Shinzou wo sasageyo! If you have been an Attack on Titan fan, either or both the manga or the animated series, since its first publication in 2009 and the airing of the adaptation’s first season in 2013, and if you are with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin who ran, swung (with the Omni-Directional Maneuvering Gear or OMD), and attacked the titans along the walls of Maria, Rose, and Sina as the show nears its finale, you should try visiting these destinations to fully immerse yourself in the lives of being an Eldian and try to feel what it is like to be attacked by titans through entertaining venues.
Included in our list is Nördlingen in Bavaria, Germany. A real-life walled city located in the southern part of Germany, and believed to be one of the inspirations of the writer, Hajime Isayama, for establishing Shiganshina, the setting of the story, though Isayama never confirmed it. The houses and other establishments in the vicinity very much resemble those seen in the manga and the animated series with brick houses and rustic roofs. It’s even a round shaped area, similar to the ones present in Attack on Titan. The other location believed to be the origin of Shiganshina that is also located in Oberbayern, Germany is the city if Burghausen. A walled city also, it houses a castle and it is famously known as a dwelling place for the former Duke of Bavaria. The place boasts its countryside ambiance with a natural river flowing inside it and lush greeneries. Both locations are accessible to the public and traveling guests.
The other location that inspired the setting of the manga is situated in France—a town called Carcassonne which has an upper and lower tier of villages, the Cité de Carcassonne and the ville basse respectively. Visitors can truly feel what it feels like to be in Attack on Titan world with historic walls and watch towers effectively reestablished and preserved. Various similarities in architecture in the Japanese narrative work are present in these European places such as its gothic style and the walls tapped with walkways that are called ramparts.
Let’s travel back to Asia for the next location in our list. This is the place where the famous manga’s creator, Isayama Hajime, was born. in Hita City, more or less an hour away from the Fukuoka Airport. In HITA Museum, you can see the original sketches of Isayama himself for the manga and other displays related to the beloved fiction. You can also take a glimpse of statues of the main characters in the story erected in bronze. Visitors can also access the place through express train, and the Oyama Dam can be reached by a twenty-five-minute bus ride from the Hita bus terminal to Nakgawara bus stop.
Recently, Universal Studios Japan re-opened on March 4, 2022 the Attack on Titan XR Ride, a virtual roller coaster which only had a limited run until August 28, 2022. Actually, five weeks before its scheduled closure, the attraction decided to close it due to technical problems it was facing. but the experience was worth taking as it combined the thrilling experience of riding a roller coaster and the digital effect of using VR or Virtual Reality headsets. It also included freebies such as rucksacks and Corps’ jackets, and OMD Gears.
Inside a seven-floor shopping mall in Japan’s capital city, Tokyo, visitors could try a VR ride attraction that explores the ninth and tenth volumes of the manga. Attack on Titan: The Collapsing Tower, the name of the attraction, will let the fans meet and join the main protagonists in an expedition to fight against the titans from a tower nearing its wreckage. The game was launched in December 2018 at the fifth floor of DriverCity Tokyo Plaza in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan.
And for our Filipino AOT fans, did you know that we also have a walled city just like in Shiganshina? If not, and if you are also a guest who would want to visit the beautiful islands of the Philippines, let me introduce you to one of the most historic places in the country. The famous Intramuros gives us a look at what the Philippines looked like during the Spanish colonization a few centuries ago. Similar to the walls in Shiganshina, they have ramparts and watchtowers that guests can easily walk on as the walls are just a few meters tall as opposed to titan-high ones seen in the manga and animated series. Tour around the area is available too and there are a few authentic Filipino cuisines served inside the area. The place is easily accessible and walkable from Taft Avenue, near the Bonifacio shrine and the Manila City Hall—which could also be a sight from the series as its architecture is preserved to give it a Spanish-style facade with a huge tower clock above. It can also be found near the LRT Line 1 Central station.
It is incredible how cultures from different parts of the world infuse together to create an artwork so beautiful that at least one person in almost all countries in the world knows about it. Attack on Titan truly showed up and shook the fans of the animated series, just like how the titans did to Eren, Mikasa, Armin, and all Eldians when they decided to show up one day behind the towering walls of their city. The attack was surely not just for the show and entertainment, it also showed the viewers that this kind of civilization is not so impossible and there are a lot of lessons that we, as consumers in different forms of media, could learn from the series, and we might learn it in a hard and bloody way. There are titans in the real world, we just need to differentiate who are the predators and who are their prey.
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