Kokoro Connect

Is it just me, or do I only review shows beginning with the letter K? Anyway, just so you know, I'm also including the Michi Random specials in this review. Story: 10 What would you do if you and your friends started randomly switching between each other's bodies? Or if your deepest darkest desires were suddenly brought to the surface, out of your control? Here we have a series that takes a supernatural storyline, adds some well-written high-school romance and plenty of compelling drama, and pulls it all together into one amazing package. Although some of the ideas may have been done many times before, Kokoro Connect manages to make it fresh and funny, whilst also being surprisingly realistic with how it portrays the effects of each of the phenomena. I felt the drama wasn't overdone at all and every arc introduced interesting new aspects of the story and allowed many sides of the characters to be shown. Ultimately, Kokoro Connect succeeds in blending its comedic school life shenanigans with more serious emotional moments, a testament to the quality of the writing and the great direction. Art/Animation: 10 I really liked the art for this series - everything is crisp and smoothly animated. The characters instantly reminded me of K-On!, though upon checking, I was surprised to find that these two series don't actually have the same character designer. The settings are fairly detailed and we have some beautiful backgrounds and lush scenery. As far as I could tell, there were no off-models or problems with animation. The characters are all very expressive when they need to be. Whether they are happy, angry, embarrassed or otherwise, their on-screen demeanours fit very well with the excellent voice acting. Whilst I enjoyed the colourful and upbeat opening animation, it was the endings that really shone in my opinion. Overall, Kokoro Connect is a very attractive looking show - Silver Link doing a commendable job here. Sound: 9 The background music is great to hear; they fit the scenes nicely and add to the drama and emotion. The ending song also fades in before the ending animation, which I always find to be a nice touch when executed well like this. My personal favourites were the 2nd OP (Kimi Rhythm by Imai Masaki) and the 3rd ED (Salvage by Team.Nekokan [Neko] feat. Katakiri Rekka), though they are all really decent. In terms of voice acting, I think it was a job well done by all the seiyuu. Even Heartseed with his tired, monotone voice I found to be sufficiently entertaining. Throughout the series, a wide range of character traits and personalities were portrayed. Characters: 10 The characters are what really make Kokoro Connect. Unlike some other school-based romantic comedies, Kokoro Connect features fully fleshed out, three-dimensional people, each with very real pasts and flaws, which was what made me really care about them as I watched their story unfold. They are apparently all somewhat misfits, so they form a Culture Club of sorts. Without going into too much detail, we have: Taichi, an altruistic pro-wrestling fan who has a selfless urge to help others; Iori, a friendly energetic girl who is popular and loved by all; Himeko, the cool and responsible one of the group, with considerable skill in information gathering and analysis; Yui, an expressive karate practitioner, who loves cute things; and Yoshifumi - their casual friend, who is attracted to Yui (though she resists his advances). I also have to mention one of the cutest imouto in anime - Yaegashi Rina - who is a caring sister that looks out for Taichi and, despite being younger, seems to give him advice about his relationships. Enjoyment: 10 Kokoro Connect was really one of if not the best show of its season. Watching the characters mature and develop was very compelling. Over the course of the series, their pasts are revealed, along with their own shortcomings and how they overcome them. The highlight is the character drama, and all in all, the series was practically perfect for me. Overall: 10 I have to say, Kokoro Connect is a must watch and I recommend it to everyone. It was fully entertaining throughout. As the supernatural phenomena start to take their toll on the five main characters - will their friendship be able to survive? Join them on an emotional rollercoaster as you see them handle various unusual situations, all the while learning more about themselves and each other. Thanks for reading! Please give feedback if you found it helpful （＾ω＾）

Yet ANOTHER update on this review. This is one tricky anime to write a review on- Here goes. In a school where extracurricular activities are mandatory, there exist five "outlaws". Yaegashi Taichi, the pro-wrestling maniac Nagase Iori, your typical spunky, bubbly, lovely character type Inaba Himeko, the intelligent, cool computer expert... who is maybe just a tad bit too cool at times Kiriyama Yui, lover of all things that are cute Aoki Yoshifumi, frequently subject to rough treatment by the girls around him. These five students form their own club, the "Bunkenbu" (Bunka Kenkyuu-bu)- and each day spent together is as ordinary as can be. Until. Kokoro Connect is best described as unique. It does not follow the plot of traditional romance anime, but instead, adds its own splash of color to what could have been considered "trite and overused". The first arc -Hito Random- sets the story off with the odd-at-the-very-least phenomenon of body-switching among the five main characters. Subsequent arcs deal with various phenomena (including a release of all desire and a manifestation of one's past self)- all quite intriguing and entertaining... but not limited to "fun"/ While the events in Kokoro Connect are obviously not realistic, the audience is lead to think "What if?". Imagine suddenly being thrown into a mess of body-switching. Everyone has his or her own darkest secrets, desires, painful memories, and insecurities. Now, throw in the condition that four other people have access to all of the above at any given time. These people are close friends... but can they really be trusted? Would you want them to know about your past? Your thoughts? Your secrets? The answer is probably "Some things are better left untouched". In addition to a superb cast that really brings life to the characters, Kokoro Connect very realistically displays how a person would react when facing situations such as the ones listed above. It takes a concept that may sound lighthearted and shapes it into something deeper- even deeper and more complex than love ties that exist elsewhere in anime (which is saying quite a bit).

