There is no doubting the popularity of Attack on Titan. Live-action movies and a video games aside, one of the best way to judge a property’s popularity is by the number and variety of fan-made projects. And in that category, we’d say that AoT is absolutely killing it! We’ve already seen two different short films created by inspired fans–one from Germany and another from Taiwan combining Attack on Titan and A Certain Scientific Railgun–as well as numerous craft projects like these “real” swords.

But this new fan-made, pencil-drawn reimagining of the Attack on Titan opening might be one of the best things we’ve ever seen! Even if you’ve never seen the show before, you won’t want to miss this incredible video–it’s equal parts beautiful and amazing.

Illustrated by YouTuber/Niconico Douga user and anime blogger animesekai1984 (who goes by the name “anime ha sekai wo sukuu” on Niconico Douga), the video consists of 423 separate drawings combined like a flip-book animation. According to the artist, this two-and-a-half-minute video is the culmination of over eight months of work. We can believe it.

In the description, animsekai1984 writes that while digital art might be less troublesome, the point of the video is to show that analog art can be just as amazing. We’d say that the goal has been surpassed! It also means that everything you see in the video was done with nothing more than paper and a mechanical pencil. And literally hundreds of hours of work.

We’ve provided some screncaps for those of you who might not be able to watch the video right away, but be sure to check it out when you get the chance.

And here’s the video itself. We promise dropped jaws or your money back!

And, in case you’ve somehow forgotten how it goes, here’s the actual opening from the anime. If you’re feeling crafty, you can try to get both videos to play in sync. You might want to turn your volume down first though–unless you want to listen to the song “echoing.”

Hmmm…wait a second! These aren’t quite the same, are they??

As it turns out, animesekai1984 isn’t just a talented artist–the illustrator decided to create an original arrangement in order to show the scene with Misaka attacking the Titan. Despite a bit of repetition, we have to say that it actually works quite well! The sense of movement and the intensity of the action are both simply incredible, and the way the characters’ clothes actually seem to move is spectacular.

Of course, animesekai1984 has done other, equally stellar, pencil animations as well. For example, here’s the opening to Sword Art Online, consisting of 368 illustrations.

According to the video description, this video took five months to make. We’re pretty sure we couldn’t do this in five years!

We’re thinking someone should hire animesekai1984 to do some original anime openings. Hmm…maybe a RocketNews24 anime series is in order, starring Mr. Sato and illustrated by animesekai1984! We hope payment in cat videos will be okay…

Sources: IT Media, YouTube, Anime ha sekai wo sukuu

Images: YouTube