Volumes: 17/17 (Complete), In Print
Shounen
Genre: Fighting, Horror
Summary: In this prequel spinoff to Attack on Titan, Kuklo was born from a half eaten body of his mother that fell out of a Titan’s mouth. Called the son of a Titan, he was treated like a sideshow freak and hated and feared until one day he’s rescued by a young noblewoman, Sharle. She realizes he is human and teaches him about the world. They fall in love and escape together.
Kuklo, determined to wipe out the source of fear that he thinks caused people to treat him as cruelly as they had, wishes to join the Survey Corps and fight the Titans. Sharle is determined to support him anyway she can. Together they get swept into the attempt by a select few to prevent the Survey Corps from being permanently disbanded, through the development and testing of a strategic new device: the 3D maneuver gear!
Review: Overall, this series wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but it wasn’t as bad as some of the other spin-offs either.
On the good side, it’s got plenty of interesting things for Attack on Titan fans. It spends a lot of time detailing more of the walled kingdom’s past 55 years before the events of Attack on Titan. It’s got the almost extinct Survey Corps that are at threat of being disbanded because they have no way of killing a Titan. And then goes on to cover events such as the first Titan ever killed by the Survey Corps as well as the discovery of their weak point.
The main plot concerns mostly the development, testing and then training of the 3D maneuver gear, and to a lesser extent also the anti-titan blades and the discovery of iceburst crystal as well. Perhaps of the most interest is the hidden industrial city that manufactures all the weapons and equipment seen in Attack on Titan (AoT).
Kuklo is a lot like young Eren, determined to save humanity from the fear of Titans. Maybe a little too much. He also has the enhanced strength and speed of those like Levi and Mikasa, and yet also lacks training to use his skills to their best advantage until near the end.
For better or worse, this series echoes heavily the early stages of the original manga, when they were having a tough time fighting normal Titans. Some fans really appreciated regular Titans being a fearsome presence again. Personally, I preferred the later anti-Titan strategies that they came up with later, of course those don’t exist yet in this series.
Unfortunately this series suffers from some major issues as well. I think the worst of it is the slow pacing it settles into after the initial strong start. This series really could have easily been 12-15 volumes instead of 17 without losing much at all. While it never quite got as bad as outright filler, many times I would see something take 3-5 pages that really would normally take only 1 page in a normal fast paced Shounen manga.
I also thought having Xavi, Sharle’s brother, as the main antagonist outside of the Titans and the political enemies of the Survey Corps was… eh. It’s hard to take him seriously when he starts the series beating up Kuklo chained up in the basement and thinking he’s such a tough guy for it. Even if Kuklo was a Titan how much honor is there in beating up a chained and helpless opponent?
That being said the most stand out character was Sharle, IMO. Once Kuklo decides to join the Survey corps, of course she doesn’t want him to join. But instead of trying to get him to change his mind, she decides to support him in any way she can. She ends up becoming an inventor’s assistant and apprentice blacksmith to help give him the best chance of survival with the best equipment and weapons possible.
All in all, I did enjoy this series, but it doesn’t really stand on its own outside of being an AoT spin-off. There was also not really much depth to it, I can’t imagine reading this series again the way I’ve enjoyed the original Attack on Titan.
Recommended: For Attack on Titan fans interested in the development and other details about the creation of the 3D maneuver gear, the early days of fighting the Titans, and etc.
Not Recommended: TLDR; It doesn’t really stand on its own as a normal Shounen manga. Read Attack on Titan first before reading this manga, or don’t even bother with it, IMO.
Rating: PG13: a lot of moderately graphic violence and one short attempted but not graphic rape scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment