Attack on Titan Fans and Why We Don’t Deserve Studio MAPPA

 Attack on Titan Fans and Why We Don’t Deserve Studio MAPPA

Hey! My name is Carsian. I am an animator and electronic music producer, currently developing a large audio-visual body of work called The Dolphin Era, working with fellow artists in a collaborative environment we named The Reefside Art Team. Developing The Dolphin Era has taught me a number of creative skills including traditional animation, 3D Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI), audio-visual sync, and visual storytelling. 

Achieving the look I want for the Era’s music videos requires me to study and apply the animation techniques and standards used by Japanese anime studios, as well as absorb some of their workflows into my own processes. As such, I’ve needed to pay close attention to these different shows and movies, and how they use these techniques to solidify their own artistic identities. One of these shows is the massively popular anime, Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). While Attack on Titan could not be more different from The Dolphin Era thematically, I have learned a lot from the animation techniques employed, and as such am able to critique changes in said animation techniques. 

Today, I thought it would be fun to discuss a topic that has been on the minds of all Attack on Titan viewers ever since the fourth and final season of the show was announced. There has been recent clamor regarding the series’ change in studios, and the way the new studio has been developing the fourth season. Let’s take a dive into why this is the case and analyze the way this change has been received by the fanbase.

PART I - SYNOPSIS NO KYOJIN

But first, for those unaware, what is Attack on Titan all about? Don’t worry, this entire post is completely spoiler-free. 

Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama that began publication in 2010. As of December 2019, the manga has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, making it a critical and commercial smashing success. The final chapter of the manga is slated to release on April 9, 2021, much to the anticipation of readers worldwide. In 2013, an anime adaptation of the show was released, developed by Wit Studio. The show gained international popularity, spreading like Australian bushfire and captivating audiences worldwide with its dark and gritty atmosphere, airtight plot, fantastic music, and well-written characters. Young, 12-year-old me was among those who found a fiery passion for the bombastic series, never looking at animated media the same way again.

Attack on Titan tells the story of a young boy named Eren Jaeger, who lives in a city surrounded by several massive walls in order to protect the last remnant of humanity from gigantic, mindless, man-eating humanoids called Titans. After a tragic crisis wherein the Titans breach the outer walls, Eren Jaeger loses his mother and joins the Military as a result, vowing to take revenge and slaughter every last Titan alive.

The show is fantastically well-written, with a plot so intriguing and airtight that the synopsis fails to scratch the surface of just what the show has to offer. It explores increasingly heavy themes such as propaganda, nationalism, guilt, regret, morality, and freedom. Its characters are well-written, no matter how friendly or villainous. And they die a lot. Oh man, do they die a lot. The series’ ever-present sense of dread and insurmountable odds allows the audience to fear for the characters’ lives and savor every victory they suffer to achieve. All of this is scored by a masterpiece of a soundtrack composed by the legendary Hiroyuki Sawano, known to write music so awe-inspiring, it could turn your house cat into a panther.

But more than anything, Attack on Titan’s visual identity and animation style lend tremendous weight to the show’s quality and appeal. From the visceral, powerful movements of the Titans, to the extremely well-choreographed action sequences, to the immaculate details of the background environments, Attack on Titan gained a reputation for being one of the most beautiful yet gloriously action-packed anime series to date.

PART II - AT WIT’S END

Despite the acclaim that the series has garnered thanks to the fantastic adaptation Wit Studio gave us, the fire could not be kept burning for much longer, and would soon need a new source of fuel, a new catalyst, and a new fireman to keep the boilers stoked. At the end of the show’s third season, which had already suffered from a slight dip in animation quality on the CGI front (more on that later), it was announced that production on Attack on Titan’s fourth and final season would be handed over to Studio MAPPA, a much larger and more experienced studio. 

This news initially did not go over well among fans. An anime changing studio is not unheard of in the anime community, but it is definitely not a harbinger of good news either. Many anime viewers have experienced the horror of watching their favorite shows butchered and maimed in terms of animation quality at the hands of their new studios. One-Punch Man Season 2, Seven Deadly Sins Season 3, and others suffered this fate.

