| I finished watching this anime for the first time just last night, and - me being an avid fan of George Romero type zombie movies/shows/video games in general - I noticed more than just a few similarities between this anime and a lot of other zombie media, one of which is a common narrative problem with zombie stories in general. A big theme of George Romero's "living dead" movies was that as dangerous as the zombies are, humans under stress are worse. Since "Night of the Living Dead" was such an influential movie, it's understandable that so many other zombie stories have also adapted this theme. Inevitably, the later portions of most zombie movies will start phasing the zombies into more of a background threat, allowing evil or insane humans to take center stage as the main antagonists. Not coincidentally, this is also where many zombie movies take a dip in story quality. I've heard again and again that everyone really enjoyed this anime for the first six episodes or so, but many people just *hated* the second half. I personally don't *hate* the second half, but I do agree that it wasn't as good as the first. I think the reason for this is the same as the problem with many zombie movies: the story stopped focusing on the humans surviving out on the railway against the steam-zombies and the main threat shifted to an evil human who had plans against other humans. Yes, there are other problems with the story, such as some of the story beats not making sense or some that were only hinted at or the protagonist DERAILS A FRICKIN' TRAIN WITH HIS VOICE, DAMNIT THAT WAS STRAIGHT UP DUMB! But pretty much all of those things were tiny moments which I could... mostly hand-wave away. I really think the main problem was the same one that zombie movies have, so if the writers were trying to make a story about zombies, I guess they succeeded. Unfortunately, they succeeded in capturing the bad parts of zombie movies as well as the good. But these are all my own observations and opinions. What do you all think about this? Did you see the same problem as I did? Also... yes, I know the common accusation that "Iron Fortress" is just a copy of "Attack on Titan," but honestly, watching for the first time just this week, after AoT has become less omnipresent in the anime community, it didn't feel so blatant. It wasn't so obvious as when AoT was at its peak popularity. While I think the comparison was understandable, "Iron Fortess" is good enough that I can excuse the similarities. |
| I agree, Rex. This trope ruined Train to Busan for me, although that movie also had other problems with its story. |
| All I knew about this anime was the comparisons to AOT, after watching three episodes of it so far, it's like I'm watching a glorified zombie flick in gorgeous anime form. |
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