Kabaneri #04 — Boss Battle

May 5th, 2016

 

Japanese zombies are weird.

Impressions:

Before we begin, I think we should all stop and appreciate that the zombie apocalypse has never been quite so fabulous. This whole episode had the most bizarre and random stills throughout, almost all with speedlines, even when it was just panning over some scenery, but that was the first, and good lord, that zombie. When it wanted to animate things, it was fine. Better than average even. But couple minutes, it was like they ran out of time or something and they tossed up a Shaft-esque still that practically had "We might animate these few seconds on the blu rays" written on top of them.

The "come on guys, see how great a game this would make?" was exceptionally strong this week, mostly for the better since they didn't spend a lot of time blathering and adding to the writing problems. The boss battle was Obvious Thing #01, but the princess's mechanized bow that's four times as unwieldy as the guns that everyone else was using was just as silly. Moving away from trying to explain things and just diving head first into the quite welcome action for most of the second half was exactly what it should have been doing, even with the random stills hiccups here and there. I will still make the minor quibble that the blood contract ending thing and seeming conclusion of this introductory arc if the the posing at the end, title screen music, and super subtle sunrise are anything to go by, didn't really connect all that well, especially thinking back to things from the start of the episode and everyone did pretty much a 180 in their attitudes because… they spontaneously realized who the protagonists are, I think.

After last week's fart though, it's nice to see this back to form, particularly in this season, even if that form is fabulously leaping zombies through the air and the world's most incomprehensible weaponry.

Posted in Kabaneri | 7 Comments »

7 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Dave Baranyi says:

    Why does the phrase “snakes on a plane” keep on coming to mind?…

  • Dave Baranyi says:

    Actually, now looking at the final screen cap for the next episode, I now know what is going to happen in the second half of the series – they will reach safety and all Go to School together, where they will spend their time alternating between high school hijinks and flashbacks to the “bad old days”…

  • kenuran says:

    “After last week’s fart though, it’s nice to see this back to form, particularly in this season, even if that form is fabulously leaping zombies through the air and the world’s most incomprehensible weaponry.”

    Also the jumping around while on top of a speeding train.

  • The Phantom says:

    I admit it, I adore this fucking show, is the best shit that has aired in several years, PLEASE, keep the blood and fight going every episode. THANK YOU.

  • Tiresias says:

    >>Fabulous zombie

    Well at least some of the animators were having fun

  • Sanjuro says:

    I really do like the animated action but I feel it’s ruined by the god-awful vocal songs that plays every damn time something happens.

  • Anonymous says:

    My god the dialogue was insufferable.Its the usually stuff you may have heard in god eater or some low level harem but here its somehow extra bad, maybe because of claims that this show is trying to be good.I guess princess abdicated her power for 1 ep so we could have a contrived fight without her being blamed.How much blood he get, half a tea spoon?He is now fully trained?non of the zombei katana broke on all those metal shields, non of the katana were infected?The show started with people gunning down a human that was just suspected of being infected while here they booed a the girl for killing a clearly infected woman, did they expect her to be jailed till she gives birth?applying logic is pointless and im trying really hard not to think
    There was some action and I guess it was mostly ok, better than nothing.
    instead of rokkon shojo they would be better off screaming blitzendegen(it would make equal sense)