KIZNAIVER

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MUSICHajimari no Sokudo
MANGA ActionKiznaiver
NOVEL DramaShousetsu Kiznaiver: Ano Hi no Kizu, Kore kara no Kizuna

REVIEWS

• 

  Peng

  40/100
  Stylistic flair cannot compensate for shaky basics

  

  For a show all about pain, feelings and empathy, _Kiznaiver_ carries surprisingly little emotional baggage. And for a show that entirely rests on creating a relatable, engaging and multifaceted cast, it does a questionable job of that too. But perhaps the most concerning of _Kiznaiver_’s foibles is that, in exploring a relatively simple set of themes that have been explored countless times before, [Studio Trigger](http://anilist.co/studio/803/Trigger) fails to innovate, fails to execute and fails to handle its story with any sense of tact. In fact, as far as substance is concerned, _Kiznaiver_ is almost tacky. This is a massive shame. Going into it, I had high hopes for this anime. And as a long-time fan of Trigger’s works it honestly troubles me to say that I’m: #Seven sophomores walk into a bar *** In an effort to create world peace, a deadpan, kawaii as fuck, blunette high schooler has come up with the bright idea of ‘bonding’ seven classmates such that their physical and eventually emotional sensations are shared equally among them; to make them ‘Kiznaivers’. As ethically questionable and as logically dubious this experiment may be, it makes for a unique and alluring premise. Unfortunately, the end result is not nearly as appealing. The root of the problem lies with the cast. Practically every character is introduced as an archetype. The most obvious example is with our seven guinea pigs. To list them off, we’ve got: the blank and apathetic MC, the tsundere childhood friend, the macho broman, the lofty loner, the patronising coolfag, the moe crazy chick and a sadomasochist. This really isn’t an issue. The point of the experiment is to bond seven totally different characters that otherwise wouldn’t normally associate with one another and build some form of empathetic connection between them. The initial direction that the show appeared to be heading towards was that, in spending time together and interacting with one another, each of the cast would open up and transcend their stereotypes, ultimately coming to a better understanding of both themselves and each other. At least, that’s what I was hoping for. And this happens, to an extent. To a very negligible extent. Okay, not really. What does occur is that a single, private foil to each of the characters’ outward personas is revealed, and that’s it. After these revelations, barring some really minor attitude shifts, they simply continue behaving, speaking and thinking as they did before. And that’s the thing; the characters never really go anywhere. They don’t exactly develop, nor do we as an audience come to a more holistic understanding of who they are as people. Sure, they aren’t utterly one-dimensional. They’re two-dimensional, which is only marginally better and quite frankly, unsatisfying. To say, “oh, the popular fuckboy has body image issues and the reason he acts the way he does is because he’s insecure” doesn’t make for a complex or nuanced character. Why has he never been able to overcome his insecurities? How will the other Kiznaivers teach him to overcome his insecurities? What can he teach the other Kiznaivers from his experiences? How will the experiment change him, for better or for worse? These are questions that should have been, but never were, properly addressed. Sure, he has a more sympathetic side, but is that really good enough? To make matters worse, this ‘characterisation’ is typically presented in a very mundane fashion. This lack of depth applies to majority of the cast, irrespective of their centrality in the story. As such, they never truly succeed in transcending their status as archetypes. __To pigeonhole a character with a couple of over-exaggerated, uninspired traits and with only a hazy backstory as explanation makes him/her just that__. It’s incredibly difficult to empathise with characters that are so bland and poorly-fleshed out. We just never receive sufficient reasoning as to why we should care about any of them. This is obviously a huge problem for a show that is essentially a character study. Doubly so for when the central theme is empathising with one another. Consequently, character interactions feel shallow and meaningless whilst the feels fest the series clearly aimed to be was never fully actualised. #痛い, 痛い *** There is one exception. A particular character receives a couple of episodes dedicated specifically to her development and it pays dividends. Her backstory is fleshed out in detail, and consequently we are able to fully grasp her motivations, feelings and behaviour. What was even more rewarding was seeing the rest of the Kiznaivers banding together and facilitating her growth and lasting change. These episodes were undoubtedly the best the series had to offer. This is perplexing. Trigger obviously knows how to make their characters compelling, so why stop there? Even the primary two are sorely underdeveloped, which led to major complications as far as plot went. Given that character motivations were vague at best, what was occurring onscreen oftentimes felt confusing, rushed and inconsequential. Much of the confusion stemmed from how convoluted the Kizna project was. Barring how ridiculous, albeit intriguing, the whole idea is to begin with, many of the systems intricacies are never really explained. Similarly, the dialogue can get excessively heavy-handed. This is particularly the case when characters attempt to express their emotions, where the word choice and sentence construction can become frustratingly circular and awkward. I guess the argument could be made that this reflects the difficulty of expressing human emotion, but it was honestly distracting. The pacing was very rushed towards the show’s conclusion. As in, things are abruptly dialled to 100. This, coupled with the cast’s general blandness, led to a real sense of disconnect and thus a lack of gravity or feeling of importance. To exacerbate matters, thematic resonance was also lacking. Not only because the messages regarding empathy, compromise and friendship were predictable and unsophisticated, but because they had been tackled far more succinctly, cleanly and effectively in the past. An example of when _Kiznaiver_ loses its grip is when a love pentagon (that’s right, 5 points to Gryffindor motherfucker) is introduced to stimulate conflict. Not only is this an excessive, cheap and incredibly contrived tactic, it’s so out of place. Why some characters that had barely interacted with each other were suddenly lusting after one another was beyond me, let alone why we should care. The melodrama was straight from a daytime TV soap opera, and even then I’m not sure things get this ridiculous. And that's the problem. __On top of the hyperbolic characterisation, the drama always felt so forced__. In the end, it's ineffective and only further distances the audience. Subtlety is not one of _Kiznaiver_'s strengths. #Light at the end of the tunnel *** If there’s one saving grace, it’s _Kiznaiver_’s aesthetic design. Once again, Trigger manages to capture just the right amount of the surreal and the absurd in their artistic choices. Colours schemes are vibrant and psychedelic, whilst the direction leads to some wonderfully staged scenes.

