Mini Review: Attack On Titan: No Regrets by Hajimi Isayama

Rating: 9/10

Synopsis

THE THIEF AND THE SOLDIER

The young Erwin Smith is a rising star in the Survey Corps, humanity’s only hope of defeating the man-eating monsters known as Titans. Ruthless and dispassionate, Erwin’s mind is devoted to strategies and intrigue. But beneath Erwin’s feet is another world, the Underground, where humans are born and die surrounded by the garbage the Capital throws away. Here, the criminal Levi survives on his wits and agility. But when these two ambitious men cross paths, who will prove himself stronger?

The long-awaited origin story of Levi and Erwin, two of Attack on Titan’s most beloved characters!

Review

It was so much fun getting back into this world and learning more about my favorite character Captain Levi and what lead him to join the Survey Corps. The story itself was pretty compact and I flew through these two volumes very quickly. It was entertaining and the character development we got from Levi was really good.

Captain Levi is a very compelling character. He is a cold, pragmatic person with a soft heart that we get to see here and there. He cares deeply about his comrades, friends, and defeating the Titans in order to save humanity itself. In fact, he is incredibly amazing at defeating Titans and it was so cool to see his first Titan battle.

The one weakness of this manga is that in my opinion it doesn’t hold a candle to the anime when it comes to depicting fighting Titans using ODM gear. This is really important for me as it is one of my favorite parts of the anime. I think this was just a limitation of the medium and no fault of the artist. This was a minor issue for me as I was able to imagine it like the anime anyway so the action scenes were still quite enjoyable.

Overall, this was an interesting “origin story” of my favorite character and how he became entangled with Erwin Smith and the Survey Corps. How they formed the incredible duo they are in the main storyline. I definitely recommend reading this series, but only after you have read the main story manga or watched the anime. It was well worth the read!