By Hajime Isayama. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(please continue to avoid spoilers in comments)

We all knew a volume like this was coming. Despite the mass deaths and danger, things had simply been going too well for our heroes recently. There were heartwarming moments, and points where you marveled at the awesomeness of humanity. That clearly cannot last. And so you have Attack on Titan 7, which, yes, also gives you heartwarming and reaffirming love for humanity, but then brutally stomps all over it and tears it to shreds while laughing in your face.

So yeah, it really didn’t bode well that Levi’s team, for all their backstory and character building, never had biographies at the front of the book. Much of this book (and indeed the series in general) is about the mindset of a soldier, and how you can commit to actions that seem stupid or that you may not believe in. I’ll give Special Ops this, they were decisive and trying to stop the Female Titan. And, in the end, they weren’t good enough and were brutally murdered. This doesn’t mean it was a bad decision, or that they didn’t die like heroes. It’s just a function of life in this book, and how horrible the situation is with the Titans. Things are really bad, and sometimes you make a firm decision that leads to an ignoble death.

Speaking of the Female Titan, as Armin has already noted, she’s definitely one of a special group of Titans that are intelligent and crafty, and it shows throughout the entire book. Even when Erwin has her cornered, she’s still able to think of a way out. And her fight with Eren and Mikasa is not only epic but gives us some stunning motivation on what the Titans are trying to achieve; when given an opportunity to kill Eren, she doesn’t, but tries to kidnap him instead. Eren, presumably as he’s also a Titan, is useful to them in some way. Chilling, really.

I do sort of wonder what it will take to get Levi to break, or if he ever will. He’s the most popular character in the series in Japan, and rapidly taking that position over here as well, but there’s only so far stoic can take you. Will he continue to suffer nobly and look off into the middle distance? If nothing else, he makes a very good contrast to hotheads Eren and Mikasa.

But it’s all about the final scene, which simply makes you want to cry. Eren waking up to see everyone re-entering the city. The jeers of the adults, and the cheers of the little children. Petra’s dad, running to Levi, asking him to give her something, and Levi’s stoic non-response. And the final narration, noting that they’re all basically under arrest, Eren’s going to be turned over (presumably to be tortured and executed), and Erwin and company may be in a lot of trouble all around. It’s a horrible place to leave a cliffhanger. And so naturally here is where it is.

But hey, from here things can only get better… right?

By Hajime Isayama. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Sometimes books just read FAST. You pick up the book, start turning the pages, and the next thing you know you’re looking at the preview. That’s definitely the case with this volume of Attack on Titan, which is nonstop action from beginning to end, and its pace is just unrelenting. We see Armin being clever, Reiner being badass, Eren learning that being in a military organization is a hard thing for a hothead to do, and lots of mass destruction and slaughter of the survey team in general. As if the cover didn’t already tip you off.

Armin noted at the end of the last volume that the female Titan who dominates this volume is intelligent, and boy do we see that here. She knows how to protect herself, she’s mercilessly cruel and sadistic (you can see the amusement in her face when a soldier begs her to let him go, and she starts spinning him around till he’s so much meat before doing so), and far, far harder to get rid of than the run of the mill titans we’d seen to date. It takes Armin, Jean and Reiner all of their combined skills just to get away and try to shove the titan in the right direction.

As for Eren, he’s having the same problem that a reader might be having – he spent 5 volumes training and bonding with a group of friends and comrades, only to be torn away from them and forced into a group he barely knows and who doesn’t seem to like him much (excepting the resident mad scientist). Not to mention people still won’t let him go berserk and just start killing Titans, possibly as it’s incredibly stupid. He does begin to get an inkling of what military discipline is like here, as Levi straight up tells him he can do what he wants but reminds him of what they’ve all been fighting for. In the end, despite his rage and tragic past, it’s just not all about Eren.

Speaking of his new squadmates, I appreciated the flashback where we see how well they work together as a unit. Given a series like this, you tend to dismiss anyone who doesn’t have a bio at the front of the book as “cannon fodder”, and the fact that they had pictures but no text didn’t bode well. But the fact is Levi’s squad has survived longer than Eren has outside the walls, and they’ve killed more Titans than he has too. Their well-oiled machine shows Eren that he can turn his rage and anger into something useful to them. And his trust is rewarded in the end, as the female Titan is captured due to the efforts of the entire team.

