Mumei explains that Kabaneri are creatures between humans and Kabane. Did you understood correctly? Between Kabane and Humans… No, I want to be sure that you understood correctly because this Kabaneri concept seems hard to get for some characters. Our dear Boris for exemple, who says he wants to kill them because they are Kabanes. Obviously he has some deep Alzheimer problem, she told you not one second ago, that she WASN’T A KABANE BUT A KABANERI IS THIS THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND BORIS? IT’S IN THE TITLE OF THE SHOW! PLZ TRY, you’re not even trying… Come on Ikoma help me
“ I’m a Kabane, I will turn everyone here into a kabane”
….
Why are you doing this to yourself Ikoma… Why?… What is it that you don’t understand? Why do you refuse the girl’s help? Why do you say that you are a Kabane when SHE TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE A KABANERI? Why do you say this right after that Boris told ” I will kill the Kabanes”. You actually like to suffer u filthy masochist, getting bitten and stabbed wasn’t enough, now you wanna take bullets up your ass. And more importantly, what do you want to turn everyone into a Kabane when you saved the whole train in the previous episode? Ikoma, my bro, you need to make up your mind.
They plan on going to Kongogaku the shogunate strongest stronghold. During that time Mumei and Ikoma will be isolated in a room so that weak humans will be less afraid of them. Oh yeah apparently, Boris and the ponytail girl are related, the one who thinks Ikoma’s crazy hair is sexy… I think so… but do I really care? EEEEEH…. no.
The rest of the people on the train are afraid sure but how can they be so dumb… they want to throw Ikoma and Mumei off the train because they are dangerous Kabanes… I don’t know if the constant exposure to charbon smoke left some irreparable damage on their brains but they seriously have some problem realizing stuff. Do they even look close to Kabanes?NO, Stop calling them Kabanes then.
Anyway, they want to stop the train to pray for the dead. I don’t know who thought this was a good idea to go outside the train during night, when they are obviously Kabanes around but eh, seems like whenever people are in danger, they become dumber than before. I don’t have anything against burying the dead and stuff but yes, on a survival plan … I rate this idea 2 Boris/ 5
Pink Killua and the Blond ponytail guy had a few lines in the episode. I like them both. They seem less dumb than anyone else. Blond ponytail guy sounds like a douchebag but again, he has more chances of surviving than anyone else. I call best guy and best girl here. There’s also a strange guy with a French louis XIV wig with an American accent who is operating the train. I don’t know if he’s going to be useful to the story but his accent is hilarious.
In this episode we also learnt what really happened to Ikoma so it’s time for the FLASHBACK! Like Ikoma said, his story isn’t that crazy and even normal given the context. 5 years ago Kabanes attacked his station and killed his sister. First Ikoma tried to run away and to get some help, but then he finally returned to her side and since she was starting to turn into a Kabane he killed her with that little powder bomb thing. He took her green stone as a reminder and swear that he will never run away again. Here, I’m a bit embarrassed… His sister was clearly dying, what’s the point of not running away to stay by her side if she’s going to die? Better save your ass first…. ouuuuh I’m such an horrible person. Furthermore, I’m not so sure Ikoma made it safely, like we saw earlier in the episode, he had a sort of dream where we saw his sister and himself being bitten by Kabane. So ya, we’ll see.
I still don’t know if Mumei and Ikoma’s sister are the same person though. There sure is a lot of similarities, Ikoma and Mumei both lost their family the same year, Mumei mentioned having a brother, the sister looked a bit like Mumei, she had a sort of ruban in her hair, and the Op sequence clearly incites us to think so. But it will be a bit too easy in my opinion to think so and I really hope those two aren’t the same person since it would be a poor “twist” in narrative terms.
The dumb survivors want to attack Ikoma and Mumei because they are apparently dangerous. Ayame tries to save them and this show at the same time so she asks everyone to stop their bullshit. She asks Ikoma if he’s their enemy by stabbing him cuz she knows he likes it. He replies that Kabanes are the enemy and with the long awaited: I WILL DESTROY ALL THE KABANES. It’s nice to see that you’ve changed your mind Ikoma, because at the beginning, that clearly wasn’t your intention. Maybe Mumei molesting you during the whole episode triggered something in your shattered brain… we will never know.
Mumei does some bounding with the kids and the dumb survivors but decides right after that ok, she’s hungry and needs blood. So Kabaneris need blood , they are half zombies, half vampire. Or they could be entire vampires, I don’t know, it’s true that Ikoma said in the first episode that Kabane were attracted to blood and that’s how he lured one in his house. But in any case, Kabane being zombies or vampires doesn’t really matter.
Ikoma also feels the need of blood and attacks Ayame on the train. It’s quite interesting to see that Kabaneris are actually dangerous for humanity, that is one of the rarest times that I’ve seen the villagers being right about something. Although they did not think Kabaneris were dangerous for the same reasons they were a bit right in the end.
