Gabbing Geek Manga Review: Attack On Titan Volume 4

Manga stories aren’t rushed, so the attack on the Titans that got inside the human settlement has taken most of the last two volumes.

It’s probably a good thing.  I think I like this series the most of the various manga series I’ve been reading as it is.

Eren can, somehow, turn himself into a Titan, and he may be the key to saving the day if he can just remember to do so when he goes to giant size.  More of the survey corps sacrifice themselves, and things move forward.

As it is, most of this volume covers an extended flashback to Eren, Mikasa, and Arwen’s time in military training.  Eren, in particular, struggles, but his indomitable willpower serves to carry him through, and all three impress their trainer over time for different reasons:  Eren for his will, Mikasa for her overall deadliness, and Arwen for his intelligence.  Writer/artist Hajime Isyama has a good sense of movement here, and his work provides a good deal of background to explain why the different characters make the decisions that they make.

The problem I had with this volume is a personal one.  Since I haven’t read the earlier books for a while, many of the other characters in the training flashback looked or seemed familiar to me, but I couldn’t exactly remember who many of these folks were and how many had lived or died in earlier volumes.  Since so many of these characters were showcased in the flashback, I wasn’t sure how much I should pay attention to them for the future.  That’s a lick on me, but it doesn’t change how I interpreted the work.  8.5 out of 10 mysterious keys.