Noriko Sonozaki

Noriko Sonozaki (園崎 法子 Sonozaki Noriko) is a central character in Kiznaiver. She is a beautiful, cold, and enigmatic girl that brings all of the Kiznaivers together to participate in the experiment.

Noriko Sonozaki is voiced by Hibiku Yamamura in Japanese, and by Natasha Strickey in English.

Appearance
Noriko is a beautiful girl with pale skin, long blue hair with a crown braid, and silver eyes.

She is seen wearing an altered school uniform, with an accented blazer and a lightly tinted blue skirt. She also wears white thigh-high socks, and has many frills implemented into her uniform.

She possesses a diamond imprint pattern around her neck in the style of a choker. Additionally, her height is estimated to be about 165 cm.

Episode Six
Speaking to the seven Kiznaivers through a voice message, Noriko informs the Kiznaivers that they are making good progress and that by that, telling Katsuhira that they were incredibly powerful words. Though she tries not to show it, she is affected emotionally.

Episode Seven
Noriko is seen sitting at her desk, remembering the sentence that Katsuhira had said to her, and pushing away an old photo of her childhood.

Episode Eight
Near the beginning, Noriko is again seen remembering what Katsuhira had said to her and stating that she 'does not understand.' Later, when conducting the next experiment on the Kiznaivers, Yamada constructs a love chart to show the different love interest between the Kiznaivers. Noriko is not surprised and deduces that Katsuhira has romantic feelings for her, stating that she was not aware of this. She then tries to draw out Katsuhira's feelings to continue the experiment, leaving the underground laboratory to reach the surface. Feeling his connection with Noriko, Katsuhira rushes to her location and saves her from a falling statue that would have fallen onto her. Unfazed, Noriko asks if she still exists within Katsuhira, then takes off her choker to reveal that she has a Kizna scar and that she is connected to him.

Episode Nine
Noriko falls unconscious, and when she awakes, she is alone with Katsuhira as the two of them are being recorded. She asks Katsuhira if he loves her, and then asks how often he thinks of her. In response, Katsuhira asks Noriko if the two of them really are connected as Kiznaivers. Noriko confirms this and explains that the two of them were made Kiznaivers when they were just children, and then Katsuhira had simply forgotten about it. Remembering this, Katsuhira's old Kizna scar reappears on his chest and he feels pain as he begins to remember his childhood with her. Worried, Noriko gets close to him and examines his scar, and then notes that the two of them are still connected after so many years. The rest of the Kiznaivers find Noriko and Katsuhira, and Chidori is overwhelmed by jealousy at the sight of the two.

In her sadness, the other Kiznaivers are able to momentarily hear Chidori's inner voice, and Noriko is shocked by this. Even though the Kiznaivers then proceed to go through an emotional breakdown, Noriko comes back during the aftermath and tells everyone that their mission has been cleared and that they do not need to be Kiznaivers any longer.

Episode Ten
As Noriko is again confronted by the Mayor and told that the Kiznaiver experiment must come to an end, Noriko quickly leaves the room and runs to the roof of the building, preparing herself to jump off in order to 'show the results of the Kizna system'. Instead, Noriko falls unconscious before she falls off.

Feeling a sensation of pain from his chest, Katsuhira realizes that something may have happened to Noriko and finds the underground laboratory where she worked with Urushibara.

Mutsumi Urushibara finds Katsuhira and decides to explain more about Noriko while she is still unconscious.

It is revealed that during the Kiznaiver experiment conducted on children, there was a fatal error that caused one child to feel nineteen times the pain than usual, instead of the pain being shared equally. That one child was Noriko. Because she always felt nineteen times the pain than she was meant to and because she could feel every sensation of each child, including sitting and running, Noriko would constantly feel incredible pain. To remedy this, ever since she was a child, Noriko would have to take an injection to nullify all of her senses to keep herself from feeling constant pain.

But due to her body unconsciously taking every other child's pain and never giving it back (because she was suffering from loneliness), the other children lost their ability to feel emotional and physical pain. Some of the children were still able to keep some of their pain, such as Katsuhira, but others no longer felt anything

It is also revealed during a flashback that, during their childhood, Noriko did in fact love Katsuhira.

Katsuhira Agata
Despite Katsuhira not recognizing Noriko even though the two came from the same year and class section — even going so far as to ask her who she was when they first met, Noriko has shown that she may know Katsuhira well, as was hinted when she told him that he "hadn't changed" after she pulls herself extremely close to his face and he tells her that the only times he had been this close to another is when he gets beaten up.

