Kiznaiver

Forced drama, what does it entail? Is it the act of searching for genuine emotion in a place that never offered it? Is it not understanding the limitations of your screenplay? Perhaps it comes from honest attempts to create something organic. Whatever the reason may be, when it happens, it doesn't leave a good aftertaste.

So which is it for Kiznaiver? Is it truly trying to craft something memorable? Is it seeking poignancy in the anguish of others? Is it studio Trigger trying to branch out into unfamiliar territory; a leap of faith, hoping their dedicated followers would comfort them when they fall on their ... faces? And really, should I care, even if they did attempt something out of a place of honest effort? Well, short answer, fuck no.
I don't need to babysit a half-baked effort. I don't need to try to empathize with a failed project that slipped out of the creators' hands. As harsh as that mentality may be, it's the honest truth. I'm the consumer. The only thing required of me is to be entertained and engrossed by the project they put forward. And guess what? I wasn't. In fact, I was mentally drained by this synthetic try-hard and its relentless efforts to pull at my heartstrings; operating with as much subtlety as a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade trying to sneak down Central Park West. A good concept doesn't make a good anime and Kiznaiver embodies that very notion. The message it chose to convey was fine, but the way it went about delivering it was the problem.

In a sickeningly idealistic attempt to bring forth "world peace" and a greater level of understanding among humanity, the Kiznaiver project was created to combine the shared pain of its placeholders by linking their sensory output together. The more these placeholders are made to open up to each other, the deeper their connection becomes; experiencing everything from the surface-level physical pain, to more emotional-based pain, as the walls that separate them dissipates.

If the premise wasn't made explicit enough already, it's essentially one big character study and self-examination of human relationships. And it should go without saying, but whenever topics like these are made your primary focus, there are some prerequisites expected of it in order for it to function with any semblance of validity. You can't go swimming without a pool of water, and in the same light, you can't have a character study without characters. Notice I wrote "characters" NOT "caricatures," a distinction that Kiznaiver can't seem to make.

If Kiznaiver had an extended title, it would go something along the lines of:
"Kiznaiver: Forcing Archetypes to have Da Feels"

These color-coordinated caricatures are so cookie-cutter by storytelling standards that you could sum them all up with one-liners. They're basically human smurfs, each feeding into pre-assigned roles with little in the way of diversifying their default archetypes. Instead of swimming in a pool of water, Kiznaiver attempts to achieve the same feat with a pit full of dirt. A task that's not only nigh impossible but also painful to watch play out as well. Archetypes are meant to serve as default personalities to further build upon. To simply present them as is without building on who they are as characters is not only conceited, it's borderline delusional when taking into consideration the importance that the characters hold in the confines of this material. This isn't an action adventure where the world being trekked is the star attraction, it's a character study, a CHARACTER study. If there's one aspect of your screenplay that you want to shine the most, it's in this department. And yet, redhead tsunderes are pre-packaged in this anime in the same way every live-action movie and TV drama depiction of high school has the popular blonde cheerleader and varsity-jacket-wearing jock.

So when these non-entities are placed in a situation where they're forced to open up to each other, there's very little that could be done to divert the audience's attention from the obvious truth. That truth being that there's nothing to truly pull from these "characters" since there was nothing there from the beginning. The show desperately attempts to squeeze a modicum of emotion from this dirt pit, and when that plan fails, we're brought back to my original inquiry. This anime is strong-armed into producing something it never had to begin with; genuine emotion.

To be fair, there are transient glimpses of decent writing in this dirt pit of a cast, that coming in the form of one character, Honoka Maki. If there was ever a character in this show that Kiznaiver didn't butcher with its ineptitude, Honoka was it. With the introduction of her backstory, as well as the time dedicated to exploring her psyche, she stands out like a sore thumb, especially when placed in her vapid surroundings. Had the show handled its cast with the same amount of effort and care as it did with her, I would have been singing a different tune. But this sadly isn't the case, and just as quickly as Honoka's character focus brought hope to the show, it's immediately snuffed out as the artificial angst surrounding every other facet of the screenplay further plunges the material back to the subpar levels that it was constructed out of.

If I had to offer any other appraisal outside of this temporary moment of decent writing, it would be that of the art and animation department. Unlike the rest of the show, this area demonstrated the talent found at Trigger that they accumulated from their time spent at Gainax. The color palette used was radiant and immediately draws the viewer's attention. With storyboarding that kept a sense of flow in mind and a decent amount of consideration made in its use of color theory, there was clearly more effort here than what's usually expected out of typical studio projects. The same could be said (for the most part) about the character designs. While some were painfully by-the-numbers, others were quite expressive and easily identifiable. At the end of the day, these designs are wasted on cookie-cutter archetypes, but they're still appealing nonetheless.
One a side-note, for readers who've already seen Kizanaiver, the designs of the gomorin outfits take clear inspiration from the Maromi doll in Paranoia Agent. Perhaps this was done so as a tribute to Satoshi Kon, given his extensive work in the field that the show is trying to dive into. Whatever the case may be, it was a nice touch.

Another detail that, while not innovative, still deserves mentioning was the color of the characters' hair. Katsuhira's hair—which was supposed to show someone close to complete apathy—was represented with pure white hair overlapped with some brown, with the white representing an absence of emotion and the brown being the faint presence of it still left within him. The same could be said about Niko's hair, which obviously denotes to the flamboyancy of her personality given the diverse, bright colors. Again, pretty simple in how the hair color denotes their traits, but still worth noting.

As for the soundtrack, there isn't much to say. The only thing that sticks out is the opening theme "LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME" by BOOM BOOM SATELLITES, and rightfully so, given the infectious nature of it in accompaniment with the visuals presented. This could be attributed to the fact that sonically it has much in common with one of pop's more recognizable tunes "Take on Me" by a-ha. At the time of this writing, a quick youtube search of "Kiznaiver take on me" would bring you to a video that exploits this, merging the song with Kiznaiver's opening, demonstrating just how interchangeable it really is. That being said, BOOM BOO SATELLITES certainly delivered. Everything else in the sound department is forgettable by comparison. The only other thing worth taking note of is the sound effects used at times; like the glitchy noise made whenever the Kiznaiver device was activated, or the added sound effects given for objects when motioned. It was minor inclusions but still did something for the show than had it been excluded.

Now, what should have been excluded but ultimately made the final cut was a love heptagon. Not a regular one-way love, not a love triangle, but a full-blown love heptagon! And what happens when you involve a bunch of dimensionless smurfs in an ouroboros-like relationship? You get an embarrassing display of cardboard cutouts inserts pleading to each other. A potpourri of ill-advised confessionals that transformed itself into a deformed, blubbering mess. There's very little in the way of actual characterization for these mouthpieces with legs, so expecting them to divulge genuine feelings for each other just comes across as half-assed. Some characters don't even have much in the way of one-on-one interaction prior to these events either, and those that do get that time barely share any semblance of chemistry. This made what was suppose to be emotional climaxes in the story, into an over-bloated cringe-filled sob-fest. This was midday soap opera levels of awful.

The show steamrolls through all of this melodrama and artificial angst in order to deliver a message that no one needed help figuring out in the first place; getting closer to others runs the risk of eventually being hurt by them. This isn't exactly an eye-opening revelation, this is just common sense. But what's possibly worse than off of this is the fact that what Kiznaiver struggles to deliver in 12 episodes, is easily understood with just 1. This 1 episode I speak of is the TV pilot of Kino's Journey. Watch those 20 minutes and save yourself hours of seeing a show drown in the kiddie pool section.

Enjoyment: 3/10

I told myself, as well as a few colleagues, that I wasn't going to review this, due in large part to the fact that just talking about it made me feel mentally exhausted. But then I thought about what it would mean for those people that share my stance but can't quite articulate the reason for why they feel the way they do. I thought about our perspective going unheard in the frenzy of hype and unchecked evaluations. Letting Kiznaiver get off scot-free to gain unwarranted appraisal became far bigger of a burden than simply ignoring it to comfortably go about my way. And so, here I am, writing this review for all those, who like me, are tired of these empty vessels being filled with accolades it doesn't deserve. The only emotional response that Kiznaiver got right was that of frustration, as that's precisely what I felt while watching it.

Overall: 4/10

Kiznaiver is fine until it gets into the character drama, and seeing that the whole show revolves around character drama, you could see how that leaves very little in the way of value. Had the characters been handled better, had the concept not been bare-bones, had the writers tried a bit harder, then maybe, just maybe, there would have been something here worth talking about. But that wasn't the case, and Trigger, once again, "saves anime!"

"The show wasn't that good, but the opening was so nice though!" How many more times do we have to make this statement before we let insufferable titles like these crash and burn? How many more times would we equate trying with being good enough? The only good that Kiznaiver can offer is serving as a future example of what forced melodrama looks like. With that being said, ignore this one if you haven't already, it's a practice in tolerance-control that would only serve as a distraction from watching something else that's truly worth your invested time.

Have you ever wondering how it must feel when one of your friends or loved ones are in despair? When they’re having a despondent day? Well, look no further because Kiznaiver portrays this theme, and I mean literally.

Kiznaiver is an anime revolving around bonds through pain and sentiment. The story circulates around that of our main protagonist, Katsuhira Agata, a modest, slow teenage boy that grasps no emotions within his hands, accordingly making himself a bullying target. However, the bullying that consistently approaches him from every direction is beyond his concerns and most notably, his pain. Him, alongside with 5 other teenagers’ ... wounds are connected through the Kizna system and are obligated to bond for the sake of creating “World peace”. And so, their journey begins.

