Attack on Titan

Attack on Titan centers on a civilization within three circular walls. According to local belief, it is the last surviving vestige of human civilization. Its inhabitants, known as Eldians, have been led to believe that, over one hundred years ago, humanity was driven to the brink of extinction by the emergence of humanoid giants called Titans, which attack and eat humans on sight. The last remnants of humanity retreated behind three concentric walls and enjoyed roughly a century of peace.

Within the walls, residents are strongly discouraged from venturing outside. To combat Titans, the country's military employs Vertical Maneuvering Equipment (VME), also known as Omni-Directional Maneuvering Gear (ODM gear), a set of waist-mounted grappling hooks and gas-powered propulsion that enables mobility in three dimensions. Swords made of ultrahard steel are used in conjunction with the gear, and later, rocket launcher–like weapons known as Thunder Spears are developed by commander Hange Zoë.

Hajime Isayama created a 65-page one-shot version of Attack on Titan in 2006. Originally, he offered his work to the Weekly Shōnen Jump department at Shueisha, where the editor of the department asked him to modify a few details in the story and artwork, which Isayama refused. He then brought the manga to the Weekly Shōnen Magazine department at Kodansha. Before serialization began in 2009, he had already thought of ideas for plot twists, although they were fleshed out as the series progressed.

Isayama initially based the scenery in the manga on that of his hometown of Hita, Ōita, which is surrounded by mountains. While working at an internet cafe, Isayama encountered a drunken customer who grabbed him by the collar. It was this incident that showed him "the fear of meeting a person I can't communicate with", which is the feeling that he conveys through the Titans. When designing the appearances of the Titans, he used several models such as martial artist Yushin Okami for Eren Yeager's Titan form, as well as Brock Lesnar for the Armored Titan.

The manga's publisher, Kodansha, credits Attack on Titan for the company's first revenue increase in eighteen years. The Attack on Titan anime adaptation is noted to have helped in boosting the manga series' sales while Mainichi Shimbun called it a "once-in-a-decade hit". In April 2014, Oricon reported that 30 million volumes of the series have been sold. By November 2014, the manga had 45 million copies in print.

By November 2018, the manga had over 86 million copies in circulation worldwide. By December 2019, the number had increased to 100 million. By September 2022, the manga had over 110 million copies in circulation. By September 2023, it had over 120 million copies in circulation.