Kokoro Connect is exceedingly mediocre. It is not bad by any definition of the term - the artwork, voice acting, and one particular character (you know who) are great and deserve commendation in an artistic medium saturated with high school romantic dramas. Additionally, the concept of body switching introduced for the first few episodes had a lot of promise and led to a lot of well-executed plot developments. The show never strayed into what could have easily been an ecchi bait premise and culminated in what was, to me, the climax of the show's story in Episode 5 with a (no spoilers) heart-wrenching decision to be made by the cast members that actually made me pause and think what I would do in a similar situation. However, the story and remaining characters of the show are mundane, unrealistic and at times even cringeworthy. I will preface this by saying that I am not Japanese - I am an American university student and a relative newcomer to anime. However, I have been around the block and have seen a few extremely well-done romance anime in the same vein as Kokoro Connect (Toradora!, Clannad, Monogatari), so I feel like I have a solid foundation upon which to base my opinion. Let's start with the story. As I mentioned earlier, the concept of body switching is actually a great idea and works very well in the high school drama setting. It is a mystery to me, then, why Kokoro Connect decides to just scrap it less than a third of the way through the show and change the supernatural events afflicting our main characters. There is so much untapped potential with the body switching premise that I would have loved to see. For example, much of the drama in the second half of the show could have been either avoided or played out much better if an extended body switch had happened between two characters that forced them to interact with the other's family, learning firsthand what their true daily life is like and further clarifying their root sources of trauma. Really, that's almost the entire point of body switching in a non-erotic setting - you are forced to spend a while in someone else's shoes and learn about them by living their lives. Instead we get mental thought transmissions and "acting on your inner desires". The first one is sort of interesting, but nowhere near as deep as body switching. The second one isn't even a supernatural phenomenon - it's called teenage hormones. I personally think this show could have done a lot more with 8-11 episodes of body switching only instead of dragging on for 17. As for the main plot, it's mostly your typical Japanese high school romantic love-triangle borderline harem drama. There's supposed to be a main villain with Balloon Vine (Heartseed?), but there is really no point to his existence other to hand-wave away the phenomena as some kind of alien experiment. The point of this show is not explaining why these phenomena are happening, it's how the characters react to and deal with them together. You know at the end of the show you're going to get an official couple and that most of the character's problems will have been sorted out to some degree. I only wish that it didn't take so long to get there. Moving onto the characters, we come to what I think is this show's largest pitfall. The vast majority of the anime's cast are either as bland as raw pasta or act so unrealistically that trying to relate to them becomes nearly impossible. You've got Yaegashi, the stereotypical "boku"-using protagonist that espouses Japanese ideals of modesty, uprightness and chivalry while having practically no standout qualities whatsoever; Iori, a girl whose angst over her identity issues make for a very inconsistent and erratic character over the show; Aoki, the secondary male character and the only person preventing this from being a harem; Kiriyama, a girl with androphobia but whose solution to this problem is to be saved by others rather than confronting it herself; and Inaban, a strong female lead who is brutally honest, playfully violent and a breath of fresh air in an otherwise weak cast. Seriously, if you watch this show for anything, watch it for Inaban. She's great. The only other person worth mentioning in the show is Balloon Vine, the main "villain" whose stated purpose for causing the supernatural phenomena to happen to our main group of five is literally just to fuck with them. Does this story really need a villain? The show does no legwork in explaining who he is or what motivates him to choose a group of Japanese high school students to experiment on, or why there is apparently a second, rival alien also involved with our main group. Kokoro Connect could have had effectively the same plot by just introducing the phenomena without any explained source and exploring how the characters react to it. The ultimate reason why I did not enjoy this show was because these characters' dialogue and reactions to the phenomena felt incredibly unrealistic. Yes, this is an anime with body switching. Yes, there exist harem anime that I like, and the concept of a harem is constructed from male fantasy and is as far from real life relationships as possible. However, I feel that Kokoro Konnekt tries to pass itself as a somewhat true-to-life look at how a bunch of teenagers would act in supernatural situations but fails because it can't even master the portrayal of regular character interaction. Yaegashi is such a white knight that I wonder how anyone could have a healthy relationship with him; Iori is irrational even by teenage girl standards to the point where I can't even see why she does what she does from her point of view; and Kiriyama feels hypocritical in that she wants to become stronger and gain self confidence but instead relies almost entirely on Yaegashi for emotional support throughout the show. Even Inaban can act a little unrealistically sometimes. In summary, Kokoro Connect is mediocre. Its higher than average production values, good voice casting and pretty good character in Inaban prevent it from being a failure, but so many other aspects of the show drag it down from being at least a decent watch. I cringed and interrogated my computer screen out loud multiple times while watching the show because I could not believe why certain characters acted the way they did or why certain parts of the show were just never explained. At the end I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and that my time should have been spent doing other things. By the way, I propose a drinking game whereby for every episode of Kokoro Kardashian you watch, take a shot every time you hear the word "Tasukete!", "Mamoru!", "Suki!", "Daisuki!", or "Baka!. If you make it out alive, I will personally reward you with a medal.

Including the four specials, this show is arguably one of the more annoying series I've seen. If you're into pointless high school drama, this show is for you. In a phrase, this show is "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME!" repeated for thirty minutes, seventeen times. The characters are repeatedly put into positions where it's determined (by the group) that they would all be better off if they talked about their feelings, and then proceed to not talk about their feelings. Everyone is a victim of some "pressure" from their friends, despite all of their problems being caused almost entirely by themselves. Everyone puts on some kind of selfless front "for the better of the group" and inevitably makes things worse for everyone as a result. The story itself is a cool premise, it's just that the characters are all irritating and incredibly dense. The art is solid, and the sound is good as well. The characters are what kill this show for me. All three girls complain that nobody will ever understand them because [insert any given problem], one guy is an annoying white knight type you'd see on a cosplay forum, and the other could be replaced by a sizable rock without changing the story at all. How this show has anything above a five is perplexing to me.

Kokoro Connect is a series I decided to watch on a whim after spotting it in CrunchyRoll one day, and I'm certainly glad that I did. I felt like the story was, by far, the stongest point of the series and what made it stand out from your average high school romance/drama anime. While the audience is never given a full and proper explanation of why the main cast suddenly find themselves swapping bodies with each other, reading the others' thoughts or acting on their supressed desires, among other things, all these events are handled really skillfully to flesh the series' themes out. All the apparently bizarre happenings have something in common: They force the main cast to lay their innermost emotions and struggles bare for their friends to see, no matter how much they might try to normally hide that side of them away, which is what prompts the others to try their best to help. The way each character's problems were addressed was nice, and the characters felt relatable at most times. There were a couple of overly dramatic moments here and there, but I still felt like they worked well as set-ups for some really cathartic moments at the end of each arc. I've also got to commend the series on how it managed to ease the tension with comedic scenes that didn't amount to pandering to the audience. While there were a couple of scenes that stuck out as weird to me, I liked how the show was serious whenever it was addressing somebody's problems rather than just laughing them off with trope-ridden scenes. About whether I'd recommend this series or not, I'd say it depends on how much you care about series focused on character drama, since Kokoro Connect leans heavily on that. It felt like it didn't care all that much about explaining the bizarre happenings as much as it waned them to be there in order to explore each character and the bonds they make with their friends as a result of these trials they're put through.

