is a 2015 Japanese
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...
action film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
based on the
manga of the same name created by
Hajime Isayama
is a Japanese manga artist. His first series, ''Attack on Titan'' (2009–2021), became one of the best-selling manga series of all time with 140 million copies in circulation as of November 2023. He was awarded the Kodansha Manga Award in 201 ...
. The film is directed by
Shinji Higuchi
is a Japanese filmmaker. Known for his ''tokusatsu'' blockbusters, Higuchi is considered one of Japan's leading filmmakers of the 21st century.
Higuchi became known for his work on '' Gamera: Guardian of the Universe'', for which he won the Spe ...
, written by Yūsuke Watanabe and Tomohiro Machiyama and stars
Haruma Miura
was a Japanese actor and singer. He made his acting debut in the television drama ''Agri'' (1997) and rose to popularity after starring in the film ''Koizora'' (2007), winning Newcomer of the Year at the 31st Japan Academy Prize. In the follo ...
,
Hiroki Hasegawa
, nicknamed , (born March 7, 1977, in Tokyo) is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. Trained as a stage actor at the Bungaku-za after graduating from Chuo University, he first began to appear on Japanese TV in small roles in 2008, and t ...
,
Kiko Mizuhara
Audrie Kiko Daniel (born October 15, 1990), known professionally as , is an American-born Japanese model, actress, singer and designer.
Kiko Mizuhara started her modeling career at the age of twelve when she entered an audition contest for '' Se ...
,
Kanata Hongō
is a Japanese actor. He is part of Stardust Promotion and has appeared several times in music videos, movies, TV series, and magazines. His major breakthrough role was as Ryoma Echizen in the live-action film adaptation of ''The Prince of T ...
, Takahiro Miura,
Nanami Sakuraba
, is a Japanese gravure idol and actress who won "Miss Magazine 2008". In November 2024, she announced her departure from her agency ''Sweet Power'' and that she would continue her career under her real name.
Personal life
Sakuraba is the midd ...
,
Satoru Matsuo,
Shu Watanabe,
Ayame Misaki,
Rina Takeda
is a Japanese actress, singer and martial artist. she is best known for playing Kei Tsuchiya in High Kick Girl! she hold her black belt in Ryukyu Shōrin-ryū Karate.
Life and career
Takeda was born on June 15, 1991, in Kanagawa Prefecture. She ...
,
Satomi Ishihara
, better known by her stage name , is a Japanese actress.
Early life and career
Ishihara was born Kuniko Ishigami, on December 24, 1986 in Tokyo, Japan. The origin of her stage name comes from the reverse of her surname "Ishihara" ("raw ston ...
,
Pierre Taki
, better known by his stage name , is the front man for Japanese synthpop group Denki Groove, which consists of himself and Takkyu Ishino. As of 2001 he was involved in an exhibit called Prince Tongha with Hideyuki Tanaka (graphic designer), Hide ...
and
Jun Kunimura
is a Japanese actor who has performed in Cinema of Japan, Japan, the Cinema of the United States, United States, and Cinema of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He won Best Supporting Actor and the Popular Star Award at the 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards for ...
.
In the film,
Eren Jaeger and his childhood friends
Mikasa Ackerman and
Armin Arlert join the Survey Corps, a military corporation to fight gigantic humanoids called the Titans after their hometown is attacked by a
Colossal Titan. The film is split into two parts, with the first part released in Japan on 1 August 2015 and the second part (subtitled ''End of the World'') released on 19 September that year.
The film received mixed to somewhat negative reviews from critics, who praised the Titans designs and the B-movie style, but criticized the script and deviations from the source material.
Plot
Part 1
One hundred years ago, the Titans appeared and decimated most of humanity. To stop their advance, humanity built a series of walls and continued to live in peace. In the present day village of Monzen, Eren expresses to his friends, Armin and Mikasa, his desire to leave the confines of the Outer Wall and see the outside world. After a failed attempt to approach the wall, Souda, the captain of the Garrison, explains to them that the military is assembling a scouting regiment to explore beyond the walls. However, the wall is suddenly attacked by the Colossal Titan. The wall is breached and Titans enter the village, eating people and regenerating when injured. When Mikasa tries to rescue a baby, she is separated from Eren, and is presumed killed.
Two years later, Eren and Armin enter the Scout Regiment, along with Sasha, Jean, and others. The team, led by Military Police Commander Kubal, move out into one of the towns of the Outer Wall. The group is then attacked by Titans but are saved by Captain Shikishima and Mikasa, who survived the attack from two years ago and is now part of the Scouts. Mikasa refuses to talk to Eren, acting like he is a stranger for no reason. Eren eventually confronts Mikasa and she reveals to him that the experience made her realize the world is cruel. After realizing that Mikasa and Shikishima are most likely together, Eren is once again devastated.
