Spinning A New Story Within The 'Verses of Sword Art Online and Attack on Titan

I am, for whatever reason, utterly fascinated by the choices some authors make when they decide to write spin-offs for their main (and very popular series). In particular, I've been reading Reki Kawahara's SAO light novel spin-off along with the Attack on Titan spin-off from Hajime Isayama and Ryo Kawakami. It might be comparing apples to oranges in a way, since Isayama is actually not the primary author of this particular spin-off, but ultimately the franchise origin writer chooses what stories are told in the spin-offs. And that choice is what is worth examining, especially when one spin-off explicitly marks itself as 'progressive'.

Sword Art Online Progressive (books 1-2): Kirito and Asuna are two very different people, but they both desire to fight alone. Nonetheless, they find themselves drawn together to face challenges from both within and without. Given that the entire virtual world they now live in has been created as a deathtrap, the surviving players of Sword Art Online are starting to get desperate, and desperation makes them dangerous to loners like Kirito and Asuna. As it becomes clear that solitude equals suicide, will the two be able to overcome their differences to find the strength to believe in each other, and in so doing survive?

Attack on Titan - The Harsh Mistress of the City (book 1): With Wall Maria breeched, communities within the Quinta district have been cut off from each other creating famine and chaos. A young field commander named Rita is tasked with a mission to reconnect transit across the massive district while putting her troops and residence right in the vanguard as Titans descend on her town.

Manga Review: Attack on Titan GN 15

Attack On Titan volume 15
Author: Hajime Isayama
Kodansha Comics
192 pages

Hange’s interrogation of a Military Police squad has revealed that Krista (a.k.a. Historia Reiss) is the true heir to the throne. The Corps quickly moves to enthrone her as queen, but a homicidal MP leads a squad that abducts Eren and Krista and throws the Corps into disarray. With Erwin arrested and the Survey Corps on the edge of dissolution, are Levi and Hange finally out of options? (Source: Random House)

I remember not being very enamored of the previous volume of Attack On Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin but I couldn't remember why until I looked back over my review of it. It was a bit of a messy, clusterfuck bomb of a book that threw a ton of plot twists at the wall just to see what would stick, which is really no good way to construct a manga. By comparison, the fifteenth and latest volume of AoT is pretty great, even though in some ways they both share the same narrative issues. Yet, this book handles these issues so much better and puts an end to a subplot that had been threatening to drag the series into the muck for a while.

Review of the Reviews: My Favorite Posts of 2014

Oh, 2014. You were an interesting year but you have left us for good, never to darken our doors again. Bye now! Don't come back! Actually, 2014 was a very productive year for Nagareboshi Reviews: I managed to post 213 times last year, more than I managed to blog in 2013 - although, considering I was a full-time student in 2013 and an unemployed slacker in 2014 probably accounts for the difference in post count.

It seems appropriate to look back at Nagareboshi Reviews during 2014 and pick my favorite posts of the year! I'll split the list up into two sections: reviews and meta/commentary. Flashback Friday, anyone?

Manga Review: Attack On Titan GN 14

Attack On Titan volume 14
Author: Hajime Isayama
Kodansha Comics
192 pages

Commander Erwin has finally come to a decision: Putting their own wealth and position ahead of the survival of humanity, the royal government is no longer fit to lead. To execute their leader’s most audacious plan yet, Eren and Krista will have to put themselves in peril yet again, and Armin, Mikasa, and the rest of the Survey Corps will have to turn from humanity’s guardians into traitors. If they fail this time, they’ll face not a Titan’s gaping mouth, but the gallows…

Maybe this is a sign I'm slowly starting to get burned out on the Attack On Titan manga, because this volume was good, but it was frustrating at times and ridiculous at others. For a series centered around colossal human-looking beasts that tower above everything and eat people like gummy bears, you expect a certain level of the absurd but volume 14 really takes the cake.

It's not even the fact that the series has shifted its focus from fighting titans to fighting government corruption, because in such a closely collected community of paranoia and desperation as those who live behind the walls, this kind of in-fighting is bound to happen. No, it's just that some of the plot twists that Isayama throws at us with the subtlety of a quick brick that has me groaning.

Manga Review: Attack on Titan GN 13

Attack On Titan volume 13
Author: Hajime Isayama
Kodansha Comics
192 pages

At great cost to the Garrison and the Survey Corps, Commander Erwin has managed to recover Eren from the Titans who tried to carry him off. But during the battle, Eren manifested yet another power he doesn't understand. As Eren and Krista find new enemies, the Survey Corps faces threats from both inside and outside the walls. And what will happen to Ymir, now that she has decided to make herself the Titans' prize?

Spoiler alert: Contains some spoilers for earlier volumes of the manga as well as plot points in volume 13.

As the thirteenth volume of Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin opens, Erwin and Levi's groups are recovering from the battle of the human Titans. Ymir is still with Bertolt and Reiner, Historia is back with the Corps, and Eren is struggling to understand a new aspect to his own Titan abilities. It seems like a slower volume at first, but there's a lot going on as Hajime Isayama turns the series towards more political-based drama as well as delving into the past of Historia.

Battle of Dueling Titans: Attack on Titan GNs 10-12

Spoiler note: Post contains spoilers for most major events in Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin up to chapter fifty.

With no combat gear and Wall Rose breached, the 104th scrambles to evacuate the villages in the Titans' path. On their way to the safety of Wall Sheena, they decide to spend the night in Utgard Castle. But their sanctuary becomes a slaughterhouse when they discover that, for some reason, these Titans attack at night!