Now, I must say, Kiznaiver is an anime I saw one of the brightest potential in, however, was abstracted by various divisions. Whenever it was character development or drama, the manner Kiznaiver executed this is what made itself abstracted from a rather good conception. Many like to say this is a character-based show so they are going to get more profound of the characters than any other department in the show, but even then, Kiznaiver fails abominably at this.

If I had to describe the characters using three adjectives, they would be “mild, archetypal, and caricatured” The characters were first given archetypical roles, initially seen as symbolism, which I had no concerns for, however, the characters just started to use that as their foremost individualities, never actually getting in-depth of the traits and explaining why they maintain such. Alternatively, this started to define the characters themselves and the purpose they bring to the plot. Niko and Tenga, for most of the series existed, only to slap in some eccentric yet cartoonish comedy in there, but only came irksome and unnecessary, leaving room for its incompatible tonal dissonance. Kiznaiver genuinely knew what they were doing, thus far were oblivious about the fact that it’s never going to work. Kiznaiver knew that it wanted to be witty at times, whilst simultaneously being serious, yet merely making the story paradoxical. The way serious scenes would modify itself into comedic ones was awkward and off. Kiznaiver couldn’t handle both, therefore making the tonal shifts cringeworthy.

The only characterized really are Honoka, Katsuhira (fairly) and Sononaki, yet they still don’t possess strong characterization. Katsuhira and Sonozaki were the only crucial characters of the show and would have still been proficient of creating a story with just the two of them. The rest of the cast didn’t live up to their significance, let alone nearly, and that’s what I found dissatisfying about Kiznaiver. If every single character were presented exactly like how Honoka was, this series would have left me with a different impression, potentially increasing its score from me. Hisomu was a random guy in the background educating a few life lessons to these youngsters but served no purpose whatsoever. The finale of Kiznaiver entirely explained the significance of our cast; A bunch of kids that just added their two cents to Katsuhira and Sonozaki’s association without it actually making that much of an impact, and additionally their personal issues being irrelevant, which brings me to explain the execution of drama in this series.

Kiznaiver must be an anime that secondly enthrals and is reliant on drama for its series, considering the fact that it’s a character-based show, however, even its drama was horribly done. Albeit, I can comprehend the fact that they’re just average teenagers so they are bound to create conflicts; it’s only natural for them to do so, however, not one speck of maturity was balanced with the juvenility of the quarrels. Example would be Chidori’s issues. Instead of it being a bunch of sixteen years olds arguing about their love interests, it was something that a bunch of twelve years old would be arguing about. Moreover, the love interests were either absurd, lacking or arbitral. Nico liking Tenga had to be the most illogical, a relationship that was barely transparent and developed. Kacchon and Chidori was a relationship that was hard to care for because they’ve barely exposed their relationship before the Kizna system. Instead, we’re just left to imagine and presume how strong their relationship must be.

Characterization and the character interaction within the show were born out of compulsion as a way to move the plot forward, merely making the characters plot devices. A great example of this is episode two, where the characters were forced to reveal a secret of theirs, which I found quite rough. Kiznaiver wanted to impatiently force development out of our characters and rapidly reach the good part of the story, thus giving a reason to these “required missions” or “served punishments if something is not achieved” As much as this made the story engaging, it just came redundant. The same results would have still been created if the characters were simply left to unravel their way out of the system or getting profound of each other. The secrets and authentic identities were proficient of unfolding itself but Kiznaiver were too impatient.

Kiznaiver already has an implausible conception, yet is very questionable. They’re already aware of the failure the experiment has brought prior to other children that initially were a part of the research, so why do they revive it again on other kids? Initially, the experiment became extremely hazardous and was nowhere near creating “world peace” from the looks of it, so why would it be smart to do it again? Moreover, Kiznaiver never gets in-depth of how connecting pain equates to world peace, but rather they just state it will. Kiznaiver doesn’t try to bring coherence to an already puzzling idea. I am very aware of the fact that the whole point of the show was to show the faults of the idea, but they never really try to fully clarify the agenda from the very beginning.

The effort put into Kiznaiver is very transparent and I support it for doing that. The distinctive turn they wanted to add to their story with the connecting pain and all boasted Kiznaiver up, however, ever so slightly failed itself from the inconsistencies. Kiznaiver prioritised the artistic merits in contrast to all the existing departments, just like what any average modern anime would do really. Not that it’s a problem with bring bigger significant to the visuals of the show, but to not show as much importance to the characters and story is what Kiznaiver performed.

The art was very satisfying yet aspiring. It had a very crispy and sharp design to it. The backdrops basically go by what I’m saying, very distinguishing and never felt boring. The character designs were fine, and I mean, really fine. Very distinguishable and was very defining. Each character has an exhilarating look to them and was pleasing to the human eyes. They looked exactly by their characteristics and their personalities were easy to presume. The colour palette was very strong and bright and the animation ran smoothly.

Well done BOOM BOOM SATELLITES and Sangatsu no Phantasia by genuinely going by your intended purpose. They rightfully went by what it means to create an opening and an ending, thus making it very appropriate. An opening is to grip you into the series and places a significant role by entertaining your audience into watching more; the Kiznaiver opening ideally went by that. An ending is meant to relax the viewer and conclude them that the episode was nicely completed; the Kiznaiver ending also ideally went by that. However, the only trouble I have with the opening is how unmemorable it is. As Zeph stated, the only unforgettable line in the opening is “LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME” Other than that, it’s fine.

Kaji Yuki, you shady monkey. His performance was not particularly extraordinary, but most definitely stood out than the rest. I absolutely love how Kaji Yuki can just adjust his voice in order to fit the character, completely making him distinguishable from his most popular roles. Kaji Yuki is like a person that can just hide behind characters without knowing it’s him. His voice was perfect for Agata and convinced me into liking it, a lot.

What to expect and personal enjoyment

But the real question is, did I enjoy this?

Not necessarily. It has to do with the fact that Kiznaiver vaguely touched upon its default genres, hence why I couldn’t get profound of it. It was hard for me to articulate the message that Kiznaiver was trying to depict because so many things distracted it. There were nothing for me to get in-depth with really, but rather I just started watching the show with enjoyment in my mind. Kiznaiver is fairly a dumb watch. If you want an anime for its exhilaration and fun, Kiznaiver is for you. If you’re looking for any perception of our characters and story, you’re not going to find that here

Kiznaiver should have been a 24 episode long series and more considerate with where it story and point goes. This show only wears the name of it being character-based and dramatic but it poorly conveys that. This show technically done what death parade done; a poor story in which its opening saves itself from hate and is seen as good in the majorities’ eyes. Kiznaiver is yet another anime that had potential, however just didn’t go by it.

Negatives

• incompatible yet irritating tone dissonance
• Implausible and vague conception.
• Obligated character interaction and characterization
• Purposeless or one-dimensional cast
• Melodramatic, no maturity balanced with childishness

Positives

• Effort
• Satisfying art and animation
• Appropriate music
• Kaji Yuki

Kiznaiver = Overall 4/10

THE WORSE ANIME EVER!! My time was wasted. Okay so the main character is that emotionless, smart dude right? He is also hot in the anime. Got this recommended on my tik tok claiming he was emotionless and chill. There's this rlly kind and cute girl with brown hair who has a crush on him and has been looking out for him their whole childhood. BUT NO, he just had to chase the stupid blue haired girl that just appeared and straight up starts simping. Like the blue haired girl was only in his life for a couple years and that was when he was ... really little but the brown hair girl was there for you from your childhood to your teen years. Um, I thought the main character was suppose to be emotionless but instead he catches feelings for this random rude girl. NOT JUST THE CHARACTERS ARE BAD BUT THE PLOT! It was so boring and basically an experiment for these 7 random ass people to try connecting with each other through pain. The experiment was so unnecessary and will not revolutionize the world in any way. And the back story is not deep as well. Just some dumb asses who wanted to conduct human experiments with emotions and then decided to continue it years later. I hate the blue haired girl so much.

Why do we hurt each other? Have you ever walked by a couple on the street, bickering and arguing, and suddenly wondered why people are so keen on making each other suffer? Why is it that we feel so frustrated seeing someone get viciously angry in an argument, yet when we’re actually a part of the argument, we feel justified to do so? Why is it that when we witness conflicts revolving around things we deem insignificant, we think people are ultimately petty, yet we have arguments equally as petty all the time? Why is it that we feel so frustrated when someone talks behind ... our backs, yet we tend to do the same to others? These are the common hypocrisies which are the unfortunate circumstance of not being able to truly understand each other. Everyone thinks differently, feels differently, loves different, and hates differently. You can’t expect to know everything that’s going on in someones head, and trying to base your friendships, conflicts, and discussions on assumptions like this will no doubt cause trouble.

But… what if we could? What if we could understand everything that someone thinks and feels? If we could get so impossibly close to someone, would we ever argue? Would we ever hate each other? I mean, how could we? If someone is basing their arguments on certain emotions that we can ALSO feel, how could we disagree? We can’t really agree, either, but when we manage to understand them on such a fundamental level, it’s hard to know what exactly would happen between us.

How about we take this a step further: What if everyone in the world could feel every bit of physical and emotional pain together. Would there be no wars? No conflicts? World peace? This may seem a bit ridiculous, but it’s the main idea of Kiznaiver.

