Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - Reviews

Well... as everybody is saying it reminds (strongly) of Attack on Titan. 

That doesnt bother me though...
What bothered me is that Kabaneri was super predictable, and even if it's an action/drama packed anime, i'm looking for something more than just, well... action :) 

Characters were cliché and i didnt really get that into them.
Meh... it was a little bit too "black and white" for my taste.

BUT
animation .... WOW ! just incredibly beautifull, the colors, the movements... mind blowing, it's worth watching only for that !! 

So yeah, predictable story (no twist whatsoever), kind of boring charas but really splendid animation !

I found this series fairly predictable, but the character design, animation and world building was pretty top notch. Its only a 12 episodes long, so just blast through it an enjoy some great creatures and gore. Good b-movie fun.

I really enjoyed this show. It kept me on the endge of my seat, and I couldn't stop watching it. It reminded me a bit of Attack on Titan, but it also had its own story. I loved The MC and all of the secondary characters. I loved especially watching Ayame grow into a strong leader. I really wished this would have a second season instead of just a movie.

Unpopular opinion time: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress does Attack on Titan better than Attack on Titan.

The comparison comes easily enough, as both anime franchises are by Wit Studios and have fairly (read: very) similar premises on first glance. Rather than hiding from 'Titans' behind walls and settlements, KotIF features zombies (they're technically an original entity named the 'Kabane', but... you know...) and trains. Rather than Titan shifters, we have the Kabaneri, those who are somewhat inbetween humans and the undead and superpowered to boot. Rather than an angsty male protagonist, propelled into vengeful action after seeing a loved one die, and his town overrun... actually, in this regard the two are near-identical. It's almost no wonder that KotIF has raised the ire of some who consider this a re-hash of AoT, with nothing to offer.

On the back of this criticism, I would offer a riposte. Kabaneri is certainly derivative in some areas, but has some fairly significant leg-ups over AoT as well. First off, pacing and tone are so much higher quality here that it's pretty much light and day. AoT, while it had some very impressive scenes and sequences when it wanted to, also felt bloated in the first season (with entire episodes sometimes consisting of horrified staring and blood explosions) and underdeveloped in the second; without a whole lot of significant victories for the main characters, and with an emphasis on doom and gloom that never relented enough for more than a mild, insufficient breather, the whole affair quickly became trite grimness, to the point that I'm not looking forward to the third season.

Kabaneri actually does a much better job in this regard. At 12 episodes, it does feel like a few of the later episodes are a bit rushed, and character developments happen rather abruptly later on. On the other hand, Kabaneri does a much better job of having lulls and brief pauses in which to catch one's breath, mull over tragic events or just have a bit of a chuckle before the gore gets ramped up again, to the extent that the horrifying deaths and darker moments are often MORE effective by way of contrast. The turnover for main cast members is lower than in AoT, but there are plenty of quite powerful and effective deaths (including women and children; Kabaneri doesn't shy away in this regard) which are powerful and effective BECAUSE we aren't desensitised, as I sometimes became with AoT. Ikoma, the protagonist here, isn;t exactly a genre leader, but at least has more to him than ever-rageful Eren Jaeger does at this point.

Kabeneri can feel pretty silly at times; there's lots of gymnastic steam-gun-shooting fun, which I enjoyed through its action OTT-ness, but certain plot details and aspects of the Kabaneri strike one as a bit ridiculous. The cast is varied enough, with engineers, carers and royalty added to the more skirmish-ready roster (the uneasy military themes of AoT aren't quite as present), but is sometimes a little bland-feeling. Again, the plot takes its pick of tropes and cliches, including a main antagonist whose philosophy is essentially 'dystopian not-zombie bad guy Take Two', but I found that there were enough enjoyable action set-pieces and, again, satisfactory room in between horrors, that I actually had quite a good time. Like AoT, art style and voice acting are two areas in which there aren;t too many substantial complaints, and both the OP and ED are pretty bitchin' as well.

TL;DR: while I don't suppose that many will agree, I consider Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress to be, rather than a pale imitation, actually a better version of the type of story that Attack on Titan aims to tell. With a second season planned (I should mention in closing that the ending to this season is pretty abrupt and not very satisfying) I'll be keeping an eye out and crossing my fingers that Wit Studios can build on the solid foundation of the first.

In General i loved to watch Kabaneri why did i give the story a 7 well it had some weird points and it's an rather often used story with zombies etc. but as most of them it had some point which is very different, on this one the method to kill them who ever heard of zombies with iron hearts i did not before i wtached kabaneri and i love zombies^^ , and on top of that it's the second zombie genre where zombies stack to make something possible they can't otherwise <3

Animation

The Animations in kabaneri where really nicely done i loved the way the zombies looked with their movements and the splatter part with flying body parts and the wounds looked totally awesome and real.

Sound

The sounds are playing very good with the splatter and stuff but that could been a bit better.

Charakters

It had some charakters i liked and some i did not but in general most charakters where meaningless and boring thats why it gets such a low grade it's sad since most of the anime is awesome...

well for a finish i would recommend watching it to zombie fans and splatter fans which aren't obsessed with the shocker part and maybe action fans what aren't against blood :D