Imagine you wake up one day and, suddenly, a band of giant, human-eating creatures shows up, starts destroying your neighborhood and begins consuming the people around you. 

What would people do in that situation? Would they stand up to protect humanity at the brink of its extinction? How would the government handle the complex politics of such an unprecedented global catastrophe?

Fans of the popular Japanese manga series Attack on Titan, created by Hajime Isayama, who happen to be in Singapore or plan to visit the country in the next few months are in for a treat. The ArtScience Museum in Marina Bay Sands has launched Attack on Titan: The Exhibition.

Watch for the Titans!: 3D Titans "falling from the sky", offering visitors a "real" experience of the dystopian world. (Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands) (Marina Bay Sands/Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands)

“ArtScience Museum is delighted to be working with SPACElogic and the Attack on Titan team in Japan to bring this cultural phenomenon to Singapore for the first time,” said Honor Harger, vice president of attractions at Marina Bay Sands, during a virtual press conference on Thursday.

Harger added that visitors would encounter the creative vision behind Isayama’s Attack on Titan, which has won international acclaim for its fascinating characters, multifaceted themes and artistry.

“If we dig deeper into Attack on Titan, themes like hope and perseverance emerge as common threads. [Such stories] provide many of us with a sense of escapism, but they can also remind us of our humanity and courage when facing difficult circumstances,” said Harger, adding that through the exhibition, visitors would be able to delve deeper into Hisayama's imagination. 

The exhibition is scheduled to run from Feb. 19 to July 3. The manga series revolves around a fictional dystopia where human-eating giants, known as Titans, threaten humanity. As the story progresses, the complex history and politics behind the appearance of these Titans begins to unravel and poses more questions to and about humanity.

The timing of the exhibition coincides with the airing of the final season of the anime version of Attack on Titan (available on Netflix in Indonesia), which premiered on Jan. 10. 

Inside the exhibition: A look of The Great Titan Theater 2 at ArtScience Museum in Singapore. (Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands) (Marina Bay Sands/Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands)

‘Real’ experience

The manga series of Attack on Titan was first published on Sept. 9, 2009, in the first-ever issue of Kodansha's monthly publication Bessatsu Shonen Magazine and concluded on April 9, 2021, with the release of the 139^th chapter.

The anime version premiered on April 7, 2013, and the series finale is scheduled to be released on April 2, 2022.

In both the manga and anime versions, Attack on Titan is set in a dystopian world where humans live behind walls that keep them safe from giants called Titans, who wander outside the walls with one purpose only: eating humans.

While the walls have protected humanity for generations, one day, a massive giant taller than the walls themselves, later called the Colossal Titan, shows up and breaches a part of the wall, allowing other Titans to enter and cause chaos.

Three childhood friends, Eren Jaeger, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, decide to join the Survey Corps, an elite group of soldiers who fight the Titans and investigate their origins. Jaeger, who lost his mother in the attack, vows to avenge her and exterminate all Titans from the world.

The series’ Indonesian fanbase is avid and has grown rapidly in recent years. Doni Affandy, 28, from Tangerang, said he and his wife first met when they both wore Attack on Titans-inspired costumes at a cosplay (costume play) event a few years ago in Jakarta. 

“I think people liked the manga, but it became really popular when Indonesians started watching the anime and talked about it online and with their friends,” he said, adding that the absurdity of the premise mixed with the increasingly intriguing storyline made it an easy favorite for Indonesian anime fans. 

Visitors to the Singapore exhibition will experience a version of the iconic, opening sequence themselves. According to Shintaro Kawakubo, the editor of Attack on Titan from the Weekly Shonen Jump editorial department Kodansha, said the team wanted people who attended the exhibition to feel the emotions of Jaeger, Ackerman and Arlert as their city was reduced to ruins. 

“Instead of just having visitors looking at the art pieces, [the team] wants to bring them into the world of Attack on Titan,” said Kawabuko at Thursday’s virtual press conference. 

Authentic: Comments by the editor of "Attack on Titan", Shintaro Kawakubo are also on display. (Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands) (Marina Bay Sands/Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands)

The first iteration of “Attack on Titan: The Exhibition” attracted over 450,000 visitors during its tour of Japan in 2014 and 2015. The presentation at the ArtScience Museum marks the overseas debut of the exhibition in its latest form.

During the virtual press conference, Kawabuko highlighted some aspects of the exhibition that visitors could look forward to. 

The first was a model of the head of the 60-meter-tall Colossal Titan as it peeks over the walls where Eren and his friends live.

The exhibition also includes a model of the debris of the city following the attack of the Titans at a 1:1 ratio so that visitors can experience the enormous size of the giant humanoids. 

Visitors will be able to examine 11 years of rough sketches from Isayama showing the creative process behind Attack on Titan. These also include some notes from Kawabuko himself, as Isayama’s editor, further showcasing the hard work and collaboration between the two. 

Kawabuko said the rough sketches would normally be thrown away. However, Kawabuko noted that he had “strong feelings” from the very beginning that the manga series would have a strong impact, so he began collecting sketches, around 1,000 of which will be exhibited. 

Other life-size renderings of famous objects from Attack on Titan, such as Mikasa Ackerman’s beloved scarf, Annie Leonhart’s ring, Eren Jaeger’s basement key and Armin Arlert’s book, will also be displayed at the exhibition.

Speaking at the same press conference, Augustus Peh, chairman and founder of SPACElogic and SL Experiences, which worked closely with the Attack on Titan team to design the exhibition, acknowledged that travel restrictions had made it challenging to devise and create the displays and described the process as a “new experience”.

Regardless, Augustus said the entire experience was fulfilling.

“We hope that everyone can experience the beauty of this hugely successful manga as the exhibition offers one of the biggest and most comprehensive experiences for visitors,” said Augustus.