I call bullshit on the scene at the start of this episode. Ikoma is trying to disagree with Mumei so to shut him up she kicks him in the balls. Except as we’ve already established he apparently can’t feel pain. Hence kicking him in the balls shouldn’t cause him to curl up into the fetal position. If she had punched him in the nose I could have bought it because his face is still human and being hit in the nose hurts a lot. Perhaps the best explanation here is that he’s only just become a Kabaneri and therefore wincing from being kicked in the family jewels is a subconscious reaction. Or alternatively this is part of a revelation that kabane can still totally bone each other.
This episode we learned that “Kabaneri” just means “zombie vampire”. You have the pain threshold of the zombie and the blood drinking requirements of the vampire. The blood drinking thing came slightly out of nowhere. Is that why kabane have to attack humans? If so then what to the kabane in completely destroyed parts of the country do where there are no humans around? Do they just eventually whither away and die? Or the more likely possibility is that the thirst for human blood just becomes greater over time. Imagine a hunger that only ever gets greater but you never collapse from it. No wonder they start hurling themselves at trains like frisbees made out of giblets.
Things calmed down a whole lot in this episode. There were no kabane hurling themselves at boilers like giant human beyblades. There was still time for some humans displaying a remarkable amount of humans panicking and acting irrational due to panic mind you. We even got to stick a bunch of them in a flashback. The panicking people always seem to be middle aged men. Throwing kids off them as they beg for help. Or turning on the two people who saved them, helped them escape the city, and have generally risked their lives for you. The women in this show are just generally way more competent than the men. Even the women sitting around the fire only turned on the Mumei when she said she needed blood, which at that point it became perfectly understandable. I suppose after years of women only being useless love interest side characters in shounen or seinen anime, we have to make anime where all the men are useless in a desperate attempt to balance things out.
I really did like the scene where they were able to hold the funeral for the deceased. It was a human moment that reminded you that the folks on the train aren’t just an easily scared mass of meat, no more than cows. They have beliefs and traditions, fears and dreams. It’s something I don’t think Attack on Titan ever really did with the residents inside its walls. Whatever evidence of culture Titan ever really showed the ordinary people engaging in had little to do with fleshing out their fears after death. It was just a fear of death itself. I understand that in Titan the whole point of the show was that fear of death and to focus on there being any consideration given to what happens after death would go against that, but it does in hindsight seem strange that in a society where death hangs over everyone that nobody brings it up.
This guy though. Those curled locks! The foreign accent! I only just realised this episode that this actually does take place in Japan. I fast-forwarded to the very end of the OP and it shows the map of Japan, rather than generic steampunk fantasy geography. That at least means this bloke must actually come from Europe somehow. The question is how on earth he got here? Or more importantly, when did he arrive in Japan. Not sure you could get very far inland once you land by boat after the kabane become a thing. Also can kabane swim? Is this zombie invasion restricted entirely to just the island of Japan? If they could pack everyone onto boats, could they all just abandon the island as a lost cause? This guy and his fabulous hair brings up so many tantalising questions.
The Cart Driver 
I’m surprised you ddin’t mention the princess actually doing something smart. I didn’t see that one coming at all
She’s generally been fairly smart all show. Don’t mistake soft spoken humanity with stupidity. Although I feel she may turn out to be naive.
Looks like the word “kabane” probably comes from “shikabane” (“corpse”), so I guess it kind of makes sense since the main thing zombies and vampires have in common is that they both come from human corpses. Not sure if “kabaneri” comes from a word or not.
The name of the place they’re living in, Hinomoto (“Source of the Sun”) is also an archaic name for Japan, and influenced the current Japanese name, Nihon (“Sun Source”).
Anyways, I liked the funeral scene, and it’s nice that the series is starting to differentiate itself from Attack on Titan a little more.
I think “kabaneri” is possibly a corruption of “carabinieri”.
I used to think it was carabineiri too but now that you put it like that, your explanation makes more sense.
To be fair on the nutbusting, the body uses different families of ion channels to transmit pain from temperature (TRPV channels) and pain from physical force (TRPA channels)
No, the real issue was just about everything to do with the pregnant zombie. Why did it take so long for her to turn compared to literally everyone else? Why does making her pregnant heighten the stakes–are we supposed to believe that the baby would have been born virus free, or that we can raise zombie babies to not be mindless flesh-eaters? Why should it matter to the coldly survivalist Mumei that the zombie is pregnant?
Unless, of course, it’s because Okouchi sees half-formed babies as more valuable than adult women with friends and families. Or that Mumei automatically becomes emotional when children come into play. Because women, amirite?
Sorry if I sound so cynical about the show’s gender politics, but I’m not keen on giving the benefit of the doubt to the man who wrote Valvrape and whose idea of strong female characters comes from Mark Millar.
I don’t know about other readers, but I do think you’re being far too cynical here. Almost to the point of self-parody. But, for the record, I am pro-choice as far as any remotely relevant real life discussions on abortion are concerned.
However, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what happened in the show, nor do I believe the writer was trying to push any secret pro-life agenda and laughing like a madman because he thinks women are inferior to babies and men. That sort of implication sounds like an extremely cartoonish and forced line of criticism to me.
Simply put, pregnant women are an especially vulnerable population in the eyes of most human societies. I don’t think you can particularly deny that. It’s already sad if an innocent woman dies, but it’s worse if she’s especially vulnerable due to her condition. That doesn’t automatically mean the unborn fetus is inherently more valuable than the mother. If anything, I would say they are at least equally valuable under the circumstances shown in the series. There are various possible interpretations and I prefer the ones that are less unnecessarily spiteful.
If you’re going to bring up other works from the writer, I’d say Okouchi has a mixed record. I wouldn’t call him progressive, but he’s not all good nor all bad. Even in Valvrave, his most controversial work, I thought Saki was a pretty good character until episode 10 came around. Akira was also surprisingly decent in that series. I’d argue C.C., Euphemia and Cornelia were also pretty good in season one of Code Geass for that matter. And so on. When it comes to Kabaneri, you could say that Mumei showing the audience more of her humanity among children is an unoriginal concept, but I don’t see how it’s an objectively negative and reactionary idea.
By the way, infections aren’t like some sort of mathematical formula where you’ll always get the same result after an identical rate of progression. Not even in the real world and, just as well, not in fiction either. If anything, I think what happened to the pregnant woman explains why there was the “3 day quarantine” rule in effect, as mentioned during the first episode and also referenced by Ikoma here.
“nor do I believe the writer was trying to push any secret pro-life agenda and laughing like a madman because he thinks women are inferior to babies and men”
I’m not saying he’s a cartoonish madman who wakes up in the morning and thinks, “How can I fuck over woman today?” What I do think is that he holds a lot of assumptions about women that, when you stop to think about them for a moment, have a pretty fucked up logic behind them and screw people over in practice. It’s implicit prejudice, not explicit bigotry.
“That doesn’t automatically mean the unborn fetus is inherently more valuable than the mother. If anything, I would say they are at least equally valuable under the circumstances shown in the series.”
Mumei only displays regret when she hears the woman is pregnant. This is literally the only kabane she treats as anything other than cannon fodder up until now, and it’s played up as so tragic that even the incredibly detached Mumei is affected by it. That does not tell me that Okouchi thinks that the woman’s death and her unborn kid’s death are treated with equal weight.
And my interpretation would be less spiteful if the creators hadn’t cited Mark “Hey, wouldn’t it be a cool idea to make a comic that was twenty-nine straight pages of Wonder Woman getting raped?” Millar the basis for their “strong female characters”. And I don’t even know where to start with Guilty Crown.
“By the way, infections aren’t like some sort of mathematical formula where you’ll always get the same result after an identical rate of progression.”
I don’t expect an identical rate of progression, but the way progression is so transparently dictated by narrative convenience puts me off of it. As the book How Not To Write A Novel puts it, a writer’s job is harder than god’s (http://octoswan.tumblr.com/post/66129552172/why-your-job-is-harder-than-gods). A story needs to be plausible, not realistic–hell, you can be as unrealistic as you want if you earn the rope the audience gives you–and while the scenario of the pregnant woman not turning until far after everyone else is technically within the bounds of reality, it’s too convenient to the narrative for me not to notice the artifice.
Now, let me get this straight: I still do enjoy watching the show, but I’m here for the schlock, lulz, and taking the piss out on it, not because I think it’s a well-told story. Is that spiteful? Well, maybe, but I don’t feel too bad about reading the works of Okouchi after Guilty “I’m not saying fascism is perfect, but…” Crown in bad faith.
@Traintop:
“It’s implicit prejudice, not explicit bigotry.”
Sure, I’ll admit there can be implicit prejudice and falling into common traps. This work isn’t safe from those. To be honest, we could say the same about Japanese society and culture in general, with unfortunately few notable exceptions like Utena’s Ikuhara and others who will make an active effort to go completely against the norm.
I can honestly appreciate when that happens but it’s relatively rare. Very few current anime, popular or otherwise, would qualify as forward thinking in this sense. As a result, I don’t personally expect every single anime, manga or game to be especially understanding and tactful towards women (or just feminist friendly) in practice. That said, based on my own interpretations and analysis, I really don’t think this specific show is necessarily “anti-women” so far.
“Mumei only displays regret when she hears the woman is pregnant.”
Based on the feudal/steampunk society portrayed in the rest of the episode, pregnant women are being afforded special treatment and consideration even during a crisis. She was already given a double ration. It might even be the reason why she was able to get inside the train without a comprehensive inspection. If we had to measure her worth, then it would be greater than that of regular men or regular women alike.
I don’t think the episode, nor the reaction to her death, was inherently trying to diminish her in terms of worth. In fact, the storyboarding close-up right before Mumei killed the infected woman briefly depicted her with visibly more human eyes than regular Kabane. What do you make of that artistic choice? They didn’t need to modify her eyes at all, but they did make a distinction. I think that visual modification also reflects the intentions of the staff as perhaps more benign and open-ended than what you’re assuming.
