Manga Monday: Time for a field trip!

Even though it's usually not organized through a school club, field trips are an integral part of high school life, and the girls of Megurigaoka Academy Private High School are headed to the mall in School-Live! Volume 2.

Note: School-Live! Volume 2 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review of Volume 1 here. Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: A school club has never been more essential to student life

The school club has long been an important part of the Japanese high school experience, but perhaps it's never been more important than for the girls of Megurigaoka Academy Private High School in School-Live! Volume 1.

The founding principles of the School Living Club are really pretty simple: to best utilize the facilities of the school, it is imperative that the members live their entire lives in the school.

It's not the largest of clubs; in fact, besides the faculty adviser Megumi Sakura, there's only three members right now. But they're the most earnest, devoted members a club could wish for.

Yuri Wakasa is the club president. She is in charge of all of the club activities, and plans the practical aspects of the club's adventures. She's also oftentimes found on the school roof, helping with the gardens that the Agriculture Club have there.

Kurumi Ebisuzawa is the tough girl of the group. She's the one who plows through obstacles, and makes sure that all of Ri-san's plans turn out as expected. She's never too far away from her shovel, so perhaps she likes to help out the Agriculture Club as well.

Which brings us to Yuki Takeya, the heart of the club. No matter what problems the School Living Club faces, from rainy days to possible ghosts, Yuki's smile is what gets her clubmates through the day.

While a club based solely on the school in which it takes place might seem dull, there's always something to do in this remarkably well-provisioned and self-sufficient school. And as the girls grow closer, they've made a pact to graduate together, no matter what.

Highs: Even though the girls and their teacher each fill a very traditional role in a schoolgirl manga, even in this first volume they each have enough personality to draw the reader in immediately.

Lows: It's still odd that a school would allow a group of students to live in a classroom though.

Verdict: A very cute manga that has more depth than it seems at first glance.

Further Reading: My Neighbor Seki, The Devil is a Part-Timer! High School!, Cromartie High School

Manga Monday: Are we finally finding out where everybody stands?

Eren realizes just how deeply humanity's been betrayed, while Mikasa and Armin worry about their next steps in Attack on Titan Volume 11.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 10 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 10 here.  Otherwise, read on!

The sympathetic side of murderous Japanese spirits

Bookstore shelves are packed with books drawing from Western folklore. Elves, fairies, sprites, even selkies have found their way into books recently, especially ones targeting the ever-growing young adult market.

Part of writing young adult, it seems, is to not expect too much outside knowledge of the reader going in. It's assumed that readers know about European fantasy creatures, since that's what most of the fairy tales and Disney movies they've grown up on focus on. But once a piece of another culture's folklore hits the public knowledge, it's fair game.

Enter Okiku, and The Girl from the Well. Okiku was introduced to most Western audiences in the 2002 movie 'The Ring,' but there's much more to her than popping out of old VHS tapes. In the intervening years, Okiku has moved on from haunting the well where she was killed. She's made it her passion to exact revenge on those who have hurt children, and she has left a trail of gruesome, unsolved murders in her wake.

But one day, while drifting around looking for a new victim, she comes across Tarquin. Tark is, in many ways, just an ordinary 15 year old boy. He and his father have just moved, and he's having some of the normal problems fitting in to his new school. He's quiet by nature, so it's hard to get him to come out of his shell.

And, well, accidentally summoning a flock of headless birds in the cafeteria might not make him homecoming king either.

The problem started when he was very young. Before his mother married his father, she was a shrine maiden who spent her days putting spirits to rest with her sister back in Japan. Later on, during a visit back to the shrine, and exorcism went terribly wrong and the only way to keep the malicious spirit from destroying the town that the shrine protects was to bind it to her young son.

The trauma and guilt from that night broke Yoko, and after a few instances of trying to kill Tark and the spirit trapped within him, she's been committed to a mental hospital.

Tark's father has been doing his best, trying to balance a demanding job, a mad wife, and a son who understandably has a few issues.

And the binding left Tark with tattoo-like symbols covering his arms, hips, and chest, without a mother, and a history of bizarre, alienating events surrounding him.

It's no wonder Okiku notices him, and takes an interest.

