Mild spoilers are present in this post.
Justin: The last time we actually talked about Attack on Titan — the manga, not the anime, and yes, it’s been a while since we covered the manga — it turned out to be an entire volume composed of actually fleshing out the characters. Welp, Vols 5 & 6 for the most part instead focused on securing a way for the Survey Corps to get back to Shiganshina and find out just what is in the Yeager’s basement. Let’s just say, or predictably, it’s not quite as easy as it should be.
Volume 5 is literally all about humanity. After the aftermath of the Battle of Trost, Eren finds himself on trial before a number of people as they attempt to decide what to do with Eren. What actually happens makes me think of how politics and big governments work…and when I say that, I mean not well. You read all the time about some nonsense a politician or mayor or whoever within that framework does that makes you scratch your head, and in reading what they planned to do with Eren, it basically reminds me of that to an extent. You have the Military Police wanting his body to be analyzed then discarded, the Survey Corps to keep and use him as a weapon, and everyone else, from common folk to people of the church saying he desecrates the walls and he needs to be killed immediately. It’s at that point where you have people yapping and not willing to take action.
That’s when you might wish someone would just speak their mind and say, “why the hell are we even doing this? We have bigger problems right now!” Too bad Eren was the one who spoke his mind though. In one sense, it was the right thing to do, but considering his situation — he’s able to turn into a titan, he doesn’t know how to use his titan ability, and he doesn’t remember some things in his titan form — he’s probably not the one that should be giving this message. At least it ended with Levi kicking him in the face. Well, he did more than that but we’ll leave it at that. Still, you would think trying to figure out how to harness Eren’s titan ability would be a good thing, but general fear and the inability to try and understand what is foreign to them is typical human behavior (insert government shutdown joke here), and a good example of why things that need to get done…well, they don’t get done.
The bulk of the first half is taken up by the trial, but another interesting part of the volume before the more action packed latter half is the introduction of Hange’s research. Hange is interested in actually studying Titans — methods of communication (if any), experiences of pain, and any other weak points. Unsurprisingly Hange gets attached to her research subjects, but not everyone sees the Titans are warm, cuddly, and worthy of dissection and research. The opposing views of Titan potential on display in this volume (and the human reactions either way) make this an interesting leadup to the latter half of the volume and volume 6.
What else stood out to you, Justin? What did you think of Hange? She was one of my favorites.
Justin: Full admission: since I’ve watched the anime, and aside from one scene where she kicked a titan head in the anime that wasn’t properly done compared to the manga, I really grew to like Hange thanks to the anime. Yeah, I found her actions delightful and borderline wacky in the manga, but before she appeared in the anime I might have forgotten about her for the most part. Maybe it’s because of Romi Park–ok, back to the manga. So far, all we can tell is that she is the only one willing to engage in the titans, or at least figure out more about them from what we can tell. Her actions toward the titans, in a way, reminded me of how attached you can get to something you’ll have to put down at some point and time…and she apparently got attached to them, even going so far as naming them. This reminded me of Silver Spoon, where the main character, Yugo Hachiken, named a pig he had to take care of (Pork Bowl) and grew attached to it, to the point where it did get kind of painful.
(On another note: never thought I’d compare something with Attack on Titan with Silver Spoon. BUT I guess that’s manga for you!)
However this volume, as it turned out, set up what eventually leads up to the Female Titan arc. From the mysterious death of Marco, to the two titans being killed by someone, to the ones who chose to join the Survey Corps, there were a few things set up that…I can’t speculate more on since I’ve been keeping up with the anime so I know a bit what happens. But in reading this arc from the end of Trost, I was surprised at how it did get pretty intense at points, especially when the Survey Corps left Wall Sina to scout. You would think since I knew what would happen for the most part that, and especially since it’s not animated, I’d get pretty bored of it, but it turned out to be the opposite. Gotta give Isayama credit for his paneling and making sure Titans do their jobs. I think.
Manjiorin: As someone who hasn’t kept up with the anime (on episode nine…) this female titan arc is looking fairly…well, awesome. There’s a good mystery set up here, and while I have some guesses as to who she might be, I still really don’t know where things are headed.
And it looks like the team isn’t sure where things are headed either. A strong theme throughout this volume is trust; the team trusts Eren, trusts their leader, and Eren has to learn to trust his comrades as well as his ability to control his power. Eren has yet to find out what makes his Titan power tick — apparently he has to have a goal in mind in order to transform — but why is still a major sticking point. Does Eren have to bite hand to transform? Why his hand? And why can’t Eren remember much of his transformations? All interesting questions. Ultimately, it seems like trust may be the only thing Eren and his team have, hence its importance thus far. If you don’t trust those around you, how can you trust an enemy whose nature you don’t quite understand? If the team didn’t decide to trust one another, to believe in their mission and its potential outcome, then it would be fairly easy to succumb to despair.
What did you think of the female titan, Justin? I figure you know a bit more than I do…
Justin: Well…again, I can’t tip my hand too much, but I will say this: it happens to be the second abnormal titan we’ve seen in the series, and naturally, you start to wonder about a few things, especially since this Female Titan is attacking humanity. Is there another force out there that’s engineering this entire titan horde? Why would that be the case? Just a mystery that eventually needs explaining. As for said Female Titan…um…yeah. Poor Survey Corps. And that horse! Though admittedly, I feel a bit more sorry for the soldier that got spun around like he was nothing. Just literally finding new ways to kill.
Back to that trust thing. Now, one particular part in the manga — and there’s a lot of moments involving that in these two volumes so suck it up and deal with it — was when Squad Levi, composed of some fairly eclectic characters, were unnervingly fearful of Eren when he suddenly transformed into a incomplete titan. The only character that even managed to act like a soldier was Levi, as he had to try and calm his own team down for trying to kill Eren. Of course, they should already know that Eren is an experiment, as he wasn’t even sure how to change into a titan in the first place. But once they did realize that, they decided to attempt to trust Eren, as long as he trusted them back. And the end of Volume 6 shows that might have paid off. Now, who knows how we should feel in a situation like this, and especially so since I’m not a soldier, but I do know trust is needed in order to succeed on the battlefield. Well, in certain cases, it can apply to other things as well.
I think the last thing I can say I’m looking forward to Volume 7, while attempting to be vague, is seeing how the events in the manga are drawn compared to the anime. No really, I think that is all I can say. Otherwise, reading Vols 4-6 in succession felt refreshing, and I actually wasn’t expecting that since I knew what was going to happen. Any final thoughts yourself Manjiorin?
I think this is what we call getting too close
Manjiorin: I can’t help but wonder why the female Titan came across Armin in this volume and looked at him the way that she did, as if she knew him. That definitely stuck out in my mind and I thought that scene and her facial expressions were done very well. It’s enough to make the reader wonder and possibly draw some conclusions as to who she may be, but not enough to make you feel entirely sure.
Volume seven is sitting in my room, so it has plans to be read ASAP. I’m definitely looking forward to see how the female titan arc progresses. I am a bit worried that some of the many mysteries won’t be resolved in the end, but that’s a fairly premature worry and doesn’t deter me at this point. So my final thoughts are: Read volume seven!
