Attack on Titan Manga Reading Order — The Complete List
Here’s the straightforward reading order. The main series by Hajime Isayama is the backbone of everything — 34 volumes, published in English by Kodansha Comics (the publisher responsible for the English translation). Every spin-off connects back to it.
The Simple Approach: Main Series First
If this is your first time, read the main series straight through. No detours, no spin-offs until you’re done. This is how the story was designed to be experienced.
Attack on Titan — Volumes 1 through 34
That’s it. Seriously. The main series is one continuous narrative with no timeline jumps between volumes. You pick up Volume 1 and read sequentially to Volume 34. The story builds on itself constantly, and every major reveal lands harder when you’ve experienced everything in order.
For context on the commitment: 34 volumes at roughly 200 pages each adds up to around 6,800 pages. Manga pages read faster than prose — they’re mostly artwork with dialogue — so most readers finish the series in one to three weeks of dedicated reading. At a casual pace of a volume or two per day, expect about three to four weeks.
Attack on Titan
The Completionist Approach: Weaving In Spin-Offs
Once you know you love the series — or if you’re rereading — you can slot the spin-offs into natural pause points. All of the spin-offs listed below are fully completed and available in English right now, so you can buy and read them without worrying about unfinished storylines. Here’s the integrated order:
- Attack on Titan Volumes 1–4 — Establish the world, the enormous walled cities humanity built for protection, and the threat of the Titans
- Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (17 volumes) — A prequel (a story set before the main series begins) exploring the early history of humanity’s fight against Titans and how they developed grappling-hook gear used to fight the enormous creatures. This one is optional but rewarding. It can technically be read before anything else since it’s set in the distant past, but the emotional weight of the world-building hits much harder after you understand what the walls mean to humanity.
- Attack on Titan Volumes 5–8 — The story deepens and key characters come into sharper focus
- Attack on Titan: No Regrets (2 volumes) — A prequel focused on Captain Levi’s backstory. Reading it after Volume 8 is ideal because you’ve spent enough time with Levi to care about his origins, but you haven’t yet hit the story sections where his past becomes directly relevant. This one is short and absolutely worth your time if Levi is a character who grabs you.
Attack on Titan: No Regrets
- Attack on Titan Volumes 9–16 — Major revelations and escalating stakes
- Attack on Titan: Lost Girls (2 volumes) — Side stories that retell key events from the perspectives of Mikasa and Annie. Best read around this point because both characters have been well-established and these different viewpoints add texture without spoiling what comes next.
- Attack on Titan Volumes 17–34 — The final stretch. The story transforms in ways that are best experienced blind.
What About Comedy Spin-Offs?
You might see Attack on Titan: Junior High (5 volumes) on shelves. It’s a gag comedy reimagining of the cast as middle school students. It’s lighthearted and fun, but it falls completely outside the dark fantasy tone of the main series. If you’re here for the grim, intense story that Attack on Titan is famous for, Junior High is a curiosity rather than a reading-order priority. It works best as lighthearted fun after you’ve finished the main series and want something silly with familiar characters.
attack on titan junior high
Quick-Reference Reading Order Table
| Order | Title | Volumes | Essential? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Attack on Titan (main series) | 34 | Yes — this IS the story |
| 2 | Before the Fall | 17 (spin-off prequel) | Optional — expands early history |
| 3 | No Regrets | 2 (spin-off prequel) | Optional — Levi’s backstory |
| 4 | Lost Girls | 2 (spin-off side stories) | Optional — Mikasa & Annie focus |
| 5 | Junior High | 5 (comedy spin-off) | Skip for dark fantasy readers |
Why Reading Order Matters for Attack on Titan
You might be wondering: does it actually matter? For a lot of manga, reading order is flexible. Attack on Titan is a little different.
The Main Series Is One Unbroken Line
Unlike some long-running manga that have distinct story sections you could theoretically jump between, Attack on Titan is essentially one giant, continuous story. Information from Volume 3 pays off in Volume 28. A background detail in Chapter 1 becomes a devastating revelation in the final stretch. Isayama planted seeds across the entire 139-chapter run that only bloom if you’ve been there from the start.
There are no timeline jumps, no reset points where a new chunk of story starts fresh. Every volume builds directly on the one before it.
Spin-Offs Contain Spoilers If Read Too Early
This is the real reason order matters. The spin-off manga are prequels and side stories, but they’re written with the assumption that you already know certain things about the main series.
Before the Fall is the safest to read early since it’s set generations before the main story. But even here, understanding the cultural and emotional significance of the walls — something you absorb gradually through the main series — makes the prequel far more impactful. Reading it cold isn’t “wrong,” but you’d be missing context that makes it resonate.
No Regrets ties directly to Levi, one of the most important characters in the series. Reading it before you’ve met him and watched him in action robs it of emotional weight. Reading it too late means you’ve already pieced together his past through main-series hints. The sweet spot is after Volume 8, once you know Levi well but before his backstory becomes directly relevant to the plot.
Lost Girls features stories told from the perspectives of Mikasa and Annie. Without knowing who these characters are and what they’ve been through in the main series, these stories lose most of their meaning.
The Wrong Order Won’t Ruin Everything
Let’s be real: if you accidentally read No Regrets first or start with Before the Fall, the main series will still be incredible. Attack on Titan’s story is powerful enough to survive a slightly scrambled approach. But the right order maximizes every twist, every reveal, and every emotional gut-punch. For a dark fantasy series built on mysteries and shocking revelations, that’s worth caring about.
Which Edition Should You Buy
All English editions of Attack on Titan come from Kodansha Comics, which is great — no publisher fragmentation, no worrying about which company has which volumes. Everything is under one roof.