We also get to know Tark's cousin Callie. A teacher's aide at the school he's now attending, they were close when Tark was young, and she feels a bit of a motherly responsibility for her young family member. She knows that he's been having a hard time, especially since they've moved closer to his mother's hospital and there's been a bit more interaction with her, and she wants to do whatever she can to help Tark out.

And perhaps figure out what's going on with the strange spirits that have been following him.

For as he's growing up, and becoming a less 'pure' vessel, the binding symbols his mother used to shut away the evil spirit have begun to fade. The strange occurrences have become more frequent, and if that spirit escapes, it won't end well for anyone involved.

The Girl from the Well doesn't read like a traditional Stephen King horror novel. Like many Japanese novels, it's much more contemplative and slow-building than that. Most of the bad reviews on Goodreads seem to be coming from people who are expecting a different sort of book. This isn't a hack-and-slash, bloody horror novel. Rather, the creepiness builds as the story progresses and the reader becomes invested in the characters. The tone of the novel rather than graphic imagery is what will keep the reader up at night, either to finish the book or wondering what that shadow behind them in the mirror is.

Highs: This is a great starter book for people who aren't too familiar with Japanese folklore, since The Ring was so popular, and can easily spark an interest in other books with Japanese settings.

Lows: Once again the father is clueless - bordering on neglectful - and mostly ignored throughout the book.

Verdict: A wonderfully creepy young adult horror novel with a distinct East Asian flavor.

Further Reading: The Suffering, Another, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Manga Monday: How deep does this conspiracy go?

More and more of the Survey Corps appears to be hiding a monstrous side in Attack on Titan Volume 10.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 10 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 9 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: What in heaven is the monstrosity on the cover?

Our intrepid Survey Corps members encounter what are by the most abnormal Titans yet in Attack on Titan Volume 9.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 9 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 8 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: How deep does the conspiracy go?

The identity of the Female Titan is discovered, and the mystery of the Walls deepens in Attack on Titan Volume 8.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 8 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 7 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: When Abnormals fight, experience matters

The Survey Corps continues its campaign in the woods in Attack on Titan Volume 7.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 7 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 6 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Everything comes with a price

Some people have a knack for things. Perhaps the letters of her Scrabble bag spell out the future. Maybe they can hop on their bike and find whatever it is they're looking for, whether they know exactly what they're looking for or not. 

Or their car drives them to Christmasland.

In Joe Hill's NOS4A2, some objects can help their users open rifts in the universe. Victoria McQueen, also known as Vic - or simply The Brat - discovers this when she gets her Tuff Burner for her eighth birthday. As she rides away from her parents' fight, a bridge that has collapsed years ago appears before her. On the other side, she finds the bracelet that her parents are fighting over - and a piercing headache unlike anything she's ever experienced.

Over the years, her Tuff Burner and her Shorter Way Bridge help her other lost things, too. A cat, left for dead on the side of the road. A plush penguin. Trouble.

Trouble in the form of Charlie Manx. Once, long ago, Charlie might have thought he was doing good. In fact, even now, he believes that the children he 'rescues' are being given everything they could ever want. They get to live in a land where it's always Christmas. Where they wake every morning to presents and songs and games. Where the evil parents in their lives will never hurt them again. Never mind that their teeth are replaced with row upon row of hooks, like a shark. Or the games that they play with knives and scissors and lynching trees. Never mind the mothers that become the playthings of the Gas Mask Man for no reason other than that they were trying to protect their sons and daughters from the man in the Rolls Royce Wraith.

As a teenager looking for trouble, her bike led her into the path of old Charlie Manx. That encounter ended with Manx behind bars, a conveniently untrue story about being kidnapped by him, and riding off to safety on the back of Lou Carmody's motorcycle.

But now Charlie has escaped the jail hospital. He's found his Wraith, all fixed up for him by an amateur mechanic. He has his Gas Mask Man, who only needs to rescue one more kid before he can go to Christmasland himself.

And he has his sights set on Vic's son.

Now Vic is in a race against time. His old Tuff Burner is long gone, but she's picked up a talent for motorcycles, having married Lou in the intervening years. She's going to have to hold herself together - through police investigations and her own mental illness - long enough to put Manx in the ground once and for all.