This was a thrilling volume, and uplifting compared to previous ones. Of course, that means next time it will likely be even more depressing, but hey, you take your victories where you can. When humanity is fighting an unstoppable enemy, you enjoy seeing them fight back. The art needs more improvement still (Dear Isayama: your faces all look alike. Love, Sean), but otherwise it’s another winner.

By Hajime Isayama. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(There may be spoilers in this review for people who are only following the anime.)

In general, I tend to do a lot of reviews for this blog. But sometimes, I don’t have as much to say. So I am very grateful to the Manga Bookshelf team, who allow me, with their Bookshelf Briefs column, to do quick reviews of titles I can’t really spend 500+ words talking about. That said, I have my pet series, which will always get full reviews no matter what. Sailor Moon. Excel Saga. Higurashi. And now, after a few briefs, I’ve decided that Attack on Titan is going to join that crowd. Because guys, this is seriously one of the best manga out there. Its popularity is very much on the rise, helped by the release of the anime, but also by its compelling plot and fantastic characterization, which has been helped by greatly improved facial art. The art is still the weak point, but it’s not enough to make this any less gripping.

Things pick up right where last volume left off, as we’re dealing with the fallout from Eren’s Titan reveal. Eren is not quite sure about it himself, and that’s the wrong answer to give to a city that’s very much had enough of its family and friends being eaten by Titans. The military trial that follows is great, showing off the “kill him before he kills us all” folks (who are more than one group, and for different reasons) and contrasting him with the Survey Team group, who think Eren may be the best way to help them gain ground and learn about the other Titans. Levi in particular makes an instant impression (that’s him in the foreground on the cover), being that sort of commanding officer who appears cold and unfeeling but has your best interests at heart.

Eren is thus taken to a new squad, and for a moment we worry that we may not see our other main heroes again. Fear not, though: their training is over and they’re all given the opportunity to join the Survey Team themselves. The speech inspiring this is stark and depressing, deliberately so, and it’s no surprise that the majority of those who’ve been through basic training walk away. We then get a great montage of the decisions the others make to join the team. Mikasa and Armin are givens, and I’m not surprised by Reiner and Bartolt either, as they’re the strong stoic types. But Jean, Connie and Sasha are genuinely worried and scared. Sasha, in fact, is absolutely terrified, having almost been taken out by a Titan in Volume 2, to the point where she begged for her life. We get a horrific image of what it would be like for those three to be assaulted and eaten by Titans. Connie recalls his mom back home would love him to be safe with the military police. And yet, in the end, they stay and join the Team, even if Sasha and Krista are crying. (Annie leaves, though. I’m sure she’ll pop up again, though, if only to beat up more guys.)

(Note that we also have some cast who have been around, but aren’t named yet. Gosh, who is that freckled girl next to Krista, and why is she so grumpy and yet always next to her? On a completely different note, there was a somewhat depressing side story at the start of the volume, where a survey team member tries to take notes regarding the Titans before she is brutally eaten. We later see her notebook is rescued, so it’s not all for naught. This chapter was far more important in retrospect, but I think a lot of people may have been spoiled about something or other, so it’s an odd case where those spoiled go “Oh my God!” more than those who haven’t.)

So yes, we now get a merging of the two casts, as Levi and Eren’s group (which also has Zoe Hange, who is marvelous and tortures Titans FOR SCIENCE and is a great reminder that Sasha is not the only weirdo in this series) merge with Mikasa and Armin’s crowd and go merrily off to train and capture Titans. And again we’re reminded how brutal this series is, as many of the people we’ve only just come to know are cut down by Titans who are simply too fast, too large, too homicidal, and (for a cliffhanger) too clever to go quietly. Armin, in fact, realizes what the rest of us may have not – if Eren can transform into a Titan, maybe the other Titans are actually humans as well? Does that mean that the entire Corps could be full of secret Titan spies?

Leaving aside the truly ludicrous “next time” page spread – the author allows himself to have fun with these – this is another very serious volume of Attack on Titan, and you really shouldn’t get too attached to many of the people in this cast. But man, it’s an amazing read, and I just can’t wait to find out what happens next.