Attack on Titan season 1 was a hit because of Wit Studio

George Wada was the first to pick up a copy Attack on Titan, after seeing displays for the manga plastered all over train cars, he instantly made a connection between the characters in Hajime Isayama’s manga and his role in the anime industry.

“It was a story about people being stuck behind a wall,” he told Crunchyroll in 2019. “I synchronized that with my experience as a producer.”

Wada was a Production I.G member in 2005. Sengoku Basara, Kimi Ni Todoke,And one is an established classic. Psycho-Pass. But it was toward the end of production for 2011’s Guilty CrownWada along with fellow I.G animation producer Tetsuya Nakatake and Kyoji Azano became interested in creating an environment full of top-level talent where they could fully focus on working on one series (rather that multiple series as it was at I.G). Production I.G. was producing films and series that had high commercial potential. Their goal was to create a new brand and they had to start their own studio.

Image by Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

They had to notify their boss Mitsuhisa Ishikawa who was at that time the president of Production I.G, before they could come up the name. After hearing his producers’ plan to strike out on their own, Ishikawa not only gave them his blessing, he made them an offer so as to keep them in the fold. Instead of truly leaving the nest to face the uncertainty of establishing a new studio in the highly competitive anime industry, this new studio would become a subsidiary of I.G’s parent company, IG Port. This would give them the creative freedom they desire, as well as financial support. They could also avoid long-term contract work at other studios. The producers gladly accepted Ishikawa’s offer, and with that, the Wada, Ishikawa, and Tetsuya — WIT — studio was formed.

In what Wada would later describe as “a miracle,” right as the company was coming into its own, Kodansha was in search of a studio willing to produce an anime based on the manga Attack on Titan. With one of the founders already familiar with the manga’s strong narrative, and all of them agreeing that the action found in the source material was a perfect fit for the kind of high-quality animation they were interested in producing, they were quick to express interest in producing the anime. The publisher was impressed by the production work of Production I.G and signed a contract with Wit for animation. Just a few months after moving into its first office — a small windowless room inside of Production I.G — Wit began laying the foundation for its debut anime series. Unbeknownst of the production staff and anime fans, Wit began to lay the foundation for its debut series. Attack on TitanThis would have a profound impact on anime history and help to create one of the best anime studios in the world.

This is what has been deemed one of the most difficult and high-profile anime productions to date. Attack on Titan’s first season follows Eren Yeager, his best friend Armin Arlert, and his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman, denizens of a massive walled city, as they train and fight to prevent humanity’s extinction at the hands (and mouths) of colossal humanoid monsters known as Titans. These titanic creatures possess human-like characteristics and are enormous. According to them, descended from the mountains a century ago and began devouring humans, the Titans’ presence led mankind to build three 40-meter-tall concentric structures (Walls Maria, Rose, and Sina) for protection. Wall Maria becomes breached when the Colossal, and Armored Titans arrive.

Image credit: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

The world was made possible by exquisite art and great care. Attack on Titan memorable. Every detail, from the Romanesque architecture in south Germany to the majestic and lush forests is given an exquisite level of attention. The season’s art design simultaneously showcases the beauty of the world, while also highlighting the Titans’ abnormal place in it. Asano’s sharp character designs, which were chosen after a studio-wide contest, were easy to animate thanks to their thick line work, and by giving them more expressive features, the characters could really sell the impact of each fallen comrade or small victory. It was a colossal improvement on the primitive and (admittedly) ugly illustrations seen in the manga’s opening chapters. Takaaki Chiba, who performed a number of roles for the production, designed the Titans, emphasizing the intrinsic strangeness and terror of humanity’s cannibalistic oppressors — which made it all the more satisfying when you see them get cut down.

What would eventually become? Attack on TitanAs seen on television, it all began with Guilty CrownAs the producers brought in several members of this production to assist with the creation of the series, Tetsuro Araki, its director was the first. Isayama is a maximalist, known for staging action with his talent and using all elements (lighting and camera movements, music and effects and even dialogue) in order to increase the intensity of each frame. Attack on TitanAraki.

The director’s early involvement with Wit was a major factor in Kodansha handing the then-unproven studio the opportunity to produce the series in the first place. Araki was the one who hired animators Yasuyuki Elbara and ArifumiImai. Together, they animated the intense omni-directional maneuvering gear sequences. Araki decided to make the iconic 2D animations of these segments. This was possibly to save series.

