Attack on Titan and Game of Thrones have some similarities. Both portray a dark, cruel world and are (or were) beloved in their respective genres. The final season of Game of Thrones was a cultural and global phenomenon. It was also a massive disappointment. It ended up being more about subverting expectations than about following through on what had already been established, especially from the content from the books. Despite this, people were on the edge of their seats, waiting for each episode to drop every Sunday (ironically, Attack on Titan: The Final Season also airs on Sundays.) This is not dissimilar to Attack on Titan: The Final Season. The one difference about Attack on Titan though is that fans have had to wait years in-between seasons. Season One ran in 2013, Season Two ran in 2017, which is a ridiculously long wait. Worse yet, Season Two only had 12 episodes. Season Three ran in 2018 and 2019 and was split up between two cours, and finally, The Final Season started airing in December 2020. All of this is due to the fact that the manga was ongoing, and the anime caught up to it rather quickly, so they had to wait in order to be faithful to the source material. Game of Thrones ran for eight years, without long breaks, but the elapsed amount of time is comparable between the two, as Attack on Titan has been around for eight-to-nine years. They both are based on renowned pieces of literature (though technically Attack on Titan is a manga.) The key difference here is that Attack on Titan has the pleasure of having a fully finished story, as the manga ends in April. Attack on Titan is a masterful piece of work, constantly subverting expectations, but in a good way. The parallels between the two pieces of work are undeniable, but it is Attack on Titan that is a larger cultural and global phenomenon than Game of Thrones.
While it used to be niche, anime has slowly grown into the mainstream thanks to streaming services such as Crunchyroll. These services make anime available in the West that normally wouldn’t be available, and they are simulcast, effectively killing pirating anime, which used to be the only way you could get certain shows. Attack on Titan began as a show about humanity fighting for survival against Titans, who eat people. The series has long since become something much, much broader than that; in fact, that was always the plan. Clues are spread throughout the series that point to this very fact. Its ability to evolve is what has continued to make it the most popular anime of all-time. Even people who typically don’t watch anime or read manga, such as our Executive Editor Paul Lopez, have become entranced by the series. Game of Thrones was unable to evolve beyond the source material. It also had an issue of not being suitable for younger audiences and a lack of appeal beyond Western markets. Attack on Titan is not only available in the West, it’s incredibly popular. It has a universal appeal that Game of Thrones lacked.
Attack on Titan’s final season is the most highly anticipated season of anime of all-time. The same can’t necessarily be said of Game of Thrones; the quality was already dipping once it began to branch from the novels. The same cannot be said of Attack on Titan. On IMDB, a Western site, three of the top four episodes of television of all-time are from Attack on Titan season three and The Final Season. Two of the episodes are from the latter part of season three, the other being the most recent episode of The Final Season. Attack on Titan is peaking as it heads into its final episodes, while Game of Thrones was already in a free-fall, going downhill rapidly, during its final season.
While there’s no doubt that Game of Thrones’ final season was one of the most significant television events of our lifetime, it wasn’t necessarily that good of a television series. Everything was smoke and mirrors and it strayed too far from the source material, even in early seasons. Attack on Titan is the exact opposite of that. The creator, Hajime Isayama, is actually highly involved in the anime and has directed some changes from his original work. If anything, the anime could be said to be an improvement over the source material. Not only that, it has been faithful since the very beginning. There is no filler. Given the high quality of the series, its faithfulness to the original work, and its worldwide appeal, there’s no doubt that it’s a global phenomenon, as well as a cultural one. The media may not cover it as heavily, but it’s a much larger and significant phenomenon than Game of Thrones, and one we may never see again in our lifetime.
If you haven’t gotten into Attack on Titan, now is the perfect time. We’re witnessing one of the most significant moments in entertainment history, and to be apart of that is a very special thing. With the manga wrapping up in April with three chapters left and the final season currently airing, this is the time to begin your journey into another world. Our Executive Editor, Paul, who just started reading the manga, can attest to this.