I have not seen any interview where the creators of Kabaneri have personally named Mark Millar as an influence on this project. However, there is a translated interview with Tetsuro Araki where he mentions the Azumi films as an influence.
I did see one photo taken from a Wit studio panel at Sakuracon where, in a very simplistic PowerPoint presentation, Hit Girl from Kick-Ass is mentioned as a strong female character. But that sounds just like someone’s lazy and misguided attempt to quickly name something that western audiences would be familiar with, rather than representing any direct creative influence on the show.
In short, if we want to seriously discuss that topic, we should probably focus more on Yu Koyama and less on Mark Millar. Would you agree with that?
You’ll hear no kind words from me about Guilty Crown, so that’s that (by the way, in the previously mentioned interview, Araki also says, that he wants to make up for certain things in Guilty Crown and do better this time, though he doesn’t specify any details).
“http://octoswan.tumblr.com/post/66129552172/why-your-job-is-harder-than-gods”
Interesting link, which does help clarify your position in my view. Still, I don’t agree with all the assumptions and conclusions derived from this way of thinking and, by extension, I can’t fully endorse your own opinion. I think writers are, by definition, allowed to act like gods within their own worlds.
Aside from the fact that, to say the least, sometimes God (whether literally or figuratively) can make a human being of flesh and blood act seemingly “out of character” and coincidences can occur even in the real world. To put it bluntly, our perceptions are quite tricky and limited.
But, going back to fiction, I do not interpret plausibility as a single universal and unchanging requirement or obligation for all media and all writers throughout time and space. For instance, musicals and theatrical presentations can and do often bend or break plausibility in various ways, but that doesn’t stop people from enjoying them in a very emotional, visceral or intellectual sense. Not just “for the lulz” and nothing else.
Different genres and stories can and will make use of varying levels of coincidence, contrivance, fate, luck, randomness, chaos, irony and more. That’s valid. Some productions will do a subjectively “better” job of hiding them within the narrative than others, yet a sufficiently cynical or critical mind will almost always identify that it’s all artificial and made-up in many ways.
Like I said, I don’t have a great opinion of Okouchi as a writer. I find him too hit or miss. But, for the record, he’s only about a third responsible for Guilty Crown’s problems. I’d rather blame him more for Valvrave than for that show, given he wrote most of the VVV scripts, but even then I’ll let Kabaneri speak for itself.
Hmmm, not sure where I stand on this. I certainly don’t think it’s something to do with women automatically going gaga over babies or some unborn fetus > human. There are too many other examples of women in the story doing completely other stuff to take that approach, far more than you’d expect in something set in that time period. I do think it was purely because a pregnant women is more vulnerable.
That said, the part where you point out how Mumei reacted after she learned the woman was pregnant is the one point I’ll hang back on and say maybe there’s something there. Without the previous work of this writer I’d say it’s dumb to expect her to not react to that. But it might alternatively be a sign of more…problematic things to come? I hope not. It’s been a pretty great show so far.
From now on, when I see “Kabaneri” I’ll think “zombie vampire”.
It surprised me when Mumei asked the humans for blood. Doesn’t she realize what a shock that would be, since many of them still don’t trust her? Shouldn’t she have an emergency supply blood pack somewhere for times like this? Mumei should try to gain the trust of the humans as much as possible since she will be vulnerable when she has to rest from using her powers.
That foreigner with the fabulous hair looks awesome! I hope we get to see more of him. There are a lot of distinct side characters in this series. They should make a spin-off show with him and Yukina (the train-driver girl).
It’s been established Mumei kinda don’t give a shit/is rather thick-headed.
Still pretty stupid though
What I want to know is, HOW IS THE KABANERI GIRL ABLE TO COMPLETELY CHANGE HER WARDROBE MORE THAN ONCE WHEN SHE DOES NOT CARRY AROUND A SUITCASE!?
she puts on one costume on top of another.
I like to imagine she secretly kills people, drinks their blood, then puts on their clothing.
About Shingeki and the fear of death, I think the show didn’t focus on that particular aspect because up until the very recent Shiganshina incident, the Wall people lived in a completely safe and sheltered environnement.
Even after the loss of Wall Maria, most of the population kept living an existence that was for the most part, far removed from the threat of Titans. Soldiers in general and survey corps in particular (which are, as we know, a small and largely unpopular subset of the military forces), are the only ones who are regurlarly exposed to Titans, and I believe the first season did a decent job at showing that there is simply no time for them to mourn their dead properly (episode 22 and the whole corpse tossing comes to mind).
In Kabaneri’s world, where populations have to be constantly on the move because train stations keep getting overrun by Kabanes, stories of people having lost one or several close relatives are expected to be much more common than they would be in Shingeki’s world. Taking this into consideration, it makes sense that the idea of death and the fear of it would feel much more tangible to the people of Kabaneri.