Okay so hear me out. I’ve been holding onto this for years because for some reason, no one on the internet talks about it??

When Attack on Titan first dropped, I instantly noticed that the baseline blueprint felt incredibly derivative of Tegami Bachi which started serialization 3 years before AoT.

Yes, the vibes are totally different (Tegami Bachi is a melancholic steampunk fantasy which is really cool and the manga art is amazing; AoT is a grimdark military horror and I will refrain from commenting on the manga art iykwim). But if you look at the skeleton of the world-building and the endgame twists, it is IMPOSSIBLE to say it's not at least inspired:

👉 1. The Three-Tiered Human Refuge

Both worlds feature a heavily stratified, dystopian society divided into three rigid concentric zones protecting the elite from monsters. AoT’s Walls vs. the three class-divided districts of Amber Ground (parts of the world that are lit up by their artificial sun)

👉 2. The Outer Monster Threat & Elite Scouts

Humanity is trapped inside, hunted by massive, mind-boggling monsters that ordinary people can't touch (Titans vs. the giant, armored insect Gaichu). The only ones fighting them are a specialized government force brave enough to venture into the wilderness (Survey Corps vs. Letter Bees).

👉 3. ONE OF THE BIGGEST ENDGAME TWIST IS IDENTICAL

This is the biggest one for me. In AoT, the massive walls keeping humanity safe are secretly constructed out of living Titans. In Tegami Bachi, to avoid spoilers by going into details, IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THING! The settings being similar is one thing, but the massive twist being similar is bonkers!!

Tegami Bachi is a relatively/very niche cult classic, I understand that a lot of people never even heard about it. But I feel that it is unfair that AoT got to enjoy this massive global highlight for "revolutionary" world-building, while the manga that laid down the exact structural blueprint years earlier faded into obscurity. 

Of course at the end of the day, both manga are doing different things, and I'm not going to comment on which is the better story since I'm obviously very biased. I'll just say that both are good at doing what it sought to do. 

If anything, I would like people who see this to try and check out Tegami Bachi as well, see for yourself if these parallels are way too exact to just be a coincidence or if Isayama might have lifted something from it. Are there anyone else who read both actually noticed this? Let's talk about this.

ps, sorry not sorry about the clickbaity title

Am I crazy, or has NO ONE noticed how much AoT copied/borrowed from Tegami Bachi??