Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (TV)

[Ryllharu]

Ayame is such an idiot. So many people died because she was weak and let go of leadership to a no name dumbass. However, that might all be part of her plot to shave off the population on the train to have enough food and water for everyone. In that case, she might be more awesome than we all think.

She was weak. Was. That's what makes Ayame a great character thus far. She's had to become a leader. True leaders aren't born, they appear when they're needed the most.

Her compassion is what separates her from the simply strong (Mumei), the passionate berserker (Ikoma), the stoic rule-followers (Kurusu and Engineer-chan), and the paper tigers (the nameless dumbasses).

Ayame was born into privilege, but was compassionate enough to respect her "lessers" even before the initial disaster struck. Through the adversity she's been forced to endure, she's already become a more capable leader than her father.

[shinta|hikari]

Well, that's what I wrote. Doesn't change the fact that tons of people died because of her mistake. If it weren't for the food crisis, those deaths would be a much bigger problem.

People were hating Mumei for killing a pregnant kabane. What about the girl who killed dozens of people because she decided she wasn't fit to be a leader despite disagreeing with the very first dumb order given by her replacement?

I think change is a good thing, especially story-wise, but that doesn't erase the sins that led to it. As such, she must be evaluated with her past in mind, not just her present.

[Buffalobiian]

She thought she wasn't fit, and she had every reason to think that way. In fact, it wasn't until she saw how shitty those rulers were that she became fit. She needed to fail to succeed.

Also, never really listened to it but I love the song the play at the end..

[Mashin] [160511] TVアニメ「甲鉄城のカバネリ」EDテーマ「ninelie」／Aimer with chelly(EGOIST) [320K]

[shinta|hikari]

She was still smart enough to know that they shouldn't cross a valley. That's just stupid any way you look at it. It's like asking to be attacked.

Her mistake was letting that happen. When she disagreed, she should've taken back leadership.

Oh, and I was joking about her scheming about all this.

[Kraco]

She might have been afraid of a munity. It did look like it could have happened if she hadn't handed over the command. That way things would have most likely ended up far worse than they now did. This really was a before and after incident for Ayame. It's quite clear now she's not anymore the same person she was. It cost quite a few lives to mature her, but they live in a tough world.

[MFauli]

Just got to watch the latest episode. It was okay. Was the first episode that didn´t make me excited, though. The sword kabane wasn´t dangerous enough. I mean, it might have killed everybody if Ikoma had not come to save the day. But the way it was presented I felt as if it would have been manageable by normal humans, too. Use some trick to throw it off the train or whatever. It´s entirely the presentation´s fault, though. I needed that special kabane to appear more cruel, dangerous, invincible.

Ayame-boobs also looked really dumb when she splattered half a litre of her blood into thin air, instead of trying either feed it to Ikoma or ... ya know ... stay alive.

Biggest complaint: Shitdumbfuck-samurai is still alive. meh

[Buffalobiian]

Just got to watch the latest episode. It was okay. Was the first episode that didn´t make me excited, though. The sword kabane wasn´t dangerous enough. I mean, it might have killed everybody if Ikoma had not come to save the day. But the way it was presented I felt as if it would have been manageable by normal humans, too. Use some trick to throw it off the train or whatever. It´s entirely the presentation´s fault, though. I needed that special kabane to appear more cruel, dangerous, invincible.

The problem was that they made Kurusu look badass with his sword. Compared to that, the super Kabane was powerful but dumb.

[Munsu]

Just managed to watched the first 4 episodes, and not surprising that I love this so far.

And of course, after watching this series and seeing his work with Aldnoah.Zero in particular, while also Guilty Crown among others, every anime series from now on better put Sawano Hiroyuki in charge of Music and all it entails.

Really have nothing to add to the discussion, don't care much for the plot at the moment, simply enjoying the ride.

