In a time when the world is going through an industrial
revolution, a nightmare overshadows progress.
Theyre called “Kabane”, humans mutated by a virus into flesh eating
zombie like creatures with impenetrable skin.
With most cities overrun, most of mankind has taken to the railways,
using heavily armored trains to travel from one end of the world to the
other. At a struggling way station, a
young maintenance worker named Ikoma might’ve found a way to being turning the
tide against the Kabane. Fate has other
plans, plans that involve him facing his own Kabane demons and joining forces
with a beautiful girl who is a hybrid of both human and Kabane…known as a
Kabaneri. Together, these two might be
the only chance humanity has of reclaiming the planet from the nightmare it has
become.
The first thing that will quickly come to mind laying
eyes on Kabaneri is…this is Attack on Titan on a train. That assessement isn’t inaccurate. The first episode does have more than a few
passing resemblences to the premiere of Kabaneri’s way more successful Anime
brethren from the apocalyptic setup to a key shot of Kabane roaming over a hill
and looking very much like Titans. When
this series did debut, it did so during that way too long hiatus between the
first and second seasons of Attack on Titan, so I’m sure many probably saw
Kabaneri as a cheat or a cheap clone.
Based on the first episode alone though, id say there’s still some
promise (plus I’m not the biggest Attack on Titan fan anyway so I cant judge as
harshly as others).
Kabaneri’s first episode brought a number of possible
inspirations to mind, not just Attack on Titan.
There’s a very Resident Evil or World War Z vibe to the invasion of
Aragane Station and the concept of humanity eeking a life on the run inside a
giant mobile fortress kind of reminds me of Battlestar Galactica (in that a
small portion of humanity must trek across the stars following the apocalyptic
annihilation of their home by the Cylons).
And yet I was always a little intrigued and wanted to know more about
how the Kabane themselves worked, how to defend against them and just what kind
of magical bullet Ikoma would come up with.
Ikoma and Mumei are gonna be interesting leads themselves. The former is an inventor who sees what’s
befallen the Kabane as a matter of science and not magic…and also goes to near
suicidal lengths to keep himself from turning when he’s bitten because
science. Mumei is your typical
mysterious girl with a devil may care attitude…but DAMN she took out a Kabane
with one spin kick with her razor bladed shoe…and then got said show stuck in a
pillar and had to ditch it without a care.
All of this is introduced and first explored in a rather good looking
package. If nothing else, Kabaneri feels
very theatrical from the aforementioned invasion to the teaser involving Kabane
attacking one of the Armored Trains.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (so far) only clocks in at
a short 13 episodes (plus one movie that was released in 2019). So it might be easy to knock out in a solid afternoon
with no plans. It may look and feel just
like Attack on Titan but I still think Kabaneri has some stuff going for it,
including the unique enemies and a pair of sure to be fun lead characters. Plus I can only imagine what high speed
battles might unfold onboard a moving train surrounded by zombies. Huh, guess I’m curious enough I might
continue with this one after all.
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