Original artwork, not a still
Attack on Titan, episode 1, the opening narration (Funimation English dub)
On that day, humanity received a grim reminder. We lived in fear of the Titans and were disgraced to live in these cages we called walls.
— Attack on Titan · 2013
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It states the premise before the story has begun: the walls are not a shelter but a cage, and everyone inside has learned not to say so. That is why the narrator's later line, "Home was a pen. Humanity, cattle", reads as a reply. There is no speaker and no face, which makes it sound like history written after the fact, and the cage image is what Eren spends the series trying to break.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Attack on TitanShow the scene
The first words of Attack on Titan are a narrator's. They play over the Colossal Titan's giant hand looming above Wall Maria, humanity's outermost wall, with onlookers gaping below. The episode, "To You, in 2000 Years: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 1" (Japan, 7 April 2013), then goes back to earlier that day: the Scout Regiment fights a Titan beyond the walls, and young Eren and Mikasa meet the soldiers guarding the gate, where Eren compares their life to a caged animal's. The Colossal Titan then breaks the wall, and Eren watches a Titan eat his mother.
Sources (2)
- Attack on Titan Wiki: To You, in 2000 Years: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 1Overview and SummaryReference checked
- Wikiquote: Attack on TitanQuotes, narrationReference checked
Context reviewed
