Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj and welcome to the Studio Trigger arc. As I said before Studio Trigger has quickly become one of the most popular anime studios in the world today. Their animes are stylish, fresh, new, and redefine what an anime is, what it should be, and what it can be. Sometimes these ideas work out well and other times they fall short. We all know Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia are great animes, but what about some of their more questionable anime, where do they fall? That’s why throughout the month of August we’ll be taking a look at some of their more questionable animes. Analyzing what they did right, what they did wrong, and ultimately deciding if they were good, bad, or somewhere down the middle. Let’s start things off by taking a look at Kiznaiver.
(Street Fighter Announcer): Here comes a new reviewer!
(Nitsuj): Oh crap, I knew she was gonna show up. Alright, bring her in.
(Mira): Hi Nitsuj.
(Nitsuj): Mira?
(Mira): Yes. Were you expecting someone else?
(Nitsuj): I thought you were Shizuku. You know how much she loves Studio Trigger.
(Mira): Yes, but she’s not the only one who has a love for this studio and I too am interested in giving my thoughts about this particular anime so I would like to join you.
(Nitsuj): Sure, I don’t mind, but won’t Shizuku be mad that we’re reviewing a Studio Trigger anime without her?
(Mira): Oh don’t worry about her. Let’s just say I gave her something to keep her occupied.
*Somewhere in Asia, Shizuku is beating up a bunch of poachers who have kidnapped tiger cubs*
(Shizuku): You guys got a lot of balls picking on these innocent tiger cubs.
*Shizuku knocks out the last poacher and throws him out the window with the other poachers. She then frees the cubs who run away. Once the tigers are at a safe distance, Shizuku lights the place on fire and pulls out a map*
(Shizuku): That’s another poaching spot destroyed. Now onto the next one.
*Back at Nitsuj’s house*
(Mira): The hard part was giving her a map that she could easily read. Well, go ahead and give us the history of this series.
(Nitsuj): Well she’s doing something good for the world. Released in 2016, Kiznaiver is often considered to be Studio Trigger’s first failure. While a majority of the fans liked it, critics didn’t like it, and it had low sales numbers.
(Mira): The story was written by Mari Okada, one of the most prolific writers in the anime industry and served as the directorial debut of Hiroshi Kobayashi who directed in episode of Kill la Kill.
(Nitsuj): The whole concept of the anime is 7 characters from different backgrounds coming together and sharing each other’s pain as a way to understand each other. Hell, even the title of the anime is based on the Japanese words for wound/scar (kizu) and bond/connection (kizuna). I have to admit when I first watched this anime, I didn’t really like it all that much. It wasn’t awful, it just didn’t pull me in like Trigger’s other work. It’s now 3 years later, has time healed old wounds? Let’s reopen these old wounds and see how this anime holds up. This is Kiznaiver.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Nitsuj): The opening is “Lay Your Hands on Me” by Boom Boom Satellites. Holy crap the visuals for this opening are amazing. I know a lot of people like the song and yeah it is a very good song, but I honestly feel like the visuals enhance this song greatly and really made it stand out. Just like the anime the song has a unique sound to it that you couldn’t hear anywhere else.
(Mira): The ending is “Hajimari no Sokudo” by Sangatsu no Phantasia. Wow, I forgot how good this song was. It fools you at first by making you believe it’s going to be a rock song but no, it slips into quite the emotional song that focuses on the female cast and is feel with passion and emotion that almost brings you to tears.
