Written
by Hiroshi Seko, one of the main scripters of the Attack On Titan anime series, Lost
Girls features a couple of novella-length side stories supplemental to the
main narrative, each spotlighting one of the series’ main female characters:
Mikasa, the stoic and seemingly unstoppable titan-slayer, and military police
officer Annie, whose cold and distant personality hides a revelatory secret.
Lost in the Cruel
World
is largely a flashback tale beginning when Mikasa and Eren first met as young
children, showing how their relationship grew over time until they became close
friends. The story weaves in and out of flashback events featured in the
series, showing them from Mikasa’s perspective rather than Eren’s and allows a
little insight into the mind of the aloof and taciturn girl. Mikasa’s supreme
badassery has made her one of the series’ most popular characters, but in spite
of this she has had little character development beyond her fierce loyalty to
Eren. The exploration into exactly what Eren means to her begins to fill this
hole, and also partly explains why she developed such an uncompromising drive
to protect him, often to the detriment of all other considerations.
Wall Sina, Goodbye takes
place on the eve of an important mission for Annie that ended up once again
altering how the Titans are perceived, in which she is cajoled into searching
for a missing girl and ends up delving into the seedy underworld of a ramshackle
nation on the brink of annihilation. Society outwith the military services has
gone largely unexplored in the main story, so the story grants a little
understanding of the lives of people living within the relative safely of the
walls who have never even seen a titan, and so find other problems with which
to occupy themselves. The short, staccato sentences of the prose reflects the
disconnected nature of Annie’s character, echoing her analytical mind and matter
of fact manner of thinking, and provides greater understanding of how she was
able to carry out the things she did later in the series.
A
third, titular tale is a far shorter story of a tense meeting between the girls
during the years of training, the brief interaction emphasising the ways in
which the two young women are complete opposites, yet at the same time tacitly
highlighting their similarities.
Intended
for exiting fans rather than newcomers, the stories of Lost Girls are brief and simple, but each gives a little development
of the sprawling world, and also to two of its more reticent characters.
ATTACK ON TITAN: LOST GIRLS / AUTHOR: HIROSHI SEKO / PUBLISHER: KODANSHA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
