Review by Frank Plowright

Attack on Titan is told from the viewpoint of the military protecting humanity within walled cities now under attack from rampaging giants of assorted sizes known as Titans. Attack on Titan 8 was a game changer, not only revealing the identity of a traitor, but disclosing that the establishment had been concealing fundamentally pertinent knowledge for decades. It’s no coincidence that the introductory page biographies are now showing fewer youngsters and more of the hierarchy. Attack on Titan 8 ended with a bunch of recent recruits in isolated territory realising a significant number of Titans are heading toward them.

Using maps to explain tactics and locations, Hajime Isayama keeps the surprises coming. Recent volumes have featured the first female Titan humanity’s seen, and with that threat ended another new form of Titan is introduced. It’s hairy, perhaps resembling the mythical yeti, yet that’s not its only distinguishing feature.

The previous attack by Titans was compacted by Isayama, but this intrusion is marked by use of captions explaining how much time has passed. Events are separated by flashbacks, with Sasha in particular considering her past, but while Isayama frequently uses flashbacks, he’s not the greatest at signalling that’s the case, and while in some cases it’s obvious, in others it isn’t. Like here.

As the series has continued Isayama keeps adding to the mythology, and this volume features another creative possibility. These aren’t randomly introduced, but build on existing possibilities, and it takes a creative mind to see how one procedure could be adapted elsewhere. If Squad Leader Zoë is right, her theory could be a game changer. Having delivered that so well, Isayama then dumps a cheap shot, where everyone in-story hears the name of a relevant person, but it’s kept from readers. It’s a strange way to handle a matter when subsequent conversation pretty well confirms their identity before Isayama then shows the person concerned.

While much has been learned, the battle continues over into Attack on Titan 10 with no-one really sure what’s going on any longer. This volume and the two before are combined as the larger format Attack on Titan Omnibus 3.