When more Titans surprise them, Kubal retreats, leaving the Scouts to fend for themselves. Lil, who had just lost her lover, sacrifices herself. Jean attempts to convince Eren to flee, but Eren chooses to fight back before losing his arm in the process. Eren manages to save Armin from being eaten but at the cost of his own life. Though crushed by Eren's death, Mikasa fights until she runs low on fuel and comes face-to-face with the same Titan that ate Eren. However, a Titan emerges from within it and begins battling the other Titans. Souda and Mikasa realize that the Titan is Eren. After he starts to collapse, Mikasa frees Eren from his Titan shell.
Part 2
Years before, a young Eren is forcibly injected with an experimental serum by his father, but soon after Eren's mother discovers this, a military police squad break in, taking Eren's parents and burning the place. Eren survives with the help of Souda. In the present, Eren is captured by Kubal and his squadron, believing he is a threat to humanity. Mikasa does nothing to defend him. Armin and Souda try to persuade Kubal to spare Eren's life, but Souda is killed. Before Eren is executed, a Titan busts in, killing Kubal and his squadron, takes Eren, but spares Mikasa and her comrades.
Eren awakens in a mysterious bunker with Shikishima, who reveals the origins of the Titans as a military experiment gone wrong that soon developed into a virus that turned people into Titans and decimated humanity. Shikishima plans to launch a coup against the corrupted government who has been oppressing its people with the walls and with fear of the Titans. Eren learns that Shikishima has stockpiled some of the pre-Titan War weapons, and agrees to help.
Hange, Mikasa and the others retrieve an undetonated bomb in Eren's hometown with the hopes of using it to seal the outer wall. They encounter Shikishima's troops and reunite with Eren. However, Shikishima attempts to recruit them into his coup, revealing that he plans to use the dud bomb not to seal the wall but to blow up the capital and let the Titans overtake everything, freeing humanity. Realizing that more innocent lives would be shed, Eren stands against Shikishima. As they fight, Sannagi sacrifices himself to bring down a nearby tower that falls on the weapon stockpile, blowing it up while the others escape with the bomb. However, Shikishima reappears on the truck and stabs himself revealing himself to be the Titan that took Eren earlier. The gang attack Shikishima, who smashes Eren into a wall, but Eren transforms into his Titan form and defeats Shikishima. Titan Eren climbs the wall and plants the bomb, reverting to his human form while Armin sets the fuse.
Having survived the earlier attack, Kubal wants the group to give up Eren and return to the interior, but they refuse. Kubal shoots Armin, but is shot by Sasha and falls, transforming into the Colossal Titan which actually breached the outer wall in part 1. Mikasa and Jean try to jump on the Colossal Titan's back. The bomb does not go off, so Mikasa tries to get the bomb fuse working again, but is confronted by Shikishima. Eren tries to break into Colossal Titan's nape but is knocked down. Shikishima sacrifices himself by transforming into a Titan and lodging the bomb into the Colossal Titan's mouth. The detonation successfully closes the hole in the wall and Eren and Mikasa stand at the top of the wall overlooking the ocean.
In a
post-credits scene
A post-credits scene (also known as a stinger, end tag, or credit cookie) is a short teaser clip that appears after the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV show, or video game has run. It is usually ...
, footage of the battle with the Colossal Titan is analyzed, in Shikishima's bunker, by an off-screen character, who says that Eren and Mikasa's unpredictability is what makes them "fascinating".
Cast
Some characters that were featured in the original manga and anime were dropped due to the film's setting having been changed one primarily influenced by Germany to an obvious analogue to Japan. The character voices for the Funimation English dub are the same as those in the anime.
Production
Development
The film was announced in October 2011, with a planned release date in 2013 and in December of the same year it was announced that it would be a
live action
Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...
film and that
Tetsuya Nakashima
Tetsuya Nakashima (中島哲也) (born 1959) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter.
He was born in Fukuoka, attending high school in Chikushino. His 2010 film '' Confessions'' was awarded Best Picture at the Japanese Academy Awards, whe ...
would direct. In December 2012 it was announced that Nakashima had left as director because of creative differences. Originally, the filmmakers wanted to make the film very faithful to the source material, but author
Hajime Isayama
is a Japanese manga artist. His first series, ''Attack on Titan'' (2009–2021), became one of the best-selling manga series of all time with 140 million copies in circulation as of November 2023. He was awarded the Kodansha Manga Award in 201 ...
suggested numerous changes (such as introducing new and different characters, and changing the setting to Japan) to make the films standalone, because "the story has already been told", while also introducing new elements that would later be used in the manga.
