Attack on Titan: The Worst Recruitment Speech Ever

[doodleboy]

After the last Attack on Titan post I wanted to post some scans that will give people a good idea of what the series is about without giving away major plot-twists (in which there are many). A scene that will act as a microcosm of the series so people will have an idea of whether it's their cup of tea. I found this one.



Attack on Titan takes place in an alternate history where Man-eating Giants (the Titans) have nearly reduced humanity to extinction. Our heroes are military recruits, having the misfortune of graduating just as a major Titan attack which came really close to wiping out half the remaining human population.

The survivors now have to pick which part of the military they want to serve in. There's the Garrison which mans the walls that protect humans from Titans. The Military Police, the most desired position in the most heavily fortified area of humanity, the farthest away from the Titans.

Then there's the Survey Corps, the ones who venture outside human territory in order to fight back against the Titans.

The survivors of the attack gather to meet the leader of the Survey Corps, Erwin Smith who has... interesting recruiting tactics.

Reads right to left, 11 and a half pages of a 40 page chapter.




























Welcome to the Survey Corps, humanity's last hope for survival. God help you all.

Attack on Titan is being published by Kodansha in the USA. You can watch the anime adaptation (which is quite good) on Crunchyroll (At least in Canada and the US).

Comments

[simiansyndicate]

You know, I like the story, I like the characters, and I like the anime...


...but that art. It hurts. I don't know, it just feels way less polished than other manga, and the artist has no concept of consistency and anatomy from panel to panel. Like, the titans being deformed, I get that. But what is going on with the faces and bodies on these guys?

I mean, the same was said for Jack Kirby, and his legacy turned out ok, but this feels more amateurish. I'll just stick to the anime.

[blunderbuss]

Yeah, the artist does have some skill but not nearly enough for a monthly comic. Which would be acceptable if this was just a Slice Of Life story, but the characters are flying around like steampunk Spidermen and doing a lot of complex emotion, and that's goddamn hard to draw as it is. They're bitten off far more than they can chew.

It's a shame, because it's a GREAT story, but sadly the artist doesn't have the chops to hold it up. It's lucky that it got an anime.

[leoboiko]

Dunno. I really like the weird, un-anatomic titans of the manga; the human characters in the anime feel more polished and well done, sure, but so do the titans, and that for me was a loss.

I entirely admit that I might be reading too much and the artist just sucks and can't draw giants very well; but I still think their unrealistic weirdness added to the terror effect.

[doodleboy]

Well Jack Kirby art was really technically sound, just stylized.

I'm a fair bit optimistic about his art though. One of the fun things about reading a long-running manga is that you can watch an artist turn from crap to awesome by the end of it. So I'm hoping he gets better by the end of Attack on Titan, or his next work.

Sometimes the anime feels like the manga being drawn with Isayama having another seven years of drawing experience on him.

[blackruzsa]

I like how the art pretty much shows the intensity in their eyes. I dunno, I know it's bad in other people's eyes but I just see it as the style. Mostly I pay attention to the narrative.

[red_menace]

Well, can't accuse him of being a dishonest advertiser.

[janegray]

Honestly, considering that scouts do drop like flies, I appreciate the fact that the guy was brutally honest. The recruits are all children, and tricking children to go throw their lives away with hollow promises of glory would have been one hell of a dick move. At least here it's truly their choice.

[q99]

And, considering the job, getting one person willing to chase that choice and not freeze or flee is probably worth a half-dozen who'll panic.

The heaviest casualties are in the first few missions, I'd think.

[janegray]

Anyway, with attack On Titan, I wonder the same thing I wonder with pre-52 Wonder Woman's Amazons. Namely "shouldn't they have run out of people by now?"

At the beginning of the series we are told that there is only one city of humans left. Then, nearly half of those people are killed. Then more and more people are killed. And more, and more, and more and more and more.

It's got to the point where I wonder how the heck can there still be anything close to civilization within the walls when by all rights there should be barely a handful of people left.

