Reader's Diary #1643- Hajime Isayama: Attack on Titan Colossal Edition (1-5)

Reading the premise of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan manga series, I was expecting to find something along the lines of Jeff Lemire's Descender or Marvel's Galactus. Essentially there's a race(?) of giants (of varying sizes) that are terrorizing the Earth. The remaining humans (i.e., the ones that haven't been eaten) are held in a collection of walled settlements. Troops are constantly being trained for defense against the Titans, but they've had little to no success. The story mostly revolves around Eren who has a new ability that may finally help turn the tables.

I quite enjoyed the story, especially when it offered subtle commentary about how it must feel to be dominated my an outside force or culture. Not that this theme works as an analogy across the entire series, but it definitely pops up on occasion.

I was less excited by the art, especially the characters. Drawn in a rather sketchy style, they also come across poorly proportioned. Luckily this works for the giants as it gives them a scarier appearance. Also, I don't know if I just got used to it or if it began to improve, but I started enjoying the art more by the 4th or 5th book. There definitely seemed to be more effort put into the backdrops at that point.