Music & OST
Every opening and ending theme in one place, along with the Hiroyuki Sawano compositions that gave the series its sound.
Few anime are as closely associated with their music as Attack on Titan. The first opening by Linked Horizon, with that roared German refrain, grew into one of the best-known anime themes ever written after its arrival in 2013. Composer Hiroyuki Sawano did the rest: choral singing, strings, electronics and metal guitars layered through one another, under titles that look like typing errors.
From season 4 onwards Sawano wrote together with Kohta Yamamoto. The sound turned harder and more industrial, exactly like MAPPA’s imagery.
Every opening theme
| Season | Title | Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1, part 1 | Guren no Yumiya (紅蓮の弓矢) | Linked Horizon | 2013 |
| Season 1, part 2 | Jiyū no Tsubasa (自由の翼) | Linked Horizon | 2013 |
| Season 2 | Shinzō wo Sasageyo! (心臓を捧げよ!) | Linked Horizon | 2017 |
| Season 3, part 1 | Red Swan | Yoshiki feat. Hyde | 2018 |
| Season 3, part 2 | Shōkei to Shikabane no Michi | Linked Horizon | 2019 |
| Season 4, part 1 | My War (僕の戦争) | Shinsei Kamattechan | 2020 |
| Season 4, part 2 | The Rumbling | SiM | 2022 |
| The Final Chapters | Saigo no Kyojin (最後の巨人) | Linked Horizon | 2023 |
Every ending theme
| Season | Title | Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1, part 1 | Utsukushiki Zankoku na Sekai | Yōko Hikasa | 2013 |
| Season 1, part 2 | great escape | Cinema Staff | 2013 |
| Season 2 | Yūgure no Tori (夕暮れの鳥) | Shinsei Kamattechan | 2017 |
| Season 3, part 1 | Akatsuki no Requiem | Linked Horizon | 2018 |
| Season 3, part 2 | Name of Love | Cinema Staff | 2019 |
| Season 4, part 1 | Shock | Yūko Andō | 2020 |
| Season 4, part 2 | Akuma no Ko (悪魔の子) | Ai Higuchi | 2022 |
| Final Chapters, special 1 | Under the Tree | SiM | 2023 |
| Final Chapters, special 2 | To You 2,000 Years From Now | Linked Horizon | 2023 |
| Final Chapters, episode version | Itterasshai (いってらっしゃい) | Ai Higuchi | 2023 |
The best-known pieces from the soundtrack
| Title | Where you hear it | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T | The theme of the Colossal Titan | Builds from a whispered vocal to a full choral explosion; the most recognisable motif in the entire series. |
| Vogel im Käfig | The fall of Wall Maria | German lyrics about a bird in a cage — the metaphor of the whole series in a single song. |
| Call of Silence | Erwin’s final charge | Sawano’s most emotional piece, sung by Mika Kobayashi. |
| Barricades | The battle of Shiganshina | Orchestral and hopeless at the same time; it sounds like a funeral that is still under way. |
| Attack on Titan (Guren no Zahyō) | The first titan attack | The theme that had everyone on edge in 2013. |
| Ashes on The Fire | Season 4, the attack on Liberio | Heavy, industrial and without a trace of heroism — the sound of the side that is now doing the attacking. |
| T-KT | The Rumbling | A marching rhythm beneath choral singing; inseparable from the image of walls on the move. |
Why do those tracks have such strange names?
Sawano often gives his pieces titles made up of abbreviations and stray letters, sometimes as a hint towards the character or the scene they belong to. YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T, for example, refers to the song Vogel im Käfig, which is woven into it.
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