An insert included in the second Blu-ray Disc volume of Attack on Titan revealed that Satoshi Shiki ( Daphne in the Brilliant Blue , Kami-Kaze , Riot ) will draw the Attack on Titan: Before the Fall spinoff manga. The series will premiere in Kodansha 's Monthly Shōnen Sirius magazine's October issue on August 26. Shiki announced earlier this month that he is ending his XBlade manga and launching a new series in the October issue.

The manga is adapting Ryō Suzukaze's light novel series of the same name. Artist THORES Shibamoto ( Trinity Blood ) provided the illustrations for those novels. The first novel shipped in 2011, and the third novel shipped in June 2012. The story of the light novel series takes place before Hajime Isayama 's original manga and follows Anheru, a member of the Survey Corps who works in weapons development. Anheru is tired of seeing the corpses of his fellow Survey Corps members, and is working to design equipment that will allow humans to be able to kill Titans. Thus far, no one has been able to find out the weak point of the Titans, and so no one has managed to kill one. However, government conservatives think that fighting against Titans is unnecessary, and order the dissolution of the Survey Corps.

Isayama's original manga depicts the battles between humans and the giants who now rule the world outside humans' walled enclaves. Isayama launched the series in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009. The manga has become a sleeper hit, and Kodansha USA is publishing it in North America.

Both Funimation and Crunchyroll are streaming the ongoing anime version as it airs in Japan, and a live-action film version is slated for next year.

Update: THORES Shibamoto provided the illustrations for the light novel series the manga is based on, but will not be drawing the manga. Shibamoto is credited as the original character designer for the new manga. Added information about the original light novel series and embedded announcement image.

[Via Yaraon!, Fujo2]