‘Attack the titans’ (‘Shingeki no Kyojin’) has already entered the final stretch of the anime and there are only a handful of episodes left before closing the story on the small screen. In recent seasons we have seen the transformation of Eren jaeger towards a much more ruthless type of character, and not even his voice actor is sure if Eren is now a hero or a villain.
From hero to villain
The anime series can currently be seen on Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyrolland in Netflix thanks to some loose season that is still on the platform. The success of ‘Attack the titans’ Not only has it impacted his followers, but even his voice actors have their own theories about the characters.
One of the most marked character arcs in this fourth and final season is that of the protagonist, Eren Jaegerwho has gradually become a much more uncompromising individual who will stop at nothing to destroy his enemies, even if it means taking certain extreme measures.
Bryce Papenbrookwho voices Eren in the English version of the anime, has reflected in a recent interview with polygonal about its evolution in history.
“I don’t know. I haven’t decided how I feel about it yet. I think ‘Attack on Titan’ does this very well, it builds this gray area, and each chapter takes the story further in a very meaningful way. It takes you into one direction, and then immediately turns everything upside down as you discover something completely different. So I don’t really know how I feel about Eren as a viewer or as a fan of the series,” Papenbrook said.
“As someone who has played Eren, I think there are times where he says really terrible things to his adoptive family, to Armin and Mikasa,” the voice actor continued. “He’s doing these things that a lot of people would find terrible… he kills people, and he attacks people, and he’s aggressive and ruthless, and I don’t quite understand why.”
The changes to Eren’s character have stunned many viewers, who like Papenbrook are still trying to decide which side of the moral scale the anime’s protagonist would be on. Ironically, this same year Eren Jaeger was nominated at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in the categories of Best Protagonist and Best Antagonist at the same time, although he ended up winning in the latter.