Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress!! Stuff We like!! Quick Review & Commentary

Nicely Solid Storytelling chops, Pulp Action Scenes & it's Compelling & Satisfying to Enjoy 
Kabaneri Of the Iron Fortress (12 Episodes Single Season Ongoing) 8.34 out of ten

            Having concluded a pretty much a week ago, I thought it'd be a great idea to do some commentary on this popular high grossing series. I was pretty stoked to find out that Wit studio was going to be coming out with a new series, especially being witness the the greatness of what Attack on Titan accomplished. So in the early Spring I decided to take a glimpse of what so many people were pumping and hyping up.

            I wasn't all to impressed or pumped, but I did stick around and it was worth it. Around the 7-8th episode is when things actually started to get interesting and when it concluded I felt pretty content about it, though the ending was somewhat predictable. For the first few episodes also had sort of cheesy heroics and a bit of basic narrative, the drama and regular interactions between characters were nothing special, just what you'd expect, I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the more cliche moments, as I was very on point with my predictions since this fiction is quite obvious and predictable.

            To briefly summarize, humanity has walled them selves up (Again) against zombies (Again)

that eat and infect humans (Again) and our main protagonist wants to fight the these zombies - Kabane and take back their world (Again).

Throughout the series were shown the basic narrative of the cruelty of human survival (Again). So yes, pretty much another idealized version of ZOMBAY APOCOLYPTO!!!!

with another love interest that needs to be rescued by the masculine male protagonist (again) and once again do we have pre adolescences"saving the world".

In fact a lot of people were pissed about the second delay of it's sibling series (Attack on Titan)

many blamed it on this series being introduced in the middle of it's cycle, though while that is quite true, this all together wasn't a waste of time and does deserve a watch.

            This fictions plot structure is pretty much the same as any other shonen like anime though  a bit more interesting, I personally wish this series would be a little bit more memorable episode to episode, more meat more mass to the characters, in fact there's not really any particular individual within our roster I especially like, with only the exception of Ayame. We do thankfully have a nice full cast with some decent variety, not that I really cared much about any of them haha. Although Mumei/Biba/Ikoma's relationship with each other is one thing of particular interest, also Ayame's role as a striking young leader is quite interesting. Ikoma is pretty much your run of the mill shonen character, he's daring, somewhat impatient, over ambitious etc. For me I'm far more interested in contemporary works of anything really, art forms that are experimental and push boundaries. This anime does't offer that really. Instead despite all my initial criticism, Kabaneri of the iron Fortress gives us a solid narrative that draws enough interest and entertainment that warrants more investment.

            This is a very standard 1 cour show, from a bustlingly popular wit studio, though sadly this doesn't provoke or embark on any new territory and is somewhat in its own comfortable safe niche that to me has regressed in quality comparatively speaking(Attack on Titan). Animation is decent, backgrounds are warm and soft, character models are decent, such things as movement transients are just decent, the general art style is pretty good, though nothing especially worth too much interest, backgrounds are ok, everything is pretty comfortable looking, though I feel it could have been realized into something more interesting. The dub is just decent, general SFX was just ok and the soundtrack was just ok not much content to speak of, though I really digged the ending theme. I prefer if it had a cleaner, subtle and grittier look, it's general soft, clunky look can be somewhat charming though I'd prefer if they did something more daring and edgy. It's general archetypical softer Feudal look didn't really do it for me at least initially, later on I did butter up to the animation.

            This combined with the steampunk setting, with a general industrial 1940's technology look and zombies is somewhat unrealistic and out of place at least for the first six episodes, everything from episode 7-8 on improved with a net positive. Though episode 3 was quite decent, episode 5 had interesting moments but for later half it was just so so and episode 4 was amazing, action packed, and had very good animation, definitely a highlight for me in this series as they really showed their chops when producing the 4th episode. These episodes being sort of the two exceptions out of the first six. Episode 7 and up environments got more interesting, more characters were introduced, the story took a turn for the better, some interesting potential was bubbling and everything started to open up and everything seemed more lucrative and interesting from that point on. If this change didn't occur this series would probably have been dropped, because there was plenty of cliche, somewhat over-exaggerated and predictable character moments and events that made me roll my eyes quite a lot.

