‘Attack on Titan’ Screenwriter Explains Season 3 Changes

Attack on Titan‘s third season started off with a bang as fans noticed how much the third season had changed from Hajime Isayama’s original manga story. Although it’s been mentioned a little before, the screenwriter for the anime recently cleared up why the changes were made.

In an interview with PASH! Magazine in Japan (as translated by SNK News), screenwriter Yasuko Kobayashi elaborates on why the series sets the Uprising arc of the series in a much more explosive way than in the original.

As the team wanted include “a certain amount of action scenes” in the season premiere to set a tone for the rest of the season, it was actually original creator Hajime Isayama who suggested moving events around to give the anime a clearer narrative, “Isayama-sensei suggested, ‘If you can change things around significantly, that would actually be good.’ Isayama-sensei felt that during the original release, readers did not react very positively to the developments.”

Noting that Isayama was “passionate” about the changing the first half of the Uprising arc, Kobayashi mentions the “first episode’s presentation was completely produced in accordance with Isayama-sensei’s wishes. The timeline, setting, and contents were all courageously reshaped.”

The third season of the anime focused on a military coup de etat but the manga’s version of the arc has an “uprising” of the entire human society. The will of the society helped pushed the royalty out, but the anime missed out on a few of these elements. Kobyashi explains that these were sadly cut in order to deliver a more concise narrative. Kobayashi even mentions how they worked around some of the elements in order to deliver on one more duel between Levi and Kenny that the season started off with.

While fans of the manga noted how many changes the third season made to the original manga so far, there has been an overwhelming support for the anime series. It’s not surprising given that the changes were made with the creator’s permission and passion. With the third season coming back next year, fans will be waiting to see what changes are made next.

Attack on Titan was originally created by Hajime Isayama, and the series has since 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. The lead character, Eren Yeager, ends up joining the military with his two childhood friends Mikasa and Armin after the Titans break through the wall and attack his hometown.

Now Eren, Mikasa, and Armin must survive in a world where they not only have the Titans to fear, but the very humans they are trying to save. You can currently find the series streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Saturday nights on Adult Swim’s Toonami block. The series has also been confirmed for a live-action adaptation produced by Warner Bros. and directed by IT director Andy Muschietti.

via SNK News