Unfortunately, however, this idea is only cool on paper. What could have been an excellent character study turned out to be no more than a melodramatic trainwreck with very few redeeming qualities.

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Terrible Execution
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The thought of what Kiznaiver was trying to accomplish and the original ideas it had are still intriguing. It's incredibly interesting to think about what would happen if a group of people did share their pains, and if done with better direction, it could have been a fantastic anime.

Unfortunately, however, the show takes itself in the most boring direction possible. It's got a stupidly complex love story, it focuses on certain characters and leaves others in the dust, and some have nice arcs while others don't even get arcs. Maki got a very long arc yet Niko got absolutely nothing, and not only did Niko get absolutely nothing, she got development that was based around her unexplained love for another character. It can't help but feel like Kiznaiver would have done much better if it were longer. It's hard to develop that many characters in 12 episodes and that was the biggest problem I had. However, it does a pretty okay job of developing the characters it favors. Maki's and Katsuhira's backstories are the best parts of the show. It's sad to think that we could have gotten an interesting backstory on five of the other characters if the creators thought to lengthen the series. Disregarding the mini-arcs, the plot itself is unsatisfactory as a whole. The direction of the series towards the end wasn't as interesting as I had hoped, and the way they executed the final minutes feels like a cop out compared to what could have been.

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Stereotypical Characters
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A friend of mine praised Kiznaiver's "colorful" cast of characters and claimed they loved how different they are from one another and how much variety the creators put into them to make them stand out from each other.

Sure, I can agree.

Kiznaiver is full of contrasting characters, I didn't find a moment where I thought any character was similar and that's a very important part of the story. All seven are supposed to be incompatible or else this experiment wouldn't work the way the scientists hoped. However, them being different from one another does not make them good.

The cast is full of tropes. They may be different from each other and they may vary in personalities but they never stray outside of their tropes. They're trapped inside of their stereotypes and almost all of their actions are unsurprisingly predictable. Some characters got developed but even then a majority of the characters were never touched upon. Trigger plays favorites with their cast and anyone who watched the show would understand that. Specific episodes were made developing Maki and Katsuhira, yet not a single second was spent developing Hisomu. He was comedy relief and poor comedy relief at that. To make matters worse, the romance between the characters was the most frustrating aspect. The creators just forced every character to fall in love with each other in an attempt to create drama. There's absolutely no basis to these feelings and the characters seem to think "it was obvious that they were in love with you" yet none of it is noticeable besides from Chidori's love for Katsuhira. The characters have their moments and they're entertaining to watch, but as soon as the drama starts it all hits the fan.

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Forced Drama
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Kiznaiver displays copious amounts of drama that originates from nothing logically sound. Characters will do things for no obvious reason, which creates problems that favors the writers ongoing story. Similar to what I said early, the forced romance induces forced drama which in turn makes everything unbearable. There are a lot of moments where a character will start a conflict because of their "love" for someone which in most cases, makes no sense. Tenga hated Katsuhira because of what he "did" to Chidori and at first it made sense but even after hearing all about Katsuhira's backstory, he was still pissed off for no obvious reason. There's also how Niko was so sad about Tenga loving Chidori even though there's is absolutely no reason for Niko to love Tenga. It is never explained and Niko went so far as to take drastic actions based on something that was never developed. How does that make sense? One episode Niko wasn't in love with anyone, next episode she was full blown in love with Tenga. The only parts of the romance that felt justified was Chidori loving Katsuhira, and Katsuhira loving Noriko. I would also count Yuta's fixation with Maki but that seemed more like lust than love in my eyes. It feels like Trigger really wanted every character to have a romantic interest so they just forced the romance onto everyone else. It was baffling and without a doubt one of the most annoying parts of the show.

You're probably thinking, "people do overly-dramatic shit for stupid reasons all the time"

This is true, however, if you ask any of these people they will always give you a reason. If you ask anyone in love, they will always give you a reason. Even if it's a stupid reason or over simplified, it's still what drives them. Kiznaiver makes absolutely no attempt to show or tell us why certain characters do the things they do, or why certain characters love the people they love. For some characters, you can deduce reasoning behind their actions, but for others you might as well guess.

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Aesthetic
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Kiznaiver is beautifully illustrated and the soundtrack is likable, as expected of Trigger. Character designs look much different from your typical anime and the art-style itself feels much different than typical Trigger titles (which is what a lot of anime studios struggle accomplishing)

Also, the opening is fucking fantastic.

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Ridiculous Inconsistencies
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Kiznaiver felt like it was doomed from the start. When you look at a studio like Trigger and consider the idea of them making a science fiction drama, it seems a bit insane. If you've ever seen a Trigger anime, you would know that they're usually full of the most ridiculously goofy content in the industry. The titles that come out of Trigger are usually never meant to be taken seriously with the exception of shows like Kill la Kill, but even that wasn't serious most of the time.

Kiznaiver tries it's best to retain those goofy elements that made me like Kill la Kill, but it just doesn't work out well. It's hard to sit through a really dramatic scene and then half a minute later something unbelievably silly happens. It's seriously risky to mix drama with over the top goofiness and expect it to work out well. Some anime like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann do this very well, but it's a rare occurrence. In the end it feels like the creators of this show clashed with creative differences and had no idea what they wanted it to be. It often made me wonder if I should laugh at something or if it should be taken seriously.

There are specific scenes that seriously stand out from the rest, though. A few parts made my skin crawl and I felt goosebumps all over my body. Unfortunately, the immersion quickly breaks when something stupid happens.

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Verdict
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Kiznaiver shines every once in a while but for the most part watching it was frustrating. It had moments where it seemed like it could be great but in the end it disappointed me beyond belief. The stupid drama, nonsensical romance, and underdeveloped characters took away any semblance of enjoyment that was present. For the most part, it's still worth a watch simply because the parts that shine happen to shine very brightly. The comedy is enjoyable and the characters spasms are always fun to watch, but once it gets to the drama it's usually unbearable. Kiznaiver would have worked better as a goofy slice of life rather than the melodramatic train wreck it became. Either that, or the writers at least trying to fix their mistakes especially since this show had an insane amount of potential.

Human emotions is a topic that has always proved to be challenging to present in any form of media. It is something very vast and the understanding of which completely varies from person to person, thus often leads people to having different perspectives towards the work in question. Kiznaiver stood as one of the shows to take this challenge upon itself but like most, was unable to deliver in a way that could be deemed worthwhile.


Story:

The concept and setting of the show is fairly interesting. It’s sure to grab anyone’s attention as the nature of the show holds a lot of potential for deep storytelling ... and emotional scenarios. Unfortunately, the show does not manage to fully utilize whatever it had at hand, and how is that? Well, to make things simple, let’s consider both halves of the show separately.

The first half, right of the bat was off to a pretty poor start as most of the earlier episodes revolve around scenarios that could be considered as pointless time wasting. While it can be seen that these scenarios were meant to serve as development for both the characters and story, it still feels as if they were put out just to fill in for something that was necessary for the buildup of the series and would provide as a foundation for the events to come later. Because of which, they come out as generic slice-of-life events that you’d see in any other show but without having any unique appeal for itself. While some viewers might be able to find value within the enjoyment of these scenarios, others could very well end up considering them as something meaningless altogether. But even then there’s no heart put into them and just feel as if they were added to get the job done quickly so that the writers could start focusing on the other half of the story. Which was seemingly the main part of it.

The second half offers more backstory to some of the characters and some nice development while also offering a deeper take on the entire series… Or at least it tries to. The thing is, while the idea might seem very nice, the same can’t be said about the way it’s carried out. It feels rather vague and just doesn’t provide the proper kind of development that you’d need in order to truly feel for the more emotional situations that come later on. The progression feels very off and the pace by which the show goes barely even gives you the chance to care about any of the events. You can tell that it tries to be dramatic, but just doesn't manage to get anywhere with it.


Art and Animation:

Studio Trigger managed to do well in this regard as it mostly has in the past. The art direction is really well done and the sharp, bright visuals are very eye catching. The brightly colored backgrounds also added more depth to the overall surroundings and was altogether something nice to look at. The animation is also smooth for the most part but it can get rather inconsistent at times.


Sound:

The soundtrack within the show is fairly nice but it’s still not something I would particularly praise. There were moments when the soundtrack fit with the show’s mood really well though and do stand as some nice pieces on their own but they don’t really effect the atmosphere all that much. At the very least, the right tracks were played at the right time and nothing in particular ever felt out of place in this regard.

I did however, enjoy the Opening sequence quite a bit. It’s nicely presented and has some very eye catching visuals and screenplay along with good music. Just a good opening overall. Really did impress me the first time I saw it.


Characters:

Quite sadly, the character department was one of Kiznaiver’s weakest areas as not only did the cast feel bland to begin with, but also felt neglected for the most part. While the show does provide a reasonable amount of character development for a few characters, at the same time it disregards the others. Being a show with a main group of eight characters, it felt as if only a few in the group actually mattered and the others were there just to fill in space, a couple of ‘extras’. What also stems from this is that the chemistry between said characters felt extremely unnatural and forced. The characters do present themselves in a fun way and were entertaining at times with their quirky personas but felt limited to those personas and didn’t manage to go much further with their character (except for a very few). They felt extremely flat and whatever supposed 'depth' that was provided to us could barely be considerable, because of which these characters just end up becoming another generic cast that's easily forgettable.


