Creator insists he wasn’t pressured by publisher to keep drawing the smash-hit.

From the very start, Attack on Titan has delighted in keeping fans off balance. Creator Hajime Isayama’s story takes place in a world where danger arrives without warning and leaves with corpses in its wake, and the only challenge greater than the characters figuring out how to overcome those threats is the one readers face in vainly trying to guess what will happen next.

So we can’t say what fate has in store for Erin, Levi, and the rest of the cast in the upcoming April 9 chapter of Attack on Titan, but what we do know is that it will be the very final chapter in the series.

’Publisher Kodansha has announced that the May issue of its monthly Bessatsu Shonen Magazine manga anthology (which goes on sale April 9) will contain Attack on Titan’s series finale. The company has also already said that the final collected volume, Volume 34, will go on sale June 9.

▼ A video promo for Attack on Titan Volume 33, which comes out this Friday

Though it didn’t really enter the mainstream entertainment consciousness until its first anime adaptation season in 2013, Attack on Titan debuted all the way back in September of 2009, which will make its complete run an 11-and-a-half-year event. Those keeping track, though, might recall that in 2014 Isayama himself estimated that he’d be wrapping the series up in three years, which would have meant a 2017 finale. So was this a case of Kodansha pressuring Isayama to keep drawing Attack on Titan, so that the company could continue tugging on the udders of its cash cow?

Nope, since along with the ending-date announcement Isayama has released a statement, saying:

“I’ve been saying the series will end in three years since as far back as eight years ago, but I think I can finally bring it to a close. It’s been a very long time coming, but if you’ll stay with Attack on Titan until the end, I’d be very happy.

My editors have in no way pressured me into stretching out the series. If anything, in recent years they’ve been the ones asking me ‘When is it going to finish?’ and making me feel like I should wrap things up. I’m sorry for the wait, but it’s finally ending.

I’ll be working hard on the last chapters, and hope that they will make you feel it’s been worthwhile to read Attack on Titan.”

In the meantime, if you just can’t wait until April, Isayama has already given a sneak peak at what he plans to be the final panel his series will go out on.

Source: PR Times via Otakomu
Images: YouTube/マガジンチャンネル
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