Attack on Titan is arguably the biggest anime in the world right now, and as it speeds toward
its inevitably bloody conclusion in a Final Season that’s sure to be its most exciting
yet, it’s only natural that we stop and ask “what’s next?” What shounen or shounen
adjacent series will take up its mantle when it’s gone? For we are simple, impatient,
barely upgraded monkeys whose puny attention spans have atrophied in the ever shifting
other world of social media, and there might be like six birds in that bush so who cares
about the one in my hand?! Anime franchises can’t last forever. Is
what we thought. Until they reanimated dragon ball as a husk of its former self and we all
just gave it a pass because evolution traumatized us so hard, and, hey, the movies were pretty
good. But Attack On Titan’s concept doesn’t lend itself to the whole infinite interdimensional
wrestling promo schtick the way DBZ does. Titan shifters are literally cursed to die
young and tragic. So unless they like, Assassin’s creed it and do a bunch of spinoffs starring
cool historical titan shifters… which would probably make just… a boatload of money,
so… hire me Kodansha. Anyway, they‘re probably gonna take a minute
to get to that, if they do it at all. First Isayama’s gotta try his hand at launching
another manga that’s not as successful – which is nothing to be ashamed of, not everyone
can Hunter x Hunter right after they Yu Yu Hakusho. And in the meantime, something new
is gonna step into the spotlight. Or, it could be inching its way in already from somewhere
on stage. Or crashing through on a demon train full of money on its way to challenge Spirited
Away for the national box office crown. Though how a samurai cartoon will fare in
the international market, uhh… remains to be seen. And how much of this sudden national
obsession with Demon Slayer comes down to its convenient timing as a COVID release valve
is still up for debate. Don’t get me wrong. The Demon Train is a dope arc, and I cannot
imagine how much doper it will be with a feature length UFOtable budget. Like, goddamn, have
you seen garden of sinners, or the fate movies? These folks know how to throw a sakuga party.
But… Attack on Titan… is a phenomenon in America and internationally. Like, you
probably have family you don’t talk to often that’s heard of it. And all I’m saying
is… demon slayer’s not there. Yet. It could be, with a good marketing push. “The
biggest film in japanese history” has a nice ring to it. But it’s still got some
hurdles between it and the finish line, and there are a lot of other anime scrambling
to make up that distance on simulcast while we wait for that movie to get imported.
All That Said, Demon Slayer does have a lot going for it, as far as filling the attack
on titan void goes. The Demons tap into a lot of the same primal body horror anxieties
as Titans do, albeit in a more complicated, loss of self to baser instincts and monstrous
impulses kinda way than a zombie meat mech way. Equally intimidating, I think, but definitely
different flavours of fear. Demons come and getcha in the night instead of bursting through
your town walls in broad daylight, but either way, they eat your mom, and you gotta get
real good at putting swords in their necks. Though their ability to strategize does set
them apart from most titans – they’re more like vampires from jojo in that sense,
with some light stand powers. And fights with them are more like… well, early jojo fights,
what with the magic breathing martial arts and all, than the high flying breakneck spiderman
shenanigans that make AOT such a visceral thrill ride. UFOTable definitely gives fights
that 3D camera jazz – and Zenitsu BRINGS IT with the acrobatics – but it’s not
quite the same vibe. Attack On Titan got where it by doing its
own thing, though, so that’s not necessarily a weakness. Nifty Swords vs Vampires has been
done before, by Seraph of the End, or Seraph of the Edge, as it was known, when it was
known. But maybe it was just ahead of its time. Or maybe the less edgy sincerity of
Demon Slayer, and its more traditional fantasy setting will resonate more widely.
