Library Read // Attack on Titan; Volumes 24 - 25 by Hajime Isayama

Binge time!

So now that I'm in uncharted territories, these reviews are likely to be more reactionary-thoughts-as-I-read, less critical thinking about the entirety of the work. But anyways.  

---March 29---

Volume 24

IT CATCHES UP TO YOU The world outside the Walls is vaster than Eren and his comrades could have ever imagined. Just beyond the shores of Paradis lies the country of Marley—home to Eren's mortal enemy Reiner. He may have returned home, hoping to consign "the Armor" to his past, but some things can't be so easily forgotten—and Reiner is about to be confronted by a certain someone he turned his back on...

I'm liking that we're in this "Marleyan Arc," but I'm still wanting to know the truth of history, assuming we're going to get that. But I'm reading one of the last chapters, and I'm thinking, is this just a story of two warring clans of the same people geopolitiking a game of Risk or something? Not like that's not what most remaining nobles and 1% don't do, but still. So we've got Eldians behind the face of Marley. So then what is the egregious error that lead to this grand Eldian rift? 

But I finished this volume with my mouth agape. I really had to risk spoilage to Google what chapter in the previous volume this man first appeared in - chapter 94, you're welcome -to get a more cohesive impact. It has been a few days since I was last immersed in the story. And now it's like, what happened on Paradis in five years? Has Eren succombed to the curse of the founding titan or something? This wasn't the wildest volume and it was middling until the reveal at the end, so 4 stars for this one. I feel like vol. 25 is gonna be super wild though.

Volume 25

Hajime Isayama first published Attack on Titan in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009. It became a sleeper hit and won the Kodansha Manga Award in shōnen category in 2011. This is his first manga.

• I got so used to young Eren's face. It's a bit of a shock to see this man. Reiner was easy enough to recognize, his face aged by hair and worry only so. Eren just out here looking like some random man. That's a thing.
• Finally! We're getting the truth!
• So this is some generations long attempt at redemption? I can quasi get behind that? Because is it fair to the people who have been kept from the truth?
• Ooh, Ymir's three daughters?!
• Millions of Colossus Titans?!
• Now to see what the Warhammer Titan will do, if anything.
• I'm loving Pieck so far.
• So if the Marleyans are analogous to the Nazis, who are the Eldians analogous to? I thought it was supposed to be Jews, but now I'm confused.
• Ooh, Warhammer Titan has a mask. Very Zorro-esque.
• But where do titans come from? Really?
• Mikasa has spikes on spikes!
• New outfits for all. New gear outfitting.
• Mikasa crying about what Eren had done as if her hands aren't dirty, as if she isn't complicit. Hilarious.
• Warhammer Titan is a boss.
• Is Gabi the next Eren? Is this cycle doomed to repeat in escalation?
• Why would and/or how could Galliard recognize Levi?

Wow, that was a fantastic high note of action, drama, and tension to end on. Because sleep beckons in these early morning hours I will be finishing here for now, but yeah, 5 stars.

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I've finished reading for these early morning hours but I was in the shower having thoughts. Are the Marleyans Germans or are the Eldians Germans?  I don’t know, because so far the Eldiansds are those formerly proud people who terrorized nations and then decided to not do that anymore and to isolate themselves as like a penance? So like Japanese isolationism? But it doesn’t track.

It's been five years since Reiner and Zeke came back, five years since they must have updated the Marleyan military on the new weapons they saw as they left. And with all this hyping up of the nations, among them Marley, who are developing anti-Titan technology, they still weren't ready? Sense missing.

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March 31: With less than two hours in the month, I'm working on finishing another book. This binge blog entry was meant to reference at least four volumes but for ease of reference I'm going to stop it here. While I might start the next volume today, I'll likely finish it in April.