Before her son turns into one of the damaged children of Christmasland.

As with his comic book series Locke and Key, Hill tells a wonderfully creepy horror story with touches of magic and the supernatural. Everyone's actions have consequences, and using their reality-bending talents leaves everyone involved broken in one way or another. In showing us these shattered individuals, the truly good people in the story shine like beacons of hope, and the reader can only hope that they get to the end unscathed.


Highs: The side characters, like Maggie and Lou, steal the show.

Lows: The very last chapter 'Come All Ye Faithful' wrapped things up just a little too prettily for me.

Verdict: Despite a slightly weak ending, NOS4A2 is the type of creepy psychological horror full of damaged people and terrible magic that one would expect from the son of Stephen King.

Further Reading: Locke & Key, Another Volume 1, The Midnight Palace

Why let a little something like death slow you down?

Gwen Dylan isn't your normal gal. She works as a grave-digger at an all-natural cemetery, for one, which automatically brands her as 'one of the guys.' She's recently cut ties with her past, so she only has a few people that she can truly call her friends.

Oh, and she's a zombie.

In iZombie Volume 1: Dead to the World, Gwen isn't exactly your standard shambling undead. As long as she maintains a steady diet of a brain a month, she keeps her focus and her memory. And so, being the moral sort, she's found herself employment that lets her be around plenty of brains that no one is using anymore.

Honestly, her life is actually pretty normal for being a living dead girl. She lives in a crypt in the cemetery she works at, and has a slightly 'airheaded' ghost for a roommate. Her other friend, Scotty, is a 'thrope' of the terrier variety.

But she still has a couple problems. When she eats a brain, which is by far the most disgusting thing she's ever had to choke down, she is flooded with the fragmented memories of that person's life. Sometimes it includes a bit of unfinished business that the decedent has left behind. Often it includes his final moments, and whether he died under...mysterious circumstances.

It turns out, Gwen isn't the only undead in town either. A pack of vampires has taken up residence at a local paintball course, and while their leader is bright enough not to leave a trail of bodies behind, not all of them are.

And there might be another, less ethical zombie in town as well.

Chris Robertson does a good job setting up a world full of creatures of the night, while still giving us some rules to go by. The characters each have their own personality quirks already, with plenty of room to go. Gwen even has a love interest, of a sort.

It's amazing how full a life a gal can have, even when she's dead.

Highs: Gwen's friends are hilarious, and their antics are sometimes even more fun than the main story.

Lows: The artwork isn't quite what I expect from a Vertigo title, and there's a lot of backstory still missing.

Verdict: iZombie Volume 1: Dead to the World is a fun, quick read with lots of potential for future volumes.

Further Reading: iZombie Volume 2: uVampire, V Wars, World War Z, Soulless: The Manga, The Unwritten

Manga Monday: When an Abnormal isn't Abnormal after all.

Armin has a stunning revelation, and Eren continues to learn to work as part of a group in Attack on Titan Volume 6.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 6 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 5 here.  Otherwise, read on!

A Merry Christmas Horror Shopping List

The Horror Shopping List 2013

  

As people awaken from their turkey-induced comas and head to the malls, one thing is clear: the Christmas shopping rush is upon us. While the post-holiday winter months keep the readers on your shopping list at home, a good scare can really help pass those cold, dark nights. Here's a list of some of the best spine-tingling stories waiting to be left under the tree.

 

World War Z

 

With the release of the blockbuster summer movie, many more people have hopped on the zombie bandwagon. But what those moviegoers might not realize is that the story of Gerry Lane is hardly the focus of the novel.

Recommended for: fans of zombie movies and shows who haven't read much of the genre.

Under a Graveyard Sky

 

 

Zombie books can end up turning silly, with people completely unprepared for disaster striking on on their own with just a shotgun over their shoulder, with no real thought as to where more shells might come from, or what to do when winter hits. John Ringo, more well-known for fantasy and military SF, does a fantastic job at creating a story in which the characters are actually smart enough to keep themselves alive.

Recommended for: people who have read a lot of zombie novels, fans of the TV show 'Doomsday Preppers.'

V Wars

 

 

The zombies have been in the forefront of horror for the past few years, but there are plenty of scares left in the vampire world. The stories in this shared-world collection weave  bloodsucker lore from around the world into into an intriguing tale with plenty to be afraid of.

