In a world with giant man-eating monsters, and slingshot belts with swords attached for soldiers to use, it’s odd to think about the diplomatic area in the world of Attack on Titan. Attack on Titan or A.O.T for short is one of the most popular anime/manga series to to ever come out. Having a run time of over 10 years, it would be a shocker if you know someone who likes to watch anime and hasn’t seen or heard of A.O.T. Its influence on the world has been massive where it now streams on Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll.
However, most seem to skip over the diplomatic scene that takes place in A.O.T. The story takes place in a fictional world, where humanity has dwindled down to a few thousand people left, due to giant man-eating monsters known as “Titans”. As such humanity has built up 3 circular walls higher than the Titans can reach in order to keep them out. There is the first outer wall where the poor live, like farmers and beggars. They are closest to the Titans only having one wall around them as protection. Then there is the middle wall which protects where the average people live who can sustain a living. Then there is the inner wall which protects the rich and higher-ups like government officials and of course the king.
The way their society works inside the walls is there are three branches of Militia: The Scouts who venture outside the walls and resemble soldiers going into war. The Garrison Regiment which resembles a military force makes sure the walls are safe and patrol them and are planned to make sure of a safe evacuation in case the walls ever break. Finally, the Military Police, who resemble cops and enforcers make sure no crime happens, and the utmost duty which is to protect their king who lives in the center.
Right off the bat, we see the biggest connections between A.O.T and a modern imperialistic where Military Police are seen in the show as lazy, bribed, and usually only take the job for a safe place in the inner walls and free living quarters and food. The military police in the show take what they want from strangers and drink on the job. This to me strikes as a major force of Imperialistic rule that has policing workers ruling over the citizens inside the walls.
The next big connection would be how the Garrison regiment and Military police seem to only serve themselves. Yes, they govern the society inside the walls but when push comes to shove and the walls break down it’s seen in the show how they only seem to care about their own skin and don’t know what to do even though they’re perfectly equipped. After reviewing this one quote stuck in my mind from Sociology professor Julian Go which goes as the following “The U.S and UK police are armed, equipped, and trained as an army, meaning they’re essentially preparing to do battle against citizens and treat them like enemy combatants. Plus, the citizens themselves are paying for the police to be armed like a military”. (Stiemer, 1). This quote is important because although it talks about a modern U.S. and UK world it directly relates to the A.O.T world. Citizens who pay taxes go to the military and government for them to train soldiers and give them rations. However, only in this case does the military have nothing to go against inside the walls except for other citizens so they treat them as the natural enemy.
Going forward through the story we realize how the main society we know, known as “Eldia” is only one out of a dozen. We discover how their society is trapped on an island with these “Titans”. The other big society known as “Marley” which lives on the other side of the sea is a segregated torn country. We learn how people who live in Elida otherwise known as Eldians are actually able to turn into titans themselves after being injected with titan spinal fluid. As such Eldians are kept in containment camps and are considered by Marlian society as monsters and lesser humans.
The reason why this is so important is because Marley seems themselves as the good guys trying to eradicate these monsters from the world which coincides with a quote on colonialism which goes as the following. “They saw themselves as the trustees of civilization, and they reckoned it their duty to see to it that civilization was disseminated to as many beneficiaries as could be contrived. They wanted to leave the world better than they found it, and it has yet to be proved they did not succeed.”(Thorton 335). This connects back to the the power of Marley because of how they thought they were making the world a better place by getting rid of Eldians. Marley has plans to use these Eldians and turn them into Titans as a war weapon however the world technology is moving at a faster rate where there are weapons now that can take out Titans easily and Marley is falling behind as the number one power in the world.
Without delving into too much of the story. The Eldians on the island figure out that Marley has other Eldians imprisoned in containment camps. As such they send an army over there and a Civil War ensues between Eldia and Marley. This whole situation reflects onto the quote from Military Technology and Modernation in 19th-Century Modern Japan and China and it goes as follows “Like other non-western societies, China and Japan felt those pressures most decisively in military terms…weapons were the West’s greatest attraction. Military technology has normally been the leading edge of modernization.”(Hacker 43). This reflection on how new weapons of the war changed and led the edge of modernization connects perfectly with the world of A.O.T. We see how throughout the end Marley is being outmanuvered by Eldia due to their advancements in technology that is the Omni-Directional-Mobility Gear also known as the O.D.M.
This fictional world of A.O.T. has an intriguing and eye-opening world for audiences to look at the modern world today. Not only that but for audiences to look back on the past and see the mistakes we have made. Even though there are monsters that eat people and war-driven countries that resort to containment camps. The whole thing that started this whole mess was the cause of Imperialism and the effects of post-colonialism.
Works Cited
Hacker, Barton C. “The Weapons of the West: Military Technology and Modernization in 19th-Century China and Japan.” Technology and Culture, vol. 18, no. 1, 1977, pp. 43–55. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3103204. Accessed 7 May 2024.
Thornton, A. P. “Colonialism.” International Journal, vol. 17, no. 4, 1962, pp. 335–57. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/40198890. Accessed 7 May 2024.
Steimer, Sarah. “Exploring the Role of Global Imperialism in Modern Policing.” Exploring the Role of Global Imperialism in Modern Policing | The University of Chicago Division of the Social Sciences, socialsciences.uchicago.edu/node/26665. Accessed 7 May 2024.
Sprockets and Springes 