‘Attack on Titan’ Director Teases Eren’s Season 3 Arc

Attack on Titan is coming back with a bang for its third season as the focus shifts from fighting the Titans, to fighting a human threat. The change in enemy is certainly going to change much in the series, including having a big effect on Eren Yeager.

In the July 2018 issue of Animage (as translated by SNK News), directors Araki Tetsuro and Koizuka Masashi talked about the third season’s changes from the second season. But Araki went one stepped further as he talked about one moment in particular he wanted to explore with Eren:

“In the source material, there is a sequence I’m personally anticipating the creation of. It’s when Eren struggles with his own “inferiority.” That portrayal of raw human anguish exceeds the emotions typically seen in shounen manga.”

Araki elaborated on this difference from Shonen manga, as Eren is beginning to develop in ways that distinguishes him from other main characters of these types of stories, “I myself feel that the Eren who endures this inner conflict is more appealing than the one who screams, “I’ll eliminate all the Titans!” When I initially read that part in the manga, my appreciation for Eren increased tenfold.”

Just as fans of the manga had thought, this darker shift of the third season will also put Eren in a bigger shift than ever before. Eren has been slowly changing through the series, but it seems that the third season will feature his most dramatic shift in character yet.

Attack on Titan is scheduled to premiere its third season on July 22 on NHK in Japan, and will run for 24 episodes. If you’re itching for more info about the third season of the series, it has also revealed the cast and crew for the upcoming season as well which includes many returning characters as well as some new faces. The director, who worked on Attack on Titan‘s first two seasons, told fans earlier this year they had a lot to look forward to with Season 3:

“We really enjoyed making the anime and felt it turned out well in the end. Although the anime takes a break here, we’re still working on it. We will put our best efforts into making Season Three,” Araki told fans during an in-studio interview. “Will the person wearing glasses at the end of season 2 play a part in season 3? Will everyone be able to survive? Will somebody die? It’s hard to know. Look forward to the next season. We’re still having fun making Attack on Titan.”

For those unfamiliar with Attack on Titan, the series was originally created by Hajime Isayama. Starting its run in Kondansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009, the series has been collected into 23 volumes as of 2017. It’s set in a world where the last remnants of humanity live within a walled city in order to escape the danger of the Titans, a race of giants monsters that eats humans. Eren Yeager joins the military with his two childhood friends Mikasa and Armin after the Titans break through the wall and attack his hometown.