All good things must come to an end, or at least that's how the saying goes, but despite the end of Attack on Titan being just around the corner, so too is some new life for the franchise. The entire manga series is being reprinted, this time in full color, giving new fans the perfect place to start, and old fans a reason to dive back in to experience it all over again.
Manga is known to be printed in black and white, which is the standard, so when popular manga franchises are adapted to anime, it is always exciting to see the colors the creator intended to use. Color is able to add a whole new layer to the story, effecting the tone and mood of the overall piece, and giving the story just that much more power and depth. The problem with this, though, is that once the color version is seen, it is pretty hard to unsee it, sort of like trying to read Harry Potter after seeing the films. It makes for a weird experience when jumping back and forth between the printed manga and the colorized television show, so it is a welcomed treat to be getting this manga in its entirety redone in the color fans have grown so accustomed to.
Created by Japanese illustrator Hajime Isayama, Attack on Titan first launched back in 2009. Currently up to thirty two volumes, Isayama confirmed just this month that the manga only has about one to two percent left until its completion, with plans to have the entire series finished by the end of 2020. The story follows the life of Eren Yeager as he trains to protect the remainder of humanity from the threat of Titans, massive man-eating humanoid giants that have forced mankind to hide in cities behind massive walls.
As of right now, the exact date of this full color rerelease is unknown, but what is for certain is that it will be featured within Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. With the series itself about to come to a close, it would make sense for this to drop sometime around then, allowing for the final pieces of the manga to be colorized as well.
Fans have been along for the ride for eleven years now, and it is definitely bittersweet to know how close its end is, but this news of an in-color reprint of the entire Attack on Titan manga is sure a nice way to go out.