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[Jarmel]

Promotional Video-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_JYQ-krfk

Synopsis-

The anime takes place in the fictional and futuristic Japanese town of Sugomori City, which was built on a reclaimed landfill. Once a booming metropolis in its prime, the city now faces a recent slow and steadily decreasing population.

A few days before summer vacation, a mysterious and emotionless girl, Noriko Sonozaki, tells her classmate Katsuhira Agata that he has been selected to become a Kiznaiver because he lacks some pain reception. Together, the two experience what is called a kizuna (or connection) bond through pain. This Kizuna system allows Katsuhira to share his pain and connects him to his classmates, whose lives and personalities each differ from his own. It is revealed that his classmates, along with Noriko, are all fellow "Kiznaivers" but are each a part of different rival groups.
The ideal goal of the currently incomplete Kizuna System is to create world peace by connecting people's memories and experiences through wounds. If a single Kiznaiver is wounded, the system distributes the physical pain experienced and the wound itself among other Kiznaivers. This leads to serious implications as Katsuhira's classmates attempt to shoulder each other's pain and Noriko assigns them on various missions.

Cast-

Katsuhira Agata
Voiced by: Yūki Kaji
Katsuhira is the story's apathetic and "semi-emotionless" protagonist. He is initially removed from his own perception of pain.

Noriko Sonozaki
Voiced by: Hibiku Yamamura
A beautiful girl who lacks human kindness and displays no emotion whatsoever. She fills her character as a sadist who often puts others in risky situations.

Chidori Takashiro
Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki
She is humanistic and seemingly nosy at times, but is one of Katsuhira's longstanding friends.

Hajime Tenga
Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno
He is physically strong and rowdy to the point of being obnoxious, but does have good leadership characteristics.

Nico Niyama
Voiced by: Misaki Kuno
A flowery girl with an attention seeking attitude.

Tsuguhito Yuta
Voiced by: Nobunaga Shimazaki
The cold tactician and honor student. He is popular with the girls in his class but attempts to dissociate himself from other guys.

Honoka Maki
Voiced by: Rina Satō
A shy tsundere girl who outwardly appears menacing and hostile initially.

Yoshiharu Hisomu
Voiced by: Kōtarō Nishiyama
A handsome and distinct man shrouded in mystery.

Staff-

Director: Hiroshi Kobayashi (Rage of Bahamut, KLK EP 5 & 18)

A new and upcoming director at Trigger. He recently served as the Assistant Director on Rage of Bahamut: Genesis. He was the episode director/storyboarder of episode 5 of Kill La Kill, the best looking episode of the series. His style serves in welcome contrast to the Imaishi/Amemiya crew at Trigger.

Series Composition: Mari Okada (Toradora, True Tears, Gundam:IBO)

Well you read the old OT didn’t you? She has served as the writer for Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans if that gives any hope. That said, she has described this series as, “50% suffering, 30% bittersweet. That’s the kind of show I’m aiming for. As for the remaining 20%… a mysterious something I would like to call ‘explosive rebirth’!”. Black Rock Season 2 it is.

Music: Yuuki Hayashi (Haikyuu, GBF, My Hero Academia)

An absolutely phenomenal composer. He has served as the composer for both seasons of Haikyuu, Gundam Build Fighters, Death Parade, and currently My Hero Academia. Easily one of the best composers working in the industry right now.

Character Design: Mai Yoneyama (KLK, LWA, Punchline)

One of the best animators at Trigger. She did a lot of animation both for Little Witch Academia and Kill La Kill. She seems to be switching positions with Sushio, who will be serving in a similar capacity to what she was in KLK, assistant animation director.

Producer: Masahiko Otsuka (TTGL, KLK, LWA, FLCL, Inou-Battle, Whisper of the Heart)

One of the main men responsible for Little Witch Academia, he wrote the script for the first one and helped assemble it. He’s one of the heads at Trigger and has roots going back to Gainax where he served as Assistant Director on Gurren Lagann, among many other roles. Kiznaiver started as a project between Okada and him, hopefully he can reign her in.

Production Studio: Trigger (Little Witch Academia, Hackadoll, Power Plant No. 33)

A spin-off of Gainax that houses talent such as Imaishi, Yoshinari, Amemiya, Sushio, and Otsuka. They have a somewhat spotty record at this point but they’re more than capable of putting out a show with great animation, it’s just the story side that needs work. Kiznaiver serves as their second original TV series, the first being Kill La Kill. With Kiznaiver, Trigger is trying to step out of their usual genre works.

