Attack on Titan fans have been joking for years about the creator’s potential glee in putting his characters through bleak situations, and it’s hard not to take these jokes seriously when the creator has a bit of fun at his characters’ expense.
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Series creator Hajime Isayama posted his last blog in 2017 (as translated on Tumblr), and with some bits about his favorite films of the year, dedicated a song to the series’ most notorious character, Reiner Braun.
Dedicating the darkly toned “Romance” by Shinsei Kamatte-chan, who also performed the ending theme for season two, Isayama is clearly joking a bit about the darker route Reiner had taken. Reiner’s suicide attempt was his darkest moment in the series, but Isayama clearly has a different view of it. Along with this darkly humorous song choice, Isayama even hangs a sketch of Reiner’s suicide attempt in his office.
After the time skip, the manga joins Reiner in Marley, who is suffering from an intense bout of PTSD from his time spent with Eren and the others. He’s confronting all sorts of latent feelings and revisiting the death of his former comrade, Marcel. He regrets many of the decision he made on Paradis Island with his other comrades, even including leaving Marco to die after he had found out their secret.
Reiner’s suicidal thoughts came to a head once he stick sa loaded rifle in his mouth as he thought about killing himself. Reiner only stops when he hears Falco, the boy who is trying to save someone else from inheriting the Titan power, and snaps out of it. This sets the events of the next arc in motion as Reiner soon comes face to face with Eren again.
For those unfamiliar with Attack on Titan, the series was originally created by Hajime Isayama. Starting its run in Kondansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009, the series has been collected into 23 volumes as of 2017. It’s set in a world where the last remnants of humanity live within a walled city in order to escape the danger of the Titans, a race of giants monsters that eats humans. Eren Yeager joins the military with his two childhood friends Mikasa and Armin after the Titans break through the wall and attack his hometown.
The series was adapted into an anime from Wit Studio and Production I.G. with a third season premiering in 2018. 68 million copies of the manga have been sold as of 2017, and has been met with major critical and commercial success worldwide. Volume 24 of Attack on Titan released December 8 in Japan, with a Western released planned next year. The trailer for the volume highlights key moments covering the “Marley” arc.
