SnK

‘Shingeki no Kyojin’, or ‘Attack on Titan’, is a manga that just recently exploded in popularity. The first season of its anime counterpart premiered this summer, bringing with it a booming number of new readers. I am included in that amount. The manga debuted in 2009, but I didn’t start reading it until the beginning of this summer when I wanted to figure out what the hype was about on tumblr.com centering on some new anime.

The base story line itself is pretty simple. There are these giant humanoid monsters called “titans” that eat humans. The population is down to a handful, maybe a few hundred survivors, which are living inside a walled city. It isn’t until later chapters that new facets of the story start to appear. The lack of information explaining these aspects keeps me reading.  All these characters are dedicating their lives to the military to kill titans but then some of them can transform into titans? And not all of them are on the good guy’s team?? Most of the titans are just lumbering, incoherent reverse-snack machines for humans but every once in a great while one will come along that possesses higher functioning brainpower.

Not to mention that our main protagonist’s father seems to know what’s up with why some of these kids can turn into titans (most of the main cast are around the age of 15, and then there’s a big jump to at least 30 years old for other characters). Of course, the father is in hiding and his secrets lie in the basement. Without these little touches to enhance the storyline of ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’ is about 95% gore and tears.

I know this class is focusing on comics, but on a side note, I’d like to very quickly mention the anime. First of all, and most importantly, it sticks extremely close to the manga. For almost every scene you could hold up the book and travel panel by panel on your television. Another point I would like to make is how well animated the series is. There are all kinds of mid-air acrobatics going on that flawlessly follow through to the next action sequence. The 3D techniques meld smoothly into the traditionally animated realm of ‘Attack on Titan’.