(12ish episodes ?)
What’s it about ?
Er, fuck if I know. The title seems to be a play on “kizuna” (“bond”), and there’s some talk about achieving world peace ? Anyway, it’s the latest original show by studio Trigger (but without Imaishi involved).
Characters
Agata, our protagonist, is your ordinary student at one of those public high schools where nobody does much studying, and the teachers don’t care. Strangely, he doesn’t feel pain much ; which means that whenever he gets bullied (and it happens often), he just lets it happen and waits it out.
One day, he’s approached by a strange girl named Sonozaki, who starts a long and not particularly coherent spiel about him being part of a modern version of the Seven Deadly Sins, who are the key to achieve world peace. Also, she pushes him down some stairs.
When he wakes up, he finds himself with five other classmates :
– Chidori, his not-girlfriend who always wants him to either step up against the bullies, or at least bring the teachers in ;
– Tenga, the big guy who crushed the bullies earlier on, because seriously ;
– Hisomu, the self-absorbed playboy who thinks he’s way cooler than he actually is ;
– Niko, the chuuni weirdo who keeps getting distracted by her own imagination ;
– and Maki, the high and mighty ice queen who thinks herself above all those losers.
Sonozaki explains that they were all abducted gathered by her agents, and have been given implants to become “Kiznaivers”. The most obvious practical effect is that whenever one of them gets hurt, each of them receives a portion of the pain (which limits the injury for the one actually struck).
How any of this is supposed to achieve world peace, I have no clue. But then, Sonozaki and her crew seem to be into really weird research indeed. And there’s the obvious question of why there are only six of them given the “Deadly Sins” theme (my immediate suspicion being that Sonozaki herself is the 7th). Oh, and I highly suspect Agata’s condition might be due to already having another set of Kiznaiver links inside him (if the cryptic flashbacks are anything to go by).
Production Values
Well, it’s studio Trigger, so expect lots of hyperkinetic action and bold colour choices… and actually, it looks like there’s less shortcuts in their animation than usual. And there’s tons of neat little visuals, from Tenga’s dynamic entry to the mascot-like appearances of Sonozaki’s crew.
What did I think of it ?
Well, that’s certainly intriguing. The plot outright makes no sense, but then it seems to run on nightmare logic more than anything else. It’s fast-paced enough to pull it off, quickly sketching out the main characters with remarkable economy. I’m especially impressed by the “show, don’t tell” approach for Sonozaki : we know nothing about her, but her speech paints a fascinating picture.
This is one of the most interesting shows of the season ; I definitely want to watch more to learn what’s going on here.