Image by Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

All elements (humans, Titans, environments, etc.) in those scenes were initially going to be done in 3D CG. However, this would have ruined the series’ second selling point, and perhaps its most important, fluid and dynamic animated action. After being shown a demo of what these CG action scenes would look like, Araki, fulfilling the studio’s mission of pushing itself for higher quality, had both the 2D and 3D teams work in concert to have the 2D characters integrate seamlessly in the digital environment. End result: impressive 2D characters with great speed and aggression zipping through the frame. Those motions are paired with a forceful and ever-moving 3D camera, exemplified not only the ferocity and beauty of the characters’ movements, but also the gravity of each Titan encounter. Araki’s merging of the animation teams provided the Attack on Titan anime with its most defining feature, which would be the focal point of many scenes and individual moments that would leave viewers in awe, and would help establish Wit Studio’s reputation as a destination for exquisitely crafted animation. If the characters were all drawn straight from a PS2 game, it is hard to imagine either of these things happening.

Every episode that features the Survey Corps deploying their omni-directional mobility gear to fight off invading Titans injects the series with a shot of pure adrenaline, and by far remains the season’s strongest component. It is a unique concept that humans use steam-powered grapplelines to defeat giant monsters. The animators might have shown the characters swinging across the screen, cutting away Titan flesh. The animators and directors of action created something that is worth watching again and again by constantly pushing each other to find new and creative ways to allow the characters to freely move through digital environments. These sequences had a velocity and pageantry that was unmatched in anime at the time. They were also visually stunning and made it impossible not to enjoy the series. These choices certainly achieved Wit’s mission to produce works that would feature a level of animation on par with the kind produced by other major studios. It certainly made for some astounding visuals — and it proved almost disastrous when it came to Attack on Titan’s Actual production

Image: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

It’s no secret that anime production can be grueling. This industry has many problems, including low wages, high hours and strict schedules. The sheer volume of work required to produce was overwhelming, even with Wit having a high talent pool. Both the staff and producers were overworked. Titan’sFirst season. Speaking to Tokyo Otaku Mode in 2019, Nakatake went into detail about some of the trouble the studio faced bringing Isayama’s story to animation.

“We’d taken the position that 2D animation was very important to us, but at the beginning we just didn’t have that kind of infrastructure. When we’d finished the final frame, we still had a lot of corrections, and there were a lot of other problems so it was really hard work. Staff really suffered. Even thinking of it now still sends a shiver down my spine.”

After its huge opening episode received praises from around the globe, Asano took to Twitter to announce that the studio needed more animators in order to complete the season. In order to allow animators to have some time, the recap episode needed to air in the middle season. Because of the complexity and detail of some shots and sections and the length of each episode, even with an extra week, the entire team continued to work on the episodes until they were ready to be delivered to broadcasters. The president of the company had to rush to the stations in order to hand the episodes over.

Image by Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

“We could barely make it for the airdate,” Wada told his alma mater, Keio University. “For the last few episodes, I would take the freshly made tape, hop on an airplane to deliver it to TV stations around the nation. This was a really tough job, as I had to do it every week.” For other series with similar quality-control problems, this might end up hurting the anime’s perception once it’s out for the public to view. Even with Titan-sized production problems, the show seemed to be destined for worldwide success.

Although the greatest success in 2013, the setting up of the anime equivalent to what was produced before is a significant step. Neon Genesis EvangelionIn terms of commercial success and acclaim, the premiere season of Attack on TitanHowever, it is far from perfect. There is a lack of character development, from the leads to the supporting characters who don’t end up as Titan food by the end of its 25-episode run. Take Mikasa, the last person of Asian descent on Earth, and whose ODM skills make her to the air what Kristi Yamaguchi was to the ice; Mikasa’s one personality trait from the first to last episode of the season is pining for Eren. Uneven pacing is another problem. The show’s action-packed scenes and shocking twists are great, but there are lengthy periods where the viewer feels bored. Is happening, there isn’t much actual narrative progress. What ultimately salvaged this series from being just a run-of-the-mill shonen — besides its initial hook and decade-best cliffhangers — was Wit’s spirited, and taxing, commitment to provide Isayama’s dark fantasy with a level of grandeur, style, and spectacle rarely seen in a studio’s debut project.

It was seen by critics and others who follow the industry as a gateway anime, the best since perhaps Araki’s debut as a director, 2006’s Death Note. Conventions across the globe began to see hundreds, if not thousands of participants dressed in the Survey Corps uniform. It was No. The No.1 streaming show on Funimation was it. Its success led Netflix to start making deals to include the anime series on Hulu and Netflix. Those who couldn’t wait for a second season rushed to purchase copies of the manga. Japan saw a huge increase in sales, with almost 16,000,000 copies sold in 2013, a nearly 700% increase over 2012! It’s also the rare series that was able to seep into pop culture outside of anime. This is the DreamWorks Animation latest feature. Puss in Boots – The Last WishThe daring feline takes on a Titan-sized creature, and maneuvers across rooftops to avoid him. Fans have also noticed this characteristic. And its first OP, Linked Horizon’s “Guren no Yumiya,” a song that stands among Yoko Takahashi’s “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” and Seatbelts’ “Tank!” as one of the most famous and recognizable anime songs in history, has appeared in everything from marching bands to Dodgers games to ill-advised political attacks.