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
was expected to start in 2014 and the film was now expected to be released in 2015. A car commercial featuring the
Titans
In Greek mythology, the Titans ( ; ) were the pre-Twelve Olympians, Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). The six male ...
and directed by Higuchi was also announced and broadcast in January 2014 on
Nippon TV
JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...
, reaching more than 5 million views on YouTube in four days.
Haruma Miura
was a Japanese actor and singer. He made his acting debut in the television drama ''Agri'' (1997) and rose to popularity after starring in the film ''Koizora'' (2007), winning Newcomer of the Year at the 31st Japan Academy Prize. In the follo ...
was revealed as part of the cast in April and in July it was announced that there would be two films. The first images of the actors in character were revealed in November.
Music
Shirō Sagisu
is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer. With a career spanning over 40 years (beginning in the late 1970s), he is best known for his works as a record producer for acts including various choir members Mike Wyzgowski, Misia, Satosh ...
composed and scored an original motion-picture soundtrack, which compiled into one whole soundtrack. The
theme song
Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...
s of the films are "Anti-Hero" and "SOS", respectively, both performed by
Sekai no Owari
Sekai no Owari (literally translated, "End of the World"; stylized in all caps) is a Japanese Pop music, pop band from Tokyo. The band was formed in 2005 and has four members: Nakajin, Fukase, Saori, and DJ Love.
Since their debut, they have ...
. The film's soundtrack goes under the name "''Attack on Titan (Shinji Higuchi's Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)''".
Release
The first film was released in Japan on 1 August 2015. It was released by
Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising ...
in Australia and New Zealand on 27 August 2015.
Funimation Entertainment
Crunchyroll, LLC is an American entertainment company based in Coppell, Texas. It currently operates the anime-focused eponymous over-the-top subscription video on-demand streaming service.
The company was founded as Funimation in May 1 ...
has licensed the rights for both films in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
,
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
, and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
and hosted the world premiere of the first film on 14 July at
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, also known as Egyptian Hollywood and the Egyptian, is a historic movie theater located on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1922, it is an early example of a lavish movie palace ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. Director
Shinji Higuchi
is a Japanese filmmaker. Known for his ''tokusatsu'' blockbusters, Higuchi is considered one of Japan's leading filmmakers of the 21st century.
Higuchi became known for his work on '' Gamera: Guardian of the Universe'', for which he won the Spe ...
and stars
Haruma Miura
was a Japanese actor and singer. He made his acting debut in the television drama ''Agri'' (1997) and rose to popularity after starring in the film ''Koizora'' (2007), winning Newcomer of the Year at the 31st Japan Academy Prize. In the follo ...
and
Kiko Mizuhara
Audrie Kiko Daniel (born October 15, 1990), known professionally as , is an American-born Japanese model, actress, singer and designer.
Kiko Mizuhara started her modeling career at the age of twelve when she entered an audition contest for '' Se ...
attended the red carpet premiere. Funimation had announced its screening dates for the films. ''Attack on Titan: Part 1'' screened in a limited engagement beginning on 30 September 2015 and ''Attack on Titan: Part 2'' screened three weeks later on 20 October 2015. The second part, entitled ''End of the World'', was released on 19 September 2015.
It was released on 1–7 October for Australia and New Zealand. The second film did poorly at the Japanese box office, relative to the first part - the first film made $4.8 million in its opening week at the Japanese box office, and the second did $2.7 million.
For its DVD and Blu-ray release in the United States, which included English dubs of both films, Part 1 was released on 4 October 2016 and Part 2 released on 6 December 2016.
Novelization
A novelizations of the films called ''Attack on Titan: End of the World'', written by Touji Asakura was released in Japan on 23 September 2015, and in the United States on 22 November 2016.
Marketing
A
teaser trailer
A teaser trailer, also shortened to teaser, is a short trailer (promotion), trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release film or television show advertisement. Sh ...
was released in March 2015 and a trailer was released in April. Another trailer was released in June, which revealed that the film will be given an
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
release in Japan and internationally.
Reception
Box office
''Part I'' was
number-one on its opening weekend, with .
It was the seventh highest-grossing Japanese made film at the Japanese box office in 2015, with (). and the 17th highest-grossing film at the Japanese box office for that year. ''Part II'' underperformed at the box-office, having grossed ¥2.1 billion less than the total gross of the first film within first three weeks of release.
Combined, the films have grossed ¥4.93 billion ($46 million).
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, 47% of critics have given ''Attack on Titan: Part 1'' a positive review based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. 50% of critics have given ''Part 2'' a positive review based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.
Lee Edmund of ''
South China Morning Post
The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...
