Our "main" character Katsuhira has an odd condition in which he cannot feel pain, be it physical or, as it seems, emotional as well. His close childhood friend Chidori protects him from those who would look to take advantage of him, and if you're thinking this is some grade A shipping fuel, well you haven't even heard the half of it yet.
I say Katsuhira is a "main" character in quotations because the show quickly introduced a number of other characters who are all far more interesting than the first two I've mentioned. By the end of the first episode all these characters are abducted and given the show's trademark Kizna scars that bind them all together by making them all feel each other's pain. You might be saying at this point "this sounds like a great plot for a suspense/ mystery show", you're right it does. Unfortunately the blue haired Rei Ayanami clone in this show fucks that right up.
Standard creepy blue haired emotionless doll character #241, Sonozaki explains all the details of the Kizna, how it works, what her and her organization hope to accomplish, etc. all in the space of a few minutes. She then explains that the group will have to complete tests together in order to avoid some non-specific penalty (These tests are beamed to the kiznas via hologram).
All of this effectively takes out any suspense or narrative investment right at the knees. However, the worst part of it all is that the show still tries to play it off as though there is still some big mystery when clearly there isn't.
The show would have benefited hugely if Sonozaki weren't introduced at all and the Kizna scars were never explained, only leaving the hologram notes of the tests that were now underway. Now that's a damn suspense/ mystery plot right there. But even then, there are so many group situations and group outings that are done for the sake of narrative convenience that are left poorly explained in every episode that the writers felt there had to be some anchoring point for the show to go from.
Everything else from the show is solid though. The opening is nice, the animation and visuals are top notch even though the semi-futuristic light novel city trope is getting horrendously over used here in the last few seasons, and finally most of the characters do get some good development even though I found it harder to give a shit with each successive episode.
Overall, if you're a Trigger fan like me you'll probably feel compelled to watch the show from flag to flag no matter what I say. As for the passing anime fan: take it or leave it, you're not going to lose sleep either way. Although, if you're willing to put in the time for it, the back half of the show is far stronger than the first.
