Known to fans under its Japanese name Shingeki no Kyojin, Attack on Titan is a mainstream Shōnen anime series that became immensely popular following its initial release back in 2014. This was largely due to the show’s top-quality animation, impressive soundtrack, and relatable characters caught in a desperate struggle for humanity against the antagonistic Titans.
Based on an ongoing manga series of the same name, this show has run for three seasons with a fourth and possibly final one coming out next year. So let’s look back at several popular memes related to this show for a good laugh!
Explaining Attack on Titan
When it comes to anime-related memes, a lot of them tend to combine images from the ongoing cartoon show SpongeBob SquarePants for comedic effect. Such is the case here where the last dismal words of Patrick Star’s infamous Ugly Barnacle story are used to describe the Attack on Titan series in a nutshell.
Set in a world where giant humanoid creatures called Titans roam the earth and hunt down the remnants of humanity who live in walled settlements, Attack on Titanhas a lot of brutal violence as many people die at the hands of these monsters. So this meme is not only funny due to its blunt yet dark message, but also how accurately it reflects the show.
Does Not Skip Opening
Among the many quotable lines from the Lord of the Rings movies, Boromir’s famous “One does not simply walk into Mordor” line became so popular on the Internet that it’s used in a lot of memes. So naturally, someone decided to combine this line with Attack on Titan as we see in the above meme.
Though having Boromir’s face replaced with that of a Titan is funny in of itself, what makes the meme doubly funny is that they replace “Walk into Mordor” with “Skip Attack On Titan Opening” thus implying one shouldn’t skip the opening sequence of every Attack on Titan episode. Now this is relatable because almost every opening sequence is spectacular to watch with great music to boot, so why would someone skip it?
Humanity’s Strongest Soldier
Despite Shōnen series being typically aimed at boys, they can appeal to girls with the attractiveness of the male characters being one of the common reasons for it. So Attack on Titan has its fair share of teenage boys that might seem attractive to someone, but a particular fan-favorite is Levi Ackerman.
A captain in the Special Operations Unit of the Scout Regiment (aka Survey Corps), whose job is to venture outside the walled settlements and confront Titans for the sake of reclaiming land in the name of humanity, Levi is considered to be humanity’s strongest soldier as he’s capable of killing several Titans at once. Yet as the above meme shows, this guy is also obsessed with cleanliness as he went through the effort of cleaning an entire castle with the rest of the Special Operations Unit in the first season episode “Special Operations Squad: Eve of the Counterattack, Part 2.”
3:00 AM Titans
While a single Titan can be deadly, it’s nothing compared to what groups of Titans can cause in terms of damage and carnage. Therefore, it is unwise to deal with them alone. Yet in the Attack on Titan second season episode “Southwestward,” a group of Titans ambush Castle Utgard forcing the Cadets inside to defend themselves which the above image is taken from.
But this frightening situation is made humorous by the words over each figure in the image, including the Titans and the lone Cadet Nanaba who’s being attacked by them. Not only is each sentence describing a relatable thing but as a whole the meme illustrates all the things we might think about late at night.
Lord And Savior Titan
Due to their human-like appearance, the Titans can be genuinely scary as they’re gobbling up regular humans left and right. But sometimes, they can look unintentionally silly despite their attempts at being menacing.
Such is the case with the Titan in the above image from the episode “First Battle: The Struggle for Trost, Part 1” in Attack on Titan’s first season. Dubbed the Bearded Titan for obvious reasons, his resemblance to the classic image of God as an old man with a white beard makes the tagline of the meme which mimics door-to-door Christian missionaries more funny as a result.
Eat A Snickers Bar Eren
Being the definitive main character of Attack on Titan, Eren Yeager naturally gets the most focus. Traumatized by the death of his mother at the hands of the Titans following their invasion into his home district, he joins the military along with his childhood friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlelt to get revenge on the Titans themselves.
Ironically, though, it’s revealed early on in the first season that Eren has the ability to transform into a Titan when his life is in danger. So equating that to the famous Snickers Bar commercial where someone is acting irrationally unless they eat that candy bar is hilarious.
Ok Annie
Following the revelation of Eren’s Titan transformation ability, it turns out he’s not the only one. In the Attack on Titan seasons that follow, he encounters others who can also transform into Titans starting with Annie Leonhart in the first season. Despite her outward emotionless shell, Annie showed a murderous streak as the Female Titan killing people right and left to get her hands on Eren for a hidden agenda.
Thus, the above meme is funny because it uses lyrics from Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” song which is being performed by the girls from the musical slice-of-life anime K-On! Plus, Annie’s reaction is great.
Humanity Destroyin’ Titans
There are a lot of reasons why the above meme is great. First, there’s the tagline which is a play on the “Get in Loser, We’re Going Shopping” meme that’s actually a quote from the movie Mean Girls. Second, the people in the car are both dressed as the infamous Colossal Titan yet their menace is played down by the flower garlands around their heads.
In context with the Attack on Titanshow, though, the Colossal Titan turned out to be yet another person that can transform like Eren. But its presence was what instigated several events that played out in the series thus making it iconic.
Mosquitos Vs Titan
Because of their enormous size, Titans regard us tiny humans as nothing more than either tasty morsels or annoying bugs depending on whether they resist. So the image above which was taken from Attack on Titan season 2 illustrates the latter as several members of the Scout Regiment ambush the Armored Titan.
Having appeared in the first episode alongside the Colossal Titan, it is also iconic in its own right and revealed later to be a person like Eren who can transform. Still, the image is humorous due to the words above the characters and their relatability to the scene-in-question.
Potato Girl
Aside from Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, there are a lot of supporting characters in Attack on Titan. But with the number of deaths that occur in each episode, it’s hard to get attached to any of them.
However, one of the few that has survived the longest is Sasha Braus who also carries the nickname Potato Girl. Because she had the gall to eat a potato during a Cadet training session in the first season episode “A Dim Light Amid Despair: Humanity’s Comeback, Part 1,” she became an incredibly popular character to use in several hilarious Attack on Titanmemes like the one above where she’s been superimposed into the stomach of a Titan that swallows Eren whole.