Volumes: 2/2 (Complete), In Print
Shounen
Genre: Fighting, Mystery
Summary: This Attack on Titan Side Story contains two stories of one volume each.
Volume One follows Annie Leonhart on the eve before her battle with Eren. She trades favors with her roommate, Hitch. In exchange for Hitch covering for her and helping her call in sick the next day, Hitch asks her to take over a small job of looking for a lost girl. At first it seems like a straightforward mission to find the missing daughter of a wealthy merchant, but soon she finds out that the girl, Carly, was involved with something dangerous.
Volume Two follows Mikasa in a dream she has of an alternate timeline. When Mikasa is told by Armin of Eren’s apparent death, she has a strange dream of an alternate timeline where the slave traders that killed her parents were instead killed by a pack of feral dogs before reaching their cabin. She and Eren still become friends, but strange things keep happening that urge her to kill, as if her fate is still trying to take her and Eren on a similar path.
Review: Volume One of Annie’s story was very good, and shows a different side of Annie than what you see in the original manga. It’s told from her point of view, and narrates her thoughts, so this normally very reserved character for once you get to find out what she’s thinking and feeling. The story itself was a solid mystery story too, revealing bit by bit as she pieces together clues and the story has some interesting twists before the truth is revealed.
Volume Two was… odd. The story itself of a dream of an alternate timeline was interesting and yet also very strange. It seemed way too detailed to have been just a daydream and yet there is no other explanation for it except that it is a dream. I guess that it’s supposed to represent her struggle to go on after she thinks Eren is dead, and yet it seems a bit lacking for that somehow. It ends up reading like a sort of destined fate story, since her alternate dream self ends up converging with reality, and her and Eren end up in the same place.
Then, in the end of this series, it wraps up with a clunky ending where Mikasa and Annie meet, both in the past (during training) and in the “present” where Mikasa helps take down Annie.
Recommended: For Attack on Titan fans. All in all, I really enjoyed Annie’s side story and I especially liked that this had a new story with a fresh perspective we haven’t heard before, plus a father and daughter theme that allows Annie to reflect on her own circumstances.
But Mikasa’s story was very strange. It almost felt like it was trying to say something about fate or destiny but it kind of stops before it tells us what any of that story was supposed to mean, and just leaves you wondering.
This manga was originally adapted from a spin-off Novel, which is out in English from Vertical. Someday I might read that and see if it explains Mikasa’s story better. And then I’ll update this review.
Age Rating: Older Teen: for some drug use, violence and some moderate gore
No comments:
Post a Comment