The world is one of a sengoku/shogunate-era steampunk Japan. There are also zombies, which people just call ‘corpses.'
One day, the Iron Fortress comes to a settlement. The day is fairly peaceful…until another armored train crashes into their settlement’s wall, which lets a bunch of corpses in. The settlement is lost, so the survivors gather and escape on the Iron Fortress. One of the survivors Ikoma almost gets turned into a corpse, but he manages to prevent that. However, it’s soon revealed by another survivor, Mumei (No-name), that he actually became a ‘Kabaneri’ (translated as demicorpse sometimes). These are basically vampires: blood drinking but no sunlight issues.
The first half of the series focuses on the survivors trying to survive in the world. In the second half, the series shifts to a sort of drama series, where the people of the Iron Fortress get caught in a violent power struggle. The shift isn’t too jarring, and it’s possible the survival aspect would have gotten old…hence the shift.
The animation is great for the series, I would frequently find myself practically drooling over the animation.
The setting and general worldbuilding is really interesting to me. The blending of the sengoku/shogunate-era with steampunk works incredibly well, and it reminds me somewhat of the eclectic styles of the Meiji-era.
The villain has a name I find hilarious: Biba.