Kiznaiver 1
That was... you know, I think I enjoyed that. But the more I look back on it, the less in the moment I am with it, the less favourable I get. Sort of, at least. First off, it's super visually striking. Trigger has its' problems with production consistency, but I love their sense of style. The bold lines and shading just look really attractive, and the introduction in particular looked gorgeous. Less convinced on the characters, so far. I don't think the brief expository introduction we get for most of them was really adequate at all as far as establishing much reason to invest in who any of them are beyond more or less superficial interactions. I don't expect an 'in' on every character, but I thought it was kind of disappointing we spent so much time on the main character just to belabour facts we largely already understood and I still have no idea why I should even remotely care about any of these side-characters (or really, the main character). I get that they're supposed to be strangers to each other (indeed, the themes of this are pretty forthcoming), but I still wish I had more to hold onto beyond the surface.
Editing is poor in some areas, as well. Took me out of it for the conversation to start on a rooftop, only to inexplicably appear at some other area of the school. The dialogue itself isn't interrupted, and there's no suggestion of movement, so when Sonozaki is carrying on as we jump back to them in a completely different area, it's quite jarring.
I think the show just feels a bit too much like leaping right into the deep end. It's thrilling, but too much feels like it's coming too fast. It's a machine gun barrage of facts to learn and facets of the premise to pick up and it leaves the little, important things to the wayside in the process in its' eagerness to leap straight into the thick of things. Everything after (during, really) the disco gurney felt a bit too much like information/narrative overload. All of a sudden, kidnapping. All of a sudden, surgeries. All of a sudden, bonds, all of a sudden, tasers? Maybe I'll warm up on this on a second viewing, but it just feels like it wants to do too much in too little time, and doesn't really properly work toward a lot of those things. They just happen because they need to.
Mixed on the OP. Most of it feels like an indie music video and way too visually disorienting, but that cut with the perspectives shifting on the prism was awesome. I'm hoping that's something they'll continue to go for (with the cut near the end, as well), since seeing all that sense of depth to movement and space is really cool stuff.
So yeah, it was enjoyable enough, but I'm not sure whether I should be over-thinking it or, uh, under.
As far as the stuff I've seen goes, ranked by first episodes:
1. Flying Witch
2. Diamond is Unbreakable
3. Mayoiga
4. Luluco
5. My Hero Academia
6. Kiznaiver
Plenty of stuff I still need to watch. Kabaneri impressions are better than I ever really expected, so I think I'll need to check that out. Bakuon will probably round out my selection genre-wise, and I think I'll keep waiting to see where the chips fall on Joker Game. Anything set in the time period that that show's occupying immediately kind of has me wary.
