Koutetsujou no Kabaneri Episode 1 Discussion

Always-Hungry said:
The same fucking premise, flashy visuals, catchy song, steam-punk spiderman MC screaming like a maniac (whom no one gives a fuck about). They're not even trying anymore. Witty bastards aren't that witty anymore.

hoootie said:


Huh? There's absolutely nothing wrong with flashy visuals and catchy songs. This is absolutely insane that people would even complain about flashy visuals.

I understand the steam-punk similarities, and yes, the setup does have many similarities to SNK (Walled city, similar type of killing monsters, zombies that could resemble titans, humanity on brink of extinction) but just because the setup is similar, does not mean the whole show will be a copycat. There are millions of zombie movies with similar setups, and no one cares, they are entertaining and people watch them. If you don't like the similarities, stop being damn crybabies and don't watch the show. It's only been 1 episode, there is absolutly no reason to complain yet, other than the train flaws that people can discuss.

Also, There was barely any complaining about God Eater and Knights of Sidonia, which essentially had the same setup, humanity on the brink of extinction, being constantly attack by outside sources and fighters defend their home to protect it. Again, the setups are pretty much similar, yet no one cared.

Always-Hungry said:


That's the main problem with WIT studio and they've been feeding us the same bullshit since AOT. They're not even trying to be original anymore. Why bother to create something new if they can just copy+paste the same damn thing and it's going get hyped all over again. SnK S2 is canceled so lets make a cheap rip-off!

TriZen said:
It was pretty good, but I'm still why the virus(?) stopped spreading and seemingly disappear completely when the mc succeed in stopping the spread before it reach the brain.

hoootie said:


Well first.. SNK S2 is going to air in Fall 2016 i'm pretty sure. It's been confirmed for 2016 so I don't know where you are getting canceled from.

Second, many people liked the premise, so there's nothing wrong with making an anime original inspired by SNK to cater the audience. I'm not sure why you are calling it a cheap rip off given only one episode has aired. I'm always amused by people shit talking shows before you even know how the plot and characters would develop in it. Yeah sometimes you can see flaws or bad development before the show ends, but so far there hasn't been much of that in this show.

Always-Hungry said:


It's doesn't even mater if it's canceled or not. They've been postponing it for years and even if it does air this fall it still doesn't change the fact that Kabaneri is a poorly done ripp-off. It's the same fucking plague like with the stuck in the video game premise (SAO). It's popular and serves as a good cash cow example. Why bother with originality if you can just use the same easy to digest premise by copying and swimming in money afterwards.

You don't even need more than one episode to see where this is going. Believe me or not it never gets any better. And if you're seriously unable to spot it's flaws from this first episode then you need to get your eyes checked because it's a rip-off!

Zjj said:
Other than being the exact premise of Attack On Titan except with Titan's swapped out with "Zombies" and being set in a slightly older time period it's pretty okay, I mean, I probably won't stay up to date with it but its okay.

All the action lovers will stay on-top of it and praise it to high heavens even with it being literally a Attack On Titan copy-cat.

E96825 said:



This is hilarious, SNK fans are so hilarious.

Please tell me you don't REALLY believe SnK invented post-apocalyptic worlds where monsters eat humans right? I mean you're not that dumb right?

Also "doesn't change the fact that Kabaneri is a poorly done ripp-off" Are you genuinely implying SnK is good?

QABJAB said:
I cannot understand the high level of praise this show has been getting recently. Even ignoring the hype which I've done for many show for a long time. I haven't been put off by a show within the first episode as much as this one in a while.

The creatures everyone is afraid of cannot be killed unless you pierce the heart right? So why is everyone using a bunch of weapons that are incapable of piercing the heart?!
The only thing our "smart" main character has done so far is aim correctly with a strong gun. That's stupid.

Then there's the whole thing about the disease not being a curse. The guy gets bitten and trys to stop it from spreading throughout his body, sure, I can believe that. He trys to hang himself so it doesn't move to his brain, horrible idea but if he can somehow live through it, whatever. But when the virus suddenly LEAVES HIS BODY FOR NO REASON my suspension of disbelief broke down HARD.

Next there was the whole witch-hunt at the middle of the episode. Again, this makes no sense because as we see later on in the episode, a bite will spread in a matter of seconds. Why even arrest people if they are clearly not monsters!

I don't like a single character because unless this show throws a curve ball out of nowhere, I can predict exactly how each of them will react to whatever situation might show it's head because they are all bland. (Again, as of episode 1 it could change)

Yes the show looks nice, really nice, but so far it's not doing anything with it. I see untapped potential is some aeras. Music is alright.