 

Recommended for: people who like their vampires scary instead of sparkly.

Parasite

 

Since the passing of Michael Crichton, there has been a lack of good medical horror novels. Mira Grant brings that tradition back with her near-future tale of medical science gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Recommended for: People who don't want fantasy mucking up their scares.

Machine Man

 

Another tale of medical science gone wrong, this time it really is the patient's fault. With equal parts dark humor and action, most people reading this book will have someone that the protagonist reminds them of in their life.

 

Recommended for: the techie or Big Bang Theory fan on your list.

 

 

Robopocalypse

 

 

More near-future horror of the apocalypse type, this time it's our own tech toys that turn on us. As self-driving cars and wearable technology becomes more of a reality, stories like this become more and more frightening.

Recommended for: your favorite technophobe.

Another

 

 

An unsettling Japanese schoolgirl, a cursed classroom and an outsider who has no idea what he's wandered into. Japan is known for its excellent horror movies, and this one delivers creepiness in spades.

Recommended for: the anime or manga fan on your list, those bored with traditional scares.

So there you are. Enough shivers to keep anyone busy during the post-holiday slump. As always, make sure to tuck that gift receipt into the front cover, just in case your recipient has had that scare already.

Manga Monday: Our heroes go on their first survey mission

The 104th Survey Corps is sworn in to protect humanity's last stand in Attack on Titan Volume 5.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 5 is part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 4 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: Learning to fight together

Armin's plan to retake Wall Rose isn't going exactly to plain in Attack on Titan Volume 3.

Note: Attack on Titan Volume 4 is, of course, part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 3 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Medical science gone too far

Science has a way of taking something that seems completely commonplace and making it into the next leap forward. Medicine especially can take the strangest things, like white willow bark, turn the extracted acetylsalicylic acid into salicylic acid, and market it as Asprin. Russia took a different route to fight bacterial infections than the West, and now uses a variation of a microbe found in the sewers called bacteriophages to attack the specific infection found in the patient without damaging surrounding tissues. Ideas that not too long ago were the stuff of science fiction have been appearing in the real world.

In Parasite, by Mira Grant, the scientists and SymboGen Corporation have taken that idea a step further. They've genetically engineered the tapeworm parasite into a whole healthcare system. It can secrete hormones such as insulin, making most maintenance medications obsolete. It has just enough markers similar to human DNA to avoid an immune system response, and it's unable to reproduce, so it can't escape into the wild.

Her symbiote is the only reason anyone can figure that Sally Mitchell survived her car accident. After being in a coma, with a diagnosis of "clinical brain death," her family made the painful decision to take her off of life support, so her organs could be used for other patients. As they were saying their final goodbyes, however, Sal's eyes snapped open. 

The only lasting effect from her accident seemed to be a profound amnesia, which left her a complete blank slate. The last few years have been spent learning to walk and talk, feed herself and interact properly with others. Now, Sal's able to work part-time at an animal shelter, and even has a boyfriend. She's also turned into SymboGen's pet guinea pig, since no one else has ever come back from such massive trauma, symbiote or no.

That's not the only thing that SymboGen has on its plate. People have been acting oddly. Sal's seen it herself. People will be perfectly fine one minute, and then turn into something like sleepwalkers. They'll simply stop what they're doing and wander off, eventually falling into comas. And as both SymboGen and her parents become more and more controlling, Sal will have to start finding answers on her own.

Parasite give a lot of information to the reader very quickly, starting most chapters with 'excerpts' from news articles and biographies involving SymboGen and its founders. Grant excels at this type of info-dump, never making the reader feel talked down to or bored. While a few of the characters, especially Sal, occasionally react in ways that make the reader want to shake them by the shoulders until they see what's right in front of their faces, Parasite is an inventive rollercoaster of a novel, that slowly turns from a near-future science-fiction novel to eerily creepy horror.

Highs: Tansy, with a very Harley Quinn style personality, is one of my favorite characters in a long while

Lows: As smart as many of the characters are, it's as if they were being purposefully dense about one particular plot point

Verdict: Mira Grant is back in fine form, with a new universe to explore

Further Reading: Feed, Machine Man

Manga Monday: Eren's hardest trial yet

Eren, Misaka and Armin face a new enemy - their fellow soldiers - in Attack on Titan Volume 3. 

Attack on Titan Volume 3 is, of course, part of an ongoing series. Check out the review for Volume 1 here, and Volume 2 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Manga Monday: No time to mourn

Our new graduates are called on to defend humanity from an invasion lead by the Colossus Titan in Attack On Titan Volume 2. 

Attack on Titan Volume 2 is, of course, the sequel to Attack on Titan Volume 1. Check out the review for Volume 1 here.  Otherwise, read on!

Now, the vampires get their chance at apocalypse

Zombie apocalypse books have been all the rage of late. The Walking Dead, World War Z, Under a Graveyard Sky and a whole host of other novels have shown us what to do when the undead hoardes appear: kill it with fire. But what are we to do when the hoardes aren't undead? What do we do when the newest predator is just as smart, and just as alive, as us?

V Wars, edited by Jonathan Maberry, gives us just that situation. While working far, far North, two separate groups of people are exposed to the I1V1 virus from the melting polar caps. And thanks to globalization, and the wonderful virus breeding grounds that are airplanes, the virus quickly spreads around the world.

Ostensibly America's Patient Zero, Michael Fayne just got back from a wonderfully icy movie shoot in the wonderfully icy locale of Point Barrow, Alaska. Only a stone's throw from the North Pole, Fayne isn't surprised in the least when he gets sick upon arrival back to New York City. But the bills won't pay themselves, and neither will the paycheck from his SyFy Original Movie, so he hauls himself in to his part-time barista job. A series of blackouts culminates in a date gone terribly wrong, and he finds himself in NYPD's 6th Precinct, being interviewed by a very strange man.

Mooney Lopez knew that monsters roam on two legs long before the V-Event. An orphan on an Indian reservation in the American Southwest, no family came forward to take her in, so she lives with a foster mother she calls Mother Gaso. Raped at 17, Mother Gaso sends her on a trip to NYC to get away and find herself, but she comes back with more than she bargained for.

Ruksana Vulpes of Bucharest was one of the scientists studying glaciers in the Antarctic. With a lifelong love of mountain climbing, she and her partners have no problem rappelling down a glacier that has just calved, getting samples of ice that hasn't seen the light of day in millennia. As she and another member of her team are sampling, a moment of carelessness leads to an eruption of thawed sediment landing on the both of them.

Hugues 'Big Charlie' Charles is the District Attorney of the Bronx. Credited with dramatically decreasing the crime rate in his part of the city, he seems like a shoe-in for the upcoming Primaries. But it's not in Big Charlie's personality to hide anything from his constituents: in the run-up to voting day, he announces that he's been infected with the I1V1 virus.

These are just a few of the stories in V Wars. With the overarching world of a virus activating the 'junk' DNA in its victims, and each region of the world having its own vampire lore, the authors have a wealth of tales to pull from. From Chinese hopping vampires, to Native American rattlesnake-based vampires, to Eastern European vampire-hunting beings, the huge variety of creatures available to pull from makes this anthology truly fascinating.

Highs: The moral quandary of what to do with literally thousands of human beings who may or may not be able to control their need for the flesh, blood or life force of other humans is a moral and legal nightmare that I never want to be a part of

Lows: While the main storyline, written by Maberry himself, is date-stamped, it's hard to figure out exactly when some of the other stories take place

Verdict: A refreshing change of pace from the traditional ZA story

Further Reading: World War Z, Under a Graveyard Sky, Feed

A few more stories from the zombie apocalypse

In a book with as grand a scope as World War Z, it would only make sense that there would be some untold stories floating around. In Closure Limited, author Max Brooks has released four more short stories, as well as an intro that explains how he got into the zombie business in the first place.

Coming in at a slim 124 pages, these feel like tales that were left on the cutting room floor from the original book, and the quality is a bit shaky. The title story, 'Closure, Limited: A Story of World War Z' is the story of a rather ingenious entrepreneur after the dust settled from the Zombie War. He and his employees mine the areas that are still infested with zombies, capture them, and let their customers use them for a sense of 'closure.'

