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By Hajime Isayama. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(There may be spoilers in this review for people who are only following the anime.)

In general, I tend to do a lot of reviews for this blog. But sometimes, I don’t have as much to say. So I am very grateful to the Manga Bookshelf team, who allow me, with their Bookshelf Briefs column, to do quick reviews of titles I can’t really spend 500+ words talking about. That said, I have my pet series, which will always get full reviews no matter what. Sailor Moon. Excel Saga. Higurashi. And now, after a few briefs, I’ve decided that Attack on Titan is going to join that crowd. Because guys, this is seriously one of the best manga out there. Its popularity is very much on the rise, helped by the release of the anime, but also by its compelling plot and fantastic characterization, which has been helped by greatly improved facial art. The art is still the weak point, but it’s not enough to make this any less gripping.

Things pick up right where last volume left off, as we’re dealing with the fallout from Eren’s Titan reveal. Eren is not quite sure about it himself, and that’s the wrong answer to give to a city that’s very much had enough of its family and friends being eaten by Titans. The military trial that follows is great, showing off the “kill him before he kills us all” folks (who are more than one group, and for different reasons) and contrasting him with the Survey Team group, who think Eren may be the best way to help them gain ground and learn about the other Titans. Levi in particular makes an instant impression (that’s him in the foreground on the cover), being that sort of commanding officer who appears cold and unfeeling but has your best interests at heart.

Eren is thus taken to a new squad, and for a moment we worry that we may not see our other main heroes again. Fear not, though: their training is over and they’re all given the opportunity to join the Survey Team themselves. The speech inspiring this is stark and depressing, deliberately so, and it’s no surprise that the majority of those who’ve been through basic training walk away. We then get a great montage of the decisions the others make to join the team. Mikasa and Armin are givens, and I’m not surprised by Reiner and Bartolt either, as they’re the strong stoic types. But Jean, Connie and Sasha are genuinely worried and scared. Sasha, in fact, is absolutely terrified, having almost been taken out by a Titan in Volume 2, to the point where she begged for her life. We get a horrific image of what it would be like for those three to be assaulted and eaten by Titans. Connie recalls his mom back home would love him to be safe with the military police. And yet, in the end, they stay and join the Team, even if Sasha and Krista are crying. (Annie leaves, though. I’m sure she’ll pop up again, though, if only to beat up more guys.)

(Note that we also have some cast who have been around, but aren’t named yet. Gosh, who is that freckled girl next to Krista, and why is she so grumpy and yet always next to her? On a completely different note, there was a somewhat depressing side story at the start of the volume, where a survey team member tries to take notes regarding the Titans before she is brutally eaten. We later see her notebook is rescued, so it’s not all for naught. This chapter was far more important in retrospect, but I think a lot of people may have been spoiled about something or other, so it’s an odd case where those spoiled go “Oh my God!” more than those who haven’t.)

So yes, we now get a merging of the two casts, as Levi and Eren’s group (which also has Zoe Hange, who is marvelous and tortures Titans FOR SCIENCE and is a great reminder that Sasha is not the only weirdo in this series) merge with Mikasa and Armin’s crowd and go merrily off to train and capture Titans. And again we’re reminded how brutal this series is, as many of the people we’ve only just come to know are cut down by Titans who are simply too fast, too large, too homicidal, and (for a cliffhanger) too clever to go quietly. Armin, in fact, realizes what the rest of us may have not – if Eren can transform into a Titan, maybe the other Titans are actually humans as well? Does that mean that the entire Corps could be full of secret Titan spies?

Leaving aside the truly ludicrous “next time” page spread – the author allows himself to have fun with these – this is another very serious volume of Attack on Titan, and you really shouldn’t get too attached to many of the people in this cast. But man, it’s an amazing read, and I just can’t wait to find out what happens next.

By Ikumi Katagiri and Ai Ninomiya. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Zero-Sum. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I have often joked in the past about how North American licensors will pick up any manga with the word ‘Vampire’ in the title. It’s now looking as if that may apply to two other genres that are exploding over here: Alice in Wonderland pastiches, and survival games. Alice in the Country of Hearts sells quite well, and BTOOOM!/High School Of The Dead/Battle Royale/Doubt stuff has been in Yen’s wheelhouse for some time. As such, this book may be one of the least surprising licenses of all time. Shame it’s so dull.

