided by the OP to go on. That's not a very fair way to foster discussion.
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yencid

yencid

Member
Oct 27, 2017
259
I cant talk for you because i never really read the series but if i was the one reading and i hit this realization, i would stop reading the series all together honestly.
 
Pasha

Pasha

Banned
Jan 27, 2018
3,018
So now its Attack on (((Titan)))?

Also, since I only watch the anime, holy shit never knew this.
 
iksenpets

iksenpets

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,476
Dallas, TX
Holy shit that's bad. I mean, I'm sure it's mostly ignorance, from a Japanese author skimming some very surface-level imagery from Western history, and then thinking boy wouldn't it be fun if I did a twist and made it so all the anti-Semitism was actually fear of their monster powers, but holy shit. Accidental or not, that manages to hit just about every anti-Semitic trope in the book, from the secret, world-dominating cabal to the ancient blood magic.
 
orochi91

orochi91

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,789
Canada
I was really disappointed with where the author took this story.

The alternate-reality WW2 thing really sucks.

The Nazis are presented as victims and the Jews are the menace, and apparently deserve their treatment.

Shit's weird and I can't imagine how they'll animate the later chapters.
 
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Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,391
Wait, do you mean the people inside the Walls are the Jews, or the people aligned with the Beast Titan are Jews? I'm way behind on this story.
 
Arkanim94

Arkanim94

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,093
the author is a know follower of the japanese nationalist party. nothing new under the sun.
 
passepied joe

passepied joe

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,703
This is so stupid and absurd it's funny lmao. What were they thinking? One of the characters looks just like some Imperial Army general or something no?
 
Kirblar

Kirblar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
30,744
It's obviously an analogue, but a gigantic theme in the series is the cyclical nature of war and violence.

Your read of it is not at all how I've taken the book.

Giving minorities powers has been done before (X-Men) and although it's turning out (Gun control) that it's not really a great analogue, it's not unique to this series at all. The oppressors are also such complete fucking assholes throughout this- although characters like Reiner are sympathetic, the Marley people as a whole are not. It's not just a "Jewish" analogue, the Eldians are also effectively slave labor used as war machines.
 
Novel Mike

Novel Mike

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,553
This is why I stopped reading the manga, when it got to this part I was just like 'WTF' and haven't read it since then.
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
20,625
The fact that it went from an interesting adventure story where they had to get to the basement to this is utterly fascinating.
 
Dragoon

Dragoon

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
11,231
On point 2, I don't know how anyone can read the manga and think Eren and Co. attacking them is for no reason at all. The only explanation is if you picked up the manga and skipped two arcs while reading the last 2-3 chapters. Not only that, but we don't know the plan, and this arc is still riddled on a ton of mystery (just a few at the top of my head: what is Eren's plan, why is he attacking, what he gains from it, what is he stopping). On top of that Eren doing that fucked up shit just had Mikasa in tears telling him it's irredeemable to do this.

I somehow missed WWII references until this topic though. :S
 
Feranon

Feranon

Member
Nov 1, 2017
129
I watched the first two seasons of the anime and then stopped paying attention because yeah, it gave me a weird fashy feeling even though I couldn't nail down exactly why (plus I was bored with all the Dramatic Inner Monologues)

glad I went with my instincts there, jesus. there's just generally way too much nazi apologia in manga/anime and their fanbases. I mostly blame Hetalia.
 

Ninjimbo

Banned
Dec 6, 2017
1,731
The hell happened to AOT's story? That sounds horrible. I haven't read it in a very long time. I'm kinda glad I dropped it now.
 
SmokingBun

SmokingBun

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
2,091
User banned (5 days): Offensive generalization of an entire country.
Not surprised since it's coming from Japan
Proud Japanese Master Race with those guys

Has there been any criticism of this from a Japanese source?
 

