Attack on Titan: Why it is my favorite manga

    Last week was very eventful for anime and manga fans, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 6 anime was announced, the new season of Zombieland Saga debuted, one of the best action chapters in all of One Piece's 24-year history was made, and most importantly, my favorite manga: Attack on Titan, by Isayama Hajime, has ended after 12 years. I'm not going to be spoiling anything in this blog, I will only be writing about my experiences with the manga. 

Volume 20 cover art

    Upon first glance, Attack on Titan is a bit...no, extremely weird. In fact, even I used to describe it as "mindless, naked giants running around eating people." However this is far from the real hook of the story, the main drawing point of the manga is the realism even though the premise is as fiction as they come. Every single character has enough history and personality to make them almost seem real. I do not think there is any character the readers could've hated by the end of the story. Each of them has a  justifiable motive and a history that made them who they are now. And most importantly, the point that makes the manga so realistic compared to many other Shounen mangas, is that each of them could die at any point of the story, there is no plot armor and in most deaths the victim doesn't have any last words to move the plot forward. Not just the characters, but the world-building is just as, if not more breathtaking, the 2000 year history and well-thought-out geography only adds realness and engagement to the viewers' experience. 

one titan using osoto gari judo throw on another titan

  Next, I would like to talk about the action part of the manga. There is usually 2 ways a 1-on-1 fight could be: titan vs titan or human vs titan. Titans are giant humanoid figures, while they are usually mind-less and have the intelligence of a potato, a few titans are actually capable of thinking and sometimes even talking. For reasons I cannot say, each intelligent titans has a specific attribute that they specialize in, resulting in an extremely interesting and engaging fight every time 2 meets. Some of my favorite fights are from the "brawler" kinds of titans, in these fights, they would perform real-world MMA techniques such as a triangle choke, arm-bar, and guillotine. Human vs titan is also very cool due to the size differences. Humans are able to take down titans using the ODM or 3DMG (same thing, different translations) gears, these are a combination of grappling hooks, jet pack, 2 swords, and a scabbard filled with replacement blades. Because a titan's weakness is at its nape, a human would have to fly up close and cut it with the swords.

ODM (omni-directional mobility gear) design

    Lastly, I really enjoyed Attack on Titan's theme of Freedom and becoming free from your past, family, and everything else that is out of your control. Again I cannot say much about this theme's appearances in the story, however I feel that freedom is extremely important in society right now.  I definitely would recommend you to read the manga as it is not extremely long. I also hope I didn't hype it up too much, as part of the reason I love this series so much is that I grew up with it, I've been reading the monthly chapters monthly for about 7 years now so there's a lot of memories and experiences I associate with it.