I don't say this about a lot of manga-ka of popular series, since I suspect that fame can cause flustered souls to start throwing stuff at the drawingboard to see what sticks and will keep them from being cancelled, but I have faith that Hajime Isayama knows where this story is going. Isayama has a plan for the fearless soldiers of a cringing humanity hiding behind its massive walls and it obviously involves Titans - lots and lots of Titans.

At this point, around the volume ten point, it becomes obvious that Titans are all around us. They are in the ranks of the Survey Corps, they train and make merry with their associates and enjoy a drink or two at night. They live, love and betray their friends. Titans: they're just like us! After the stunning revelation that Eren is not the only human-Titan in the group with the battle against Annie, Titans keep popping up out of nowhere.

Manga Review: Attack On Titan GN 6

Attack on Titan volume 6
Author: Hajime Isayama
Kodansha Comics
190 pages

On the way to Eren’s home, deep in Titan territory, the Survey Corps ranks are broken by a charge led by a female Titan! But this Abnormal is different – she kills not to eat but to protect herself, and she seems to be looking for someone. Armin comes to a shocking conclusion: She’s a human in a Titan’s body, just like Eren!

There's something about this volume of Attack on Titan that just works. It's probably how Isayama focuses on this one event, that being the hunt for the female Titan who is acting much differently than other Abnormal Titans. It's a focus that makes every scene, big or small, more monumental than before. In this volume, we see Armin step up to the plate and watch Eren undergo some serious dramatic realization of his place in the Survey Corps, and both characters come out of these traumatic experiences changed forever.

Manga Review: Attack On Titan GN 5

Attack On Titan volume 5
Author: Hajime Isayama
Kodansha Comics
192 pages

Thanks to Eren, humanity has taken the town of Trost back from the Titans. Exhausted, Eren falls into a coma for three days – and wakes in shackles, staring at Erwin Smith, leader of the Survey Corps. Certain that Eren’s father’s research holds the key to the mystery of the Titans’ rise, Smith wants an expedition to retrieve it from the house where Eren grew up. But that’s deep in Titan territory, and to get there Eren will need to master a power he still doesn’t fully understand…(Source: Kodansha)

The fifth volume of Attack On Titan is Isayama making an attempt to temporary put the brakes on the main action. And it works, for 2/3rds of the book. The action slows down and we see Isayama begin to rearrange the cast to his liking. But this a series about the terror of humans living under the thumbs of flesh-eating giants; it doesn't stay quiet for long.

This volume deals with many of the issues that were raised in the previous volume, from Eren's current Titan abilities to the mystery of whatever the heck is in his basement back home. Surprisingly enough, this soon becomes common knowledge and what defines Eren's worth in the Survey Corp to everyone beyond Armin and Mikasa, who are currently his only true friends in the world.

Book Sprites: It's A Fight To Survive, Fools!

Some times, you have time to write a 1,000+ word review of a single book. Some times, you just don't. For those times, we have Book Sprites, compact book reviews for the discerning reader with no time to lose. No major spoilers lie here!

In this post, we have volume 15 of Soul Eater, volume 15 of Natsume's Book of Friends, and volumes 2 and 3 of Attack on Titan. There's evil spiders, lurking ayakashi, and colossal wall-smashing titans. 

Spoilers for the above books lurk within!

Soul Eater volume 15 by Atsushi Ohkubo: The Baba Yaga Castle saga is over! The Baba Yaga Castle saga is over! Do the Excalibur dance and rejoice, because the Baba Yaga Castle saga is over! Not because it was a bad story arc - in fact, it's been the strongest arc so far in the manga - but because it exposed so many continuing plots beyond the walls of Arachne's castle that you just really want to go beyond it already. And in this volume, we do!

Five Anime For Your Post-Black Friday Blues

This one's for the American otaku out there. Sorry, international readers, but last weekend was kind of a big deal in the U.S. of A. We spent Thursday eating and drinking until our pants popped opened collectively while watching football and various parades (and for some of us, kicked off a once-in-a-lifetime holiday known as Thanksgivukkah), then woke up in the wee hours of Friday to tackle Black Friday, whether in person at the malls or online while stalking Amazon's hourly specials. Saturday was spent either in a holiday-induced food coma or braving the stores yet again for amazing deals thanks to Small Business Saturday (anyone else get a cute free tote bag?) across the country.

We have all (over)eaten our share of food, endured more contact with extended family than we'd ever care to voluntarily admit to, and a good portion of us can now claim to have witnessed the first musical Lady Gaga x Muppets meet-up in pop culture history (not counting the Kermit dress, natch). If ever there was a time for otaku to unwind and relax with anime, this is definitely it. I've got five titles that will wash away all your post-Thanksgiving/shopping blues.

Upcoming Reviews: A Little Light Reading

I feel bad for not posting more regularly - or with more reviews! With school and work taking over my free time . . . well, I can make excuses as much as I can, but they are still excuses.

Since I don't have any solid posts coming into view yet, I thought I'd update y'all on what reviews are coming up sooner than later. Good news: it's all manga! And all manga readily available in English. Even a bit of BL for my fellow fujoshi!

(Although at this rate, Kickheart and the first Little Witch Academia OVA will be reviewed in short time as well. As well as the Accel World EX OVAs - after starting Sword Art Online through it being aired on Toonami, I've really started to miss Accel's Kuroyukihime and Hiroyuki, who live in the same 'verse as SAO's Asuna and Kirito.)

• Library Wars volume 10 by Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa
• Rohan at the Louvre by Hirohiko Araki
• Genshiken Season 2: volume 1 by Shimoku Kio
• Attack on Titan volume 2 & 3 by Hajime Isayama
• Off*Beat volume 1 & 2 by Jen Lee Quick
• Barbara by Osamu Tezuka

Of course, if you have any recs for manga I should be reading, feel free to drop them in the comments!