Impressions of the Anime "Kiznaiver" (2016)

Mari Okada Appreciation Week

↑ Watched on the Nico Nico branch. All screenshots are from there ↑

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Episode 1

The character designs are like the "Persona" series. I've never played it, though.
It's that kind of caring childhood friend girl like Anaru from "Anohana"... I already got a blush over "mating and reproduction".
"It doesn't hurt even if I get hit." I haven't felt much pain since I was a child. Is this the prototype for "Alice and Therese's Illusion Factory"? He even gets choked until he passes out.
Regaining pain... that's exactly it. Wait, is the CV the same as Masamune? (Actually, no).

The character in the romance simulation mobile game that the male homeroom teacher is playing for free is trying to make the player shout "I love you!" right there. "Confession in public" is also a common Mari Okada quirk.
The feeling of having supernatural fantasy battle elements in a school setting is closer to "Black Rock Shooter".

Modern version of the Seven Deadly Sins: "Self-righteous jerk," "Mysterious mental case," etc. The sound of these names is so Mari!
Are 7 eccentric outcasts being gathered to kill each other or work together?

As expected of TRIGGER, the visuals are quite good. The character designs are good, and the storyboards, art, and cinematography are all good too.

Gudon (stupidity) and Udon... specifically Ise Udon. The Mari-ness of these lines is amazing.
The male protagonist doesn't feel pain, so everyone is frustrated because they can't find themselves in him. Mirror neurons, mirror relationships define human relationships.

This is it! It's so exciting.

Combined with the stained-glass location, it's a school boy-meets-girl story that reminds me of the first episode of "Bakemonogatari".

Panty shot while being pushed down the stairs lol. This low-angle composition also reminds me of the scene where Mutsumi shows her panties on the roof in the beginning of "Alice and Therese's Illusion Factory".
The pun on "kizu" (wound) and "kizuna" (bond). Along with "itai" (painful) / "itai" (want to be), she really loves this kind of thing. Puns are also Naoko Yamada's specialty, but I want to think about how they differ.

Experimental city, Sugomori City. Good naming even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A landfill bedroom town separated from the city center by a drawbridge. Does it really take 50 minutes by car to get to the city center? Isn't that far?
Conflict arises because "there is no way to know the pain of others besides oneself." In other words, the male protagonist, who doesn't even know his own pain, is self-alienated as an "other" as well.
"Brain-dead DQN" lol. Even this coined word is so painful, as expected.
Are these 6 test subjects plus the white-haired host child the seven deadly sins?
A human experiment to obtain data for realizing a peaceful society by sharing pain among 6 people.
A love triangle already. The childhood friend girl is confused and angry that another girl called "Kacchon" by his name, "Katsuhira-kun".
It's obvious that the playboy flirt and the serious girl with glasses will be a hetero couple. If so, will the remaining brain-dead guy and the mysterious girl be a pair?
Wait, this brain-dead DQN guy looks like Gauma from "SSSS.DYNAZENON".
OFA, AFO... The protagonist's CV is Yuki Kaji, so it has a My Hero Academia vibe. "Everyone is for 'victory'".

A climax to the first episode with amazing camera movement! Looks interesting!
Ending by Sangatsu no Phantasia! Nostalgic!
The ED visuals, which show the 4 heroines one after another in short cuts, are really good. Everyone is so beautiful.
Who is the purple-haired girl that Maki-san with glasses was back-to-back with? I wonder if there's a yuri element.

Episode 2

It's Sonozaki-san's mascot keychain. Cute.
The EDM-style opening song makes me feel the era.
Everyone is in the same class, 2-A. Second year of high school.
The first mission is "Self-Introduction." You must expose everything about your "self." They are being forced to do immediately what Jintan and the others finally did in the final episode of "Anohana."
The well-paced, deformed gag-style expressions when taking damage are very good.
Forced heart-to-heart talk. Things that were handled with a somewhat natural flow in other Mari Okada anime are being forced here under the pretext of "for the sake of the bond (experiment)," using the threat of pain penalties. It's shameless. You could call it a meta-Mari Okada anime.

Yes, it did.
Sonozaki-san is currently manipulating the other six as an MC, but I feel like she'll be thrown into the test subject position herself in the second half of the season and go crazy (I hope she does).

Sexual communication is also "violence"! Extending that, human interaction is generally violence.

The twist that "I can see fairies" was a lie, but it was true that she was a weirdo, is funny.
Helmet Sonozaki-san is cute.
By episode 2, Chidori-san has already confessed to her childhood friend Katsuhira. I can only say "I knew it" regarding this development itself. I have high expectations for the fact that they got this out of the way in episode 2.
Kacchon was "normal" when he was a preschooler, huh. Did something happen around age 6? Maybe that flashback scene.
Summer is the season of youth, huh. That abstract expression of "overcoming summer."

Episode 3

"I'm gonna rape that guy one of these days" is intense...
Breaking into someone's house and even getting fed, he's seriously like Gauma-san, and kind too.
Living next door in a housing complex lol. They are going all-in on the clichés.
They were released from the closed space in the previous episode, so they're just doing normal school life now. One more week until summer vacation.
Is the 7th person not Sonozaki-san?
"I won't rape you, but want some candy?" That's not how it works...

Yuta-kun and Hisomu-kun both have weird running styles, which is a nice detail.
He's a total hunk but also a super weird guy... It's proceeding with a pretty silly comedic tone.
It has a "Kokoro Connect" vibe, being a story about a group of high school boys and girls whose bodies are messed with by a higher existence and who have to deal with it. Aren't "Kiznaiver" and "Kokoro Connect" basically synonyms?
Don't make the metaphor for "ascension," or rather climax/ejaculation, this explicit! It's vulgar!!
I M M O R A L

Adding Sonozaki-san to these 7 people makes it 4 boys and 4 girls, huh.

Episode 4

A child questioning the scope of "everyone." A sharp critique of the "everyone" worship ideology. "Everyone you like."
Hisomu-kun, the masochist who likes unexpected pain.
I love Maki-san's sharp retorts to sexual harassment comments.
Pharmacist? Sonozaki-san in a lab coat costume is cute. Is this person actually a character in that kind of cosplay mascot position??

As I thought, Sonozaki is the type of character who looks serious but actually acts like a ditz... I like it.

It's a masterpiece where you can watch endless good scenes of a girl with a crush on her childhood friend. But Sonozaki is also incredibly charming~~ She only ever wears costumes like that white dress with the big-brimmed hat, doesn't she...

So far, it's basically a chaotic youth comedy.
'Kizuna Association,' huh? It takes up 1/3 of the town. Those obvious members lurking in the town lol
So Urushibara-sensei is the school counselor at this school.

Episode 5

The screen composition is consistently good. The way the inn (Japanese-style house) is shown feels Ozu-esque.
That flashy pajama lol Sonozaki really is a crafty character~~
Got a heartbroken character running away while saying 'It hurts' 😋
Yuta and Maki are a great duo... I love how they force the main theme of 'everyone makes assumptions without knowing the other person's true nature' from a joke about clothed breasts. The direction where Yuta's face is reflected in the glasses when she pins him down is also classically well-done.

Is Nori-chan (Sonozaki) the idol of the Kizuna Association... so that's why they make keychains of her.
They're portraying the Kizuna Association quite comically, but is it a bluff? Or is there something else that will be the antagonist in the final act?
It's more of a panic horror than a test of courage. It feels a bit like 'Train to the End of the World.' Mari Okada.

The 'childhood friend' duo of random male classmates has their relationship revealed right in front of Chidori! Amazing... To relativize a childhood friend relationship so easily.

Whoa~~~~! This is interesting!!!
Chidori-san... you're the winner... You're the best.
Mari Okada's use of the sunrise after an all-nighter is as skillful as ever.

Even if you can't understand your own pain, knowing that someone who cares about you felt your pain and suffered for you... Because of that, you can return the stolen money and feel the outline of your 'self' a little more clearly, allowing you to take a step forward. It's a brilliant script...!!
As expected, the self (and its emotions) is formed through the existence and words of others. After all, Chidori couldn't ignore the 'love' she felt once Sonozaki got close to Katsuhira and created a love triangle.
I'm glad Chidori's 'heaviness' was validated.
Is the second stage that not only physical pain, but also mental pain and suffering are now being shared?

Episode 6

Oh~ A flashback to Maki's past right in the opening. It really was yuri after all!! Were they drawing manga together?
That purple short-bob girl has a really bewitching vibe.

Seriously, the screen direction is too good~~!
'Satorare' lol That's like NTR

Here, in the opening flashback scene, they repeat the shot of the two walking along the embankment but shift their relative positions. That's clever.
Niko-Maki... is that what this is!? (Also, Maki's first name is 'Honoka'... is she a one-person μ's?)

'Dissatisfaction... fu-manju.'

Is 'forgetful act' referring to herself (Noriko Sonozaki)?
Does Tenga like Chidori?

Charles de Mackin-sensei was actually serializing something! In middle school? That's amazing.
A movie adaptation lol. It's seriously a huge hit.
That male editor saying, 'It's a huge hit with middle school girls, but it has no general appeal,' is such a raw, nasty thing to say.
It's not like it's Charles de Mackin's 'Unrequited Love Triangle'.
'Promise from Heaven' is so bad it's funny. A student falling in love with a teacher, and it's yuri, and then she gets her heart broken and starts dating her childhood friend... Group bullying, incurable diseases... It's like a parody of a cell phone novel, or rather, 'a common, jumbled story filled with tear-jerking tropes.' I wonder if this can really be read as a metaphor for Mari Okada's work? Have I ever used the 'incurable disease' trope? Like Jintan's mom in Anohana?
It is a childhood friend hetero-yuri story, though...
Two years ago... so she was in her third year of middle school.

It really feels like 'Kokoro Connect.' A group of high school boys and girls who have been connected for some reason, and they work together to solve each person's problems. Unlike a harem light novel, all seven are equally connected, so there's no center to the relationships, and it doesn't get trapped in just two-person dynamics. It's great that the whole group, boys and girls alike, goes to save one person.
'Contempt,' huh... It's interesting how Noriko flinches when she hears that.

Episode 7

Giant funeral portrait lol. Is that Masaki Kurosaki?
They all visit the home of a girl who passed away a few years ago. The depiction of the mother reminds me of Menma's mom from 'Anohana.' Did Ruru actually push Maki away?
You have to properly acknowledge the other person's right to quit being 'friends' or to reject it. 'Friends' aren't forever, either. And 'forever' doesn't necessarily mean healthy.

This is exactly the kind of thing I mean. Validating the pain of the perpetrator. Good and evil aren't just 0 or 100.

Looking closely at the final episode of 'Promise from Heaven,' the childhood friend in the love triangle is actually alienated by the teacher-student yuri and gets his heart broken! (The best)
It was incurable disease x 'Bakuman.' yuri -> Ruru-Hono.
I mean, Mari Okada, like with Sada-yae in 'Hisone and Masotan,' tends to do tragic yuri where one person is already dead... It's a staple of yuri created by heteronormative writers.

The fact that she makes a middle school girl character say this. There's a perspective here on (homosexual) sexual depictions as objects to be consumed. Who is the one 'getting interested' in this moment?

I see... That's amazing...
Honoka stepped away from writing because her own reality was about to be swallowed by the fiction she was creating (incurable disease yuri). Ruru, who had lived a ridiculous, unbelievable reality like an 'incurable disease' fiction since birth, conversely wanted to drag people who were enjoying 'fiction' from their carefree reality into a true fiction through their own creations. Especially Honoka, her first friend. Her romantic feelings for Honoka were something that could only be realized within that fiction. The realities they lived in were mismatched from the start... That's a good, sorrowful yuri story.
Though, Ruru's character design is a bit too cliché. The talented artist, the femme fatale who died of an incurable disease.

These guys have become close. The space where they're all hanging out is precious. People who don't know 'how to become friends'...

Noriko is struggling too, huh.

This is so good, it's making me cry... I love it not just as a romantic ensemble drama, but also as a story about making "friends." I wish "losing heroines" had been like this...

The rain starts falling, followed by a series of shots of the city landscape with background characters. I just realized, the 'X' mark of the 'Kiz' represents a bond, so it also signifies the exchange and intersection of people's feelings! An X-shaped pedestrian bridge is shown. And the drawbridge that is usually 'X'ed out and impassable is now connected and open... That's such a smart piece of direction... Director Hiroshi Kobayashi is truly amazing.
Also, a long-braided, bespectacled, busty high school girl character holding a red umbrella—that's just Hanekawa Tsubasa, isn't it!!

Did you not read the final episode?
Ah, what I wrote above was completely wrong, lol. If the bond gets any deeper, the pain of losing it will be even greater, so she pushed them away. To protect herself. And Honoka feels guilty about that... I see.
It's so well done how they betray them just when there's been a lot of shared emotional pain, bringing back the physical pain of a bruise for the first time in a while~~

Every scene is great. Yuta, you're the best.
Swimming in the sea on this cloudy evening is wonderful. Come to think of it, this is a 'summer anime' after all...

......Yes. There is no doubt about it, this was a god-tier episode. I hereby present the award for this year's best 'hetero-yuri' to episode 7 of 'Kiznaiver'......
What is this, nobody told me this was such a good anime! What is this great story!! You've made me cry!!!

It landed on the idea that it doesn't have to be friends or lovers, 'Kiznaiver' is fine as it is. Like 'soulmates'? Sharing wounds requires reconstructive surgery by the Kizuna Committee, so it's not that easy~ (not that kind of meaning)

'Why are you being so serious when you're covered in seaweed'—that's nice.
I see, the final episode of 'Promise from Heaven,' which was poorly received by readers, was meant for Honoka alone. That makes it a failure as a commercial work, sure. But expressing one's own private feelings in a place where you're supposed to write for the masses is exactly Mari's specialty. Just like in 'KimiMote'...

Wait a minute, this is just too much of a masterpiece anime so far, and considering it's not that well-known or highly rated, won't it lose momentum all at once in the second half? Ah, I hate that, it's scary, it's scary. Please, just keep running like this. I honestly don't think I'll like the Noriko (and Katsuhira) past arc much, so after that, I'm looking forward to Nico and Tenga's episodes? I wonder if Tenga and Chidori will end up together... At this point, I don't really want to accept that. But I watched Chisaki and Tsumugu in 'Nagi-Asu' while suffering and writhing, so it's not like I can welcome every pairing in Mari's works, not me. But I do know that I like how she depicts characters finding their next partner after a heartbreak, like Shun and Taiki in 'The Anthem of the Heart'.

Episode 8

'The Color of Heartache' LOVE
Atmospheric pressure? A typhoon? Are they doing a typhoon trope again like in 'Hisone and Masotan'?
'Negative emotions are easier to connect'—judged that the root of this is pain.
Humans can become Kiznaivers from childhood to adolescence. It would be easier for apes or something.
Oh, it's a 'Typhoon Club' situation!

Mari Okada is writing a romantic relationship chart for the characters in the story again...
Adults trying to make young people fall in love. Is the Kizuna Committee the JASDF Gifu Air Base?
Is Nico already attracted to Tenga?? Yes, the unrequited love series connection is complete~~~

The way 'Urushi' dotes on 'Nori-chan' is also interesting. I thought she was clueless about romance, but she's surprisingly precocious.
Sonozaki doesn't have parents, so are Urushi and Dayama her surrogate parents?

Nico in love is just too cute... The jersey suits her!!
Niiyama is so interesting~~~ He wants 'pain' more than friendship or love. Unlike Honoka, he doesn't have a 'trauma' that caused him to become twisted. Will this guy, who probably won't enter a romantic relationship with anyone, play an active role as a trickster who stirs up the other seven?

Whoa~~~ Yuta's awkward, creepy way of approaching her, and Honoka's 'Don't hug me'... Excellent!! Seriously, these two are great.

(Grinning while looking at the two waveforms on the monitor and typing on the keyboard) 'You guys are good... You're excellent...' ← This guy is way too much like 'me'............

Whoaaaaa............ This is crazy......... Is there such a cruel way to be rejected?? To have your desperate confession go unheard and unseen, and to hear the footsteps of another 'destined person' and be left behind as they run off............ The entire sequence of direction, from the soundtrack to the visuals, was spot on, and even I felt a little bit like, 'I don't care about Chidori's confession, focus on Noriko and Katsuhira...!' Is there any scene as brilliant and as cruel as this?
The sequence from Noriko getting on the train alone, getting off, walking through a narrow sewer-like tunnel, and going outside via the stairs was perfect, with every single cut being beautiful.

Episode 9

Wow... How do they come up with lines like that?

God-tier dialogue.
The way they say "when we were little" is interesting.

It's truly amazing. After putting Chidori through such cruel treatment, they don't just leave her as a "pitiful girl with a broken heart." They immediately depict the feelings of other characters, accusing Chidori of being "sneaky" because she's also being loved by someone else. Even if she "loses" in one love triangle, she "wins" in another. Constantly swallowed by multiple love triangles, she can't just stay in one place, wallowing in grief and sentimentality. Suddenly accused by her friends in ways she doesn't understand, she has no choice but to be confused, asking, "W-what are you talking about?" But through that, Chidori is saved from the scene of her heartbreak.
They are such pros at love triangle stories; I'm being shown a technique from a far higher plane. The application is pushed to the absolute limit.
Come to think of it, is there no one who likes Nico-chan right now...? To think she'd be the most pitiful character.

Yes.

Is there any chance Urushibara and Yamada were a married couple? Did Urushibara use her own child as a test subject? She must have had experience with marriage and childbirth. I hope she's not Noriko's mother.
12 years ago means she was 5?
It's starting to feel like "Darling in the Franxx."
Could it be that Nori-chan has died once before? Like a mass-produced Rei Ayanami?
I think Nori-chan is a good character, but I really can't root for her relationship with Katsuhira.

The usual love-related drama and farce, which feels very familiar, has begun. I really like this kind of thing.
Having Nisshoku-kun here is a huge balancing act. Because he's the one who actually feels like this is a farce.
The pain of having your feelings revealed to the person you like by someone else before you can confess yourself. Was that what "A Whisker Away" was about?

Inner voices! lol Zero privacy!!
Wow... I was wondering how Honoka, whose fixed pairing was already set, would interact with the others who are in a chain of unrequited love, but it turns out she interacts with them through the collapse of the "friendship" that had once formed. I see.
A cynical production that juxtaposes the raw voice of trying to maintain friendship (the facade) with the inner voice of prioritizing love and wanting to devour a romantic rival (the true intention). Well, that's how it would go.

Thinking about it calmly, the sight of so many dead bodies over mere romance is incredibly funny. It's the best.
And so, coming full circle, we return to the point where only Katsuhira doesn't understand pain.
Was spending the night in the schoolyard puddle after staying at school on the night of the typhoon also a reference to "Typhoon Club"? I forgot.

It's a huge dilemma whether Tenga will end up with Chidori or Nico... It's worth predicting.
Believing that Mari Okada and I are deeply connected by a Kizuna (creepy), I'll bet on Nico and Tenga here! If Nico gets rejected, there's really no saving her, whereas Chidori still has a chance to end up with Kacchan... The possibility of Nori-chan having her heart broken... Other screenwriters might not do it, but I think Mari Okada is capable of it.

Episode 10

So it's Nisshoku here!! They really know how to use characters in an ensemble drama. He's doing a great job.
Come to think of it, they're using feature phone emails, not LINE on smartphones. It's a 2016 work and a near-future setting, so LINE should have been fine, but...
Oh, summer vacation is over and the Kizuna link is truly gone. We're back to a "realistic" school anime. I wonder what they'll do from here.

Nico-chan is such a good girl...
The development where, toward the end of the series, after reaching a catastrophe due to romantic entanglements, they rethink that it's important to cherish not just love but also "liking" friendship equally, is exactly the same as "Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan," which I watched yesterday. Maybe Mari Okada isn't actually a romanticist after all.
However, I expect them to take this further and seriously face the love triangle again to provide some kind of answer, so I'll keep my expectations up.

Or rather, in reality, you wouldn't be able to become lovers or even friends with someone whose emotions and inner voices are connected like that, would you? If you think about it normally. You are "other" because you can't understand their heart, and it's because you are "other" that you can "connect." You can become friends or lovers.
So, the fact that their love lives got tangled and their friendships collapsed isn't their fault; it's all because of the Kizuna.

That said, since they are 7 (or 8) people who deepened their relationship through the Kizuna for better or worse, now that the Kizuna is gone, maybe they can finally truly bond and become friends or lovers. It feels like a huge detour, but there are quite a few stories with this kind of structure, aren't there?

That's great, isn't it? 😊
For me, this is already a case of "I wish 'Too Many Losing Heroines!' had been like this"... Going through a love triangle and then becoming "friends." Properly confessing with "Won't you be my friend?"...
Wait, is this... did we enter the Tenga-Nico route!? Did he fall for how cool Nico is??

Is Nori-chan going to be the final boss? The city plans to close the Kizuna Committee's research facility. After all they've done,
There are 19 children around 5 years old who were connected by Kizuna.
Urushii 12 years ago is too good.
Not sharing the pain, but concentrating it... Nori-chan, that must be so painful.
"Won't you turn me down?" huh...

This logic has a point and it's very Tenga-like, but isn't it selfish to go out of your way to get Chidori to turn you down? Why not just go to Nico regardless of Chidori? It's an act of forcing a burden on Chidori out of selfishness, wanting to get turned down by her so he can feel refreshed before going to Nico. Well, since it's about love, it doesn't matter how much you inconvenience others or how selfish you are. It's a bit uncool and cowardly for Tenga. (Though some might argue that's exactly what's good about it.)
It's wonderful that Chidori doesn't understand Tenga's intentions at all here. Chidori is also doing her best just to deal with her own issues.

Nori-chan is too pitiful. No wonder everyone involved, like Urushii and Yamada, sympathizes with Nori-chan and becomes overprotective...

However, as someone who loves ensemble dramas and love triangles, I have to say something even more cruel to Nori-chan. Nori-chan, who has now ended up bearing the pain of the other 18 children all by herself, is positioned at the "center" of the human relationships, as shown in the model diagram on the PC screen. She is the same type as a harem protagonist, and while I truly feel sorry for her, I cannot bring myself to like Nori-chan, who is burdened with the attribute of being the "ultimate receiver" of pain. I'm not fond of characters in positions where all these arrows are concentrated. She is, in fact, the "tragic heroine (= protagonist)."

However, if I interpret the worst result of this inhumane experiment as this hell of being placed in the position of a harem protagonist who receives everything even without wanting to, maybe it actually fits my preferences. That's right, the "ultimate receiver" attribute is "inhumane"! It's pitiful to force such a role on someone.

Nori-chan... you don't have to be the ultimate receiver, you don't have to be in the center, in the position of the main heroine. But regardless of her feelings,the tragedy of being made into a "main heroine"—Thinking about it that way, it's an incredibly critical anime. The argument that being made into a "main heroine" is pain, a disaster, and a tragedy. In fact, if Nori-chan's popularity in this work is relatively lackluster, isn't it due to the debuff attribute of being the "main heroine"? We might have reached a point where it's no longer about "losing heroines" or "winning heroines"...

That's brutal... She's not dead, is she? Living like she's dead without any senses or emotions.
Also, they're doing the "having your feelings exposed to a third party" thing in this flashback too!! They really put it in whenever they get the chance...
When you get hit with such gloomy and heavy elements, you can't honestly enjoy the love drama!! Bring back the comedy...

Episode 11

Sharing information is important! Nico is really active. Let's put our feelings into words and convey them to the other person.
Nico-san's email style is too good. I feel like she'd still be the organizer for this group's drinking parties even after they become adults.

Come to think of it, it's safe to assume that Chidori knew Katsuhira even before he became a test subject (she's known him longer than Noriko has). From Chidori's perspective, it means her childhood friend Katsuhira suddenly disappeared for a while before elementary school, and when he finally came back, his emotions were gone.

The direction where the lights in the opposite apartment building all turn on at once while they're talking on the balcony is amazing. The orientation of Katsuhira and Chidori, separated by their rooms, is also perfect. It's theatrical, yet divided by cuts rather than being shown on a single screen, while still being connected.

So, is Chidori being blamed here for not understanding Tenga's story from the previous episode at all? No, well, maybe I'm biased toward Chidori, but isn't she not that bad? It's natural for everyone to be self-absorbed. Well, it's fine since Chidori herself is self-reflecting and blaming herself.

Niiyama-kun is really doing a great job taking care of a depressed Katsuhira when it counts, lol. *Swish, swish-swish*—the self-made ambient noise for thinking is wonderful.

At the start of episode 1, I didn't think it would be such a serious... sincere story. The damage caused to the children by the Kizuna Committee's research is immense, but the adults aren't just symbolic villains; they are trying to do their best while carrying the weight of their own guilt in their respective positions. But it's not like everything will be a happy ending just because the Kizuna Project succeeds this time, right? Will those victims recover? What is Nori-chan's wish? Was it Noriko's will to gather Katsuhira and the others and make them Kiznaivers? Or was it the intentions of Yamada and the others? I don't understand the higher-level story at all. I'm a specialist in love drama...

"Not late, but leaving early" lol. I really think the script is so clever.
Back to the location from episode 1! The hallway with the stained glass. The conversation scene between Nori-chan and Katsuhira.
Gudon (foolishness), also a refrain.
Tsurezuregusa Section 85 "Because it differs from one's own heart..." -> seems to be a pun on "Gudon" (Udon).
lol This old Japanese teacher is the best! The comedy has properly returned. That's right, let's do that kind of thing after class. It's the best school anime.
It's been a while since I've seen Ise Udon too.

...Could it be that they're trying to do the Teirin-ji scene from episode 11 of 'Anohana'? A "check of answers" one by one.
Amazing... They're mentioning elements like Gomorin at this point, trying to land the slapstick drama of the Kizuna Project so far into "reality." Even though they've had strange experiences that shouldn't be possible in reality, the reason they were able to deal with it without panicking too much is (not because it's that kind of anime, but) because everyone was there, because they overcame it together as "friends."
We had already become friends a long time ago. ...That's right! That's it! Being friends isn't something you become through formal procedures like "Won't you be my friend?," it's something you realize you've already become.

Wow... so from there, it connects back to the existence of his childhood test-subject 'friends' within Katsuhira's mind...
And then it moves on to Honoka's troubles. It's seriously exceeding my imagination.

I remember a line like that in 'Drive My Car'.
In Mari Okada's context, it's easy to swallow.

I see.
The 'Nori-chan & Yamada final boss faction' trying to continue and develop the Kizuna System so that people can truly connect and be happy, versus the 'Urushii & protagonist faction' trying to understand human pain without the Kizuna System.
If it's Mari Okada—or even if it isn't—it's obvious the latter will win, but this composition is interesting. You could just say it's the Human Instrumentality Project. In short, couldn't this also be read as a confrontation between a controlling love story with sci-fi fantasy elements like the Kizuna System, and a grounded love story without any of that? By using the fictional setting of 'Kizuna,' they might be trying to deny its necessity in the end. In that sense, it might be like Eva. 'Return to reality.'

Well, now all that's left is the final showdown!

Episode 12

The 'Red Paper' of the Kizuna Association...
It's funny how the villainous-looking mayor isn't an enemy at all, just someone being pushed around. Poor guy.
Everyone is moving according to their own intentions and desires. It's starting to feel like the final act of 'Maboroshi Factory.' There's even something like an election campaign car driving around.
Terrible things are happening throughout the city, but the fact that it's presented so comically is a relief.

Nico-chan is so cool... 'Admit it!' We were already friends a long time ago.
Headbutts are painful for both the giver and the receiver. Even without Kizuna, pain is shared.
Even if I can't forgive Sonozaki, and even if I can't 100% forgive Katsuhira, I want to act for my friends. This is such a friendship anime.

I feel like this is a story trying to redo and update 'Anohana' overall. These guys aren't basically a group of childhood friends, but companions who deepened their friendship throughout the story, yet they clash their feelings against each other, and in the end, they all go searching to save the main heroine as friends.

The Rainbow Kizuna Bridge has been blocked.
The composition of the final boss battle is interesting.
Nori-chan is someone trapped in a happy past. But she also has the will for the future to save her friends who are in that state now.

Friends aren't omnipotent... They even insert an exquisitely lame, sluggish atmosphere into the final battle. I feel a strong will to never make it just a serious and cool final boss fight.
I'm laughing so hard that they're just arguing sluggishly after setting up such a dramatic stage on a blocked drawbridge at night. It's the best.

Whoa, Honoka-san... It's not a composition where 'everyone' unites in justice to defeat and save the runaway Nori-chan; instead, she declares that we are still scattered and don't understand each other's feelings at all. But that is precisely why we can try to know others and connect. And that is how we became 'friends.'

Now it's Chidori's turn! Nisshi-kun with a nice assist here too. Is this guy really the assist king? He expands his own wounds and says it's better to know about pain. As expected of a genuine masochist... the persuasiveness is different.

Trigger quality, perfectly nailing the parts that need to be nailed one way or another.
It's funny how they say 'It huuuuuurts!!' with the same energy as 'Let's gooooo!!'
The flow of sinking -> reaching out hands underwater -> pulling up reminds me of the final episode of 'Nagi-Asu'.

That the mind and body are 'in pain' means it 'feels good.' An affirmation of the pleasure of pain. Looking at it this way, Mari Okada is certainly a writer of masochism. A person who writes stories where 'pleasure,' not justice or morality, is at the very root. Even the affirmation of 'liking' someone, if you push it to the limit, isan affirmation of pleasure.

But at the same time as being honest about one's own pleasure, there is morality in respecting the pleasure of others. Or rather, is that how morality and justice are formed in the first place? Still, the author's style lies in breaking down and reducing morality, justice, and love into pleasure every single time and showing it off openly. Even the pun thesis of 'Pain = Want to be' is, in short, both pleasure principles. That's why Nisshi-kun is in this work.

Aftermath part
Whoa, the destructive power of Honoka-san's affection is dangerous... It's no wonder Yuta-kun is falling for her...

Oh, so Chidori and Tenga end up together, my prediction was wrong... No, Nico-chan hasn't given up on Tenga yet! Hang in there!! Nico-san should still have a chance! It's a shock that Chidori is leaning so much toward Tenga, though... If it turns into an open-ended love triangle fighting over Tenga, it might feel similar to the Kazuki-senpai situation in Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live. But Tenga clearly likes Chidori, so I guess Nico is still at a disadvantage.
So Noriko and Katsuhira just happily end up together... I see~~

The end

The end!!!!!
That was super interesting!!!!!! I see, so this is why it wasn't that highly rated and didn't become popular... The public is hard to please, isn't it~~
I think it's fair to say this is one of Mari Okada's greatest masterpieces (I said the same thing about 'Hisone and Masotan' yesterday).
She really is amazing. She's just a genius screenwriter.

It is a Mari version of 'Kokoro Connect'. But it deals seriously with friendship, not just romance, and it's clear that Mari Okada takes interpersonal relationships in general as her theme. (Though it wasn't covered in this work, 'parent-child love' is also one of them.)

If Katsuhira had easily dumped Noriko and ended up with Chidori at the end, I would have considered it an absolute masterpiece. That didn't happen, and I'm left slightly dissatisfied with how the romantic pairings settled, but conversely, other than that, I have no complaints and I love it. I think it's a perfect anime.

Also, the visual quality was insane the whole time. Is it because of Trigger, or is it because of director Hiroshi Kobayashi... Seriously, this is Hiroshi Kobayashi's first directorial work? He's too much of a genius. Mai Yoneyama's character designs were also wonderful.

It's like 'Kokoro Connect', 'Darling in the Franxx', and 'Anohana' added together and divided by three... Oh, and 'SSSS.DYNAZENON' too.
I wonder if I can interpret the five childhood friends that Noriko wanted to save as a metaphor for the childhood friend group in 'Anohana'.

It's great to have one character in the protagonist's friend group who has absolutely no interest in romance, like Ririko-san from 'Hisone and Masotan' or Niiyama-kun from 'Kiznaiver'. It's lovely that even such people can hang out together as friends without feeling alienated.

It was a bit too amazing and I haven't fully digested it yet, so I might add more later!

Mari Okada Anime Note List