Presentation:

This is where the show lacks the most. One of the biggest issues that Kiznaiver had was with its dramatics. Most of the time, the more emotional scenes aren’t carried out as well as they could’ve been and also due to the progression of the show and the nature of the characters, very rarely would the viewer feel any sentiments with the drama. The scenario execution is poor, which is sad, considering that there were a few moments for which I truly felt that they could’ve came out as something beautiful if portrayed properly but rather what we were presented with was an abundance of melodrama and forced romance. Also, because of this, nothing ever feels as important as it should. It lacks the qualities which makes a viewer care, whether that be for the characters or for the entire show.


Conclusion and Verdict:

Even though Kiznaiver offered a good concept, the lackluster presentation and writing held it back from achieving anything noteworthy. If you can look past the flaws and enjoy the show for its nice visuals or just manage to appreciate it for the concept itself then you just might be able to find something in it. Otherwise if you’re expecting a dramatic experience with solid writing then there are far better options within the medium.

Kiznaiver's is a mess that devolves from a show with an interesting premise and wacky trigger-esq characters into a melodramatic, boring waste of time that fails to deliver any real depth and ultimately leaves you regretting giving it the time of day.

My biggest problem with Kiznaiver situates from its dialogue; the writing in this show is absolutely atrocious and towards the end of the show becomes downright cringy in its directness. Few of the conversations between the characters feel legitimate as the characters are screaming the situation at you and telling you how to feel. Dialogue is meant to be utilised to give the ... audience a sense of the character's personalities, their feelings and their goals. However, in Kiznaiver's case the characters just downright tell the audience what to think and it leaves you unaffected as there is nothing to care about as the character interactions feel so forced. For a show that is meant to be about friendship and the importance of communication, the show does a horrible job of developing actual friendships as all the characters and their supposed friendship feels disingenuous.

The Kizna system itself, what is meant to be the entire focal point of the show, eventually disintegrates and simply becomes a gimmicky tool to advance the story rather than tell the story. This really annoyed me as the system, though pretty ridiculous as a concept, introduced some really interesting themes that the show could of discussed and developed. The show alludes to some of these themes but are ultimately overlooked in favour of furthering the idea of "friendship can overcome anything" motif. By the end of the show every bit of dialogue is just repeating and repeating this same fucking point until it begins to drive you insane. I FUCKING GET IT ALREADY- FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC! The show ends with the characters having some big "we're all so close" scene which is splashed in unearned pathos as I felt nothing for any of these characters since the show has used its time to simply tell us what to think and feel rather than develop the fucking characters and their relationships.

On the topic of character development: there is almost none. Most of the characters in this show don't development beyond their cliche's and those that do like Honoka end up just reverting right back into their cliche outside of the forced sentimental moments. I don't buy that the characters screaming "We are good friends now, just accept it" makes them friends, characters need to actually develop in order for that to be the chase which simply doesn't happen. That being said the show does have its genuine moments. Honoka's arc is the best bit about the show and I feel some of the conversations between Honoka, Nico and Yuta display moments of genuine growth and investment. However, once this arc finishes it almost just reverts back to normal and the characters don't act like they've developed at all unless the show calls for it but overall it just comes off unconvincing.

The only other thing about the show I can be assed mentioning is the soundtrack as the OP and ED are both good and the soundtrack is pretty solid throughout the course of the show.

Overall, this show has moments of greatness but falls victim to bad writing, horrible pacing and pathos that ultimately leave the characters "friendship" feeling major league unconvincing and unmemorable.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

This anime had an original idea, amazing potential, and good art, but it went downhill very quickly after about the fourth episode. Honestly I normally wouldn't rate an anime with a 1 unless I really, really disliked it, but this was definitely one of the most disappointing anime I have watched. A large part of the reason for that was all the unnecessary, forced shipping.

I know that a lot of people hated Chidori, but I actually liked her. She had a lot of passion for Katsuhira, and loved him deeply. Not to mention she was friends with him for many years, and even ... tried helping him to the best of her ability. I felt like this anime basically spit on her feelings, and made them out to be completely unimportant. What ticked me off the most (I'm using nice language right now because God knows how much I want to curse), was when they force shipped her with Tenga. Uhm... excuse me? What? She's been in love with Katsuhira for how many years, gets her heart basically ripped out by him, and then goes along so easily with someone else? Makes absolutely no sense. I would have preferred her to end up with alone. Besides, Nico also liked Tenga, and I think she would have been good with him. Their personalities matched much better.

And now let's talk about Nori for a second. Besides the fact that she is a completely cliché character with absolutely no personality, AT ALL... she's just annoying in general. She tries to act all mysterious and such, but in reality she's just... boring. And the ending made absolutely NO SENSE. Nori has just been holding all their pain by herself for all of this time? Yeah, how convenient--honestly it was just a cop-out for them to not have to kill her. The plot would have made MUCH more sense if she had died, and I'm seriously not the type to want characters to die in anime--almost ever. If she had died, then of course their own pain could be returned to them. But no, they instead allowed her to live and somehow to even get with Katsuhira? It just makes very little sense. And that joke at the end about "We haven't gotten there yet"... way to completely step all over Chidori's feelings. It's been two years since I've seen this anime and it STILL ticks me off to think about this.

Also some of the plot was confusing in general and not relayed properly--I'm still not entirely sure what was going on towards the end there.

And, in case you didn't see what I said up there, it's been TWO YEARS since I've seen this anime. Literally two years. And it still irks me to no end any time that I think about it. Like it literally puts me in a bad mood, which is rather rare for me. So I felt it only fair to vent out my feelings here. I literally created an account for this reason.

Chidori should have gotten with Katsuhira, but really, there shouldn't have even been any romance added into this anime. There are two things about anime that I hate the most: first few episodes are good, with a great idea, and the delivery is awful (I'm looking at you SAO and Code:Breaker), and when there are forced ships that make no sense and that really weren't necessary for the plot to progress but which just serve as an easy way to further it. Anyway, over all this anime was a huuuge disappointment, which is pretty sad because it had great potential. Honestly they should re-do it with a lot less shipping, and a lot more focus on other emotions. Perhaps I'm also hyper-critical due to my being a psychology student and knowing that there's a lot more to emotions than romance, but there's my take on it and I doubt anyone will be able to change my mind.

There are so many things wrong with this anime and its setting. The Kizna system in the end is just a plot device as a cheap explanation to have things make sense and fails at that. The warning signs were right there from the first and second episode. The protagonist gets pushed down some stairs, he's saved by having his pain shared among six other people (how the heck that works is anyone's guess), yet he and the six others right afterwards look and react totally fine, when the protagonist should at least have a couple broken bones and that pain should ... have been distributed to the other six. However, only six of the seven are summoned together and have this explained to them. The seventh was purposefully left out to be another episode of the others finding him, which overall was just for episode count, because there was no underlying purpose to having him separated from the others in the main narrative. Of course, everyone had this change done to them without consent and were abducted by a horde of mascots that roam the city for some reason. The mascots continuously act as railroading personified throughout the series, and move the characters to where they need to be and dance to whatever narrative the plot needs them to.

Now, the main characters are forced into this experiment with a threat of a "bad end" if they don't. Their first task is completely nonsensical where they have to "introduce themselves", but really it's to share your most highly kept secret, and not telling will result in several traps bordering on death being activated to force it out of you. Yet in the midst of this highly controlled environment they were placed in, one of main characters manages to get separated from the others somehow in order to give a hint of her dark and troubled past, and later appears in a mascot costume for some reason once the task is finally cleared. Also, she gives her secret after their abductor already said they cleared their first task. Oh, and one character's most valued secret is that she loves the protagonist. She's also the childhood friend and next door neighbor. Yep, a huge guarded secret there, and the first hint at one of many of the forced romances this anime will later try to shove in the audience's face in the second half. So yeah, after that cluster of nonsense, this anime started out in the negative and future episodes would have to work to bring it up, which it never does.

The fault is in half due to it's worldbuilding. Few things make sense and that's due to vagueness and inconsistency. From what was told, this experiment was done once before, the city was constructed for that very purpose, with one third of the citizenry in on it, and ended in a huge failure. As a result, 19 kids that were the subjects were robbed of their sensory system; some can't even go out into society. That an experiment like this happened and not one mention of it was on the news or any social media not even as a rumor is ridiculous. I imagine parents would be outraged and/or distraught for what happened, especially the parents to the kids that were experimented on. But that's the issue isn't it? While parents are mentioned, rarely any of them are shown. The protagonist was a subject of the first experiments, yet he still gets the same cliche that his parents work overseas, when any caring parent after seeing what happened to their child would be with him no matter what. The only parents that do appear aren't even any of the main characters', but for a side character, and they only appear for a few minutes.

Once learning the protagonist was part of the first experiment, you ask the question "why was he chosen again?". It is never made clear. It may have been to get his pain back, which is necessary for him to start emoting again (but it's really not), but later we learn that another subject is willingly keeping his and all the other kids' pain in her, which is ridiculous and a contradiction to previous info (which I'll get to later), and the other subject's goal in the end was never for him to get his pain back despite earlier hints that's what she wanted, and starts off what is one of the most sorry excuses of a plot twist and final confrontation. It's all just a mess.

