The Other World’s Animator

After the seventh episode of Shingeki no Kyojin aired, the online reputation of Sora's work changed almost overnight.

The media, quick to read the direction of the wind, immediately began to adjust its tone.

"The seventh episode of Shingeki no Kyojin surpasses a 6% rating, becoming the fourth work directed by Sora to break that mark."

"Even after the protagonist's death in episode five, the popularity of Shingeki no Kyojin has shown no decline."

"Shingeki no Kyojin establishes itself as the highest-rated anime of the cour across Japanese broadcasters and may have already secured this year's Best Anime award in advance."

"According to rumors, Yume Animation is currently negotiating partnerships with several countries overseas. In the coming months, Shingeki no Kyojin may cross Japan's borders, allowing anime fans around the world to watch the latest episodes on the same day as the domestic broadcast."

"The greatest genius in the history of Japan's anime industry. Sora leads Japanese animation into a new decade."

"Shingeki no Kyojin may be changing protagonists. Mikasa will inherit Eren's legacy, and fans do not seem to be showing large-scale dissatisfaction with this development."

"Only a truly popular Kantoku would dare replace the protagonist of a work and still make the industry and its fans accept it. Sora's monstrous creativity continues to unfold."

"After Mikasa becomes the new protagonist, what direction will Shingeki no Kyojin take? Will it abandon the heavy suffering and bitterness of its opening tone and turn into an intense, cathartic action story about cutting down Titans?"

For several days in a row, whether it was the media or the fans, everyone seemed to have forgotten the one who had once been the protagonist.

Eren.

And, in a way, that was normal.

As the protagonist of the original work, Eren had never been especially popular. Compared to the Commander, Levi, Mikasa, and other supporting characters, his appeal was clearly weaker.

It was not that Eren was bad.

The problem was that Levi, the Commander, and Mikasa were simply too charismatic.

Under that contrast, and with the story genuinely devoting itself to shaping Mikasa with care, the audience accepted the possibility of a protagonist change surprisingly quickly.

Then, just when everyone believed they had figured out where the story was going, just when all of Sora's fans had accepted, full of anticipation, that Shingeki no Kyojin would continue with Mikasa at the center of the narrative…

Episode eight played another joke on them.

The story of the eighth episode followed Mikasa and Armin's squad as they stormed into the supply building, surrounded by Titans, in order to obtain gas for their equipment. Inside the building, smaller Titans prowled the corridors. Outside, numerous fifteen-meter Titans, drawn by the noise, began closing in.

It was in this desperate situation that the Titan from episode seven appeared again.

That Titan, roaring endlessly in rage, emerged to help Mikasa's group, throwing itself into a brutal battle against a crowd of fifteen-meter Titans.

One against many.

Every viewer believed that this furious Titan was nothing more than an abnormal gone mad, a creature that attacked its own kind because whatever passed for its mind had completely broken.

But at the end of episode eight, when that Titan finally collapsed from exhaustion…

When its flesh began dissolving into white steam…

What appeared before the eyes of every anime fan was a figure lying in the middle of the street, unconscious, his face marked by deep fatigue.

Eren.

That night, the Japanese anime industry erupted.

So the fans had spent more than half a month speculating that Shingeki no Kyojin was going to change protagonists… only to discover they had been flattering themselves the entire time?

The eighth episode of Shingeki no Kyojin gave Japan's anime audience a proper lesson. At the same time, it also offered an explanation for many of the doubts early viewers had not been able to understand.

Why had the Colossal Titan been able to strike with such precision?

How had the Armored Titan attacked the gate of the wall with such clear purpose?

If the audience still failed to understand after seeing this, then there was nothing left to say except that they had sawdust where their brains should have been.

There had never been such a thing as "intelligent Titans."

The ones with intelligence had never been the Titans.

They had always been people.

If the male lead, Eren, could transform from human into Titan and then back into human again, even regenerating severed limbs in the process, then the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan…

Could they not be the same?

In Japan, there were not many anime in which ordinary people, through strange settings, machines, or absurd technology, piloted gigantic weapons to fight.

