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The absolute BEST MANGA of all time, no debate. Isayama being able to establish, build up, thematically present, and go in depth on these themes and ideas just makes this absolute peak fiction. There isn’t a single chapter I’d consider bad, nor an episode of the anime. I don’t know how he did this all at 19.

When you revisit this series retroactively, everything makes sense. The basic establishment of the plot, themes, motifs and the effects of characters yet to be introduced is brilliant.

Eren starts out as your cliche mc, fighting for something others do not and being rebellious. His innate nature ... was always on display through throughout the manga and how it eventually consumes him is extremely well done. All the buildup, the dynamics, most importantly with zeke, mikasa, Armin, and Reiner are among some of the best. From eren being an ignorant child subjected to the horrors of the cycle of violence, yet being the ultimate victim to himself, as his nature manifests and affects his nurture. Eren symbollically becoming NATURE in the final panel giving birth to yet another cycle just makes me want to ascend. Eren’s conclusion within the final 2 chapters were what did it for me. It simply has to be one of the best sequences within all of manga. How this relationship is tied to mikasa and how her character implicitly develops overtime, is another example of excelling writing.

Mikasa retaining her “pride” and going against the flow, constantly, thus making her the freest character in all of AOT. Her refusal to fall victim to her lack of agency and constantly opposing eren’s desires. Eren wasn’t even able to understand why mikasa loved her so much, he thought it was because of her being ackermann(this has been debunked by zeke and Kenny’s grandfather). Very rarely do you see a FMC with this much agency over her own life. I can’t believe I once thought her character had no substance. There’s simply wayyy too much I could say about her, literally almost more than eren. She went from my least favorite to one of my favorite FMCs of all time. The long dream sequence “see you later” and how it ties into the greater cyclical nature of AOT, eren’s nature, mikasa’s love for eren, is what makes that final stretch so brilliant. Mikasa granting eren the ability to finally experience something new for the first time. The world is cruel, yet so beautiful.

Then there’s Armin, a character I’ve always kept my eye on yet never favorited. His character arc can’t be anything short of greatness. From intially being the trigger for eren to “awaken” his innate desire and wanting to see the outside world, to this dream being warped into the absolute horror eren makes it is excellent. Armin’s development alone in S1(Trost and FT) makes him one of the better side characters I’ve read in my 400+ anime/manga consumption. He goes from a timid, weak and having intense self loathing to recognizing the trust his friends have in him and someone who makes decisions knowing what’s at stake for more than just himself and immediate circle. This leads him to stepping into the role of a leader and a competent strategist. As Erwin states, he’s more than proven himself by RTS, easily making him better off development alone. Now his theme of “hope” and how it ties into the greater narrative of AOT did not go unnoticed. Armin being the one who eren entrusts go go past the walls(something he couldn’t do), to keep moving forward for the sake of humanity and finding the peace which they seek. As the story of AOT suggests, this is extremely unlikely and the cycle will always begin anew, but we must entrust the future to the living in hope they seek a future with no conflict. Freedom from oppression, discrimination, hatred and the likes. Armin being the perfect inheritor and the one to lead the alliance into letting go of their hatred and differences for the greater good of humanity.

This is what the yeagerists failed to do, they clung to their hatred only to start regurgitating the same rhetoric king fritz once said. Proving their inability to let go of their hatred and go past the forest, leaving the conflict behind. You reap what you sow.
The concept of AOT is heavily tied to retro causality and the effects the future holds on the past and vice versa. I wish I can elaborate, but I’d take me a 30 page essay to compile all I know about AOT, it’s themes, characters and motifs. Just know the past being influenced by the future is a thing. Eren sets his own narrative and constrains himself to it. Having all the power of a GOD, yet the ability to not achieve what he wanted fully. Tragic.


Absolute peak fiction, I recommend a reread once the initial read is finished because it helps cement things and makes things much clearer. Main themes, children of the forest, sins of the father, god, stoicism, subjectivism, cycles of hatred, inherited will/succession, love, beauty, cruelty, two sides of the same coin, self loathing, nature vs nurture, ignorance, freedom, pride, hope, humanity’s urge to conflict.