Before starting this review, I’d like to say that I appreciate the nice visual changes in the OP, I like this version much more. Same with the nice little intro scene where Ikoma shouts that he is a Kabaneri. Well, we haven’t been introduced to what a Kabaneri is in the first episode but honestly, yeah… we all had some little ideas.
So what happened in this episode? Well, on paper, not much. The survivors of the zombie attack gathered on the fortress which led by the Princess and her bodyguard, started moving. The train was operated by a girl with pink hair… I can’t remember her name so I’ll call her Kirua for the time being. Ikoma told his boyfriend Takumi that he managed to create a weapon capable of killing the zombies and had find way of stopping the Ass cancer Virus from spreading. They both entered the Iron fortress but at some point, when some Kabanes attacked the train, Ikoma’s heart started to shine like the zombies. In addition, the annoying body guard spotted him and because he has no chill at all, he didn’t let Ikoma a chance to explain himself and kick him out of the train by shooting him.
I’ve said this before but no wonder humanity is in danger if you let these kind of guys control the country. I mean, it’s the first time something like that has ever happened! Before, the infected people just turned into zombies without having a shinny heart but now that something different happens, Trashy body guard is like “yeeeeah, no. No need to keep him, he’s probably like the other corpses, and if he’s not, he won’t be useful to us. I’m pretty sure he can’t lead us to find a cure or just be a useful weapon against the zombies. Also, it’s been almost twenty minutes since I last saw him and knew he was bitten, he hasn’t turned into a corpse yet but I’m sure he’s still dangerous. I mean, not like all the previous infected guys turned into zombie 3 seconds after getting bitten. Yeah, just throw him away”.
This bodyguard called Tsuzuru or something like that is getting on my nerves. Sure he’s quite hot, but he’s the kind of narrow minded guy who’s following all the rules and what his superiors are telling him to do without asking questions. The kind of guy who makes the story progresses slowly because everyone has to stop and try to explain things to him, to make him understand that his convictions might be wrong. So, because he has just won the trophy of “who’s going to be the most annoying character of the show unless he changes?” trophy, I’ll name him Boris.
After Boris kicked out Ikoma of the train, they encounter a another problem, they can’t lower the bridge so the train is forced to stop. Boris wants to go outside and active the switch on his own because he’s a samurai and you know he has some pride so he wants to use his life, doing something useful. But he doesn’t have the time to die since Ikoma is here and manages to active the switch while fighting and being almost eaten alive by the zombies.
Freaking MC Ikoma rocks balls. Seriously. When other MC including the one from a similar anime made by the same studio which I won’t say the name, would have been “Imma gonna save u all because I’m human, ur human too so we have a lot in common and I refuse to let any human, even if they are dip shits, die”, Ikoma is like “Imma gonna save ur ass so that you’ll be ashamed of yourself all ur life for letting me down and I’ll be laughing at your faces waiting for you on the other side”. OH COOL IS THAT?!
Sorry I talked shit about you Ikoma bruh, you’re badass. Another thing that I’ve noted is how, even if everything is epic and exaggerated, Ikoma doesn’t piss me off. Actually, he’s quite desperate since after saving the day, he cries. That’s cool too. I feel like he has a lot of complex and different emotions going on inside him and that makes him hard to identify, to put in a single case. I like complex characters, everybody does. Also, I feel bad for him. It’s only been two episodes and he got shot, he stabbed and strangled himself, was bitten by zombies multiples times, was almost eaten alive, left for dead, got the shit beaten out of him but he’s still standing on his two feet, not asking why all this stuff is happening to him, crying, saying that he just wanted to be a normal high school student.
Takumi also got a bit of development . It was nice to see him trusting his friend, wanting to save him even if it was dangerous. First when he saw Ikoma’s shinning heart, Takumi was surprised too. He did not know to react since shinning hearts are a pretty unusual thing on humans. So it’s normal to be scared,until now everyone has lived with the fear of the Kabanes so it’s normal to be afraid first, even Ikoma was a bit afraid when he discovered his shinning heart. But right after Boris decided to throw Ikoma away, Takumi tried to stop Boris from shooting his friend. Though he did not succeed, his intention was clear so that makes him cool in my agenda.
Oh and the father of the princess died too. She was pretty shocked by that discovery but quickly regained her composure and asked people on the train to save Ikoma. She also quite good at commanding and led the evacuation of the city pretty nicely. If she’s not the typical useless princess that’ll be pretty awesome.
