How do you fight for when the whole world is against you?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hajime Isayama
Translation/Adaptation: Sheldon Drzka
What They Say:
CAN YOU GO HOME AGAIN?
Thanks to Eren, humanity has taken the town of Trost back from the Titans. Exhausted, Eren falls into a coma for three days – and wakes in shackles, staring at Erwin Smith, leader of the Survey Corps. Certain that Eren’s father’s research holds the key to the mystery of the Titans’ rise, Smith wants an expedition to retrieve it from the house where Eren grew up. But that’s deep in Titan territory, and to get there Eren will need to master a power he still doesn’t fully understand…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Attack on Titan has been slowly expanding on how it’s world and human society works, usually by way of info-graphics tucked between chapter breaks. The torrent of information included in this volume was unexpected and exposition heavy, but a welcome look at a land that had seemed like an abstract until now.
Eren has been locked up while the folks in charge decide what to do with him. Many just want him dead, while the Survey Corps realizes what an asset he could be if controlled properly. We get to see the different factions that hold power in Eren’s world, from government branches to an insane church that believes the walls were created by god for their protection. As per usual in this manga, the more passionate and emotional the speaker the more insane they look. Isayama-san’s artwork is just as bizarre and rough as ever in this volume.
The politics are interesting, but the idea that Eren has just as many human enemies as titan ones is intriguing itself. It’s something his new commander is keenly aware of, and he even seems to be attempting to bait out any dissenters that want Eren dead.
The Survey Corps team that Eren is assigned to is a weird group of lackadaisical savants and fighters who have seen it all, and clearly have crossed some mental threshold of normal behavior. Added to the elites are the fresh recruits who served alongside Eren. Here we see an interesting struggle play out as we watch characters who fought, and survived, in the opening chapters chose their destiny. Those who stay and those who go might end up surprising you.
Wasting no time, the story leaps back into action as the team heads out of a brief excursion to test the techniques and train in what they’ll need to do to reach the place where the story began. It doesn’t seem like much of a training exercise since the soldiers have to confront the same dangers they would on a longer expedition. Without the advantage of height and their gear, the team seems like easy prey for the titans.
Meanwhile, Armin realizes something that has been looming large in the minds of most astute readers. If the smart titans are transformed humans, like Eren, then why are they attacking fellow humans? All evidence so far points at the titans being some sort of human created weapon, which would mean that these war machines turned on their creators. Unless, of course, their creators are still out there commanding them. It’s doubtful that the great walled nation is the last nation on earth, after all.
There are no extras included in this volume, and only one translation note which barely counts. It’s strange to see a manga artist so tight lipped on the extras, although the preview for the next volume might count as it’s more of a joke than a real preview.
In Summary:
There’s a lot going on in this volume of Attack on Titan. With a pause in the constant titan warfare, Eren faces an unexpected threat from his own people. With a populace living in a state of fear, the idea of a titan in their midst almost creates a panic. Suddenly the world these characters live in seems larger and more complex as we get a glimpse of the many different political factions at work. The pause doesn’t last forever though, and by the end of the volume we’re back to the gory spectacle that is the struggle for survival that the series is known for. I hope we get to see more of the rest of the team in the next volume, and how their coping with their insane decision to join the Survey Corps.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: C
Package Rating: B
Text/Translation Rating: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released by: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: June 4th, 2013
MSRP: $10.99
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