‘Attack on Titan’ has finally returned (shingeki no kyojin‘), although the joy has lasted for a short time and longer because the new chapter of the anime has been absolutely brutal and devastating.
‘Shingeki no Kyojin’ has never been a particularly light-hearted anime and has always been full of drama and heart-wrenching moments, but things have gotten even murkier since the lengthy Final Season began.
The hardest change has undoubtedly been to see how Eren jaeger he went from being a determined and charismatic leading man to the outright villain of the series, with completely different factions coming together to try to stop him. All this evolution has made him a fascinating and nuanced character, and if you want to know more details about how Eren came to be Eren, here are some curiosities that you might not know.
The importance of your name
Many manga creators think very carefully about the names of their characters, and hajime isayama It was no less with several of the protagonists of ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’. In the case of eren, his name is of Turkish origin and comes to mean something like “one who progresses towards divine maturity and sacred wisdom”. Considering that for Jaegerists Eren becomes a holy figure, the meaning ended up hitting him quite a bit.
It also resembles the German word Ehre, which in the plural is written “ehren” and what does honor mean. His last name Jaeger It comes from the German Jäger, which means hunter, and it is also doing well in the first arcs of the series.
Many casualties to his name
Eren is a lethal character, and of the graduates of the 104 Training Corps, he is the one who can boast of having killed the most Titans. Of course, only in his titan form, because he has more power than anyone to destroy, in his human form he has only managed to kill a titan.
The rival that resists him
Although as a Titan Eren has superhuman strength and power, he still there is one thing that resists him: defeating Jean Kirstein to a pulse. In the ‘Attack on Titan Character Encyclopedia’, Isayama revealed how a hand-to-hand competition between the group of 104 would take place, and Eren and Jean would end up tied with neither having an advantage.
modeled with care
Isayama has already cast references to the world of cinema and television more than once in ‘shingeki no kyojin‘, and also to the world of wrestling and mixed martial arts. In Eren’s case, his appearance as an Attack Titan is inspired by two fighters.
Your references were Yūshin Okami and Takanori Gomi, both mixed martial arts fighters. They may not physically remind us so much of Eren, but apparently Gomi inspired the Attack Titan’s combat style.
Lost in translation
Eren hates Titans (ironically, to himself), and his hatred for these creatures is his fuel for the first part of the story. In Japanese this hatred is even more palpable by the way he refers to them, using the suffix -hiki, which is used for small animals.
Due to the massive size of Titans, you should use the -tai suffix for larger animals, but it’s another way of showing your contempt for them.
The physical change was not haphazard
In the first seasons of ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’, Eren has a very characteristic short haircut, but already closing the third season we see that he begins to leave it long little by little. Being aware of the future with his Attack Titan powers plunges him into a terrible depression, so when he reappears in the fourth posing as a wounded soldier, he already has a long mane of hair and according to Isayama this physical change reflects his inner conflict.
“He’s in a state where he no longer pays attention to how people see him, so he lets it grow,” the mangaka explained in an interview. “Since he’s supposed to be a hospitalized patient [cuando se infiltra en Marley]I should have had a cleaner haircut.”
the palettes dance
Speaking of hair, if you’re “anime only” you might think of Eren’s hair as brown, although in the manga is completely black. In the ‘Attack on Titan Character Encyclopedia’, Isayama explained that he gave Eren that hair color because he is a character with a lot of energy and it was much easier to draw kinetic and movement lines on characters with black hair.
In the case of Eren’s eyes, in the manga they are bluish-grey, while in the manga they are a much more intense bluish-green to reflect his emotions more intensely. In the manga she directly parodies they are gold in color, so the colors dance a bit depending on which medium we move in. What does not usually change is that Eren always shares eye color with his father, Grisha.
Skipping the archetype
Isayama didn’t want Eren to be a normal hero. In many manga, the powers of the protagonists are given by their family heritage and their blood, but Isayama wanted to leave the fated hero archetype behind..
Yes it is true that Eren’s Eldian blood is very important to the plot, but he also gets his Titan powers almost by “accident”. His family has a big impact on his fate as a character, so maybe Isayama didn’t dodge it entirely.
surprise star
Although he is the protagonist of the series, Isayama did not expect that readers and viewers would appreciate him so much, much less that he would be one of the most popular characters.. For the mangaka, Eren was not so much a character, but a means to tell the story he wanted.
“Eren is someone who exists because of the story itself, so making him ‘alive’ is very difficult. In other words, he’s a slave to the story,” Isayama said. “I personally feel like I didn’t take him very strongly, but his popularity reflects something else.”
In fact, Eren usually finishes second always in the popularity polls…but only because it’s impossible to top Levi Ackerman.
adding titans
Eren has ended up becoming a very powerful character, and possibly the most dangerous in the series. And now he himself can also boast of being the character with the power of the most titans.
Eren’s current form is known as the Final Titan, but in reality Eren currently possesses the powers of three different Titans: the Attack Titan, the Founding Titan, and the Warhammer Titan.
Thanks to the powers of the Attack Titan, Eren has great strength and speed and can access the memories of all his past and future wielders. With the Founding Titan he is able to control the rest of the Titans, which he has used to awaken the Rumble of the Titans on the walls, and can also turn Ymir’s minions into pure Titans.
With the Warhammer Titan, he can turn his flesh into all sorts of weapons, among other things… So go ahead, better not run into him on a bad day.