Why You Should Watch-

So not much is known on the story side, aside from the general premise. Even the voice actors have been largely kept in the dark. This wheelhouse is one that Okada is extremely familiar with, which should give pause however Otsuka does seem to be assisting a lot on the story side. Kobayashi is another question mark in that he’s relatively new but he has already shown impressive directing chops so we’ll see if he can maintain that quality level for the show’s run. Either way, his directing style seems to be much closer to realism with a dash of abstract that should make for a great viewing experience. Be sure to pay close attention to the use of colors and lighting in the episodes!

On the studio side, there’s a stronger focus on realism which presents new challenges. The studio damn near killed themselves finishing Kill La Kill on time so it should be educational to see if they learned from their prior mistakes and can have a more consistent production with Kiznaiver.

No matter the outcome, whether good or bad, it won’t be boring. Welcome to Okada’s crazy ride.

English Streaming &Translated Promotional Videos-

Simulcast (Saturdays 11:30am EDT) Link: http://www.crunchyroll.com/kiznaiver

Crunchyroll is on the production committee, you can be sure they’re going to push this hard.

Episode 1 Reviews-

-new Seven Deadly Sins of Japanese Culture and they're all anime character archetypes
-a cast of whackjobs
-literally sharing pain with the Kizuna system

based Okada

Just pretty boring to be honest.

The story doesn't really kick in till the latter half of the episode, and even then we don't get to really see anything substantial happen with the big reveal. It's a set-up episode through and through.

This was... intriguing? Dunno. I'm very confused on what happened, but it seems like they share their pain and they were selected because each one represents a modern Japanese sin... or something. The Harime Nui girl, the protagonist and the kidnapper are annoying, but I like the rest of the cast. Chidori is the best, maybe because she's the most normal of the bunch.

The OP was pretty good, despite having an awful song.

So this is what happens if you combine Okada and Trigger. I very much like this. Digging the artstyle and character designs and I think I like all characters so far? The whole premise is intriguing, I want to know in which direction this is going.
But dammit Crunchyroll, it's not Zantoman, it's Sandmann. Know your german children tales.

The OP was really trippy, but I don't like the song at aaaaaall.

I had no idea what was going on but that was certainly intriguing. The artstyle is pretty good.

OP was so trippy @__@

Mostly a setup episode. I'm not particularly intrigued or turned off yet. Not as Okada as Mayoiga.

Based trigger saving anime for the second time in the same season.

Niiyama is best girl. BEST.

Best looking show this season as far as i'm concerned. OP was sick as hell too.

ED kinda sucked though.

Wut.

https://a.pomf.cat/jibxbq.webm

 

[WickedLaharl]

Plot

The anime takes place in the fictional and futuristic Japanese town of Sugomori City, which was built on a reclaimed landfill. Once a booming metropolis in its prime, the city now faces a recent slow and steadily decreasing population.

A few days before summer vacation, a mysterious and emotionless girl, Noriko Sonozaki, tells her classmate Katsuhira Agata that he has been selected to become a Kiznaiver because he lacks some pain reception. Together, the two experience what is called a kizuna (or connection) bond through pain. This Kizuna system allows Katsuhira to share his pain and connects him to his classmates, whose lives and personalities each differ from his own. It is revealed that his classmates, along with Noriko, are all fellow "Kiznaivers" but are each a part of different rival groups.

The ideal goal of the currently incomplete Kizuna System is to create world peace by connecting people's memories and experiences through wounds. If a single Kiznaiver is wounded, the system distributes the physical pain experienced and the wound itself among other Kiznaivers. This leads to serious implications as Katsuhira's classmates attempt to shoulder each other's pain and Noriko assigns them on various missions.

Animation Production: Trigger
Director: Hiroshi Kobayashi
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Music: Yuuki Hayashi
Original Character Design: Shirow Miwa
Character Design: Mai Yoneyama
Art Director: Masanobu Nomura

Katsuhira Agata

Katsuhira is the story's apathetic and "semi-emotionless" protagonist. He is initially removed from his own perception of pain.

Yoshiharu Hisomu

A handsome and distinct man shrouded in mystery.

Hajime Tenga

He is physically strong and rowdy to the point of being obnoxious, but does have good leadership characteristics.

Chidori Takashiro

She is humanistic and seemingly nosy at times, but is one of Katsuhira's longstanding friends.

Noriko Sonozaki

A beautiful girl who lacks human kindness and displays no emotion whatsoever. She fills her character as sadist who often puts others in risky situations.

