After recovering from the mental breakdown caused by AoT: Final Season Part 1 and in the time I was waiting for Part 2 I wanted more AoT content. I watched the Jr. High spinoff all the OVAs and I was basically ready to swallow anything with AoT in its name. And then I found this manga Attack on Titan: Before the Fall. I had pretty low expectations going into this mostly because I was thinking this is just another attempt at milking AoT but I was wrong this actually turned out to be quite an admirable story. In the synopsis it says its a prequel to the original AoT following the process of inventing the ODM gear yeah that belt thingy that they wear to fly around like spiderman but in my opinion its a story that leads to the development of ODM gear. The first few chapters feel a bit slow but once the story picks up the pace its really hard to put it down. It has the dark and spine chilling horror elements like AoT and has good characters that develop overtime. It has awesome action scenes that youd expect from AoT also with icecold sacrifices of course. Its amazing how the story utilizes the already existing world building of AoT and sometimes even adds additional details to them. The three walls are still there the underground city is still there the political system is the same and the military police are still a bunch of jerks. And also introduces new elements that fit into the tone of the story. The main character is Kuklo whos life was devastated because of a Titan and pushed him into circumstances that make Erens early life feel like a walk in the park. But the guy has the zeal to understand the cause of his miserable life and put an end to it. The girl is named Sharle on the surface looks like a clingyprincess character that needs a bodyguard everytime she wants to step out of her room. But proves herself to be a brave intelligent and skillful girl that has a prominent role in the story and not just waifu material. Like seriously if I read the thing again Im sure Ill like Sharle even if she wasnt a girl no homo btw. The main strength of the story is that it doesnt only focus on the creation of the ODM gear from the start to finish rather it follows the characters that tried failed tested succeeded to create something to give an advantage to the soldiers that fight Titans. This is before the ODM gear was invented so the situation was definitely not in favor of humanity. Every expedition came to an apocalyptic end for the scouts with barely any of them surviving. The story follows the characters who fell into despair searched for a better way to fight their enemy and who came up with the idea of ODM gear who created it who tested it how did the government approve its mass production and so on. Honestly I never imagined it to be this deep and intricate but Im glad they put so much effort into even the smallest details to make the world so much more alive. The art style is a bit different from the AoT manga anime but in a good way. The drawings are much more detailed than the original AoT almost look realistic.. And the action oh boy theres a lot of bloody action. Even though this is a side story it doesnt fall short in horrifying bloody action sequences to AoT. The artwork is simply great one of its strongest factors. Even if you strip it of the AoT in its name its still a totally admirable story.