I have genuinely impressed myself writing something so long for an anime like this, and resorting to so much profanity, but lo and behold: this is what Kokoro Connect does to a man. If you're in the mood for riding a shitstorm, get ready because this is gonna be a big one. Spoilers for the entire anime ahead, though trust me, you're better off this one. If you want a spoiler-less TLDR, read the last paragraph. So, Kokoro Connect. Despite its efforts to bring out something convincing, like seemingly solid characters and a decent story setting, this anime unfortunately ends up in a fucking disaster, to put simply. Especially when it comes to dialogue and drama, this anime goes way too south. Even for supernatural standards, the actions of our heroes range from unrealistic to blatantly stupid, with the exception of Inaban who, in the majority of our scenes is the only character you can believe is a normal person. A retarded "villain", poor thought investment in some otherwise interesting ideas, and a complete Armageddon when it comes to drama. With that said, let's get a closer look at this disaster. If this show wanted to impress me with its ideas, it should try much harder. There are anime like Kimi no na wa explore the first concept of the story way better, and even though its characters might be simple, they are nonetheless much more believable than those in Kokoro Connect. Even with the lackluster development our first idea gets in the four episodes it is implemented, it eventually gets abandoned for a rotation of phenomena. Through the anime, our villain, "Heartbeat", uses four different ways to manipulate our characters, ultimately separating the anime into four different mini-arcs. And while the first one is kind of interesting, the rest are just boring, vague, or outright copies of previous ones. All of them though, and exceptionally the first one, are missing a very important element: credibility. In the context it is presented, this anime wants me to believe that instead of bringing terrible confusion, misunderstandings, and even worse, the body-switching actually brings our characters in a "good" position to resolve their problems and bring them closer and happier like nothing is happening... you want me to believe that everyone just lives with other peoples' parents just fine, although they might not even know their names? Or that they can go on with other peoples' friends? Hell, they presumably don't even know what each others' houses look like to begin with. Yet nothing of the mentioned is ever brought up, let alone discussed. The only "real problems" that occur are things like someone going to the wrong toilet or... I don't know, a man touching the boobs of a female body he's in? And I know that the body switching only occurs temporarily, but that doesn't nullify the fact that major problems are overlooked, while attention is centered on comedy and shenanigans. If those "major problems" were dealt with even a little, speaking not only for the first arc but every other one, this anime would be much better. It was a huge opportunity to flesh out our characters and understand how and why they are living like they do, things that could also be presented in a rather interesting way because of our body switching. Instead of that though, the personalities of our characters are revealed to us very directly, and the body switching only seems to be the motive for them to open up rather than the cause. So let's see how that happens in our first phenomenon. It's actually really simple, we have what I like to call a classic "screwdriver" scenario: the girl club members reveal some kind of personal issues, and Taichi, being Jesus Christ himself, goes on to kiss their ass cheeks and damn, everyone is fine suddenly. Keep in mind that Aoki, our only other male member, never had any problems because... I don't know, he's in the male cast, and the only one who even remotely got a chance to help any of the girls was Taichi (same-sex personal advice is pretty gay, miss me). And how are their problems solved, you may ask? Well, for example, Yui's androphobia is perfectly healed by Taichi kicking himself in the balls from her body. Nice! We also get another nice surprise. I said every girl had some problem, but hey, the anime tells us that Inaban doesn't have any problems; she, instead was born with an INHERENT distrust towards other people. After taking your time to digest what the fuck you just read, you might realize that this was a pretty stupid idea. In fact, this attempt was so cringe-worthy that Inaban herself had to physically say "how can you fix a problem if there isn't one?" And I wasn't going to support this argument any further, but I find this a nice opportunity to connect this point with the aforementioned absence of coherence and credibility in this anime. So, Inaban tells us that she doesn't trust anyone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only time I can sense any kind of distrust from Inaban is when she refuses to believe the club members, when they explain the body-switching phenomenon to her. Which is simply common fucking sense. Then again she expresses fears that her friends might do something mischievous with her body, yet we don't get the tiniest glimpse of someone even HAVING THE IDEA of doing something unwanted with Inaban's body, or anyone's body for that matter. In fact, the only time someone is trying to do something remotely bad is the mentioned boob touching, which clearly was for LOLZ XD and did not get picked upon further than that. And while Yui did have a traumatic experience to make her androphobia serious and believable, and Nagase did have a messy childhood with an unstable family (although we get no insight into either of them), Inaban's problem does not get a pass. Where is Inaban's problem based? Why should she even have a problem like the others in the first place? And why is Taichi the one "fixing" it and everything else? Please note that I'm making these questions from a writer's standpoint, and not from a realistic social perspective. That would be fucked up. In fact, nothing in this anime is realistic, so keep that in mind as I express my ideas. With that being said, perhaps now is a good time to get a better look at our characters, and what a better way to kick it off other than with our bro, Taichi. This man. Who is he? Probably Buddha himself, everyone pays praises to his shrine daily for fertile crops and many many children. Actually, to say that Taichi resembles God Himself would be an understatement. Guy loves everyone, forgives everyone, and solves everyone's problems. Don't forget that he can, at will, make any girl fall in love with him. Quite the god I'd say. Any attempts to make this character any short of original were thrown out of the window immediately. The promising "original trait" our bro had was something like a "hardcore" wrestling fan, that was not only cringe but was also 100% discarded somewhere around the middle part of this anime and never brought up ever again (maybe it was for the best). Seriously, it was just cringe, if you exclude a laugh I got from the John Cena poster at the beginning. Everything else about him is unoriginal, bland, and boring. There is nothing interesting about him because he does not oppose anyone or anything, other than himself. His thinking is as white as it can possibly get, and his responses to questions that challenge morality (yes, the show actually has one or two moments where this happens - unbelievable, I know!) are equally ambiguous so as to not ruin his God character. He wants to be friends with everyone, everyone loves him in return and all is good in the world. There is no purpose behind his character besides the "I WILL SAVE EVERYONE!!!" mentality, becoming a "selfless freak" quite literally: it feels as if he dedicated his very existence to saving everyone and anyone, even if he has to kill himself ten times in the process. In fact, he cann…

Kokoro Connect begins with a pretty ordinary setting. 5 friends belonging to the same club with an absentee adviser, spending almost everyday loafing around. Then everything took a downturn when a mysterious entity named Fuusenkazura appeared and forced them into his game so they could entertain him. His "game" involves abnormal phenomena that often take place at random intervals. The first arc features body-swap, during which the 5 may switch bodies at random, and every arc that follows has them deal with other similarly bizarre situations. Before anyone starts watching, all of this might sound pretty entertaining -- except each of these games that Fuusenkazura brings them into produces big waves in their lives. Just imagine for a moment that your deepest secrets and darkest thoughts are dug out and exposed for your closest friends to see. Everyone needs to have a little privacy sometimes, but the games Fuusenkazura brings out always end up destroying their psychological defenses and put them in the spot to be honest with their friends, and also themselves. Through the challenges the 5 of them face, the vulnerabilities of each person are shown to everyone else in the group. From there, the series soon turns into an emotional roller coaster that produces some serious drama. For the record, the drama doesn't feel forced at all. These characters are just what you'd expect of some regular high school kids who haven't had a firm grasp on their own identities. And it's the way they overcome each of these games and bond in the process that makes this series endearing. Kokoro Connect is also no ordinary rom-com. There's romance and comedy, but the emphasis really ends up being emotional development more than anything. If you carefully chew through some of the things they say as they walk out of their slumps, you'll find nuggets of wisdom here and there applicable for just about everyone. The animation is decent and consistently fluid with no break in quality. The characters, while not necessarily coming out of unique molds, collectively form an lively, entertaining, and endearing cast. The plot is refreshing. The script is strong as well. Even though I personally found the soundtrack weak, it's a minor shortcoming in the face of everything else -- the story, the enjoyment, and the uplifting moments where they see the light at the end of the tunnel. To close, I think Kokoro Connect is one of the most entertaining series I've picked up thus far, and I had a great deal of fun watching it. Simply put, it was a satisfying run. Although the format of struggle-then-triumph gets overused sometimes, the characters and the plot drive the series too well for that to interfere with the experience. True, it's a bit heart-wrenching and depressing sometimes. At the end of the day though, it maintains a positive message throughout and is in my opinion a very well-crafted series that deserves almost everyone's attention. [Note: Although MAL separates the first 13 episodes of the series from the 4 episodes of "Michi Random" arc aired later on, the 17 episodes together feature an unbroken sequence of events and this review covers all of them.]

