Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

Cat adopts stray kitten

Artwork for Koutetsujou no Kabaneri blu-ray/DVD vol. 3 (first pic is the box illustration by Haruhiko Mikimoto, second is the 3-sided digipack illustrated by Yasuyuki Ebara. (Haruhiko Mikimoto created the initial character designs while Yasuyuki Ebara was responsible for adapting those designs for the anime, so that’s probably why Mikimoto’s art looks a little different from how the same characters appear in the anime.)

anyway look at Biba and how many Hunters made it into the artwork! even Soue! but Sahari and Uryuu need to stop looking like a couple

Ikoma: hozumi

Me:

I mean Kabaneri is referred to as a Attack On Titan rip-off, but I didn’t think they’d go as far as use stuff from the very recent chapters.

The discussion around Kabaneri these past two weeks has been that it has jumped the shark, but I personally don’t think that’s the case.

It’s still thematically coherent, the characters’ motivations are still consistent and for the most part I think it’s in line with what has come before in terms of tone. I don’t think episode 9 or 10 have been much different from what came before.

There has been a hit to the quality, though. I didn’t care much for Horobi and I am kind of scared for Mumei’s character as well.

By the end of episode 10, Mumei is essentially a drone. Her character might just be completely gone. I still have hope, though, the framing at the end of the episode, when she stabs Ikoma, might just indicate that she is not completely gone. Here’s to hope she won’t become a simple damsel to be rescued or just Biba’s puppet to be killed. She deserves to fight back Biba herself, this is just as important to Mumei’s character as it’s important to Ikoma to deal with his trauma of losing his sister and proving that the weak deserve to live so that they could grow strong; I don’t want Mumei’s importance reduced down to developing the other characters (Ikoma). Mumei deserves a second chance to make her mistakes right, as the series itself says, the message would still kinda be there with Ikoma’s victory of Biba, but Mumei carries the themes, too. Here’s to hope she gets the second chance.

Ikoma was all good this episode - his plans, his talk with Takumi and Takumi’s death. I felt sad when Takumi was killed; Ikoma’s reaction was really well done. I feel like it might be a possibility that Takumi is still alive - he reacted to the stone, but much less likely than Mumei still being there. Speaking of which, perhaps the stone will become somehow relevant eventually?

I feel like Ikoma and Mumei might be safe in the long run in the end - Kurusu dropped down the train with a scientist and an apparent cure to the Kabane problem, so he might just show up with that to save them. 

I appreciate that Biba’s story wasn’t framed as a sympathetic story, rather clearly there to just explain him.

There was also a step-up in terms of animation quality from last week. There still were some stills, but it was much more consistent and it still also had those nicely animated scenes, as with last ep.

The amount of people that want Biba’s head to roll, is at an all time high

But i call first dibs