10 Second Anime - Kiznaiver - Episode 11

The Kiznaivers realize they've made real connections. Noriko plans something dramatic facing the shutdown of the Kizna research project.

Episode 11 - "We have to contact each other and confirm our feelings. Because we're friends!"

Hmm.

The kids finally got that messy emotional meeting that should have had during the Summer. Reinforcing how great Hisomu and Nico are as friends, they stuck by Katsuhira as he confronted his past and they stuck up for the real friendships they made while they were put into a really strange contrived situation.

Nico got how hard it was to be really close friends without a kizna system. She made a point of texting everyone what was going on with Katsuhira, just like the title of the episode.

One thing that was important to realize about the 7 Toxic Personalities was how narcissistic and self-centered they all were. Chidori realized that in her Goody Two-Shoes role, she never really cared about Katsuhira's feelings when he was being bullied. She only acted to protect him for her own selfish reasons; to fulfill a role she had taken on for herself.

The conclusion from the meeting was that they were already friends, probably after the second challenge in gathering Hisomu. Until then, they didn't know how real any of the dangers were that the researchers put them into, but there were big clues along the way that every situation was contrived.

Tenga said it himself, "The Gomorins are weak." The kids basically played along with the scenarios because they enjoyed each others' friendship. I'm a bit impressed with how well Noriko chose these certain people who had never actually empathized with anyone else before. Katsuhira was the exception, though, because of his past, but his lack of empathy was functionally the same.

There was some notable foreshadowing that Noriko was planning something big for the whole city. First, Yaamada said that the only way to make up for the past was to follow all of Noriko's wishes. Next, he and Noriko were absent from class, until Noriko arrived as a warning to Katsuhira. With the Gomorins mobilizing around the city as she addressed the inhabitants, I can only wonder how much of her "pain" she is going to share with everyone.

Heh.

Noriko was such a cute shy girl before the Kiznaiver program.

I enjoyed how the flashbacks showed the kids talking about what they went through each day. They were forming friendships in a strange situation just like the contemporary main characters.

Seeing how close Katsuhira and Noriko were 12 years ago gave me a lump in my throat as I realized how much Noriko's heart would be breaking every time she saw him and he didn't remember her. Then again, because of the drugs she has to take, she couldn't even feel her own heart breaking.

Nico Best Character! Because she was the one who wanted friends the most, she realized that real friends share their feelings with words, actions and memories. They had to do it that way now because they weren't connected by the Kizna System anymore.

That's right! They have to actively share information because that's what friends do!

Hisomu was being pretty cute making background ambient noises to help Katsuhira think and remember about his past and what his old friends are like now.

I found it interesting that Katsuhira directed most of the energy of his argument, that no matter how fake the situation was that brought them together they still became friends, towards Maki. Out of all them, she would have been the most resistant to forming a friendship based on false pretenses.

Katsuhira claimed that their group didn't really feel any panic from the strange situation, not because the "Gomorins were weak" per Tenga, but because they were already friends by then. The more cynical way of interpreting it was they all realized they had to put up with this terrible role-playing until they cleared the arbitrary mission.

When they were all first brought together, they didn't know how dangerous things were going to be, but that hospital demolition in the first episode was just as contrived as everything that followed. From Maki finding that morgue tag with her pen-name on it to the air bag that caught Chidori and Katsuhira when they fell. It was all fake. The only thing not fake was the chase that Hisomu put them through, but after him, they were already all friends and having fun with the "weak" Gomorins.

But even that cynical interpretation allows for the kids to become friends through fun instead of relying on each other and not feeling panic. Not much of a loss there for Katsuhira's argument. The point remains: they were already friends!

When Katsuhira passed out, that made me think of the time Noriko passed out from "feeling" too much. It's just another sign that their broken channels of feeling sensations aren't as completely rewired as they thought.

I saw the kids "feeling" Katsuhira's pain at this point as their feeling of empathy for the first time. These 7 Toxic Personalities were well chosen for their narcissistic tendencies, so this was a nice breakthrough for them to share someone else's feelings and be concerned for them.

Urushiibara confirmed that they just felt compassion for Katsuhira. Like normal people.

Sucks to be Chidori and Yuuta. Katsuhira got the Maki lap pillow when he collapsed.

I found it interesting that the young Noriko had a blue-eyed Gomorin. Was it a unique one to match her eyes, or were they that way before and later got the red life-fiber versions?

Adding on to Noriko and Katsuhira's not-as-broken-as-they-think sensory connections was when one of the vegetative friends called out to her. Did she waver a bit? I think her plan to force the Kizna System on everyone is going to backfire because of that foreshadowing.

There's going to be a big event next episode. Some of it already happened from what we saw in the hallway with the two kids fighting and one of them said that she didn't feel any pain because she was already connected to Nori-chan. It looks like Yaamada-sensei was pretty busy while he was skipping school.