I've already dropped a couple of shows this season but I'm willing to see more of this because of how much of a train wreck it is as of now. I mean fuck, I've never been more motivated to write a full review on a show more than this one once it ends. If anyone can shed some light as to why I may be wrong, I'd love to hear it.
Although I'll never expect much from the same guy who directed the worst anime I've seen in my life.

This show is getting on my nerves.

QABJAB said:
The creatures everyone is afraid of cannot be killed unless you pierce the heart right? So why is everyone using a bunch of weapons that are incapable of piercing the heart?!
The only thing our "smart" main character has done so far is aim correctly with a strong gun. That's stupid.

QABJAB said:
Then there's the whole thing about the disease not being a curse. The guy gets bitten and trys to stop it from spreading throughout his body, sure, I can believe that. He trys to hang himself so it doesn't move to his brain, horrible idea but if he can somehow live through it, whatever. But when the virus suddenly LEAVES HIS BODY FOR NO REASON my suspension of disbelief broke down HARD.

QABJAB said:
Next there was the whole witch-hunt at the middle of the episode. Again, this makes no sense because as we see later on in the episode, a bite will spread in a matter of seconds. Why even arrest people if they are clearly not monsters!

QABJAB said:
I don't like a single character because unless this show throws a curve ball out of nowhere, I can predict exactly how each of them will react to whatever situation might show it's head because they are all bland. (Again, as of episode 1 it could change)

E96825 said:
Inb4 loli did it
She's clearly not a normal human, her eyes glow like Kabane's when the takes the ribbon off her neck and in the opening you can see her veins glowing too.

QABJAB said:
The creatures everyone is afraid of cannot be killed unless you pierce the heart right? So why is everyone using a bunch of weapons that are incapable of piercing the heart?!
The only thing our "smart" main character has done so far is aim correctly with a strong gun. That's stupid.

QABJAB said:
Then there's the whole thing about the disease not being a curse. The guy gets bitten and trys to stop it from spreading throughout his body, sure, I can believe that. He trys to hang himself so it doesn't move to his brain, horrible idea but if he can somehow live through it, whatever. But when the virus suddenly LEAVES HIS BODY FOR NO REASON my suspension of disbelief broke down HARD.

QABJAB said:
Next there was the whole witch-hunt at the middle of the episode. Again, this makes no sense because as we see later on in the episode, a bite will spread in a matter of seconds. Why even arrest people if they are clearly not monsters!

QABJAB said:
Although I'll never expect much from the same guy who directed the worst anime I've seen in my life.

DrBlock42 said:
Am I the only one who did not understand the end? How does strangling yourself help to kill a VIRUS?

Dokia said:


He did that to stop his circulation from reaching his head which stopped the virus.

phoenixalia said:
Yeaaaaah....I was wrong to watch this before eating lunch. Yup.

Anyway, it was nice, looking forward to more, some places really made me cringe in disgust though...but not in a bad way exactly.

Farxin said:

That's not really how you stop a virus, but I made up a theory that kinda explains how it could work.

Noticed how the veins and hearts of Kabane have that orange glow? My bet is, that's the virus, it propably cannot survive outside of blood for a long time. The body of an infected person turns purple because of the virus going out of the veins ad dying out. That would explain why Kabane follow blood. The second part is, the virus is propably vulnerable to human's immune system, so it has a limited amout of time to get to the brain and "turn it off". This and its inability to survive outside of blood mean that strangling yourself is a valid way of not letting the virus get to the brain.

The theory is not perfect, but... makes at least some sense I guess.

desertkona said:

Cannot wait for next week. I want to know MC conditions after he was bitten

Kalisto said:


Sigh. AoT was about humanity on the brink of extinction. Does that mean every premise about survivalism is based off AoT?

Also, Kabaneri has shown a more industrialized society, so I think their technology is above that which was shown in AoT(which, iirc, just had 3D gear and cannons.)

Zjj said:


No, but literally like 80% of it is insanely similar, almost every plotline can be directly connected to Attack On Titan, post-apocalyptic world with walled cities with scared citizens that turn on people, tyranical goverment that kills people that might be a "zombie", a time period where they dont have modern weapons and have to use some sort of mechanical weapons, I could go on. If you watch it and don't see the similarities you must be really in denial.

MysteriousBanana said:
The heart is surrounded by a layer of iron that's, apparently, equivalent to an iron plate if we're to assume Ikoma isn't overestimating with his testing standard. If we look at the technology of the setting, they don't have anything better than their steam rifles, even the lord of the station - who should have the best equipment available - only has a steam rifle (his daughter brings it in for servicing near the beginning).

