Koutetsujou no Kabaneri Episode 5 Discussion

HyperL said:


That would not live an hour since everyone is making the same remark: "look is a titan". A joke thread would be funny if people could keep making new jokes, but there's not much material to work with in the first place. Also, part of the entertainment people have comes exactly from the fact this jokes are being made in a "serious" thread.

On_the_Lam said:

Jokes are supposed to be funny, no?

Lelouch0202 said:
Nice episode.

Sort of sad to watch Mumei this episode, She sort of underwent some kind of identity crisis making her feel real insecure which was really sad to watch.

She's always cool when fighting but in the end it was her fault that the current situation turned out what it is :(

Surprisingly Ikoma one shot the Martial Art Kabaneri xD

That Kabane amalgamation though :o

Darklight0303 said:


So recycling the same joke over and over again with minor alterations sounds like a discussion to you?

Darklight0303 said:


Next episode should be interesting since she's going to have a lot to face once she wakes up with Ikoma there trapped with her. It's the perfect setup for her to snap and just lay bare the state of her mind and heart to Ikoma. Until the Kabane interrupt them of course.

Lelouch0202 said:

Almost too perfect of a setup ,However that's exactly what I'm expecting to happen xD
Seeing them escape from the Kabane amalgamation should be real interesting as well.

KoreaWS said:
@Zal We knnow Mumei has above average strenght. If we assume the steel floor is thin enough, throwed with enough strenght (caused by anger because she was pissed at the 2 guys) I'd believe is posible that the knife would had crossed the floor. The thin floor might be enough to handle the passenger, given a steel structure under it to keep everything in check.

A knife is also smaller than a katana, so is harder for it to bend under pressure. On ep 3 we already saw her able to pierce a Kabane's heart with 2 Katanas, which we can assume is harder than steel.

That makes me wonder... Was ep4's Katana breaking when Kurusu impaled the dual wielding kabane plausible? I'd say he didn't had enough strenght to pierce the heart, and thus the katana broke due to the pressure. In Mumei's case I think her strenght might have caused the katanas to penetrate before breaking. I don't know if it is convincing enough but I buy it.

Oh yeah, Kurusu. He has his arm injured from the previous episode. I think you can see that when Ikoma is showing off his inventions. Since he has a 2 arm handling style, I find understandable he wasn't in the main fight. The episode also focused more on Mumei rather than anyone else, and I'm okay with it since I think her backstory is crucial for the plot, in particular her Ani-sama and all that. She also has to mature and I'm only hoping the show would tackle that.

I also think they don't give those characters some spotlight right now because the show is rushing the pace too. Look how convenient the dog thing was to fit with Mumei's situation.
I've come to peace with it, to be honest. It's not okay but what are you gonna do about it, when I think is obvious they won't slow down the pace of the show and are trying to cram the story in 12 episodes.

Darklight0303 said:

Kurusu will be back in the fight soon. WE see him use that Kabane coated sword in the OP after all and the sword WAS crafted in this episode so it's only a matter of time

KoreaWS said:


Yeah, but I was mentioning how it makes sense that he doesn't participates in this fight, due to him rehabilitating.

zal said:
Then I have a question for your theories if I am not on your ignore list already. Why did a knife pierce a steel floor?

HyperL said:


No, jokes are supposed to not be taken seriously. If they're funny or not is up to each person.

zal said:

In fact it was funny.

Phoebe3315 said:
It's just because of Mumei's strength. She's able to apply enough force to regular weapons so that they can pierce steel, that's why in episode 2 she was able to kill Kabane will a normal spear.

On_the_Lam said:

What exactly was funny?

Darklight0303 said:


Oh I agree on that front wholeheartedly. Kurusu had no place to be in this operation. Without both arms he's just not viable.

Phoebe3315 said:
Yep...people complain that not many characters were involved with this plan, but the fact is they didn't need many involved... You can't expect Ayame or Kurusu to have some important role in every episode, especially when this one was clearly focused on Mumei.

Darklight0303 said:


How so? We learn more about Mumei and her 'Brother' aka young master. As well as the fact that the Shogunate is acting suspiciously by stockpiling weapons that can kill people not Kabane.

Phoebe3315 said:
Yep...people complain that not many characters were involved with this plan, but the fact is they didn't need many involved... You can't expect Ayame or Kurusu to have some important role in every episode, especially when this one was clearly focused on Mumei.

zal said:
but she was at full power that time and you say she threw that knife using her power so uselessly?

On_the_Lam said:

Jokes are supposed to be funny, no?

Phoebe3315 said:
I know she didn't have her restraint removed, but she was pretty angry at those two guys and she seems to still be very powerful with the restraint. Maybe the knife shouldn't have pierced the floor, but it's not a big deal. I mean...there were far more harder to believe things going on in last week's episode with the train jumping and everything. You're not really supposed to watch this show with the mindset of it being realistic.

