Attack On Titan Before

What happened before the main Attack on Titan story

If you want to understand the world properly, you need to look at what comes before. The main series drops you into Shiganshina and assumes you already know why the walls exist, why Titan powers are split up, and why people like Levi are so effective. They don't explain any of that in the core narrative. That gap is filled by supplementary material, and it matters more than most people expect. The phrase most fans use to search for this content covers three main things: Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (the light novel and manga), Attack on Titan: No Regrets (the Levi backstory OVA), and the two theatrical compilations that retell the first season with extra scenes. Each serves a different purpose. Mixing them up is easy, and watching them in the wrong order can actually make the main story feel confusing rather than clearer. I spent months tracking down exactly what each piece adds to the timeline. The cleanest approach starts with Before the Fall, which takes place roughly 100 years before the main event. It explains how the vertical maneuvering equipment was invented, why the Survey Corps was nearly disbanded multiple times, and how the concept of fighting Titans evolved from a hopeless military experiment into something that actually works. Without that context, Erwin's decisions in season 4 feel like random bravado instead of calculated risk from someone who has spent his entire life losing people to a cause he believes in.

Here is the practical ordering that actually works. Watch Before the Fall in this sequence: the original light novel by Suguro Ryo, then the manga adaptation if you want visual reference. Do not start with the manga version because it condenses too much and cuts out the political detail that makes the whole thing worthwhile. After finishing that, move to No Regrets. It is four episodes split across two OVAs, and it covers how Levi ended up in the Survey Corps and what happened in the Underground City. This piece is essential because it explains Levi's combat philosophy and his relationship with Erwin, which the main anime only hints at. The theatrical releases are optional. They re-edit season 1 with roughly 30 extra minutes of footage, mostly action sequences remade with slightly better animation. They do not add new story information. I recommended them only if you want a visual upgrade to an already watched season, not as a primary source for understanding the timeline. There is a specific problem that comes up with Before the Fall that almost nobody warns you about. The novel version contains internal monologues and political backroom details that the manga adaptation removed entirely. If you read only the manga, you miss the explanation for why the King's Militia was disbanded and how the research into Titans was initially suppressed by the royal government. I ran into this exact issue when a friend asked me why certain characters in the main story seemed to know about Titan biology before the Survey Corps had officially started their research. The answer is in those missing novel chapters. I solved it by comparing the manga panels side by side with the light novel text, which took about two hours but gave me a complete picture of how the technology transfer happened between the military factions.

Another detail people consistently miss involves the timeline contradiction in early Before the Fall material. The story is set during the year 844, but certain references to the Founding Titan and coordinate powers appear that technically should not be fully understood by characters yet. The author Kenji Sako acknowledged this in later interviews and essentially patched it by treating those moments as dramatic foreshadowing rather than literal knowledge. When you are piecing together the full chronology, do not treat those scenes as canonical exposition. Treat them as thematic setup that Gotouabe (the artist) illustrated for pacing reasons. If your goal is purely canon accuracy, the Before the Fall light novels are the most reliable source. The manga is a solid secondary reference. The anime adaptation of Before the Fall exists but is widely considered inferior to both because it compresses three novels into 12 episodes and removes the political scaffolding that holds the world together. I would only suggest the anime version if you want a visual overview before committing to the longer written format. No Regrets has a different set of issues. The OVA is canon-adjacent rather than strictly canon according to most official timelines, which means some details conflict with later revelations in the main series. The scene where Levi fights the Female Titan in the Underground City is emotionally effective but does not perfectly align with what is shown about Titan abilities in later seasons. I stopped worrying about these inconsistencies once I realized they were minor production choices meant to give Levi a standalone origin story. The character motivations remain consistent even when the physics of a particular fight scene stretch believability slightly.

For finding the actual material, Before the Fall light novels are available through major online retailers in both Japanese and English editions. The manga runs seven volumes and is widely stocked. No Regrets appears on official Crunchyroll and Netflix catalogs depending on your region, though availability shifts frequently. The theatrical compilation films are harder to track down legally in some countries, so I generally do not recommend pursuing those unless they are already available through a subscription you pay for. The main series itself references events from before the story without showing them directly. Characters mention the fall of Wall Maria, the disappearance of Grisha Yeager, and the underground city operations as background lore. If you consume all the prequel material first, those references click into place immediately and the emotional weight of scenes like Erwin's charge in season 4 hits differently because you have seen the institutional history behind his desperation. One final practical note. Do not attempt to read or watch all of this before starting the main anime if you have not seen it yet. The prequel material works best as supplemental viewing after you have finished the main story at least once. The revelations about the Titans, the government, and the history of the world hit harder when you already know how the story ends, and you will appreciate the dramatic irony in every prequel scene much more than you would on a first watch.