it's almost midnight as i'm writing and currently procrastinating so there might be some typos but i just wanted to get this out of my way.

someone on the forums recommended this manga and i decided to check it out, initially believing that it would be another boring shounen manga. fortunately, i was proven wrong (that person has a good taste in manga) and became so wrapped up in this story. even the first volume leaves me wanting for /more/ since it ended with a huge plot twist!

STORY: very, very nicely done! leaves you with plenty of suspense and anticipating. it's like a thriller where you quickly flip a page (or in this case, press the next arrow key). the pace's not too bad; it's neither too fast or too slow, but just right. although, at times, there may be some concept pages thrown in for clarity such as how the walls are built and maintained -- a crucial component of the plot. it's quite clear that this new mangaka did some research on the practicalities of his inventions, which makes this manga well thought out.

ART: like the other reviewer said, art is very, very mediocre; just enough to make this manga readable. the characters are drawn out of proportions and if you're one of those people with a sense of OCD (or the general eye-twitching at bad art), then this manga may irritate you a lot. however, in this case, this evident weakness doesn't detract from the quality of the manga. i agree with the other reviewer about the mangaka's rendering of the titans: they were /absolutely/ terrifying and evoked the raw emotion of fear from me. the way the panels were structured made me feel the same fear as the characters in the story. i love, love, love the monsters' design and their lack of proportions does make for the terrifying moment.

CHARACTER: at the beginning, when some men were in the woods, i didn't care for the characters much. however, by the end of the volume, i liked misaka even though she's usually very stoic. she does care for her friends. the human characters behaved realistically. if you were confronted by a giant who wants nothing more than eating you, what would you do? no one would dare defeat a titan on their own until they had a huge motivation.

the main driving force of this manga, though, is the human-eating monster. in the first volume, the titans provide a key point of conflict as they easily trample down the walls and invade the humans' remaining territory. not much is known about them other than the fact that they ignore animals and plants and have only one known weakness so far.

ENJOYMENT: because i read this manga late at night, shinegeki no kyojin provided me entertainment. i would definitely re-read it because it captured what no other popular manga did: it exposed my fear of being eaten and of the unknown. i did notice some points where the quality of art wasn't the best, but the storytelling ability spurred me on to read more. i know that three volumes have been released so far, so i'm definitely looking forward to the second scanlated volume!

OVERALL: great story, art could use work in defining humans, characters aren't thoroughly developed /yet/, high level of enjoyment. i heard a rumor that this manga was rejected by WSJ because it wasn't what they were looking for and i believe that it was a good thing that this manga was rejected because had it been accepted, the story would have to be dumbed down for the readers. this type of story is clearly for the seinen audience.

so, if you have time and like plot-based manga regardless of the art quality, shingeki no kyojin is definitely a great read!