Kiznaiver – 02

With the second episode we have some clarity over what Kiznaiver is going to be about and it seems my assumption was correct. What we have here is a kind of Kokoro Connect drama with some trigger style humor. Our characters are placed in a Saw like game where they must reveal their biggest secret or receive a electric shock. Our game master threatened that they would die if they didn’t pass but I find it hard to believe she would kill them in cold blood, especially when she looks to have a fondness for our whited haired protagonist. The situation gets exceedly dangerous but with the humor it makes it hard to determine just how dangerous the situation really is. If the place exploded I wouldn’t be surprised to see all the characters come out unharmed and covered in soot. That is good as it prevents the show from becoming overly melodramatic and getting dragged down with serious tone. What I find most interesting at the moment is the nature of the characters secrets for you see in the first episode Noriko made a comparison between the main characters and the seven deadly sins. At first I thought it was a one off joke as she later goes on to say the deadly sins have changed their forms and suggests alternative names which Agata dismisses as her making fun of them. However what is interesting is that each of the secrets the main characters revealed in this episode related to the seven deadly sins. Tenga is afraid of dogs and hides it for fear of ruining his reputation. Pride. Niko pretends to be eccentric because she thinks otherwise people will be jealous of her. Envy. Chidori is in love with Agata. Lust. Yuta used to be a fat kid. Gluttony. Agata is apathetic towards everything. Sloth. And Maki claims to have killed someone before. Wrath. So you would naturally assume that Noriko is our Greed but there is another member featured in the opening who hasn’t yet been introduced. The mysterious fellow with bandages on his hands. Likely he will be introduced in the next “Mission” and I am willing to bet his nature will have something to do with money. I am guessing he joins the Kiznaver project due to payment.

This episode’s mission acts as a nice character development episode and does act to further the plot. I can sort of understand the logic of this exercise. In getting these people to share their secrets you create a personal connection between them. As the wise Katsuragi Keima said, for people far apart secrets can be superglue. Or in more practical terms, sharing a secret with someone allows people to get closer together. By forcing them to spill their secrets it forces them to coexist with someone else as they can’t leave them alone in case they tell, and in turn that person knows them better than anyone else. Sound logic even if the means to achieve this involve demolition. In tone the secrets are half in slapstick territory and half being deathly serious. For one I find it most amusing that Niko pretends to be eccentric without really realising that she is naturally eccentric. As for Maki’s claims to have killed someone I am fairly certain she is embellishing the details. Her “Murder” was likely something she did indirectly or blames herself for. While I would love it if she truly did murder someone with full intent instead it’s not likely that is the case. THis happens to be another strong episode of Kiznaver and I hope it stays this way after seeing Maigo go downhill very fast. Hopefully Okada’s bad tendencies are all taken by that show and don’t seep into this one. On another note the opening is fantastic and really gets me in the mood for the show. In particular I love the prism styled showcase of the characters. It’s only flaw is that after seeing it I have “Take on me” by a-ha stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

~AidanAK47~