After the ending theme of Attack on Titan's fifth episode finished playing, the fans of Sora collectively lost their minds that night.
After following his career for so many years, they all knew one thing very well: the plots of his works were never easy to predict. His fans could not guess where the story was headed, and, frankly, most of them did not have the confidence to try. It had been the same with Steins;Gate. Every detail had been placed right in front of the audience, openly and deliberately, yet no one had been able to anticipate the protagonist's next move.
By now, the viewers had long since grown used to surrendering themselves to Sora's creative rhythm, allowing him to guide them through the worlds inside his anime.
But what exactly was Attack on Titan doing?
The protagonist was dead.
In CLANNAD, Nagisa Furukawa could return to life because the entire anime had spent forty or fifty episodes laying the groundwork for the orbs of light, the lonely world, the girl, and the robot. On top of that, CLANNAD had carried a fantasy-romance worldview from the very beginning. Cats could become human, ghosts could carve wooden starfish and give them away as gifts, and supernatural elements had always existed within the emotional structure of the story.
So when the heroine died and later came back, painful as it was, the audience could still accept it.
But what about Attack on Titan?
How was this anime supposed to handle that?
Did the protagonist have any condition, setup, or foreshadowing that could allow him to revive?
No one felt anything like that had been planted.
Without any advance preparation, making the protagonist die for no reason and then bringing him back just as inexplicably would be no different from shattering the entire logic of the work's world.
"So I really don't understand how this anime by that old bastard Sora is supposed to continue."
"That final shot in episode five scared me to death. The protagonist's hand was bitten clean off and sent flying."
"Damn. The old bastard is playing some serious long game."
"I don't get it anymore. How is the story supposed to resolve this? There's no way episode six has Eren crawl out of a titan's stomach and keep running around like nothing happened."
"Let's just assume, hypothetically, that Eren didn't die after being swallowed. Let's assume Mikasa and Armin save him in time, cut open the titan's belly, and pull him out. He's already lost one hand and one leg. What happens next? Can he still be the protagonist? What about his grand wish to drive out every last titan? How is he supposed to accomplish that?"
"Could it be that the protagonist of this anime was never Eren, but Armin? Is Armin going to inherit Eren's will and wipe out the titans?"
"Don't be ridiculous. How could the anime spend five entire episodes building up Eren, only to kill him off all of a sudden? Don't tell me you're going to call that foreshadowing."
"I feel like the plot has already collapsed."
"Here we go again with the 'Kantoku Sora has ruined the story' crowd. We see this kind of take every two months. Can you haters calm down for once? Anyone with even half a brain would at least wait a month before saying something like that."
"Exactly. If it were some other mistake by Kantoku Sora, I might feel nervous. But you're telling me there's absolutely no trick behind the protagonist's death, and episode six is just going to switch leads? I don't believe that for a second."
"Hahaha, this is exactly how brain-dead Sora fans act. They trust him unconditionally but don't understand the natural law of all things: what rises too high must eventually decline. He debuted a few years ago, reached the top of the anime industry, and now it's completely normal for him to start going downhill. You people can't even understand something that basic. The moment anyone says something unpleasant, you accuse them of hating Sora."
"Forget it. Let his fans entertain themselves. The plot of Attack on Titan has already collapsed. Whether aliens drop from the sky to revive Eren or the story simply leaves him dead, the plot is going to fall apart either way."
"Then let's wait and see. I don't know what Kantoku Sora is thinking, but if even we can see these problems, do you really think he can't? Maybe the scene of us arguing over the plot right now was already within his expectations."
"Heh. The players in the game are always the last to see the board clearly. Maybe he really is incredibly creative, but in the end, he's still only human."
The familiar claims that Sora had exhausted his talent and that the story had finally collapsed began spreading noisily once again.
Meanwhile, inside Yume Animation, the staff spent their days trying not to laugh while reading those online comments in the office.
After all, when they had first come into contact with the script for Attack on Titan, their heads had also been full of question marks. They had continued producing the anime in that state of confusion until the arc finally reached its conclusion and the entire picture became clear. Only then had they breathed a sigh of relief - and, at the same time, marveled at Sora's imagination.
As for Sora himself, he cooperated perfectly with the public discussion. On his creator account, which had more than twenty million followers, he posted a single line:
He died before his mission could be fulfilled.
It was a historical verse from Sora's previous world. In this version of Japan, it carried a slightly different kind of melancholy.
Of course, in the hearts of Sora's fans, the effect of that line was far from beautiful.
He died before his mission could be fulfilled.
Kantoku Sora, are you confirming that Eren is dead?
The haters can mock you all they want, and we still won't believe them, but please don't scare us like this.
If you really killed Eren, this anime won't be able to hold itself together. The setting and the plot will collapse.
At noon, the ratings for the fifth episode of Attack on Titan were released.
5.91%.
The audience could complain all they wanted, but whether they were haters or devoted fans, they were all still contributing to the ratings.
The Southern Alliance Television network and the employees of Yume Animation remained completely calm because they already knew the later developments of the anime. Outside, however, doubts about Attack on Titan filled the internet.
Soon, a week passed.
The sixth episode of Attack on Titan aired.
The story of this episode focused mainly on the past shared by Mikasa and Eren.
It explained why she liked him, why she trusted him so deeply, and why her attachment to him was so absolute. In essence, it was an episode dedicated to shaping Mikasa as a character.
Naturally, the whereabouts of Eren - the very thing countless Japanese fans of Attack on Titan were waiting for - were not revealed in this episode.
Still, no matter how one looked at it, the atmosphere of episode six carried the unmistakable feeling of a death flag.
In episode five, Eren had been swallowed by a titan.