The pregnant lady has some troubles with her baby and turned into a Kabane just like that. So maybe her baby was a Kabane … I don’t know how it could have happened though… The invasion occurred 10 years ago and there’s kids under 10 who are alive, so the hypothesis of the Kabane virus spreading in the air isn’t really plausible. Anyway, Mumei kills her but seems strangely affected by her act. I’m still wondering why she asked for blood this way, she could have done it in an other way in order to not scare the villagers, she looks like she’s in control of her thirst, not like Ikoma, so yeah she could have said it in a much better way.
Also +1 for the plot convenience, no Kabane attack this episode, which is quite convenient, looks like the forest and outside of the stations are safer places after all.
-Apologizes for the late posts, not only on Koutetsujou but also on the other shows that I’m covering (Mayoiga and Boku no Hero Academia), I had a lot of exams and essays to do. My finals aren’t over but I have less work now, so I’ll try to be on time 🙂 –
I actually think Ikoma’s action makes sense. He understood he is a kabaneri, but he thinks half kabane is probably gonna make him different in a way. Mumei didnt actually try to explain stuff at all to him, so he just has to find out everything by himself.
Mumei probably has the same thought somehow, she is different from kabane, but she also wants to show that she is different from humans too. Maybe she also scared that she may harm people if getting too close?
I hate Boris. And Ayame is actually cool this ep.
True but in any case, wanting to kill the whole train’s population just to prove that he is different isn’t a good idea.
What I don’t understand is why Mumei started to be nice to the villagers if it was to drink their blood right after. If she truly doesn’t want to get attached to anyone then, she should have attacked them right away or stayed in the train :/
But I think she might have her reasons tho, this scene seemed to awkward and strange to be left without any explanations
I’m happy that I’m not the only one who cannot stand Boris. I generally have troubles to like this kind of characters, who think we are the ones who need to adapt themselves to the rules rather than changing them.
Maybe she is saying this since it is “natural” for her and prefers someone to donate a bit rather than forcefully take some. Maybe she is special and can even live of blood from animals or even kabanes. Mumei was probably the same as Ikoma at the beginning and it she has learned to surpress her urges a bit which takes a long time seeing how she can use her abilities and can even smell kabanes.
I can somehow understand Ikoma thinking he is a Kabane like.. it’s not like you get transformed into something new and accept it on the spot that you are neither human nor a certain type of monster. Just like there is only 0 and 1 only to learn afterwards there is something between.. makes sense?
Boris is terrible but such people are necessary as well for decisionmaking rather than a princess that has no idea how to lead nor has experience with war/fighting. Btw he has nice reflexes seeing how he could block the bullet from mumei
Ikoma definitely needs to get over his martyr complex, especially since he seems to get off on these big dramatic gestures (like when he diverted the train to the right track and gave that whole speech about how everyone should remember his sacrifice). I don’t mind some angst but…enough with the speeches!
I think Mumei is probably so traumatized by her past that she just chose not to feel anything and devote herself to being the ultimate badass, so when she finds out she may have inadvertently killed a non-kabane fetus it hits home (and I don’t know if we’ll ever find out the truth there) she lets her guard down for a moment.
Boris needs to stop being a one-note character. I appreciate the need for tough soldiers, etc., but he’s had enough time now to realize that Ikoma and Mumei are obviously very different from the kabane. Isn’t it part of being a great warrior to adapt to new circumstances and use them to your advantage? If I were in that position I’d be thinking about how a few more badass kabaneri like Mumei would make things a lot better (and it’d be an interesting plot line, like some character deliberately trying to create kabaneri from unsuspecting humans).
Well, Ikoma is the the hero of a survival show, and more generally an anime hero, so he needs to shout to prove a point. I’m quite used to it so I’ll let that slide every time but it’s true that this tendency ( to shout inspirational speeches while fighting) is quite generic.
I wonder if the baby was actually not the cause of the woman’s transformation into a kabane tho. But yes, I do think Mumei felt bad just because she killed someone who just turned and maybe a non kabane baby. Which proves that even if she wants to conceal them, she still has some remaining “human” feelings.
Definitely, in Boris position I’ll try to see if the samurais could not use the kabaneris at their advantage. That’ll make me an evil character, but definitely more intelligent than Boris who’s personality can be narrowed down to ” The rule says no so no”.
By Boris do you mean that rigid cunt with the sword, the ringleader of the anti-Kabaneri circlejerking? I can’t stand him. His contributions to this show have been as follows:
Yup, it’s him, Boris, the samurai who’s annoying and dumb just for the sake of making things more difficult. Also he’s a samurai and as we all know in this show: Samurai = bad guys