Niko Niiyama

A flowery girl with an attention seeking attitude.

Honoka Maki

A shy tsundere girl who outwardly appears menacing and hostile initially.

Tsuguhito Yuta

The cold tactician and honor student. He is popular with the girls in his class but attempts to dissociate himself from other guys.

Promo Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfEaH2sxgJI

When/Where to watch
Saturdays 3:30 PM (UTC) @ http://www.crunchyroll.com/

 

[TheChaos0]

What does this have anything to do with BRS?! What am I missing here?

And you can watch it on Crunchyroll. C'mon!

 

[doop_]

What is the anime about ?

 

[Lavalamp1138]

And you can watch it on Crunchyroll. C'mon!

Yeah it looks like Crunchyroll scooped up the rights back in December.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...sively-stream-studio-triggers-kiznaiver-anime

 

[TheChaos0]

What is the anime about ?

Here's the blurb:

The story takes place in Sugomori, a city built upon reclaimed land that once prospered as a futuristic city. One high school boy living there, Agata Katsuhira, is somehow unable to feel any pain. One day just before the start of summer break, Katsuhira is called by a mysterious girl named Sonozaki Noriko and chosen to become one of a group of people who share one another's pain: a "Kiznaiver." Several of his classmates have also been chosen as part of this group, but they're all people from different circles who normally wouldn't associate with each other.

 

[Qurupeke]

It's a TRIGGER show about an experiment on some people that connects them through their pain. Not sure what direction it will have, but it has some comedic bits, some drama and I'm sure there will be action too. It kind of feels different compared to other TRIGGER works.

Anyway:
Kiznaiver 1

This was... intriguing? Dunno. I'm very confused on what happened, but it seems like they share their pain and they were selected because each one represents a modern Japanese sin... or something. The Harime Nui girl, the protagonist and the kidnapper are annoying, but I like the rest of the cast. Chidori is the best, maybe because she's the most normal of the bunch.

The OP was pretty good, despite having an awful song.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Ryu(supercell) is composer?! heh guess Im watching.

Why no male characters getting the spotlight though?!

 

[Puruzi]

Kiznavier

Lmao the fuck

Based trigger saving anime for the second time in the same season.

Niiyama is best girl. BEST.

Best looking show this season as far as i'm concerned. OP was sick as hell too.

ED kinda sucked though.

 

[phaze]

Okada pls, I demand maximum suffering.

 

[Giolon]

This OP is terrible. It's just a series of jokes and almost nothing about the show. It doesn't even give you any idea of what it looks like or who the characters actually are.

 

[Black Republican]

aight i keep and eye out

 

[TUSR]

Jarmel?

 

[Diggeh]

Jarmel what are you doing

Jarmel stahp

Spoiler

No, seriously, what even is this OT?

 

[Lhadatt]

So much troll in this OP. What the hell does this show have to do with Black Rock Shooter?

EDIT: Shouta fixed it. Thanks!

 

[Puruzi]

So much troll in this OP. What the hell does this show have to do with Black Rock Shooter?

Okada

 

[doop_]

Hmmm, that first episode was very errrr blergh mehhh ohhhh ewwww ahhhhh owwww. I just don't know what to think. The OP was crap

 

[Narag]

lol i was thinking BRS S2 when I watched it. gj jarmel

 

[Lhadatt]

Okada

Thanks. This is still very confusing for anyone not paying attention to anime series staff.

 

[LordCanti]

Felt somewhat like an Ikuhara joint when it suddenly flipped into a disco ball hospital with weird mascots. I was prepared to initiate the survival strategy.

Luluco is the savior we needed but this could also be good. I'm keeping an open mind.

 

[metsallica]

I don't get the joke. Will check this out at some point.

 

[Playsage]

What the fuck is this OP? Goddamn...
Please, rewrite it. People come in here to have actual information about the anime (as I did)

 

[WickedLaharl]

What the fuck is this OP? Goddamn...
Please, rewrite it. People come in here to have actual information about the anime (as I did)

The OP isn't going to change it. They did it cuz they think in-jokes are funny and are having a grand time seeing the reactions.

Which of course is pretty sad.

 

[Narag]

Adjusted OP may prove to be the crueler joke that draws the unsuspecting into Okada unleashed


Thematically appropriate though as we'll share our pain together.

 

[MHWilliams]

Reminds me of Kokoro Connect. I'll give it a shot.

 

[Qurupeke]

Reminds me of Kokoro Connect. I'll give it a shot.

It's like the complete opposite of Kokoro Connect. lol

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Reminds me of Kokoro Connect. I'll give it a shot.

