(L) Kotetsujo no Kabaneri (Knocking on the Walls of the Armored Fortress)

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I wonder what "perfect" means to you if you were worried Mumei was a bit too perfect.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Mumei a lot in the first two episodes. I still like her a lot. Heck, she's my favorite character in this show so far!

It's just that if I had to come up with a character flaw for her based on the first two episodes, I'd feel that anything I could come up with would be very flimsy. Not now, after Episode 3. It's true that even in the first two episodes she gets very violent with anybody that even mildly annoys her, but I've seen this sort of thing played largely for laughs and/or "cool factor" before.

Now it seems to me that Mumei's tendency towards violent solutions has a potential darker side that we're probably supposed to take seriously. And I like that. Makes her more interesting to me. And it's probably fitting given the light "vampire" motif they're going for with kabaneri in general.

I mean, she sure can kick ass but it was obvious from episode two that she didn't care much for humans.

Well, she did save all those people. She's certainly no Superman, but she might have some Batman in her...

That's hardly what I'd call perfect in an anime that's basically pushing its "don't be an asshole" message down everyone's throats.

If someone is perfect, that's Ikoma, because he's exactly the sort of person the show wants everyone else to be.

The show is punishing him an awful lot if the idea is that he's who the audience should admire.

I get what you're saying, but at a surface level, Mumei looks way cooler than Ikoma does so far.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

It's just that if I had to come up with a character flaw for her based on the first two episodes, I'd feel that anything I could come up with would be very flimsy.

I thought it was plenty obvious she didn't care about those people, and only saved them because she needed someone to drive the train. Note she only told the driver chick to follow her. That's why when Ikoma asked her if she brought all the people there, she said they just followed her on their own. She couldn't care less about them.

I get what you're saying, but at a surface level, Mumei looks way cooler than Ikoma does so far.

You said it yourself. It's just the surface.

The show is punishing him an awful lot if the idea is that he's who the audience should admire.

He's the one who needs flaws. Right now it feels like the whole world was made to make him look good. Not good as in cool (though he is kinda cool) but good as in his ideals are a universal truth and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong and whatnot. It's pretty annoying actually.

[cupumanager]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Also it appears that among the people of the koutetsujou there's a foreigner, though it's difficult to understand whether the VA is trying to emulate a British or an American accent.

It would be easier if there was a precise date, since Japan didn't really allow any form of trade with European countries apart from the the Dutch until 1853, though the kabane outbreak could have caused some changes.

In KnK world, after the Sengoku Jidai Japan never imposed Sakoku, but instead open the country to the outside world. This is why Hinomoto can develop advanced steam technology and lay extensive train infrastructure before the Kabane plague reaches her shores.

I think knowing dates would be moot - This is a world where people chose steam to power their guns instead of chemical propellants in the first place. If you want to take that this is happening in 1850s', then that kind of hairstyle should be out of fashion for 60 years.

[serenade_beta]

Mm, the whole "he didn't attack me so you can trust him" thing was a bit... err...
Since he has already saved them once after getting shot and thrown to his death, that really shouldn't convince the random mob characters...

But oh well, I enjoyed Mumei pounding the protagonist at every moment. So everything is forgivable. The smooth transaction from conversation to "BANG!" is oh so...
Ah, but I hope it doesn't go MuvLuv and spend the entire season going "Well, our enemy is the zombies, but we're just gonna fight each other". Unless Mumei gets to abuse the remaining characters more.

[frodonk]

What the? And now we have vampire half-zombies? What's next? Aliens?

Looks like the stone doesn't do anything after all, just some random stone from a river, although it does have sentimental value to Ikoma. I don't get why the OP give it some kind of importance though, and I was misled into thinking that it had special powers when Mumei said that it hurts when she gets hit by it.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

He's the one who needs flaws. Right now it feels like the whole world was made to make him look good. Not good as in cool (though he is kinda cool) but good as in his ideals are a universal truth and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong and whatnot. It's pretty annoying actually.

I get where you're coming from. In a different type of show, I might see it the same way. I'd certainly be with you if this was a magical girl or idol anime.

But are you totally confident that Ikoma's idealism will be vindicated in what's essentially a zombie show? Rule No. 1 in a zombie show is "be a survivor, by any means necessary". Zombie shows are typically where idealism goes to die.

