Attack On Titan Bind Review (Part 1)

Learning to Love Attack on titan

Three times. That’s how many times it took for me to get into Hajime Isayama’s Attack On Titan. That may seem crazy considering how good of a hook it has, but hear me out first and about my rocky relationship with it up to this point. It’s one of the most popular manga of all time and spawned an anime adaption that took the world by storm, making its way into the mainstream. Everyone seemed to get into it, even some of my friends who despised anime loved it. But I, who felt I should’ve loved this dark, action drama, something that seemed right up my alley, could never get myself to care enough past Episode 1. So I would like to explore two things, the first is why I found the series arc to be a flawed one, and the second, my impressions on two arcs I never read or watched before, The Battle of Trost District arc, and the 104th Training Corps arc, and how those two arcs managed to hook me into loving the series.

The Fall of Shiganshina – The Hook, The Characters, & The World

The first arc of the series, and widely considered one of the greatest first arcs ever… failed to connect with me my first few times. It follows the lives of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, and the inciting incident of the story that forever changes their lives. This seems like the perfect first arc at first, not too long allowing it to get straight to the meat of the story, establishes our characters lives before they forever change, and sets up mysteries and plot threads that will go into other arcs. However I had my issues with it that prevented me from getting invested after trying twice. I felt the characters weren’t given enough time to shine in their normal world before it came crashing down, which impacted both the weight of the moment and my first impression on these characters.

But let’s start at the beginning, and by that, I mean the VERY beginning. A good first shot or first page is one that gets your interest, but a great one still lingers in your mind long after you’ve seen it, and the image of a 50 meter Titan overlooking a city as young children watch in terror is a really memorable first page. The fact the first thing we see in this story is the greatest symbol of safety you could think of being invaded sets the tone really well, nothing is safe in this story, least of all humans and the barriers we make. But I think what really sold people was the inciting incident, and hippity hoppity what an inciting incident. A good inciting incident establishes stakes that both put the protagonist in danger and give them some sort of desire that will guide the rest of the story, and the invasion and fall of Shiganshina goes just that. Seeing this safe town be brutally overrun, and soldiers being too scared to fight, and Eren’s mother dying a brutal death, it really grabs your attention right as the story starts, and makes you want to read on to figure out what will happen next. 

But the best part of this arc is it’s world building. Our first glimpses into it are depressing to say the least, first we see its very walls being crumbled down, then the incompetence of the people who protect, then the dead end the human race faces when up against the Titans. It’s pretty gloomy to say the least, so gloomy at first that I considered it one of the biggest challenges to the series. How could I get into a series with so little hope, something I’ll touch on later. But it’s also covered by a thick layer of intrigue. We know nothing about the titans, and the story understands our intrigue and dangles the mysteries of this world in our faces. Speaking of dangling mysteries in front of our faces, how about the literal key it dangles in our face. This is one of the most interesting aspects of the story for me. I’ll discuss it more when I talk about my theories, but for now, let me just complement what a fantastic narrative choice it is. Not only is it a compelling mystery, but it will later serve to drive the plot and give us a goal to work towards. I love it. 

But as for my complaints, first let’s talk about Eren Yeager. First I’m going to be speaking from the perspective of someone trying to get into the series, then as someone who has gotten into it thinking back in retrospect. I did not care for Eren at first. To me it felt he was lacking likable traits. If I can look at a character and say, “That’s a guy I would like to hang out with if I knew him.” then that’s how I know I find them compelling. Is Eren the type of person I would like to hang out with at the start of the series? Honestly I don’t think so. Almost every interaction he has in the first chapter is him arguing with someone. While these are arguments that reveal important character traits of his, we don’t get to just hang out with him. And I didn’t find the rest of the characters that interesting either. It felt like everyone existed to be a foil to Eren, but since Eren wasn’t interesting or likable enough to carry character interactions, the interactions didn’t interest me much, as so the characters didn’t either. The character I liked the most was honestly Eren’s parents, his Mom being the only character I had an emotional reaction to, with her pleas to her family to not leave her after her fate has already been sealed to be one of the most realistic reactions to this type of event I could imagine, not only grounded the series but man it just hit hard. Then there was his father, who had a laid back attitude, but was one of the most mysterious characters in the show with his key.

