Levi Ackerman

Levi Ackerman (Japanese: リヴァイ・アッカーマン, Hepburn: Livai Akkāman; alt. "Levi Ackermann") is a fictional character from Hajime Isayama's manga series Attack on Titan. Levi is a soldier working for the Survey Corps Special Operations Squad (調査兵団特別作戦班, Chōsa Heidan Tokubetsu Sakusen-han), also known as Squad Levi (リヴァイ班, Rivai-han), a squad of four elite soldiers with impressive combat records hand-picked by him. The squad takes the protagonist Eren Yeager under their wing as both his bodyguards and potential executors if he goes berserk. Though Levi is a supporting character, his backstory is explored when dealing with his former mentor Kenny during the main series as well as in the spin-off manga Attack on Titan: No Regrets.

Levi was based on the Watchmen character Rorschach, among other influences. In the anime adaptation of the series, Levi is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya in Japanese and Matthew Mercer in English. His portrayal in No Regrets did not display major differences in characterization despite acting as his backstory.

Critical response to Levi Ackerman's character was widely acclaimed for his supporting role with the main cast and most notably, his relationship with Kenny. Levi's popularity led him to win several awards and polls. His role in the prequel No Regrets also attracted generally positive reception for expanding his backstory.

Levi was modeled by manga author Hajime Isayama after the Watchmen character Rorschach and is named after a child Isayama noticed in the documentary Jesus Camp. Isayama has noted that he gave Levi a similar stature to Rorschach and gave him an obsession with cleanliness to contrast him with Rorschach's uncleanliness. Isayama stated that Mikasa, Levi, and Kenny are all part of the same Ackerman bloodline. However, their reasons for protecting their respective counterparts do not have anything to do with the bloodline itself—"it is just their nature." Before Hikaru Suruga began the manga Attack on Titan: No Regrets, her editor-in-chief suggested that she visit the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel so she could better visualize the Underground where Levi and the others live at the beginning of the story. ^[vol. 1] While drawing Levi, Suruga attempted to make him appear younger than he does in Attack on Titan. She noted that his lack of emotiveness made it difficult to choose which expressions to give him while drawing.^[vol. 1]

Levi is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya and by Matthew Mercer in the English dub. Kamiya describes his character as "stoic and cool", a germaphobe and "humanity’s strongest soldier", making his character popular even before anime's debut. When he was given Levi's role, the actor expressed pressure. Despite the character's popularity, nobody in the staff knew about his backstory making him hard to approach. After consulting Director Tetsuro Araki and composer Masafumi Mima, Kamiya learnt that Levi was not as superhuman as he imagined him to be; As a result, Kamiya studied the action scenes and expression Levi makes in the series in order to properly display his emotions. By the anime's third season, Kamiya liked the fact that Levi's mentor Kenny was introduced in the narrative as the connection these two share made Levi easier to understand more. Kamiya befriended Kenny's actor Yamaji Kazuhiro in order to explain their misrelationship as they are meant to fight. As a result, Kamiya believes that Levi became a more popular character thanks to the story of the third season.

Matthew Mercer was a fan of Attack on Titan before being cast for the English dub of the series. He came to regard Levi as his favorite character, especially due to his moral ambiguity; According to Mercer, while Levi is known as the strongest fighter in mankind's fight against the Titans, he is often forced to take dark decisions in order to survive. Mercer stated it was "an absolute joy to perform this extremely complicated, dark, intense, and still kind of heroic character".

Levi is known as humanity's most powerful soldier and head of an elite squad in the Survey Corps. Hange remarks that he is a bit of a "clean freak". Captain Kenny Ackerman later notes that the capture of Eren and Historia has to do with Levi, whom he refers to as "Levi Ackerman".^[ch. 56] Kenny is later revealed to be Levi's maternal uncle, who raised him after his mother Kuchel's death. Later, Levi is injured by an explosion engineered by Zeke Yeager (brother of Eren Jaeger). He was in a near-death state until Hange Zoe found him and escaped with his body later to make an alliance with Commander Theo Magath and Pieck Finger in order to take down Eren Jaeger. Eventually, Levi recovers and joins the others in battle, managing to kill Zeke, fulfilling his promise to Erwin in killing the Beast Titan.

Levi was part of a band of thieves alongside his partner Furlan Church, who would use maneuver gear to commit various heists to help each other out. One day, they meet a girl named Isabel Magnolia, who was chased after by guards for trying to get an injured bird back to the surface, and decide to take her in as one of their group. After a while has passed, a mysterious man from the surface uses a hostage to ensure Levi, Furlan, and Isabel take on a job that would be rewarded with citizenship on the surface. When the three take on the job, they outrun the military police but are arrested by the Survey Corps, led by Erwin, who offers to clear Levi and the others of their crimes in exchange for joining the Survey Corps.