VAD

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,502
I liked the twist as it made retroactively the entire serie less stupid and yes I saw the parallel with the Jewish holocaust. But it did not bother me because at no point the author said putting people in prison or death camps was a right thing to do.
I have yet to read the part were they go to the mainland to wreck havok for no reason, maybe this will shock me.
 
Keasar

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
For some reason I never really made that connection, I mean, I saw the bands but the link never occurred, also I am right now very confused on reading the story in the manga after it got out of the regular one and started to be about the people outside. Shit is confusing.

I am also quite behind on the story as a result of that. But, yeah, now in the light of the author, this looks really bad.

One thing though, I thought during the parts I read that the story presents sympathy for the people who are being put in ghettos etc.? Like, the people who are oppressing them are being genuine arseholes to them, with nothing happening to them being really presented as "justified". I may have misread the cues though?
 
Einchy

Einchy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,659
Nepenthe said:
The fact that it went from an interesting adventure story where they had to get to the basement to this is utterly fascinating.
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I mean, the current arc is the best arc in the manga so far.
Gustaf said:
great, now people that havent read the manga will starkt spreading this shit.
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And yeah, I can't say that I agree with the OP's premise that the manga is anti-semitic. In all the discussions I've seen about this manga, which has been a bunch, this is literally the only time I've seen someone bring this up. The title of this thread had me wondering what they could possibly mean and the body of the OP didn't clear it up much.

There's obvious parallels to ghettos and WWII but I'm not seeing where the anti-semitism comes into play.
 
Poppy

Poppy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,265
richmond, va
i mean i wont judge it having not read it (i watched two or three episodes of the anime and thought it was dumb) but taken out of context it sure seems pretty fuckin ridiculous
 

Nerokis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,558
Kirblar said:
It's obviously an analogue, but a gigantic theme in the series is the cyclical nature of war and violence.

Your read of it is not at all how I've taken the book.

Giving minorities powers has been done before (X-Men) and although it's turning out (Gun control) that it's not really a great analogue, it's not unique to this series at all. The oppressors are also such complete fucking assholes throughout this- although characters like Reiner are sympathetic, the Marley people as a whole are not. It's not just a "Jewish" analogue, the Eldians are also effectively slave labor used as war machines.
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Yeah, I don't read Attack on Titan as antisemitic at all.

As a side-note, the current arc is the best the manga has ever been.
 
Kirblar

Kirblar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
30,744
Dragoon said:
On point 2, I don't know how anyone can read the manga and think Eren and Co. attacking them is for no reason at all. The only explanation is if you picked up the manga and skipped two arcs while reading the last 2-3 chapters. Not only that, but we don't know the plan, and this arc is still riddled on a ton of mystery (just a few at the top of my head: what is Eren's plan, why is he attacking, what he gains from it, what is he stopping). On top of that Eren doing that fucked up shit just had Mikasa in tears telling him it's irredeemable to do this.

I somehow missed WWII references until this topic though. :S
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Yeah, it's clear why they're attacking them- it's literally a matter of Survival. It's also noted that conventional weapons and tech have caught up in the world, which puts the captive Eldians in a situation where they're now under threat of a Holocaust-analogue situation if they're no longer required to be the backbone of Marley's armed forces.
 

Deleted member 643

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Oct 25, 2017
1,365
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
A): Jews have a reason to be oppressed in the Attack on Titan world because they were brutal oppressors in the past and can turn into horrible monsters
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Has this viewpoint been expressed by anyone who isn't a bad guy in the series yet?
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
B): Right after the main characters (who are obviously coded as Jewish) arrive in Attack on Titan's Germany, they start committing war crimes for almost no reason.
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Receipts on war crimes committed by anyone other than Eren, who is implied to have gone crazy and gone renegade by himself with the rest of his pals showing up to save him?
 
Mezentine

Mezentine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,964
Can someone help me fill in the blank here?
People who can turn into titans flee to island, I got that part. What happens after that but before the series starts up? What causes all the feral titans and the construction of the three walls?
 
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