I finally got to read this, but I had to put the physical copy on hold because the digital was taking SO LONG to arrive from my library.
That’s right, wood pulp and ink touched my hands. I read like a peasant. This is a personal attack on the titan that is my dignity.
Volume 29
Somewhere around here, this series probably gets a little too complicated for its own good.
On the other hand, gotta respect a series that tries to keep the story developing instead of the rinse/repeat cycle you see with some titles.
There’s a part of me that thinks it would be hilarious to publish a manga title, call it volume 29, and ONLY publish that volume. Set up a fake website and some summaries of other sections, but only put out 29, have the story be absolutely impenetrable, and just sort of see what happens.
This is why you should buy my books: If I become rich, I’ll do a lot of stunt publishing that’ll make the world a much more interesting place.
Volume 30
The series is highly-rated at this point, and that’s a comic book effect you see on Goodreads:
It’s not because volume 30 is necessarily better than volume 10, but what happens on Goodreads is that as a series goes on, only people who like what’s happening tend to stick with it this long. You’ll get a ton of people who kinda like it, maybe, sorta, for the first 10 or so volumes, but when you’ve got a 34-volume series, even completionists will drop off somewhere before they hit the 30’s.
The result is that when you hit the last quarter of a long series, you’re almost guaranteed to have pretty high ratings because you’ve weeded out anyone who isn’t going to like it long ago.
It’s not a problem with goodreads, per se, but a quirk: the later volumes of a long series will almost always have a much better rating than the earlier ones.
Which is why I’m going to break up a future novel into 34 very short, separate chapters. That way, I can finally get some decent ratings around here.
Volume 31
Yeah, once we knew what was up with the massive number of gigantic titans, would we have been satisfied if they never came to life and started trampling shit? Chekov’s Hidden Army of Naked Muscle/Skin Men tells us No.
Volume 32
This is the first series that has sorely tempted me to keep charts of what’s happening without completely turning me off reading the whole thing, and for that alone, it earns some stars.
Volume 33
It’s so strange to review the penultimate volume of a long series like this because it’s like, “Who cares?”
Nobody is going to stop at volume 33, right? Except maybe for some maniac who, I don’t know, decides to read a bunch of series right up to the end, then save the final volumes for later in life? Which is not a terrible idea, TBH, you could probably get away with that. Maybe it’s wise to save something for later, you know? Something that gives you a reason to get up and be like, “Well, I haven’t read the last Attack on Titan yet, so I don’t know how it ends, so I guess I might as well keep going.”
The risk there is that you’ll die in some sudden unexpected way, and you’ll NEVER finish it. Although maybe thinking about how you never finished a manga series on your deathbed means you must’ve lived a life of non-major regrets, so, you know, could be a plus.
Volume 34
Alright, let’s do an overall series review with no real spoilers here.
This is a really good series that is imperfect in a lot of ways.
I think it becomes a little too complicated, too many factions with too many varying goals, and because there’s a lot of different people lying to other people, it’s a bit hard to keep track of what’s happening when.
These issues are exacerbated by a few things:
1. There are A LOT of characters to keep track of.
2. The characters could be more distinct. I think some design choices would help Eren look less like Levi, for example, make Mikasa look more different from some characters, make Reiner and Floch look more different. Some really different hair, some more obvious nods to differentiation, some clothing choices, a scar, facial hair, all of these things would help. As an example, I never had trouble telling who Zeke was, and he has a beard and glasses. That’s enough!
3. The flashbacks aren’t always easy to identify as flashbacks, and when we flash back, it’s not always easy to tell exactly where we are in the timeline. There were some charts/maps in the series early on that explained how the walled cities worked and how there were “bumps” on the outside wall that acted as their own sort of cities, and the manga sort of stepped out of the story and explained this pretty nicely. I think there was probably a way to introduce flashbacks similarly with a timeline or other device that’d make it easier to tell where we were and to know immediately that we hadn’t just changed scenes, we were in a totally different time.
4. Because the story has a lot of lies built on lies, it becomes a little hard to know when it’s okay to completely dismiss plotline A (because it was just a character’s theory, a speculation, or involved something hidden from other characters), and when it’s time to move on to plotline B.
