The Attack on Titan manga released its final chapter on April 9th, 2021, ending AoT’s 11 year-long run time. Now, as the anime nears the finish line as well, fans of the series may be wondering, what now? Though there is plenty of new and upcoming manga to pick up, it will be hard to fill the hole that Isayama’s hit series left.
But what if I told you that there’s an Attack on Titan spinoff series that already exists. Not a short 8 chapter mini-series like Levi’s No Regrets backstory, but rather a full 65 chapter series with brand new characters. One that takes place 70 years before the main Attack on Titan story and delves much deeper into the exciting world of Attack on Titan. If you haven’t realized which spinoff series I’m talking about by now, allow me to fill you in on one of the greatest Attack on Titan spin-offs, which is known as “Attack on Titan: Before the Fall”.
What is ‘Before The Fall’?
Before The Fall was originally a series of three light novels written by Ryō Suzukaze and illustrated by Thores Shibamoto. The novels were released in Japanese before eventually being released in English from around 2014 till 2015. From there the novels were adapted into a manga by Satoshi Shiki.
The manga is an official prequel to Isayama’s main AoT story and delves into the story of Kuklo, “the titan’s son.”. Kuklo was born while his mother was being eaten by a Titan. In fact, the Titan swallowed Kuklo along with his mother, but later spit him out. If that isn’t enough to make you want to read it, don’t worry there’s more!
The story also goes into the world of Attack on Titan and actually sets up many of the things we see in the main story, such as the survey corps, 3d maneuvering gear, titan’s weaknesses, and titan attacks.
Aside from this, the story also gives us a much more detailed look at the world of AoT, for example, we see locations that were barely explored in the main series like the underground city that Levi is from or the Industrial city, where everything in Paradis island is made.
To put it short, if you love the world of Isayama’s original Attack on Titan, you will love this series. And with just a short run of 64 chapters, it’s the perfect bit of AoT content for both readers and anime fans. Especially now that the anime is nearing its ending!
Is It Canon?
Now it’s time for the ultimate question, is Attack on Titan: Before the Fall canon? This is a tricky question since it’s never been officially answered, however, most fans of the series would consider Before the Fall canon.
There are two major reasons that manga is considered canon. The first is that the story itself is a spinoff done almost exactly like Levi’s No Regrets spin-off. Thanks to WIT studios animating that spin-off into an OVA we know it’s canon. Thus meaning that Before the Fall, which is basically the same as No Regrets in terms of story, is also canon.
The second reason I and many others would consider Before the Fall as canon is pretty simple. Isayama himself worked with the original writer of the light novel, Ryō Suzukaze on Before the Fall to make sure nothing in the story contradicted what the main story was telling.
At the end of the day, someone could say that Before the Fall and other spinoff series aren’t canon, but nonetheless, it’s still a great read to check out. And who knows, maybe after you read it yourself, you might agree that it is canon or vice versa.
Synopsis
“Humanity has learned to live in complacency behind its high walls, protected from the giant Titans. But when a Titan-worshipping cult opens one of the gates, a Titan wreaks havoc, consuming the cultists. After the rampage is over, two young Survey Corps members are shocked to discover a pregnant woman’s partially digested corpse – with her baby still alive inside it! What will the fate of this “child of the Titans” be? And how will humanity learn to cope with the Titan threat?”
Where To Read
Unfortunately, like many Kodansha-owned manga Attack on Titan: Before the Fall is not available online officially. If you wish to read the manga online you will probably have to search on Google. However, if you can, I would highly encourage you to purchase the manga itself. You can do so on the Kodansha website or anywhere where you purchase your manga!
Also, be sure to check out our weekly Attack on Titan articles where we break down everything you need to know before the episode officially airs! You can check out last week’s article right here! You can also check out all of our Attack on Titan content right here!
For more news about everything anime and manga, be sure to visit our main Anime Senpai page! We have new articles daily, so until next time, stay tuned!
