Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) is a 2013 television anime series based on Hajime Isayama’s manga of the same name. It was adapted into an anime by studio WIT with director Tetsurō Araki and writer Yasuko Kobayashi. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2013 as part of the Spring season.
Brief Unboxing Redux Note:
The first season of Attack on Titan was released in two parts back in the day. I acquired & unboxed the first half in May 2014 and the second half in December 2014 over on my Normanic Vault blog via Blogger. This post here is a remaster, but mostly a remake (or redux no pun intended) & revisit to these unboxings all in one place, with better photos, updated information and any added extras. Enjoy!
Background:
“When the man-eating giants called Titans first appeared, humans retreated behind massive walls. After a hundred years of safety, a colossal-sized Titan smashes through the defenses, unleashing a flood of giants and carnage in the streets. Eren Jaeger watches helplessly as one of the creatures devours his mother.
He vows to kill every Titan walking the earth.
Eren and his surviving friends enlist to fight against the insatiable monsters. The future looks bleak, but there’s more to Eren than meets the eye: he may be humanity’s last hope against extinction. The Titans have come to feast. Anything can happen. No one is safe.”
Plot Synopsis via Funimation, May 2013
I remember getting into anime back in 2012 & 2013, and hearing about Attack on Titan for the first time. When the first anime visual appeared it caught my interest immediately but it didn’t completely look into it further until it exploded into popularity with the fourth or fifth episode. Eventually I did watch the series just in time for the season finale. Since then I enjoyed it enough to eventually watch the latest episodes as soon as they aired and acquire the Blu-ray releases by Funimation.
Funimation acquired the English-speaking rights (UK, US) for Attack on Titan and did their best to take advantage of the popularity by offering an English dub that included the best voice actors possible. The dub itself is pretty good, though many were annoyed by Bryce Papenbrook because back in the day he kept being used as the voice for every major main character for a number of big anime shows including Sword Art Online.
While Manga Entertainment sub-licensed the UK & Ireland rights from Funimation, they did an insulting job at it by stripping the on-disc extras onto a DVD and making it exclusive to a Blu-ray collector’s edition. In addition for some stupid reason, they re-worked the subtitles which were incorrect and had British & American English translations throughout which made no sense. This was never fixed in future re-releases. Long story short, they were terrible at their job back then, which is why I opted for the North American Blu-ray release where it had received a proper limited edition package.
Limited Edition Contents:
Attack on Titan was a very unique show for the distributor back in its time. Pretty much all of the limited edition sets were a rigid box and some Amaray cases, but this is not the case for this release.
The first half and second half were both presented as a digi-book, with a hardcover design and the discs housed inside digi-trays. Between the discs is a booklet which is slotted in the middle of the packaging, so when you open the set you can view the booklet while the discs are located on the first and last page. Both parts also came included with a 3D Lenticular Art Card.
Due to folks receiving damage and concerns that these would not last very long on the shelf, Funimation released an extra version for the second half, known simply as the Ender Box edition. Basically it comes with an outer rigid box that can house both parts together. Later releases have the Ender Box already in place with the digi-book release. Funimation initially made this version shop exclusive to their website, but more complaints emerged so they allowed it to be distributed through Rightstuf.
Both parts of the limited edition were priced at SRP $89.98 each (while the standard editions were $69.98), and the Ender Box version retailed at $129.98. It sounds expensive but the currency exchange back then for the UK was a lot better than post-2016 so it was still affordable to import. These sets did sell out pretty fast, though one of the parts may have taken a while to be discontinued.
Physical Contents:
- Digibook packaging with disc specification on the back cover
- Info sheet for specification and plot details.
- Part 1:
- 24-page Notes Beyond the Wall Part 1 booklet
- 3D Lenticular Art Card
- Part 2:
- Outer Rigid Ender Box (Exclusive to Ender Box version)
- 24-page Notes Beyond the Wall Part 2 booklet
- 3D Lenticular Art Card
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Funimation
Released: 3rd June 2014 (Part 1), 23rd September 2014 (Part 2)
The first part of Attack on Titan contains episodes 1-13 across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, while the second part contains episodes 14-25 across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs. Funimation encoded and authored all of these discs.
The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub. The white subtitles are locked during Blu-ray playback, and the disc regions are region restricted to Region A for Blu-ray players and Region 1 for DVD players.
All of the discs feature Marathon Play mode which is basically watching all of the episodes from beginning to end of the disc without any interruptions like opening & closing sequences.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | Part 1: 2 BD-50s Part 2: 2 BD-50s |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | 1 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | Part 1: 2 Part 2: 2 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 3
Disc 2:
- The Making of Attack on Titan
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 13
- “Chibi Theatre: Fly, Cadets, Fly!”
- Days 1 & 2
- Days 3 & 4
- Days 5, 6 & 7
- Days 8, 9 & 10
- Days 11, 12 & 13
- Eyecatch Gallery
- Textless Opening “Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen”
- Textless Closing “Utusukushiki Zankoku na Sekai”
- U.S. Trailer
- Funimation Trailers
Disc 3:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 14
Disc 4:
- Attack on Titan at Anime Expo
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 25
- “Chibi Theatre: Fly, Cadets, Fly!”
- Days 14, 15 & 16
- Days 17, 18 & 19
- Days 20, 21 & 22
- Days 23, 24 & 25
- Eyecatch Gallery
- Textless Opening “Jiyuu no Tsubasa”
- Textless Closing “Great Escape”
- U.S. Trailer
- Funimation Trailers
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 3
Disc 2:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 13
- Eyecatch Gallery
- Textless Opening “Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen”
- Textless Closing “Utusukushiki Zankoku na Sekai”
- U.S. Trailer
- Funimation Trailers
Disc 3:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 14
Disc 4:
- English Audio Commentary for Episode 25
- Eyecatch Gallery
- Textless Opening “Jiyuu no Tsubasa”
- Textless Closing “Great Escape”
- U.S. Trailer
- Funimation Trailers
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Attack on Titan was licensed and released on home video by Funimation. These releases came out over half a decade ago and are no longer available to own, but was re-released as a complete season collection on Blu-ray a few years later. You can stream the series on Funimation if you live in the UK, Ireland, US & Canada regions.
The Normanic Vault 