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Attack on Titan's Japanese Sound Effects Are Full of Goofy Puns

Attack on Titan is a grim and serious story, but that doesn't appear to have stopped manga creator Hajime Isayama from having fun with the manga's written sound effects. Twitter user @no_work_no has discovered some of the goofier sound effects in the manga that even the most dedicated readers may have missed.

The sound effects shown in these panels involve wordplay. For example, in one panel, a character is shown shoving another character away while telling them, "You have to escape!" The corresponding sound effect for the shove is "dokka ike," which means "Screw off." Another panel shows a horse biting on someone's head, and the sound effect is "Kapureze," which is a reference to the Italian dish Caprese hors d'oeuvres.

Perhaps most amusingly, one panel shows a man yawning using the typical "Faa" sound effect, but underneath those characters you can see the characters "michiki." Put together, the two sound effects spell out "famichiki," the name of a popular convenience store food.

Another user @kakkiki pointed out some of the amusing wordplays in the sound effects regarding the titans. For example, in one panel, a character is shown jolting in surprise when hearing about the Colossal Titan. The typical sound effect for that kind of action is "biku," but in this scene it's rendered as "biggu," clearly a reference to the Colossal Titan's size.

In response, other users have been pointing out that manga has a rich history of playing with sound effects. For example, Space Brothers gets very literal with its sound effects, with the sound of the shower being rendered as "shawaaaaa." Some manga artists make up their own sound effects to convey a unique atmosphere, such as the sinister sound "gogogo" or the Stand cries ("Ora ora ora!" "Muda muda muda!") in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Evidently, the art of choosing sound effects for manga leaves a lot of room for creativity.

[Via Nijimen]