Anime Review: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Episode 3

Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers for the Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress Episode 3

We’ve know come to episode 3 of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: Prayer Offer. This episode begins right where the last one left off but with a slower pace. This isn’t a bad thing as it gives this gory anime a chance to focus on character development rather than nonstop action.

Ikoma and Mumei have been discovered to be Kabaneri and are forced to stay in the boiler room. And now the train must stop for repairs. We are shown a flashback of Ikoma 5 years before he lost his sister to the Kabane; here he makes a promise to kill all of them. Director Tetsurō Araki really knows how to put these dramatic scenes together as it was incredibly moving scene even though this is the first time meeting his sister.

Mumei wants to train Ikoma but they don’t get very far since it seems like a gun was being pointed at them every couple of minutes. These moments always seemed to be followed by Ayame saying, “What’s going on here?” or something along those lines. I rolled my eyes at these parts, but if I was in the place of the townspeople I would probably want them dead too. These villagers are extremely set in their ways. They even go outside to pray to the dead knowing that the Kabane could attack at any moment and they would have no way to escape.

Towards the end of the episode we find out that Kabaneri need blood to survive. As Memei explains this to the townspeople, Ikoma is already trying to sip on Ayame’s blood; but neither of them know about that Kabaneri side-effect yet. Memei’s short attention span has kept her from explaining everything about the Kabaneri. But Ikoma’s obsession with honor doesn’t seem to be helping the situation either. If only the two could get on the same page.

Prayer Offer was a good episode that built upon the characters and tension on the train. The scenes of food shortage will most likely make a return in later episodes and it will be interesting to see if Ikoma leaves poor Ayame with any blood left in her. There was no mention of our best friend character Takumi; he was most like taking a nap from all the excitement he experience in episode 2. Maybe he’ll wake up in time for my next review.