Board Thread:Manga/@comment-35417358-20161009053634/@comment-29958651-20161011085031

GodKingReiss wrote: In my opinion, I think volumes 1 - 4 should be grouped into their own single arc for the sake of consistency. Also most of the Volume 5 is pretty close to the Trost arc, since Eren's trial can be viewed as a consequence of his actions during the Battle of Trost (and joining the 1st Special Operations Squad is a consequence of Eren's trial). So as for this Opening Arc, there should be Volumes 1 - 4 + first two chapters of the Volume 5 (the last two chapters being a beginning of the Female Titan Arc). However, I still can't figure out what to do about the Ilse Langnar's journal. This part of story looks like a completely different element.

Personally, I agree with your idea of grouping the first four arcs into one big opening arc. The 104th Training Corpse retrospective and The Fall of Shiganshina retrospective really can be viewed as a sort of a preparation for the events in Trost. Actually, the main storyline starts from the second appearence of Colossal Titan, while Volumes 1 (minus last chapter) & 4 (minus first chapter) describes only the background of the main trio story. However, a quite big problem of your conception would be a proper name of this construct, since these first volumes are difficult to encapsulate.