            I felt they should have gone for a setting more historically accurate, with locations you actually care about, background and buildings that already tell a story. Most of the buildings as we'll as general settings events take place lack complexity and more intricate detail initially.

To me everything seemed very archaic and sub standard initially, I feel it lacked a general sense of function, for example when watching views of the city/town/station from a distance, it hardly seemed there's a sense of ongoing traffic, people going about their daily lives, people that genuinely lived in these stations and the general geography of the of land is kind of off putting.

For example the general placement of buildings is incredibly cluttered and non linear, areas also lack distinction of general use, for example there's not an area that's clearly distinguished and articulated as the market area or a recreational area or dedicated roads for transportation, you'd think that cities such as these would be incredibly linear and organized since there's only a limited amount of these stations can fit only so many people, so you'd think that the people who built these complexes would make the most efficient use of the land.

            I feel the setting lacks significance, since their trying to pull off a grim premise, it would help if the setting was more immense, with more robust interactive scenes within closer quarters and generally more detailed scenes on the ground level that's more interactive with the people in their districts and buildings, going about their daily lives, although take this criticism sparingly since for quite a few episodes they actually did a great job regarding this. Though the funny thing is, with episode 7 and on the animation I feel started to improve and things didn't look as dank and dry as before, so the general lack of quality more so applies to the first 6 episodes as even the the general animation regarding body movement or facial gestures seemed choppy, line work was somewhat clunky and general painted/coloured bodies seemed buoyant and lacked weight, Cg work regarding the trains also seemed this way, general textures as well seemed very basic and rudimentary, the animation in general was not all to dynamic either, it definitely lacked variety and almost followed a comfortable monotonous archetype, most scenes in episodes 1-6 were incredibly similar looking to one another with little visual transition into differently stimulating backgrounds . In the end this is a current anime, and I've definitely seen better regarding animation and setting, this anime is simply not as a fleshed out and intricate world as it should be and for this type of anime, setting is very important and should be prioritized. Take Kara no Kyoukia or Chihayafuru very fleshed out interiors as well as buildings, also particular locations actually have significance and when going through building to building, room to hallway, you get a sense of purpose, functionality behind the designs, in this anime we pretty much only get glimpses of buildings from far away, or we're just left sitting within a train.

            The Kabane in particular aren't the very scary boogymen that we expect or want, I want to be crawling out of my skin watching Kabane eat little children and sack grandmas and frenzy, fumble and sprint all over the place, but sadly it's clunkier look just doesn't reel me in. The fused colony crap looked especially wonky and B.S the first time we witnessed it since it didn't structurally or mechanically make sense or look convincing enough. The cg work's quality was lacking quite a bit here and looked obvious. Also I don't remember a single important character falling at the hands of a Kabane, the only reason why these melee happy walking corpses are anything fierce is because of their sheer numbers, and the fact that they seem to spawn like npcs. This should feel like a hectic war with little control, it should feel like our characters are just barely surviving. Sorry but the trains pretty much ruin everything mechanic wise, since they can simply just bulldoze through hordes of Kabane, so there's little struggle travelling from place to place and we never stay in one place enough to actually care about the setting since, for the most part they live nomadically on the Kotetsujo. Bloody scenes should have impact, velocity and survival in the midst , in these scenes it's somewhat obviously played out to a simple plot line, little surprise of more anxious moments or paranoia etc. & when a certain someone dies, pretty much the only significant death, everybody pretty much forgets about it within a single episode. Though regardless we do get a nice amount of meat regarding action scenes which is a plus.

            The Kabane pretty make good punching bags though for our female lead Mumei to show us her combat skills and ninja like reflexes which translates into more exiting moments of action scenes. Again let me preface, the plot, narrative and drama are all quite simple, there's little to actually talk about. But for starters, we'll kick it off with our main two, the only two out of the few that particularly matter. Mumei and Ikoma are pretty much frame and focus when it comes to character relationships, throughout the series they get introduced and learn more about each other, essentially they become a team. Ikoma teaches her that her combat skills don't solely represent her intrinsic worth, meaning that there's more to being strong than simply being able to annihilate Kabane. Mumei thinks this way because her close friend, whom she refers to as brother, has taught her that the only strong shall live and the weak shall die, it's this sense of insecurity that pushes her to never become weak or fall in combat, that she pushes herself to certain lengths reassure she's not weak as well as being subservient to her "brother" Biba. Ikoma also warns her that Biba is a sinister person and should not be trusted, followed or admired. Of course this causes conflict within their relationship. This is when Ikoma has to fight for her so that she can have a better future.

