Attack on Titan has been considered one of the top anime series to watch ever since it was adapted from the manga in 2013.
The story of AOT follows myriad themes – good and evil, man and beast, free-will and destiny. A lot of the times these themes are intermingled, the most explicit one being “man and beast” – and by beast, I mean the man-eating Titans, of course.
Season 2 of AOT was all about the Beast Titan, one of the main Nine Titans. The opening credits followed the beast motif, but is there an underlying message to all those animals?
Why are there Animals in the AOT Opening?
There are animals in the AOT opening because the Beast Titan can take the form of various animals, based on the user/shifter.
Zeke, the current Beast Titan Shifter, has always had an affinity to monkeys (remember his toy monkey?) and so his Titan takes on the form of an ape.
The animals in the opening represent Zeke’s predecessors with their Titan counterparts. The Beast Titan changes its animal form with every new shifter.
When Falco is turned into a Pure Titan with the help of Zeke’s spinal fluid, his Jaw Titan taken on the Beast Titan’s animalistic traits and Falco’s Titan form turns into a bird.
Falco also reveals to Annie that he received a memory of a previous Beast Titan who could fly; given his avian Titan form, he theorizes that he too should be capable of flight.
Here’s more proof: In the manga, Eren summons past Titan Shifters when she is defending herself from the Scouts. The Beast Titan Shifters have different animal forms like crocodile and deer.
In some of the panels from the Eldian history book, we see a huge horse that we can assume to be an incarnation of the Beast Titan.
We also know that the Beast Titan Shifter before Zeke was Tom Xaver. In the manga, he says that his Beast Titan “isn’t too useful in a war”. Zeke’s ape is definitely a tank during battle; this makes it evident that the two Beast Titan forms are inherently different.
So, Zeke’s Beast Titan from the Season 2 AOT opening was not just running with random animals but past Beast Titan shifters.
Are there Dinosaurs in AOT?
The opening credits of AOT Season 2 show two species of dinosaur: T-rex and Spinosaurus. While there are no dinosaurs in the actual anime/manga, these 2 Jurassic beasts are representative of Zeke’s Beast Titan predecessors.
Other recognizable fauna apart from the two dinosaurs and the current/Zeke’s ape Beast Titan, include: an elephant, two huge flying whales, a crocodile, a hippo, a giraffe, a camel, a zebra, a stingray, and an ostrich/emu.
In the Season 3 opening of AOT, we again see a bunch of dinosaurs fighting each other. Isayama clearly was inspired by Jurassic Park 3, since the T-rex mauling the other dinosaur is a direct reference to the movie.
It also shows how long the Titans have been around, how fighting and preying have always been a part of the life cycle.
Why do Titans Eat People and not Animals in AOT?
In Attack on Titan, Titans eat humans because of their desire to regain their humanity. Pure Titans are man-eaters despite the fact that they don’t have a digestive track and don’t need food to survive.
In Season 3, it is revealed that Titans can become human again if they consume the spinal fluid of a Titan Shifter.
Titans are already animalistic; they do not need to consume animals to acquire their properties. But because of their subconscious urge to become human, they prey on humans, to presumably suck their spinal fluid in the hope that the person is Shifter.
The desire to revert to their original state is instinctual and present in all mindless Titans. They often spit out the carcass once they’re done, because they have no use for human flesh.
Conclusion
In the opening sequences, all the creatures have red glowing dots in the center of their chests. Humans and animals alike are shown to have the same life energy, the same heart. They can both be good and both be evil.
This comes back to the intertwining thematic play of the series, that humans have an animalistic consciousness while Titans are capable of humanity.
The fact that humans can turn into Titans (Titan shape shifters) and Titans can become human, only strengthens this theme.
About Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. Kodansha publishes it in the Bessatsu Shonen Magazine.
The manga began serialization on September 9th, 2009, and ended on April 9, 2021. It has been compiled into 34 volumes.
Attack on Titan follows humanity settled within three concentric walls to protect themselves from the terrifying titans that prey on them. Eren Yeager is a young boy that believes that a caged life is similar to that of cattle and aspires to go beyond the walls one day, just like his heroes, the Survey Corps. The emergence of a deadly Titan unleashes chaos.
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