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Three bronze life-size statues have been set up at the foot of the Oyama Dam in Oita City, Kyushu. They represent main characters of the immensely popular manga and anime series, Attack on Titan.
The story is the work of Hajime Isayama, a 34-year-old manga artist from Hita City, Oita Prefecture, whose manga creates a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by three huge walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids, referred to as Titans.
The positioning of the statues in front of the 94-meter-high dam is no accident. The dam visually recalls “the wall” in the story. The statues are of the main protagonists, the young boy Eren and his childhood friends Mikasa and Armin, who look up at the wall in awe. It is intended to recall a scene where one of the giants suddenly destroys the wall that protects humanity.
The statues were put up by a group of local volunteers called the "Attack on The Hitachi Town Revitalization Conference". Through crowdfunding, they pulled together ￥29.68 million JPY (＄27.26 million USD) for the project, significantly exceeding the targeted amount. At the ceremony for unveiling the statues in November 2020, the manga artist was also present, and he communicated his appreciation.
"If I hadn't grown up here, this story would never have been born. I would be happy if my work helps other people to get to know the towns of Oyama machi, Hida, and Daiji."
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(Read the article in Japanese at this link.)
Author: The Sankei Shimbun
