Hi! Sorry if you've answered this before, I can't search your blog. I've read before that Levi's rank "heicho" is actually an archaic rank that isn't used in modern military, and no one else in the Survey Corps is called this, so he seems special? Do you know how this compares to Marley for example, do they have this rank and can understand his position? Especially since Pieck addresses him with it at the end. Thank you!
Hi!
Dang this is a really old one that doesn't feel like it's seen the light in a long time, and I had to do a bit of digging myself for it ^^;
So, Levi's title is actually formally å µå£«é· heishichou, which literally means "the leader of the soldiers" and there isn't actually an equivalent military rank to it. (Isayama also used a number of made-up "ranks" and military units, including the Survey Corps itself, which is the reason why there are so many translation names around all of these things XD) "Heichou" is a contraction of his title.
Now this is the part that vexes me, because I'm pretty sure that I've seen something somewhere that was Isayama explicitly explaining this particular point, however, with the way the internet has gone as well as the deletion of a veritable collation of one of the Isayama meet and greet sessions (Shingeki homecoming 2014), I can't find this TT_TT However, I did manage to archive unearth calorescence's post on this, which gave me at least a source of acknowledgement of "heichou":
It says:
čŖæę»å µå£ć®å µå£«é·ć äŗŗé”ęå¼·ć®å µå£«ćØē®ćććååØć§ć 仲éćććÆćå µé·ććØå¼ć°ćć¦ććć
The Survey Corps' "captain" (heishichou) [An entity] Recognised as Humanity's strongest soldier, (he) is called "Heichou" by comrades.
It's also his character description in the anime website.
But as to what his ranking actually is, Isayama does give an answer to this in the Frau magazine in 2014, which is:
(Disclaimers for mistakes, mistranslations etc, Iām reading this from a very blurry image XD)
ćć£ć©ćÆćæć¼å®ćØććäø»ęØćććÆćÆććććć§ćććå µå£«é·ćØåéé·ć®äøäøé¢äæćē„ćććć§ććå£é·āå µå£«é·āåéé·ćŖć®ć§ćććććå µå£«é·ć ćå„ę ć®ćććŖę°ććć¾ććć č«å±±ććļ¼å µå£«é·ćÆéē“ć®åŗåć«å±ććŖćä¾å¤ēćŖå½¹å²ć§ćć
It appears to deviate from the main aim of addressing the character(s) but, I would like to know about the up-down relationship between Heishichou and Squad Leader. Is it CommanderāHeishichouāSquad Leader? Only Heishichou has a special case(outside of the norm) feel to it. Isym: Heishichou is an exceptional role that does not belong to the ranking hierarchy.
And as I've written in the post I pulled this from, I suppose he is like the leader of special forces, in charge of implementing unconventional operations and thus operates outside of the hierarchy :)
And as for the last point about Pieck addressing him as such, this is where the waters get a little muddy, because, as the character description goes, "Heichou" is what he gets called by his comrades. In other words, it is also a more intimate form of address than actually being called by his rank, which is "Heishichou". Levi's "Heichou" is actually a little bit like calling him his military equivalent of "Doc" XDD
[chapter 135]
Trying to keep a long story short and oversimplified, japanese people will call someone by name+polite form of address if the other person "outranks" them or they are not very close. If they have a title, one can also call them by that in lieu of their name (like just ē¤¾é· shachou "(company) President" but using it as if it were a name+title). If I remember correctly, Pieck addresses Hange as Hange-san, and also used the polite form (-masu form). However, in speaking to Levi here Pieck used the casual/informal form (I actually couldn't remember the term and had to look it up: kudaketa nihongo XD), and I would say in terms of overall tone, that she treated him as an equal. Personally I would very much interpret the "heichou" she uses here as in the same way the others call him "heichou": as a polite but familiar way of addressing him, and much less as a formal acknowledgement of his rank. Hopefully this makes sense >.<
And as a random bonus for all my searching, a very old sketch of Levi-heichou from Isayama's blog (5th February 2010) XDD
Edit: drawn by "O-san" who was helping him with the manga
(What Levi says can be loosely translated as "thank you your hard work for today too!")
Thank you for your ask! :)
(Usual disclaimers apply :)
Ps. I forgot to address the actual issue of "heichou" å µé· XDD, which does so happen to be an old military rank (it is a rank lower than Corporal and higher than Private First class and is in fact not an officer role: leading private (Imperial Japanese Army); leading seaman (Imperial Japanese Navy)), however, this is an accidental coincidence and not the intended meaning of the term in Attack on Titan. [japanese wiki] [weblio]
I am so stupid, because the contraction of "Captain" is so obviously "Cap" (ć_<ć)
Also wanted to add that Pieck speaking like that to Hange also confers a sense of an acknowledgement that Hange is at a higher rank to her. And I also wanted to throw in one of my explainers for how the speech patterns work:
I haven't written one of these in a long while, but I was thinking about speech patterns and about visualising them rather than trying to us
(Also that leaving out the title (eg. "-san") when calling or addressing someone in a public place is another hot kettle of fish, it's better to add the title when referring to a close friend to somebody else even if you would leave it out in private etc..)
Also wanted a add a bit.
In the german military there was once a rank called "Heermeister" which literally would translated to "master of troops"
It comes from old Roman regiment ranks where it was called magistri militum.
A "Heermeister" would usually command an arm of the forces like the cavalery. It used to be a very high rank and would be just one step under the commander of the forces.
So we know Isayama is a military buff so maybe he had that in mind?
