Dark Zombie Anime Celebrates Anniversary With Big Suprirse

While there haven’t been as many anime series that focus on horror as other genres, including action, comedy, romance, and more, this hasn’t stopped the undead from rising from their graves in many animated stories. Franchises like Zom 100: Bucket List of The Dead, High School of The Dead, and Zombieland Saga create various wild takes on the shambling dead, though one anime remains a top-tier choice for zombies. Ten years following its premiere, one zombie anime has returned with a special gift for fans as a legendary anime studio returns to focus on the world of flesh-eating ghouls and a train that is humanity’s last hope.

Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress premiered in 2016, created by a studio familiar with walking ghouls, as Wit Studio helped bring Attack on Titan to life. The series is a unique case in the anime world, as it wasn’t originally based on a manga and/or light novel to help forge its future. While the anime would receive a manga, it premiered after the anime had started in April of that year. The original series only garnered twelve episodes, eventually bringing its story to a close in the movie Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato. Now, to celebrate its tenth anniversary, Wit has released a new visual for the story of Ikoma and his heavily armored train.

What is The Iron Fortress?

To further flesh out this undead anniversary campaign, this new visual is far from the only surprise that Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress has up its sleeve. In Japan, the final movie of the franchise is set to return to the screen via Fuji TV on March 6th, along with new pachinko machines set to take the country by storm later this year. While the anniversary celebration hasn’t hinted at a possible return to this world via a sequel and/or spin-off, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that the series could return.

If you haven’t had the chance to check out this undead anime, the full series is available to stream on Crunchyroll. The story itself focuses on its young protagonist Ikoma, an engineer who works on a train that might be humanity’s only chance of survival. In the anime, a virus is running rampant throughout this world, transforming innocent civilians into superpowered zombies that want nothing more than to chow down on human flesh. Unlike zombies in The Walking Dead, the undead in Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress must have their hearts destroyed to return to the grave. Unfortunately, taking down the zombies is easier said than done, as their hearts are protected by iron cages. Ikoma finds himself infected by the virus, struggling to save humanity while keeping the undead infection from taking him over.

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Via Official Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress Website

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