The history of the foundation of the Walls comes to light and many people are left changed.
Written & Illustrated by Hajime Isayama
HIS FATHER’S SINS
With the king deposed and the aristocrats arrested, the Survey Corps has managed to avoid destruction, just barely. But Eren, being held in a secret underground cavern, is in grave danger. His captor Rod Reiss has alluded to the sins of Eren’s father, and seems to know more about how the world behind the walls works than anyone else… but will Levi and Mikasa arrive before Eren is executed, or worse?
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.”
That seems to be the prevailing theme that I got out of this sixteenth volume of the runaway hit “Attack on Titan.” The last two volumes had to story shift focus away from Titan slaying and instead on the political landscape within the Walls, but everything comes full circle as a great deal of the past, and the origins of the Walls comes to light. Some may not appreciate the lack of Titan slaying (although there is a great deal of action to be seen,) but as a sucker for world building and character work, this volume was right in my wheelhouse.
“Character Work” is the bigger part here. If you follow me on twitter or at other sites, you’ll know that I’ve talked about how, in the fifteen volumes I’ve read, find protagonist Eren Jaeger one of the dullest and most useless protagonists in an action manga. So thanks a lot, volume 16, because for the first time I actually felt emotionally invested in Eren. He himself came to the conclusion that he is kind of useless, and that he can’t be humanity’s only hope to seal Wall Maria, and regain a foothold in the world, when he really can’t even save himself. This is topped off with the revelations of what happened to Eren’s father and the ramifications it has for not only Eren, but humanity itself. It really does feel like Eren is finally going to move away from the hot blooded, angry “Waah! My mommy got killed by Titans!” bore that he’s been and finally move into a more compelling area.
But we don’t just see Eren’s secret past in this volume. Two other characters have their pasts revealed to us, the Princess Historia Reiss (a.k.a. Krista Lenz) and Captain of the Military Police Anti-Personal Squad Kenny Ackerman. It is here that we get a great insight into the past of the World, the Reiss family, the Ackermans, and are just teased with the connections between characters such as Levi and Mikasa. We finally learn about the origin of Kenny’s past as “Kenny the Ripper” (apart from just “the Ripper” being a shorthand nickname for a person you don’t want to meet ever,) and it paints the character in a new light, despite being a villain.
But it is Historia that has the biggest traumas of this volume and the one who comes out of this the most changed. Nearly every bit of her life has been shattered over the last three volumes, but at the end of the day, she comes out of this a stronger person. I may even go to say that is the most changed person since the beginning of this story. And that is an important aspect of a character to me; they have to through some semblance of a character arc from the beginning of their story to the end. It’s something a lot of creators at the Big 2 need to realize.
If you think I’m ignoring the art, I’m not. I have been a bit of a critic of Hajime Isayama’s pencil work in the past, in particular his fight scenes. I have found them to be really rough and very difficult to determine flow of combat. There is a type of choreography to fight scenes in sequential art that the creators have to at least try to make each “freeze frame” of a fight make sense. And I have to say: in this volume Isayama really improved. Maybe it’s the fact that the fight doesn’t have any Titans in it, instead being a fight between the Survey Corps and Captain Ackerman’s Anti-Personal Squad. Isayama is much more capable of expressing that ebb and flow of combat on a small scale. It also leaves the rest of the Survey Corps squad with more panel time, allowing characters such as Sasha, Hange, Jean and Connie to get some good moments in.
Continued belowThat isn’t to say the art is perfect. There are still some rough patches in not only the combat but also in quieter moments. I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: while the Titans can all look unique, there are times when Isayama has trouble differentiating people. I think the biggest victims of this can be Mikasa and Sasha, Eren and Levi. Very rarely does the confusion happen in static, talky scenes, but it’s when the action starts that it does get a bit jarring, especially considering how different in personality Mikasa/Sasha and Eren/Levi are.
“Attack on Titan” has been building slowly over many volumes. Taking a step away from the obvious threat of the Titans could have been a risk, but the exploration of the inner machinations of the last vestige of human civilization, and finally bringing it around in full with this volume, did payoff. If every arc was completely focused on Titan slaying, then eventually the sense of fear or impact would be diminished. This arc has provided stakes and gives us more reasons to want to see humanity overcome the threats outside the Walls. Even if it appears to be one last volume to finish out this arc, this may end up being one of the most well-regarded arcs in the series.
Final Verdict: 8.2- The lack of Titan slaying is made up for with impeccable historical world building and great character moments.
