I just watched the first episode of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, and it spends 70% of the episode trying to build this world concept that Kabane are insanely dangerous, that they are a threat to the lives of everyone and that if you get bitten you need to commit suicide or be executed to stop the spread of infection.
Basically, it's a "horrors of prey" scenario, where humans live in fear of a predator that feeds on them (much like Attack on Titan) and against whom humans cannot realistically fight back against.
It builds this concept with bushi being equipped with steam powered rifles that cannot kill but simply incapacitate Kabane, due to the inability of these weapons to pierce their heart cage, so humans are at a distinct disadvantage and a losing situation.
Okay, all of this is understandable, but by the end of a single episode none of it matters.
You already have
little girls kicking the heads off Kabane, and a protagonist surviving getting bitten and developing the one weapon that can kill them.
It massively invalidates the entire premise of designing all this world of trained soldiers being largely helpless against these monsters (despite presumably being trained to combat this specific threat), when you have a couple of protagonists literally capable of doing aerial rave combos and slaughtering hordes of them without an effort. If hybrids can do this, why not just make all your soldiers into them? Why bother with steam rifles if they are so ineffective? Why is there only one person doing research in this situation to create a more effective weapon to combat these enemies if your current weapons don't work? Why don't people know you can stop the infection, and if they do, why isn't it more public knowledge and put into use?
And most importantly, why bother designing all this world building and setting if you are just going to turn it into a standard battle shounen anyway? Maybe it all gets explained later, but the reality of the show is still not the same as what it is clearly trying to market itself as being.
...
Whenever I hear people try to sell another on watching Attack on Titan, I don't hear them tell them about the goofy comedy, or the over the top superhero action scenes, I hear them tell them about the initial premise; about humans being driven to the brink, about how terrifying and threatening the titans are, and how we are no match for them and need to find a way to survive.
The thing is, after a couple episodes they rapidly start dropping that initial premise in exchange for... goofy comedy and over the top superhero action.
This makes me believe that people actually DO care about the ideas presented in the premise, much more than they care about the more standard shounen action stuff despite the massive amount of reactive arguments people make defending why they like the series if anyone tries to question it; which again makes me wonder why they continue to enjoy it so much even after all but the vestiges of that concept are stripped bare for the sake of following standard anime trends and being similar to everything else on the market.
Author
Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3142171 times)