Welcome to the latest edition of the Multiversity Manga Club! We at Multiversity Comics are huge fans of all kinds of comics, but our coverage admittedly skews toward American and European books. Nevertheless, manga, or Japanese comics, has a huge presence in the world of graphic story-telling, as anyone who has frequented a book store chain over the last decade can attest. I myself have only dabbled in the medium throughout the years, primarily through my love of “Dragon Ball Z.” With the hope of presenting a more concerted effort to highlight the fascinating world of manga, I’ll be selecting a specific work each month and inviting readers to join me in reading and examining the book.
Most (actually all) of the books I’ve featured in Manga Club have been featured in Shonen Jump or one of its affiliated Shueisha magazines. However, just as with American comics there are a number of different publishers with their own diverse catalogue of titles. One publisher that has had a number of recent successes, both in the states and worldwide is Kodansha. The most successful title is, without doubt, “Attack on Titan.”
Created by Hajime Isayama, “Attack on Titan” is gritty military fantasy story chronicling the survivors of a walled city besieged by the titular Titans, giant humanoid creatures possessing frightening bloodlust. Heralded as the Japanese answer to “The Walking Dead,” “Attack on Titan” is a seemingly overnight cross-media hit with manga, anime, live-action films and merchandise galore. In the month of February the Manga Club will decide if the book lives up to the massive hype.
Disclaimer, I’ve dabbled a bit in “Attack on Titan” and wasn’t terribly impressed with what I saw. I’ve read the first two or three chapters and the first episode of the anime and found the whole affair to be overly dour without the compelling characters of the oft compared “The Walking Dead.” The art was particularly alienating, at best just not my taste and at worst objectively mediocre. Likewise, first episode of the anime did little to grab my attention. However, I feel like I’ve failed to give due diligence to a book that commands such a large level of fandom among hardcore manga fans and casual readers alike. I picked up a nice box set containing the first four volumes of the series (this one!), so that’s what I’ll be reading for the purposes of Manga Club. As always, feel free to read as much or as little of the series as you’d like. Regardless, be ready to come back near the end of the month with your questions, comments, and general reactions to “Attack on Titan.”