Those were my initial thoughts, but now as a fan of the series, I think I was missing a lot of things in that analysis. When I look back on Eren’s character, while I think he could’ve used more diversity in his early scenes, I still have a lot of respect for his values. I could completely understand where he was coming from, and most importantly the story gives him a clear desire and goal, the eradication of all titans, while also giving him a flaw to overcome, his boiling hatred. That last part is the most interesting to me and what really struck me about his character. The flaw he needs to overcome and his desire are in direct conflict with one another, as with any good protagonist. But with Eren the poison in his character is what defines him, and if he doesn’t grow past it, this poison may end up consuming him. So it wasn’t my sympathy for him that won me over, but rather my empathy, and the desire to see how his character arc will go. Funny how the darkness that drove me away at first was the thing that hooked me the most.

Overall I’ve grown to really like this arc. I think it could have been a chapter or two longer to really get invested in Eren’s character, but I understand the effect it would have on pacing and realize it probably wasn’t in Isayama’s best interest. While Eren and his parents are the only characters I grew invested in, that’s to be invested, dare I say storytellers should focus on their best character when they begin the story. But Isayama’s true brilliance here comes in its world building. Using art and character, he conveys the safe, yet cruel and confining nature of his world, only to expertly destroy it and let us know that nothing is safe. It had my curiosity, but its next arc would really get my attention.

The Battle of Trost District – The Thesis of the Story

“Compared to what’s been taken from humanity, it may be a small thing. But it will mean we’ve finally managed an attack on the Titans.“

The Battle of Trost District is the second arc of the manga and the third arc of the anime. It follows the 104th Training Corps after their graduation as they must fight as soldiers against the invading Titans. It’s also the arc that got me really invested in the series, and in retrospect it’s pretty easy to see why. Take all the complaints I had with the previous arc, mainly the rather uninteresting cast, pacing feeling too fast, and a world so dark I wondered why I’d even want to follow it, and then just fix those flaws. What really sold me though, was its strength thematically. Just like the previous arc, it shows a cruel world, but now we’re given hope, that though the world is a cruel place, there might just be light in it after all if we just keep fighting for it.

No where better are my complaints shattered than with the character of Mikasa. Before I honestly found her to be pretty uninteresting. Her character seemed to serve two purposes, follow Eren, and argue with Eren. So separating her from Eren was exactly the move she needed to stand out. Not only do we physically see how strong and capable she is on her own, but how even without Eren she can drive the story. And she does this all while we explore her relationship with Eren, giving the relationship more weight than ever while also examining how that could be dangerous. And her backstory we get is amazing, serving as a microcosm of the themes of the story, while also endearing us more to her and Eren’s character.

We also get to explore Armin more. I’m not going to act like I find his character particularly groundbreaking so far, but I think of all the characters he’s the one I personally relate to the most, except without the genius strategist part. In a world where strength appears to be everything Armin has low self-esteem for not being psychically strong enough, and his journey in this arc, and I predict for the rest of the story, is him learning to value the gifts he has. It’d be a pretty mundane arc if this wasn’t a story taking place in hell where every move you make will result in your friends dying.

Speaking of friends there sure are other characters in this arc, most of whom desperately needed more screen time before this. Yes, I’ll touch on the anime adaption later, but for now, the only character I thought was really noteworthy was Jean. His arc was learning to not settle for the mundane and instead, use his natural skills as a leader to save lives and bring hope to his peers. He serves as Eren’s main foil within the corps, and he’s pretty effective because you can definitely see where he’s coming from, but also the flaws in his logic, allowing for believable growth as his situation increasingly demands him to. The rest of the characters are… fine. A lot of them feel like they were written to die dramatically, or are just to be introduced so when they actually do dramatic things later we’ll have the context. I’ll withhold my thoughts on them for now, but I have them in mind.

I complained that the introduction arc went a bit too fast, but I’m happy to say I thought this arc was paced beautifully. While I could argue that once again some characters should have gotten more screen time in the peaceful moments so that we could get to know them better, that is something the next arc will do anyways, so it’s more of an issue with the overall structure of the story, something I will definitely be talking about when I discuss the anime. Everything else is pretty perfect. Dramatic moments are given just enough time and attention to be genuinely impactful, but when the story needs to get going, it doesn’t waste any time, going from twist to twist at a perfect speed. The action flows seamlessly, bringing in the high octane action while still letting the character moments in between shine, which helped me gain appreciation for how well the story combined both character and plot. And these twists were amazing. I knew the Eren twist going into this and I still could not predict how this arc was going to go. But all the pieces were there so when it did go in new directions, I never felt cheated, and thought the story was simply well-thought out and knew what it was doing. All the strategies employed by the characters were well thought out, but they were dangerous enough so that the execution was always enough to keep me on my toes. 

