Titans Move Units

Attack on Titan gave me the kind of sustained dread I hadn’t felt from animation in years. Every episode was a genuine threat—not just to the characters, but to me sitting there watching, because at any moment the show would kill someone important and do it casually, mid-scene, like it didn’t owe you anything. The titans themselves are a masterpiece of uncanny horror: humanoid, vacant-eyed, too big, smiling that wide empty smile. The first time the colossal titan peers over the wall, I felt it physically.

So when Subaru built a live-action car advertisement around the premise—titans, scouts, vertical maneuvering equipment and all—I wasn’t expecting much beyond mild amusement. Brand crossover with anime was already a cynical genre by 2014. And yet. The ad is actually good. Not "good for a car commercial" good—genuinely good. The production values hold, the titans are terrifying in live action in exactly the way the show always implied they would be, and whoever pitched this clearly loved the source material enough not to completely flatten it.

Are you the prey? No, we are the hunters. Subaru would like you to associate that energy with their crossover SUV. Somehow it works.