I look at the the two experiments done for the Kizna system, and they only have a few similarities. The first experiment as a whole is even more ludicrous than than one we find our main characters in. It started with a mistake that resulted in one kid out of nineteen was solely getting the pain out of 5 kids (jumps to all of them later for no reason). Gradually, the kids that were having their pain transferred became desensitized, not just physically but emotionally as well that carried over to the present. The current subjects didn't have these problems. For one, the current subjects' pain was distributed equally. Second, theirs had a time limit and were freed after summer vacation, contrasting the original that continues to the current time. If the researchers made improvements, how the heck did they test the modifications before the story starts? Did they just administer it to the current subjects, and it worked? But if they were able to fix the previous problems, wouldn't they be able to cure the first subjects? You're left wondering because it is never explained! It's instead used to set up one of the project members as some tragic character, because that person is the same kid that all the pain was transferred to. The girl's circumstances get contradicted too, making the attempt at sympathy ineffective. During certain moments the protagonist somehow is able to feel the pain of the girl through their Kizna link when from what was explained is impossible, even emotional pain in the last episode, when only the current subjects were able to advance to that level. In addition, as I mentioned before, she's also willingly keeping the pain of the other previous subjects, which in no instance beforehand was ever hinted to be possible. Her entire condition was because of a botch, and was something she had no control over. However, in the final episode, we're told she does have control over it.

Some may argue that the lack of consistency in the setting and it's rules is okay, because it would take away from the character interactions. However, if your setting is crap, why would the characters be treated any better. The answer is they aren't. Late in the story, the focus shifts mainly on the girl from the first experiment and the protagonist's forced romance to her, and away from the six other main characters. The seven are still in the midst of working out their drama, making this change in direction absurd. The anime is supposedly about theses seven characters' issues and how they bond through overcoming those problems. However, their friendship is mostly told, not shown. The times they are all together are limited, and when they split into smaller groups, it's always with the same people. There's no diversity. The reason is for the other forced romances that are again mostly told and not shown. How forced is it? They have to have side characters make a character sheet on who likes who, along with expressing how "obvious" it was. The romance is also the main source of drama, as if it needed it. Seven people are linked to their pain. They have no clue if these people that forced them into it will keep their word and release them after summer vacation, and constantly have to worry about each others' safety, especially when one of the seven is a masochist. However, none of these very reasonable issues are utilized. After their initial abduction and forced cooperation, the main characters just walk off what's happened to them and go home for the day. The next day, they continue on normally, which is not normal! They act as if they haven't become lab rats and had their human rights violated. Even when they find out their teacher and counselor are part of the project, they don't act realistically. Only one of them gets angry; the others are far more subdued and calm. What's worse is these two characters are only here to give exposition and act like giant scumbags. It becomes more inconsistent when the counselor suddenly has a change of heart late in the series and believes what they're doing is inhumane and immoral, when she was shown to be able to cross that line well before and not show an ounce of remorse.

Kiznaiver constantly tried to have it's cake and eat it too, even at the cost of situations and reactions being portrayed consistently. It wants this SoL drama along with an over the top setting and situations, but in attempting to do both, does neither one of them well. Seriously, in the end, why were none of the committee members arrested!?

I guess this show capped off by ending as poorly as the show had become really disappointed in Trigger but ill get right into my first full review (sorry if there are parts that dont make sense because they're not well explained I tried my best to keep it short but concise)

Art- I guess this is the one that annoyed me the most, mostly because the show started off with really awesome visuals that reminded me of watching Kill la Kill and it helped make THE best opening episode of the season imo until it crashed as soon as episode 3, ... Trigger might've stopped caring but they basically scrapped all their cool interesting color pallets and visuals in exchange for the generic anime look. I dont dislike the generic look either i realy dont but if you offer me a great looking burger, one that i have almost never seen before let me take a bite and afterwards take that burger and slap a turd on my plate im going to be pissed. This was probably the first sign that this show was going to be a shit show.

Story- I figured the story would have issues, before I even started watching and Trigger didn't disappoint as the story becomes a literal clusterfuck. For the sake of spoilers I wont say much but my main issues boil down too
1) FRIENDSHIP CANT FIX EVERYTHING
2) Poor Execution
3) Kizna Experiment makes no sense
4) Trigger didn't know where they were going with this (So to elaborate I think Trigger thought of the concept and the end but didn't know how to move their idea from point A to B. The shows suffers by being episodic and having the most boring middle sequence that i can remember from this season [from what i watched]. And at some point the show decides to go from very upbeat and happy to a teenage soap opera. Plus the only reason Trigger shows Kacchon's distorted flashbacks are so they can dangle the mystery over our head so we have a reason too keep watching)

Characters- The characters are one of the parts of the show I actually enjoyed with characters like Tenga, Yuta (he actually stood out the most to me in the series I loved Yuta wish they used him more), Hisomu, and the two teachers sticking out in particular. However the execution of how these characters were used was horrendous. It boiled down too the story focusing on these fixed love triangles (WHICH THE SHOW LITERALLY TELLS YOU ABOUT ). Plus the lifeless MC Kacchon was literally boring as hell his screen-time was complete cringe, and also just because he couldn't feel pain doesn't mean he would become a lifeless robot. On another note Honoka's arc was pretty dumb and it was her trying to be an edgy hot topic wannabee, The only thing memorable thing about Chidori was the fact that she craved Kacchon's D more than i crave Rasin Bran in the morning, Nico was fun FOR THE FIRST THREE EPISODES then she got shoved in a cage and was only let out to spit nonsense about friendship. Its a shame that this show squandered all the potential of these characters for example Hisomu: He was awesome in his first appearance He seemed dark edgy (and not like Honoka who was blander than a stick) an interesting parallel to the inital cast but then no hes a masochist who didn't want the group to unite for some dumb reason. At that moment I thought ok fine that was funny this will be some nice comedy relief, BUT THEN HE IS SHOVED TO THE SIDE AND PROVIDES ZERO IMPACT ON THE STORY AND BECOMES BLAND AS HELL. Thats really the problem of the show shoving aside interesting characters in favor of Kacchon whos defining trait is that hes the blandest person in a 10 mile radius.

Sound- Really forgettable soundtrack how forgettable...... I forgot

Execution: I keep rambling on about poor execution but how bad is it? pretty bad. So the big problem with this series is that it begins to take itself too seriously and evolves into this Soap Opera with little actual drama for the viewer to care about. It becomes a mess of love triangle drama and such that is overcome by "friendship". The show refuses to flesh out the interesting aspects of any of its characters as if its wants to rub in our faces how good the show could be if Trigger were to think about any actual interesting scenarios for the viewer to be sucked into.

OVERALL: The show lacks the poise that Kill la Kill had and was a major disappointment by Trigger in my eyes. It went from a show that showed so much promise in its first 3 episodes but then went into full train wreck mode. Suffering from lack of a well thought out plot, and bad execution its an anime that fails to shine in a rock solid spring season 3/10

(This is a spoiler-free review adapted for this site)

[Synopsis]: Days before the school season draws to a close, quiet and introverted Katsuhira Agata (Kaji Yuki), his childhood friend, and a handful of other students are abducted by the mysterious Sonozaki Noriko (Yamamura Hibiku) on behalf of the Kizna Committee. The seven students are selected to become Kiznaivers - people connected by a bond of shared pain among one another as test subjects for the Kizna Committe's end goal of world peace through connecting everyone through mutual pain and suffering. With this situation forced upon them, Katsuhira and the other students have to find a way ... to understand and work with one another despite their differing personalities as their bond is tested over the upcoming Summer.

[Characters]:

Given the premise of the show, it makes a lot of sense that Kiznaiver would focus almost all of its attention upon its primary group of 8 characters and a fairly concise supporting cast. This approach worked well insofar as none of the character's felt all that underdeveloped with the exception of Hisomu Yoshiharu who was introduced after the initial introduction of the other Kiznaivers. The characters themselves are fairly archetypal at first glance - Chidori is a stereotypical childhood love interest upon introduction, Yoshiharu sports a pretty typical depiction of a masochist, Honoka is a pragmatic and distant intellectual, and the list goes on. What's interesting is how the show grows these characters out of their initial depictions into something a bit more intricate.

Though the Kiznaiver's themselves vary in depth, one thing that is certain is that their archetypal foundations do a great job in setting them very distinctly apart before the show invests time into discerning the context of their character. Their designs aid in this distinction as each of them look immensely different, causing them to stand out from one another on a visual level as well. The importance of detailing this distinction between each of the characters is that the show relies heavily upon them having contrasting and conflicting personalities and if nothing else, the show sets this up well.

Had each of the Kiznaiver's remained as they were when they were introduced in the first episode the cast would have felt overwhelmingly stereotypical and tiresome however they quickly evolved beyond this if only slightly. Though Katsuhira's lack of pain and emotions has left him quiet and introverted, he is far more observant and thoughtful than he initially appears and a good deal of the show is about him coming into a new sense of agency. Other characters like Honoka, Tenga, and Nico all have their fair share of intricacies that are contextualized and accentuated upon by the show as it explores each of them each episode - gradually revealing more and more about each Kiznaiver as they are forced to work alongside each other.

The issues that arise within Kiznaiver's cast are less to do with the different Kiznaiver's on an individual level and more about the way in which they converse and act with each other. The plot pushes them along very deliberately and the characters act out in very extreme and exaggerated ways in order to promote the drama of each scene. Certain central characters such as Chidori are left far too one-dimensional to be taken seriously, her character completely defined by her attachment and romantic feelings for Katsuhira. All in all, Kiznaiver has a distinct group of characters most of whom possess pretty entertaining characteristics however the way in which they are utilized by the plot dulls their interest considerably. They are left feeling far too hyperbolic in their interactions and the resulting drama between them thus often feels absurd.