High school is essentially one of the most important four years of someone’s life. Throughout these years, not only does one fall under peer pressure, indecisive dramas, and separation into different clicks/social-groups, but you are often greeted with the unsatisfying feeling in overcoming mostly difficult, inexperienced tasks. However, the point of entering High School in the first place is to move onto secondary educations and learn not just fundamental cultures of others, but also about where you want to be in society for the rest of your life. During these times of hardships, not many people can gain true confidence; insecurities may rise from the past, make many doubtful of themselves, and as a result contemplate loneliness, violence, etc. But what every human really desires is the understanding of others; understanding of our flaws, weaknesses, highlights, memories, lusts, hatred, emotions, intelligence, shed tears, and acknowledgement in our refined existence. In other words, we want friends, people who takes pleasure in involving us in their lives. Established in the very High School setting, Kokoro Connect is an anime which explores the meanings of friendship in multitudes of emblematic, daring perspectives. Unlike other school rom-com anime, however, Kokoro Connect entangles its plot with dynamics by exposing the likes of evilness in characters and exaggerating certain aspects of the show to enhance not just enjoyment for the audience, but the substantiality in relationships as well. Absorbing the audiences with merely just its supernatural contents, Kokoro Connect also has a strong cast of characters to carry out its investigations of quarrels between the five trouble-children, who all happened to invest their free time into the Cultural Research Club. Of the group, the five members all embody several aspects of stereotypical adolescents. In short, there’s the nice guy who apparently always finishes first (Taichi); his sidekick, who always pursues his crush regardless of circumstances (Aoki); the tsundere female archetype who, conveniently, is a black belt (Yui); an anti-social female who brings about justice in her own elegant ways (Inaba); and, the cute klutz archetype that always brightens up the mood with her visible smile (Nagase). However, there’s always more than meets the eye. As the story steadily progresses, a creature going by the name Heartseed mysteriously brings about supernatural phenomenon in the group meant to somehow entertain it. Indeed, it did exactly that, and more. The first arc starts with the body swapping technique, where the group is challenged to understand the physical state of others in the group, their current family situations, and not misuse this opportunity for mischief. Unfortunately, even the slightest intervention of someone into your daily life could reveal subtle yet obvious problems one has. Eventually, the mental instability of many in the group begins to disclose, but luckily, friends are there to give moral support and justify the significance of their friends. It would’ve been a simplex and sweet ending if the drama stopped there, but the injudicious Heartseed shows up again and screws everything up. From there on out, secrets of the past, dreams of the future, and the desires of the present are all exposed about each characters. Instead of hiding their fears, lustful thoughts, and ambitions, each character had to overcome their comfort zones, expose their contempt, true feelings for one another, and yet still wish for the acceptance of their friends. Since they're all teenagers exposed only recently to puberty, you could probably imagine what indecent, romantic thoughts some of these personal matters involved. After many of Kokoro’s emotional roller-coasters, I became very attached to each of the characters. What Kokoro executes so well, not many productions can pull off easily. It develops each character into appealing people in some ways, and makes the audience so involved and invested in the emotional chaos the Series present. Perhaps due to their resemblances to realistic people, seeing Kokoro’s characters make such human mistakes and overcoming it through genuine sentiments gave me a sense of responsibility, almost as if they’re real-life, humane companions. Finally, the writers created dialogues which cleverly expressed some unique aspects of these characters and essentially, we gain our trusts of each eccentric person in the story through such techniques. For example; after several characters slowly developed aggressive, dementia-like traits due to Heart-seed's plans, it corrupted the healthy relationships between the Culture Research Club's members, instead of feeling mad or anger I felt sympathy towards the group just because of Kokoro's conventional script creations and its unhurried, deliberate pacing. Besides these shady dramas occurring on one side of the spectrum, Kokoro Connect usually has a rather lighthearted, Slice of Life vibe to compensate for all the suffering of these characters. The entrances of some of these comedy scenes are fairly coherent due to its consistency and the lighter weight on the dramatic side of it at first. But after Heartseed’s introduction of deeper conflicts, I thought the comedy would just disappear from there or perhaps alternate into a realm of melodrama. Although Kokoro Connect inevitably executed some overly emotional scenes, the Show still managed to sneak in subliminal, dark humor and its ability to balance out the humorous yet intense sides of things impressed me. Without many spoilers, Kokoro tends to hinder at very humorous yet depraved concepts. Indeed, these comedic elements exceeded my expectation in how awkwardly situations elevated so quickly and became the most absurd stand-up comedies; yet, I don’t think I ever laughed so hard in my life. The atmosphere, set-up, and state of affairs in these jokes all achieve perfection themselves, but the fact that these jokes even makes perfect contextual sense in the script-writing smothered my mind with enlightenment. During different times of the show where it required a certain type of mood, the animation was there to polish the atmosphere, especially with its apex of horrifying, variegated, blood dripping-like backgrounds. The character designs fared up splendidly with many embellished specialties among places where and when needed. Facial expressions and the blocking of characters also contributed to the comfortableness feel Kokoro sometimes had at first and its ability to immediately transfer that cozy texture into suspense. The musical introduction added a nice vibe in the air with the OP, and concluded in a fashionable manner with the ED, both of which epitomizes typical, catchy, yet meaningful Jpop songs. Remarkably, the background music syncs with the elements of animation where required as well; during the committing of mischief, lighthearted music plays while dramatic, mawkish music spectacles uncertainty during climatic moments. Notably, voice actor(esse)s even gave spontaneousness and energy to their 2-D characters. In essence, the visuals and melodies ended up contributing very effectively. All in all, Kokoro Connect, utilizing supernatural themes to its advantages, is a Series illustrating an accurate stance on the dangers and rewards of relationships. Through surreal artwork & humor it brings the seemingly two dimensional characters into life, and builds each character up with depth whilst still in correlation with the story-line. Although extravagantly detailed and over-dramatic at times, Kokoro still succeeds in coping with the balances of its several genres, and radiated powerful messages as intriguing as its provocative, headstrong humor. As an exceptionally done Slice of Life formulated Series; I recommend Kokoro Connect to anime fans who enjoys silly comedies, complicated High School relationships, and wouldn’t mind challenging themselves with the concepts of true fr…