Episodes 1-4
So the anime starts off with one of our main characters Katsuhira voiced by Yuki Kaji (Issei from Highschool DxD) walking to school with his friend Chidori voiced by Yuka Terasaki (Luca from Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds). Chidori finds out that some students from their school are picking on Katsuhira and extorting him for money. Chidori urges him to tell the teachers but he says he doesn’t really care which upsets her and she walks away from him (baby baby baby. . .don’t be like that). The bullies come out for their money (Mira: Where’s my money?) where Katsuhira goes to get it from the ATM machine only to discover he’s short on cash and they start to beat him up where he still doesn’t care because according to him he has a high tolerance for pain so their hits really don’t hurt him (Mira: So he’s a masochist? Hey, Seras I found you a good punching bag). He gets saved by a guy named Tenga another student who’s in the same class as Katsuhira (scene here: https://youtu.be/UjZikvAQTzY). He’s voiced by Tomoaki Maeno (Decim from Death Parade). After saving Katsuhira, Tenga messes around with him for a few seconds until it gets interrupted by Sonozaki voiced by Hibiku Yamamura another student from his school who takes an interest in Katsuhira and they go off to a secluded place (damn girl slow down, it’s only the first episode) where she talks about the seven deadly sins and how in today’s culture they still exist but they might need to be upgraded (oh I don’t know I think they’re still the same. I live with 7 deadly sins on a regular basis. (Mira): Up yours. (Nitsuj): Don’t be hating pride). She then talks about Katsuhira and why he’s always being bullied despite not really standing out all that much and not really bothering anyone. The reason why he’s always bullied is because he never shows any signs of pain or fear. Those bullies wanted to connect with Katsuhira and be special to him, so they tried desperately to get Katsuhira to fear them but in truth he doesn’t fear them he was just doing that stuff to get them to leave him alone (sort of like paying a bill. You don’t want to pay it but if you don’t the bank won’t leave you alone). After a bit more talking she begins to talk about all the troubles and wars of the world wondering why there’s so much pain the world (Mira: Because people are idiots and they do stupid things)? Her answer is that people don’t understand each other’s pain (true) and then she pushes Katsuhira down some stairs where he gets injured (what the hell? (Mira): She’s a sadist). He gets taken to a hospital (Mira: You sure about that? (Nitsuj): Honestly no. I think they were on drugs when they made this seen) and sent up to the top floor where Sonozaki is waiting for him and in the room are Chidori and Tenga along with three other students from their school. The first one is Yuta voiced by Nobunaga Shimakazi (Shidou from Date A Live) a typical playboy at the school (Mira: He’s lust). The second is Maki voiced by Rina Satou (Negi from Mahou Sensei Negima) a smart girl who keeps to herself and considers all her classmates beneath her (Mira: There’s pride. (Nitsuj): Like looking into a mirror huh Mira?). Finally, Nico voiced by Misaki Kuno (Hawk from Nanatsu no Taizai) a very strange girl who believes in fairies (hey look, Crooker has an illegitimate child. (Mira): Not sure what sin she is yet but I’m sure Chidori is envy, Tenga is wrath, and Katsuhira is sloth). Sonozaki explains that their all now apart of a citywide experiment to help make the world a better place. All of their pain sensors have been connected to each other so whenever one person feels pain they all feel pain as well. The others don’t believe this and take their leave except for Katsuhira who wants to hear more from Sonozaki. As the others are leaving Tenga tries to grab Nico inappropriate where she hits him and they find out that what Sonozaki said was true (scene here: https://youtu.be/b5KrJVWjxz8).
In episode 2 the group gets their first mission, self-introductions. But not the basic stuff like your name and stuff. No, you have to actually reveal your deepest and darkest secret to everyone, otherwise Sonozaki keeps tazing Katsuhira and they all feel it (Nitsuj: Alright. Hi my name is Nitsuj and I like cosplayers. (Mira): Hi my name is Mira and I like furries. (Nitsuj): Don’t lie to me). Of course they don’t figure this out right away so Sonozaki gives them a push in the right direction by having dogs chase after Tenga who reveals that he’s actually scared of dogs. In fact, he’s so afraid of them he tries to avoid them at all cost, even going as far as memorizing which houses have dogs and when their owners take them out for a walk just to avoid them (wow, that’s some real fear and dedication right there). Nico’s self-introduction is that she really doesn’t believe in fairies (Mira: Yeah, we kind of figured that). The truth is she actually comes from a pretty rich family, so she became ostracized at school and wanted to stand out. So, she decided to become this eccentric girl who believed in fairies in order to stand out (trust me, you’re already eccentric without the fairy stuff). Yuta’s introduction is that he used to be fat in middle school (same here. Although I would call it pudgy rather than fat and it only lasted for like a month. I got in shape really quickly). They make it outside where Katsuhira gives his introduction. He doesn’t believe in anything. He’s basically an empty shell. He’s not interested in anyone or anything and just goes through life emotionless. This pisses off Chidori who reveals that in the past Katsuhira was actually a very fun-loving and caring person who was always bright and cheerful. This leads up to her introduction which is she’s in love with him (Mira: Of course you are. Why else would you stick around him? Scene here: https://youtu.be/T6IbVkkdCTw). With this they pass their first mission. (Mira): Wait a minute, what about Maki? If I pretended to reveal my darkest secret I demand that she reveal hers. (Nitsuj): Alright. Maki’s introduction is that she actually killed someone in the past (Mira: Oh~ forget I said anything).