[Art/Animation]:

Kiznaiver's art and animation is its major strength and appeal as the show possesses gorgeous visuals. As mentioned above, the character designs are very recognizable and even unique in some aspects, going a long way in further differentiating the characters visually. The animation and character movement is flashy and expressive which worked well alongside the colorful and often extreme personalities present in the show. Kiznaiver had a wonderful variety of colors within its palette as well, its aesthetics heavily contrasting against one another with a heavy thematic focus on various shades of red. The animation was vibrant and entertaining and pretty much everything one would expect out of studio Trigger.

[Story]:

The narrative and overarching plot of Kiznaiver is where the show truly falls apart. Given it's character-centric premise and early introductory episodes it would be a fair guess to say that the show itself was similarly character-driven however as its plot unfolded this became gradually less true. The plot of the show as well as its themes focus upon forming bonds of friendship, overcoming personal struggles through the help of others, and acting empathically. These themes are plenty interesting and even more so when set against such an outlandish premise such as Kiznaiver's - a setting where 7 people share each other's physical and emotional pain. The critical failure of the show is in the forced and artificial way these attributes manifest within an already somewhat vague plot.

The first episode of the show starts right into things, introducing the viewer to the Kizna system and the newly linked 6 students as it both explains the purpose of the experiment as well as their role in it. The second episode fills in the gaps as it begins to push the initially archetypal character introductions into a slightly more complicated light by forcing the characters to divulge certain information about themselves to their fellow Kiznaivers. The forced methodology that emerges becomes incredibly important as it sets the tone for how the show will behave for almost all of its future episodes. Rather than connecting the students and leaving them to organically solve their own issues or encounter their own hurdles, the Kizna committee plays an extremely active role in forcing them together and placing them in certain 'extreme' situations in order to generate data. Quickly the Kizna committee begins to feel like an unnatural writing tool for forcing drama to occur.

By episode 4 the show starts to pair off certain characters with one another and their relationships and romantic interests begin to take center stage thereafter. Kiznaiver's resulting dynamic is a show about an enigmatic and shadowy organization forcing students who share each other's pain into chaotic and ridiculous scenarios in order to develop romantic melodrama. Rather than exploring the psychological implications of sharing each other's pain or emotional states the show opts to invest itself in their romantic interests in the typical style of Okada Mari, the show's writer. The artificial way in which the Kiznaivers are placed in each dramatic moment makes it hard to take the show seriously which is very problematic given how seriously the show takes itself.

Something worth touching upon that would otherwise seem very unimportant is the presence of the Kizna committee's mascots - the Gomorin. Their appearance is very cartoonish compared to the rest of the character designs which makes a lot of sense given their mascot-esque nature however it is their chronic presence in all of the dramatic scenes where they truly feel out of place. In essence, they are used by the Kizna committee to incite moments of dramatic tension by attacking the students or chasing them in some manner which is perhaps the most obvious insight into how artificial the plot progression of the show is. Despite setting no precedent for being dangerous or harmful, the Kiznaivers overreact to them, essentially draining the scene of any possible dramatic tension given the non-threatening appearance of the Gomorin and the scene's straightforward progression.

With all of that said, Kiznaiver is not completely bereft of good scenes and there are a few engaging moments throughout. The characters themselves are highly entertaining however it is the exaggerated and overly-sentimental scenes they are forced into that makes many of them fall flat.

[Music]:

Considering the nature of Kiznaiver its soundtrack behaves as one might expect - emphasizing the drama of its scenes with given tracks and otherwise providing a fairly standard backdrop for the show. For me, there weren't any particularly memorable tracks.

[Final Thoughts and Rating]:

In summary, though Kiznaiver might hint at something more complex and compelling through its premise and initial episodes it quickly devolves into a rather incoherent story focusing on teenage melodrama. I myself am not a huge fan of Okada Mari's writing and so I may have disliked the show more than one normally might and perhaps fans of her other works would be able to overlook certain aspects of the show and enjoy it to a great extent.

Rating: 4

I gave Kiznaiver a 4 because the way in which it attempted to conjure up a dramatic atmosphere felt forced and inorganic in how it was narratively presented. Though a handful of its characters were fairly entertaining, its cast also had a few one-dimensional and overly exaggerated characters which detracted from the cast. The visuals were terrific however they didn't dress the show up well enough to the point that its narrative and thematic issues could be overlooked, not that they ever could have.

[Recommendations]:

Those who have enjoyed Okada Mari's work in the past will likely enjoy Kiznaiver as well as the dialogue and themes are quintessentially her. Similarly so, fans of melodramas like Kokoro Connect, Nagi no Asukara, and AnoHana will probably find that Kiznaiver lies within their interests. Those who don't care for considerably sentimental character interactions and plot developments may want to pass on the show.

Well, folks, it’s a landmark moment. We’re finally reviewing an original work written by the queen of normie melodrama herself, Mari Okada. I do think that emphasis on the term “original” is needed; from ToraDora to Blast of Tempest, Okada has done her share of adaptation work in the anime medium, each of them infused with her characters’ token super-charged emotions. However, in the spirit of attempting to truly understand creators through their own creations, here we are with Kiznaiver, which Okada wrote entirely herself. While it isn’t Okada’s first original series, it certainly has many hallmarks of her other work, so that makes it ... a worthy candidate for this case study.

Okada may be known for her style of drama, but a common trend across many of what I have seen of her screenwriting credits is a healthy dose of comedic hijinks, and this is ultimately what kept me from dropping Kiznaiver inside of the first episode. The cast is full of dumb caricatures (including a Kamina knock-off, because Trigger) who can’t think logically or grasp the fact that the drama between them is ridiculous, and herein lies the decently entertaining comedy; they make fun of each other’s idiosyncrasies and personality traits, coming off less like a group of friends (which they most certainly are not) and more a dysfunctional group of complete tools we love to watch fail at just about everything they do. Unfortunately, the strength of Kiznaiver’s comedy is undercut by its most glaring weakness. This series shares its biggest problem with many of Mari Okada’s teenage romance-dramas, and that is an unparalleled devotion to taking its love polygon seriously. And there is ALWAYS a love polygon.

I want to make this as crystal clear as can be: drama only works when the writer deliberately and meticulously establishes WHY the characters feel the way they do. In the case of Kiznaiver, it’s as if the characters’ feelings were just magicked into them upon birth. The biggest exceptions to this are Honaka, who has her entire backstory explored, and Noriko, the main heroine, but the latter’s reasons for her (lack of) emotions are so totally external to her i.e. she had no agency in the matter because of the dumb sci-fi crap that her entire arc falls completely flat. I skipped my way through some seventy percent of the last episode because absolutely none of the setup was even remotely investing, the “payoff” felt so contrived, and there was next to no comedy to carry me through the experience. It’s not impossible to have a tense or meaningful drama injected with lighthearted moments, but what’s seriously odd is that while Kiznaiver absolutely believes the hype surrounding its own drama, its comedy takes every opportunity to undercut that drama’s weight. On no less than two occasions does the show actively make fun of itself, plainly stating how utterly ludicrous and laughable its love polygon is, and, even though I was laughing my head off, it was exactly at the first of these two moments that I knew Kiznaiver was starting to lose me. From episode 8 onward, that feeling only grew; I could practically see a curve showing how the comedy-to-melodrama ratio was nosediving, and my interest along with it.

Perhaps I don’t understand how Okada’s brand of melodrama is appealing or why there is a market for it. Apparently, people want to see characters with completely overblown emotions with no logical basis for why they have them exhibit exaggerated outbursts. Is it supposed to be a vicarious expression of the audience’s own pent-up frustrations? I’d hesitate to say that for a very specific reason: NONE OF THIS LOVE POLYGON DRAMA IS REMOTELY REALISTIC. Regardless of how cheap it is, people want to see this drama because it matches their favorite perfect characters together with a saccharine smile while pretending to be complicated and way smarter than it is. That’s what I find really annoying; there is never, EVER a point to any of this drama. What message is to be found in a four-plus-way unrequited love story? Nobody in-universe cares that these kids are “hurting” because everyone knows it’ll all just blow over. Tween romance, in real life or otherwise, usually has next to no foundation; that is, idiot teenagers “fall in love” with each other because they think the other is at worst physically attractive and at best a worthy friend. Never someone with whom they communicate effectively, never a candidate for a lifelong partner, never someone with whom they can see themselves having a future, and only very, VERY rarely because they genuinely understand each other. Kiznaiver is not an instance of the latter, despite how hard it wants to be.

This series suggests that by understanding one another’s pain we can form lasting bonds, but, again, it undercuts that message at every turn. For example, take the final arc, where there’s so much sci-fi crap that explains the reasons for a character’s pain that it makes the whole “people getting hurt” thing feel almost entirely alien. And even when that isn’t really a factor in the narrative, the resulting bond doesn’t seem to be based off of that mutual understanding, instead still adhering to that tween “liking” of someone of the opposite sex for no other reason than that person is there and fits some kind of attractiveness profile. I’m going to chalk this up to Okada trying to maintain appeal to the tweens by forgoing better writing i.e. having her cake and eating it, too. The resolution to Kiznaiver’s love polygon is entirely unfulfilling because it lacks any dramatic weight; characters shouting and crying loudly about their perceived “suffering” is not moving because the reasons for that “suffering” are laughably underdeveloped and the characters have no discernable reason to find solace in the partners they ultimately choose. The only quasi-exception is Tsuguhito because he made an honest effort to try and figure out what was bothering Honaka, but even then his reasons for pursuing her in the first place never evolve past “she’s pretty” and into genuine empathy.

