Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress Anime Review: The Unique Undead Story

The elements of most “zombie” themed movies or series are here as well in this series. When people you love turned into zombies, will they be the same person you once knew? In the series Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress, you still see the same dilemma similar to the other zombie themed series. Though there is a twist.

In this review I wanted to highlight what is unique about this series. Why does this series stand out? It will be a straightforward review but there will be a ton of information.

Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress is made by Wit Studio. The studio that is behind Spy X Family and Attack On Titan. Though the illustration is a bit rough than Attack On Titan, there are still some similarities with some of the details of the anime. The closed fortress, the grand uniforms of the royalty and the uniforms of the hunters has resemblance to that of Attack on Titan.

The anime is set in the industrial age and it is very evident the steampunk feel of the setting. Everything is based on steam and heat. Kabane started from a strange and unknown virus. At least it was not mentioned in the series but the virus turns humans to an aggressive flesh eating machine. The unique part of this Kabane is its glowing heart. It is tough that even the main character created a steam-pressured-shotgun of sorts just to pierce through that heart.

In the island of Hinomoto there are fortresses scattered in the island called stations. Since the outbreak of the Kabane hit the island these stations are their means of stocking supplies and moving people from station to station safely. It all made possible through Koutetsujou, an iron locomotive which is maintained by steam smith. Ikoma is a steam smith that has a sad backstory about her sister which is his compass all throughout the series.

This kind of theme always teaches us team spirit and friendship but there is something unique about the series that really interests me.

Protagonist Does Not Overshadow Others - Ikoma is the lead here. It does not revolve only on his story. There is a story of his friend, there is a story of Mumei and Buba and also the story of Ayame. In the end Ikoma manifested its power until the grand ending but he did not overshadow others. I saw the unity and the separation of roles of each. To add about separation of roles, I love the role of the driver of Koutetsujou.

Human Succeeded In The End - We all love that happy endings. In this Anime, it did not show that the humans worked together to end the Kabane. The human succeeded in the part where humans showed compassion, wherein Ikoma fought not just with Biba but for his own human form. Kabaneri is half undead, half human and the human part succeeded in Ikoma.

The Driver Of The Story Is Ayame - If there is a pointing system to where the parts human shows compassion and sacrifices himself, it will be all in Ayame’s scene. She is the hero no doubt. All of the discovery of traitorship, removing trust issues, and sacrificing herself its all her. She always makes the toughest decision, sacrificing all of the people in the Koutetsujou, sacrificing her blood and she almost got bit but she trusted Ikoma nonetheless. She is the OG here. She is the man!

It seems undead themed anime resonates on the existing plots of a typical undead series. It truly is but I think Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress is very well thought of. There are a lot of scenes and logic that seems to have a disconnect but it has reasons when you zoom out your understanding on what is going on. Wit Studio has shown intricate detail on how these kinds of movies should be told. Another marvelous storytelling.

I discovered this Anime on Netflix, it keeps on popping up on my Anime suggestions so I tried it out. Another successful discovery again. It is pretty old one already but I guess old is what we need today. It is highly recommended and I will surely watch the movie of this one The Battle of Unato.