Spotlight: Shingeki no Kyojin

This post is about as much as I am going to talk about Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin. I say anything more and I won't be able to resist the temptation of dropping some spoilers.

For the sake of the anime-only viewers, Hazard would rather avoid that. 

Anyway, this is the Spotlight segment, where Hazards talk about one manga or anime to give people a broad idea of what it is about. The first thing I'll be talking here is, as should be obvious, Attack on Titan.

You can find the author's name, magazine of publication, schedule and all that other stuff with a quick Google search so I'll be skipping that. Let's just dive into the story.

As the name may suggest, the manga is about Titans. Giants. And about attacking them. Granted the Titans do the bulk of the attacking.

Setting

  

Sometime in the past Titans appeared and humanity was fucked. 100 years before the start of the manga humanity sought to defend what was left of it by living inside giant walls and I do mean giant. 

Wall Maria, the outer wall. Wall Rose, the middle one. Wall Sina, the inner wall, where supposedly the King and all the filthy rich people live.

The walls have a height of 50 meters; so Titans, being at best 20 meters tall and not that smart, cannot climb over them.

 This is the world the story takes place.

                         

Titans             

So now you're probably wondering, why are Titans such a big deal? They are just big, and even then the tallest are just 15-20 meters Tall. (Note: There are even 2-3 Meter Titans) 

Why does humanity have such a hard time with these guys? 

The main reason for their success against humanity is a near absurd regeneration ability. Even if you blow their head off, they will be fine seconds later. The only weak spot in a Titan's body is in the nape of his neck and it isn't a matter of just striking it. You need to pull it/cut it/blow it out. 

This makes killing Titans a tall order (Puntastic, Hazard knows)

Additionally, Titans have  little intelligence. They do not need to eat. Their bodies perform none of the usual biological functions you would expect. They don't even have reproductive organs.

They just eat humans. That's all they do. They will ignore other creatures. A truly unnatural predator.

The Story

Eren, like many main characters, is one non conformist kid. While the majority of humanity is content to remain inside the walls, he wants to join the Scouting Corps and kill Titans. People in the town laugh at him.

Until the guy in the first picture appears.

Turns out Titans can be bigger than people thought.

The Colossal Titan is a 60 meter monstrosity who proceeds to make a hole in the entrance of Wall Maria. Together with the Armored Titan they launch the biggest Titan attack in 100 years. They break the wall, wreck the town, and make humanity lose an entire Wall

Humans are forced to retreat behind Wall Rose. Massive Exodus here.

Flash forward a few years, Eren has graduated from military academy as one of the top ten recruits. More determined than ever to kill Titans.

And then the Colossal Titan shows up again.

Yeah, that pic above? That's not from the first time CT appears. That's from the second time when he appears right in front of Eren.

It's rematch time!

But you'll have to read the manga/watch the anime  if you want to know how that turns out.