  Character designs are on fucking point. Combined with stunning wardrobe choices, this was a definite highlight. The voice actors did a great job too, especially given how dodgy the script could get. They alone could often portray more emotion then what was conveyed through the story. Soundtrack was pretty unmemorable, barring some pretty neat stylistic choices with SFX. The OP and ED were outstanding, and worth watching/listening to even if the show itself necessarily isn’t. Another thing _Kiznaiver_ gets right is comedy, both visual and verbal. This has always been one of Trigger’s strong suits, and they don’t let up here. The gomorins are outrageous and there are plenty of silly one-liners to chuckle at. #I used to wonder what friendship could be *** _Kiznaiver_ was a disappointment. It did everything right to attract my attention, only for things to spiral further and further out of control. Maybe the show would have benefitted from a longer runtime. Strong, engaging characters are an integral part of any good story, and _Kiznaiver_ stands as a testament to this. To make things worse,__ the drama was weak not only because the characters were caricatures, but because it was one too__. I guess this is what happens when the Trigger formula fails, or at least when it is applied to a more grounded setting.
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• 

  RadioactiveSnake

  60/100
  Kiznaiver is an extraordinarily average anime whose concepts exceeds its reality.

  This was a weird anime to say the least. It had tons glamour but nothing more. I feel like it was shooting for a story much bigger than itself and ended up looking like a plot made by children...whose lives revolved around making friends and sense of the concept of true friends.

  

  I am wholly convinced you could shortened this series down to only 4 episodes and it would have come out better. It just seemed to drag on and a few episodes felt like deja vu. It's concept was explored within the first few episodes and until midway through the series it had my interest. Many episodes just hammered in the same idea, that yes they were becoming friends. Likewise every episode asked the exact same question, Is it because of Kiznaiver or not? I feel like they could have removed the "friends" narrative and replaced it with a stronger love one. This would probably would have made for a solid romance anime.

  

  Nonetheless I still continued to watch, but i think that was due to its great animation and some feel good moments. I really like the relationship the characters but thats really about it. It was somewhat enjoyable for the first few episodes despite its muddled narrative. Even though it was inevitable that they would all be happy in the end, i still watched on. I would also like to add that spring season was really lack luster which was probably why i watched this in the first place.