When I first heard the plot summary for Kokoro Connect I thought it sounded like some hentai series. Even if it wasn't, it seemed obvious that it would be a provider of ample fan-service, it of course wasn't though. After all, if you swapped bodies with someone of the other gender, what would be the first thing you do? Yep, the obvious, see how well they masticate. Read it again, what were you thinking of? Kokoro Connect revolves around the daily, not so normal lives of Taichi, Iori, Himeko, Yoshifumi and Yui and their encounters in the Cultural Research Club. Up until recently they thought that they and their friends lived normal happy lives, but now the Heartseed is pulling their lives apart and exposing their inner secrets through body switching, urges and age regression. The love and teen pentagonal comedy follows the strange phenomena at the Yamahoshi Academy's Culture Club, starting with the five male and female club members switching bodies with each other. Mix two parts school uniforms and setting, two parts moe, and one part original detail. Blend thoroughly. Serve warm. Production values are quite good, and there's a good level of detail to go around most of the time. Some scenes are picturesque. At other times, there's an unfortunate loss of detail in mid-ground elements that makes it difficult to focus, but this doesn't happen very often over the stretch. While this is not a show whose events are ever intended to push aural or visual envelopes, Kokoro Connect is well-animated, and there is never a point where this show looks anything but nice. There is a bit of fan-service here and there but nothing so intrusive that it distracts from the relationship dynamics. In terms of the animation, I am personally getting tired of the K-ON-like moe look; whether you like how the characters are designed is really based on personal preference. As for quality, Silver Link doesn't offer anything as stunning as a P.A. Works anime, but it manages to hold its own. There were no noticeable mistakes in body proportions, angles, or object size and the quality remains consistent throughout the series. I have to commend the main cast for the first arc they essentially had to act as five (and in some cases six) different characters, since each character used the voice that went along with the body when they switched, and they all did a rather good job. I've heard some complaints that this studio Silver Link isn't known for hiring really great actors but I think they did a mediocre job this time. Both OPs and EDs are quite catchy and serve well as introductions to the series though nothing to memorable. Sound effects are nothing remarkable but do their job throughout the series. Everything this series does is for the emotional and dramatic effect, and thus the characters all have very interesting backgrounds. What the show does do a good job of, however, is not washing over things. Whatever happens to the characters their pain isn't easily fixed like some anime likes to do. Throughout the series you still see traces of the pain in the characters and that everything that has happened has strongly affected them one way or another. They're forced to develop at a rapid pace is a direct product of the supernatural elements of the plot. The point can definitely be made that these elements are a contrivance. When it comes to the concluding arc I'd even tend to agree more often than not. That doesn't entirely eliminate the effect of more than half a season of strong build-up, however the worst thing for me was that, despite the title, I couldn't "connect" with any of the characters, they was more like actors interpreting their roles. Almost everything they said or did felt like forced for the sake of the plot, and Taichi out of them all, is just a place holder for a proper main character, as his personality was not actually explored. I appreciate that it had the guts to go for actual drama and to ask interesting questions. Ultimately though, you have to deliver results. I also think the series suffers quite a bit due to a cast that’s fairly weak in the final analysis. Taichi’s issues I’ve already covered, and with Inaba the problem was simply that I never liked her very much – she’s easily the most clichéd member of the cast and I never really bought into her self-important self-pity and overcompensating and overbearing arrogance. Aoki and Yui had a definable plot arc, at least, but they were largely plot devices, as Taichi was. It was really only Nagase that emerged as both a likeable and well-defined character, and she too tended to be manipulated for the contrivance of the plot far too often. Interesting, original premise. Strong opening. Mediocre mid section. Poor ending. It's a downward slope all the way past the first arc - which is a real shame, because the initial episodes hint at the potential for a truly exciting series. Instead we're left with an unfinished mess that takes those pieces that had a chance at greatness and just kind of drops them on the ground. So does will this series connect you your heart? Possibly. Perhaps not. Will I stop with these stupid puns? Never.

Kokoro Connect is a rarity in anime. It is a romantic drama that thanks to the strengths in its characters and writing avoids the annoying melodrama that shows like Golden Time and more recently Glasslip unfortunately fall prey to... For the most part anyway. This can probably be attributed to its satisfactory pacing, which again is something quite a few shows in this genre seem struggle with. The review will cover Michi Random as well. Now on to the review! Story: Requires suspension of disbelief far too often, but is still well-written and well-paced. Its setup we see far too often in anime these days: A club of misfits have to deal with a fantastical situation that leads to drama and lighthearted comedic moments. Not exactly treading innovative waters. However, Kokoro proves that execution is everything by taking standard anime tropes showing you not everyone is so simple. The plot starts off with the club members switching bodies seemingly at random. At first this creates hilarity and confusion, but it isn't until later on we see the rather devastating mental effect this can have on a group of insecure angsty teenagers. Drama is handled in a mature, believable manner and was always entertaining to watch. Sexual tension is incredibly high in this anime which is a little odd, but makes the romance feel more authentic in my opinion. The ending is strong as well resolving all conflicts between characters, but oddly not explaining the phenomenons that had been plaguing the our lead characters the entire show. Characters: The definite strong point of the show. Every single one is explored and developed thoroughly. Yoshifumi Aoki- Master of nothing. He's the most boring character in terms of.. well.. just about everything and relies on the rest of the cast to make him interesting (its even admitted in the show). He does play a pivotal role in developing the rest of the cast and is actually well-developed character himself. Just not an exciting one. Himeko Inaba- Master of being waifu material. As many who have actually seen this show to its conclusion will agree, Inaba is awesome. She practically carries this show on her back just as she often tries to with her friends in the show. I don't want to spoil too much since this shows plot is essentially its characters but she is a coodere. Seems cold, uncaring, and methodical but in reality is still just girl with girl problems. Something she is embarrassed to admit. Yui Kiriyama- Master of Karate, but is actually the most vulnerable out of the five. She tends to over think things to point where she almost always feels like a burden and her back story matches her present-day personality quite well. Much like Aoki she is well-written but not that exciting. Iori Nagase- Master of deception. This character is best described as Chitanda (Hyouka) x Sengoku (Monogatari: Second Season). She is cheerful, playful, and basically the opposite of Inaba although they still share a strong friendship. Despite all of her upbeat antics she is subject of/to nearly all of the drama this series has to offer. Because in this show not everyone is what they seem to be. Taichi Yaegashi- Master of wrestling. Taichi is our main protagonist and is a "selfless-freak" in the words of Inaba. She is correct. "Typical" nice guy that wants to help everyone even if he knows attempting to do so will only cause them more pain. His greatest strength is also is greatest flaw and that makes him pretty interesting. Sound: Effective at setting the mood. Its effective and timed well in all scenes. It never out of place or disrupts the mood, but its nothing that I will ever remember now that the show is finished. Art: Art is good, animation is pretty standard. Everything is well drawn, and character designs in particular seem to stand out, but the animation can be noticeably lackluster in some scenes. It never was enough to take me out of the experience though. Conclusion: At just 18 episodes this show is more than worth your time. And, Himeko Inaba is pretty damn awesome. Watch if you: -Are tired of character tropes -Enjoy an unpredictable, but not over dramatic love-triangle -If Rom-drams are your thing (in that case why havn't you seen this yet!?) -Enjoy supernatural anime -Enjoyed Nagi no Asukara -Want a climatic and conclusive ending Don't watch if you: -Absolutely can not stand teenage drama -Hate characters that tend to wallow in self-pity -Don't enjoy drastic mood swings in your anime.

