Tag: aot

Attack On Titan: Volume 5 (Manga)

My first manga I have read for this year, I could be naive and say I am reading this to pad out my total books read but genuinely I am reading this to compare the manga to the anime. Last year I read the first 4 volumes and this is the first one I have finished for this year.

I enjoyed the anime very much and it is nice to read the manga, that said I do prefer the anime. There are some subtle differences between both versions.

This fifth volumes follows the scouts from Eren’s Titan reveal and introduction to the Scouts up to the Scouts expeditionary mission and the reveal of a new type of Titan…

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7394772797

New Year, New Posts!!!

A New Year and new beginnings and promises. I’d like to start with wishing all who read this a Happy New Year and hope health, happiness and prosperity finds them.

For me this year I’m hoping to keep this updated more regularly (famous last words) and maybe diversify the content here. Though the name is ValleyReading It won’t just be a book or reading blog. I will also post stuff from my other interests such as wet shaving Shave of The Days (SotD) and a new interest of mine anime and manga, mostly Attack On Titan which I love.

For shaving I’m starting the year growing a bit of a beard, though I may shave it soon as I have a slight breakout of excema so I may shave this week to sort that and enjoy the use of one of my recent razors (Rockwell T2 Stainless Steel or Tatara Masamune).

In terms of anime I’m looking forward to watching Attack On Titan again, I enjoyed it immensely from start to finish and I would like to watch the English dub of the final episode which is coming out this weekend (7th January). I would also like to watch more of One Punch Man which I am enjoying very much as well as Death Note. I have several others lined up to watch and the Attack On Titan manga which I’m 5 books into out of 34.

Finally my reading flagged last year when I discovered Attack On Titan and it is no lie that I was and am completely consumed by it and its lore, fan theories etc. So my reading took a hit. I was on about 35 or 38 books when I discovered it and I was flagging on my reading goal of 50 books until the end of November (I would have smashed it by June if I didn’t discover AoT). I finished the year with 61 books thanks to my Christmas reading, which I always make time for and enjoy very much.

This year my goal is set at 25 which is easily accomplished and just merely used as a placeholder. My true goal remains to read daily whether its a short book, a chapter or a page. It all counts. I also wish to read longer books. I started reading The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore (1350 pages) 18 months ago and been dipping in and out of it. I hope to finish it this year! As a challenge I would like to read Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce too.

My first book of the year will be a short one and a humourous one. The Diary of A Nobody by George Grossmith. I have read it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seemed a nice choice to start the year with, though usually I start with a Yasunari Kawabata novel either Thousand Cranes, Beauty & Sadness or Snow Country.

So that’s my plans for this bit of internet over the next year. Let’s see how we get on!

Attack On Titan – Conclusion

I did say I would try to update this blog more often but laziness got the better of me. Well I do have something to post about finally I have caught up with Attack On titan, not only caught up with it but finished it as far the anime goes, and also read the last manga chapters to know the end (I couldn’t wait).

I’m not sure what I’m going to write below so be aware there may be spoilers from here on.

What an excellent show, as I previously mentioned I am an anime/manga virgin and this show was really my entry into the genre and I think I spoiled myself. I seem to have started with the best and possibly downhill from here. Well it was certainly a fun and enjoyable experience and changed my perceptions, I haven’t been this into a show of any kind for a real long time. It just grabbed me and never let go. It still hasn’t as I’m left wondering about things and questioning things. I’m very much looking forward to watching the series through again and picking up the foreshadowing and easter eggs I missed the first time around.

As for anime, up to this point it is nice to see how the Paradis Eldians put aside their differences to work with the Marley General and the Marley Titans – to fight against the common enemy and try to put a stop to the Rumbling and Eren’s plan. I had an inclination this would be the case. Despite Eren’s reasons for doing it it would just confirm the bias of the outside World that the Island Devils would do what they did. For me the choking moment was when the plane was atop the founding titan and the Marley Eldians saw the Paradis Eldians and the Marley titans fighting against one of their own in Eren’s Founding Titan.

Also Eren allowing them freedom of abilities means he wants them to fight and to win, which harks back to the start where he wants to kill them all – the Titans. In order to do this his friends must also kill him. The ending and what is to come will make for a thrilling piece of animation and I’m excited to see it. It will be an incredible fight.