Of course, that depends on it tapping into the western fantasy zeitgeist, and that’s
easier said than done. Because you’ve gotta make Game of Thrones fans happy to do it – or
at least, that’s the current marketing wisdom, judging by how Amazon’s doing lord of the
rings. Demon Slayer’s got the “anyone can die” thing going for it, but it doesn’t
really hit either of that franchise’s other popular content verticals – complicated
fantasy politics and weird sex stuff. And Attack On Titan ingratiated itself to that
audience by hitting two of those points. Or three depending who you ask…
Either way, demon slayer doesn’t quite fit the same mold.
Before we get to the other contenders, This Video is sponsored by ExpressVPN! Recognized
by Cnet, The Verge, Techradar, and other outlets as the best VPN provider on the web. With
top-class speeds and servers in 94 different countries, Express VPN breaks down national
barriers to leave the whole of the internet open for you to explore, all while masking
your identity and location, and protecting your data from anyone else who might want
to keep tabs on your browsing habits. So when you’re on public wifi, you can rest
assured everything you send and receive is secure, and when you’re at home, nobody
needs to know how many pictures of The Female Titan I’ve stared at today. you’ve stared
at. Can we do another t- One of the best uses for ExpressVPN is watching
anime, movies, and tv shows that aren’t available in your country – if you’re
in the US, All you have to do is connect to Australia, and now you can watch Your Name
on Netflix! Then it’s just two more clicks to cap off the night with a marathon of Fate/Stay
Night on Netflix UK. Using a streaming platform without a VPN is kinda like spending your
whole life eating sliced bread and never putting jam on it! That’s… a much better tie in
to the video topic. Guess I didn’t have to tell on myself after all…
And you don’t have to tell on yourself to websites, hackers, governments, your ISP,
or anyone else! Find out how you can get 3 months of expressVPN for free by visiting
ExpressVPN.com/basement, or clicking the link in the dooblydoo today!
Anyway, if you’re wondering what the sliced bread and jam joke I just made was about,
you didn’t listen to me when I said to read chainsaw man! Which is cool because I totally
didn’t follow through on that video essay I said I was gonna do. The series took like
three left field turns in its big climax immediately after I made that cursed shounen jump video
where half the series in it are cancelled now, and that made me reconsider what I wanted
to say. And then right when it was done tying off almost every important plot thread from
the last hundred chapters it was just like “End of part one MOTHERFUCKER”
So… yeah, still got a lot to process there. But that video’s coming. And so is an anime
adaptation of chainsaw man, from Mappa, no less! And considering that one of Attack On
Titan’s greatest strengths was its ability to make fans very publically freak out by
dropping shockingly deadly plot beats and status-quo upending twists while folks were
still figuring out who their favourite potentially doomed characters were and what the status
quo even was – thereby making outsiders on twitter wonder what the hubbub was all
about… It’s a pretty strong contender in this category.
I mean, the manga readership alone has sent Chainsaw Man shooting up the trending tab
multiple times in the last year. And its narrative has plenty of interesting hooks strewn throughout
to keep onlookers engaged once they get curious enough to take a peak. Now, obviously quite
a lot can change between a manga and anime – especially when it’s being made by a
studio that relies heavily on outsourcing and has taken on a lot of high-profile potential
nightmare projects in a short time frame – but assuming they can craft something that lives
up to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s incredible, horrifying art, it’ll be tough to beat.
Because while Chainsaw Man’s action has very little in common with either maneuverable
gear acrobatics or titan on titan wrestling matches, it is equally inherently awesome
in its own unique way. Like, the main character is a guy who turns into chainsaws by pulling
a ripcord in his chest, and he teams up with a demonic best girl who makes weapons out
of her own blood to fight giant bats, zombies and man eating sea cucumbers… what’s not
to love? Its power system gives every character a unique way of fighting, and it barely matters
because HOLY SHIT SOME OF THE THINGS THEY FIGHT…
Its world is also really interesting and different from our own, despite looking a lot like contemporary
Japan. The soviet union’s still around, for one thing. Also there’s demons everywhere,
which is a pretty big difference. And a bunch of countries are competing to both eliminate
and weaponize the demons, so it’s got that political intrigue vertical covered. Also
some people boink the demons. Perfect score right there. And it’s different in subtle
ways – like, a lot of important concepts and historical details in our world just…
don’t exist in the chainsaw man universe. It’s fun to puzzle out which ones.
