The supernatural has captivated our imagination for generations. For all the horror that usually abounds these tropes, many storytellers use supernatural elements to comment on human nature. In the many titles focusing on zombie apocalypses, this is especially true. Rick and his merry band fight humanity at its worst throughout much of The Walking Dead. Joel and Ellie battle hunters and cannibals as they try to find the cure for the fungal zombie virus in The Last of Us. It fascinates us and horrifies us when we see what humanity is capable of to survive in a world that turns against them. Kabaneri tries to comment on the human condition, it really really tries. It’s too bad that it doesn’t get to that point until halfway through the season.
Story: For at least ten years, humanity has been plagued by the unrelenting appetite of the Kabane, Kabaneri’s version of zombies. Kabane are portrayed as strong, mindless undead humans who can only be killed by piercing their glowing heart, a feat near impossible by normal methods. Most humans have found shelter in walled cities connected by railroads, though many of these “stations” have fallen to the Kabane over the years. The mysterious Prince Biba roams the countryside in his armed train killing many Kabane and the country’s elite find protection in the capital. Kabaneri begins at a peaceful station that is quickly overrun when a train carrying a hoard of Kabane breaches the gates. Ikoma, our green haired protagonist, is bitten in the ensuing chaos, but is able to stave off the infection by choking himself. The survivors flee in a train named the Koutetsujou, with Ikoma and Mumei allowed on with huge trepidation.
And thus the title of the show is explained. Ikoma and Mumei are both Kabaneri, or people who have been bitten by Kabane but whose brains are still human. Kabaneri are inhumanly strong, but with that strength comes a price: they need blood to survive. The first few episodes are sprinkled with prejudice and distrust towards both Kabaneri despite their repeated help. This whole plot point quickly becomes tired and boring, with people welcoming Mumei one minute and decrying her the next. Ikoma is kept locked away for the most part, but many fear him. They are not fully accepted by the people until they save everyone again in episode four, and by then it’s been at least three solid episodes of distrust, prejudice. and even a coup on the train.
The writers for this series take many liberties in the face of advancing the plot, usually coming up with idiotic ways for humanity to fuck itself over. In episode one, for instance, the guards for the gate into the city decide to lower the drawbridge for a fast moving, oncoming train (later revealed to have many Kabane on board) instead of waiting for the train to come to a complete stop. This of course jumpstarts the plot, but it puts into question how humanity has survived for so long when the guardians of the city can’t even perform basic checks on a train before letting it into the city proper.
In spite of all this, as a survival story Kabaneri was fairly enjoyable. The battle against the black shadow was a marvel to look at visually and the music only added to the fight. But the shows’ hubris catches up with it and inexplicably the story tries to focus on the human condition instead. It is a badly done critique though, because the main villain is one dimensional and ridiculous and the whole thing spirals into a terribly done revenge plot instead. The villain's motivations are thin at best and the loyalty of his soldiers is laughable. The story tries to pin the emergence of the Kabane on the elites in the capital but even this is barely explored. The direction the plot decides to go is completely terrible. Remember what I said earlier about how the writers come up with bullshit reasons to advance the plot? It’s not a good critique on humanity when a crazy person is the one bringing all of the misery in the last few episodes. Tearing apart the rest of Kabaneri’s flimsy story means tearing apart the characters, so on we go.
Characters: I’ll be blunt: I don’t like Mumei. Or Ikoma really. But Mumei’s character really irks me. She’s incredibly naïve and idiotic at the best of times. Her personality is constantly shifting: one minute she’s cute and smiley and the next she’s intense and frowning. She says or does something that doesn’t sit right with the people around her and doesn’t offer a logical explanation. She doesn’t listen to what the leader of the group tells her to do when they are on missions. She’s constantly thinking about how only the strong can survive, weak people should die, etc. etc. It’s amazing that these people actually like her. She doesn’t think badly of the villain ever, and even when he betrays her trust she still goes back to him. She knows he lied to her but she goes back. She trusts him to not do anything to her when she just witnessed a friend get fucked over by him. Yes, she’s only a girl, but it’s insane that she still trusts him after she saw him do. The rest of her plot is predictable, boring, and contrived. The villain proves that her badass characterization is moot, manipulates her, and eventually turns her against her friends. The fact that she’s responsible for the deaths of thousands of people doesn’t help my opinion of her.
Ikoma is also frustrating at times, but not on the level of Mumei. He is the typical shounen protagonist: young, naïve, and mostly weak. His contribution to this world is a steel piecing projectile weapon. Most of the time he’s tagging after Mumei trying to make her a decent human being, which is almost impossible. His naivety is frustrating and as a character he really doesn’t add much to the story. He isn’t really necessary. He is only Mumei’s link to humanity and since I don’t care for Mumei at all, I really can’t care about Ikoma either. In the last few episodes her gets an appearance change (arguably to indicate that he is a badass now) and his character arc seemed to be going a a good direction. It's too bad the writers didn't have the balls to follow through with it.
And then there’s The Villain. Until episode 7, the only thing the audience knows about him is that he is Mumei’s “older brother” and that he is the one that has told her that only the strong should survive. This person is our antagonist and until episode 7 we have not seen him ever. This is terrible writing. At this point in the story I was convinced that the Kabane would continue to be the antagonists because who else could it possibly be? That guy Mumei talks about occasionally? No goddamn way. How could I get invested in an antagonist’s motives with only five episodes left of the series? How could I possibly care about this dude? Right from the beginning when he was introduced I knew he was an asshole. He kills people with a smile on his face. He’s cruel, manipulative, and callous. He treats his servants like expendable objects. He throws away a kabaneri like it’s nothing. He lies to Mumei and destroys an entire station, killing thousands, just to send a message to his father. And why? Why is he doing this? Because his father was mean to him when he was younger. Because his father didn’t care about him enough to try to save him. And so now, he has to go around and kill thousands of people just because he has daddy issues. It’s a ridiculous, tired motivation and the fact that this is the antagonist a zombie anime is going with is ridiculous. This guy manipulated a young impressionable girl who had just lost her mother and turned her into a kabaneri because he was angry with his dad. The fact that he has people that are still loyal to him is baffling. He’s throwing a humongous temper tantrum, but it’s not cute because he’s killing everyone instead of yelling at them.
Animation and Sound: The animation is great. The composer is the same one that did Attack on Titan, so the soundtrack is wonderful. I could say that it sounds a little too much like AoT, but composers have their own style, so I can’t fault him for that. The voice acting is good for the most part. Yuki Kaji is distinctive as he always is for me, but it’s not distracting. Tasuku Hatanaka’s voice work for Ikoma is painful to listen to. He did good work on Ushio to Tora, but because his voice is so distinctive it felt like I was listening to Ushio talk about zombies for the entire show. It didn’t help that the second season of Ushio was airing at the same time.
Kabaneri looked like a promising anime at the beginning, with a decent survival plot unfurling nicely. However, the story suddenly does a huge 180 into a story that has no relevance to the one previously set up. In the end, all that’s left are the shambles of a promising story and a garbage pile of shitty characterization, contrived plot points, and terrible writing. It was good as a survival story, but it’s terrible as a revenge story. I’ll just play The Last of Us again next time.