'' wrote, "One of the most perversely original fantasy movies in recent memory, this adaptation of a Japanese manga series is a schizophrenic mix of genres."
Hope Chapman of ''
Anime News Network
Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...
'' praised the film, stating, "Outstanding and immersive aesthetic unlike any other horror movie, swiftly paced and gripping start to finish, sharp script with heavy thematic undertones, holds up completely as its own work of art divorced from the source material." Derek Elley of ''
Film Business Asia
''Film Business Asia'' was a film trade magazine based in Hong Kong. The magazine was created in 2010 by Patrick Frater, former journalist for '' Variety'', ''The Hollywood Reporter'', and ''Screen International'' and Stephen Cremin, co-founder o ...
'' gave it a 7 out of 10 rating and called it "a trash-horror fantasy that's a big-budget B picture."
Other critics gave more mixed reviews to the film. Piera Chen of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called the film "a visually refreshing blockbuster", noting that the character work film was, "undermined by hackneyed characterizations". ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' writer Chris Michael was also mixed on the film, calling the acting, "self-conscious and dreadful", but praising the effects and the B-movie feel of the production.
In a more negative review, Brian Ashcraft of ''Kotaku'' criticized the film for its changes from the anime, which he felt made the film worse, and described the opening scenes as "painfully melodramatic, badly acted, and wrought with corny dialogue".
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
writer Miranda Sanchez also gave the film a negative review, calling it, "a lesser version of the existing story", and criticizing the simplification of key characters.
Response from the creators
SFX artist Yoshihiro Nishimura and director Shinji Higuchi responded to some critics, with Nishimura responding to unfavourable comparisons of the film's special effects with Hollywood's standards thus: "I'm sorry, but deciding what movies to see based on their budget, and comparing everything to Hollywood, that's like how some people feel secure buying Okame natto when they go to the supermarket". Higuchi referenced one critic of the film's characters, saying "who's the idiot who gave this guy an early release of the film?!"
Technical difficulties
''Attack on Titan: Part 1'' received criticism from San Francisco, Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, and Wisconsin theater attendees due to a subtitle ("I've been waiting for this day!") freezing in the first ten minutes of the film and continued to stay frozen for a majority of the film due to a software problem. As a consequence, Funimation announced that they would
hardsub
Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, captions ...
Part 2 and all future releases. However, others have reported the subtitles working properly in other theaters. Funimation has reported that fewer than 2% of theaters have been affected by the freeze.
Russia bans
In July 2021, the Oktyabrsky District Court in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
banned the film along with some ''
Happy Tree Friends
''Happy Tree Friends'' (commonly abbreviated as ''HTF'') is an adult animated web series created by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, and Kenn Navarro, and developed by Montijo, Navarro, and Warren Graff for Mondo Media. Disguised as a childr ...
'', ''
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge'', based on
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
, claiming that the film "can harm children’s mental health and spiritual and moral development."
Remake
In January 2017, it was reported that
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
was in negotiations to secure the film rights to the ''Attack on Titan'' franchise.
''Harry Potter'' film series producer
David Heyman would be on board to produce a proposed two-film project that would remake the 2015 Japanese live-action film adaptations. However, the following day, a Kodansha representative denied this report, but said there were other projects in negotiations. In October of the same year, Warner Bros. finalized a deal with
Kodansha
is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...
. It was announced that
Andy Muschietti
Andrés Walter Muschietti (; born 26 August 1973) is an Argentine film director and screenwriter who had his breakthrough with the 2013 film ''Mama (2013 film), Mama''. He gained further recognition for directing both films in the It (novel), '' ...
will direct the ''Attack on Titan'' live action remake, along with Heyman,
Masi Oka
is a Japanese actor, producer, and digital effects artist who became widely known for starring in NBC's '' Heroes'' as Hiro Nakamura, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, ...
, and
Barbara Muschietti (the director's sister) to produce. However, in November 2023, Muschietti left the project due to scheduling conflicts.
Other media
Actor
Satoru Matsuo's experience as a cast member in the film was depicted in the 2022 biographical television series ''Lost Man Found'', where he was portrayed by David Chen.
Notes
References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Attack On Titan
Film
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
2015 films
2010s Japanese-language films
2015 horror films
2015 fantasy films
Japanese post-apocalyptic films
2010s Japanese films
Films scored by Shirō Sagisu
Japanese fantasy action films
Japanese action horror films
Apocalyptic films
Japanese dark fantasy films
Live-action films based on manga
Films directed by Shinji Higuchi
Films produced by Minami Ichikawa
IMAX films
Funimation
Toho films
Giant monster films
Kaiju films
Films released in separate parts
Films about giants
Works banned in Russia
ja:進撃の巨人#実写映画