Kiznaiver wholly embraced its training camp setup this week, whipping out hoary old cliches like the test of courage to put its characters through yet another emotional wringer. The relationship between Chidori and Katsuhira is frankly one of the least interesting to me here – Katsuhira’s personality has always struck me as somewhat contrived, and the ways Chidori interacted with Tenga and Yuta this episode offered far more interesting emotional contrasts. It was also nice to see that Nico isn’t going to be entirely left behind by this whole love polygon scenario – it’s looking like she might have some thoughts on the Chidori-Tenga relationship herself. Passions continue to bubble between these kooky kids.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

Training camp time!

Tenga being super obvious in his attempts to help Chidori

Yuta’s very sharp in his diagnosis of Chidori – she’s way too earnest and emotionally charged to lightly flirt with

The counselor wants to scare the cast

Yuta has a very limited diet

And he mainly just eats vitamins

An unexpected expression from Nico

Quick boob comparison scene

Maki wrestling with her demons

Ugh, this classic “walk in on the other pair maybe-kissing” moment

The Yuta-Maki conversations continue to be the best ones

Maki is like a character out of Aku no Hana

Yuta can’t actually match her. He backs down

Sonozaki is the Kizuna group mascot

“Missiong: Test of Bravery”

The colors for this horror sequence are great

The music is excellent, too

Tenga being a good dude

But Nico likes Tenga

Katsuhiro gets some sort of link when Chidori gets angry for his sake

“It’s not just their pain that got connected”

“It hurt me, too!”

“Actual pain would be so much better than this.” The pain of feeling for another

“Give it back. When I’m hurting, everyone is hurting.”

Even in the absence of the personal feeling, Katsuhiro can still care about his friends

“Being heavy is just the way you are”