10 Second Anime - Kiznaiver - Episode 10

School begins and the Kiznaivers have lost their bond. Or have they? Katsuhira discovers his past Kizna system history.

Episode 10 - "You know very well that your romantic feelings might be unrequited, right?"

Hmm.

I really enjoyed the choice of characters for the first three Kiznaivers to become real friends. Katsuhira, as the narrative focus for the season, was always going to be one of them. However, having Hisomu, the supposedly weirdest one, and Nico, the supposedly most superficial one, joining the real friendship club just felt right, considering how the relationships among all seven are connected.

Hisomu and Nico were the only ones who had no prior relationships with any of the others. Tenga had recently become Katsuhira's anti-bully. Chidori was Katsuhira's next door neighbor. Maki and Yuuta had this love-dismissively ignore relationship. For Hisomu and Nico, their Kiznaiver adventure was the first time they had formed any kind of deeper relationship besides acquaintances.

I loved how Hisomu continued to hang out at Katsuhira's place during the Summer despite the promise of avoiding each other to prevent shared pain.

He may have been hoping for more of Katsuhira's exquisite pain, but he was already a friend.

It took a bit longer for Nico, but she was a girl, so there were other hurdles to jump over in becoming friends with boys. Plus she might have been worried that Tenga would still be coming over and that Chidori was also next door, so it made sense she would try to avoid that love triangle awkwardness.

But she already cared for Katsuhira and the others, so she screwed up her courage and reached out to the de facto leader. This was all well thought out and properly relied on the show's character development. Good job.

Heh.

As I thought, the title logo was going to be red after the painful thought sharing threshold was reached.

If ever there was a need for a "fallout" episode, this was it. Time to regroup, retrench, find out who really matters and what the real stakes are.

Hisomu complained that regular physical pain wasn't going to be enough for him anymore.

Just like Urushiibara said, the kizna scar was only temporary. It disappeared on time, but will its effects still linger like what happened to Katsuhira and Noriko?

Now why was Katsuhira looking for Noriko by looking up through the stairs? It made him and Hisomu look like a couple of perverts looking up skirts.

Too bad Tenga. You had your chance. Nico best character!

Aw, at least she can openly admit her crush on Tenga now. How could she deny it after that typhoon episode?

Reverse harem starting with the bishounen and quiet oblivious guy?

All Nico ever wanted was real friends. Not the made-up fairies she talked to, but real people.

Yes, becoming friends really is that easy.

Friendship victory dance! Nico's point, which was part of this show's meta-criticism on romance ensemble shows, was that even though they shared all that pain, they still had fun together.

Considering the above discussion, these two guys appear to be the first real new friends Katsuhira has made since his first kizna program.

That could have been you, Tenga. That could have been you. But nooo, you had to fall in love with the girl you said you were going to help get together with Katsuhira.

The Real Story.

In the "fallout" episode after the "big deal," the story has to pivot towards the past to button-hook into a future narrative. Real relationships and real maturity can't be achieved unless the characters know all the facts and can set a goal to all work for.

So, here's the past that's been the puzzle piece dangled out of reach for the entire season.

It looks like Yaamada-sensei wasn't always a jerk.

There was a lot to unpack, so the kids needed some coffee.

Well, maybe not Nico.

According to Urushiibara, the original kizna program ended in failure because one of the kids short-circuited the connections for sharing sensations and she began feeling all the sensations from the other kids. When the researchers attempted to remove the kizna system, some of the kids sensations couldn't be "returned" to them fully. Katsuhira was one where he got most of his sensations "back," but not all. There were five who didn't get "back" any.

The child that felt everything the other kids did? You already know.

Noriko has to keep taking drugs to dull her nervous system because, even 12 years later, she still feels the sensations that couldn't be "returned" to the other children. If she wasn't on drugs, she would still feel Katsuhira's pain. And even then, she still has to deal with her own feelings.

Five in particular are in vegetable states because all of their sensations are still being transferred to Noriko.

I keep putting "return" or "back" in quotes, because the mechanism isn't that simple. Katsuhira's case is a good example to explain how it works. The sensations in Katsuhira still occur, but instead of being sent through his nervous system for him to register, it's being sent through the kizna system to Noriko. However, during the recent kizna program, the other six were able to feel his pain too, because they were plugged into the kizna network protocol. They jacked his pain wifi signal.

So that's the fallout episode. The whole kizna system since the first one 12 years ago has been mainly to find a cure for Noriko and the affected children. The stakes for a future goal are that the program is going to be shut down. What that means for Katsuhira, Noriko and the White-Haired Five is going to be something all seven Kiznaivers are going to tackle and solve. That's just how these things work, right?