Despite targeting the shonen demographic, Attack on Titan is one of the most unapologetic anime in existence. It deals in heavier subject matters compared to other anime in its genre. Portraying anything from racial segregation to slavery is fair game in the anime. As expected, the series doesn't talk down to its viewers and isn't afraid to subject both its fans and characters to some rather traumatic scenes.
There are numerous disturbing moments in the anime and at times, the macabre and visceral deaths, dismemberment, and body horror can be desensitizing. Still, Attack on Titan manages to catch even its veteran viewers off-guard. The usual titan Paradis buffet just won't cut it anymore thanks to these sequences that pushed the bar for discomfort.
10 Carla Yeager Dies (Season 1)
There have been many titan-chomping-related deaths in the anime but one of the earliest ones remains as the most memorable and impactful. The manner of Carla Yeager's death is the stuff of nightmares, especially since the first few episodes spent a lot of time building up her character as a loving and dedicated mother.
Then, some creepy smiling titan just picks her up and munches her down like a soggy burrito while Eren watches. From that moment, not only was humanity reminded of the terror of being at their mercy and the humiliation of being trapped inside a cage but the scene also set a precedent of what was to come in this nihilistic series.
9 Eren Gets Eaten (Season 1)
Soon enough, Eren also gets a taste of what her mother went through. In an early episode of Season 1, the most shocking surprise that assaulted the viewers' eyes would be Eren's apparent death. This subversion of the shonen trope was a horror to witness, since before Santa Claus titan gulped Eren, another one chomped his legs off, adding to the torture and despair.
Afterward, Eren gets introduced to the digestive tract of titans (or the lack thereof). It's basically just an acid bath. Thankfully, the anatomy field trip was short and the show pulled one of its big plot twists: Eren is a titan. They all had us in the first half.
8 Levi Squad Wipeout (Season 1)
Further down the line in Season 1, the Female Titan's introduction was a masterclass of horror and suspense. She has proven to be a lot more menacing compared to the regular titans. Since it was Annie all along, she didn't hold back in her cruelty and toyed with all her pursuers.
The unlucky bunch just happened to be Levi's veteran Survey Corps squad. Annie's titan played with them like a cat would with a mouse. She even grabbed some of them by the ODM gear threads and spun them around like a yo-yo. Needless to say, all other manners of death became more preferable compared to what Annie did to Levi's squad.
7 Miche Zacharias' Death (Season 2)
Miche Zacharias is supposedly second only to Levi Ackerman when it came to killing titans. But that doesn't mean he gets an honorable blaze-of-glory death. In fact, his death was humiliating and horrific. It might even be tied with Carla Yeager's death.
Miche practically froze due to the Beast Titan's literacy and intelligence. Soon after, he became easy picking for all the regular titans around in what appeared to be the most graphic titan feast shown on screen. The details are stomach-churning here as they even animated a titan biting off Miche's scalp, crushing his head like an almond as he screeches helplessly.
6 Kaya's Trauma (Season 2)
Most of the titan-related deaths in the series have been relatively quick thus far up until the anime showed the atrocity that befell Kaya's poor family. Her town became the target for Zeke's spinal fluid gas experiment where the civilians were abruptly turned into titans. Kaya's mother had to distract a titan so that the girl could escape.
She did so by offering herself to be consumed by a rather small titan. Due to the titan's size, Kaya's mother was eaten slowly where she most likely felt every bite that peeled off her flesh and crushed her bones. The animators made sure the viewers saw that pain on her face.
5 Rod Reiss Titan (Season 3)
So which part of the Rod Reiss titan is disturbing? Anything. From his half-baked transformation to his leaking guts, this is by far the most disgusting titan the anime has introduced. It's incredible how this creature managed to function at all considering the frontal third of his body is either missing or got sheared off from the way he crawls.
Since the titan's limbs are skinny and presumably too weak to lift its whole weight, Rod Reiss' titan crawls around with its face and whole torso planted on the ground. So apart from scraping off its face and frontal physique, it's also painting its tracks red with decorative bits of gigantic ribs, liver, and intestines.
4 Grisha Kills The Reiss Children (Season 3)
While the anime has already shown child soldiers getting eaten left and right by dumb, hungry titans, their deaths are somewhat digestible (no pun intended). It's not like these regular titans killed their victims in cold blood or intentionally as their actions are more instinctive.
Then along came Grisha Yeager in his Attack Titan waltzing into Paradis and bug-stomping the Reiss family children like they were cockroaches. It was cold-blooded child murder, to say the least; it was even revealed in the latest episodes that Grisha was extremely regretful and hateful with what he's done. If it makes the scene less heavy, it wasn't entirely Grisha's fault.
3 Eren Vs. Armin (Season 4)
Eren and Armin have never fought until Season 4. In fact, Eren held Armin's life and well-being dearly — even fighting Levi for a chance to revive Armin with the spinal fluid injection. Too bad a lot has changed with Eren within the four years of the time-skip and he's lost a lot of his humanity.
Armin assaulted Eren since the former was merely defending Mikasa against the latter's verbal abuse. The shocking part is that Eren could have just left or let Armin blow off steam if he really cared about them. But it seems too much of the Attack Titan persona is seeping into his psyche and he just had to spitefully beat up Armin. For some reason, that was harder to watch than civilians getting eaten by titans.
2 Declaration Of War (Season 4)
For even more proof that Eren has become a remorseless villain, look no further than Marley's declaration of war hosted by Willy Tybur. As soon as he made the open war announcement, he became the first casualty. He didn't even have to mobilize soldiers to the battlefield — the battlefield came to him.
And that's the disturbing part. Eren's Attack Titan went on a rampage in a public event attended not just by military personnel but also civilians. Seeing the Attack Titan body slam a crowd would have been comedically surreal if it weren't for all the casualties. The crowd was also cheering when the war was declared but they quickly panicked and fled when the actual war came to them as they were expecting someone else to spill the blood in the name of Marley. The unsettling part? Some people today probably would have reacted the same way as the Marleyan crowd.
1 Ymir's Inheritance (Season 4)
As if all the previous seasons' blood and violence weren't enough, Season 4 also had to portray one of the most nauseating backstories in the anime. That would be Ymir and her terrible struggle as a slave and the first titan. Her life was of misery even after her death as the king only cared about passing on her titan shifter genes.
King Fritz, bright as he is, thought that the best way to do it was to have his and Ymir's daughters cannibalize their mother's raw fresh corpse. It's all mildly animated, from the butchering sounds to the sticky gnawing of Maria, Sina, and Rose's mouths as their teeth sink into Ymir's caked blood and entrails. Barbaric couldn't even begin to describe what Fritz did to Ymir — he could have cooked the carcass at the very least.