[neflight86]

Episode 5

____________

Ugh. This episode was a bit of a mess. I already have little tolerance for drama that feels 'forced', and this episode blew that up with some uninspiring bickering. Mumei has become quite the annoying character as of late, and I struggle to find sympathy for her insecurity and unfounded machismo. MC wasn't much better with an odd salary-man like "Yes, of course it will still work" when desperately defending his plan after seeing her abrupt belligerence against strategy, without expressing much concern other than "Do what you want!"

"Do what you want?" Is that where we're at now? I weep for the dead dog scene. It was painful to watch as I felt myself check my eyelids for holes. So Kabaneris are emotional 13 year olds now, in spite of seeing this character in particular (mentally) capable of so much more? She has a perspective of not wanting to be 'discarded' by some person, and reminded of this by peg-leg Pete, but that hasn't been solidly sold to the audience so its introduction and severity here feels forced.

So is Mumei a bad character? Not really; I'm just harping on her being a poorly executed portion of this rather unexciting present danger for the train to overcome. Genuinely disappointed in this latest episode of the good show I pay nothing to watch. I'll go cry over there.

Also, is the 'giant monster made of zombies locked together' a trope by now? I've seen it a few times in Japanese zombie apocalypse stories of late.

[Ryllharu]

I agree. So much of this episode felt simply lazy.

Stupid bullshit with Mumei that could have been resolved in seconds had either Ikoma or Kajika (side ponytail-chan) forced her to actually answer wtf her problem was by emphasizing they're not just on the same train, they're already allies or friends or whatever.

This episode has Mumei closing herself off when she was already past that with these people.

I'd have been okay with the "black smoke" giant monster if it was just a constantly moving smear like an amoeba. But Japan really needs to stop making zombie hordes form into a bipedal shape with arms and a head.

Also, Ikoma is a fucking idiot. Lash the damn controls up if you're going to run away. You're covered in cloth and belts. In reality, he should have already started rotating the crane. You don't lift up a suspended load as high as thing can go, that's how disasters happen. He already lifted it up high enough to clear the tracks if he starting turning the crane. Suspended Loads 101.

[shinta|hikari]

That's the word I was looking for while watching this episode: lazy.

Kabaneri has been getting weaker each week. This was on the level of the usual shounen crap I drop nowadays.

I'm fine with Mumei going all emo and stuff. The backstory was there. The problem was the execution. It felt needlessly exaggerated and forced.

Speaking of exaggerated, Ikoma's constant shouting is grating on my ears now. I could understand his strangely hyper voice when he was being oppressed, but he doesn't have to use that tone every single scene.

To top all the laziness off, check this out:


How hard is it to add a line or two of skin creasing detail or another layer of shading? Waki NEEDS detail. Otherwise, it's just blank space. Meaningless. Mumei's character design and constant combat scenes should make her God's gift to waki-lovers, but we get this lazy flesh-colored emptiness instead. It's like a vagina without a hole.

I'm not asking for much. See comparison from one of the trashiest shows around below:



Here is an even better comparison because of the similar pose and action:


Take note how the part between the breast and the arm has a (very sexy) crevasse, shown by adding two measly lines and a bit of shading. That's not some random art style thing, either. It's physically there IRL. An armpit has to have a pit. Otherwise, it's just an arm.



Yeah, I'm just finding excuses to litter this forum with waki gifs now. Any complaints?

[MFauli]

I was about to post a comment about this week´s episode. Now I´m confused about shinta posting hentai-gifs ;>

[shinta|hikari]

Those are all valid anime gifs, not hentai.

[MFauli]

Then step up your game!

[Ryllharu]

@MFauli, the Testament gif is definitely the most pervy, but in comparison to the rest of the series...is quite tame.

Shinta is right (and her character design is indeed apparently in support of this particular niche fetish, why else would she raise her arms like that constantly?), despite me not really being concerned about that particular detail. Her hair and Ayame's still looked great this episode. SidePonytail-chan's too.

It was the storytelling (and apparently the armpit detail) that was lacking.