All that said, some things that I do like:
1. I like that the reader is discovering the truth of this world alongside the characters. Readers don’t really know more than the characters at most points, which is a pretty big feat in a book with this much going on. It’s not 100% successful 100% of the time, but it’s mostly successful most of the time, and I really prefer this method of storytelling to the version of this that could’ve been where the reader knows a lot more than the characters, or the reader is always two steps ahead of the characters.
2. I like that the story does evolve and get more complex as it goes. I can see some people reading this and yearning for the simpler conflict of humans v titans from the earlier volumes, but I think when something goes on this long, it doesn’t HAVE to change, but change is earned and welcome.
3. I like that the characters change to an extent, and that the series is not afraid to kill characters or really change how they operate. I think this keeps things a lot livelier. When a series has stakes, but the stakes are kind of a secret handshake between the reader and the author that say, “Don’t worry, nobody you like is in trouble, and you will continue liking them throughout the series,” it kills a lot of the excitement and drama.
4. The series really doesn’t have much bloat. Something is always happening, most of the things that need to be paid off are, and I think we reach a conclusion that wraps up what needs to be wrapped up.
I understand there are lots of people who are not happy with the ending of this series, but I think it works, and I’m pretty satisfied.
I don’t usually enjoy an ending like this that’s a bit abstract and where the plan didn’t make a ton of sense because there are a lot of “What if this happened, what if this didn’t go as planned?” sorts of questions we’re left with. However, in this case, it works for me.
The ending and final plan have an infinite number of unknowns, and it couldn’t be masterminded perfectly, but I think what we’re seeing is a character who makes a choice and sees no option other than to play that choice out. It’s a horrible set of options, none of which have bloodless results, none of which can guarantee success, so I think our “villain” goes with the choice that he feels has the highest probability of success.
It’s super important that success for this character is defined in a pretty concrete way: a specific group of people living long, happy lives.
I think where this is mostly open to interpretation is in deciding A) Whether the cost is justifiable, and B) whether the plan succeeded.
I think most of us would say the cost isn’t justifiable, and that’s okay, I think it’s reasonable to view things that way, I don’t think the book precludes that line of thinking.
I think lots of readers would probably say that massive bloodshed would have been the result regardless of the plot’s direction, so perhaps this is something that worked out for the best.
And I think the series earns its ambiguity, it’s moral question the reader is left with.
I also feel that the success in terms of “long happy lives” is very debatable, and that’s also okay. I think “long, happy lives” is a very relative proposition within the world of this story, and there’s a lot to be said for, “Nobody is going to see their mother eaten alive by a giant naked man” being a form of “happiness.”
Overall, a really great series, an achievement, to be sure, and while the series has some rougher artwork earlier on and doesn’t have the smoothest story, it’s certainly well worth the trip, in my opinion.
For Potential Readers:
I would do things a little differently if I were reading this again, and I do have some advice for first-timers:
-I’d keep track of characters and major plot points, probably in a journal or online document. Writing these things out helps me clarify for myself, so I’d probably do that. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably be saying, “Why would I read a series that I have to keep track of that way?” and I’d tell myself, Listen, dumdum, you don’t NEED to do it, you’ll mostly get it and read a couple summaries along the way, but I think your experience will be more enjoyable if you do keep some track of everything going on.
-I’d try and read this series completely within a couple weeks, and I’d put other reading and especially comics aside while I did so. This isn’t an easy one to dip in and out of, you’ll forget SO MUCH, so if I did this again, I’d try and do it in a shorter period with no other reading happening at the same time.
-I’d REALLY avoid spoilers online, I think a lot of the fun of this is some of the discovery along the way, and it’s a series where things that don’t seem like spoilers may chip away at the story and lessen the experience a bit.
-I’d turn off the part of my brain that tries to predict what’s coming next and just enjoy the ride. This isn’t a problem for me, I’m not much of a predictor with stuff like this, but I know that’s how some people engage with stories, and I’d really encourage you to relax that side and just go with the flow a bit more. The characters WILL puzzle things out for you at a very good pace, and the energy you spend trying to figure it all out is better spent enjoying the ride, know what I mean?