Attack on Titan (2021)

[進撃の巨人]

Volume 33

Author/Artist: Hajime Isayama
Publisher: KC Magazine

Synopsis:
Time is running out as the Rumbling drives humanity to the brink of annihilation.

Story/Characters:
We start with a side story that sets up the horror of the Rumbling. It would seem the flashback takes place before Eren infiltrated Liberio. We see a little humanity from him, but in the present, that seems to be pretty well gone. We bring things full circle, juxtaposing Eren's childhood dreams with the reality he's inflicted on the world. The theme of freedom is toyed with further, with Eren detachedly offering his former friends the freedom to stop him if they can. We get a nice quiet moment with Armin and Annie before our strike team heads out. We get a good sense of the utter desperation at the final Marleyan outpost where the big showdown is set to play out. I don't know if Eren is reachable in any meaningful sense, but Armin and Mikasa are sure as heck going to try.

Art:
If you've been missing grotesquerie, Isayama has you covered. The Rumbling gets pretty ugly. The symbolism gets played petty heavily in the cliff scene. There's also a nice dynamic opening for the final battle. I'm expecting good things.

Other:
We continue the high school AU, where loony cultist Eren tries to win converts via... a day spa? As usual, I'm arguably more invested in finding out how this plotline gets resolved than the main story.

Conclusion:
I need to give Isayama full credit for how effectively he portrays the Rumbling. This may have the most punch since the first time we saw the Titans in action. Although I did like most of the character stuff, the pacing did feel a bit sluggish. I suppose we can consider it the calm before the storm because I imagine it's going to be pretty much all action for the finale. This falls just shy of being a must-have for me. It's simply a matter of me still feeling mostly detached from the story and the characters at this point. If you're a fan of the series, you're going to want to give it a read at least and any collector is certainly going to follow through to the end.

Rating:
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