Thoughts on Kiznaiver Episodes 8,9, and 10
For those of you following the Kiznaiver anime this season, the last few weeks may have left you feeling like this;
Episodes 8 & 9 were a two part, and 10 a bit of a wrap up, so i’ll begin with a recap and my thoughts on that emotional roller-coaster ride.
Mari Okada & Trigger have done it again.
These were some of the most emotionally wrenching events I’ve ever watched in an anime. There’s something oh so relatable about the pain & heartbreak the Kiznaivers felt in those episodes. Seeing the characters who all individually grew closer have their feelings crushed and being rejected reminded me of what being 17 was like; confusing. That’s no small task for art or anime to invoke.
Moving on to the actual events of the episodes, the directing and animation were excellent. Our 7 Kiznaiver find themselves stuck in their high school during a typhoon. It then becomes their ‘mission’ to endure the storm while in the school together, but our teacher friends throw a spanner into this plan.
Yamada and Urushibara have a selfish desire to push the Kiznaivers to their limit for the sake of the projects success. Yamada takes the initiative, manipulating the teens by splitting them apart a la some rowdy gomorins. Both teachers notice that some of the teens have feelings for another, and ships them off ♥. It then occurred to me, is this a metaphor for how adults control the lives of adolescents? The events that follow in these episodes are to the fault of Yamada’s pairings!
As the divided Kiznaivers are split throughout the school, we begin to see their interactions while alone with the one they admire. This is absolutely lovely, but I’m going to harp on one detail that was shown and executed well during this phase for each character, the true qualities of each character is revealed.
While Tenga and Niko are alo
ne, Tenga cares for her as if she were a sibling, but clearly shows no amorous feelings. Niko however, is completely infatuated with his every move and gesture, even becoming so flustered that all the Kiznaivers get a pulse of her emotion, and she feigns a fever out of fear – for she’s not confident enough to ever express how she really feels to someone. Sadly, Tenga is ignorant as ever (maybe even willfully so?) and is blindly insistent on pursuing Chidori.
With Yuta & Maki, the obvious conclusion is 
that Maki is still hesitant to truly trust or love somebody else after the death of her friend. Yuta desires Maki as he always has, but is it for the sake of his image that he’s been crafting, all part of his facade? Or for true reasons? Neither of these two have revealed or accepted who they truly are on the inside, and choose to project something different to those outside.
Finally, the main attraction. Katsuhira and Chidori. Their ship just sank, and there are no life vests, folks. Chidori has admired Katsuhira since childhood – hell, they’re neighbors, the classic anime love interest setup. So, TeamRed finally gets the courage to confess her feelings to him on that stormy night. Wind blowing, thunder flashing heavy rain falling. She quivers and begins to tell him the words we’ve all been waiting for…
But wait. There’s no sounds? No subtitles? Katsuhira you idiot, she’s right there! Stop having an acid trip! But its too late. In the ultimate heartbreaking act of rejection, he runs away from her because of a flashback — a sensation shared between himself and Noriko. He runs out to her, as she’s outside in the storm and can feel her presence via their old scar connection. And that’s it. Chidori is left there, hurt. She’s changed from an outgoing person to a damaged, and overly cautious one when it comes to interpersonal connections now.
But is Katsuhira a complete jerk for rejecting Chidori?
As much as this scene actively pissed me off and saddened me all at once, I don’t think he was 
wrong. Katsuhira and Noriko’s past connection has been revealed to be the driving force for the entire plot of this anime. In an odd twist, the true purpose of the making our 7 teens into Kiznaivers was to get closer to returning Noriko to normal emotional function, using Katsuhira whom himself was damaged as well. Their relationship has been alluded to in the past, such as in episodes 1 and 7, and furthermore Katsuhira’s old mark on his chest reactivates when he embraces Noriko, proving some of her is still inside of him.
The following scenes were incredibly emotional, but in a more blunt way that I don’t need to expand on. The other Kiznaivers reunite with Katsuhira and Noriko in the gym, and everything comes crashing down. Chidori is wrought with grief watching her man hugging that blue chick. She runs away into the storm, and an angered Tenga shouts at Katsuhira to follow. Noriko then points out to Tenga that Niko so obviously loves him, and she runs away as well. Finally, the bond of their scar becomes so powerful that they can finally hear another’s thoughts, specifically the thoughts from the heart. To me, this was a plain old emotional gut punch. Everybody gets filled with another’s sorrow and it continues to multiply among them until their all on the floor writhing in pain.
Episode 10 dials down the visceral vibes of the last two episodes. Via flash-forward, we skip to the start of the new school year. All of the Kiznaivers, spare Katsuhira and Yoshiharu have stopped communicating and spending time with each other. After the traumatic events, they all agree that being close would be dangerous, and simply wait in solitude for the summer to end, and are all freed from the Kiznaiver mark.
All of the Ex-Kiznaivers are in the same classroom together (what a coincidence?) and tensions are obviously high, with Yamada picking on them. Although they’ve all gone separate ways, deep down they want answers and friendship again. Niko reaches out to Yoshiharu and Katsuhira while they are looking up girls skirts from beneath a staircase (yes, really) and apologizes to them, claiming out of her entire 17 years of life she had the most fun in the summer she spent connected with them. With no drama at all, they accept her friendship and just like that, those three are happy again! Who would’ve guessed Yoshiharu ended up as the most calm and cool of the bunch?
They decide it’s time to uncover the truth about Noriko and why Katsuhira has been linked with her for so long, and go through the hidden paths below the school to reach the laboratory. It’s revealed that Noriko who was part of the Kiznaiver project in it’s early days was linked with 19 other children, including Katsuhira. Rather than evenly distributing the pain, all pain was directed towards her – destroying her senses and rendering her as the stoic, expressionless person she is today.
The closing scene of episode 10 gave us more answers and tears. Urushibara reveals that Kiznaivers who cannot endure the stimulation of the link may very well end up as husks of people, essentially vegetables. Void of expression, communication, pallid in the skin and completely bone white hair. This parallels with Katsuhira’s white hair in all but the back, which still has streaks of brown. As Katsuhira sees all of the other Ex-Kiznaivers who failed to endure the experiment from his youth, he begins to fully remember who they were and realizes they can never be those people again, only staring at him blankly and unable to speak. He breaks down and cries in a hurt, awkward sobbing which is perfectly apt for someone who hasn’t felt full emotions for years, but is beginning to get them back. His screams of agony were almost unnatural, like that of someone who’s never cried before, which was amazing on the voice actors. To me, it was akin to someone who was unable to walk for years finally being able to use the muscles in their legs.
To my knowledge, there’s only two episodes left to wrap up the plot. How will it be done? I predict the next two episodes will end with something lost and something gained. What I do know for sure is that Noriko has become the BestGirl overnight:
