This summer, I read the book, "Attack on Titan: Volume 13", by Hajime Isayama. It is currently one of Barnes and Nobles' "Biggest Books", and it was one of the most anticipated volumes of the whole series. Everyone reading the manga was waiting for a long time for the book to be released, and we finally got what we expected. Hajime Isayama does not cease to surprise me with his books. His art style is nothing less than amazing, and the story's concept is extremely unique. All the books are phenomenal, but this volume was something else.
This story starts off with Eren Jeager, Armin Arlert, and Mikasa Ackerman watching the walls they built to protect all the civilians from titans, being knocked down by a titan. Or to be precise, a 60 meter titan, which is almost 200 feet, looming over the wall, and then kicking it down. That was in the first book, where they were 9 to 10 years old. Now they are 15 to 16, and they are in the Survey Corps, which are soldiers who sacrifice their lives as they go outside the walls into titan territory. In this book, the Military Police, who protect and are always at the side of the King, want to kidnap Eren and Historia, who was once the daughter of the noble Reiss family. The Survey Corps cannot let that happen, as Eren is a human with the power to turn into a titan, and Historia has connections with the Church, which is hiding too many things about the titans, even though people who try desperately to make the titans to go, "extinct," are dying left and right.
But Hanji Zoë, Levi Ackerman, and Erwin Smith from the Survey Corps have come to the result that they have been killing humans the whole time. They have figured out that the titans have once been humans, or that is what they have thought of so far. All of the Survey Corps need to do something the walls, and the holes in two of them. They decide to use Eren in his titan form, because he can learn to harden his skin, as three people from the Survey Corps could do, but they used it for a whole different purpose, and it was to destroy the walls. The Survey Corps didn't even know that these three even were titans, and were shocked when Armin started figuring out it was the three. One of those three, Annie Leonhardt, crystallized herself using the titans hardening ability. The other two ran away with one more person that nobody expected to be a titan. Aside from that, Eren needs to learn how to harden his skin, so they can use this substance to fix the walls. Levi, Hanji, Armin, Eren, Mikasa, and others are trying to get Eren to harden his skin, but to no use.
Erwin makes a plan, not specified in the book, but Levi, Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Connie, and Sasha go to Trost District, where they get into fights with certain civilians. This was as planned though, because Erwin knew that someone who is in touch with the Military Police who spots them will try to kidnap Eren and Historia, and they did. But it wasn't them. It was Armin pretending to be Historia, and Jean pretending to be Eren. They were taken away to a secret place, where they were tied up. The actual Eren and Historia were in a cabin somewhere, not being kidnapped, but trying to be kept away from public.
Armin, being a boy, was worried about them finding out that the person they saw wasn't Historia, who was a girl. The man who made a plan to kidnap them ships cargo, and he was the boss of this whole situation. One of his underlings decided to grope Armin, and he was in tears, hoping it would stop. Jean, pretending to be Eren, was sitting across from Armin, and he couldn't do a thing. Both were tied up, and were hopeless.
They actually weren't. Mikasa, Levi, Sasha and Connie were on the roof of this building, watching the whole thing, hoping to sneak in while the people were gone. When they finally returned, Levi and Mikasa were hiding behind boxes and shelves, and when it was time to strike, they pounced on the workers, almost bashing their heads in, tying their hands together, and helped Jean and Armin. Before they left, they took the boss and Armin was once more harassed by that man, except this time the man knew he was a boy, but said,"It's… all your fault… I used to be normal…but now look at me. You have to do something about this." He was obviously implying the worst. Jean overheard that, and told Armin that he would take care of it. Jean did some more damage to the man, along with Levi and Mikasa. The book ends with Levi making a deal with the cargo boss and Levi and Hanji torturing Sannes, a Military Police guard.
This volume was obviously something else. There was much more drama, and there was much more information about what is currently going on with the Survey Corps. My favorite character out of any book, out of all time, is Armin Arlert, and to see him go through that torture with that man made my stomach churn. The text doubled with the images made this story much more visually clear. This was one of the best books that I have read in years, and when I finished reading it, I was speechless. It was so filled with drama, and there was no unnecessary part. Hajime Isayama knows how to make a story, and one that has made many people fans of this manga.
