“It’s the kind of work that, after you finish reading the last chapter, you get excited wondering what it will be like to read it again from the start”, says Kodansha editor Shintaro Kawakubo.

By JAPAN Forward

One of the major social phenomena of the 2010s has come to a close. The popular manga series by creator Hajime Isayama called Attack on Titan, or as it is known in Japanese, Shingeki no Kyojin, published its last episode of the series on April 9.

The 139th episode of the manga was published in the May issue of the monthly magazine Bessatsu Shonen (Kodansha Inc. publishers). It will also become the last chapter of the 34th and last volume of the manga book version, set to come out on June 9.

For the last episode, the magazine included a special thanks from Isayama, who took the time to thank his fans for all the support they have shown over the years.

Many netizens took to online platforms such as Twitter to express their sadness and gratitude to the manga artist, with the hashtag #ThankYouIsayama trending on Twitter. People were tagging the artist in several languages including English, Spanish, Russian, and more.

Attack on Titan centers around the story of young man Eren Yeager, and his quest to fight against the Titans attacking the city where he grows up. What starts off as a story for survival becomes an intricate tale of politics and human drama, addressing problems universal even in today’s world.

The manga’s popularity skyrocketed when it became an anime series. The anime started in 2013 and will also end with The Final Season in late 2021 or early 2022.

There are plans to turn the manga into a Hollywood live action rendition to be filmed by Andy Muschietti, the director behind the horror film, It (2017).

The Sankei Shimbun reporter Eiji Honma spoke to Shintaro Kawakubo (38), the Kodansha editor in charge of Attack on Titan, to learn more about what makes this story so popular.

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