The closest example in that world was the mecha element in Hoshi no Koe, one of Sora's earlier works.

At its core, the idea of the protagonist using the power of the Titans to become one himself was not so different from a hero transforming into a giant warrior. The difference was that, in Shingeki no Kyojin, Titans devoured people. That detail alone added a layer of horror to the entire work.

For anime fans from another context, perhaps this kind of setup would have been easy to accept, even exciting. But within the Japanese anime industry of that world, the story had spent so many episodes portraying Titans as terrifying existences that, when the script revealed Eren could transform into one of them, the impact was entirely different.

Suddenly, it was no longer merely frightening.

It was satisfying.

No wonder he could be the protagonist.

No wonder he had been devoured by a Titan so easily, as if he had been discarded without ceremony.

So that was how it was.

That night, discussion around Shingeki no Kyojin nearly doubled. Among the top ten trending searches on NatsuYume, six were related to the series.

"I just stared at the screen like an idiot. How does Kantoku Sora even come up with this kind of creativity? I'm honestly shocked."

"A human turning into a Titan… the idea is so simple, so why the hell did I get this excited watching it?"

"Holy shit. When that furious abnormal Titan started disappearing and Eren's body was revealed inside, I froze on the spot for a full two minutes. This twist was completely unexpected, but it makes perfect sense. Not only does it turn the earlier scene where Eren was eaten into something clearly planned, it also reveals part of the truth behind the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan."

"Kantoku Sora, how many settings are you still hiding inside that head of yours? Just dump them all already, please."

"That cliffhanger at the end of this episode is killing me, brothers. It feels like ants are crawling inside my skull. I need episode nine."

"So does this mean the later story will be Eren turning into a Titan to fight the Colossal and the Armored?"

"The Colossal showed up again this time, but the Armored still hasn't appeared. And neither of them had any scenes afterward. Could the humans inside them be hiding somewhere, watching everything from the shadows?"

"I don't understand the worldbuilding of this anime. Why can the protagonist turn into a Titan?"

"Maybe Eren belongs to some special race. In the first episode, didn't his father mysteriously say he wanted to take him to the basement and show him something important? What if he was going to tell Eren that their whole family can turn into Titans?"

"If that's the case, then the protagonist's father can turn into a Titan too, right? Because if this is a story based on bloodline, it wouldn't make sense for the son to be able to do it while the father can't."

"Going even deeper: in the first episode, when the Colossal Titan kicked through the wall, why did a rock just happen to fly into Eren's house? What if the Colossal Titan is Eren's father? Maybe his goal in episode one was to kill his own wife."

"But wouldn't that kill the protagonist too?"

"The protagonist turns into a Titan in life-or-death situations. He wouldn't die by accident."

"That actually makes sense. So in episode four, when the Colossal appeared, he only kicked down the wall and left because he recognized his own son, Eren. Even a tiger won't eat its cubs. His heart softened."

"Makes sense my ass. If the Colossal Titan is Eren's father, then who's the Armored Titan?"

"Do you even need to think about it? Why would the protagonist's father want to kill his wife? Obviously, he found a mistress. The Armored Titan is the mistress of the protagonist's father after transforming into a Titan. She was jealous of the legal wife, so she came over to kill her, allowing the two of them to live a shamelessly happy life together."

"But the Armored Titan is male."

"Who told you the Armored Titan is male? Do you think a man transforming means he becomes a male Titan, and a woman transforming means she becomes a female Titan? Did you forget that all Titans basically don't have that thing? They don't have genders. The Armored may look masculine on the outside, but who knows? Hidden inside that shell might be a delicate beauty."

"Damn it… your theories sound ridiculous, but the more I think about them, the more they start making sense. Don't tell me the truth of Shingeki no Kyojin is actually something this clichéd?"

"Stop discussing this. Your theories are way too absurd. I feel like merely thinking about them is insulting my own intelligence. Kantoku Sora would never create an anime this brain-dead."

"Sometimes, the most ridiculous story is the true one. Don't be so sure."

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