Attack on Kabaneri?: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
Greetings, folks! I’m back from my vacation last week safe and
sunburned. I’m also back for the first
Sunday of July with a fresh new review on one of the biggest hits of the 2016
spring season. And let me just say, this
week’s pick was interesting, and not in the good way. But more on that later. For now, let’s get started on this week’s
review of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress!
In the world of Kabaneri, the Kabane are terrifying creatures
that have pushed humanity to its limits.
This has forced the surviving humans to barricade themselves in walled
cities-wait, why does this sound familiar?
Their only contact with the outside world is the railroads. Main protagonist Ikoma once lived in the Argane
Station as a mechanical engineer. But that
all changed when the Kabane attacked the station. Ikoma himself is attacked by a Kabane, but is
able to stop the spread of the undead monster’s virus and survive, becoming a
hybrid known as a Kabaneri. However,
prior to this, Ikoma had been developing a weapon to combat the undead monsters
after watching his own sister being attacked by one five years earlier-now why
does that ring a bell? This plus his new
transformation gives him a distinct advantage over the Kabane. Ikoma soon joins his friends, a princess
named Ayame, another Kabaneri named Mumei, and survivors of the attack on the
train the Iron Fortress. From there, the
series chronicles their journey as they fight the Kabane. Ok, seriously, am I the only one here who
doesn’t think this all sounds really familiar?
I’ll be blunt; the negative aspects
of the show outweighed the positive.
Granted, this was based on one downside, but it was a BIG one. So on a scale of one to ten, I give Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress a 7. Sure,
starting off with “the negative outweighed the posititve” was not the best way
to start this review, but there really were some great things to this show that
were worth watching. For one, the
animation was beautiful. Of all the
shows that I’ve seen so far for 2016-which isn’t much-this was one of the
prettiest. It isn’t so much the actual
animation as it is the character design.
Everyone is just so gorgeous to look at-even Ikoma’s chubby friend is
cute. The story had some great perks that
I liked, too. It has the right amount of
action and drama to be interesting and entertaining. And I also give high marks to the story’s
pace. Most of the episodes have
conflicts that are resolved in two episodes tops. So overall, the show is very promising.
And now for the downside. There was only one: THERE’S NO ORGINALITY AT ALL! If you’ve seen the show already and don’t
believe me, here is the basic concept of the show:
Humanity is pushed to the brink of
extinction by some God-forsaken man-eating monster, forcing the surviving remnants
to live behind walled cities. Amongst
the survivors, one character-who happens
to be one of the creatures himself- vows to kill all these monsters after
watching a loved one die at the hands of one five years earlier.
Sound familiar? It should because it’s the exact same concept
for Attack on Titan! Heck, the Kabane aren’t even orginal
monsters- at least Attack on Titan pulled
that one off! Now I know what you’re
thinking, this is something that happens all the time in anime, so why
complain? You would be absolutely right,
it isn’t new that concepts like this are used all the time for “new” anime
shows. Seriously, how many people have
watched My Hero Academia this year
and not connected it to shows like Soul
Eater? What bugs my about Kabaneri is that the parallels between
the two shows are blatantly obvious.
Plus. Kabaneri was produced by
the same studio (Wit Studio) and created
by the same director (Tetsuro Araki)!
Here’s one way to look at the series: suppose Tetsuro Araki had to write
an essay. Rather than create a new prompt, he decides to take one from one of
his previous papers and copies and pastes the majority of it but tweaks it here
and there to make it look like something new.
That’s pretty much what you get with Kabaneri
of the Iron Fortress; a copy and paste rendition of Attack on Titan with zombies and trains.
I’ll admit, I tore this series a
new one, but I’ll also admit that when comparing the two shows, I liked Kabaneri better. The big thing was definitely the pace of the
story. Compared to Attack on Titan where it takes half the series to cover one battle,
it takes half that time in Kabaneri. Plus, I found Ikoma to be a really
interesting and more entertaining character than Eren Yeager. And sure, there are a lot of differences
between the two shows. But again, the
parallels were just too much. Still, for
what it’s worth, you don’t want to miss this show, even if it is Attack on Titan with zombies and trains!
Sure, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress was not the best show of the season
in terms of originality, but it does get high marks in a lot of other
places. That being said, I recommend
giving it a shot anyway. The show is
available to watch online with Amazon Prime, and in fact just released its
season finale this past Thursday. And
so, that wraps up this week’s review!
Next week’s review will be gentler, I promise. If you have a request for a show you’d like
me to review or an anime-related topic you’d like me to talk about, let me
know! And before I forget, have a safe and happy 4th of July!
-Hanime
on Anime
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