Attack on Titan reimagined as a school comedy, with all of the absurdity that brings.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Saki Nakagawa
Based on the work by: Hajime Isayama
Translation/Adaptation: William Flanagan
What They Say
Jocks, Nerds, and… Titans?!
For five years, Eren Yeager has nursed a grudge against the Titans. Now he’s about to enter junior high with these massive creatures as classmates, and he won’t let his chance for revenge go to waste! Watch as your favorite trainees take on the Titans… in class, music club, and dodgeball!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Attack on Titan: Junior High exists, and it’s been released in the states? Well, okay, upon reflection it makes sense considering how well Attack on Titan sells that anything and everything related to it would be brought over and released. But a parody gag manga based on the series? That’s taking the brand into all new heights of intellectual property cash in.
So, why does this exist and how did it come about? There’s an interview inside between Nakagawa and Isayama discussing how they were both fans of Tsutomu Nihei’s work, and the BLAME! Academy spin off sparked the idea for a Titan one. So one equally bizarre concept spawned another and we get a full, two volume compilation of the gag manga released in English.
Nakagawa reimagines the cast of Titan as junior high students, attending Attack Junior High, a school which has both human and titan students. All of the humans are drawn as cartoony, chibi-faced versions of themselves while the Titans remain remarkably spot on to their depiction in the actual comic. Things get weird when the clearly adult characters are shrunk down to middle school level, and left with craggy faces and facial hair. The chibi transition isn’t without side effects, as their personalities are put under a microscope and we get magnification of what the artist though these guys were like.
Eren is a high strung lunatic with rage issues involving a petty grievance the titans inflicted on him. Mikasa is the overprotective voice of reason, Armin is shut-in spouting role-playing references. The rest of the gang is likewise extrapolated to ridiculous lengths. Sasha’s introduction this time being almost as amazing as her original entrance, for an entirely different reason. Hange’s gender is left up to debate, a weird reference to her androgynous look and lack of gendered pronouns when she’s spoken to in Japanese. There are several characters I’ve long forgotten about playing prominent roles here. For anyone up to date on the goings on of the series, seeing the various characters broken into certain classes provides a nested layer of humor.
The cast is reintroduced as they learn the ropes of attending their strange junior high. This includes horrible character building activities like dodgeball and mandatory club participation. There are arguments and grudges which are played out to their ludicrous conclusions, along with love letters and problems with the student council. Basically all of the elements you’d expect in a school drama, except there are titans wandering around and the outcome of most of the situations is a groan worthy punchline.
Yes, I can tell that some of the jokes are complete rewrites. (The extremely insular Shia Leabouf joke clearly didn’t exist in Japanese, in fact if it wasn’t for the fact I’m attuned to the comic industry I wouldn’t even know about what it was referencing.) It appears that if a joke was about food, it was left alone and footnoted. I’m guessing the more pop culture heavy jokes where the ones replaced. Part of me wants to know what the actual Japanese jokes were and where the line was drawn about what worked translated and what didn’t. The rest of me thinks the rewrites are funny enough that I don’t care.
The jokes start off hot and heavy and cool as the page count increases. Keeping up the frantic level of one liners would have been difficult as this book tops out at north of 300 pages. Instead the comedic situations start to stretch into longer scenes and mini-arcs. The humor becomes less sharp and while still absurd, it’s almost sliding into the mundane by the time the volume ends. Hopefully the artist circles back around to snappier and weirder situations in the future.
There’s a small translation note section and a preview of the other Attack on Titan spin off, which is far more serious in nature and tone, to close the book out.
In Summary
Once I got over the fact that they made a gag manga based on Attack on Titan, I found that I actually enjoyed it. It’s an absurd comic based on an equally absurd at times manga, translated with liberally localized jokes. This could have been a disaster, instead I found myself laughing at it. I want to hate this, and I can’t. You win, Attack Junior High. If you’re one of those Attack on Titan fans who enjoys reading parody webcomics, you may have to pick this up.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: March 11th, 2014
MSRP: $16.99
