So shall we begin?
Let's actually talk about something that I really liked: The artstyle. The artstyle of this anime looks very steampunky (which was essential) and it's actually an artstyle i've not seen anywhere else. The animation is is also very good. It's one of very few things the staff put actual effort in. The soundtrack is atleast in my opinion good. I mean it's probably the most Sawano Hiroyuki soundtrack of all time, but i liked it (even though the soundtrack is very forgettable especially if you hated this anime).
Now enough praise, let's actually begin talking about the problems of this anime. And there are a loooooooooooooot of problems. Since there are so many problems with this thing I'm just going to focus on what i think are the biggest problems of this garbage.
My first problem is that this anime is not original at all. This is just an Attack on Titan ripoff (that's maybe the reason why people were so hyped for this). I won't say that this is a complete copy of AoT. But the way the anime began was an exact copy of AoT and the atmosphere in the anime is basically the same as AoT. High energy with a lot screaming with a Sawano Hiroyuki OST in the background and in my opinion that is the wrong atmosphere for a. The only difference is that the main character immediately becomes something between humans and kabane (aka f***ing zombies) without any explanations whatsover. And without main characters dying.
Another problem is that the writers thought that they could get away with giving no explanations whatsover. Everytime something happens we just have to believe it. This also happens in the first episode. Ikoma (main charactor) turns into a kabaneri and we don't get any explanation how he knows that he would turn into a kabaneri with that machine of his. We just need to believe that he knows what he's doing because he's the main character!
Speaking of characters, this anime has two types of characters. 1. the annoying supporting characters who may have a mental disorder because the choices they make are unreasonable, unrealistic and just plain f***ing stupid.
The second type of characters are the 'brave' , 'courageous' and sometimes edgy (*cough* mumei *cough*) main characters who are so painfully cliché that everyone atleast have watched a decent amount of anime would cringe.
That's in my opinion the biggest problem of this anime. The anime is so painfully cliché. There's almost to none innovation or originality when it comes to the story or the characters. And as an 'original' people are going to expect some sort of originality, but nope. It only makes the tiring zombie genre even more tiring.
I can go on and on for hours why this anime in my opinion doesn't deserve the attention it got. But this review is long enough so i'm going to stop here.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress isn't really worth anyone's time. And if you enjoyed it, good for you. I'm not going to judge anyone who liked this anime, but i just can't. This is definitely one of the worst anime i have ever watched. The only thing that keeps it away from being the worst anime i have ever watched, is that it isn't as insultingly bad as for example PUPA.
If you want some good zombie action I highly recommend the manga 'I Am A Hero'. I Am A Hero in comparison to Kabaneri atleast tries to innovate the already tiring zombie genre. And in my opinion it succeeds in a lot of ways.