Now, as for whether or not Fujimoto’s Schlocky, b-movie aesthetic will appeal to the masses…
we’ll have to wait and see. I think there’s a market for it, but I’m a big Kronenberg
and Carpenter fan so I may be a little too biased in that direction.
Of course, Chainsaw man isn’t entirely original. Fujimoto himself said, in response to the
anime’s recent announcement “Chainsaw Man is like a copycat of DoroHedoro and Jujutsu
Kaisen, and the studio of DoroHedoro and Jujutsu Kaisen will produce its anime!? I have nothing
to say! Please do it,” which is just… I love this man. But also, Jujutsu Kaisen
exists RIGHT NOW, its hype train already has some serious momentum, and it’s about to
pick up even more steam with some shocking moments of its own, followed by its equivalent
of the USJ arc. Which is further complicated by internal politics
within the society of Jujutsu Sorcerers – who are similar to bleach’s soul society in
their general approach to solving problems by murdering convenient scapegoats – so…
yeah, good stuff there. Hitting the bloody, life or death battle and fantasy politics
verticals quite nicely, albeit from a contemporary “hidden world” fantasy angle. And Jujutsu’s
martial arts magic fights are capital C COOL… But again, they do feel more like traditional
shounen power “duels” – albeit with a very cool and versatile power system – than
attack on titan’s more visceral, easy to grasp physical combat. Satoru Gojo’s power
of infinity is AWESOME, but not in quite the same way as rocketing through a titan neck
in a fountain of blood and steam, or bursting into a twisting mass of frenzied chainsaws
to dismember a massive demon. Despite Fujimoto’s jokes, Chainsaw man is only like Jujutsu Kaisen
in its base concept. A lot of people like Attack On Titan specifically
because it strays so far away from the shounen battle formula, so even if Jujutsu’s execution
of that formula is perfect – and it almost is – it may just not scratch the same itch.
It feels more like a series shooting for “Big Three” status – so much as that exists
anymore – and it could really fill the Bleach void. I just dunno if that’s what the Attack
on Titan crowd’s looking for.
In that light, The far less conventional Promised Neverland may have a better shot. It’s not
quite as explicitly lethal as Attack On Titan; a side effect of scaling down the humans to
give the smaller man-eating monsters the same relative threat level as Titans is that it’s
hard to get away with murdering young children on screen…
But like I said, that series succeeded by being different. And while all the chicken
run subterfuge, escape planning, and mundane survivalist concerns Emma and her family must
deal with are about as far from the loud, over the top violence of Attack on Titan as
you can get… there’s a similar, tangible tension hanging in the atmosphere around both
series. Plus seeing a bunch of kids practically figure out how to thwart the demon’s security
measures and scale a big wall using the means available to… well, a bunch of kids has
a certain low key visceral thrill to it that’s not… unlike the maneuverable gear?
Okay that’s a bit of a stretch. But I’m only stretching because I… really, really
don’t want to spoil where the series goes. If you like worldbuilding and political squabbling…
you’ll be very happy with it, and there are other aspects of it with their own…
je ne sais quoi... I dunno, if anything it’s more likely the series will carve out its
own very enthusiastic audience as it goes on and gets into big idea territory. It says
some very interesting things that have the potential to start some very interesting conversations,
and speaks to many of the same… underlying anxieties as Attack On Titan, if that makes
sense. But all of that is predicated on the anime
adaptation getting the love and attention it deserves. The way its story was told in
the manga was perhaps a little… too different for shounen jump’s readership, when all
was said and done, which lead to its run being cut short of the minimum Kaiu Shirai said
was needed to tell it properly… And as it stands, the finished story was a bit of a
letdown. Especially if you were reading it weekly – it makes for a better binge read.
