Attack on Titan Parent Guide: What Can It Teach Your Kids?

Summary:

• Attack on Titan is rated R for gore and violence.
• There isn’t any sexual content and sexualized characters.
• The series sends a lot of important messages.

When it comes to some anime, especially shounen and seinen ones, parents have to be very careful about what they’re exposing their children to. Some series can get quite unhinged, and might even traumatize a young person.

So let’s look at Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) and see if it’s a good idea to watch it with your kids.

Series’ Rating and Inappropriate Content

Attack on Titan is officially rated R for violence and profanity and isn’t recommended for viewers under 17. There’s indeed a lot of blood, gore and severed limbs in the series, but it’s not the most brutal anime out there. So if your 15-16-year-olds would like to try it, they can handle it if they’re not overly impressionable.

The good news is that there are no sexual scenes and sexualized characters in the anime, so if you don’t want your kids to watch something like that, Attack on Titan is a good choice. There’s hardly even any romance in the story.

There’s some foul language in the anime, but the series tries to keep it to a minimum. It won’t teach your teens new words that they haven't read online, don’t worry, but if you’re looking for something more chill, Attack on Titan is not safe.

Attack on Titan also features a couple of drinking and smoking scenes. Again, there aren’t many of them and they mostly feature side characters, so there’s hardly a chance your teen would like to try it, too, because their anime fave does it.

Positive Messages and Role Models

Attack on Titan is a series about fighting for freedom and never giving up. We can’t say that the main protagonist is a perfect role model due to some things he does in the final season of the series. But even he had some inspirational moments.

Eren keeps fighting no matter what. He falls and loses about a dozen times, but always stands up and keeps fighting. Eren started at 0 and worked his way to the top, and this might be admirable and inspirational. His fate also shows that it’s important to stop when the time is right.

There are a lot of morally gray topics in Attack on Titan, so if you think your kid is too young to understand the concepts of death, loss, trauma, survival and suffering, this series is definitely not for them.

Attack on Titan also explores such themes as the importance of friendship and comradery, ability to remain human no matter what and being capable of sacrifices for the greater good. These messages are wonderful for younger audiences, but they’re wrapped in violence and grief, so be cautious before watching it with your children.