Episode 3 opens up with Maki saying she was kidding about killing someone (Mira: Oh that bitch. (Nitsuj): She’s definitely you Mira) and Sonozaki says they passed the first round and get to move on to the final round which is surviving the summer together. If they survive the summer they’ll return to normal and everything. The next day comes where we see Tenga will be staying with Katsuhira to make sure he doesn’t get beat up anymore and we see Chidori lives next door to him (no surprise there). At school, Sonozaki gives them their first mission which is finding the seventh Kiznaiver. After a short investigation of their class they figure out the seventh Kiznaiver is Yoshiharu voiced by Kōtarō Nishiyama another student in their class who hasn’t come to school ever since entering high school (Mira: Oh goody a NEET). They go to his house where he makes a run for it through the mall until finally Katsuhira talks to him one on one where even though Katsuhira expresses his desire to help and connect with him (Mira: Oh~ my) he still doesn’t exactly get it so Katsuhira connects with him the only way he knows how, through pain. He jumps off a bridge into traffic where he gets hit by a car and gets a concussion. Through this experience we also learn that Yoshiharu is a masochist (scene here: https://youtu.be/s26W-DczAR4).
Not much too say about episode 4. Sonozaki tells them they’re going on a training camp where they will be told the reason why they became Kiznaivers and Katsuhira invites her to join them on the trip which she surprisingly accepts. We also see that Chidori still has feelings for Katsuhira (Mira: No shit) and Tenga takes it upon himself to help Chidori in her relationship with Katsuhira.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 they arrive at the inn for their training camp where they split up chores with Chidori shooting herself in the foot and not inviting Katsuhira to cook with her (you have all these opportunities use them). Later that night Chidori sees Katsuhira and Sonozaki in the hallway where she thinks they kissed and runs away feeling the pain in her heart (Mira: Heartbeat, heartbeat it keeps on pounding. Heartbeat, heartbreak you tell me goodbye). We also get a strange moment between Maki and Yuta who seem to slowly be developing a relationship with each other. After finding out that Yuta didn’t eat dinner because it’s food he doesn’t like Maki makes him an omlette and randomly asks him if he likes her chest (I do). She then says she’ll let him see it but he says no (coward) saying that they should both be into to it (Mira: Remember that, the next time you try peeking on us in the hotsprings. (Nitsuj): What, the time was right and don’t tell me you guys don’t consider it a compliment that I try to peep on you). This pisses her off and she tries to force herself on him (okay I’m starting to think she’s lust) but they get interrupted by their homeroom teacher Yamada (scene here: https://youtu.be/mgllE3PXZnM) and school nurse Urushibara who are part of the Kizna Committee (Mira: Thank you for the awesome anime). They’re here to present the group with their next mission a test of courage where they have to find Chidori while being chased by the city’s weird and honestly disturbing mascots who are carrying weapons and trying to scare them. Tenga begins fighting them telling Katsuhira to go alone and find Chidori (you’re a good wingman Tenga) and Chidori comes face to face with one of the mascots who happens to be one of the bullies who extorted money from Katsuhira who blames his friend for everything bad that’s happened to him and says he’s tired of life and wants to die (Mira: Alright, that’s it. I’m about to go off on this little brat. (Nitsuj): Calm your anger Mira, Chidori will rant for you). This pisses Chidori off and she begins going off on him where her hand begins to glow green and we find out that besides physical pain they also share mental pain as well. Chidori rants that what the bullies did to Katsuhira was deeply hurting him as well as her. She always felt pain seeing him get extorted and hated how powerless she felt. Before she can continue Katsuhira and the others come in feeling the pain where Katsuhira demands all of his money back saying that he doesn’t want to hurt his friends anymore because of his problems (scene here: https://youtu.be/737In2-BFkk, good man). He then proceeds to carry Chidori back because she sprained her ankle and the project is ready to move onto stage 2.