And that’s what is lacking from Okada’s works: empathetic characters. A cast full of sociopaths and head cases has the potential to be material for good comedy, and to Kiznaiver’s credit, that is well-utilized, but this cast does NOT suit an emotionally super-charged romance, and Kiznaiver is arguably the worst offender of Okada’s repertoire. For a series about feeling other people’s pain, feeling sympathy, there is a staggeringly small number of heartfelt moments where genuine care between two characters is on display. And if you want to read into these situations a bit further, you’ll find that it’s always the male figures who are portrayed as being the saviors, the ones who point out the problems and do all the work to find the solutions. Way to progressively eschew gender norms, Okada.

Kiznaiver is a train-wreck of a romance drama. Its characters have enough life to make for good comedy but are repeatedly killed whenever the show dials up the serious factor. They become hollow shells that only serve to play into Mari Okada’s idealized unrequited love fantasies. In a single phrase, this is bad fan fiction, and that is a genuine shame. A series that had this much love put into its production deserves better writing; the animation is great, the background work is solid, and, while some of the designs are ridiculous, the character art is consistently high-quality. The music is a bit all over the place, but I welcomed its electronica beats, and let’s not forget the English dub, either. Sometimes characters pause when they’re speaking, but I found the voices very entertaining most of the time. This was a now-rare effort by Ocean Studios up in Canada, and although they don’t have the best track record with regard to anime dubs, I was happy with the results.

Do I recommend watching Kiznaiver? Yes, but only for its visuals, comedy, and English dub. There is basically nothing else to enjoy, nothing worth returning to in this show, no deeper meaning to dissect, and no metaphors to explore that haven’t already been hammered into the audience’s skull, either in this show or any other Okada original work. It’s highly derivative, completely contrived, and fails to live up to the quality of some of its parts. I strongly urge you to consider passing it.

Happy watching!
- LC

*Spoilers ahead*

So, this review is coming quite late. What's the reason for this? I just couldn't bring myself to get back and watch the last couple of episodes of this garbage for a long time.

Now, i can't bring myself to say it was ALL bad, no, far from it, the visuals and drawing style was superb (as expected of trigger), the characters where pretty good (the interactions between them where not however), the op and ed (as well as some of the other audio things) where great.. But those things, while important, are kind of an extra, the wrapping on the candy if you will, ... and if what's under the said wrapping isn't good... Well, no matter how colorful and appealing you make it, the content won't become any better from it, and if you wrapped a piece of doo-doo, its still gonna be it when you open it up!

Well then, what is the problem with this show? Three things, as far as i see it:
1- the story. The story of Kiznaiver is extremely simple, almost non existent - some scientists decided to improve the world, by making a way to artificially share feelings... And then decided to try this on actual humans, and kids at that. It all went horribly wrong, as expected, and the actual story is about two of the luckier participants of this experiment who didn't turn into emotionless husks trying to get their feelings and identities back together. That's the idea at least, but... (see #2)

2- Bad focus. The most troubled and therefore interesting characters are the protagonist and the girl who was in the original experiment with him, yet they get the least focus, and only towards the end of the anime. The rest of the show focuses on 6 individuals who barely fit in the show due to their "problems" being so common and insignificant (having no friends, unanswered love etc.. with the exception of one of them, who's close friend died, that's probably the only really troubled person out of the 6) that making such a big deal of it all is pretty much a joke that reeks of forced drama and downplays actual sorrow and problems.

3- Infantilism and bad interactions. As i already said, the show focuses on 6 more or less normal individuals. Now then, unlike the protagonist, they should have no problem understanding emotions and the concept of friendship, right? WRONG. Despite being around 17 years old, they seem to have about as much understanding of their, and other's emotions as the protagonist, who LOST all of his. As a bonus, they seem to have no idea how to interact with other people, and what friendship means. Why? No reason. As a result of that, watching them try to communicate is a pain, and coupled with how big of a deal they, and the show makes of their tiny little worries, the result is annoyance and dullness, making the show a pain to watch.

Final word - I would not recommend this show, it lacks in interest and any kind of impact

Warning: I ranted some implied spoilers. But nothing too major and its pretty obvious stuff if you’ve watched at least then first episode. But don’t raise your pitch forks if you think I’ve spilled too many beans.

For any anime studio that makes a show that is all style, no substance, it is probable for anyone to denote the studio’s value (there is Ghost in the Shell, but that’s retro so it doesn’t count). Unless if its Trigger. If there is one thing that we could all agree with, are the unique character designs: essentially Disgea heads with their chibi proportions toned down and are plonked ... on Shoujo-style bodies. Sounds odd, but it works in a refreshing visual sense that you won’t see from the onslaught of moeshit and the awkwardly large eye sizes from the mid 2000’s.

It is scientifically proven by the enlightenment association that the OP is also elder god tier. ‘nuff said.

The whole gimmick behind the Kizna project is sharing all our physical and mental pain to the others around us. Ignore how the entire economy and civilizations looks awkward if someone gives birth, or someone crying over a funeral and everyone is forced to feel sad, or someone being mangled over a red room, or for every person who eats a ghost chili therefore causing societal collapse – I’ll give the benefit of the doubt this time. You could say the show is inherently flawed by its conception, however, the means this kizna project is presented, is what matters here.

And by well-presented characters, I only mean one-noted archetypes. I may slide by the emotionless protagonist – there were some understandable moments; the tsundere red head – who doesn’t have nearly as many TSUN moments, so praise fuckin’ Michael! And I can’t even care about Sonozaki – similar to the protagonist but keeps all her emotions to herself; not like it matters since we only get to know her that way for only a total of 15 minutes tops. Nico is cute for the sake of being cute and is naiive as all hell. At the end of the show, did it really seem like the characters were fleshed out? But Tenga is a speck you don’t see often. It is quite a disappointment because there was no backdrop that made the characters who they are. Apart from Maki who makes actual sense.

Speaking of good characters, Maki and Tsuguhito just work, due to the simple fact that their relationship is a logical one. Unlike most anime romances which makes a kiss the ultimatum; the end goal of all relationships.

Relationships makes just as much sense as shipping discussions from fan fiction writers, or people who just wanna draw fappable doujins. I still don’t know how Nico started getting feels with red head dude; there is some sense with his feels on the tusndere archetype. Sonozaki X Kitsuahara is still emotionless, even when they received their emotions ironically.
At the end of the day, Kiznaiver got the message out there: that uniting an entire social hivemind into an individual mass, as a means in achieving philanthropic ego for a cosmopolitan society: within each mind reads every other mind – alike that of a book – is a bad idea!

Even if the story is just about some teenagers doing summer camps and having their lives risked for the sake of science without anyone’s consent – shouldn’t the police be there already? At least there were some legitimately funny moments sprinkled here and there. After all the episodic shit that is there to supposedly create character development (which barely happens), the huge plot twist was just anti-climactic as hell because I just can’t stop giving a crap with these one dimensional and under developed people!

FINALE: 4/10 – Looks better than most spacky beans (with uniquely good taste). And fails at everything else, or lackluster in general.

Those who brought you people fighting with super-powered fabric, a psychedelic ninja parody and a skeleton cop with fire for hair have decided to get serious. Sort of. Kiznaiver is the name of studio Trigger’s latest effort, a story revolving around seven students bonded together through their pain. Compared to the studio’s recent offerings it’s a story that is a little more grounded in reality, attempting to appeal to a very important element of humanity: empathy. That’s not to say Kiznaiver isn’t without the sumptuous visual quirks and energy in the cast that made their wackier works so enjoyable, but this time it comes with ... more focus on drama and the relationships between characters. It’s a volatile concoction to try and bring under control and this new mixture doesn’t quite work. At times entertaining, Kiznaiver starts dipping into uninteresting side stories, leaves much of the cast one-dimensional and cranks the ‘drama’ dial up to embarrassingly high levels.

Confused and frustrated by the experiment they find themselves wrapped up in, the group of seven have to delve into each other’s past and solve each other’s problems to avoid hurting themselves any further. There’s two stories going on in Kiznaiver which intertwine, one about the experiment while the other is how it all came to be. The latter was better at keeping my curiosity piqued but it doesn’t get anywhere near enough screen time. Kiznaiver only delves into its most interesting ideas towards the end of the series and it makes you wonder if some early episodes served any purpose against the grand scheme of things. From initially being a more light-hearted story it’s like someone smashed the ‘It’s time to get serious’ button at a certain point, making for an extremely jarring transition. The issue is that they forgot to prime the ‘character development’ switch, so the emotional punch Kiznaiver attempts to pull on you during its climatic moments becomes something more akin to a feather touch.

Some of the humour and the way the main seven characters’ personalities clash with one another makes for some fun viewing, particularly in the opening third of the series. How much you as a viewer will take away from its more serious moments though may come down to your tolerance for Mari Okada’s brand of writing: Saturated with characters expressing their feelings loudly and struggling to accept relationships that begin to either form or break down. You can’t deny that the setting of Kiznaiver accommodates this to a degree (seven people forced to bear each other’s pain will definitely bring that out) but that doesn’t abstain it of guilt for some of the emotionally overwrought dialogue it spits.