Truth is, Wit Studio simply could not keep up with the grueling, demanding schedule and the pressure of maintaining the current most popular anime on earth, whilst also working on other shows. The mantle had to be passed on to Studio MAPPA, which I am going to deem the bravest studio of all time. Why did no other studio in Japan want to take on the development of Attack on Titan? The answer is simple. They wanted to be able to sleep at night.

PART III - SAKUGA WO SASAGEYO (DEDICATE YOUR DRAWINGS)

So, now that the anime has changed studios and has been ongoing for 13 episodes now, what has remained the same? To start, the series’ directorial style remains consistent with the seasons prior, making the jump between studios completely seamless on the story adaptation front. Isayama himself has always overseen the development of the show as a consultant, and this has not changed for Season 4. The series’ sound director, Masafumi Mima, remains at the helm alongside Hiroyuki Sawano, maintaining Attack on Titan’s distinct and memorable sonic palette. The overall quality of the show and its enjoyment has only gone up as the story stakes progressively rise higher, inching towards the finale.

Where the show now differs, though, is definitely in art style and animation techniques. Where Wit Studio used thick lineart and more saturated colors, MAPPA utilizes very thin lineart and slightly more muted colors. During dialogue sequences, Wit would often use still frames and slow-pans while the characters’ mouths open and close (this action is called lip flapping). MAPPA, on the contrary, shows us much stronger character acting, sometimes utilizing a more niche technique known as rotoscoping (or tracing drawings over a real actor), resulting in much more lively, dynamic, and engaging dialogue scenes. 

Hiroyuki Sawano is also no longer the only composer this season, bringing in a new composer named KOHTA YAMAMOTO (Yes, name spelled in all caps) to score the antagonists’ side of the story while Sawano scores the protagonists’ side (As confirmed by this Tweet). As a whole, though, I’ve noticed a significant improvement in the score’s thematic cohesiveness in relation to the story in Season 4 when compared to the previous seasons. You can check out my Attack on Titan Music Guide Series here to learn about the songs that play in each scene.

So far so good, right? Well, now we can discuss the real meat of the issue—Studio MAPPA’s use of CGI and how the fans have responded to it.

PART IV - HE’S THE CGI TITAN, AND I’M THE HAND-DRAWN TITAN

One of the biggest differences between Wit and MAPPA, and the difference that has been driving a wedge in the fanbase, is how both studios use 3D Computer Generated Imagery (or CGI) for their animation.

First, what is CGI? CGI is the more colloquial term for animation that is done using simulated and rendered 3D models of objects, settings, and characters, as against traditional animation, where everything is simply hand-drawn onto a canvas (that canvas being either paper or digital). You can think of it as being the purely digital equivalent of using physical clay models for stop-motion animation. Every Disney-Pixar film you have ever seen was animated using 3D CGI, whereas every Disney Renaissance or Studio Ghibli film was animated traditionally (With the exception of the recent film Earwig and the Witch [2020]).

3D CGI has gained a reputation of looking laughably inferior compared to traditional 2D hand-drawn animation in the context of Japanese anime. Recent, huge strides have been made in CGI animation for anime (one example being the recent Lupin III: The First [2019]), but the distaste for it stems not from its usage in general but rather its combination with 2D animation, causing a distinctly jarring discrepancy when the two mediums are used in tandem. For example, CGI often maintains uniformity in mass and silhouette to an unsettling amount, creating what is known as the Uncanny Valley effect. 2D animation often has subtle irregularities and imperfections that create a unique sense of charm that can only be achieved when drawn by hand. CGI also suffers from lighting problems, often resulting in 3D objects sticking out like a sore thumb if the lighting on the object does not perfectly match the lighting of the scene. 

Here is an example of Wit Studio using CGI for one of the main antagonists, the Colossal Titan. It looks out of place due to having vastly different shading compared to everything else in the environment.

It may not look that bad on a still image, but in motion, the animation is weirdly floaty and disproportionate. Notice how the steam coming from the Colossal Titan has a strange, reflective sheen to it, as against the hand-drawn dust and rubble cascading down from its arm. The Colossal Titan itself has very gradient-like shading, unlike anything else in the scene.

