Shonen on the Ropes: Attack on Titan Rival Is Leaving Netflix
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, long touted as Attack on Titan’s direct rival, is leaving Netflix amid a sweep pulling more than 100 titles from the platform.
If you have Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress sitting in your Netflix queue, maybe don’t procrastinate it for another year. The show’s Netflix run has an end date, and yeah, it’s a while from now, but still very much a ticking clock.
What’s leaving, and when
Netflix has said that more than 100 Netflix Originals will rotate off the service in 2026. One of them is Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato, which is currently set to leave on September 13, 2026.
Here’s the slightly confusing part: on What’s on Netflix, the title is listed as 'Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato' (that’s the third movie in the franchise), and right next to it, Season 1 is mentioned in the first bracket. Translation: it looks like Netflix plans to pull both the movie and the original season when the license expires.
Why fans care
Kabaneri dropped in Japan from April 8, 2016 to July 1, 2016 and built a steady reputation as a sleeper hit once it hit the big streamers. People latched onto the stylish steampunk look and the propulsive action, and it helps that the premise is very easy to sell: humanity on the ropes after a zombie-like outbreak, fortified trains, walled settlements, and a constant scramble to not get eaten. It’s horror-tinged, fast, and bingeable.
The manga and light novel versions never made the same splash, but the anime more than carried the load. Losing it on Netflix isn’t the end of the world, but it is a bummer for casual viewers who tend to discover this stuff via the Top 10 rail.
The constant Attack on Titan comparison (for good reason)
Fans love to slot Kabaneri as the rival to Attack on Titan, and you can see why. Both center on humanity boxed in behind massive defenses; both arm their fighters with intricate, aggressive tech; and both lean into that signature mix of dread and momentum. The overlap isn’t an accident either: WIT Studio animated Attack on Titan seasons 1–3 and Kabaneri, and WIT’s direction and consistency are a big part of why both shows look and feel so muscular.
Is Kabaneri just an AoT clone? Not really. It rides the zombie-apocalypse angle harder and moves at a different pace. But if AoT pulled you in, Kabaneri scratches a very adjacent itch.
- Title: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
- Original TV run: April 8, 2016 – July 1, 2016 (Japan)
- Studio: WIT Studio
- Ratings snapshot: 7.28/10 on MAL, 7.2/10 on IMDb
- Netflix status: 'Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato' leaves September 13, 2026; listing also flags Season 1, suggesting both depart
- Where to watch right now: Crunchyroll also has Kabaneri; The Battle of Unato is available there too
The bigger picture (and the slight overreaction)
Netflix will keep adding new anime, but rotating out older staples isn’t great for visibility. Some folks are already calling it a bad omen for the Shonen ecosystem and a bigger hit to Netflix viewers than it seems. That might be a touch dramatic, but I get the frustration: discovery gets harder when the classics quietly time out.