I feel much of my grief with Kiznaiver lies with Katsuhira as the main character. Katsuhira being such an emotionless shell is obviously an important part of the story. It drums up intrigue, especially with our quiet, white-haired lead posited against such an eclectic collection of characters. He’s designed to make you ask questions like ‘What brought him to that point? What can the group do to help? Why is he the odd one out?’ And at the start of the series it works well. There’s flashes of backstory and suggestions that there’s much more to him than meets the eye. That initial interest in Katsuhira started to dwindle the more the show went on because all those questions about him weren’t being addressed at an adequate pace. Writing such an emotionally-deprived lead can be a double-edged sword. It leaves plenty of room for growth but on the other side of the coin it’s difficult to stay engaged with shows where the supporting characters do more to entertain and progress the story than the main one does. Katsuhira’s character is so dry it becomes draining to watch, even when knowing there are layers shielding his past yet to be unravelled.

Overall Kiznaiver is a show that falls well short of what it’s trying to achieve because it can’t balance its silliness – a perfectly fine thing to have – with a sprinkling of maturity. The interactions aren’t that realistic between the cast and that’s a crippling blow for a show trying to tackle something quite serious: What it means to live through the ‘human condition’.

Kiznaiver is really hard to watch for me atleast, because of its "mainstreamyness" and this "fun with friends" thing really doesnt do it for me, but it was still a decent show... until ep 7 i think. What happened in that episode is absolutely crazy guys, might have to do a double review today.

On a serious note, something happened that made me rip my balls off. Before i talk some smack about this show tho, i wanna say that this is MY personal opinion so fuckoff butthurt 12yr-olds. DONT SPAM MY PROFILE WITH YOUR SHIT. Now for the review tho

Also since this is a ... review, ill just quickly rate the story, concept, characters and so on. ( Skip this if youre here for the shittalking )

Story - It was pretty average, 5/10 bcuz im just pissed at this series and my brain wont let me give it a good rating.
Concept - I guess its unique and cool, i could imagine it working with like some psychologial anime like Death Note. 5/10. ( again because im just mad )
Characters - Main character was kinda emo i guess so 8/10 for him, but all of the other characters 2/10 at best. Fucking horrific, ESPECIALLY the girl with the glasses, but i have a whole section for her at the end of this review.
Art - It was definetly good, but art alone wont win you any awards.... actually SAO did so nvm. 7/10. ( you know why )
Sound - Didnt really pay attention since the show was trash, but it wasnt bad i guess 5/10. ( duh )

Overall its a pretty averag-- FUCK NO ITS SHIT

So what about this anime broke me? Well let me explain.
So there was this girl with glasses, who was telling everyone from ep. 1 that she had killed someone and it she was always the " im cool because ive killed a person", which is definetly one of my most favourite character types and i really liked her UNTIL it was revealed, that she actually hadnt killed anyone....
She just stopped being friends with some girl who died AND BETTER YET that girl had some disease, so she was gonna die anyway so its not like she killed herself, because she had no friends. She literally was gonna die anyway, so that girl with the glasses didnt cause or she didnt even have anything to do with her death, yet shes running around with a knife in her hand telling everyone, that she killed someone.... Get ge fuck out wannabe emo character piece of shit.

Overall this show is fucking trash and that fucking girl literally made me rip my testicles off and eat them with fucking soy sauce or something

And yes that review part was just filler, so i could talk shit about it in the end.

Kiznaiver's music score is something to be admired, especially its opening which is spectacular and serves to get you psyched for the anime to follow.
The first two minutes of episode 1 serve the same purpose but from then onwards it all goes downhill.

The show itself has incredibly stereotypical and frankly boring characters along with a ridiculous plot which serves to fail on a logical, legal and even fantastical scale.

The show tries to make us care about other people as human beings and their journey of 'understanding'. A journey that most would have completed already in spectacular series such as Naruto or any ... Gundam.

The most interesting thing in this travesty of a show is its blindingly cool looking art style and music.

Beyond that I'd say to try something a little more interesting.

The only line said in this entire show over and over is "We're Kiznaiver's now!" It means literally nothing and they endlessly repeat it, hoping it will gain meaning somewhere along the way. The author had the idea of making a story about people feeling the pain of others, and then literally couldn't put more than two thoughts together to form a cohesive story line or interesting cast of characters. Hell even 1 interesting character. The art was of standard quality. The sound was nothing memorable standard quality. I enjoyed almost no episodes of this show, other than maybe the first one, before I realized ... that there was nothing beyond a simple premise.

Overall Kiznaiver was watchable and I did not get bored with it enough to push it off to another season, Although Trigger has great animation and their stories are original, (not based off of manga or an original series), however the story this time around was offensive on a personal level witch lowered my overall enjoyment of the anime.
I do like Trigger's stories because they do tackle problems in Japanese culture that most mangaka can't because they're worried about staying serialized. In Kill la Kill they discussed feminism and societal corruption within capitalist systems, which they did wonderfully, and the story was obviously thought ... through very thoroughly, however this time with Kiznaiver they spoke of teens emotions, and although all of the studio's members were obviously once teens, I don't think any of them ever experienced growing up with Autism, nor did they contact anyone who did to try and understand it better.
SOOOO the basic plot of Kiznaiver is seven students becoming connected in order to TEACH the characters Sonozaki Nori and Katsuhira about how to PROPERLY SHOW THEIR EMOTIONS AND INTERACT WITH OTHERS. Although the other characters don't share their emotions with others properly either, so the whole thing just becomes a learning experience for all of the teens on how to properly interact with others and deal with their sin. Yes they call it sin. Each character has something in their past that makes them act a certain way around others, that gets in the way of them properly interacting with others, and Trigger decided to call it that character's sin. So basically Trigger thinks that anything that gets in the way of people interacting with others must be something freaky in their past, that is JUST IN THEIR PAST, and that they should just GET OVER IT.

OOOooh you were born DIFFERENT and sent to a lab to be lab rats. (AKA you were born AUTISTIC, kids from our generation did not get the proper treatment they deserved because adults didn't understand autism completely yet, and they still don't. So you were abused for your facial expressions as a child because they were different, until you just stopped showing emotion in public. SO WHAT? Oh its still concurrent, like anytime you accidentally show emotion in public, you look up to see someone near by that you either don't know, or is a classmate that you have to see everyday looking at you like there is and always will be something wrong with you that you can't fix?) GET OVER IT. And if you don't? well... You look like those vegetable kids that can't like think, in our opinion.

OOOooh you were fat as a child! you still feel ugly and insecure about yourself, and act a certain way because you think it will make people like you better, oh... are we trying to get you to do the exact same thing by telling you you need to act more smiley and social and interact with others as if you were happy. GET OVER IT. And if you don't? well... those girlfriends of yours that you amuse with your speech and your charm, well... they like this other sexy kid better!

OOOooh you wrote an artsy yuri-esque manga, in middle school. well... **** you! We're TRIGGER and we're super jealous because we could never come up with a story that would actually get serialized and published with out us having to run around begging for funds. And that friend of yours... Well... She's DEAD from some random disease that you don't have to be constantly in intensive care for since its not curable! GET OVER IT. And if you don't... Well your a YURI!

OOOooh are you a meat head deliquent kid that skips class frequently and doesn't have any friends and so you get attached to MCs' easily, enough to break into their apartment and start to crush on their female friend. Well... your scared of dogs! not as tough now are we? not going to ever beat me up for my lunch money again are we? GET OVER IT. And if you don't... Well we're going to make you wear glasses and you're going to be one of those quirky characters that wears glasses despite being a stupid-head.

OOOooh are you rich? enough to afford hair dye and loli styled insane outfits? Well... SCREW YOU! I bet you just wear those outfits to look MO-E~<3, for BOYS! GET OVER IT! And you know what? the boys still don't like you, YOU'RE ANNOYING!

OOOooh are you the MC'S childhood female friend? OOOooh do all the boys like you? well... Not the one that you like! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Not going to GET OVER him are we? well we're going to make you an emotional sack of potatoes, and you're going to get mashed and explode every single episode!

OOOooh are you an attractive delinquent kid that skips school completely everyday while we have to study? well... You're going to be a frycook later on! And you know what? I bet that you're not even out there having fun! I bet you're just a hikkikomori that masturbates all day at home! Well GET OVER IT! seriously you're even more unhealthy then those autistic kids. At least their not suicidal... and EMO!

Overall Kiznaiver wasn't a complete waste of time because of the animation and it's worth it's bit in humor as well , I just didn't like it too much, and I don't think anybody who was remotely similar to any of the characters at any point in their life would enjoy being made fun of in this way either.

tbh its a bit dumb, like how does no one in that world understand what empathy is?
Its an anime that is just about empathy but if you could genuinely feel what others feel, but it's incredibly over complicated.

I guess it makes sense that its hard to understand, but i think its on a individual basis of how much people feel/understand empathy, and it doesn't make sense that so many people would be so out of touch with that concept.

Its kinda interesting how the whole idea is that the key to peace is empathy, and the world would definitely be better if more people were able ... to feel empathy. Especially rich people and people who are in power, but the anime itself is so over dramatic that it drowns out the actual interesting aspects of the idea.

It stinks, overall this series stinks. The plot is awful - using an obscure grand ideal like 'world peace' as a reason for a mass experiment which violates people without their consent and everyone in the series goes along with it, convinced. But more than that the series is so focused on character archetypes that comply with the plots endgame it neglects to make the characters seem realistic as people at all i.e. all the random love connections and how they're dealt with, so as a viewer I felt a complete disconnect to them. It had some interesting ideas, great art and sound but for ... me this and the flawed childish idealism at its core made it a bit unbearable.