Mumei's harsher pragmatism often comes out on top in zombie shows.

I think there's a chance that Ikoma will need to learn some things from her - That he'll need to learn to balance his ideals with some practicality and realism.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I get where you're coming from. In a different type of show, I might see it the same way. I'd certainly be with you if this was a magical girl or idol anime.

But are you totally confident that Ikoma's idealism will be vindicated in what's essentially a zombie show? Rule No. 1 in a zombie show is "be a survivor, by any means necessary". Zombie shows are typically where idealism goes to die.

Mumei's harsher pragmatism often comes out on top in zombie shows.

I think there's a chance that Ikoma will need to learn some things from her - That he'll need to learn to balance his ideals with some practicality and realism.

I doubt it. This is an Araki show after all. I'm expecting a shounen-like thing, only more dark and edgy. Ikoma's ideals will carry the show all the way through.

[DemonneoPT]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I think there's a chance that Ikoma will need to learn some things from her - That he'll need to learn to balance his ideals with some practicality and realism.

I agree with this. I also think Mumei needs to learn from him too. That is why i'm looking forward to their next interactions

Originally Posted by frodonk

Looks like the stone doesn't do anything after all, just some random stone from a river, although it does have sentimental value to Ikoma. I don't get why the OP give it some kind of importance though, and I was misled into thinking that it had special powers when Mumei said that it hurts when she gets hit by it.

Well, if it hurts Mumei then the stone must be special even tho it was randomly found in the river. I do not know, but i still think the stone will be an important factor as the series goes on.

[karice67]

Originally Posted by thundrakkon

Well, there was a bit of info dump with the new episode, but there is still a lot left unexplained.

Spoilers

Spoiler for Episode 3

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

They seriously should just explain things instead of referencing and dropping the subject. It does get annoying after awhile, such as referencing the neck ties on Kabaneri and nothing more. Dragging out the mystery intentionally does not necessarily make it good writing.

Other than that, the episode was entertaining and interesting as usual.

I kind of disagree with the idea that they should 'tell' more. I like being shown rather than told things through forced dialogue that's out of character, or something that people living in the world of the story wouldn't think they'd need to explain to people.

In the case of the neck ties, when I think of what kind of conversation would have revealed why it was significant, I figure that Ikoma would have needed to follow up with something along the lines of "Wait, what do you mean?" and he doesn't need to, because he knows why he used the neck collar. The implication should be clear to us too, given what Ikoma said in episode 1 about the carotid artery being thicker.

Mumei strikes me as someone of few words, someone who doesn't explain, but who leaves the people around her to come to their own conclusions. After all, can you imagine having to explain to people that you need to drink blood, or that you need to rest? Both of these give the people around her reason (and the opportunity) to kill her--even though they need her, I'm sure that most of them would rather risk having to fight against the Kabane themselves rather than deal with an unknown risk within their midst.

So I'm perfectly fine with Mumei being a rather taciturn character. It makes sense, all things considered.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by DemonneoPT

I agree with this. I also think Mumei needs to learn from him too. That is why i'm looking forward to their next interactions

Right. This is what I'm hoping for anyway. Mumei's maybe a little too aggressive, but Ikumo's honestly not aggressive enough, imo. He gets pushed around a lot. I think he should learn to care more about his own survival. I think his character arc will probably involve him getting over his guilt over how he didn't help his sister more, or turning it into a positive (using it to push himself forward to "honor her" in some sense).

[orion]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I get where you're coming from. In a different type of show, I might see it the same way. I'd certainly be with you if this was a magical girl or idol anime.

But are you totally confident that Ikoma's idealism will be vindicated in what's essentially a zombie show? Rule No. 1 in a zombie show is "be a survivor, by any means necessary". Zombie shows are typically where idealism goes to die.

Mumei's harsher pragmatism often comes out on top in zombie shows.

I think there's a chance that Ikoma will need to learn some things from her - That he'll need to learn to balance his ideals with some practicality and realism.

Mumei is treating those people like cattle. "Can I have some of your blood?" That's not how you're suppose to survive the Zombie Apocalypse.

Makes you wonder what is actually happening at that destination of theirs. Mumei's attitude could be explained by how the humans are treated at that facility. If the facility is run by Kabaneri or they view weak humans as cattle, then that would explain how she acts.

