Ilse's Notebook

After her unit on the 34th expedition beyond the Walls is annihilated, Ilse Langnar discards her broken vertical maneuvering equipment and flees north on foot, having lost her horse, her teammates, and any means of fighting. Determined not to collapse in despair, she pulls out a notebook and documents everything as she runs, writing that a proud member of the Survey Corps does not fear death and will resist to the very end.

Her flight ends when a Titan of roughly six meters corners her against a tree. Because it does not devour her immediately, she guesses it may be an abnormal, and she begins setting down what she assumes are her last words, regretting a selfish life that gave nothing back to her parents. Then the creature does the impossible: it addresses her as a subject of Ymir, bows its head, and greets her as Lady Ymir.

Stunned, Ilse records every word and starts questioning the Titan, asking what it is, where it came from, and why its kind consume people. Met only with groans, her fear boils into fury and she screams that Titans are worthless lumps of flesh that should vanish from the world. The Titan responds by clawing at its own face, tearing at its cheeks. Ilse bolts, but it snatches her legs, lifts her to its mouth, and crushes her head between its teeth.

One year later, Levi and Hange come across her remains in a field. Hange identifies the corpse by its expedition armband while Levi retrieves the fallen notebook, remarking that he is holding the thing Ilse Langnar died for.

Ilse Langnar survives the destruction of her brigade during the 34th expedition and flees through Titan territory on foot, chronicling her ordeal in writing.

A Titan corners her but does not eat her, instead speaking coherent words, calling her a subject of Ymir and bowing while saying "Lady Ymir...Well met."

Her attempts to interrogate the creature fail, and after she screams at it in rage, it mutilates its own face, catches her, and kills her by crushing her head.

A year afterward, Levi and Hange recover both her body and the notebook, preserving her record of the first documented talking Titan.

Ilse's Notebook is the second special side chapter of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan, printed at the front of volume 5 ahead of chapter 19. Japan saw it on January 5, 2011, with the English edition following on June 4, 2013.

The story was adapted as the anime's first OVA, Ilse's Notebook: Notes from a Scout Regiment Member. In publication order it sits between What Should I Do Now? and Still Can't See.

A visible page of the notebook contains upside-down katakana written right to left, translating to "encountered a Titan." The style resembles the mysterious writing later found on a herring can at Utgard Castle, though it more plausibly represents ordinary Walls script rendered differently by Isayama's assistants. The talking Titan's reverence toward Ilse quietly foreshadows the character Ymir and the wider lore of the subjects of Ymir.