Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - Review
Title(s) : Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, Kōtetsujō no Kabaneri
Genres : Fantasy, Drama, Action, Horror
Synopsis : On the island country Hinomoto, humans hide themselves in fortresses called "stations" against the threat of zombie-like beings with steel hearts known as "Kabane." Only armored locomotives known as "Hayajiro" go between the stations. (Source : Anime News Network)
Plot/Story 6.8/10
If it weren’t for the fact that this anime is so damn similar to Attack on Titan, I would have rated it fairly high. It feels like a knockoff Attack on Titan, which isn’t bad, but isn’t original. Sorry if I reference Attack on Titan a lot, but seriously, I could pretty much guess what was going to happen next pretty accurately, and that kind of killed it for me. Although, despite being bad, it was pretty entertaining, and I always looked forward to the next episode.
Characters/Character Development 6/10
MC, Ikoma, is quite the interesting and crazy character. Having done a super dangerous experiment to himself, and everything else that followed was pretty cool to watch. We learn a lot about his past but I can’t knock off the feeling that they could have done a better job presenting that. I would’ve preferred if they revealed more about him than just the incident that changed his life, but whatever, it was good enough. I wouldn’t say character development was any better for the rest of the characters (That would have been ridiculous), in a way, we only got vague information on the rest, which also wasn’t satisfying.
Animation/Design 5/10
In just the first few minutes of watching its first episode, I thought, “The art is horrible, and dull!”, and one season later, I still think it was horrible. Obviously, it was intended to be this way, but it just wasn’t to my liking. It felt like watching Attack on Titan on 480p with slow internet speed, knowing how good it could’ve been to hit that 1080p. After a while though, I got used to it and it didn’t even matter. (If you decide to watch this and you have the same problem, I hope you also learn to let it slide by)
Audio/Soundtrack 8/10
The soundtracks chosen fit the scenes, and overall, the anime pretty damn well. I have no complaints in this section. (Finally, huh?)
Overall 6.5/10
Overall, if you’re an Attack on Titan fan that desperately wants to watch season 2 (knowing its not coming soon), then I would recommend watching this knockoff version to suppress your feelings. (It helped me at least) Also, if you haven’t watched Attack on Titan, then by not having high expectations of this anime, I think there’s a good chance that you will like it. Overall, it’s not a bad anime, but since it reminded me of Attack on Titan so much, I had high standards for this anime that weren’t very well met, hence my fairly negative review. If you’re a big anime fan, then based on all the hype this anime has gotten (Head to head with Hero Academia, what the f***?!), you should definitely watch it to keep up with what’s going on lately.
