About

Cleaning Levi (Japanese: お掃除兵長, Osouji Heicho; lit. Captain of Cleaning) refers to the cleaner mode of Levi (リヴァイ)^[1], the most powerful soldier in mankind in the Japanese manga/anime Attack on Titan. Levi's cleaning scene has earned a much of popularity among fans despite of its quite short appearance in the story, and hence it has been featured in many of fan works and parodies for this franchise.

Origin

"Cleaning Levi" appeared in the scene where Levi and his Special Op Squad began cleaning the old recon corps headquarter that had been abandoned for a long time. This scene representing Levi's "clean freak" nature is included in the 20th episode printed in the volume 5 of comic book series (shown below, left), and the 15th episode in the TV anime series titled "Special Operations Squad: Prelude to the Counterattack, Part 2". It was aired on June 20th, 2013 (shown below, right).

[This video has been removed]

Spread

The moment of Levi in the cleaner mode popping out from the window caught a much attention among viewers and fans due to its surrealistic lulz. Levi in this scene became to be dubbed "Cleaning Levi" or "Captain of Cleaning", and introduced as another subject of fan works for Levi in the creators communities Nico Nico Douga (NND)^[2], pixiv^[3], Nico Nico Seiga^[4] as well as deviantART in the English-speaking web. And many of them are reprinted onto Tumblr.^[5]

In particular, Cleaning Levi has been often utilized in female otakus favorite style of fan works, tracing existing movies by hand-drawn animation or Miku Miku Dance CGI characters, since it looked so cute to a vast amount of female fans addicted to Levi. The most succeeded instance of Cleaning Levi fan works/parodies is an opening credits parody uploaded by a female NND user Mary (マリィ)^[6] on July 24th, 2013.^[8] This video on NND had earned over 1 million views within its first month, and covered its popularity by an online news.^[9]

In addition, a Japanese cosplay event "Japan Cosplay Festival" recreated the window for Cleaning Levi cosplayers at their event held on October 26th and 27th.^[10]

Cleaning Levi in Official Merchandise

Cleaning Levi has been also featured in the official merchandise. Cleaning Levi was included in the official button collection released by a Japanese anime goods retailer Animate in July 2013^[11], and in the rubber strap collection as a purchase bonus in Kotobukiya's official online store.^[12] Moreover, a Japanese doll maker Sentinel announced that the special limited edition of Levi's "Osouji version" doll will be limited released in January 2014.^[13]

Left: Button | Center: Rubber Strap | Right: Doll

Notable Examples

Videos

Illustrations & Cosplays

Search Interest

External References

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