Review by Frank Plowright

Two thousand years in the future a colony of humans inhabits a world shared with giants reaching heights of fifty metres, who’re seemingly mindless and predatory. The largest of three concentric walled areas was abandoned after the first concerted attack by the Titans in a century, and as Attack on Titan 2 opens they’re attacking again.

Much of Attack on Titan 1 concentrated on Eren Yeager, son of a community doctor and his growth from dreamer to very capable military graduate. His closeness to the even more talented Mikasa Ackerman is explained during the first of the flashbacks Hajime Isayama frequently employs. It’s a grim story but defines Mikasa. Other background information is dispensed via information heavy spreads, in this case the weapons available for the wall-mounted cannons, and classifying the different sizes of Titans.

As a playful snipe at Japan’s censorship, Isayama draws the Titans as naked men, but without sexual organs, noting in-story that their methods of reproduction are unknown. However, their behaviour becomes the core of this volume, as it seems there’s no way those trapped within a building swarmed by different Titans will escape. Isayama shows some skill as a tactical planner via the methods he conceives making that a possibility. Unlike other manga, where discussion of planning and tactics could occupy an entire chapter, Isayama maintains a rocket pace between conception and execution. It’s signifies a creator confident about his imagination.

Everything builds to a phenomenal surprise at the end, neatly explaining puzzling events, but setting up further questions for Attack on Titan 3. Alternatively the first three volumes are combined as the first Attack on Titan Omnibus, a bulkier and larger format paperback.