I still feel like it’s pretty shallow compared to the level of the sci-fi universes my older artist friends shared - like, I never read Mu or any of that. Isayama: I came up with the original idea for the one-shot called “Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)” that won me my first ever prize, and then I didn’t think about it for a while after that until I was 22 or 23 or so, when my editor asked me to consider making that old one-shot into a long-term series, at which point I spent a half a year coming up with the details of that whole world.
–I would say the idea for the walls and that universe you’ve created in general is pretty one-of-a-kind, though.
YAOI ATTACK ON TITAN GAMES FULL
Isayama: As manga artist friends of mine in their 40s tell me, manga magazines used to be full of apocalyptic stories until pretty recently, and I do think I’ve been influenced by those manga. –I’m sure you must’ve taken in your share of manga as well as video games and movies, but Attack on Titan comes off as something very fresh, something that doesn’t feel especially inspired by anything that came before it.
So then I took that desire to see someone do something new and decided to try it myself. Relying on that stuff, you’ll never make anything new. Isayama: I was repelled by the sort of manga that’s based on marketing research about what sort of characters or plot elements will be popular with readers. –It’s true, though, that it’s not the kind of manga you would expect to appeal to a mass audience. Isayama: I thought it was great personally, but I figured that most aspiring manga artists must feel that way, and that I was just another kid underestimating how tough the industry really is. –I’ve read in a previous interview that you didn’t originally think the idea for Attack on Titan would make for a popular manga. Isayama: I knew that making a living from drawing manga is extremely tough, so my dream back then was just to make enough to feed myself with my manga, even if it never became a big hit - let alone the idea of becoming a millionaire. –Did you not dream about finding this kind of success back before starting out as a manga artist? People say things say things like my dreams have become reality, but ever since I won that first prize back when I was nineteen, it’s felt more like reality has been growing distant. Isayama: It feels like reality is getting farther and father away. I’ve been reading Attack on Titan since the first volume came out, but it’s since become such a smash hit that now you can find it at convenience stores. The magazine went on sale in November 2014, so the interview presumably took place sometime not long after volume 14 went on sale. You may notice that the interviewer talks to Isayama almost like a psychologist this is because he, in fact, is. Men’s culture magazine Brutus recently did a special issue on Attack on Titan that included a lengthy interview with the manga’s creator, Hajime Isayama, in which he talks about such topics as how it feels to have produced an ultramega hit, how he came to be interested in manga, his inspiration behind the characters he’s created, and his thoughts on recent kaiju films, among a lot of other things.