Wit Studio existed before April 7, 2013. It was unknown to anyone, didn’t have a track record and was made up of a few guys from Production I.G. However, by the close of the Attack on Titan’s first season, it was now the studio with the hottest anime in the world. With just its first project, Wit had accomplished its primary goal of producing an anime with high production and commercial values, one that has become much more than just another anime franchise — it has come to represent the industry itself.

Image by Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

Wit continued to produce 2 more seasons. Attack on TitanThe second season was released in 2017, while the third will be available in two separate parts, in July 2018 as well as 2019. Masashi Koizuka will take the directorship of the final seasons, while Araki continues to hold the chief director role. This allows him to focus on the anime. Attack on Titan-Influence Kabaneri at the Iron Fortress. Each season would see an improvement in production quality. This was due to the fact that many of the main employees were able, after a four-year gap, to come back to work more prepared and conscious to tackle a series like this. Attack on Titan. There were fewer scenes that involved limited animation, greatly improving the craftsmanship of the non-action scenes, and even Asano’s character designs were given an extra gloss thanks to the makeup animation first used in Kabaneri. This was also Attack on Titan and the animators didn’t disappoint, executing action sequences that would match and at times even surpass what we witnessed in the first season, such as when Eren’s Titan body forms around him in his first battle against the Armored Titan, and Levi’s battles against Kenny and the Beast Titan in the third season.

Even though both seasons showed Wit’s growth as a studio, and tackled the more revelatory aspects of Isayama’s story, the later seasons would not have the impact that first season had on both anime and popular culture. After much discussion between the studio and production committee members, the decision was made to wrap up the third season somewhere else.

Producer Kensuke Tateishi, in an interview translated by Anime News Network with Newtype, stated that the decision was made to move. Attack on TitanFrom Wit Studio came because producers wanted to push the series further. Perhaps he was referring to recently aired episodes. Final Season, Part 3 One-hour special with film-level animation. With Wit’s schedule seemingly getting larger by the year thanks to the reputation it has built up over the the past decade, and newer titles taking up fans’ attention (Demon Slayer, Chainsaw ManThe production committee might have decided that the best way to end the series was elsewhere to ensure it could be wrapped up properly. This year. It was a lengthy search that saw many studios turn it down. Finally, it found its way to hitmaker MAPPA. One of few studios capable of handling a large project like this. Attack on Titan.

Image: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll

The loss of successful series has become one of Wit’s more unfortunate trademarks. However, Attack on TitanIt is an exception in three seasons. The Ancient Magus’ Bride Vinland Saga had only one season produced by Wit before subsequent seasons were passed to other studios due to Wit’s increasingly tight schedule. Losing a series of this magnitude to other studios is a devastating event. Attack on TitanThis would have been disastrous for both the company’s finances and its position in the industry. However, over the course of the last decade, Wit has positioned itself as a studio that could deliver high-quality adaptations of well-respected manga of various genres, just like it did with Isayama’s story.

In 2017, Wit delivered striking color and a powerful, yearning soundtrack to Kore Yamazakia’s The Ancient Magus’ Bride. The studio’s demise was two years later. Attack on Titan It was in progress, and it produced the most popular anime title of the year: its adaption of Vinland SagaWit is a strategy that was first developed in Attack on TitanYou can find more information here make the barbaric and primal conflicts between Viking warriors possess a level of swiftness that couldn’t be expressed on the page. The new decade saw Wit’s hit streak continue, first with passion project Ranking of Kings, bringing a superb level of polish and style to Sosuke Toka’s charming and bright storybook-inspired world, and with last year’s Spy x Family. Co-produced with CloverWorks. The charmingly fun and breezy action comedy that blends espionage with grade school hijinks set new ratings records at TV Tokyo last April. Attack on TitanThis has made it an international hit.

Wit Studio produces animation today. It also has live-action and stop-motion films. There is even a branch in Japan, Ibaraki Studio to help mentor young animators. In 2018, Wit Studio was established and has already released the amazing, ethereal animation film. The Girl from the Other Side.Asano, Nakatake and others still work at Wit animating and producing all its hits series. Wada was the first to see those ads for The Shining, and he is still the producer. Attack on TitanManga was his job as president at Wit Studio many years back. However, since 2021 he has been known as the president/CEO of Production I.G. (Ishiakwa is now the chairman).

The MAPPA-produced version of the MAPPA’s MAPPA Assembled of Attack on TitanIt will end, or so it appears for the moment. A series of this size, prequels, sequels, or even complete remakes are possible. But the story of Eren Mikasa and Armin are now part of anime history. While there are now series that can legitimately challenge its status the most popular anime in the world, it doesn’t change the fact that their success is linked directly to the success of Attack on Titan: a series constructed by a team of ambitious creators who, when faced with a wall preventing them from reaching their true potential, didn’t yield or stand in awe of it, but decided to scale it and then surpass it.