            You also have Ayame and Kurusu who have an interesting relationship, that play a moderate role in the grand scheme, regardless Kurusu is her faithful servant and protector, who's stern, honest and confides his feelings for Ayame. Ayame on the other hand is pure hearted, righteous and someone who carries herself out with integrity, she also is a polite/timid youthful leader that inspires confidence in others and has a strong sense of justice and self, it's these moments where people are filled with doubt and hatred is when Ayame disarms peoples angered hearts and taps into this sense of security and grace that allow her subordinates to move forward and push through. I personally wanted to see Ayame kick more kabane ass with her bow, but sadly we only get to see her in action in the 4th episode. Other than that no one else gets enough decent screen time let alone a standalone episode to be of any particular significance other than Biba, which I won't mention to much of since he's an important character to the plot, and any other information about him will spoil the plot.

            Sadly the most interesting character to me design wise was killed off instantaneously so I can't really speak of any particular character that really intrigued me other than Ayame, as most of the drama in this series is just decent, though there is indeed some solid story telling chops regarding particular characters. Again where this series picks up speed and gets  interesting is episode 8 where new characters are introduced, a sense of distrust is formed, betrayals and genocide occur, a tyrant emerges to twist her/his fingers around the world etc. & decently compelling story telling chops reels you in with interesting possibilities, that draw enough intrigue to warrant more investigation. The end kind of goes as you'd expect, the damsel in distress gets saved, hero becomes uber powerful, fights boss who's out for his sinister revenge, grand escape with fire & explosions and our heroes just barely make it out alive.

            Morever until you watch episode 4, then you get up to episode 7-8 is when again things start to really turn around and gains traction, as there are some very beautifully nuanced moments and scenes, with compelling character stories to boot. This is when Kanaeri of the iron fortress really starts to branch out and flex its muscles with more pulp action scenes and slicker movements, cleaner lifework and more vivid and saturated lighting and colours, far more quality backgrounds and settings. Don't misunderstand me, despite my initially persistent and slightly malaise filled commentary, that's was only for a mild amount of the beginning half of this series, this anime truly does have some very captivating moments and drama you should really look into, episode 7 and on is when I feel the art style and animation really start looking solid and starts gelling together as a cohesive whole with net positive improvement across the board. We also get robust and intricate dialogue and character interactions that pushes both the series and the plot forward, after each episode I definitely can tell you that this anime hit the spot and pushed the right buttons, just a very solid and quality experience that left me satisfied. This is when I started to separate it from just any other typical shonen anime as this series started to find it's own independent niche.

            Another good thing about this anime is that episode to episode it teases us with nice glimpses of our characters pasts that make characters such as Mumei more mysterious, this of course draw people in episode to episode, though when we do get our big reveals, they're just decent, there aren't any particularly shocking moments that give you an emotionally orgastic high, or touches you in a incredibly significant way, though they do still offer juicy intrigue and entertainment. In fact what happens and what is revealed is exactly what you'd expect and again I found myself predicting many events quite accurately. Despite all this, this series does have moments of warmth as I pulled out many moments of happiness along way with some action packed kicks. This series also gives us nicely compelling teasers and hints along the way that warrant more attention and interest. No I'm not in that group of particular anime reviewers hyping this series up, gloriously praising the animation, because I've simply seen better and more consistent animation from series even quite a bit older in age. I won't tell you the plot is ultra mysterious or interesting because this anime instead is actually quite predictable and it's twists are just decent. Though I will branch out for you to watch this, as it's just a 1 cour show (4 hours of content total) which is kind of like watching a long movie, which it is indeed like a great set of flicks to watch with company, it's easy to digest and simple to understand. Despite it's flaws it still very much offers nicely solid and sometimes juicy moments of anticipation, a decent offering that's quite entertaining.

            This won't penetrate the realms of Q's wall of fame but will get a hearty recommendation and will be put on our secondary list on the Stuff we like page as a rating of 8.34 seems to fit the bill Just overall good stuff toy be enjoyed despite some deus ex machina and cheesy events.

Recommended & Highly Appreciated (Will Be Placed On The Stuff We Like Page)