SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN: BEFORE THE FALL

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

NOVEL ActionShingeki no Kyojin: Before the fall
ONE SHOT SupernaturalShingeki no Kyojin: Before the Fall Prologue

REVIEWS

• 

  SafelySpoiled

  90/100
  An admirable prequel to a masterful series

  After recovering from the mental breakdown caused by AoT: Final Season Part 1, and in the time I was waiting for Part 2, I wanted more AoT content. I watched the Jr. High spinoff, all the OVA's and I was basically ready to swallow anything with AoT in it's name. And then I found this manga, Attack on Titan: Before the Fall.

  I had pretty low expectations going into this, mostly because I was thinking this is just another attempt at milking AoT, but I was wrong, this actually turned out to be quite an admirable story.

  In the synopsis, it says it's a prequel to the original AoT following the process of inventing the ODM gear (yeah, that belt thingy that they wear to fly around like spider-man), but in my opinion, it's a story that leads to the development of ODM gear.

  The first few chapters feel a bit slow but once the story picks up the pace, it's really hard to put it down. It has the dark and spine chilling horror elements like AoT and has good characters that develop overtime.
  It has awesome action scenes that you'd expect from AoT, also with ice-cold sacrifices of course.

  It's amazing how the story utilizes the already existing world building of AoT and sometimes even adds additional details to them. The three walls are still there, the underground city is still there, the political system is the same, and the military police are still a bunch of jerks. And also introduces new elements that fit into the tone of the story. like an Industrial district where all the military weapons are made, Iron bamboo that's used to make anti-titan weapons etc.

  The main character is Kuklo, who's life was devastated because of a Titan, and pushed him into circumstances that make Eren's early life feel like a walk in the park. But the guy has the zeal to understand the cause of his miserable life and put an end to it.

  The girl is named Sharle, on the surface looks like a clingy-princess character that needs a bodyguard everytime she wants to step out of her room. But proves herself to be a brave, intelligent and skillful girl that has a prominent role in the story and not just waifu material. Like seriously, if I read the thing again, I'm sure I'll like Sharle, even if she wasn't a girl (no homo, btw).

  The main strength of the story is that it doesn't only focus on the creation of the ODM gear from the start to finish, rather it follows the characters that tried, failed, tested, succeeded to create something to give an advantage to the soldiers that fight Titans. This is before the ODM gear was invented, so the situation was definitely not in favor of humanity. Every expedition came to an apocalyptic end for the scouts with barely any of them surviving. The story follows the characters who fell into despair, searched for a better way to fight their enemy, and who came up with the idea of ODM gear, who created it, who tested it, how did the government approve its mass production and so on. Honestly, I never imagined it to be this deep and intricate, but I'm glad they put so much effort into even the smallest details to make the world so much more alive.

  The art style is a bit different from the AoT manga & anime, but in a good way. The drawings are much more detailed than the original AoT & almost look realistic.. And the action, oh boy there's a lot of bloody action. Even though this is a side story, it doesn't fall short in horrifying & bloody action sequences to AoT. The artwork is simply great & one of its strongest factors.

  Even if you strip it of the AoT in its name, it's still a totally admirable story.

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