It's likely that they have people developing new weapons, but look at what Ikoma invested: a massive, bulky, glorified nail gun... and its effective range is less than a few feet (if it actually had any range to it he would have sniped the kabane when it stopped to investigate the blood trail). That's the limit of their technology, if they want a ranged weapon with the same power as Ikoma's weapon, it'll be too large for any one person to carry and probably take too long to build up pressure (whereas the existing steam rifles have a fairly high rate of fire for something that relies on building pressure).

The virus doesn't leave his body, you can see he still has those lines on his body and a glowing heart now. The virus ran its course, his self-strangulation didn't cure him, it just prevented him from going feral.

As for why the glowing veins and purple skin faded, that's up for speculation. Clearly it's related to whether or not a kabane is feral, but the exact mechanism of which has not been hinted at yet. Mumei will probably explain it to him in later episodes.

That's the whole point of the scene: to show the authorities are acting irrationally due to fear and to justify the MC's distaste for said authority. He's willing to compromise with their "place under observation for three days" protocol, but steps in when they abandon their own regulations and skip straight to execution.

Of course, Ikoma is partially guilty of that too. Despite emotions running high the bushi only shot when the suspect was running - they didn't actually shoot him while he was curled up on the floor, so they were actually still showing some degree of self-restraint. Jumping in like that not only failed to defuse the situation, it also lead to the guy running again, at which point the bushi did not hesitate to shoot.


Which anime was that, idly? SnK? I've only read the manga so I gave the anime a wide berth and I haven't really paid attention to directors.

Meritas said:
I did not expecthis to turn out so well. The visuals are good enough, I like the character designs, the Kabane give off terrifying aura, the ED is from EGOIST, and the Feudal Japan setting makes it the second best thing, in this line of stories, since Black Bullet.


Suddenly all ala-zombie Post-Apocalypse titles are AOT clones.

DrBlock42 said:

That's what I thought, but the virus clearly spread over the collar. That would mean that it got through it...
I'm not a biologist, but I'm pretty sure Viruses infect cells and manipulates them in a way, that they start to produce new viruses instead of reproducing - that means that viruses don't care if they affected anything. They simply start infecting as much of you as they can.
And I'm pretty sure that compressing your neck so hard, that even blood can't traverse it would kill you, or at least break a lot of important parts of your body.
So the only possible explanation is, that the MC is wrong about it being a virus and it's something like a organism, an intelligent collective - but even this explanation leaves some plot holes.

PS: I would have prefered that the MC would have cut of his arm^^

keragamming said:


Or maybe it's just not for you?

DrBlock42 said:
Am I the only one who did not understand the end? How does strangling yourself help to kill a VIRUS?

shanimebib said:


No salts here. Just stating the pudding. In open broad daylight, they make a train stop to make sure it's safe and even inspect the people on board stark naked for injuries and in the darkness of night, they lower the bridge to let it in without a second thought when the train was not even on sight. You may justify with the dumb nobody who lowered the bridge though but yeah, there was his superior giving instructions as well.

uttoro said:
Lmao so many nerds trying to point out the little mistakes xD
Just watch it for the fun yo

DrBlock42 said:

I never sad I hated the first epsiode and I'm pretty sure most of the people disgussing stuff like how this "virus" (it's still not a virus...) could work or what's excactly up with the bridge, think the same way. Half of the fun of watching a show is disgussing it with friends or the community. That's what IS the anime-community (at least to me): Talking too detailed about shit no one normal cares about.

If the only discussion we had was everyone spamming "HYPE HYPE IT'S SAVING ANIME EVEN IF THERE ARE FLAWS BUT TALKING ABOUT THEM MAKES ME A HATER SO I SHUT MY MOUTH", it'd be fucking boring.

I'm just somewhat dissappointed that they haven't thought the first epsiode out enough. That's what makes a good show greate ot an okay show good. They details are important and I feel like they ignored a lot of them in the poduction of Kabaneri.

yukiat said:


yes, this. couldn't agree with you more. sadly my circle of friends prefer watching korean dramas so I have no one to discuss these details with so here I am :P

bigbusiness said:
I freaking loved it.

One of the ways in which I felt AoT fell short of its potential is in its fear factor. For a series where Titans should feel nearly impossible to defeat, the anime and manga really seemed to drift into more shounen territory, with ridiculous powers, friendship, willpower, etc trumping what really should be impossible odds. As a result, after a certain point I never really had the same "oh wow everyone's screwed" feeling that the 1st cours of Attack on Titan had established.

KnK looks to be going considerably darker than AoT ever did, thanks in large part to the darker & gorier animation style. I also think the main character here has serious potential to be a better lead than Eren, and although we haven't seen much of the supporting cast, the general writing here seems much more seinen than shounen, which is fantastic.

If Wit can keep it up, I think Knk will shape up to be AoT's bigger, badder, gorier older brother.