I can only see the part about them all being connected and maybe being in high school as the only ways it could be Kokoro Connectish.

 

[Valdfellgar]

Watched it today with my wife, but couldn't get into it. Felt really pretentious. (Gonna have to review it tomorrow too, not looking forward to going against the grain.) I Think we'll stick with Luluco for what trigger is offering, that I'm actually enjoying quite a bit.

 

[WickedLaharl]

They didn't waste anytime with the setup which is something i appreciate. I like the art and the premise seems pretty interesting so i'll probably stick with this one unless it gets dull.

Tenga is def gonna be my fav.

 

[Guess Who]

The art direction in this show is fantastic. Aesthetically it looks great. Writing, though... ehhhhhhh. The groan that came out of me when the "polka dots" thing happened probably echoed for miles. The anime-philosophy stuff is too pretentious and on-the-nose, as anime-philosophy often is. I'll see how it goes but I'll probably be sticking around for the pretty pictures rather than the plot.

Spoiler

I'll probably still like it more than KLK.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

The show has a lot more of Trigger's fingerprints than I was expecting. Hell we even got ginger Kamina. Other than that the premise is kind of hard to get a grasp on at first but there's some interesting stuff about the evolution of the seven deadly sins and world peace through sharing pain. I'm not sure where the show can actually go from here but it's promising plus ginger Kamina.

 

[Cornbread78]

Ok, what the hell did I just watch? That was some trippy shit right there starting with the OP. The show has such a weird tone and ambiance to follow along with. This is gonna get crazy...

 

[Zipzo]

Loooooved it. This and kabaneri make this season one of the best in a while.

The first episode was so "based trigger", just fantastic design and they are seriously learning from their experiences. They are very properly incorporating the most successful elements of kill la kill in the style.

 

[Jotamide]

This is offensively stupid. Even for Trigger standards.

 

[Moaradin]

Watched the first two episodes. It's pretty fun.

 

[TUSR]

... He was the episode director/storyboarder of episode 5 of Kill La Kill, the best looking episode of the series.

damn did not know he was directing this

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Needs more of the blue haired girl

 

[.JayZii]

Watching for Trigger, but this seems like the most light novel-y thing to ever light novel.

That isn't a compliment.

 

[Cornbread78]

This show is so weird. You can see they are going to be put through all kinds of missions throughout the summer testing their "connections" however, what is really going to happen? This could be really good if done right, but we'll see.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

Watching for Trigger, but this seems like the most light novel-y thing to ever light novel.

That isn't a compliment.

You should check out Hundred from this season if you think that's even remotely true

 

[Cornbread78]

You should check out Hundred from this season if you think that's even remotely true

This is the truth.

 

[Muskieratboi]

I don't know whether this is going to be a Supernatural Slice Of Life, a 999-esque murder mystery, or a Shonen battle show and they just haven't shown the bad guys yet.

Color me interested for a couple more episodes, but I do want to know where they're actually GOING with this.

 

[Shard]

Kiznaiver may not be a good show, the jury is still out on that surprisingly enough, but it is an interesting show.

 

[meltingparappa]

This episode was basically a starting pistol for the dirtiest of doujins to start racing to the market.

 

[Cornbread78]

This episode was basically a starting pistol for the dirtiest of doujins to start racing to the market.

Don't get DTL started.

 

[Qurupeke]

Episode 3 was my favourite so far and I'd prefer if it continued mostly in that way. Generally, the show seems to try to balance between drama and comedy, but this was the first episode I thought they were successful. They teased the drama, but they delivered comedy. Also, I've started to doubt there will be actual fight scenes and such in this. It seems the focus will be the relationships between the cast, which tbh is far more interesting.

Anyway, the show continue to look great and the I'm becoming more and more fond of the cast. Really looking forward to what the series will offer.

 

[m4st4]

Episode 3

Hm...still hasn't hooked me and far from that instant overdose-gimme some more that was Kill la Kill but I'm starting to like the characters (especially Nico) and next couple of episodes should decide where it's all going.

Like someone here said, it's definitely interesting.

 

[ivanthebearable]

Just checked in on this and... It's weird. The entire first episode is setup and it has a really interesting idea even if they start getting preachy and philosophical with it. Have no idea where this show is going to go but I'll probably stick with it to see where it ends up.

The opening is nice looking with a really crummy song though. The art direction is great and it has very Kill la Kill-esque character designs. Can't say whether it's good or not yet but at least it's interesting and the cast has good chemistry.

