MAPPA’s Controversy Over “Plagiarism” in Attack on Titan Anime

Specifically, in the latest episode of the anime Attack on Titan: The Final Season released nearly three years ago on March 22, 2021, in Japan, there is a scene where Eren Yeager confronts his friend Armin Arlert with an emotional moment. Viewers might have noticed a striking background image featuring several warships.

At a certain point in time, some observant viewers pointed out that the background image of the warships appeared in a location similar to Paradis. However, it was ultimately overlooked. Recently, on Reddit, it was discovered that this background image was directly taken from the video game “Total War: EMPIRE.” The person responsible for this has not made any modifications to the image, simply copying and pasting it into the frame.

This action could be seen as “plagiarism,” “theft,” or “disrespect,” depending on whether you are a fan of Attack on Titan or the studio MAPPA itself. The use of an image taken directly from a video game allows animation studios to save a significant amount of time and resources.

After learning about this issue, internet users have voiced their opinions as follows:

– What a failure! Why are there images of warships in Paradis?

– Yes, they completely ruined this scene.

– I can’t believe this is the studio responsible for producing the final season, not WIT STUDIO.

– What a failure! There are so many tasks at MAPPA, so this could be their only way to meet deadlines.

– Perhaps one of the animation studios is simply borrowing from the game “Total War: EMPIRE” and wants to incorporate it into their reference materials. I dislike how the ending of Attack on Titan resembles many others, but this has gone too far.

– I have no issue with the act of borrowing, but at least they should make some adjustments so it doesn’t look exactly like the original.