NOTE: This review includes the 4 “Michi Random” episodes. “What defines humans... Defines us? Nobody will notice a change on the inside if you look the same on the outside.” What happens your desires and thoughts are no longer simply your own, but are also shared with your closest friends? How will it affect your friendship when you uncontrollably make a move on the guy your friend likes, or even if you find out a dark secret that your friends kept from you? These are all questions (among many others) which KokoroCo tries to bring to light. In a way, you could say this is as much a SOL-series, as it is a psychological test. Story: (8 / 10) The basic plot is very simple, to be honest. A group of friends encounter, and have to deal with, a multitude of different phenomena which in different ways reveal their deepest desires and secrets to the other people in the group. However, it’s the rather interesting way these phenomena are presented, executed, and dealt with which makes this show very interesting. Even though most of it can be pretty sad or depressing in ways, they’ve done a good job in throwing in some comedic scenes, without making it feel like they’re going out of their way just to be funny, so it all flows really well, which I thought was nice. I find it hard to actually talk more about the story, without really going into specific events and more detail, and unfortunately that would spoil the experience for you a bit. Length-wise, I think 17 (counting the specials) episodes were just perfect, and the sort of open ending both offers adequate closure and sets up for a good chance to read the remaining 7 books, I’d assume (unless there’s a lot of difference between the anime and the first 4 novels). Art: (9 / 10) The art was certainly very well done. (Like others, it seems) I was actually reminded of KyoAni’s sort of “special” art style, but to my surprise, they weren’t involved at all. Even so, all the characters were very well drawn (even the side-characters), and animation was nice and smooth. There are a lot of emotional scenes present, and whether a character was expressing happiness, sadness or anger, it was always done in such a way that it didn’t feel “overdone”, or “off” in any way, which of course is a big plus. Another thing I would like to point out is fanservice. Now, I’ve gotten pretty used to seeing a fair share of fanservice in anime, even (or especially) in the ones revolving around a bunch of highschool friends. But to my surprise, there really isn’t much of that to find anywhere here. There are maybe 3 or 4 very short scenes like these, and I found it very nice that they didn’t try to break up the emotions with random boob-shots. Sound: (8 / 10) Of course, in a show so focused on the emotional changes of our characters, good voice acting will be needed to really be able to bring the (very well done) writing to life, in a smooth and relatable way. To be honest, I really believe the voice actors all managed to do this. They all fit their respective characters very well, and to be able to display so many emotions throughout a rather short time, really takes a bit of effort. The one who stood out to me the most, however, was easily Nagase Iori. How she was able to both represent this happy, childish girl, as well as the cold, darker side of Iori we get to see was truly well done. As for the music; The background music did a good job at accompanying the writing, but it never really tried to overtake any other aspect, which was nice, and even if I personally didn’t really care for the opening theme all too much, I think it shows the happy, hoping side of the group in a nice way. Characters: (9 / 10) Now this is where things get really good. In short, the characters are all very well written and synergizes rather well with each other. At a first glance, most of the characters appear quite innocent and “playful” (for lack of better words), except for maybe Inaba, who acts as the stern leader of the group. However, as the story goes on, darker sides are revealed, and as we find out more about each characters backstories, you learn that they’re not quite as innocent and/or happy as they’d like you to think, and this is all what makes you care and feel for the characters. Obviously, a show about being forced to reveal your darkest secrets wouldn’t be very interesting if said secrets were all kinda “meh”, would it? Thankfully, all of the characters (save for one, I guess) have rather good backstories, and this also contributes a lot to character development. As they struggle to overcome their past problems/traumas, they actually develop as characters, and synergise with the other characters in new ways, which again brings up a lot of new scenarios. Enjoyment: (9 / 10) To be honest, I’m usually not able to marathon shows if I’m watching them by myself (as I easily get distracted in between episodes), and in that case, it usually takes me a while to finish a series, because I don’t necessarily always feel like watching anime at that moment. However, there are exceptions to this, and KokoroCo is definitely one of those. Even if I didn’t marathon all the 17 episodes in one go, I certainly got through this a lot faster than many other series, because I kept feeling like I wanted more of the characters, and wanted to see what would happen next etc. All in all, it’s rather bittersweet, but I think this was very close to being one of my favorites.

“One of the most beautiful qualities of friendship is to understand and to be understood.” What Kokoro Connect essentially delves into, is exactly that, the notion of what friendship is, and how do we keep it alive when your true desires, love, selfishness, fears, pasts and fragility are all unleashed and out in the open. One day a sudden paranormal occurrence of body-switching haunts a small group of five friends, which in turn alters their relationship and every day lives. Since the plot is pretty much straightforward with a slight twist, Kokoro Connect is more of a character motivated Anime; with it being more ambitious on the interactions and chemistry front between the characters. I think the characters are not only convincingly believable, but have a real depth and insight to them; (Yui; androphobia, Iori; multiple personality disorder?) we truly see a good portrayal of emotions and human nature. The supernatural occurrences definitively disrupt the harmony amongst the five friends as it not only, sends their feelings in turmoil, but also makes them closer friends simultaneously. The initial idea of body-switching is, in itself a charming premise but also happens to open a can full of funny situations too, as you can imagine. What I also liked was the atmosphere that Kokoro Connect gives; the orangey sunset sceneries at the beginning feel reminiscent of high school nostalgia with intentions to keep it light-hearted. Alongside that, there is also an eerie, sinister tone when the entity Heartseed enters the fray (his gormless, creepy, unpredictable look about him also contributed to this xD). That is certainly one factor that kept me interested, the eagerness to find out what is behind the mysteriousness and ambiguity of this Heartseed entity that was causing all the supernatural phenomena, the enigma of his powers, what he actually is and what his real intentions are. Although those are the defining factors I liked in particular, there are also many evident blemishes I could also point out. Being a slice of life drama set in the high school timeframe following both female and male students there are predetermined hints to your conventional genre clichés, we have seen it all to often with the overplayed depictions of love triangles and pour-your-heart-out, lovey-dovey confessions scenes; all I can say is Kokoro Connect doesn’t differ from this nor does it attempt to, while it tries not to overly focus on these things, the fact remains is that these overdone concepts are embraced, and the way it’s pulled off may be too generic for some. We also have the character designs and art style that are nothing special to be honest; all plainly bland looking, nothing outstanding, it’s what you would expect from most other Anime. The characters themselves could also be considered cliché, as you might say it features some of your common personalities in Anime shows, although I still think it’s one of the more stronger aspects of the show. While the general premise of the Anime starts quite well, what with the body-swapping idea, it eventually moves onto other mind-boggling notions. With the original idea still fresh in your mind, I feel the episodes gradually drop its appeal with each supernatural premise, and swings its tone to a less light-hearted, funny atmosphere to a more darker and dampening one at the ending stage of each phenomena; this also inserts more exaggerated, melodramatic and overemotional moments. Although this tonal shift could in my opinion be handled in better fashion, it also effectively brings in, deeper more meaningful themes. However the most unsatisfying thing was undoubtedly the ending, lets just say there are so many unanswered questions and left with a sense of bewilderment and discontent. (This thing really irked me xD) So, all in all “Why should I watch this?” you maybe thinking, well if you enjoy a well thought out Anime, which makes you think about the real meaning of friendship and puts you into empathetic scenarios, albeit engaging you into an emotional roller-coaster of a drama with heartwarming conclusions at times, while still keeping it funny and light-hearted, then I say go for it!

