Attack on Titan Memes

2013Image macro / catchphrase / fandom memessemi-active

Also known as: Is This Attack on Titan? · Shingeki no Kyojin Memes · AoT Memes

Attack on Titan Memes is a 2013 Tumblr image-macro format captioning unrelated screenshots with "Is This Attack on Titan?" as a deadpan riff on the show's cultural saturation.

Attack on Titan Memes are a collection of jokes, image macros, and shitposts inspired by Hajime Isayama's manga and anime series *Attack on Titan* (*Shingeki no Kyojin*). The most recognizable format, "Is This Attack on Titan?", started on Tumblr in mid-2013, where users captioned unrelated screenshots and images with the question as a deadpan joke about the show's massive popularity. The meme ecosystem grew alongside the anime's four-season run from 2013 to 2023, spawning reaction images, fan edits, and countless remixes across every major platform.

TL;DR

Attack on Titan Memes are a collection of jokes, image macros, and shitposts inspired by Hajime Isayama's manga and anime series *Attack on Titan* (*Shingeki no Kyojin*).

Overview

Attack on Titan Memes pull from every corner of the franchise: the towering, grinning Titans, the intense ODM gear fight sequences, dramatic character deaths, and the show's increasingly complex plot twists. The signature meme format, "Is This Attack on Titan?", works by posting an image that vaguely resembles something from the series (a giant figure, a walled city, someone being eaten) and captioning it with the faux-naive question1. The joke plays on how wildly popular *Attack on Titan* was in 2013-2014, to the point where anime fans saw references to it everywhere.

Beyond that core format, the broader meme ecosystem includes reaction images of characters like Eren Yeager and Levi Ackerman, jokes about the walls (Maria, Rose, and Sina), edits referencing the show's trademark vertical maneuvering equipment, and spoiler-heavy shitposts about the series' plot revelations2.

The manga *Attack on Titan* launched in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in September 2009, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama2. The anime adaptation premiered in April 2013, produced by Wit Studio, and the show's popularity exploded almost immediately2.

The "Is This Attack on Titan?" meme traces back to July 7, 2013, when Tumblr user minty-bee posted a close-up photo of a girl with her face partially covered by a blanket, resembling one of the Titan characters from the show1. Despite spawning what would become a viral format, the original post went mostly unnoticed, picking up only a single note1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr (meme format), Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine (source manga)
Key People
minty-bee, Hajime Isayama
Date
2013
Year
2013

The manga *Attack on Titan* launched in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in September 2009, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The anime adaptation premiered in April 2013, produced by Wit Studio, and the show's popularity exploded almost immediately.

The "Is This Attack on Titan?" meme traces back to July 7, 2013, when Tumblr user minty-bee posted a close-up photo of a girl with her face partially covered by a blanket, resembling one of the Titan characters from the show. Despite spawning what would become a viral format, the original post went mostly unnoticed, picking up only a single note.

How It Spread

The format caught fire about a month later. On August 15, 2013, Tumblr user karokekarkat posted a screenshot from *Shrek 2* with the caption "is this Attack on Titan," and the post racked up over 67,900 notes in its first nine months. On September 8, 2013, Tumblr user nyoomies posted a photoshopped image of David Hasselhoff holding Patrick and SpongeBob from *SpongeBob SquarePants* with the same question.

By October 23, 2013, the phrase had been added to the *Attack on Titan* memes page on TV Tropes. The format kept evolving into 2014: on May 25, Tumblr user verailis posted a screenshot from *Jimmy Neutron* captioned with a sarcastic comment deliberately confusing the show with *Kill la Kill*, earning over 13,600 notes in two weeks.

The meme's spread tracked closely with the anime's release schedule. The first season aired from April to September 2013. When Season 2 finally arrived in April 2017 after a four-year gap, and Season 3 ran through 2018-2019, each new wave of episodes refreshed the meme ecosystem. The fourth and final season premiered in December 2020, with its last special airing in November 2023. Each season brought new characters, plot twists, and meme-worthy moments to work with.