  

  I can understand for some that they could completely dislike it outright, furthermore i would also understand someone who would fall in love with this anime. But i think my view stands within the consensus. Most definitely this was just a filler anime for me. What was a real insult to injury for me though was the fact that Sonozaki and Katsuhira could have had a much better resolution. The only tangible plot was between those two characters and there resolution only lasted 5 minutes of screen time.

  

  TL:DR: Kiznaiver is an extraordinarily average anime whose concepts exceeds its reality. Understandably to some it appeals to them, to some it doesn't. However to everyone else its damn well clear how average it is.

  ~6/10

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• 

  HaxoScript

  65/100
  Interesting story and designs, but overdramatic and lackluster plot

  This review was taken from my reviews blog. Link to the original here.

  Long time ago, I promised myself to not watch any other show written by Mari Okada. However, when I saw that Kiznaiver was a collab with Studio Trigger, I told to myself: "hey, maybe Trigger can do a good job here". But no, not even Trigger could save it.

  Well, let's explain what's all this about.

  Story: A bunch of teenagers with opposite personalities to each other are taken as subjects of an experiment, and they're modified to share both physical and emotional pain. From now on they will have to pass some tests where their bonds will be challenged. At the same time, they will try to discover who are the people directing that experiment and why are they doing it.

  Plot: The anime is supposed to be focused on characters and their bonds with each other. However, there is barely any character development on any of them.

  At this point, comparisons with Kokoro Connect are inevitable. Both share similar premises and intentions. KC decided to work around developing its characters, while leaving the supernatural part of the plot as just a way to do so. Kiznaiver ended up trying to develop its supernatural subplot, but it totally forgot to develop its characters, and at the end, in a story focused on character's bonds, the characters should've been the most important part.

  Of course, a big part of a story about character's bounds is the conflict, specially in that case where all characters are completely different to each other. However, those conflicts are way too overdramatic. It focuses on irrelevant stuff, rather than bigger threads. Getting rejected by your crush isn't the end of the world, but this show pictures situations like this one as if they were a huge deal, which are not.

  Lastly, about the expriment plot... well, it's fine. It doesn't lead to any big conclusion, but it's there and it works, so I'm fine with that part.

  Characters: Insultingly underdeveloped. The main cast is supposed to be 8 characters. However, of all of them, only 3 get developed: the main character, the antagonist, and only one of the other kids. The rest are unfortunately left as one-dimensional.

  Yes, the main character is extremely bland, but that's part of the story, so I'm fine with it. We eventually get to know the motivations and some of the backstory of the antagonist too, and while some of its points aren't clear, it's okay too, because at least it's relevant for the plot. And the third character to get developed is one of the rest of the main cast, and it's a really good development, they dedicate a few episodes to build it and the results were great. But why they did that with only one of the characters, and not with every one of them? Honestly, no idea. They showed us that they were capable to. But they didn't. Maybe it's because the show was too short and they didn't have time to do so, or maybe it's just lazy writting... anyways, the cause doesn't matter, what matters is that it's not there.

  Of course, bad development means meaningless interactions. Why would I give a #$@% about the interactions between one-dimensional characters? They won't learn anything, and the plot will move forward as if it never happened. They could just not be there and it wouldn't matter. Oh, and also the show tries to build a love triangle. Well, not a love triangle. More like a love hexagon, because every character falls in love with another one, who is also in love with a third one, who is in love with... okay, I'd better stop. But all this falls meaningless for the reasons I explained above, and it only contributes to the overdramatic situations that I've already complained about.

  Visuals: It's Trigger what we're talking about. Trigger is known to deliver unique and attractive designs of... well, everything, and it has not failed this time either.

  Sound: Some amazing music tracks, the opening is cool too, and a really good voiceacting.

  Enjoyment: Honestly, despite all its faults, I enjoyed this show. At the end it may leave the viewer unsatisfied because it didn't deliver to the expectations, but the good designs, the interesting story and the comedy parts make it a show that you may still have a good time with.

  Overall score: 6.5/10

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