Finally we saw Mumei kicking those zombies asses wearing her fighting outfit, timing her performance like she had some record to beat. While she was fighting some pop rock song probably made by the Jonas Brothers was playing in the background. It can sounds strange sometimes to put pop rock during a fight but here it actually worked for me. This fighting scene was bad ass, Mumei is so cool. Like most people in this show. Because yes: even the MC is cool.
EVERYONE IS COOL
Expect Boris
Go to hell Boris
At the end of the episode, Mumei reveals that her and Ikoma aren’t exactly humans, nor Kabane but Kabaneris… I won’t say it was a cliffhanger since it was kind of obvious, especially after the visual changes of the opening ( and Ikoma shouting ” I’M A KABANERI!”). Maybe they should have waited another episode before putting this opening since it kinda spoiled the Kabaneri thing but eh, it could have been worst. Like spoiling who Mumei really is for exemple. Yeah, I hope the Op didn’t spoil us this, I would be pretty pissed off if that was the case. Mumei also seems to suffer from her abilities since she had to rest and seemed in a not very good state after fighting all the Kabanes. So maybe, she’s actually starting to transform into a Kabane too…
That’s going to be pretty interesting to see that issue being developed. So I want to know more about those Kabaneris now.
The anime website has some important worldbuilding info on the setting.
http://kabaneri.com/keyword/02.html
-The setting’s an alternate 19th century Japan, called Hinomaru (日ノ本)
-The winning feudal lords/daimyo from the Sengoku period chose to open up the country instead of closing its borders, and over 300 years built a peaceful and tranquil realm
-Trade with outside countries meant that Hinomoto was able to bring in a lot of industrial technology, leading to the steampunk meets ancient Japan look
-Word comes of the Kabane appearing in Western Europe, and the daimyo began preparing their country to face the threat in the off chance that it would come to their shores. The fortress and train network was established as a result. The Kabane eventually arrive in Kyushu and overrun the land
-The network is the only safe haven remaining in Hinomaru, and no one was able to go against the shogunate that controlled it
I should state also Ep 2 will only be officially aired in Japan next week, due to local news coverage of 2 big earthquakes in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. This early release was due to Chinese distributors mistakenly releasing Ep 2.
Other anime delayed by the Kumamoto earthquakes coverage include Assassination Classroom and the Magi: Adventures of Sinbad premiere.
I always wonder how and where you find all these informations 😀 Thank you very much for it
But I thought the action was taking place in Hinomoto, which makes more sense since it’s how you read the kanjis and katakana that you gave us. (日ノ本). Another way to read japan’s kanjis 日本 and including a katakana.
Oooh nice, so it’s actually some uchronie we got here. So after the Sengoku period then?No Edo period for us then.
I’ve learnt about the delay after publishing my review. The Chinese version was quite horrible but I managed to deal with it. As for Sinbad no Bouken I’m not even sure if the show will air during this season anymore XD
“Mumei also seems to suffer from her abilities since she had to rest and seemed in a not very good state after fighting all the Kabaneris. So maybe, she’s actually starting to transform into a Kabane too…”
You mean all the ‘Kabanes’? I thought Kabaneri meant those who are in between humans and kabanes?
Either she’s becoming closer to being a Kabaneri (as in virus being more active in her) or that’s a side effect for kabaneri where their heart, similar to a generator, becomes more active after workouts.
We do see Kabaneris having much more resistance and strength than ordinary humans though. Several times in the show (like how the MC bent back that hot steaming tube without even feeling it) indicates that. It probably explains why Mumei can defeat those kabanes too with her extra large caliber pistols. The shells she used are huge. They probably have enough fire powder in there to dislocate a normal person’s arm if used. She was able to use it though because of being a kabaneri with super human strength. That should also explain why she can knee a normal sphere through the steel heart of a kabane.
Those are just guesses from what I’ve seen so far.
I’m sorry, you’re right, I got confused at the end of the review and wrote Kabaneris instead of Kabanes.Kabaneris are indeed the humans with a shinny heart and Kabanes are the zombies. I fixed it, thanks for letting me know 😀
I think it’s both. Her being a Kabaneri surely makes her stronger but I do think there’s a side effect to that. From what she saw ( the moment when she’s resting) she has a lot of red veins on her face like the Kabanes. So I think that she’s still infected by the virus, like Ikoma, but they somehow managed to narrow it down and to stop it from spreading for the time being. But maybe it’s only temporary and after a while, the virus can start spreading again :/