The Hedgehog Dilemma in Kiznaiver's Narrative

After having finished Kiznaiver, I was quite disappointed by the shallowness of the story, but what I did find interesting was its commentary and aversion to the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, which is constantly brought up in conversations about Neon Genesis Evangelion.

For those not in the know, the Hedgehog’s Dilemma is a metaphor for the various obstacles a person will face with inter-personal intimacy. The basic idea follows that hedgehogs during winter will be cold and try to huddle together for warmth, but are unable to do so because the closer they get, the more they will hurt one another with their quills.

What is interesting about this is how true it can be for many people. As humans, we expect to be able to seek out connections with others in attempts to reduce our loneliness but are ultimately faced with adversity when it becomes clear that having company is not necessarily any less painful than being alone.

In Neon Genesis Evangelion, characters will often hurt one another in various ways due to their preferences, desires, and long-term goals. Here, however, the characters are able to overcome their hardships because of, and despite, their differences.

In the series, the characters are all shown to be relatively friendless except for Chidori and Katsuhira, though their friendship is in a state of conflict as well. While the friendlessness of the other characters makes it clear what afflicts them, some more than others, Chidori and Katsuhira are affected by later elements in the plot. Chidori, much more basically, secretly pines after her best, and childhood, friend while Katsuhira is unable to connect to other people due to the fact that he suffers from congenital analgesia, otherwise known to be severe painlessness, which has left him somewhat numb to the world as his physical, unfeeling self has caused his mental and emotional self to become the same.

While at first it is true that the Hedgehog’s Dilemma is in place, and later on goes through to be full force, by the end of the series this has all but changed. After having gone through various character arcs we can see that all characters have become much closer to each other and are no longer deeply hurt by each other in ways that are directly caused by them. Instead, any pain felt from their relationship with one another one is due to the fact that they care so strongly for the other person that they feel their pain out of sympathy and compassion.

Another interesting point in the show’s favor was how the series managed to go even further subverting the Hedgehog’s Dilemma by making one of the main characters, Sonozaki Nori, a person who would take other people’s pain and put it all on herself, hoping them to all become closer, but then instead it would make them drift farther away. Indirectly, she became the main antagonist in the last episodes in the sense that her desire for togetherness and “huddling for warmth in the coldness of the world”, as it were, had actually caused a rupture in the relationships she’d been a part of and that all the consequences other characters had undergone were of own her doing.

Prior to the final episode, Sonozaki had had a conversation with Katsuhira relating to when they were kids. She had asked him to get his pain back long ago, which Katsuhira had interpreted as her asking for help as she’d been taking on all pain on her own, in a manner not unlike Atlas. However, as we later see, her true intention was rather that she was hoping that her contributions to the Kizna System would eventually result in fruition and have her bonds with the rest of the original Kiznaivers be strengthened.

By doing this, she effectively was both enforcing and undoing the Hedgehog’s Dilemma. Yes, the characters had all been brought together in friendship, but it was her attempts to cling to them and bind them that resulted in a severance of their bonds.

All of this is not to say that the series does not play the trope straight in any way. In the middle of the series, Honoka Maki is revealed to have had a very cheerful best friend once. She’d been a shy, quiet girl with no friends similar to her best friend from then, Ruru. As the backstory goes to show, their friendship stemmed from, and grew, as a result of their shared interest in shoujo manga. Honoka had great writing skills, whereas Ruru was an amazing artist. Together they took the world by storm, until eventually Ruru fell for Honoka.

At this point, it was clear that Honoka was uncomfortable, though the reason was not apparent until much later. This was due to the fact that Ruru had a disease which would soon take her life, and as such, forced them apart. When their relationship began becoming romantic, Honoka pushed Ruru away in hopes of avoiding any unnecessary pain, which caused pain on both parts and which resulted in Honoka’s closed-off heart for the longest time.

The Hedgehog’s Dilemma is displayed here quite clearly, and obviously, too. Having gotten closer and closer, it was only a matter of time that they would hurt each other due to their proximity, and they did so without intention.

So yes, while it is true that I felt a great amount of disappointment, I am quite glad to have gotten such an interesting afterthought due to the way that the series played around with this interesting concept.

However, that is about as much as I have to say on the matter. Thank you all for watching, and I’ll see you all later.