3 out of 5

We very clearly come out on the other side of a series turning point, however, Hajime Isayama’s writing struggles – perhaps only as culturally and textually translated; nonetheless – are clearer than ever, exposing that plot threads that are treated as “surprises” are perhaps just ideas poorly inserted into the story, and the moral greys the cast experiences are visually told through art that sometimes just isn’t up to the task. Here, some cultural awareness of manga sound effects does help, but AoT is, as ever, doubly interesting: while I’d be open to debating how much of this Isayama planned out, it’s inevitable he experienced growth as a storyteller throughout the creation; and I can’t fault any part of the ongoing story for not being ambitious, and bursting with ideas beyond the page. It’s always just been a matter of how much control Isayama has over that at any given point. Since, in my head, we just got past a transition in the type of story Isayama wanted to tell, with a lot of clunk to kind of close the door on the old and open a new one, volume 17 is some character work to back that up – with sudden backstory fill-in for Kenny and Levi, and those aforementioned greys getting even greater for Eren, and the survey corps in general. We’ve had the seeds of that stuff the whole while, but again, it was more puzzle-boxy before; at this point – the book is ready to grow up and expand the puzzle itself.

Volume 17 is some aftermath of the cave / Reiss bits, which mostly serve as a coda – a breather – to strengthen ongoing feeling of progress for loss; that things will never go back to a “normal.” …And to do some of the aforementioned backstory fill-in, which is hilariously histrionic. Again again, you can tell me Hajime had these details mapped out (and I’m sure that’s been elucidated in interviews somewhere), but his ability to smoothly integrate them – whether pre-planned or not – is still lacking.

The second half of the book is hard pressed to create chapter cliffhangers, but it’s arguably more interesting: an “X time later” jump where we get inklings of next steps, and what the government may look like sans its previous leaders – very indicative of the social study bent AoT will continue to lean in to, assuming the anime (which I’ve completed) somewhat aligns.