But above all else, the main reason I love this arc is for what it represents. This is an arc about hope. While the previous arc offered us no signs of anything but the worst, this arc is about how even if the world is hell, things can be better if we work for it. The obvious example is of course, the scene where the rock is successfully placed, it’s the little things too. It’s the scene where Eren is no longer helpless against the Colossal Titan, or the scene where a plan goes smoothly and the heroes make some headway or save some lives. It’s inspiring to see that despite all the odds being against them, these characters carve out their own paths. While this isn’t a particularly new theme of a manga to explore, the reason it is so effective in Attack On Titan is because of how good of a job it does at showing us how cruel the world is, making it all the more inspiring when the heroes do find their light.

That’s why this arc was so great to me. Only 13 chapters into the story and it’s already shown me how well it can write its character, how interesting it can twist the narrative at any moment, and provide its story with a message that really speaks to me. I wasn’t just intrigued by the mysteries or why everyone else loved it, I was engaged because I wanted to see where these characters were heading on their journeys. And with this high octane action arc done, Isayama decided to slow things down, with an arc that proved to be just what I needed next.

104th Training Corps – Character, Structure, & Adaptation

The 104th Training Corps is the third arc in the manga, but takes place before the Battle of Trost District and after the Fall of Shiganshina. But notably, in the anime, the arcs are placed chronologically, so the 104th Training Corps is before the Battle of Trost District. For this segment, not only will I be giving my thoughts on the arc, but on why I think the structure of the anime is better than that of the manga and aids what the arc is trying to accomplish.

In this arc we learn about the 104th Training Corps, consisting of such characters as Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, and more. At only 5 chapters and 2 episodes, it’s a pretty short arc, but it is absolutely a necessary one, as in it we get to learn key details about these characters. We learn about Eren’s tenaciousness yet inexperience, Mikasa’s loyalty but pragmatism, and Armin’s self-doubt that both pushes him and hinders him. But most importantly, we learn about the side characters who fought alongside them. Reiner, Connie, Marco, Annie, Sasha, and Jean are all given exploration and time to show off their personalities. Not only are they given time to show off in action, but they communicate their personalities by the way they talk, their reactions, and how they deal with conflict. And I found myself liking all of them. Particular shoutouts go to Jean, who I mentioned before, Reiner and Annie, who are the characters I’m most interested in seeing as the story progresses.

All of this is to say, this is an important arc for developing character, but after the previous arc, a lot of the stuff we learn feels kind of redundant. We already explored a lot of these character traits in a more interesting environment, so this only really helps the characters who didn’t get much screen time in the previous arc. This is why I think the anime’s decision to swap arcs works so well. Normally I do not like it when anime’s switch arcs around, see My Hero Academia Season 5, but this time it feels way more natural. We get to learn these characters strengths and weaknesses in a relatively low stakes environment, so that when we do see them in battle we already know what informs their character, so seeing them fight in a high stakes environment is given that extra drama since we now not only know them better, but are more attached to them. The choice to switch these arcs ends up benefiting both of them.

Overall I thought this arc was much needed, but was misplaced. It marks the point in the story where I like the characters the most, but that added weight could’ve done wonders for the manga. I’m happy to say though, that no matter which version you’re reading, you’ll still get a relatively lighthearted but compelling character study that will help you grow closer to these characters.

Final Thoughts & Theories

Overall, while I still think the first arc is a smidge mishandled, and the latter two arcs should have been swapped in the manga, I still love Attack On Titan so far. The world building stands out to me as one of the best introductions I’ve read, the characters are all sympathetic, but some still have that poison in them that makes me really fascinated in their arcs, and while not without its hiccups, the plot is tightly written and engaging, with many fantastic twists in its first couple of arcs that many stories can’t manage the whole way. If you’re reading this and you are like I was, debating to give this a shot, do it, I can’t recommend it enough. I recommend the anime if you’re new as it has a better structure, but the manga is still great. To close this off, here are my theories that will totally be wrong.

• Eren’s “dream” that caused him to cry was a flash forward of the future. I predict it is either him or Mikasa dying.
• The key to the basement is still a mystery to me, but my guess is it contains some sort of ultimate weapon to use against the Titans.
• The Armoured Titan is Reiner. Their hairstyles look similar, that is my proof. Maybe Erwin?
• The Colossal Titan is another unknown. Crack guess is Levi. Maybe the more powerful the hunter, or the will of the hunter, the more powerful the Titan.

And that’s all I got, thank you so much for reading.