Kiznaiver
Short Synopsis: A mysterious girl Kidnaps six strange characters and makes it that they share pain between all of them in an experiment to find a solution to world conflict.
My first thought when watching this was that this was fairly mellow for a trigger series. The likely explanation behind that is because the director who gives it’s shows it quickfire humor and energy is busy animating a ten minute anime series called Space Patrol Luluco in this season. Not to say there isn’t any distinct “trigger” in this show as a moment where the mascots wheel a character through a hospital with disco balls would heartly disagree. I am really liking the opening as with watching a lot of standard opening animations season after season it’s nice to see someone try something difference. Kiznaivers Opening is mesmerising though could make people potentially dizzy. My potential rating would be higher if only I was aware of just where this story was going with this concept. My closest guess would be a kind of story like Kokoro Connect which involved a group of kids linked together by a supernatural affliction and the drama that came with it. If that’s the case then I am fully on board as I felt that Kokoro never truly did the excellent concept justice. I am also happy to see that Trigger looks to have gathered funds from it’s previous projects because there is very little penny pinching with this animes animation. In fact I will even say this, Kabaneri may have the best art of the season but I think Kiznaiver has the best animation. There is a definite feel of passion in the movement and the characters feel truly alive. Not only that, while they are not truly original(In fact a number of them may remind you of previous Trigger works) they are all pretty likeable and distinct. I am interested to see where this goes and seeing as Kiznaiver won the straw poll in my season preview it looks like I will be letting you know just how this turns out.
Potential: 85%
Bungou Stray Dogs
Short Synopsis: A group of supernatural detectives named after famous authors try to track down a tiger chasing after an abandoned Orphan.
Even animated my impression of this story still remains the same. Perhaps it’s the resemblance to Blood Blockade battlefront that causes me to not get engaged in this or it could be just a lack of interest. I give this a middling mark as I think there could be those who could find this interesting but it just doesn’t appeal to me. There was a significantly large amount of comedy involved than I remember and one or two jokes got a smile but the rest didn’t really hit me. The twist at the end of the episode does open up possibilities for the rest of the show but the characters feel like they are trying too hard to be comedic. Especially Dasai with his jokey obsession with suicide which I find is rather disrespectful to the author. How much actual detective work in this show looks to be minimal as it’s seems to be more along the lines of meaningless term for a supernatural task force. We only know of three characters so far and I mainly just know their comedic quirks rather than personalities. This is a show I have difficulty making a judgement call on so I think the best way to see if this is for you is to just check it out yourself. It has it’s interesting aspects but it just doesn’t do anything for me.
Potential: 50%
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
Short Synopsis: Our MC tries to build a new weapon in a world where people build huge walls to hide from the Titans…um I mean Kabaneri.
It’s rather redundant to say just where the inspiration for this show came from and it screams it with it’s every phore. Now by all means I am not against making use of a similar idea; if you can take a concept and turn it’s themes to present a new perspective then there is no shame in making use of a popular property as a base for your own story. However if you are going to do that then you should make use that the changes you make to the idea to differentiate it are there to make it more interesting and not more derivative. Sadly I think that Kabaneri has taken the latter route in it’s execution. The switch from Western to eastern culture for the setting is quite interesting but switching titans for zombies is just a bad move. Titans were interesting because they presented a new challenge to taking them down that made it more dynamic and exciting. Now they are just zombies which are essentially so overdone to an massive degree. Zombies are the standard now. Couldn’t we have gone for something more interesting like say ghosts or centaurs or something? So there is a heavy amount of borrowing from another source and what it has added in to replace it is significantly more cliche. However there is merit to this one. For one the artwork is very pretty with character designs invoking the style of 80s to 90s OVAs. Not the bland style of Endride but the more Ninja scrollish approach. Also like Ninja scroll we have plenty of gore. Uncensored for your viewing pleasure. Sawano is doing the OST though so far it’s far too reminiscent of his previous work. The biggest problem here is the writer who hasn’t written anything good after Code Geass. The story already has logical plotholes. For example, why did they get the first train to stop before pulling down the drawbridge yet lower the drawbridge for the second straight away? Why does the main character have a device that looks to be for the primary use of choking someone? What’s the point of building walls to keep out creatures that look like they can climb things without trouble? As well as a lot of people acting really dumb just to make the protagonist look better. I don’t have much faith in this writer and I think the plot holes are only going to get worse from this point on. However perhaps we can look past that and just enjoy the pretty visuals.