[MFauli]

Ok, about the episode: My biggest complaint is still the lack of any tangible danger. This was the same with last week´s sword-kabane. This week, I see this weird, giant smoke monster. I should feel terrified, creeped out. But I´m not. All I do is wonder "hm, how will the get past it? Is it a real smoke monster or is it made of 10000 of kabane? Also Mumei will be all tsundere next week, for sure!"

Since this series is clearly related in spirit, Attack on Titan did this so much better. From the very first episode, the titans were terrifying. And any time later, they were terrifying again. Kabaneri fails to evoke a true sense of danger, ever after the first 2 episodes (that were fantastic).

Now I fear that the entire first season might be a train trip. Really hoped we´d reach the central city at the end of this week´s ep :/

[shinta|hikari]

Well, the show is named after the train... so...

I disagree about the sense of danger. Even Mumei almost died twice this episode. If you meant a sense of horror, then I agree. This show could use more classic horror surprise scenes and better use of music for suspense and thrills. Right now, it's just pure action.

[Ryllharu]

The sense of danger is more that the Kabaneri, the only true defense the rest of the train has, will slowly devolve into Kabane. Ayame, pudgy friend, grumpy friend, and side-ponytail-chan have given Ikoma and Mumei a pass, but this episode made it clear to the audience only, that Mumei is slipping. If she fights too long without rest, her infection grows.

Whatever she is, isn't as complete as Ikoma, his appears to have gone to completion. When he fights too long, he gets the blood thirst, but the infection doesn't spread to his head. It already failed to get there and apparently doesn't try to any more. Mumei's does. Every single time she fights.

She is also a lot more dangerous than he is. And even if she wasn't the true threat, the organization that her "brother" (unclear if biological or figurative) runs is something that even she fears.

The Kabane are a threat, but they're not the true danger. As Ikoma noted in the first episode, it's the Bushi and the other elites like them. Mumei is part of that non-Bushi elite group. She wasn't even inspected. That's pretty horrifying in terms of the common people. Even Ayame gets checked for exposure routinely.

[Kraco]

An episode full of unnaturally bad decisions and action. I hope the next episodes will be better again.

I agree on the danger feeling less than it should be and the horror being totally absent. But that often happens when the enemy is numbered in the thousands, is readily visible, and is cut down like weed. This is merely an action show, and not a super good one judging by this episode.

[MFauli]

Yeah, horror is probably more lacking than the feeling of danger, though I´m really longing for more of both. The latter maybe stems from the low death count of memorable characters. I remain that this series is a spiritual successor to Attack on Titan, but AoT did a much better job at making me feel "anybody can die at any given moment". Five episodes in, and we don´t have a single high-profile character dead. Even if somebody dies now, it´s almost too late, as it´s too typical to have built up towards the death of a character. AoT was less predictable. And really, we have so many kabane, there should be more casualties.

Worse, however, is the lack of horror. This was made clear to me last episode, when the sword-kabane was inside the train waggon. It was there, it was incredibly strong, fast, and it kept killing no-name characters. But while that happened, we saw more important characters hiding nearby behind a quickly built wall, talking to each other about their next steps. Then the asshole-samurai started fighting the sword-kabane on equal footing.
Take.More.Time. There should have been a slow introduction scene, the camera real slowly moving upwards, starting at the sword-kabane´s feet, going higher, higher, finally a shot of his head, with super-detailed shadings and whatever. Then we hear it making creepy, deep growling sounds. A group of noname characters is in the area around him, and we only see the air getting blurry, the sword-kabane having vanished from one moment to the next. Then the camera makes an abrupt swing to one side, and we see the sword-kabane, having skewered one of the nonames. On top of that, he´s taken a big bite from the poor guy´s neck. The poor guy still being alive, we see his eyes turn matte, and the sword-kabane stops eating. Instead, he pulls the dead body above his head and RIPS his body in two, blood and guts splattering everywhere, a bloody rain sprinkling the near vicinity, giving the sword-kabane a really gruesome expression.

That´s how it should have been done. Instead, the anime focuses too much on action, but that action isn´t exciting enough.