Xykko said:


well guess who was right this time? remember when told you that her "brother" was the shogun? yep she calls him brother.

anyway... congratulations Mc you just compromised the lives of hundreds of people just to save one idiot. come on at least use something to keep the lever in palce to amke sure the crane is still functioning. you are an engineer stop thinking with your penis ffs.

mumei change of heart was so sudden, it 's ridiculous. i'd understand if it changed after they reached the shogun stronghold, since it would make sense she would start acting like near her Onii-sama for his validation, but during a crucial moment like that, and the worst of all, waiting for ikoma's validation when previously in the same episode she treated like shit? come on, don't turn a mumei into a damsel in distress, this is already bad as it is, but if they keep going this will be mars of destruction tier of bad writing.

and you guys are right this isn't a shingeki no kyojin rip off. it's more like a Apocalypse no Toride Rip off and Rail Wars combined.

PS: and y exactly did mumei throw all those satchel charges to the kabane? to create a smoke screen?

zal said:


Why Ayame and Kurusu have become background characters during this episode? I don't mean they should've gone to battle but at least contribute somehow in the first half to the show. Ayame had just 2 useless lines and Kurusu a tsk to express his frustration, other than that background characters. Is that ok for you?

Crashmatt said:
I love the weapons in this series, I love the steampunk vibe in gerneral. this is so much better than anything else this season including Re:Zero which is excellent also. It felt like it was over in 10 mins, can't wait for next weeks episode.

Darklight0303 said:


Uh the Shogun and the young master are two different people. Enocku was telling Mumei to tell the Young Master that the Shogunate was stockpiling weapons to kill humans. So you were wrong.

HyperL said:


I know i'm not the one you asked this question to, but i feel like giving my opinion anyway. For me is ok that characters are useless from time to time. Everyone has their time to shine and their time not to shine either. Now from what i can assume, you are criticizing their uselessness from a writing perspective: "since they're relevant characters to the plot, they should constantly contribute to the many situations in the story to keep their relevance up" or something like that. But, if you stop looking at them as relevant characters in a fictional story (where the writing conveniently allows for the characters to be useful in some way) and imagine them as real human beings in "real" life, than it makes more sense that things would not occur with such convenience, that everyone would be able to be useful or relevant at all times. You could say that this show is quite realistic when it comes to show the inconvenience of life and how people can be useless because they're not protected by the relevance armor.

Phoebe3315 said:
In the first half too though, considering how much else they had to cover, there wasn't really time give them much of a focus. Ayame was still making important decisions of what to do, she decided to not turn back and have faith in Ikoma's plan.

Tylaen said:
T'is a shadow titan! Such plagiarism, I can't even believe it.

On_the_Lam said:

Jokes are supposed to be funny, no?

Xykko said:


you do know that shogunate means the government right? the retainers around the shogun?

Darklight0303 said:
I'd love to be able to look at this thread and discus possibilities and theories for where things will go. Instead all I see is headless chickens going herpaderp a colossal titan now lol Kabaneri is such an AOT clone now.

Melt_Banana said:
3.5/5 from me... Rounding it to 4

I didn't really like the dialogue in this one, nor the melodramatic moments, but it made up for those shortcomings with some pretty decent fight scenes and making Ikoma actually competent both as a leader (which is a pretty rare trait for the anime protagonists) and a fighter.
That eye patch guy revealing us more of the Mumei's background and that giant thing at the end were pretty cool as well... especially the later. Now I have some pretty high expectations for the next episode.

And yeah, I see a lot of people still keep pointing out all sorts of comparisons with SnK trying to present the show as a total rip-off... Come on, stop hating, It's already differentiated itself enough from SnK:

• Characters are very different. Ikoma and Eren are very different. I dunno how to describe this, but if they were playing MOBAs, I feel Eren would be a "mid or feed!!1" type of guy, while Ikoma would be more of a "Should I pick support" type of player.
  
• So far it's more focused on the interactions between characters than SnK was (even the interactions between side characters), although I must admit that so far we have yet to meet any important human figure (or something pretending to be human at least) that Ikoma and co are supposed to take on... There is Shogunate and that guy Mumei refers to as "ani-sama", but so far we have yet to meet any of these guys.
  
• To add up to the previous point, it seems that KnK will be more focused on politics. SnK is heading in that direction as well, but it seems like KnK is picking up on it earlier in the story. I mean we are having a member of nobility (Ayame) as a part of the main cast ever since episode 1.
  
• Threat in SnK comes from overwhelming strength of the Titans, in KnK the main threat are numbers of Kabane which apart from their durability aren't any tougher than humans (except for wazatoris and that thing at the end of this episode whatever the hell it was)
  
• Fighting scenes seem to be more realistic... I mean apart from Mumei having sick reflexes and her and Ikoma being more durable than your average human no other character has shown us any feats that seem impossible in real life. 3D maneuvering gear on the other hand... yeah, it's cool, but it just wouldn't work in reality.
  I love both approaches though, but I feel like pointing out just how different they are.
  