In episode six, the anime showed just how important Eren was to Mikasa.
If that was not a death flag, then what was?
And since the story had raised such a flag…
Had Eren really died?
That week, many Attack on Titan fans felt deeply uncomfortable.
The haters, on the other hand, laughed wildly.
Even so, the ratings for that episode still rose slightly.
They closed at 5.94%.
By the sixth week of its broadcast, Attack on Titan's performance was actually already lower than what the outside world had predicted. After all, Sora's previous three anime had all broken past 6% in ratings by the time they ended. Therefore, his fourth anime on Southern Alliance Television should, in theory, have easily crossed that threshold thanks to the popularity he had accumulated before.
But now, not only had it failed to reach that mark, if the anime truly confirmed a change of protagonist and Eren's death, its ratings would likely plunge.
The Japanese audience in this world was not so open-minded that they could casually accept a protagonist being replaced midway through a story.
To put it plainly, in Sora's previous world, the fact that a classic martial arts novel had successfully shifted its central focus from one generation to the next was merely an exception. In the Japanese television and anime industry of this world, that kind of exception simply did not work.
In mid-May, the day arrived for the seventh episode of Attack on Titan to air.
The post on Sora's creator account - the one that read "He died before his mission could be fulfilled" - had gathered hundreds of thousands of comments in just two short weeks.
There was mockery, support, complaints, and abuse.
But every one of those people was waiting for the seventh episode of Attack on Titan that night.
The previous week's story had focused on shaping Mikasa.
This week, surely Sora could not keep dodging the issue.
Was Eren alive or dead?
Given Mikasa's personality, she would probably cut open a titan's stomach and tear through its intestines if that was what it took to find the answer.
At seven o'clock, both fans and haters of Attack on Titan became active across the forums, arguing and attacking one another without restraint.
Everyone was waiting to see the story of episode seven.
Time passed second by second.
As eight o'clock approached, Ruka finally stopped arguing on the forum with a hater she had been fighting for two days.
Although the other person had not been able to beat her in the debate, the pressure in her chest still rose after she put down her phone.
"Kantoku Sora… please don't let us down."
At exactly eight o'clock, the seventh episode of Attack on Titan began airing.
The story continued from the end of episode five.
Episode six had been Mikasa's flashback, so the main timeline had not advanced very far.
Episode seven began by showing the audience, through a series of visual shots, the miserable state of the city within the walls.
Humans were being slaughtered and eaten. Soldiers from the corps were retreating step by step under the titans' attacks.
More importantly, Armin, Mikasa, and the members of their squad had all been fighting for so long that the gas in their vertical maneuvering equipment was running low. If things continued like this, they would lose their mobility entirely, becoming living targets for the titans to kill with ease.
Before that happened, Armin first told Mikasa, through tears, that Eren had died in battle.
The scene was different from what Ruka had imagined.
Mikasa did not scream.
She did not break down crying.
Her expression remained calm.
Only the light in her eyes had vanished.
Then, when the squad had fallen into its deepest despair, Mikasa spoke to her teammates, who had already lost their will to fight, in a voice as clear and cold as winter air.
She was strong.
Stronger than all of them.
Therefore, she could kill all the titans by herself.
As for the rest of them, they were useless, cowardly, and weak.
They only needed to stand there and watch.
Naturally, anger appeared on her teammates' faces.
Mikasa, however, merely turned her back to them.
If they could not do it, they would die.
If they won, they would live.
Then, alone, she flew toward the tall building where the gas reserves were stored.
And all of her teammates, provoked by her words, followed behind her.
Ruka watched the animation with growing interest.
From episode six onward, the story had been shaping Mikasa. Episode seven pushed that even further, handling her psychological transformation with remarkable precision: after hearing of Eren's death, her heart had reached the brink of collapse, yet she forced that collapse down and chose to keep fighting.
"Could it be that Attack on Titan doesn't actually have one fixed protagonist?" A flash of realization crossed Ruka's mind. "Could this be a chronicle-style ensemble anime about the war between humanity and the titans?"
In this world's Japan, there were also grand historical works similar to the sweeping epics from Sora's previous life. Some of those stories did not have a single protagonist. Their perspectives shifted constantly, presenting an age of war from many different angles.
And now, this became Ruka's speculation about the future development of Attack on Titan.
After Eren's death, Mikasa would inherit his will. Later, perhaps Mikasa herself would also die. The war between humanity and the titans might continue for decades, or even for a century. During that long struggle, courageous people among humanity would step forward one after another, throwing themselves into battle against the titans, sacrificing their lives, and eventually winning victory.
If that was the direction of the story, then Ruka could accept Eren's death.
But an anime like that would be extraordinarily difficult to write.
Believing that her guess might be correct, Ruka focused even more intently on the screen.
Mikasa took the lead. The steel cables of her vertical maneuvering equipment shot from her waist and pulled her through the city, sending her flying between buildings. She moved like a spirit through the streets, passing over a titan's head in an instant.
One.
Two.
Five.
Eight.
Those fifteen-meter titans - terrifying beings that had wiped out five of the six members of the squad Eren and Armin belonged to - were cut down by Mikasa in a matter of minutes, as easily as slicing through vegetables.
With the current production strength of Yume Animation supporting the sequence, the battle scenes were nothing short of stunning.
Ruka, and countless fans sitting in front of their televisions, watched Mikasa's heroic figure at that moment.
And the same thought flashed through their minds.
If Eren was dead, then perhaps it would not be bad for the story to focus mainly on Mikasa from this point forward.
After all, her performance was exactly what one expected from a protagonist.
Very soon, however, the story of the episode began to turn once again.
patreon - ImmortalEmperor