Secrets and sleeper agents pull apart the 104th.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hajime Isayama
Translation: Ko Ransom
What They Say
FORTRESS OF BLOOD
With no combat gear and Wall Rose breached, the 104th scrambles to evacuate the villages in the Titans’ path. On their way to the safety of Wall Sheena, they decide to spend the night in Utgard Castle. But their sanctuary becomes a slaughterhouse when they discover that, for some reason, these Titans attack at night!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I went into this volume of Attack on Titan looking for and expecting answers, but came away with only more questions.
The suspect 104th members find themselves fighting for their lives in the ruins of Utgard Castle. Barricaded inside the old tower the young members of the squad try to remain calm even as the leaders of the group fight against overwhelming odds are eventually run out of steam. As they are ripped to shreds we focus back on Krista and Ymir, but the answers I wanted out of both of them are few and far between.
I expected that Ymir was hiding secrets about Krista, but she was actually hiding her own identity. Ymir was always overprotective about Krista, so seeing her leap into action to save Krista wasn’t unexpected. However, her reasons for doing so come from a place more personal than honor or duty. I don’t even think it has to do with Ymir’s obvious crush on Krista. She remains a mystery, and Krista actually has almost no answers of her own. She also has a complete lack of her own self worth which is why she’s currently in harm’s way to begin with. Yes, she was secretly nobility, but she’s illegitimate so she doesn’t know the church’s secrets.
By the time that Eren’s group arrives on scene the entire battle is almost over. The survey corps finally realizes that there really is no hole in the wall, and the group decides to head back to one of the cities to regroup. That’s when a big revelation comes out of nowhere, taking me and probably every other reader who hasn’t been spoiled on the story so far by complete surprise. What’s hilarious is the completely disarming, ‘oh by the way’ manner in which is is brought to the audiences attention. I can almost see the author laughing now.
It turns out Eren and Mikasa were warned by Armin and Zoe about the possibility of more rogue sleeper agents inside their own organization and their likely identities. Much like the case with Annie, Eren didn’t want to believe that friends of his could be responsible for so much death. Now it’s clear that the majority of the forces that are carrying out these planned titan attacks are from the same region and have a powerful reason to want everyone inside those walls dead. What sort of blood feud could cause a hate that powerful to exist? Whatever crime is hidden in the past must be a titan sized one. Unfortunately, Eren’s hotheadedness might destroy whatever chance that we have to get solid answers about this whole mess.
In Summary
Oh boy, here we go. Attack on Titan has some explaining to do, but it’s still hiding the truth behind what is really going on. The betrayal that happens here comes out of nowhere, and I’m not sure what the hell the traitors were thinking when they revealed to Eren who they were. I want answers, and I don’t think we’re going to get any anytime soon. I wish Eren had kept calm at the end of this volume and gone along with them just so that we could finally find out why he’s so special and exactly what is really going on.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: C
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: December 31st, 2013
MSRP: $10.99
I love the concept of the series and where it’s going, but the pacing is killing me. You can tell that while good, that it’s Hajime Isayama’s first series.