Noriko also accepts Katsuhira's "secret", which noted by others was more of a belief than a secret — on the grounds that Katsuhira, himself, had forgotten what it was though, which suggests that she knows what it is though she opts not to tell him or the other Kiznaivers this.

Due to Katsuhira's newfound interest in knowing about himself and connecting with others, it is seen that he wants to know her better, perhaps because he is suspsicious that Noriko is somehow connected to his reoccurring nightmares and flashbacks.

Much to Chidori's jealousy and dismay, Noriko calls him by his first name and Katsuhira calls her Nori-chan.

In episode 9, she is seen taking off her choker to reveal a scar that matches the other Kiznaivers and asks Katsuhira if she exists inside him. She is confirmed to be the girl from his memories. Katsuhira had also hugged her.

Noriko herself states that she wants to 'find herself within him', but cannot do so until Katsuhira is able to regain his ability to feel pain. It is also revealed that, as a child, she did love him and he loved her back. After Katsuhira declares his love for her, they both fall off a bridge due to Noriko's Kiznaiver reacting. They are both seen in a hospital where they talk and reconcile, and almost kiss before Chidori and the others interrupt them. In response to Chidori freaking out from this sight, Noriko says their relationship will start off pure unless Katsuhira supposedly pushes her to the ground one day.

Chidori Takashiro
The subject of Chidori's jealousy along with Katsuhira due to his and Noriko's seemingly newfound relationship, though she adamantly denies this for the most part until Tenga offers to help her out with her relationship with the latter. With much dismay, she notices Katsuhira's attempts to get closer to Noriko and how much he seems to think about or mention her, which ultimately just fuels her jealousy and anger. In the last episode, Chidori finally accepts Katsuhira's romantic feelings towards Noriko and realizes her selfishness towards something like this and helps Katsuhira save Noriko.

Mutsumi Urushibara
Mutsumi was one of the researchers who cared for Noriko and the other 19 children in their childhood. It is stated in episode 10 that Mutsumi thought of the children, including Noriko, as younger siblings. Mutsumi is very protective of Noriko and refers to her as "Nori-chan."

Nico Niiyama
Among the rest of the Kiznaivers, Nico disapproves of Noriko's actions but still wants to befriend her while Noriko is indifferent to Nico in the beginning. In the end of the last episode, Nico is really friendly towards Noriko and wants her to be part of the group.

Hajime Tenga
Among the rest of the Kiznaivers, Tenga is annoyed by the fact that Noriko knows everything about them and controls the situations that directly concern them while being greatly calm and collected. Noriko is indifferent to Tenga and she asks him to refrain from speaking so rudely about her. Tenga is often seen threatening her while Noriko ignores him, calling her 'the enemy' and is overall frustrated with her and Katsuhira for his own selfish reasons such as the romantic feelings he harbors for Chidori. In the last episode, he seems happy while he has gotten over the previous things that troubled him and teases Noriko and Katsuhira for being flirty.

Yoshiharu Hisomu
Hisomu seems to like Noriko and he is polite whenever he is around her, just like he is with everyone else.

Honoka Maki
Maki wasn't really fond of Noriko and Noriko is indifferent to Maki. In the last episode, she also initially refuses to help her, stating that Noriko is the one who brought them all into this mess. Later on in the episode, she visited her and Katsuhira in the hospital and now she seems to be on friendly terms with her.

Tsuguhito Yuta
The two of them seem to be on good terms with each other as shown in the last episode.

Quotes

 * "Everyone wants to connect with someone else." - To Katsuhira Agata (Episode 1)
 * "Yes, from today, you're all Kiznaivers." - To the Kiznaivers (Episode 1)
 * "Does the smell of a girl excite you?" - To Katsuhira (Episode 2)
 * "I was taught to gratefully accept others' kindness." - To Katsuhira (Episode 4)
 * "Have a bun to calm your buns."
 * "I love you too, Katsuhira-kun!" - To Katsuhira as a child in a flashback (Episode 10)

Trivia

 * The name Noriko means "law, rule" (法) or "rule, ceremony" (典) (nori) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Noriko's surname Sonozaki means "garden" (園) (sono) and "cape, peninsula" (崎) (saki/zaki).
 * She shares the same surname as Mie Sonozaki (Mutsumi Urushibara's voice actress).
 * When Noriko vaguely mentions her own perceived sin in episode 7, "The Forgetful Priss," she is likely referring to the commonly forgotten Eighth Deadly Sin in classical literature: Despond, or a chronic outlook of gloom and despair.
 * Gomorin's design looks similar to Noriko's old, ripped, stuffed toy. With that said, there is a high probability that Noriko invented Gomorins herself.
 * Noriko bears a striking resemblance to Esdeath from Akame ga Kill.