Standard Single Volumes
The 34 individual volumes are the most accessible way to read the series. They’re widely available, easy to collect gradually, and they’re the format most people are familiar with. At typical retail prices, collecting all 34 adds up, but you can buy a few at a time to test the waters before committing. Singles are also the easiest to find both new and secondhand.
Colossal Editions
Kodansha publishes oversized collected editions called Colossal Editions that bundle multiple standard volumes into one large-format book. These are physically big — significantly larger than standard manga volumes — and they showcase the art at an impressive scale.
If you already know you want to read the entire series and you prefer fewer, chunkier books on your shelf, the Colossal Editions are a strong option. They also tend to cost less per chapter than buying the equivalent singles individually. The larger page size is especially nice for Attack on Titan’s action sequences and detailed Titan designs, which can feel cramped in standard-size volumes.
Box Sets
Kodansha has released box sets at various points, bundling groups of volumes together. These tend to cycle in and out of availability, so if you spot one and the value looks good, it’s worth grabbing. Check current availability at major retailers since stock fluctuates.
Digital vs. Physical
Since Attack on Titan is a completed series, you’re not waiting months between releases — the whole thing is available right now in digital format. Digital is instant, takes up zero shelf space, and is often available at a lower list price per volume.
That said, Attack on Titan is one of those series where many readers prefer physical copies. The art benefits from print, the Colossal Editions are genuinely impressive objects, and a complete 34-volume set looks fantastic on a shelf. There’s also something satisfying about physically progressing through a long series — watching the stack of finished volumes grow.
Neither choice is wrong. If budget or space is tight, digital is great. If you want the full collector experience, physical is the way to go.
Edition Comparison
| Format | What You Get | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Standard singles | 34 individual volumes | Gradual collecting, testing the waters |
| Colossal Editions | Oversized collected volumes | Binge-reading, art appreciation |
| Box sets | Bundled volume sets | Value when available |
| Digital | Full series, instant access | Budget-friendly, space-saving |
What to Know Before You Start Reading
The Early Art Is Rough — Keep Going
This is probably the most common thing you’ll hear about Attack on Titan, and it’s worth repeating: the art in the first several volumes is noticeably rougher than what comes later. Isayama’s draftsmanship improved dramatically over the series’ run. By the middle volumes, the art is confident and detailed. By the final stretch, it’s impressive.
If the early art gives you pause, push through. The storytelling carries those early chapters, and the visual quality catches up fast.
A Note on Reading Direction
If you’re new to manga, here’s something essential: manga is read from right to left. You open the book at what would be the “back” of an English novel, and you read each page from the right side to the left. The same goes for the artwork on each page — your eye should move from the right side to the left, top to bottom. Most English-language manga volumes include a small guide on the first page explaining this. It feels natural after just a few pages.
The Tone Shifts — On Purpose
Attack on Titan starts as survival horror. Enormous, grotesque humanoid creatures eat people, and a small group of soldiers fights back with limited technology. It’s terrifying and visceral.
But the series doesn’t stay there. Over 34 volumes, it evolves into military intrigue, political thriller, and eventually a sprawling epic about nations in conflict that asks uncomfortable questions about cycles of violence, propaganda, and what people will do when they believe their survival is at stake. These shifts aren’t jarring tonal whiplash — they’re the natural evolution of a story that keeps pulling back the curtain to reveal a larger, more complex world.
Stay Off the Wiki — and Be Careful with Search Engines
This one is genuinely important. Attack on Titan has some of the most impactful twists and reveals in dark fantasy manga. The kind of reveals that recontextualize everything you’ve read up to that point. Fan wikis are absolute minefields for spoilers — but the risk doesn’t stop there. Even a casual Google or image search for a character’s name can surface major plot reveals in auto-complete suggestions, thumbnails, or preview text.
Read the whole series first. Then go online and enjoy the discussions, the theories, the fan art, and the community. You’ll be glad you did.
It’s Finished — That’s a Gift
The series ran from 2009 to 2021. All 34 volumes and 139 chapters are available right now. You get a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. No waiting for the creator to return from a break, no wondering if it’ll ever be finished. You can set your own pace and read straight through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read the spin-offs to understand the main story?
No. The main 34-volume series is completely self-contained. You will not miss any plot points or fail to understand any reveals by skipping the spin-offs entirely. Before the Fall, No Regrets, and Lost Girls all add depth and background, but they’re supplementary. Think of them as bonus content for when you want more time in this world.
Should I watch the anime or read the manga first?
Both are great entry points. The anime adaptation (which began airing in 2013) adds dynamic action sequences and a phenomenal soundtrack. The manga is the original source and gives you the complete story as Isayama intended it.
If you watched the anime first and are wondering what the manga offers, the core story is the same but the manga gives you Isayama’s original visual storytelling — the way he composed each page and arranged each sequence of images to control pacing and reveals. Some scenes hit differently on the page than on screen, and the manga’s pacing is tighter without the constraints of episode runtime. The completed series also means no waiting between seasons. Whether you’re coming to the manga fresh or after the anime, following the Attack on Titan manga reading order above will serve you well.
Is Attack on Titan finished?
Yes. The manga ran from 2009 to 2021 and is fully completed at 34 volumes (139 chapters). The anime adaptation has also concluded. This is a finished story.
How long does the full series take to read?
With 34 volumes averaging roughly 200 pages each, you’re looking at around 6,800 pages total. Manga pages are mostly artwork with dialogue, so they read significantly faster than pages of prose — most readers report finishing the series in one to three weeks of dedicated reading, though plenty of people binge it faster than that. It’s the kind of story that’s hard to put down once the momentum builds.
At a casual pace of a volume or two per day, you’d finish the main series in about three to four weeks. Add another week or so if you’re including the spin-offs.
The good news is there’s no rush. It’s all waiting for you whenever you’re ready.