(Mira): Episode 6 is the start of Maki’s arc. In the episode we learn that Maki had a friend in middle school named Ruru and together they wrote a doujin together which turned out to be a big hit with girls. Now, a production studio wants to make a movie out of it as well as a documentary focusing on Maki since her friend passed away. Maki says no and goes about her business while Sonozaki is being pressed to continue giving more results on the Kiznaiver project despite the fact that the project is starting to gain recognition around the world (Nitsuj: And that’s not good). Sonozaki puts Maki on the spot by having a sexist film crew attack her causing unpleasant memories of the past to resurface and causing her great pain until the others come in to save her as part of their mission which causes a misunderstanding between the group as Maki doesn’t really think of them as friends and thinks the only reason they came to help her was because of that mission. She runs away with everyone pursuing her except for Katsuhira who goes to speak with Sonozaki where he expresses his disappointment in her actions (and it gets to her).
Episode 7 starts with us learning exactly how Ruru died. She was born with a rare kidney disease that would kill her one day. Yet despite this she kept smiling deciding to live out life until her day came (Nitsuj: That’s really all we can do). One day she befriended Maki since the two both liked drawing and writing stories but they each lacked in one area. Ruru had good drawings but terrible storytelling while Maki had choppy artwork but a good story. They decided to combine their skills and created a doujin where Maki decided to bail out before the final chapter could be written not because she hated Ruru (in fact, it’s hinted that the two were borderline lesbian) but because she knew about Ruru’s sickness and knew that she would die and once she did the pain of losing her best friend would be too much for her to bear so she figured the best thing to do is to cut her ties with her and spare herself and her the pain of saying goodbye to each other (https://youtu.be/PetqKh7lr8g). Everyone decides to help Maki by trying to be her friend, so they go outside her apartment complex and call out to her where she finally responds to them and tells them to leave just as it begins to rain. She finally comes out where Yuta of all people is right there waiting for her (I’m sure there’s some secret motive to all of this. (Nitsuj): It’s best to assume there is. Always) reading her doujin where he asks her to read the final chapter which Maki doesn’t want to because she believes Ruru hates her and since their manga is based off their friendship she believes Ruru wrote a hate message at the end (that would be quite the twist to an otherwise sad story). To her surprise it’s not a hate message but instead Ruru saying that she’ll always remember the times they shared together and if someday Maki decides to forget her she’ll always remember her smile and she’s fine with Maki forgetting her. After reading the chapter the pain in Maki’s heart is lifted and they go to find the others who are playing by the river with fireworks where once again they approach her about wanting to be her friend and she tells them to go swim in the ocean to prove their determination. They all dive in and Maki just can’t help but smile at the idiots (Nitsuj: Yes, they are idiots) and through this experience they all become friends.
Things start to get interesting in episode 8. The group is called to a meeting where we find out that they attempted the Kiznaiver experiment in the past except instead of using pain to connect people they instead tried positive emotions such as friendship and love but it didn’t work out so well (Nitsuj: They should have tried ecchi emotions). So after that way failed they decided to go with pain and tested it out on little kids which gets Katsuhira’s attention since he has a connection to them. After the meeting the group is trapped inside their school since a typhoon has hit the city and they can’t leave so the Kizna committee decides to start testing their positive emotions for each other and seeing as how we got a few ships sailing in the anime, now is the perfect time to test the waters of those ships. The freaky mascots come and start chasing each of them where they break up into pairs. We got Maki and Yuta (with Yoshiharu as the third wheel), Tenga and Nico (a strange pairing but I’m game), and our favorite couple so far Katsuhira, Chidori, and Sonozaki (Nitsuj: You can always have both Katsuhira). Just when Chidori gathers up her courage to confess to Katsuhira he starts to remember his past and realizes that he and Sonozaki were part of the Kiznaiver experiment when they were kids. Once he realizes this he rushes to her where we see she has a Kiznaiver mark on her neck (Nitsuj: Hey Sonozaki, you do anything freaky with that mark?).