The show leaves me with lots of questions and I’m looking forward to watching deep dives on the show and learning more. One for instance is was Eren in control and manipulated his mother getting eaten? It would be a perfect motive to destroy the outside World.

Manga

As for the end I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed the fighting and Titan twist was excellent along with the killing of Zeke and Eren but after that it leaves me flat.

The original surviving 104th Cadets now are envoys of Marley to show the World the Paradis Eldians are not the Island Devils they are believed to be. It seems a tentative World peace is achieved but through the decades as the Yeagerists push their political and military agenda War is inevitable and a modern day Paradis is bombed. So all the Rumbling to prevent a conflict was somewhat in vain, although with Paradis reaching modern era, it would be a fair fight.

The very end though gives me CJ GTA San Andreas vibes “Oh shit, here we go again!” with the child and dog stumbling upon Erens tree with the opening to go through. A parallel to Ymir and the start of this cycle of Titans. Does Eren’s power live on through the tree? Does the context of the child exploring contrast with the life/death of Ymir’s situation? It certainly leaves food for thought and who knows maybe a sequel in the future?

Whether the anime will be different but I would have liked to see more of the aftermath and how life altered post rumbling. It could have been better and on the flip side could have been worse.

It didn’t spoil the experience though and I’m still looking forward to the anime this Autumn. I am very happy Floch is dead, oh and fuck the Yeagerists!

So now I’m going to have a little break and then I may rewatch the show from the start along with the OVAs. I also plan to try Vinland Saga and Death Note and maybe something random on Crunchyroll.

Attack On Titan – WOW!!!

Recently I was introduced to anime/manga and hasn’t it surprised me, I didn’t know what to expect and it literally shook me. Ordinarily I would have rubbished anime as for Japanese weibos and creeps but having now tried it, its the opposite. Since May I have slowly been watching the anime Attack On Titan and my goodness what a show! Everything I thought or expected has been turned upside down.

To expand on a point made above I always expected anime to be child orientated or aimed at the forever alone viewer who’s contact with females come in the form of pillows and Dead or Alive Volleyball video games. Some of the art work and covers of anime show me right in this thought, lots of thickness and titties but as they say you can’t judge a book by its cover and the same is true for anime.

As a child I was into Pokémon but I never classed that as an anime, I always looked at it as a cartoon, so I guess I had sort of got into it. But never progressed beyond that initial craze. There was only 151 of them and the last Pokémon game I played was Yellow on my Gameboy Colour.

Well Attack On Titan is no Pokémon or Spirited Away (have since seen this too). Initially for the first 10-15 minutes I was a bit blasé about it, I have a pet peeve of kids in media. The characters get on my nerves and their voices and being is just not my cup of tea (see Tim in Jurassic Park, Gavroche in Les Misérables). Early impression was meh with the child Eren, Mikasa and Armin and their nonsense.

THEN IT HAPPENED.

A Titan! Not just any Titan but a giant steaming hulk of bone and muscle. This grabbed my attention and all that followed. Since that point I haven’t looked back. Although it is animation, the images and gore lingers in your mind and it is very visceral. Starting with Eren’s mother getting eaten. That bit and the face of the Titan stuck in my mind, especially their mouth and teeth.

Needless to say I am well and truly hooked and I am loving the show so far. So many twists and turns and it is a very deep show. It often leaves me feeling completely confused and shocked. I like googling but I’m trying not to so I don’t spoil things for myself.

I’m already on the early episodes of Season 3 and I’m excited to see what is coming, I’m so enthralled, confused and excited. To me this is one of the best things I have ever watched. So much so that I have even started to read the manga on my kindle and noticing foreshadowing and bits I missed whilst watching, it certainly enriches the experience (though it did take me 20 minutes to realise manga is read opposite to a western book).

I have even subscribed to Crunchyroll and will explore other anime shows too, but right now my focus is on Attack on Titan. Make up for lots of media I have been missing out on.

As I say every time I post I do plan to blog quite often about Titan and my thoughts, maybe not episode by episode but I might do that. I started watching an English dub and whilst I enjoy it some voices annoy me. I would like to go back and watch it in Japanese with subtitles. Perhaps when I do I’ll blog Episode by Episode. Like with the manga going back will be an enriching experience.

We will see if I post or as usual forget ha!