 

[Jarmel]

Kiznaiver 1-4

I haven't really done any sort of post about the show and it has progressed enough where I feel I have a rough idea about how things work and what the character dynamics are. If any other studio or director was working on this, they would have drowned in the writing resulting in a work that was utterly turgid. Almost all the characters here have been done before with various degrees of success. There's nothing really new on the characters' side and the larger narrative itself is virtually non-existent. The show's goal up to this point is, "Let's everybody be friends. Happy Happy Time For All." It's almost slice of life but the larger conspiracy elements prevent me from putting it in that category. Now for a show oriented around the characters, under normal circumstances having characters be almost walking tropes would be show-ending. In fact, that's still my primary gripe about the show is that a number of the characters are both boring and shallow. Katsuhira, Noriko, Honoka, and Yoshiharu are all kinda flat. Katsuhira has about the life energy of a mop. Noriko is a boring version of Senjougahara. Honoka has some bite with her comebacks but she's so utterly unlikable that if she jumped off a roof, I don't think anybody would care. Then there's Yoshiharu who's primary character trait is to be a perpetual monkey in the wrench. That's four out of a primary cast of eight. Chidori is on the borderline as she has potential, as it becomes even more obvious to her that she's going to lose. As mentioned earlier, normally this would be a death knell. However the comedy is serving to undercut a lot of the characters and dramatic moments, thus preventing the work from taking itself too seriously. A perfect example would be in episode 4 with Honoka saying that she and Nico aren't friends.

Most directors would have blown that up and made it more dramatic with either more tears or crying. Instead there's a quick cut and the next scene has Tsuguhito, another character who has an atrocious personality, pointing that out.

The last line with Tsuguhito has impact precisely because of how awful Tsuguhito's personality is too. When someone who is a piece of shit is telling you your personality sucks, well damn. It also works as a comedic way of undercutting the scene between Honoka and Nico by reinforcing that Honoka is just a bitch. Sure it takes the bite out of the drama however considering how stale the drama actually is in Kiznaiver, that's more than fine. That's something both Kiznaiver and Mayoiga are similar in, in that they don't treat the drama seriously. Compare that to Black Rock Shooter where everything was deadly serious while having scenes such as the below:

So far Kiznaiver is keeping an even keel to the dramatic scenes resulting in a work that doesn't have any real emotional highs to it, but it also doesn't have any of the abysmally low lows that other Okada originals have. So what is keeping the show afloat then? The comedy. I don't know how much of this is attributable to the director himself or the studio as a whole but the show has a comedic streak to it that keeps everything going and engaging.

Since the backbone of the show is character interactions, having the majority of them being intentionally comedic in nature gives the audience some meat to bite into. It's not just drama, drama, drama. This in conjunction with the surreal atmosphere gives the show more leeway than it normally would.

https://zippy.gfycat.com/DelayedTartAzurevase.webm

It's sorta similar to Kyousougiga in that there's a feeling that anything can happen in this town. Whether that's from people being kidnapped in broad daylight to student counselors using a real gun in an arcade (although this definitely pushed the limit for me), the whole scenario has a tinge of insanity to it. It's not just due to the Maromi-like mascots but background elements like the architecture or setting work. For example in episode 4, there is a curtain inside the bus that visually cuts the characters off from the outside world. Assisting that are things like the delusions/dreams that are marked by the scenes being all in one color. I'm not overly sure what those colors mean though, although I suspect scenes in red mean that they didn't actually happen.

We'll see how the next episode and the conspiracy elements progress, as the next episode looks to take a more serious turn, but so far so good. The direction seems to know what works and isn't lingering on the potentially bad aspects of the writing. Tenga and Nico are putting in a lot of the work right now, which is fine. However both Katsuhira and Noriko need to become more engrossing characters quickly. I'm not sure though what niche Katsuhira can fill up as it seems the other characters have everything covered.

 

[Moral Panic]

Taking one of the worst parts of anime (the characters trope archetypes) and blowing it up is really pulling the show down. Instead of it being a variety of different characters coming together, the highlighting and boxing of the characters forces them to often act in silly and well, tropey fashions. The show isn't actively bad, but it definitely lacks any sort of speciality or uniqueness. How many times have we seen the childhood friend love trope. Did it really have to be in this show too? The main character doesn't feel pain and instead of us really delving into that and what it means for his life, or using it as a jumping board to do something really interesting with his mentality and outlook, instead it feels like they have done the bare minimum in order to just slap a trope on him and say good day. The show just feels utterly forgettable.