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 is a really emotional episode. Katsuhira remembers his past and discovers that he and Sonozaki are still connected to each other. We see that Katsuhira might have feelings for Sonozaki which hurts Chidori greatly and everyone feels her pain. From there, emotions begin to run wild as everyone begins to hear the voices of their heart. We find out that Tenga likes Chidori and Nico likes Tenga (Nitsuj: And I like fanservice). I really wish I could explain this more, but I really can’t it’s just emotions running wild as everyone continues to hurt each other because of this love star going on between the characters. Eventually everyone passes out from hurting each other and wake up where Maki says this experiment needs to stop before they break each other but they’re told it’s almost over and to keep going (scene here: https://youtu.be/D-mhTrFV8yg).
So after the events in episode 9 everyone goes their own separate ways and decides not to speak or interact with each other for the remainder of the summer. Fall comes and school resumes where their kizna marks have disappeared and they still don’t talk to each other. We see Katsuhira and Yoshiharu interact with each other and soon Nico approaches them saying that this past summer was the best summer she ever had and she still wants to be friends with everyone (leave it up to her to break this unsettling suspense). As the three talk Katsuhira feels a sharp pain in his chest which actually hurts him and he figures the pain came from Sonozaki who tried to jump off a building (https://youtu.be/IavUg17J2GU?t=4s) but passed out before she could do it. Worried about this, Katsuhira, Yoshiharu, and Nico use the secret underground passageway Sonozaki used last episode to reach the secret lab of the Kizna committe (Nitsuj: Thanks again for the interesting anime guys). They quickly get caught by Urushibara who tells them Sonozaki’s okay and starts talking about the first kiznaivers. It turns out there were 19 kids involved in the first experiment in the hopes that the pain they all felt would be just a small pinch to them and wouldn’t bother them at all (Nitsuj: That makes sense. The more you have the less pain you’ll feel). But something bad happened, a fatal error occurred in the experiment. One kid began to feel the pain of everyone 5 times more than normal and that kid was Sonozaki. The pain was literally breaking her and it would have killed her unless they nulled all her senses and emotions so the reason why she has a deadpan expression is because of the medicine she has to take in order to stay alive. As for the rest of the kids they too also suffered from the experiment with some of them losing the ability to express emotions and feel pain (hello Katsuhira) and some just lost the ability to do anything and became lifeless dolls. We see that this happened to 5 of the kids all of who were friends with Katsuhira and once he sees what became of them he breaks down in tears crying (scene here: https://youtu.be/f7n4udjPuW0, the tinman has a heart). As all of this is going on we see Tenga approach Chidori asking her to just go ahead and reject him but she won’t do it because of her selfish reasoning.
At the start of episode 11 Katsuhira and the others take their leave with Katsuhira deciding to think long and hard about things with Yoshiharu by his side to keep him company (Nitsuj: He just wants somebody to hit him). At his house, Katsuhira calls Chidori where he thanks her for looking after him all this time. He apologizes for hurting her and kind of rejects her feelings for him but he does it in a very kind way (I think). This opens Chidori’s eyes and makes her realize that she’s been selfish all this time and only thinking about her feelings instead of the feelings of others (yeah, you were acting like a bitch in the last episode). The next day at school Katsuhira turns his attention to Sonozaki and asks to speak with her in private in the middle of class (Nitsuj: Oh, Katsuhira you dog). They leave the class and talk to each other where Katsuhira says that Sonozaki wants him to save her from herself which is why she’s been trying so hard to get him to feel emotions again. Sonozaki says he’s wrong, calls him an imbecile, and walks away (that went well). Katsuhira than returns to class where he asks to speak with the others however it’ll have to wait after school. After school Katsuhira gathers everyone up where he pours his heart out to them saying that they all want to be friends with each other and that they’ve been friends this whole time (Nitsuj: They’ve just been too stubborn and stupid to realize it). Soon everyone begins to feel pain in their heart, and they believe it’s Katsuhira’s pain but no it’s their pain. They’re connecting to each other and understanding their pain without the kizna system which is what the whole point of the project was about. They feel pain in their heart because they understand where Katsuhira is coming from and it’s hurting them inside. Katsuhira passes out from finally feeling emotions and gets taken to the nurse’s office where Sonozaki makes an announcement for everyone in the school and city to hear.
