Attack on Titan Manga: While season 3 of the Attack on Titan anime has just landed on Netflix and the sequel to season 4 (part 2) has an estimated release date around winter 2022, at Purebreak we prefer today to dwell on the manga. And not just any: his Colossal Edition available at Pika Edition. Believe us, this is clearly the best idea to fully appreciate the adventures of Eren, Mikasa, Armin or Levi imagined by Hajime Isayama.
As its title suggests, the Colossal Edition of Attack on Titan is giant. To put it simply, where a classic manga will be 18 x 13cm, we are here on 26.5 x 18 cm. A simple “gadget” pretext to surf the concept of the Titans and sell more manga? Absolutely not. This new size really does honor the basic work of Hajime Isayama.
Attack on Titan: Graphics that are fully revealed
If you discovered this story through its anime, you have certainly been blown away by the staging of the fights or the creepy graphics of the creatures. However, these things are not always perfectly perceptible in paper format, the fault of very small boxes which inevitably minimizes the creative ideas of the mangaka.
The good news, this problem is no longer a problem thanks to this special format. Here, we are directly drawn into the content, and (when we have already read the normal tomes) we really have the impression of rediscovering Attack on Titan. With these much larger pages, the Colossal Edition finally allows us to fully vibrate in front of the dynamism of the sequences, to appreciate the care taken to the smallest graphic details (the expressions of the creatures, the costumes of the heroes …), and to feel this permanent tension with boxes that turn out to be up to the stakes.
Quite clearly, it’s hard not to have a few chills when facing life-size (almost!) Titans in front of us. Immersion in this universe is now easier, which further strengthens our attachment to the characters as the fear and danger of their world really jumps out at us.
A careful edition from start to finish
It must also be said that the work carried out on this Colossal Edition is a real success. Contrary to what one might think, the editors did not just make the images bigger to look pretty. Here, the paper is totally different (we are on a kind of glossy paper, almost like a comic book), which necessarily changes the way we approach reading.
Indeed, despite all the love we have for the classic manga, having something in our hands that is not “cheap” also strengthens our interest. We indirectly understand that what is offered to us is unlike anything else on the manga market and that it is, therefore, important to fully savor what we are watching. In fact, rather than linking pages to find out as quickly as possible what will happen next, our reading pace slows down. And that’s how we start to look at Hajime Isayama’s work from a new perspective, especially in terms of storytelling.
Finally, it is a bonus point that is anything but negligible: we are sometimes entitled to a gift with the presence of a few color pages. A small detail is nevertheless a great pleasure and which brings us back to the excellent work on the anime.
In short, if you really want to live the Attack on Titan experience, this version is essential.
