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Kabaneri theories by (sadly) one biology nerd

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OK. So, I think I need to start this off by saying, yet again, I can't believe it has taken me so long to update this. Quick explanation is that my friend and I were both in school, sitting all our exams, then she went to university, I got a job, then got a different one, and we basically haven't had time to sit down and watch any more episodes, especially since we have been in different cities for the past year. So I am gonna do episode 3 on my own, and hopefully at some point get her to keep watching it with me. If not, I will just try to update this myself, and see if I can actually be more regular than once a year. Oops.

So annoyingly this episode doesn't give us much in the way of new information about the kabane, but what it does tell us leads to a few theories. Now, let's talk about Shino. For those who don't know, (spoilers ahead), Shino is a pregnant woman who gets a slow infection, and turns while the train is stopped, and we learn a few interesting things from her. While we already knew that a slow infection isn't visible until it's too late, as there wouldn't be quarantines if you could tell, we didn't know what the infected acted like.

Before she starts visibly turning, you can see that she's uncomfortable, and she can tell that something's wrong. Although this could just be from the pregnancy, I think Shino could probably feel the 'curse' beginning to take effect. Annoyingly, we never see how she was infected, but we can assume it was probably a small bite, as she turned in a few hours, instead of the three days that the quarantine lasts for. This however, means that she didn't feel the bite. I'll admit that this is guesswork, but she doesn't originally seem to know what is wrong, and surely would have worked it out if she felt herself be bitten, which brings up questions about Ikoma, but I'll get to that later.

We see Shino's heart change, and she clearly feels it too, and works out what has happened, maybe through guesswork, or possibly some ability to sense the Kabane inside her, through pheromones. This shows that the brain changes after the heart, which makes sense considering how Ikoma was able to keep his mind, while his body became Kabane, and definitely supports the theory that Kabane are from a parasite that lives in the heart: it protects itself first, then travels to the brain to control the host. We also see that Ikoma still feels pain when he gets kicked in the balls (LOL) which also shows that the brain was targeted after the heart, as his pain receptors still work, which suggests that apart from his head, he is fully Kabane.

The last clue comes at the end, when she is fully turned. The Kabane must be hungry, and is surrounded by humans, so why doesn't it attack. This again comes back to the pheromones. hive animals like ants and bees can become lost or confused by either a lack of pheromone trails, or confusing and overlapping ones (see ant death spirals). With a Kabane basically appearing out of nowhere, it has no paths to follow, so looks around for instructions, instead of getting food.

Right, as I mentioned earlier, Ikoma's bite is weird. If the Kabane can numb the bite, like a mosquito, then why did Ikoma feel pain when he was first bitten. My theory is that he has some sort of immunity. The Kabane have been around for 20 years, surely someone has tried to block the spread before now, but Ikoma has not only survived a fallen station, and been exposed to Kabane blood from his sister, he also cleaned blood off of the hayajiro for 5 years, and run experiments on Kabane organs. Parasitic immunity is uncommon, but partial immunity (which could slow infection or negate some effects) can be achieved through prolonged exposure.

The Kabane is likely a metazoa (basically worms), as these are also possible to build immunity to, as the host body could develop granulocytes called eosinophils (specialised immune defence cells which target parasites and fungi) which can damage and break down parasitic cells. Eosinophils also turn red, which could explain the red 'scars' on Ikoma that follow the glowing veins, where the parasite is likely concentrated. Some species of worms have also been shown to use aggregation pheromones (a type of pheromone used to mass attack prey or defend from predators).This also explains their reaction to Kabaneri, as they would cause a change in the pheromones, causing the Kabane to attack a predator (Kabaneri), rather than find prey (humans). Parasites can also cause blood coagulation, and when Ayame stabs Ikoma, he really doesn't bleed as much as you would expect.

That's all for now, but I am going to try to go through the next episode soon and post my analysis of that. It should at least be easier to be regular about my posts now, as I won't wait for when my friend and I are both free to watch anime.