The Impact of Levi from Attack on Titan on Anime/Manga Marketing Towards Women and LGBT+ peeps: some thoughts

(aka The Gremlin Manifesto, (c) @muxlee )

I'll start with my personal investment in this topic: I, an adult woman, like gremlin characters. And with like, I mean I'm absolutely obsessed with them. This type of character is a gremlin to me: Often they are short, somewhat tsundere/have that tough love aspect, stoic/calm,

in their design, they are often pale with black hair (although there are exceptions).

And hey I am fully aware I am by far not the only one who likes that type, we're pretty much the now-adult former emo/britpop edgy anti-pink girls who are now kinda gay/bi, and that's cool.

I'm describing stereotypes here but if you're a weeb, I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about. We're many. Our past is Yamato from Digimon. We liked Seiya better than Mamoru. Kamui from X-1999 is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You get what I mean.

In earlier times, we often got our Gremlin because the happy-go-lucky protagonist needed a more "grounded" friend (which is funny, because the gremlins are drama queens) or a villain. There are countless of examples: Ouran's Kyouya to Tamaki. L to Light. SASUKE TO NARUTO.

All primary and secondary male shoujo love interests. etc etc.

But nowadays, this has shifted, and I have a hypothesis who we can thank for that: Isayama Hajime, absolute madlad and author of Attack on Titan, who once said this in an interview: https://mangabrog.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/interview-with-hajime-isayama-creator-of-attack-on-titan-better-to-have-memorable-art-even-memorably-bad-art-and-stand-out/

And look, this is also absolutely nothing new; if you know your manga culture, if you know fujoshi, you know what works.

But here's what's interesting: Levi should be a male power fantasy, for all intents and purposes.

Male power fantasy characters are usually characters male readers/viewers can project themselves onto to make themselves feel better. It's super prevalent in isekai stories: Hey this normal guy gets sucked into this world, turns out he's The Chosen One, has many powers and gets

all the chicks!!! Even an otaku like you could be that!!!
Levi fits the bill quite nicely; he's neither handsome nor tall (lol). He's actually not even charming really; yet he has Powers, everyone respects the shit out of him and the only pretty girl in his squad wants him.

Yet somehow, Levi has been developed with the purpose to cater to female/fujoshi audiences. Women/LGBT people claimed him.

With the consequence that hE BECAME THE MOST POPULAR CHARACTER OF THE LAST DECADE BY FAR and made INCREDIBLE AMOUNTS OF MONEY in every area.

Reika, for example, a very famous cosplayer, has been the no1 on the world's cosplay list for YEARS starting with their Levi cosplay ( https://worldcosplay.net/de/member/reika_japan). Levi figurines make shittons of money. Levi OVAs are the most popular ones. Levi became a Brand even outside SnK.

And suddenly, gremlins were?? Cool??? Not only as the secondary or the villain act, but somehow, we get them target marketed towards us. The latest example is, of course, Kanbe Daisuke from Fugou Keiji: UB. But we also have Kageyama in Haikyuu, Akutagawa in BSD,

or in shoujo and BL, they had their great renaissance (Ao Haru Ride, Rakugo Shinjuu, and many many more). And now, they're still not always the protags, but they always have the main spot in promotional material (and I am THRIVING).

As I said, they are nothing new, but I think Levi did A LOT to the massive popularity and subsequent targeted marketing of shows with their gremlin characters as their flagships. Because anime/manga seem to be some of the first media who realize how much power and money

there is in not only catering to the male gaze (although of course this is a huge problem still prevalent in those types of media as well). Fujoshis Also Have Money.

tl;dr: Levi sliced up titans so Kanbe Daisuke could take his money bath.

Side note for my fellow koreaboos: Of course my bias is M/in Y/oongi, I mean Who The Fuck Else, King of the Gremlins,

I'm not saying I'm speaking the absolute truth, and I'm also speaking from a very western/Euro-centric perspective!! Feel free to argue, debunk, comment or whatever on this :) This is just based on my observations as a person who's been into anime and manga for A While Now.