[wizardru]

No, you're told there is only one stronghold of humanity left. There are multiple large towns within the three ringed walls. The one that falls at the start of the series which precipitates everything that follows is the Shiganshina District. When it falls, a mass of humanity is killed and forced to retreat to the second ring. Then over the next five years they are sent out in scavenging groups (where it is implied that this was partially intended to thin the herd, since they could no longer support the number of people they had).

If we can believe the narration in the series, the population of humanity within the walls is something along the lines of 1.25 million people, 20% of whom die after the fall of Wall Maria, iirc.

[janegray]

IIRC, it's 20% in the anime, but more than 50% in the manga, so that would make the population about 600.000 people within two ringed walls at the beginning of the story. After that Eren grows up and becomes a soldier, the Colossal Titan attacks again, and people start dropping like flies again.

After dozens of chapters where people are eaten like potato chips, I'd be very surprised if there are even just 500.000 people left in the whole world, and the story is far from over.

[q99]

-
IIRC, it's 20% in the anime, but more than 50% in the manga,-

20% in the official translation- someone in some of the online translation sites goofed.

And that was, iirc, 200,000 people.

So, about a million before, 800,000 after.


And in absolute terms, the amount snacked on like potato chips is unlikely to significantly impact that. We are mostly talking about the scouts at the only contact points between humans and titans there is.

[md84]

According to the bonus details, the walled "city" is huge. It's the size of Texas, and has the natural resources to go with it. It's very rich in minerals and oil. With the population being kept relatively stable and low, the walled city can sustain itself for at least a few centuries. The only resource that is limited are food supplies. When the Colossal Titan breached Wall Maria and deprived humanity of that section of the city and its resources, the government ordered a good number of its citizens, including Armin's grandfather, to attack the Titans in an attempt to reclaim the territory. Of course, the government knew those untrained civilians had no chance at all -- they were basically fed to the Titans to avoid a food crisis.

For the most part, the Walls also do a pretty good job of keeping the Titans out. The Colossal Titan is the only known Titan who can break through the Walls and it only appeared very recently. Hence why the populace was able to enjoy a century of peace in the city.

The Survey Corp are considered a crazy bunch of people who waste resources because they are the only ones who go out into Titan territory in an attempt to find anything useful against the Titans. Everyone else has pretty much given up on ever reclaiming the world and are content to stay in the city like birdies in a gilded cage forever. Most of the casualties on the human side are members of the Survey Corp for this reason. Then again, this means that the Survey Corp members who actually survive their first few missions are humanity's best Titan fighters. One reason so many people died in the Colossal Titan's second attack was because the Survey Corp were all on a mission away from the city at the time.

Honestly, humanity can last for at least a few more generations in the city. Which is part of the problem, since a good chunk of its populace just wants to hide in the city forever and avoid taking the risks that are needed to give humanity a chance of getting the world back.

[q99]

-One reason so many people died in the Colossal Titan's second attack was because the Survey Corp were all on a mission away from the city at the time.-

And even then, they got a lot of the civies out first.

A good number of survey corps members died,, but we're likely talking a hundred or two, not a big chunk of the population.

-
Honestly, humanity can last for at least a few more generations in the city-

Longer, really. They've got cropland. That's not going to change. They aren't going to run out of supplies unless the land goes bad. One of their problems is, really, what to do with excess people.

Shut off, and assuming no more titan breaches, it'll be a long, slow death, probably.

[q99]

-
At the beginning of the series we are told that there is only one city of humans left. Then, nearly half of those people are killed. Then more and more people are killed. And more, and more, and more and more and more.-

A whole bunch of scouts, yes, but aside from the one town, the civilian population is largely unaffected. There's been no great die-off since the first wall breach.

[protogarrett]

I've never gotten past the terrible art in this manga. Just the first issue was... lord, like a middle school project.

[beoweasel]

I couldn't get into the anime series.

The visuals were good, but lord, the pacing was AWFUL.

[rainspirit]

Agreed. There were a few times when I wanted to quit it completely.

It gets better in the second season.

[rainspirit]

Poor Sasha.

[espanolbot]

Admirable though, someone who keeps going back despite being so utterly terrified of the Titans.