~Story~
The story of Koutesujou no Kabaneri revolves mainly around Ikoma who works as an engineer in the train station, while making his very own gun to eradicate the zombies. Incidently, a train enters the station with an infected man, and thus, mankind's main fear became true: infections happening left and right within the fortress itself. This proves for the protagonist a big chance to test his very own weapon, and thus the survival story begins. A thing to note is that action is quite predominant in the series, where story and characterization basically take a back seat, although changes a bit in the second half. It is often well-coordinated, with here and there some causes of the fights itself rather lackluster. This also means that there are quite some gory sequences, full with blood, which may be a no-go for some.
At first sight it can be quite engaging, the protagonist not finding justice in indiscriminately killing the turned human: a confrontation of what defines a human being, yet naturally comes down to kill or be killed. This of course causes ruckus within society itself, in which the population displays the cowardly nature of mankind when pressured or under fear. Now there should be rules to avoid such occurrences (infected entering the city), yet the logic used by the script writers is bland and plain non-sensical at times to say the least. A lot of the rules applied have no real logic behind them, for example thorough body inspections, when the infection is nearly instantaneous, making this particular one mute. There are many more examples within the anime, where some can be overlooked up to a certain extend; this is to say, up to the first half of the story.
What is important to note, is that the anime is initially a simple story of survival with its obvious flaws, but overlookable, as it was not trying to be anything more than that. However, with the introduction of a character, Amatori Biba, the whole anime takes a significant dip in overall quality. In fact, the whole anime essentially turns into a petty revenge story, being the above mentioned character the main "villain", but to this later. There are also special powers in the anime, as well as beings: for instance, kabaneri are half-human, half kabane. This gives a plausible solution of why a small group of people being able to withstand the hordes of zombies. There are different types of zombies to spice the things up a bit, but were minimal, up to a certain point in the anime where it simply became superfluous with various increasingly overpowered ones. The main problem with this is that the anime was still trying to make it as "realistic" as possible, but with such elements thrown into it, it simply lost any credibility it had left.
~Characters~
Concerning the cast of characters in Koutesujou no Kabaneri, although varied, they share the archetypes common in the genre. There is also a problem when it comes to the characterization of its cast: it is introduced too late for it to take a big effect, which incidentally is introduced mid-way up to the end of the anime. Possibly by that time viewers won't have had any reason to consolidate with the characters as nothing of crucial importance or aspect was known about them. On the one hand there is Ikoma, a young simple-minded smith who wants to create a powerful weapon to counter the kabane with more ease. He has different views on how to treat the infected: yet also shares an aversion to the kabane. His very reason on why he desires to wipe out the kabane is very basic. Despite being the protagonist of the series, he undergoes little character development, even to the point of losing his very identity - which was rather lackluster to say the least, as its implementation was badly executed, feeling out of place.
On the other hand there is Mumei, an initially young girl who is quiet and arrogant, but essentially scared with no people to rely on other than what she considers her "big brother", Biba. As the series progresses, she slowly opens up a bit, just to be "brainwashed" - which in turn leaves the character development she experienced mute. Then there is one of the main reasons the anime took another huge dip in quality, the villain Biba. Although initially presented as an interesting character in charge of cleansing zombies, as well as being implied as an important character to develop the cast, it takes a turn to the worse as his main goal becomes apparent. The very motive behind it is severely lacking and uninspired - what is worse, his very character is terribly basic: just an emotionless and ruthless man, pursuing blindly his objective, while sacrificing everything in the process.
An additional problem with the introduction of the above mentioned character is the implementation of the revenge plan: a handful, or rather a stream of unlikely events just continuously happen in the rest of the series, which is where any remaining logic the series had flied out the window to accommodate it. This could be naturally due to its short airing time, yet it should have been done in a more graceful manner. As for the other characters, there is nobody else of importance to mention or care for, as hardly any fleshing out or characterization was done.
~Animation and sound~
On the bright side, the art style of Koutesujou no Kabaneri was surely refreshing and very well done, having some fantastic detail in both the design of its characters as well as the backgrounds. It is true that in some ocassions the background detail of characters where basic, even when only two were present. It is somewhat out of the norm, but is surely one I'd like to see more in the future. The animation itself was another great aspect, with fluid combat scenes and motions of the characters: fast and graceful slashes, blood, the lightning, you name it. CG is used in the anime, in particular that of the train, but as a whole was easily overlookable.
Concerning the soundtrack of the show, while mostly it is befitting of the atmosphere with the use of classical instruments, drums, guitar, there are numerous instances where there were inappropriate ones that felt out of place. The same could be said about the voice actors, while mostly it was performed in a satisfying manner, quite some characters constantly had an angry tone, to the point of being annoying - such as the protagonist. It emanates the feeling as if the character only possesed one single emotion. As for the opening and ending of the series, although visually very pleasing, it had no memorable music attached to it.
~Enjoyment~
Despite having somewhat enjoyed the first half of series, Koutesujou no Kabaneri was as a whole disappointing: it should have just stuck to a simple survival story about humanity instead of what the second half introduced. This transition made the numerous issues the series had just more apparent, in addition to adding new ones. Now it must be said that the action scenes were an enjoyable watch, but were hindered by the laughable logic behind the events tied to them, as well as the characters. So do I recommend this anime? Is it the second Attack on Titan? Not really, unless viewers are able to easily dismiss the issues as inconsequential, and enjoy the mindless action there is, as the story won't be the main interest.
Thank you for reading.