So in the final episode, Sonozaki has gone off the deep in (Nitsuj: She snapped! Ironic, seeing as how she was probably the most grounded character in the series). She plans to connect with everyone and relieve them of their pain by making them kiznas connected to her. She’ll feel everyone’s pain while everyone else feels nothing which according to Urushibara will break her (as if she couldn’t get anymore broken). Katsuhira goes to face her on the bridge where he and the others (who show up because they’re all friends and whatnot) convince Sonozaki that they don’t need the kizna system to be friends and she doesn’t have to take on all their pain by herself. Yes, it’s true the kizna system did bring these 7 deadly sins who had nothing in common together, but it didn’t connect their hearts. They did that themselves, they opened up to each other, accepted each other, and helped each other. While the kizna system served as their means of meeting each other it was through their bonds with each other that they became such good friends. Katsuhira tells her to give him back his pain as well as the others but Sonozaki’s afraid he won’t like her anymore (Nitsuj: Girl, he’s climbing a bridge for you. If that doesn’t say I like you then I don’t know what does) but Katsuhira assures her that won’t be the case. She gives in and unleashes the pain of everyone just as she and Katsuhira fall into the ocean where she saves both of their lives (Nitsuj: Wait. Did I miss something? Wasn’t Katsuhira the one trying to save her? Why is he the one getting saved?). So Katsuhira gets his pain back and finally let’s out a smile for all of us to see. After that things wrap up with the ship train. Two weeks have passed, and the city is returning to normal. Maki tries to make Yuta fat again so other girls will leave him alone and she can have him all to herself (Nitsuj: Or you could just tell everyone you’re dating. (Mira): Too simple), Chidori and Tenga still have a chance to get together with Nico not giving up on Tenga (boy, could you imagine what she do if she lost another boy to someone else?), and Katsuhira and Sonozaki are dating but they’re keeping their relationship pure for the time being and don’t kiss (scene here: https://youtu.be/rYboyROGTnw. *Mira tries to flip the table but can’t get it off the ground* (Nitsuj): Nice try. After the incident with Yin-Yang I bolted that table to the ground. *Still angry, Mira flips Nitsuj and he lands the ground* (Nitsuj): Unfortunately, I can’t bolt myself. My spine).
Final Thoughts
(Mira): Kiznaiver is an interesting and unique anime that really does embody the ideas of what Studio Trigger wants to do with its anime. What did you think about it Nitsuj?
*Nitsuj returns to his seat*
(Nitsuj): Yeah, it’s not as bad as I remember it. The animation is very good and they really do give us some powerful scenes throughout the anime. The ideas presented in the anime are very interesting but the main problem is I feel like there’s a lot they wanted to talk about but didn’t have time to put it in. The characters for the most part are good but it’s clear that they focus on more characters than others which is bad as I really wanted to learn more about all these characters. Granted the ones we do get to explore are good, I just wish we had time to give everyone an arc to explore their characters and see them interact off each other more. Finally, the climax could have been done better. It was a messy climax. I feel like they ran out of steam here.
(Mira): True, I will admit that this anime has problems like the ones you mention but I still enjoyed this anime a lot. It kept me intrigued from beginning to end and even made me cry a couple of times with what the characters were going through and facing. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion and was easily one of my favorite animes from 2017.
Final Score
(Nitsuj): My final score for the anime is a 6/10. In the past I gave it a 4.5/10 but after re-watching it again it’s actually a solid anime in Trigger’s library that deserves more attention. Not their best work but not something I would dismiss either.
(Mira): I give the anime an 8/10 which brings the final score to a 7/10. While this anime may not have done well in sales, it delivered on giving us a compelling and interesting anime about connecting to people. It’s a smart anime that was different at the time which in my opinion is why it got panned by critics and a few fans.
(Nirsuj): If you have time, go back and revisit and see if you’re opinion of this anime has changed and if you haven’t checked it out, give it a watch it’s worth your time. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj as the Studio Trigger arc continues.
(Mira): So what are you going to review next?
(Nitsuj): What do you know about Saturday morning shows?
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