Attack on Titan: Why is Mikasa Hated By Some Fans?

According to some fans, Mikasa is a satellite character. By definition, a satellite character is a television trope that depicts a character’s overall essence, including motivations and personality, and revolves around their interaction with another character. If the other character doesn’t exist, the satellite character appears to be bland.

Parallel to this, Mikasa is a satellite character whose motivations and personalities revolve around the main character, Eren Yeager. Without Eren, Mikasa’s character is bland to some fans.

The hate for Mikasa extends to the extreme when fans start labeling her as "Dogkasa" and sometimes "MuttKasa". The reason behind this is that Mikasa acts like a dog to Eren.

We all know how loyal dogs are, even despite being treated badly by their owners as well as other people. In parallel to this, Mikasa resembles the dog’s loyal traits and martyrdom. From time to time, we see how Mikasa is treated badly and unfairly by Eren in the anime, yet she doesn’t really mind it because of her love for and concern for Eren.

Amidst contradicting views about the character development of Mikasa, some fans believe that Mikasa has been stagnant right from the start. Unlike Eren and Armin, whose developments are clearly recognizable, Mikasa’s development remains unseen by her critics.

To be fair, Mikasa has some subtle developments here and there, especially in the final season of Attack on Titan. While the haters continue to bash Mikasa, some fans are eager to watch her development finally unfold.

According to some people, Mikasa is a terrible and poorly written character. In fact, they even go and say that Mikasa is Hajime Isayama’s greatest failure in Attack on Titan. Aside from her poorly written character, there are a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies that fail to build up Mikasa’s narrative.

Fans point out Mikasa's being part of the Azumabito clan. With the hopes that Mikasa would finally get an interesting build-up, the Azumabito narrative failed with its empty back story for Mikasa. Some fans note that the "Azumabito Thing" is just for the sake of background, no more, no less.

There are a lot of scenes in the anime where Mikasa is hated by fans simply because she is annoying. Every single time she calls out "Eren," fans can’t help but get irritated. As some fans pointed out in the series, Eren here, Eren there, and Eren everywhere.

One of the most hated scenes of Mikasa in Attack on Titan is where she almost has a suicide attempt after learning that Eren has been eaten by a Titan. This goes to say that Mikasa’s character is so shallow that she only exists because of Eren.

Fans often compare Mikasa and Historia. For many, Historia is better than Mikasa in terms of character development, plot narrative, visual appeal, and relationship to Eren. To many, Historia is one of the well-developed and well-written characters in the series.

Fans also divided themselves into EreMika and EreHisu. For your information, EreMika is the official name of the shippers of Eren and Mikasa, while EreHisu pertains to the fans supporting Eren and Historia. The gist is that Eren is better paired with Historia than Mikasa.

Related: Attack on Titan: Is Eren the Father to Historia’s Child?

For some fans, Mikasa is just an accessory to the show. She is just there to spotlight the fighting scenes in the anime alongside Levi. While Levi is well-written and obviously loved by millions of fans, Mikasa failed to resonate with the same kind of acceptance from fans.

With her badass skills and abilities, fans ask: Is there anything that Mikasa can offer aside from her overrated fighting skills?

Well, this is a shock for us. Some fans consider Mikasa to be a Yandere. If we can recall, a yandere is a Japanese archetype that depicts a character’s unstable emotions as well as over-the-top, perhaps excessive obsession and possessiveness towards their love interest. The most popular example of a yandere is Yuno Gasai from Future Diary.

Mikasa is unlike other anime waifus, not just in Attack on Titan, but also in other anime shows. She is not the type of character that fans can easily fall in love with after watching one or two anime episodes, such as Historia or Sasha.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Mikasa is not well received by some fans. They are not used to seeing Mikasa’s beautifully toned abs and, most importantly, her superiority over Eren.

Unlike the carefree personalities of Hange and Sasha, as well as the sweet yet adorable Historia, Mikasa is an empathetic and stoic girl, as shown in the series. She doesn’t show her emotions well enough and only speaks when necessary.

She is also an introverted person who always keeps to herself. Perhaps this is one of the defining characteristics of the Ackerman bloodline that people should understand. It’s not like she chose to be like that, but she is written to be portrayed like that in the series.

Related: Does Eren Hate Mikasa in Attack on Titan?