User Reviews

I am all for a zombie anime with compelling story, beautiful scenery and great characters. Unfortunately is good at only 1 of these elements. The scenery and action squenses are great. Not that it wasn't expected from Wit studio. Other than that nothing else works. The core of the story is not original but it works. At least it's straight forward and includes trains which I like. The world building is not great. There is no backstory for the world, like how this thing started and how they built these towns. Characters also suffer from lack of backstory and personality. Almost every side character is more interesting than the main character(Ikoma). He's certainly on top of most hateful characters in all entertainment. I've watched many shows with bad main character but this one is on another level. Such a stupid, useless, weak, always yelling, cliche character. As matter affect i think the show would be better without him. Got to admit all the females character in the show had more personality and generally were more complex. Momei and Ayame even the other Kabaneri woman all were strong and faced with difficult decision. Unlike the stupid yelling main character or super cliche bad dude. The bad guy in this series is a joke. Overalll, it's a shame. I like their approach to zombie genre. I even like the zombies but bad story, disastrous main character and bad guy, stupid backstories, lack of character development, rushed story lines and many plot holes makes this show a below average kind of show. My score is because I was high watching the show and enjoyed the action scenes but not a great one.

...it seems some people are comparing this to "Attack on Titan". That's just wrong. This show is, at best, an extremely weak attempt to do something similar. But failing. Miserably. The protagonist is your run of the mill, screaming-at-any-and-all-injustice cliche anime hero. No matter how many times he gets told to put a cork in it or literally gets knocked out, he just keeps going for it. The story gets more boring every episode, the villain is beyond ridiculous (basically he's a pink haired emo samurai with lame daddy issues) and the ending is nonsensical to the point where it feels like it must be a joke. Avoid, it's not hard to find a better anime to watch. At all.

i love anime have done since i was young, so far this is one of my personal top 5. the story line is great the characters are brilliant. Ikoma is definitely a fave out of the guys, and by hell did I wanna kill Biba until...well you'll have to watch it. that guy only has the one redeeming quality. Kurusu is a lovely character and Ayame you get to watch mature which is nice because they stick to the rules of Japan in Edo times.

The animation was amazing, you can really see the work they've put into it and its defiantly paid off. The only downside is the series was so short

Having just watched Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress I wanted to quickly address some of the complaints about the similarities to Attack on Titan.

The main similarities I see that someone could bring up between KotIF and AoT are these: 1) It takes place in a relatively post-apocalyptic setting. 2) Humanity is fighting against monstrosities threatening the existence of mankind. 3) Humanity lives in a walled city environment. 4) The walled city is breached in the first episode. 5) The main character wants revenge. 6) The main female character, so far, is stronger than the main male character. 7) There is some type of militarized fighting forced designed to protect the remnants of humanity against the monster threat. 8) The main characters have hybrid powers that help them fight the monsters.

In these comparisons there are differences that set Kabaneri apart and the reason I say people are over-reaching to find a problem with these. For instance:

1)In Attack on Titan the setting is 100+ years after the Titans appear. In Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress the time is still within the same period that the monsters appear, not 100+ years after it.

2)The monsters are not titans. They are not giants. I know some scenes make the monsters appear to be large, but when the humans, the Bushi warriors, fight the Kabane, the monsters, they all are of equal size with a few hulking or tall monsters here and there, but even then it is nothing beyond a tall human since the monsters are created when a Kabane bites an uninfected human. With that said, the Kabane are somewhat the equivalent to what most movies and television shows would call a Zombie. Not a giant. The Kabane/Zombie have the ability to heal, are stronger than normal humans, more durable, and for some reason their heart glows and is hard to pierce. Given that fact, piercing the heart and chopping off the head seem to be the only way to kill them which would also make the Kabane similar to the Western concept of a Vampire. Not a giant. Contrast this to AoT where the Titans are only killed by cutting out the nape of the neck.

3)In both stories humanity lives in a walled city, however, in Kabane of the Iron Fortress there is more than one walled city. In the opening scenes the train travels through one walled city, they call train stations that has already been overrun prior to the story starting. The walled city that the story starts in is another walled city and after that one is attacked by the Kabane you discover through character dialogue that there may be other surviving walled cities/stations. Contrast this to AoT's solo surviving human walled city.

4)As stated before, the second walled city you are introduced to is breached by the Kabane. Similarly, the walled city in AoT is breached. The differences are in how the breach happens.

5)The only similarity I can think of between the two main characters is Eren wants revenge against the Titans and hates them for the breach and the death of his mother and Ikoma wants revenge and hates the Kobane for something that happened in his past. The differences in these two characters are far more recognizable. Ikoma saves himself at a pivotal point in the story whereas had that been Eren, he would've gotten saved by Mikasa or someone else. Ikoma is aware of and starts to gain some relative control of his hybrid abilities despite misunderstanding them pretty early in the story whereas it takes Eren some time to figure out he is a Titan Shifter and how to control his abilities. In fact, deep into the manga, Eren still has a difficult time controlling his abilities. Their personalities are relatively similar, but one should chalk this up to anime and manga using stereotypical generic tropes in characterization rather than the creative team copying AoT into Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

6)Mikasa and Mumei, at least, start off stronger than the main male lead. I'll also add they both have somewhat of an odd, aloof, emotionless personality. I'd argue that Mikasa showed more emotion than Mumei early on in the story, but is somewhat of that stereotypical trope of an emotionless character who sometimes shows emotion. Still, the main similarity I see between the both of them is in strength. However, once again the differences are more prevalent. While Mikasa was good using the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment the corps used to fight Titans, Mumei started off with the impression she was simply good at fighting Kabane with fighting skills and the gas/air powered guns they use to pierce Kabane hearts

7)There is a militarized fighting force that defends and assaults the monster threat. In AoT these are the Survey Corps along with, I think, two to three other branches of the military. In KotIF, these are the Bushi warriors. While this is a general similarity, I don't think one could point to it with any real strength of an argument.