Story: 8 Angsty teens switching bodies at random, and now having to deal with the awkwardness of being someone they are not ? sounds like a "Freaky Friday" remake...we all know where this is going...right? WRONG! Not only the series expand far beyond this anomaly to incorporate far crazier (and somewhat disturbing) phenomenons. This is the only spoiler I will provide. Art: 6 This is the same studio that brought you guys gems like Usagi Drop, and Bakemonogatari, the latter of which got uber bonus points for style without having to dump too much into the art budget. KC however, is more like Usagi in that it isn't known for its art. Don't get me wrong, the characters do still look good, despite the mundane setting & background. Animation is mediocre, and if you pay close enough attention, you will notice that the creators cut corners in some scenes by using the same sequence of images over and over again. Sound: 6 1st opening theme is pretty catch, as was the 1st ending theme. I don't really remember the other theme songs in the series. Background theme's within each episode fit the tone/mood of each scene fairly well. Overall, the music and sound effects did their job, but nothing that really blew me away. Character: 10 Some viewers may dock a few points for the characters being a bit 1-dimensional in the beginning. But I justify my 10/10 in that I was absolutely floored by how these characters developed throughout the series. Whether it is the rich back-story of each character (minor one's too !) , or the fluidity with which these characters interact, it is clear that the makers put a lot of effort into creating people out of the main protagonists, as opposed to archetypal and cliched caricatures. Enjoyment: 10 I laughed, I cried, I wanted to watch it again, nuff said Overall: 9 I took the average of the previous 5 and added 1 because the characters were just that strong. I believe that it is the people that drive a series. One can create an absolutely ridiculous universe that transcends all suspension of disbelief, but still have awesome characters that really absorb viewers into that universe. Kokoro Connect's star characters did precisely that for me, and i hope it does for those of you reading this review! Thanks for reading!

There is alot to say about Kokoro Connect, it was a rather odd, yet extremely enjoyable experience for me. I can kind of understand why this anime gets alot of flak from people, but that's not the animes fault, the problem that the anime "has" isn't a problem at all, it's disliked in the same way school days is, not because it's badly designed, but because it's something people don't like. People confuse something as being bad because they don't like it, but that couldn't be farther from the truth, hopefully my review sheds some light on this anime and can help anyone that's on the fence about it make their mind up, also this is for the whole anime, that includes the 4 "extra" episodes, they are essential the story and should have been aired at the same time as the original anime, but for some reason it wasn't. Story- The story in Kokoro connect is different from how the synopsis describes it, that's part of it, but now what the story is just about. They go through certain "tests" as a group, the first being randomly body swapped, i'm not going to spoil what the others are, but stuff like being able to hear the other members thoughts happen as well, it's actually a really good idea and makes for a very intense and interesting story. I would definitely call it one of the more uniquely written stories out of all of the anime I have watched. The story has it's ups and downs as far as emotions go, it has it's funny moments that are hilarious in their own respect and it also has some very touching and emotional scenes, and the best part is that these scenes are perfectly balanced, it never feels like it should have been serious when it was being funny and vice versa. I was expecting the story to be kind of shit and just nonsensical like some people have said, but I found it to be the opposite of that. It was wrote extremely well, had plenty of varying issues that they had to overcome, had great character interactions, no down time, stayed interesting all the way through, the only part of the story you could complain about was something that happened down the line, which is how it's suppose to be. Not all anime is suppose to make you feel good about yourself, some stuff is suppose to do the opposite and make you feel like shit, make you feel anger and resentment, it's suppose to make you feel a variety of emotions, some examples of anime like this that are misunderstood would be something like school days, or even aku no hana to an extent. All of that being said I think the story is amazing, even that part that made me start hating a certain character, it was suppose to be that way. The ending was something I was worried about, I always worry about the ending to animes because it seems like alot of really good anime are spoiled by a shit ending that makes no sense or leaves off on a bad cliffhanger, but not kokoro connect. It had a very satisfying ending, it told it's story and didn't decide to drag itself out and over stay it's welcome like a lot of anime seem to do nowadays. Art- The art is nothing special, it's your average run of the mill anime type art style with nothing special about it, which works in it's favor. You really get the sense that this is happening to a regular group of friends, which I think adds to the overall feel of the anime in a positive way. Sound- The op/ed sountrack is pretty good, it fits the feel of the anime really well. The music scores are on queue everytime and simply adds more to scenes. It's kind of hard to mess up the sounds assets of anime nowadays, also dat sax solo. Character- The characters in kokoro connect are arguably more important than the story. The entire show is based around this group of friends finding out more about each then they were supposed to, if the characters are boring and uninspired then the show would be trash. They all have something about them that makes them unique in some way, which can be hard since there are 5 main characters. They all feel as fleshed out as characters and you can see them change in believable ways that don't break the story or immersion. Some anime doesn't do this, they make the character do something they wouldn't normally do, or they make them into a badass when they were originally a geek or something along those lines, it's immersion breaking when that happens and it ruins the anime for me most of the time. Being that there are 5 main characters that are fully fleshed out, that makes for a really good time. You know these characters on a deeper level so when something funny happens you find yourself laughing with them at what happened and when something tragic happens you find yourself being depressed about it. The characters and story are what this anime as amazing as it is, without the interesting characters to support the awesome story it would fail, and vice versa. They have a perfect harmony and pace that is refreshing to see, not many anime get the pacing and character interactions right, but this one does and i'm glad I took the time to watch it. Enjoyment- There is no downtime in this anime, something interesting is always happening and you're never left having to watch a few filler episodes to get to the good parts of the anime. Watching these 5 characters just interact with each other is fun enough, throw in a well realized story that never stops with the curve balls and you have yourself a fantastic anime along with an experience that you won't be able to forget. This anime never lets up, and that's one of it's best qualities, non-stop entertainment. Overall- Overall I was quite surprised by Kokoro Connect, I often find that alot of controversial anime usually either sucks or is awesome, and I always love it when i'm wrong about an anime, it's the best feeling in the world. I'm so glad I decided to watch it, it was highly enjoyable, well made, well designed, excellently executed, and enjoyable to boot. If you enjoy mystery, romance, or just plain weird anime that is designed well then kokoro connect is a must watch. It's something unique, it tells a story that no other anime has come up with before and makes it awesome. Romances are a dime a dozen, same with high school slice of life, but this one breaks that monotony and tries something new, and definitely succeeds. Watch it now if you like what you've seen here, or hell , just try it if you're looking for something new to watch, you won't be disappointed.

