In a recent interview conducted by Comic Natalie with Makoto Yukimura, the author of Vinland Saga & Hajime Isayama, he author of Attack on Titan, Isayama said that he regretted not adding more characters to Attack on Titan that he could have crushed in the final arc.

In the interview, Yukimura was quizzed about the ending of Vinland Saga manga, which led to an interesting discourse between the authors about how the initial roadmap created for a story never stays the same as the plot progresses.

Yukimura said that the initial roadmap he created for Vinland Saga had undergone changes as the plot progressed. Isayama agreed with him saying that his roadmap for Attack on Titan too got bigger and more characters were added to it as he worked on the series.

However, the Attack on Titan author felt that it would have been nice to have more characters, for instance, a friend of Jean and others in the Marley camp, that he could have crushed/killed in the plot.

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“The number of characters in Attack on Titan has increased considerably from what I had originally envisioned. When I think about it now, I wonder if there weren’t enough,” Isayama said. “I think it would have been nice to have a friend of Jean and the others on the Marley side. I think we could have created a stir by having them get crushed.”

Isayama’s comment stemmed from his belief that he wasn’t accurately able to depict the burden of sins that Eren carried and how hard it would be for him to atone for these sins. While the portrayal of children getting crushed in the final arc sure showed the sinfulness of Eren, Isayama was of the opinion that it fell short.

He pointed out Thorfinn’s character arc as an example, which depicted his suffering perfectly through multiple volumes. He believed that story was well layered, allowing readers to connect with the character and adding more depth to it.

“If I were to describe how hard it was to atone for his [Eren’s] sins, I wouldn’t be able to do so. But, if you read the latest volume of ‘VINLAND SAGA,’ it seems that there was a different ending. It has taken so many volumes to depict Thorfin’s suffering,” Isayama said.

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“That’s how I learned the importance of layering the story in order to depict a moving scene. I’m sure readers who have followed Thorfinn’s journey so far will be able to relate to it, the weight of his redemption,” he added.

Born in 1986 in Oita Prefecture, Isayama made his debut in 2008 and started his first serialization, Attack on Titan, in 2009. The manga was serialized in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. The chapters of the manga have been collected into 34 tankobon volumes, with the final 34th volume releasing on July 2021.

An anime television series was produced by Wit Studio (seasons 1–3) and MAPPA (season 4). A 25-episode first season was broadcast from April to September 2013, followed by a 12-episode second season broadcast from April to June 2017. A 22-episode third season was broadcast in two parts, with the first 12 episodes airing from July to October 2018 and the last 10 episodes airing from April to July 2019.

A fourth and final season premiered in December 2020, airing 16 episodes in its first part. A second part consisting of 12 episodes aired from January to April 2022, and a third and final part will premiere in 2023.

The author said that he was dying to take a break, before starting to serialize his next work.

Source: Comic Natalie