(Average) Kiznaiver

Note: I watched this series in English

Series in one sentence:  
A group of random anime clichés are forced to care about each other.

Series in more sentences:
A group of random high school students find themselves in a laboratory one day and learn that their nervous system has been connected to each other for an ongoing, secret experiment. But one of the members hasn't been able to feel pain for as long as he can remember and begins to learn the reason for his defect.
 

For a show about empathy I struggled empathizing with these characters or this objectively immoral "peace experiment" that forced them together.

There were not enough episodes for this group of friends to create a believable bond with each other and it disturbed me that they accepted their situation within a day. They didn't even seem that shocked to learn their city of birth was purely built to experiment on. I'd be sure to move as soon as I was freed from the lunatics controlling the place, but none of these children cared. They never fought back, while they easily could've piled onto their capturers and set flame to those ridiculous mascots walking all over the place, but they heard them out and played along as if they deserved their time. They never even attempted to contact the outside world for help.
Even if this were a pointless endeavour, at least they would've tried, but they obeyed every stupid RPG quest that appeared on their wrist. What for?

These kids continuously got beaten up or nearly killed for no excusable reason, and the portrayal of the perpetrators was so inconsistent, I couldn't guess if they were a genuine villain or just a misinformed good guy.
The lady teacher is a good example of this. She approaches two students with the most fucked up introduction, urges them to flat-out kill another student, but at the end of the anime is suddenly shown to be this sweet, caring person. She even kicks her colleague in the balls; a moment of "betrayal" that is never brought up again.

It felt like only a few key points from the manga were animated, while the interactions that would've made these key points important were left out so they could reach their preferred limit of 12 episodes. Then again, this is blindly assuming the manga is infinite times better than the TV show. I like the idea, but it's not like I have proof. It might be probable that there was no manga before this, which explains the show's flaws even less.

The plot was interesting, Kiznaiver gets points for trying and I see what it could've been, but the execution was greatly lacking and did not turn this show into an exciting ride.
But the intro was hypnotizing, I love hearing electronic songs in anime openings. The English voice acting was good, as well.