Attack on Titan, Attack on Hiroshima/Nagasaki

Good afternoon everyone!


For this blogpost, I wanted to bring it back a couple weeks ago to the discussions of using Barefoot Gen and Gojira as a medium for telling the story of the bombings.

For Memorial Weekend, I attended a convention called Fanime in where hundreds of people enjoy the experience of cosplaying (wearing costumes), watching panels, and enjoying anything and everything Anime related. I do not consider myself an anime fanatic as other people and I only enjoy the mainstream products. However, I was treated to the hype of an anime/manga called Attack on Titan. Many individuals cosplayed as "titans" and the defenders of the city and I was seriously confused since I never heard of this anime before.

Fortunately, the convention was day and night and had the opportunity to watch a couple episodes. While I was watching, I couldn't help but see a ton of parallels regarding the bombings Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The main plot of the story features these "titans" that are huge human-looking monsters than eat people for no apparent reason. The city builds walls within walls (shout out to the Parable) to protect the people: the rich, important individuals inside with the military on the outside to fight of the titans. The back story parallels Gen's story as the main character Eren had to watch his mother (top left) get eaten by a titan in the same morbid manner as Gen (top right) watched his family be burned alive.

You can see the idea of helplessness as many people knew they were fighting a futile battle. The titans just keep on coming. They have the power to regenerate from wounds and are difficult to defeat. One scene in particular struck me as it reminded me of Gojira. The idea of perspective is seen here as two huge monsters are peering over what is about to be destroyed.

 As both Gojira and Attack on Titan parallel WWII and the atomic bomb, it is amazing to see this culture extend to a convention that celebrates these topics. Manga and anime have gotten a lot of popularity and my mindset for this class has extended even during this weekend break.

Thank you all for reading and enjoy the picture of me cosplaying as Brick from Borderlands. ^_^