Word on the street is that a certain popular anime is airing its final season this month. That may or may not have influenced my selection for this week. BACKGROUND:
In a rare departure for these manga reads, I have actually read a chapter from this volume before, and I've seen an episode or two of the anime's first season. I liked what I saw (and I'll get into that below), but I decided to hold off on watching the show until I've read as much of the manga as I can. SUMMARY: The stage is set almost immediately: the remainder of humanity has been driven into a walled city after the deadly Titans surfaced and began consuming people en masse. Humanity since dedicated themselves to reinforcing the wall, to the point that they went a hundred years without incident. Such an uneventful century made people complacent, with everyone content with their life within the walls, confident that the wall can withstand any Titan attack. Eren Yeager is one of the few people who isn't content with spending his entire life in what he calls a cage. His desire to see the world has inspired him to join the Survey Corps, a group tasked with exploring the outside in hopes of finding countermeasures against the Titans. The reality is quite grim, as progress made by the Survey Corps is few and far between, but Eren is undeterred. Most people do not entertain the idea of living on the outside, so Eren faces ridicule whenever he brings it up. One fateful day, the supposedly invincible wall breaks thanks to the appearance of the Colossal Titan (a kind hitherto undiscovered). Woefully unprepared, the people living within the outer walls were forced to retreat behind the next wall, but not without significant casualties. One of those casualties was Eren's mother, and after witnessing her get devoured by a Titan, Eren is doubly driven by revenge to slaughter every Titan alive. We then skip to five years later, as Eren, along with adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman and close friend Armin Arlert graduate at the top of the military class, allowing them to choose which branch of the military they'd like to join. The other top students are content to join the police force, which would allow them to live comfortably in the innermost walls, but our main three characters are determined to join the Survey Corps (each for a different reason). We then get to see the graduates on their first mission, but it immediately goes awry when the Colossus Titan resurfaces and busts another hole in the wall. The volume ends before things resolve, so that's exciting. There's also a mystery involving Eren's father (whose whereabouts are unknown after his one appearance near the beginning), though I don't know what to make of that yet. In the same way I was immediately hooked when I first encountered this manga (and its adaptation), I found myself reading this volume without pause once I started. Eren's motivations (his desire for both revenge and freedom) were immediately compelling, the stakes were immediately dire (since the sense of security of humanity was promptly smashed to pieces right at the start), and the action is exciting. Not only do I avidly enjoy man vs. enormous creature battles, the technology the military uses (the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment) is also a really cool concept as a way to fight around the Titans. The world they've set up is also intriguing. Where did the Titans come from? What makes them tick? How come the people don't know much about them? Is it possible that there are pockets of civilization outside the walled city the story is set in? What of Titans in other biomes? I have so many questions, and I want to know all the answers. Any story that makes my curiosity go haywire like this is a story I want to consume as quickly as I am able. Most of the focus is on Eren, but some of the other characters are already interesting. I'm a sucker for the silent but badass Mikasa, Armin's determination to succeed in the face of his own shortcomings is admirable, and even less prominent characters like Hannes (who was faced with quite the dilemma during the first Colossal Titan attack) get layers to them. The minor characters do a decent enough job as foils to Eren's more idealistic outlook on life outside the walls, as fellow students are more than willing to join the police just to be as far away from danger as possible, and the soldiers Eren met during his childhood were met with a classic case of hubris when they were horribly ill-equipped to do anything about the attack. The art in this volume is a treat to look at. Whereas a lot of the manga I've read so far are content with keeping the shading at a minimum (which works well for those styles, mind), I was astounded by how many shades of gray are used to add depth to the characters and the environments depicted. There's no shortage of variety in textures and other fine details, either. Perhaps the highlight for me is the action, which looks super dynamic thanks in no small part to the intense linework. Plus, the vertical maneuvering lends itself well to awesome sequences, since users can practically fly once they're anchored to something. There aren't many Titan varieties in this volume, but the few I've seen here look like proper menaces. They're hideous-looking (between their creepy faces, disturbingly weird body proportions, and the fact that they're running around naked), their sense of scale is captured well (humans look like dolls when they're being grabbed by even the smallest Titans), and the way they consume humans is drawn in gruesome detail. Adding the fact that a) there are a lot of them, and b) the humans can only do so much to stop even one Titan makes these bastards quite the imposing threat. VERDICT: Even by reading just this one volume, I can see why Attack on Titan is super popular. The setting is interesting, there's constant tension due to the ever-present danger, and even with what little I've learned of them so far, I want to see our heroes succeed. Speaking on the manga specifically, I really enjoyed the art and how it depicted both the main threats and the action when people fight them. I'm definitely going to read more of this in my own time. Chances are you've already heard of Attack on Titan elsewhere, and it's entirely possible that you're already a fan of it. If you're like me and have only been exposed a little to this series, I think it's worth seeing what the fuss is all about. Give at least this first volume a read and see if it hooks you. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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