Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato (2019)
6.7
A decent, if strangely paced, conclusion to the steampunk zombie drama
Movie
d, Japan
Japanese
Action, Animation, Drama, Science Fiction
2019
TETSURO ARAKI
Eiji Hanawa, Hideaki Tezuka, Kanae Oki
82 min
TLDR
What’s up with zombies and trains, huh?
What it's about
Amidst the industrial revolution, hordes of undead creatures, known as Kabane, roam the island country of Hinomoto. However, the heroes of the Iron Fortress steam train attempt to take back Unato Castle.
The take
Being bitten by a zombie is quite troublesome, but more so if you happen not to turn completely into the creature, keeping human sanity while still trying not to succumb to the creature’s hunger. While this premise isn’t totally original, we haven’t seen this in a steampunk version of Japan, where their successful industrial revolution and urbanification has been halted due to the zombies, named as Kabane here. It’s an interesting end to the alternate history franchise, made much more exciting with bloody fight scenes and intriguing reimaginings of the country, but viewers new to the franchise would be going in blind, and would likely be puzzled with the inconsistency and pacing.
What stands out
It’s kinda strange for Netflix to make a movie and then chop it up into three episodes to make it seem like a mini-series.