Platforms

TwitterTikTokRedditDiscordYouTube

Timeline

2020

Final season begins, meme content increases

2021

Memes reach peak popularity as season progresses

2022-01-01

Attack on Titan Memes reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2023

Final season ends, meme generation continues

2025-01-01

Attack on Titan Memes is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic "Is This Attack on Titan?" format is simple:

1

Find any image featuring something vaguely titan-like: a large figure, someone peering over a wall, a person eating something aggressively, or any scene with a giant-versus-small dynamic

2

Caption it with "is this Attack on Titan?" or a variation like "new Attack on Titan episode looks great"

3

The humor comes from the disconnect between the mundane source material and the dramatic anime

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

*Attack on Titan* became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 140 million copies in circulation by November 2023. The franchise won the Kodansha Manga Award, the Attilio Micheluzzi Award, and the Harvey Award. That level of mainstream recognition fueled meme production far beyond typical anime fandoms, pulling in casual viewers who had never watched anime before.

The anime's production split between Wit Studio (Seasons 1-3) and MAPPA (Season 4) also generated its own subset of memes, with fans debating animation quality differences between studios.

Fun Facts

The original "Is This Attack on Titan?" post by minty-bee on July 7, 2013 got exactly one note on Tumblr despite launching what became a huge meme format.

The manga ran for nearly 12 years, from September 2009 to April 2021, across 34 volumes.

The anime took a decade to complete, with the gap between Season 1 (2013) and the final episode (November 2023) spanning over ten years.

The series features nine distinct "Titan Shifter" forms: Attack, Colossal, Armored, Female, Beast, Jaw, Cart, War Hammer, and Founding.

Derivatives & Variations

Character reaction compilations

A variation of Attack on Titan Memes

(2020)

Theory-based memes

A variation of Attack on Titan Memes

(2020)

Finale reaction videos

A variation of Attack on Titan Memes

(2020)

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)

  1. 1
  2. 2
    Attack on Titanencyclopedia

Attack on Titan Memes

2013Image macro / catchphrase / fandom memessemi-active

Also known as: Is This Attack on Titan? · Shingeki no Kyojin Memes · AoT Memes

Attack on Titan Memes is a 2013 Tumblr image-macro format captioning unrelated screenshots with "Is This Attack on Titan?" as a deadpan riff on the show's cultural saturation.

Attack on Titan Memes are a collection of jokes, image macros, and shitposts inspired by Hajime Isayama's manga and anime series *Attack on Titan* (*Shingeki no Kyojin*). The most recognizable format, "Is This Attack on Titan?", started on Tumblr in mid-2013, where users captioned unrelated screenshots and images with the question as a deadpan joke about the show's massive popularity. The meme ecosystem grew alongside the anime's four-season run from 2013 to 2023, spawning reaction images, fan edits, and countless remixes across every major platform.

TL;DR

Attack on Titan Memes are a collection of jokes, image macros, and shitposts inspired by Hajime Isayama's manga and anime series *Attack on Titan* (*Shingeki no Kyojin*).

Overview

Attack on Titan Memes pull from every corner of the franchise: the towering, grinning Titans, the intense ODM gear fight sequences, dramatic character deaths, and the show's increasingly complex plot twists. The signature meme format, "Is This Attack on Titan?", works by posting an image that vaguely resembles something from the series (a giant figure, a walled city, someone being eaten) and captioning it with the faux-naive question. The joke plays on how wildly popular *Attack on Titan* was in 2013-2014, to the point where anime fans saw references to it everywhere.

Beyond that core format, the broader meme ecosystem includes reaction images of characters like Eren Yeager and Levi Ackerman, jokes about the walls (Maria, Rose, and Sina), edits referencing the show's trademark vertical maneuvering equipment, and spoiler-heavy shitposts about the series' plot revelations.

The manga *Attack on Titan* launched in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in September 2009, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The anime adaptation premiered in April 2013, produced by Wit Studio, and the show's popularity exploded almost immediately.

