Simply put, Shingeki no Kyojin is the best manga to have ever come out. But it hadn't always been so.
This manga started out simply as a 'shonen that doesn't act like shonen', where generic 'big 3' manga hardly ever take risks, staying on the middle lane, they hardly ever risk dividing the fanbase. They are specialized crowd-pleasers. Shingeki no Kyojin does the opposite. It takes the biggest risks and actually shifts the plot from one direction to another, so you never know what to expect. More importantly, you know you're getting a fine, profound, thought-provoking, unique piece of FANTASY FICTION. Something you have never read before. When you get into the world-building, you stop to muse about the world, about the big and small 'what-ifs' and that's highly rewarding.
The world building is dense. Usually shonen manga have like 4 or 5 major mysteries over 600-1000 chapters. But here each chapter is its own mystery, and the overarching mysteries are grander, more creative and very, very rewarding.
The first arc was excellent, but as you keep reading, you realize how wrong you were. Because you see, future arcs will ADD to that arc. They build on it, and your perspective shifts. You now have seven or eight ideas tied into the first arc. Then the third arc comes and creates even more connections, and the light bulbs keep firing up. The arc wasn't excellent, it was genius. In every sense of the word. For arcs to come and not only be deep, emotional, impactful and complex, and on top of that ameliorate previous arc? What the hell? We're getting spoiled here. This defeats the logic. If the arc was already a 10, how can it be improved? An 11, a 12? Maybe.
George R. R. Martin said that there are two types of writers. Gardeners and Architects. This is by far the most architectonic piece of fiction you'll ever see. Even Arrested Development bows in deference to the tie-ins and foreshadowing this manga has. Isayama is after all, the perfect architect of writing.
This is a manga where each arc is 'Chimera Ant Arc' level.
From me, one day ago, thanks Isayama.