[frodonk]

Originally Posted by DemonneoPT

Well, if it hurts Mumei then the stone must be special even tho it was randomly found in the river. I do not know, but i still think the stone will be an important factor as the series goes on.

It might become special later on, but for now, it's just a regular stone.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by frodonk

It might become special later on, but for now, it's just a regular stone.

It might already be special, just because Ikoma thinks it is a regular stone it doesn't mean it is.

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by Key Board

This actually kinda reminds me of another Okouchi show

Spoiler:

Valvrave

But I hope they took lessons from that

That scene with Haruto biting L-elf, argh you had to remind me again with what happened to Saki. Been 3 fucking years and yet the injustice they done to Saki still haunt me.

Btw Key, how is this anime? I been staying away from it but I hear some really good things about it. The ending theme though, "Ninelie" is beyond god-tier.

[Brother Coa]

Episode 3 finished, here are my thoughts:

-Pretty weaker than the previous two as it doesen't have that much fighting, from here on out the show will focus a lot more on character development and that's ok.

-I can see why others are commenting on Mumei's behavior. But like others said she is 12 years old kid that has superhuman powers. It's no wonder she is like that, furthermore it does not help that the people on the train are mostly ignorant and rash common folks. But yeah, it would really help the entire situation if they would just correct their speaking method and get little more open minded.

-Needing blood instead of food and asking for it by talking directly to frighten people? It's like you want people to hate you more than they already are. And I wonder if Ikoma is going to really bite her or just stop himself at the last moment.

-So Kanaberi can sense other Kanade nearby? Good move for not telling that fact to anyone, they could all pull men from watch duty to somewhere they are more needed while you two keep watch with your superhuman strenght. A big plus to overall security if they are able yo utilize it.

-And in the end Ikoma begun his Eren Jeager training, he already has ideals, he only needs to build up strenght and he is ready to go.

[frodonk]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

It might already be special, just because Ikoma thinks it is a regular stone it doesn't mean it is.

Even if it's a magic stone, its origin story (found and taken randomly by the siblings by the riverside when they were younger) doesn't sound too plausible, I mean, it just so happened that the stone he chose to keep as a memento turns out to be magic?

But then again, stranger and more inexplicable things have happened in anime before

[karice67]

Ah, and I forgot:

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Given the vampire legends hints it could be Transylvania (which at the time of the industrial revolution was a mostly independent principality).

That's what I figured as well--the keyword explanation just doesn't give more information to confirm or deny that.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Also it appears that among the people of the koutetsujou there's a foreigner, though it's difficult to understand whether the VA is trying to emulate a British or an American accent.

I'd guess American...though only because the person voicing him--Maxwell Powers--is American (or, to be precise, he's mixed, learned Japanese of his own accord, and is now active in the media industry in Japan, usually doing commercials).

But if you think about it, the accents around at that time would have been vastly different from ours anyway, both native speakers of the two languages as well as the sound of a foreigner trying to speak another language. So I wouldn't try to take anything from it other than 'it's a foreigner'.

[konart]

Originally Posted by DevilHighDxD

That scene with Haruto biting L-elf, argh you had to remind me again with what happened to Saki. Been 3 fucking years and yet the injustice they done to Saki still haunt me.

Btw Key, how is this anime? I been staying away from it but I hear some really good things about it. The ending theme though, "Ninelie" is beyond god-tier.

Spoiler for rape time!:

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by konart

Spoiler for rape time!:

YOU GOT TO BE FUCKING WITH ME.

My emotional trauma back in full force. RIP ME

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

But are you totally confident that Ikoma's idealism will be vindicated in what's essentially a zombie show? Rule No. 1 in a zombie show is "be a survivor, by any means necessary". Zombie shows are typically where idealism goes to die.

Mumei's harsher pragmatism often comes out on top in zombie shows.

I think there's a chance that Ikoma will need to learn some things from her - That he'll need to learn to balance his ideals with some practicality and realism.

I wouldn't really call anything Mumei action practical or pragmatic. She is twelve years old brat who unlike pretty much anyone else in apocalyptic world doesn't need mature because lol powers.

Well, Ikoma need learn to have sharper elbows, but he better find other teacher on that matter.