The "Is This Attack on Titan?" meme traces back to July 7, 2013, when Tumblr user minty-bee posted a close-up photo of a girl with her face partially covered by a blanket, resembling one of the Titan characters from the show. Despite spawning what would become a viral format, the original post went mostly unnoticed, picking up only a single note.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr (meme format), Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine (source manga)
Key People
minty-bee, Hajime Isayama
Date
2013
Year
2013

The manga *Attack on Titan* launched in Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in September 2009, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The anime adaptation premiered in April 2013, produced by Wit Studio, and the show's popularity exploded almost immediately.

The "Is This Attack on Titan?" meme traces back to July 7, 2013, when Tumblr user minty-bee posted a close-up photo of a girl with her face partially covered by a blanket, resembling one of the Titan characters from the show. Despite spawning what would become a viral format, the original post went mostly unnoticed, picking up only a single note.

How It Spread

The format caught fire about a month later. On August 15, 2013, Tumblr user karokekarkat posted a screenshot from *Shrek 2* with the caption "is this Attack on Titan," and the post racked up over 67,900 notes in its first nine months. On September 8, 2013, Tumblr user nyoomies posted a photoshopped image of David Hasselhoff holding Patrick and SpongeBob from *SpongeBob SquarePants* with the same question.

By October 23, 2013, the phrase had been added to the *Attack on Titan* memes page on TV Tropes. The format kept evolving into 2014: on May 25, Tumblr user verailis posted a screenshot from *Jimmy Neutron* captioned with a sarcastic comment deliberately confusing the show with *Kill la Kill*, earning over 13,600 notes in two weeks.

The meme's spread tracked closely with the anime's release schedule. The first season aired from April to September 2013. When Season 2 finally arrived in April 2017 after a four-year gap, and Season 3 ran through 2018-2019, each new wave of episodes refreshed the meme ecosystem. The fourth and final season premiered in December 2020, with its last special airing in November 2023. Each season brought new characters, plot twists, and meme-worthy moments to work with.

Platforms

TwitterTikTokRedditDiscordYouTube

Timeline

2020

Final season begins, meme content increases

2021

Memes reach peak popularity as season progresses

2022-01-01

Attack on Titan Memes reached mainstream popularity and media coverage

2023

Final season ends, meme generation continues

2025-01-01

Attack on Titan Memes is still actively used and shared across platforms

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic "Is This Attack on Titan?" format is simple:

1

Find any image featuring something vaguely titan-like: a large figure, someone peering over a wall, a person eating something aggressively, or any scene with a giant-versus-small dynamic

2

Caption it with "is this Attack on Titan?" or a variation like "new Attack on Titan episode looks great"

3

The humor comes from the disconnect between the mundane source material and the dramatic anime

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

*Attack on Titan* became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 140 million copies in circulation by November 2023. The franchise won the Kodansha Manga Award, the Attilio Micheluzzi Award, and the Harvey Award. That level of mainstream recognition fueled meme production far beyond typical anime fandoms, pulling in casual viewers who had never watched anime before.

The anime's production split between Wit Studio (Seasons 1-3) and MAPPA (Season 4) also generated its own subset of memes, with fans debating animation quality differences between studios.

Fun Facts

The original "Is This Attack on Titan?" post by minty-bee on July 7, 2013 got exactly one note on Tumblr despite launching what became a huge meme format.

The manga ran for nearly 12 years, from September 2009 to April 2021, across 34 volumes.

The anime took a decade to complete, with the gap between Season 1 (2013) and the final episode (November 2023) spanning over ten years.

The series features nine distinct "Titan Shifter" forms: Attack, Colossal, Armored, Female, Beast, Jaw, Cart, War Hammer, and Founding.

Derivatives & Variations

Character reaction compilations

A variation of Attack on Titan Memes

(2020)

Theory-based memes

A variation of Attack on Titan Memes

(2020)

Finale reaction videos

A variation of Attack on Titan Memes

(2020)

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)

  1. 1
  2. 2
    Attack on Titanencyclopedia