But there are reasons to be hopeful that the anime might improve on those literal shortcomings
in a major way. Reasons that Yazy will get into in a new video on best girl’s basement
later today, if you’re watching this early, or now if you’re not. Once it’s out, there’ll
be links to it in the cards, endcard, and dooblydoo, if you wanna give it a watch when
you’re done here.
You may have noticed that everything I’ve discussed so far is a Shounen Jump title,
and that’s not because I’ve got some pro Jump bias… I mean, I do read their stuff
more than anything else. but that’s mainly because the jump app is so convenient… really,
I just think the odds are stacked heavily in their favour. Jump has been at the forefront
of the manga and anime industries for decades now. They are hitmakers, and they took notice
of Attack On Titan’s unexpected Impact. They’ve been cranking out a lot of medium-length
dark fantasy adventures and shipping em off to… the same kinda anime studios that made
attack on titan a hit. The exact same studio, in both jujutsu kaisen
and chainsaw man’s cases. Though that’s more about Mappa being hungry for contracts.
Jump is aggressive about going where the readers – and viewers are, and about trying to find
where they’ll be next by cycling through new series aggressively. Too aggressively,
maybe, in the promised neverland’s case. But it’s hard to argue with results.
No other magazine is as reliably successful at this. Bessatsu Shounen Magazine ran two
different attack on titan spinoffs for a reason – gotta motivate fans to read the anthology
instead of tankobans somehow. And as for its sister, weekly shounen magazine, which is
probably the strongest non-shueisha contender… well, actually, Fire Force is still going
and has gotten past the length when Soul Eater really hit its stride, so I should probably
loop back to that. Hitman and especially To Your Eternity could do well too… But they’re
fighting an uphill battle for market share against one of the most powerful marketing
monoliths in the world. They also run the monogatari manga… and
frankly, I think we’re about as likely to see one of its fellow light novels achieve
that kind of notoriety as we are any competing shounen manga… Actually…
I mean, it’s a MASSIVE longshot, but Re:Zero definitely matches Attack on Titan’s brutality,
it’s got a dope western fantasy setting that’s only getting doper and more politically
intriguing. It ain’t afraid to swing a fuckin sledgehammer straight into your gut, or to
massively change up its character roster and power dynamics on a dime. It also has a KILLER
dub, killer theme song, and killer music. And let’s not forget the weird sex stuff
*Glug* *Slam* “What kinda tea is this anyway?”
“To put it bluntly, it’s a body fluid of mine”
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST LET ME DRINK?!” *glug* *Slam*
If it hit Toonami, or Netflix... it could blow up. Just the first season blew up enough
in japan that they’ve had new Rem merch for sale every time Yazy and I have visited.
Which is not a signifier of how it’ll do over here – I have a feeling Ram memes might
become a valued currency over here, if it goes mainstream, but I’m getting several
steps ahead of myself. All I’m saying is, Re:Zero’s got the potential to go the distance,
if the right audience finds it. Though frankly – laying all my cards on
the table – I am pulling for Chainsaw Man. I think it’s got all the right ingredients
in a fresh, exciting new package, but more importantly, I’ve invested a lot of time
and energy into it and Tatsuki Fujimoto’s previous series, Fire Punch, which is about
a guy who’s got an advanced healing factor but is also on fire. Forever. Anyway, I’m
kinda banking on the clout of being a fan before he was cool. And if you made it to
the end of this video, you’re probably cool too, so just… don’t tell anyone about
my ulterior motives and hype that series up, please.
I’ll pay you back with some dank video essays in good time.
And in the mean time, you can go enjoy my recent impassioned rant about why animation
is for everyone, or Yazy’s video about the future of The Promised Neverland anime! And
any manga readers out there, please lemme know in the comments what up and coming series
you think are the most promising.
I’m Geoff Thew, Professional Shitbag, Signing Out From My Mother’s Basement.