In comparison, here is a shot of the Colossal Titan’s hand as it barrels through several buildings, hand-drawn in 2D. Notice how the lighting is much sharper and more stylized due to a technique known as cell-shading. 

Now, if CGI is so bad, why use it? The answer is simple, it’s to massively save on time and resources. 

This is a shot from my upcoming music video, Voyage, done with both 2D and 3D assets. The characters, mountains, clouds, and dive flag are all hand-drawn, whereas the ocean and the boat itself are 3D models stylized to look cartoony (In 3D art, this style is called Non-Photorealistic Rendering or NPR). Had I not created a reusable 3D model of the boat, I would have to redraw the entire thing and all of its intricacies over and over again for every scene we wanted to do. What a horrific cycle!

Wit Studio’s CGI Titans were, admittedly, few and far between, allowing us to savor their magnificently drawn 2D Titans and look past the CGI ones whenever they needed to animated a complicated shot. When it comes to Studio MAPPA, however, in order to save time, made almost all the Titans CGI. Titans that return throughout different episodes were given 3D models, whereas Titans that get minimal screen time remain hand-drawn. 

Unfortunately, for fear of spoiling anybody reading this who might want to get into the series, I cannot give more visual examples, so please take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt and form your own opinions. Don’t wake my word for it, go watch the series yourself!

The chief complaint that Studio MAPPA’s Season 4 has received is that the usage of CGI for their titans is “jarring,” and that it “looks like garbage,” (Of course, the actual claims made were an order of magnitude more profane than this). Many fans have considered them a “stain on Attack on Titan’s legacy,” a claim which holds no water and is a massive over-exaggeration of how “bad” the CGI looks. There are two sides of the spectrum here: Fans who think that the CGI looks like hot garbage and fans that didn’t even notice the usage of CGI at all.

As a self-taught intermediate CG artist and traditional animator myself, let me tell you that Studio MAPPA’s CGI Titans look—and hold your breath as I say this—fantastic, given the previously mentioned grueling schedule they have to produce the series. The very fact that MAPPA’s CGI Titans look astronomically better than Wit’s CGI Titans suggests that they know what they are doing and worked to give us the best possible product given their time. Again, I wish I could go further in-depth using visual examples to support my argument, but you will have to watch the series yourself and form your own opinions.

But it doesn’t even stop there! A quick glance at YouTube and Twitter comment sections reveals just how spoiled, entitled, and vile the vocal minority fanbase has been acting towards Studio MAPPA. Everything that can be complained about, has been complained about regarding the show. To be honest, this can be expected from the fanbase of a show this popular, one which hails the show as a masterpiece and therefore cannot accept any cut corners. Music choices? Blame MAPPA! Some scenes were called ruined and completely spat on just because Masafumi did not use a fan-favorite song. Character redesigns that Isayama himself drew for story reasons? Blame MAPPA! Not my Mikasa! CGI being used at all despite Wit doing the exact same thing, but worse? Blame! MAPPA!

PART V - MAPPA KNOWS BEST

Attack on Titan fans have garnered a reputation for being the most spoiled, unbearable, and insufferable fanbase in existence right now. That’s a harsh claim, for sure, but all it takes is one look around the fanbase’s circles of social media to see how widespread this behavior has become. While the general consensus of the fanbase is that the series is good and the MAPPA-haters are being unreasonable, the “riots” that they have been calling for have left a bad taste in the mouths of all who look upon them. The toxicity from fans who hate MAPPA’s usage of CGI is completely uncalled for and the culture of bullying studios for not delivering the exact, pre-packaged, catered product the fans want, rather than be praised for being exceptional in dire circumstances, needs to be put to an end. 

I hope that all I have discussed today aids you in being able to recognize this from an artistic and more professional point of view.

We, as fans, are lucky that a show as great as Attack on Titan is getting an adaptation at ALL. The Studio MAPPA transition could have very easily given us a sub-par slideshow on the level of previous failures in the anime industry. A show this massively influential on the artistic integrity of so many different artists, writers, animators, and composers worldwide. MAPPA deserves encouragement and praise for continuing to deliver an excellent show for our viewing pleasure. If we were to put ourselves in the shoes of the MAPPA staff, we’d know we ought to be grateful.

Say it with me now,

#ThankYouMAPPA