Wanted by everyone, the cornered hunters decide to strike back.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hajime Isayama
Translation/Adaptation: Ko Ransom
What They Say
NO SAFE PLACE LEFT
At great cost to the Garrison and the Survey Corps, Commander Erwin has managed to recover Eren from the Titans who tried to carry him off. But during the battle, Eren manifested yet another power he doesn’t understand. As Eren and Krista find new enemies, the Survey Corps faces threats from both inside and outside the walls. And what will happen to Ymir, now that she has decided to make herself the Titans’ prize?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After the ridiculous ending to the last volume of Attack on Titan I was worried about how the story was going to progress. After so little progress had been made in the overall plot during the drawn out rescue of Eren I was loosing patience. This volume swoops in and wastes no time on getting everything back on track, and continues onward at break neck speed.
The remainder of the Survey Corps returns badly beaten and partially eaten to the walls. They were able to make their escape thanks to Eren, but Eren isn’t sure how he was able to get the titans to ignore the escaping humans. Mikasa is badly injured and Commander Erwin lost an arm. It takes weeks for the injured to heal, and during that time facts start to fall together.
The truth comes out about what happened to Connie’s home village, which isn’t a surprise to us readers but does raise more questions. When Erwin is told his reaction is a bit… out of place. That’s when the gears of a plan start to turn. The Survey Corps has enemies on the inside that want Eren and Krista, who know is going by her true name of Historia, captured. Henge and Levi rejoin the team and relocate the group to the middle of nowhere in order to continue to carry out their plan while Commander Erwin heads for the capital.
Henge is badly shaken at the discovery that someone had Minister Nick murdered, and a smart bit of writing shows how Henge and Levi are able to discover the culprits and deduce that Nick hadn’t divulged important information. A difficult choice must be made to continue on with the plan to take back the outer wall, or take on the enemies inside the walls. The only choice is both at once.
To that end they conduct experiments with Eren to see what he’s capable of in Titan form. Pushing him to his limits in a series of scenes which are both hilarious and grotesque they make very little progress on that front before being forced into plan B.
There’s some welcome humor in this volume during all of the plotting and planning. Be it callbacks to Sasha’s appetite, Levi being a stickler for the details, or forcing an unusually quiet Armin into a creepy situation, it’s all far more entertaining than it should be.
Juxtaposed with that are the tense conversations with potential allies who are currently deep inside enemy lines and a flashback to Krista’s upbringing. It’s a dark, dark world that these characters live in, beyond the immediate threat of titans. The whole country is balanced of the blade of a knife, and one last titan attack will likely be the spark that sets the last of humanity at each other’s throats. Unless the Corps themselves overthrows the whole system first.
In Summary
The Survery Corps is through with being pawns in this deadly political game. Left piecing together the clues to the true nature of their country the group decides it’s time to fight back. Amazing that this series produces it’s best work in volumes when it puts aside the titans and focuses on the humans behind all the strife. There’s a logic at work here that has been missing in the series, and the humor is great in this volume as well. I can only hope that we’re not going to witness a backslide into the whining and woe that made the last few volumes such a drag.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: C +
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: August 26th, 2014
MSRP: $10.99