8)The main characters have hybrid powers, or the existence of hybrid powers. The problem with calling this a similarity to AoT and only AoT ignores the usage of this trope in a number of other anime and manga. Not only this, but again, Ikoma and Mumei have and use their hybrid abilities fairly early in the story whereas Eren doesn't unconsciously use his abilities until far later into the first season of AoT and even then it takes a small amount of time for the story to reveal it is Eren.

In all this, this show offers a unique view of various tropes mentioned above. Ikoma, the main character alone doesn't simply cry about his situation or declare loudly how he will win and overcome. He actually does it and it makes sense despite the lack of tact during his victories.

Started watching this with really high hopes, given all the hype and big names in the cast and that humongous budget it has. At the 4th episode this show already managed to go down the drain. Copying so many aspects out of Attack on Titan (main character becoming a kabane- human was already too much, but to add it up he can also regenerate fast because of it, whoa! Oh and guess what his main motivation is: You guessed it, to kill ALL the Tita-- I mean kabanes) but adding the unrealistic loli "idgaf and I beat everyone" characters (with the main 'loli bad-ass' fighting with gear that somehow stupidly manages to look so similar to 3dmg), having every other character be brain-dead (they get saved by kabaneris 23 times in front of their eyes yet still want to kill them), and adding your best blatant ridiculous shounen plot armour at EPISODE 4, with a character no one even likes yet (unarmed and defeated samurai doesn't get finished off/bitten by sword wielding kabane when he could have because reasons, instead just stab him in the stomach yeah we all know that works so well in anime right?).

Aready episode 4 and kabanes feel like no threat at all, main character and op loli are practically immortal and can kill em all with no effort, just give them some blood whoa so bad-ass. This is an attack on titan copy done wrong, it's cast, studio and budget aimed high but it was terribly disappointing, pointing clearly to being a standard shounen with standard characters, and even pulling attack on titan's only animation weakness: those panning over still images scenes, FOR NO REASON AT ALL, given their huge budget and being not based on a manga, and it won't surprise me when they pull out code geass-style fan-service of which we already had a glimpse. It's like if they said "yeah lets grab all these popular animes, copy everything from them, mix them together and make em worse! It will still give us cash so whatever wohoo!". After reading such an intense chapter 81 of the Attack on Titan manga, kabane episode 4 felt just so shallow and useless, never even managing to give a slight sense of danger that a zombie apocalypse style series is supposed to make you feel.

In conclusion, don't waste your time, it looked promising but then it decided to take the exact same path as other mangas but mix in ALL THE Clichés and plot armour you need when you write a flat out bad story with no direction at all. The supposedly so dangerous kabanes went from big threats where managing to kill one was an accomplishment to useless punching bags that anyone can now kill one-punch-man-style (except of course for your cliché useless female princess character that everyone has to protect), IN A SINGLE EPISODE. Add in how predictable the story is, and you get the worst and most disappointing show I've seen in years. Absolutely not recommended.

I have never seen a plot that addresses the mutilation like it. The mutilation between Kabaner and Human are called Kabaneri.

There are certain Mutilation that can Modified or reversed to original kind, which it never seen before in other shows.

IKOMA, deserves the best among his gang because he is wise with his invention and providing his idea to his people. IKOMA is Excellent with his defence ability and at the same time he is Outstanding with his executive plan which makes him a reasonable person to lead a team.

IKOMA- character personality is far outstanding then Luffy in One Piece, Naruto in Naruto series, Goku in Dragon Ball series, Natsu Dragneel in Fairy Tales, because their Main character lakes even the little wisdom and at the same time their stupidity lies clearly in their action. An example where the character thinks about feeding his stomach rather then his brain on the most sensitive and dangerous situation and end up wining.....surprisingly.

The closest character to Ikoma is Gon in Hunter x Hunter, even though he has not made a invention, but rather he was one of the executive planners among his Group. Also he was supportive from the beginning to bring and work together on several projects.

I did not add Conan in Detective Conan, because he is not willing to use time wisely and work toward Ran nor the organization that sized his original size.

I know the story of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is not realistic, but absolutely the Main Character deserves the credit in real life situation not the story plot line.

So in this anime they say that when a zombie bites you, you are dead. Is a really cool idea that is obviusly not original, but it makes things difficult for the protagonists. Except that it doesn't, in the very first episode the protagonist gets biten and survives in the most dumb way posible. So instead of a zombie anime, is more of a half-human half-monster tematic anime that is starting to bore me.