In its favor, the book does seem to get the dreamlike atmosphere and the sense that it would make more sense if only you could figure out the rules of the world. It’s also drawn quite well, with lots of pretty boys being crafty and/or manacing while looking really hot. (This ran in Zero-Sum, one of those “BL only not really” magazines Japan has.) Unlike Alice from the ‘Country Of’ series, this Alice seems to have a very clear awareness of his past in the real world, and is quite willing to do anything to escape it. That said, he’s running into problems, mostly as everyone else in this world is so smug and aggravating.

I’ve read books that start off with everyone being unlikeable before, but never have I had such a sense that this is where they’re going to be in 5-6 books time. And Alice is 7+ volumes and still running in Japan, so that’s quite an investment to have in these guys. For a lead character, Alice sure does come across as a whiny brat. The Mad Hatter’s stoicness seems more like malaise, the Cheshire Cat is amazingly two-faced… I did like The Duchess, but not only does it look like we won’t see much more of her, but it’s somewhat aggravating that the only female character in the entire series is the one placed in peril, and indeed Alice is specifically told “Your weapon cannot protect her, it can only kill”.

But my biggest problem with the series is that 200 pages later, I’m still not really sure where this is going beyond a cat and mouse game. Alice has to kill the White Rabbit in order to stay in this land (presumably Wonderland, though the backgrounds look more like an Italian cityscape than any Wonderland I’ve seen before), but they don’t meet here, so there’s no emotional investment behind it. Indeed, Alice doesn’t seem emotionally invested in much of anything, which is fine if you’re bouncing off a bunch of freaks and weirdos in the cast (say, like the Country Of series), but in a series like this where everyone else is equally detached, it leaves the reader with nothing to grab.

If I was a BL fanfic writer, I’d probably love this series. There’s lots of hot pretty guys who could get into a relationship, and none of that pesky character development that makes writing canon fics harder. They’re just two-dimensional enough to make flesh9ing out an appealing choice. I hope that in future volumes the authors might also try to do something with them, because for now, this is all flash, no substance.

By Isao Miura and Kotaro Yamada. Released in Japan as “Seiken no Katanakaji” by Media Factory, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Alive. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

In general, the review of Sacred Blacksmith is simple. This is a fantasy manga that takes place in a world recovering from a Demon war, which features girls with swords, bandits, elf-girl companions, etc. If you like fantasy like that, this is probably right up your alley. It doesn’t seem to have too much problematic content so far – the hero completely and utterly outclasses the heroine, but she also gets her share of badass things to do. If I have any complaints, it’s that I wasn’t really ‘wowed’ by anything in it – “a pretty good read” is not a bad thing, but doesn’t add up to 500 words very often.

There is the old standard “the anime changed things and made male fans hate the girl more” discussion, which I’ve used before in talking about Zero’s Familiar. Cecily as seen in the manga is an OK swordswoman who gets by on guts a lot, but doesn’t back away from an enemy and has a few badass moments towards the end of the volume. In the anime, I’m led to understand, she’s a lot less competent, because… well, no idea. She’s also a tsundere, and we know how much male Western fandom hates them. The manga at one point does the “it’s my fault I’m naked in front of you but I’m embarrassed so will hit you anyway” standard, and I was amused that Luke immediately called her on this.

As for Luke, he clearly has a tragic past, and does not suffer fools gladly, but at least isn’t outright horrible to Cecily, possibly as this isn’t a shoujo manga. His familiar Lisa is there to be adorable, and she is indeed cute as a button. The art is also very good at showing the awfulness of the demonic casting, and several scenes made me wince as people were basically possessed (and sometimes consumed) by monsters. There’s sort of a tense peace going on as the book begins, and the plot is no doubt going to be attempting to stop that peace.

There’s also a lot of discussion of katanas, which are unknown to this fantasy world that is no doubt supposed to be Western Europe. Lisa even has a long, mostly textual discussion at the end of the book on how they are made and why they are superior to straight Western swords. The katana is a nice weapon, but there’s just a touch of ‘and this is why Japan is better’ to the whole thing (not that this is exclusive to this series – off the top of my head, Attack on Titan is doing similar things as well). The action scenes are solid as well, which speaks well to the artist. I never had to go back and reread to figure out what was happening.

So while there’s nothing really wrong with Sacred Blacksmith after one volume, I’m not sure it has enough oomph to really excite me either. It seems like the authors are making tick boxes on a ‘fantasy anime franchise’ checklist. Hopefully a second volume will give me a bit more to chew on.