"Same History, Same Mistakes": <i>Attack on Titan </i>and Trauma

This study examines the narrative patterns of trauma in the anime adaptation of Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan. Drawing on leading trauma scholars such as Cathy Caruth and Jeffrey Alexander, I argue that Attack on Titan’s narrative represents a significant development on the theoretical genre of “trauma fiction” insofar as it complicates the relationship between collective memory and trauma through its use of fantasy elements. Through protagonist turned antagonist Eren Jaeger’s descent into fascism and ultimately genocide, Attack on Titan suggests that when a culture’s collective memory is so thoroughly battered by trauma that adherence itself becomes a form of traumatic repetition, the necessary steps toward survival may well be walking away.