• Of course, atmosphere and setting were different ever since episode 1.
  

I still like SnK quite a bit more than I like KnK so far, but it's still a very good anime. I don't see it getting as popular as SnK (at least not in the west), but it's still gonna be one of these people are gonna come back to rewatch and recommend to anyone interested in a more mature action series (as long as they don't fuck it up at some point).

Now one more thing. I've noticed everyone keeps pointing out how that "black smoke" thing at the end is a complete Titan ripoff... Just why? Most of the anime, games, movies etc whose stories are set in universes filled with monsters have giant monsters as enemies at some point. It makes viewer/player go "woah!" because it's bigger, badder and stronger than anything they've seen so far.
Also "black smoke" has a very different design than Titans from SnK. It's interesting and creepy but I don't think its anywhere close to iconic as those weird deformed Titans were.

And yeah, even if they somehow manage to move that obstacle from the rails and get the train running, how the hell are they gonna get past that thing? Go in reverse to avoid it? It'll probably catch up to them... Hell I just realized that while writing this and now I'm even more hyped for next EP.

zal said:
If you think of them as human beings, Kurusu would have killed Ikoma when he found Ikoma on Ayame, also as human being would kurusu stay so quiet? That's the issue when you think that way.
I've lost faith in Ayame, she was potentially the useful princess but she turned into useless pretty quick.

Moreover I find strange that the one coming up with the strategy of putting then in one line is from Ikoma and not Kurusu who presumably has actual battle experience.

Not even a remark from what would seem the most experienced fighter kurusu?
Ayame decided practically nothing, she did give her approval but still... so passive...

Darklight0303 said:


and you do know I just said the Shogun and the young master are two different people. Or are you implying this mysterious young master who seems to be in charge of secret things regarding mumei and Kabaneri is somehow ignorant to what his underlings the shogunate would be doing?

You're really stretching it. Desperately so.

Sapewloth said:
i know right? Absolutely disgusting. Isayama should receive royalties for such blatant theft of his intellectual property!

Zalmox1s said:
This whole episode felt so .... so engineered. It's definitely the weakest one so far.
At least with that Kabane Titan/Giant/Behemoth/Colossus , whatever you wanna call it, we get a confirmation that supernatural is at work, and it's not a virus after all ?

Darklight0303 said:
Ikoma may have accidentally saved the train by leaving the crane before the train could get past the collapsed tower. If they'd gone past, they would have rolled right into the Black Smoke and then they would have not had time to even run away.

zal said:

If you think of them as human beings, Kurusu would have killed Ikoma when he found Ikoma on Ayame, also as human being would kurusu stay so quiet? That's the issue when you think that way.
I've lost faith in Ayame, she was potentially the useful princess but she turned into useless pretty quick.

Moreover I find strange that the one coming up with the strategy of putting then in one line is from Ikoma and not Kurusu who presumably has actual battle experience.

Darklight0303 said:


Uhhhh how does that prove supernatural? You haven't seen giant amalgamation of zombies forming giant monsters in resident evil?

Darklight0303 said:


Uhhhh how does that prove supernatural? You haven't seen giant amalgamation of zombies forming giant monsters in resident evil?

Zalmox1s said:


Never played a RE for more than 30 mins, because shit controls, so the answer is no.

Phoebe3315 said:
Does that actually happen in Resident Evil? I haven't played the series...but that sounds interesting and now I wonder if it could have inspired the Black Smoke?

Melt_Banana said:


Didn't play RE series (at least not much apart from a couple mins here and there at friend's place), but bigger monsters consisting of smaller monsters (or their parts) used to be a relatively common trope in SNES and Sega games back in the day.

Out of the more recent releases, first that comes to mind would be Rotten from DaS2

HyperL said:


1) When i said to think of them as human beings, i meant not personality/behavior wise, but that they're not just characters made to fulfill their role and be useful in a story, because you know, humans doesn't need a role in the "plot of life" to justify their existance.

2)So you lost faith in a character because she did not participate this one episode? Like i said, everyone has their time to shine and their time not to shine either, if the writers know how to give relevance to a character from time to time, she will have her moment soon or later.

3) Battle experience was not relevant because they're were not planning on fighting, the plan was to pass through without provoking the kabane. Ikoma was the one who planned it because he is one of the few who knows how to work with machines.

Sapewloth said:
i know right? Absolutely disgusting. Isayama should receive royalties for such blatant theft of his intellectual property!

I don't know if you're aware of this but not all jokes are meant to nor will always cater to your own personal sense of humour. More than one user here actually found Axel's joke to be funny: what are you gonna tell them? Not to laugh?