Potential: 60%
Have you read Green Worldz?
It’s kinda gave me the vibe of RE and Dino Crisis. It’s about a plant and bug mutation outbreak and there are also other mutants in the mix.
It’s action schlock, but it’s entertaining.
I have seen that manga while looking around but I didn’t check it out.
I can give it a shot though I hope it isn’t another Kyochuu Rettou or to call it by its more appropriate name, the Island of rape bugs.
No, that one is like “Escape of Bug Island”, the game. This one is kinda has like a Capcom classic survival horror vibes.
I don’t think the zombie genre is particularly known for demanding a lot of writing sophistication. The core concept is essentially B-movie material and few very zombie stories have any nuance. Which is why I think Kabaneri is just fine as popcorn entertainment. I isn’t all that different from how many 80s and 90s OVA were, to be honest, including Ninja Scroll. You didn’t watch those OVAs seeking to find any plausibility in the plot, did you? I certainly didn’t.
This is Attack on Titan meets Highschool of the Dead, except with a random samurai film setting strapped on top. That really says it all.
But if you ask, the second train was always going to crash into the city even if they didn’t lower the bridge. That was just extra human negligence. The protagonist seems to have done some research on his own about the virus and how it works, so he could improvise with the tools in his lab.
The possible explanations to some of those plot holes you mentioned.
1.The first train had to stop before lowering the bridge because it arrived a day(?) earlier than they expected. Seeing as no train should be scheduled to arrive, no one was probably on the lookout for a train so it had to wait outside. While the other one was scheduled to arrive that night and so people were expecting something.
2.The MC probably had that choking device as a backup plan, in case he was infected. In the story he says that it’s a virus and not a curse and later says that all he has to do is not let it go to his brain so it seemed like he did his research and knew what he was doing.
3.The walls are fairly high so even if they were to climb I think the humans would have enough time to shoot them and knock them off. That’s the only thing I could think of for this. Which does bring up the question, if someone is always on the lookout for climbing zombies, why did no one see the first train? :p
4.Other characters being ignorant other than the MC. Seems pretty common. In their defense, if humans were on the brink of extinction I feel like the average person would give in to fear and prioritize their safety over having an open mind.
1: Considering how jittery they are over infection I see no reason why they wouldn’t stop a train even if it was on time.
2: He’s a mecantic and not a doctor. It makes no sense that he would build a complex machine like that which can only be applied specifically to that situation. Plus the whole choking a virus out of you make no real sense as the minute you stop choking yourself then the virus would coming back up. This seems to be like parastye where the afficalion needs to hit the brain at first contact. You can write off the virus part because it’s a supernatual virus so anything goes. However the protag having the foresight to build a machine he would otherwise never use? Not excusable.
3: Considering the numbers they attack in, shooting down one or two wouldn’t make a difference. There is also the issue on wherther shooting them is powerful enough to make them lose their grip.
4: Nah, it’s just lazy writting.
“In fact I will even say this, Kabaneri may have the best art of the season but I think Kiznaiver has the best animation.”
Laughable. I’ve seen the next 2 episodes of Kabaneri in early screenings in Japan. The animation only gets better. I feel like Kiznaiver won’t stay consistent with animation at all.
Also, I find it funny you talk about Kabaneri ripping off SnK but fail to realize or mention SnK is one big rip-off of Muv Luv. I smell negative bias in your Kabanerir review.
Well, I know you are baiting me but hell I will bite anyway.
A pointless statement. All you are saying is that Kabaneri’s animation gets better and that you assume Kiznaiver’s animation will get worse. I can just as easily claim the opposite. Both studios have had previous titles that had some heavy animation drops and highs.
SnK’s mangaka certainly did say he was inspired by Muv Luv. Key word being inspired. You can argue it took some broad themes but the titles are as different as night and day. Besides this doesn’t make Kabaneri look any better seeing as in your words, it’s a rip-off of another rip-off. And a much poorer one at that.