'Steve and Fred' gives the reader a perspective that couldn't be gotten from the interview format of World War Z. Here, a man is trapped in a water closet, with only a book. As the days go by, the sound of the Zeds never leaves the door to the bathroom for long, and his grip on reality gets harder and harder to hold on to.

'The Extinction Parade' is by far the weakest story in the collection. Our characters are a group of vampires, who have lived alongside humanity and the zombies since the beginning of time. At first, they think it's funny that the humans aren't taking care of the zombie flare-up very well, but as time goes on and their food source dies off in record numbers, the vampires start to wonder what the future might bring.

Finally, in 'Great Wall: A Story from the Zombie War', we return to the journalistic storytelling of World War Z. Our UN observer interviews a Chinese woman who fled North after the war broke out. Eventually she reached an offshoot of the Great Wall, and along with other refugees frantically works to rebuild the Wall. But, unlike in the Xia Dynasty, this time it's to protect the North from the threat from the South.

We're also treated to an Introduction by the author. Here, we're treated to Brooks' first encounters with zombies, and the train of thought that caused him to write The Zombie Survival Guide.

Overall, the stories here are decent, but not amazing. As with most 'deleted scenes' in movies, there's generally a reason they were left out. Only the first story is up to the quality of his novel, but the rest are readable nonetheless. Fans of Brooks may want to check it out, but it might be better suited to a cheap ebook release than the physical release it got.

Highs: The title story is actually a morbidly fascinating look at the human psyche.

Lows: Brooks really did his universe a disservice by introducing vampires into an otherwise realistic situation.

Verdict: An uneven collection, worth reading once but perhaps not purchasing.

Further Reading: Under a Graveyard Sky, Boneshaker

Manga Monday: Humanity's last stand

Humanity has declined. The last known colony of humans lives in a walled fortress, hiding from the monsters without. Very little is known about this new predator. They range in height, several meters tall, towering above buildings, and able to pick up humans like plaything. They look eerily like humans, but without any intelligence in their eyes.

They look like us.

For a hundred years, humankind has hidden behind these walls. Almost all information of the world before the Titans appeared has been destroyed, and it's taboo to talk about the would outside of this last garrison. But for Eren Yeager, and his friends Mikasa and Armin, that's not good enough.

Eren wants to enter the military when he's older. Not the Garrison that patrol the walls, or the Military Police, who protect the elite within the innermost walls. Eren wants to be part of the Survey Corps. For Eren isn't content living within this last bit of safety. He wants to help study the Titans, find out where they come from and how they work, and eventually reclaim the rest of the world on behalf of humankind.

His mother reacts with the same horror one would expect from a parent whose child told them that they want to risk their life in a branch of the military with an 80% casualty rate. She forbids Eren from joining, but his father remains oddly quiet about the whole situation. He simply says that when he returns from his trip, he'll show Eren what he's been hiding in their locked basement all these years.

As Eren and Mikasa join Armin in town, however, the unthinkable happens. After a century of safety, a Colossal Titan appears, tall enough to see over the 50meter walls surrounding their village. And as he decimates the complacent wall guards and destroys the outer wall, another Aberrant Titan charges through the inner gate, allowing normal Titans to flood into Wall Maria. Homes are destroyed, countless children are made orphans, and Wall Maria is abandoned as refugees flood Wall Rose.

Eren, Mikasa and Armin are part of the new generation of children. They lost everything with Wall Maria fell, and they hold a special grudge against the Titans. Unlike so many, they are not willing to simply wait behind the walls until the Colossal and Aberrant Titans appear again to destroy their homes, 

Eren is going to destroy the Titans.

A sleeper hit in manga form, the popularity of Attack on Titan has skyrocketed during the first season of the anime. The anime closely follows the manga, and while it's not strictly necessary to read the book after watching the show, fans of the series will enjoy another way to experience this compelling, horror manga.

Highs: The faces of the Titans are terribly unnerving, adding to the creepy air of the series as a whole.

Lows: Fans looking for more insight into the characters may be disappointed, as some scenes are panel-by-panel recreated in the anime.

Verdict: Every manga and anime fan should check this series out, in one format or another.

Further Reading: Monster, Under a Graveyard Sky