*FAIR WARNING: Only foundational information is provided, no major plot spoilers are in this*

“Attack on Titan Omnibus: Vol. 1, 2 & 3” by Hajime Isayama is the first manga I’ve read without seeing the anime first. Not gonna lie, it did take me a little more time to work through the drawings because this is the first time I have experienced the story, but overall I have really enjoyed it.

Set in an Apocolyptic world where earth has been over run by giant humanoid figures known as “Titans” that seem to have only one goal: eating up the human race. Focused on a particular settlement of human society, they had spent 100 years in a relatively peaceful situation behind a set of fifty foot walls (three walls: an outer one, a secondary one, and the interior wall) to keep the titans out, which is all well and good until a colossus titan who completely stands over the walls just suddenly pops up out of nowhere and starts making openings in the outer wall for other titans to start charging in and acting on 100 years of starvation.

From that point we meet the main three protagonists: Erin Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert. They grow up together and manage to survive the attack from the colossus titan, not without some major trauma, and come five years later they are newly graduated trainees in the defence corps, each with their own motivations to be defending and fighting against titans. The characters and their fellow trainees are deciding on their futures when, out of nowhere for a second time, the colossus titan appears again to do the exact same thing as last time: bust up the secondary wall for the other titans to get in and eat some more humans.

I was totally not prepared for the amount of deaths and blood and queasy eating of humans that the manga showed so early on in the story, but it did not take away from the story. There’s deaths, both minor and significant, lost loves, grief and a whole lot of fear and of course, revenge. While it sounds like the story is mainly about fighting the titans, and humanity trying to pull together to survive, that is so not true. You’ve got the underlining stories of the three main protagonists including the actions of one of their parents that nearly ruined everything for them in these first three volumes, so much mystery to uncover! Naturally I have some theories… but can’t really air them without some major spoilers and I would hate to ruin this journey for you all.

Defintely an enjoyable read and I cannot wait to find out more about what’s caused all of this mayhem!

Green Mage