Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Vol. 1

Set years before the main Attack on Titan storyline, this volume follows a world where humanity lives behind walls in fear of Titans. A Titan attack and a shocking birth leave a child branded as the “Titan’s son,” treated as an anomaly and kept isolated from ordinary life.

As the boy grows under confinement and abuse, he is eventually placed in the care of a wealthy family, where his position remains unstable and demeaning. The daughter of that household becomes the first person to show him kindness, learn his situation, and begin questioning the cruelty around them.

The volume focuses less on large-scale battles and more on social hierarchy, fear, and the mystery surrounding Titans and humanity’s response to them. It sets up relationships, tensions, and unanswered questions while ending on a note that points toward a larger escape-and-discovery arc.