It's errr...okay I guess.
Story: 4: Without spoiling, don't expect the ending to be very good.
The Kiznaiver system ends up not paying off as well as you might expect and the whole of the story is structured around small episodes or double episodes which either explore the characters' psyche some more, either just provide a generic danger or trial for them to pass.
The main idea is interesting but not quite explored as cleverly as it could, and to be frank I found the anime fun and enjoyable to a point, but never capable of delivering anything beyond some fun anime times. Mainly because the entire anime sort of waddles around the Kiznaiver system and the plot had other ideas in mind than just that. And secondarily because it's just not that well told. The anime is character-centric and isn't that good at expressing all of the characters' feelings (especially Noriko Sonozaki) and when the plot tries to tie in several layers together at the end, it reaaaaaaaally doesn't work well at all.
Art: 8 : It's Trigger. Yes you'll find a lot of things to look like TTGL or Kill la Kill here. No surprises, it looks good, it's well animated, it feels alive and is overall very well done and stylish.
Sound: 8: ripoff of a-ha or not, that opening alone will let Kiznaiver leave a (small) mark in my mind. Beyond that, solid voice cast and solid sound effects at all times.
Character: 7: I liked Tenga quite a lot and I found Chidori cute and the others were also at least decent, but this isn't a character study.
It's more of a "diverse people become friends" story, and it's built to be like that episode after episode, but since the main plot sort of clonks down around the end, the relationships between them are rarely pushed to the brink and they just all sort of are characters, and they sort of become friends, and they sort of fall in love or don't fall in love and some stuff happens.
Enjoyment: 7 : This one boils down to one question to me:
Do you like anime and specifically Trigger?
If yes to both, you'll enjoy this, at least to a point.
If no to Trigger, this may not find much grace with you.
If no to both, this definitely isn't the anime to show how great anime can be. I'm gonna be a little mean and say that it feels like standard anime with a standard anime plot of sci-fi and a standard character list of standard anime characters.
To conclude, I'd just like to say that I had a good bit of fun watching Kiznaiver. I'm giving it a 7, hesitating on 6.
But will I remember it? Nope. Nothing about it, its plot, its setting, its cast, or any single specific part of it, shone out. This is an anime done by Trigger, with Trigger style of character design, drawing and animation, and it's good, it has a sort of bad plot that isn't terrible, and it has an anime cast of anime characters that are all anime. If you like anime and/or Trigger, you'll like it.
And if I sound bored by Kiznaiver, maybe it's because I sort of was.
Sure, it is stylish. It's from Trigger.
Sure, nothing about the cast, art or sound was bad.
Sure, it gave me a good bit of fun several times.
And no, the subpar plot does not destroy my enjoyment, even if I was sort of let down.
But being on par with the standards, even with the help of Trigger's talent, does not suffice at being anything above decent or good at best. And that's really what this is. It's decent. It's kinda good. It's got a lot of little ups and one down. It's not very ambitious. It's very generic. It's just...standard.
