What Type of Anime Is Attack on Titan? Shonen, Seinen?
It’s difficult to categorize shows that aim to be genre-defying, and Attack on Titan is definitely one of those shows. It has young protagonists coming into their own, but it’s set in a very dark world. It almost seems as if Eren Yeager, the show’s protagonist, is a shonen protagonist in a seinen world. So let’s find out what type of anime Attack on Titan is, whether it’s shonen or seinen, and the reasons why.
Attack on Titan is a shonen because it’s published in the shonen magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. The term “shonen” is actually not a genre and has nothing to do with how dark the content is. It’s true that shonen anime are typically more light-hearted, and seinen animes usually feature darker themes. However, this is just a general observation and doesn’t definite either of those terms.
Whether Attack on Titan is a shonen or a seinen is still debated among fans of the show today. Labels like “shonen” or “seinen” are not helpful when describing a story because they have nothing to do with the content. Let’s explore why despite its dark themes and more mature target audience, Attack on Titan is still considered a shonen anime.
Attack on Titan is published under a shonen magazine
Attack on Titan is published in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, and it’s mainly targeted at teenagers, making it a shonen anime. Even though the show’s dark themes may scare off younger viewers, teenagers’ tastes in anime shouldn’t be underestimated. Plenty of fans got into Attack on Titan at a very young age.
Shonen, seinen, shoujo, and josei are all labels to describe the demographic of the watchers and readers that follow that show. They don’t say anything about what the content is about.
Shonen anime isn’t all about long-running battle series about underdog protagonists who never give up on their dreams to become the best at something. If this is what pops up in your mind when you think “shonen,” you’re confusing it with battle shonen. Battle shonen is a subgenre of shonen.
Some series that you might not have expected to be shonen, but are, are the Promised Neverland, Death Note, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure until part 7, Hunter x Hunter, etc. Similarly, K-On is considered a seinen because it was published in the seinen magazine Manga Time Kirara.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a perfect example of this. It was originally published under Shueisha’s shonen magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, then later moved to the monthly seinen magazine Ultra Jump. That switch was the only thing that turned Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure from a shonen to a seinen. The content of the manga didn’t make a drastic shift or suddenly become more violent.
Why the debate about shonen vs. seinen when it comes to Attack on Titan?
Attack on Titan isn’t the first anime that has given rise to this debate. Animes like Hunter x Hunter also provoke the same reaction from fans who can’t believe it’s shonen.
But all the shonen label means is whether the editor thinks teenage boys will like that series. That doesn’t mean young girls or adults can’t like it, and it certainly doesn’t say anything about the anime’s content.
Teenagers can like some pretty gory stuff too. Many long-time Attack on Titan fans started watching it when they were teenagers. These same fans are now adults, but that doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy Attack on Titan anymore.
I started watching Attack on Titan when I was 14, meaning I was in the prime age range for watching it. I enjoyed it because of the dark content matter and philosophical topics, not despite it. This goes to show that teenagers have different tastes, and many of them enjoy consuming darker media.
I’m well on my way to getting a degree now, and I still loved watching Attack on Titan’s final season. I don’t feel like I’ve been excluded just because I’m no longer in the prime age range to watch Attack on Titan. It’s still a shonen anime, and I’m fine with enjoying shonen anime.
Attack on Titan tackles difficult topics and questions about morality during wars, what it means to be free, internalized xenophobia, how much we’re responsible for the sins of our ancestors, and numerous other philosophical topics. These are very serious questions, and Attack on Titan doesn’t pull any punches in an attempt to show how people from different backgrounds would answer them, the gray morality of human beings, and their fight for survival.
Seinen shows are usually associated with a dark, edgy undertone, but this is just a misconception. Shonen shows can also be violent, deep, and philosophical, like Death Note or Attack on Titan itself.
Western perception of seinen and shonen shows
Attack on Titan exploded in popularity since its very first season. Nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find an anime fan that hasn’t heard of Attack on Titan.
Because of this, most people don’t watch the anime or read the manga in the original Japanese but have to resort to watching it in English. This is where mistranslations of terms and when they’re used can muddy the waters.
In western fandoms, “shonen” has come to mean “action-adventure battle anime like Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach.” But “shonen” actually means “anime that’s targeted at a young male audience.” The literal translation of “shonen” is a young boy or young man in Japanese.
For years, western audiences have tried to define terms like shonen or seinen as genres that describe the content when they’re not. They’re just terms to describe the target demographic of that series.
This is not to say that you can’t like Attack on Titan if you’re not a teenage boy. That would be both ridiculous and untrue. It simply means that Attack on Titan was published under a shonen magazine because the publishers thought young teenage boys would be the ones that would like Attack on Titan the most.
If Attack on Titan was published under a seinen magazine, we would call it a seinen. That would mean the publishers were convinced that Attack on Titan should be aimed at college-aged young adults. But because Attack on Titan was never published under a seinen magazine, we call it a shonen.