**Takes into account of the 4 extra episodes. Kokoro Connect is an anime that is not going to appeal to everyone. Why? Because many episodes are dedicated to the characters and how they deal with their inner conflicts and problems. Of course on the surface their daily lives are not anything interesting until Heartseed greets them and they are faced with certain phenomenons which force them to change. And how they change is the true gem of this show, as it becomes from any other slice-of-life to a supernatural and mysterious that drags viewers in. These unusual phenomenons range from switching minds in bodies and to give in to their impulses, something very haunting the characters find themselves losing control of who they are or who they thought they are. How would people react if they did not have authority over themselves? What if someone was able to get in your head? Listen to what you truly think? It's a scary thought as it stripes these characters bare, revealing their true personalities. It tests their trust, friendship and commitment. But most important of all - their identities. How truly fragile is a person's personality? How genuine? How easily can you deceive, lie and fool someone when wearing a mask? There is one way to describe what these phenomenons affect the characters and its this: It destroys them, absolutely breaks them apart. They corrupt in their own insecurities and struggle trying to overcome it. Their protections, barriers are all torn down and the question is - how do they deal with it? That's where it gets gripping and compelling because they make us question ourselves. As I've said before, since this anime is so heavily based on their characters - many episodes come across as "fillers" but they are all very important to their progression. There are 5 characters in this anime - with 13+4 extra episodes I didn't expect anything extraordinary, what could they do with characters with such little time? I was very wrong. Aoki: A free character, seems careless and carefree he tries to live with no regrets - unfortunately, he seems to bring mayhem everywhere and his way of living is portrayed very reckless; unaware of how his decisions affect those who are around him. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him try to find a deeper understanding of himself. It is powerful to see one find the source of their true feelings. Kiriyama: Very kind and gentle, Yui is sweet and generally, another light-hearted character. In fact I believed she would be a dull character, expecting her to just be that cute one. But Kokoroco does not fail and we get to see her true fear: one she has buried for so long. Watching her trying to overcome this was both painful but reassuring. Inaba: Though coming across a bit too honest and controlling - she is very logical and calm towards situations that require analysing. But can you analyse your feelings? Can data predict how you feel? Inaba is a complex character, that I had trouble understanding. A very mysterious character with many insecurities hidden by arrogance you can almost feel a sense of relation to her, she gave me one of the best impressions and her development was truly something else. Iori: Now a character that needs time to wrap your head around, the development dedicated to her was at times too rushed but I believe, necessary. Identity, individuality, all tricky elements to a persons personality. How they perceive themselves and project themselves to other people. Now this was a character with immense depth, honest and brutal, I am sure anyone will enjoy watching her unfold. Taichi: Your typical, selfless and considerate main character - come on, we've come across this type of protagonist countless times. Noble. Generous. He's a character you'd roll your eyes at: you think, come on, you have to be selfish somehow. But this character gives you a gleam of hope, he was fleshed out to the max. Unlike the other characters, his struggle was perhaps too much of a thing. This anime did not forget any character and gave its cast the proper time it needed to mature and grow. Their flaws, strengths and deepest fears. Everything is exposed that viewers truly feel with them, you can easily relate with how they react even if you have not experienced it before. While the story can seem as some sort of prop to be used for character development, their is a mist of mystery and suspense around it's events that are overlooked. Definitely unpredictable, this anime is an emotional ride. The individual elements of comedy, action and romance are paced carefully well. In a more critical view, the plot/storyline is not explored completely and seems to be only used as some sort of device for the characters. The actual process of the phenomenons and explanations are very vague and even Heartseed himself is unknown and peculiar. That may be annoying to some, as its core is not clear or comprehensible which makes rooms for misunderstandings and plot holes. There are endless possibilities, choices to do with this anime, so it makes sense that it appears too slow-paced or boring as it does explore many of the components. But the characterization is something that can't be missed out on.

This one caught me off guard. I was expecting a somewhat lighthearted anime, the usual romcom type. I was pleasantly surprised however. Also please keep in mind that this is my first review and I'm still relatively new to anime. Story The story is driven by the five main characters, the different phenomenons that happen throughout the series and how they affect their relations. This is due to Balloon Vine (a weird "being" that can take control of people's bodies) causing the phenomenons. Sometimes a few side characters are involved, but they are usually only there to add a bit of comedy. That is fine, as the main characters are well designed and not paper thin. Characters I really liked the characters. Even though they are based on existing archetypes, they manage to bring something new here. They build each character from ground up, showing their problems and pasts. The characters definitely are the thing that kept me interested. I'm not gonna spoil anything, as the story depends on character development. All the characters go through some change during the series. Yaegashi Taichi - He's your typical nice guy type character. I'm usually not big on them, often ending up hating them. However, this one was different, without spoiling anything. Nagase Iori - She's the cute and energetic type. At least, she starts out as one. Kiriyama Yui - She's your delicate character and a karate trainee. Inaba Himeko - She's the tough, cool chick. Again, changes during the show. Also my favourite character. Aoki Yoshifumi- I suppose he's the pervert type. That is not flaunted though, only in a few instances does he act perverted. He also gets beaten up by the girls. Art No complaints here. I'm not too picky on art, as long as it's watchable, which it most definitely was. It was clear, not that detailed though. I feel like it does the job. Art isn't a deal breaker for me anyway. Sound I don't care much for anime openings or endings, so I'll let you judge those. The actual music during the show was really good and fitting, though. The VAs did a good job in my opinion, no complaints. Enjoyment I really enjoyed Kokoro. I was always wanting to see what's going to happen next, watching all of the 17 episodes on almost one sitting. There were no filler episodes, never a dull moment. The pacing was perfect in my opinion, it didn't feel rushed nor did it feel like it was dragging on too long. The conclusion in the end was satisfying and I didn't feel like it should've continued. Kokoro is definitely going to my top 3 ever, possibly the best I've watched so far. I can't really say anything bad about this series. I did get annoyed a few times when the characters did something stupid a real person would never have done, but that's just me, not bad design necessarily. I highly recommend this to anyone, even if you're not a big SoL fan. If you want to shed a few tears while watching a good story unfold, go for it!

I've already finished this series, and the last 4 as well. I would like to post my review on the 1st 13 episodes. Since Kokoro Connect really made my day. And I want to share it with everyone who are thinking about watching this truly amazing anime. There are so many things I can say about this anime. But to be on the safe side I won't say any spoilers to first time watchers. I would rather want them to watch it themselves to see how great this anime really is. You guys should already know the Plot of the story. But I would like to give you guys my outlook and impression on how Kokoro Connect left for me. The reason I made this account is because of this anime "Kokoro Connect". I've seen a lot of anime, enough that I understand that it's pretty redundant, and repetitive how most animes are. But, hey it's not my kind of preference. I'm not picky. I enjoy all anime, even though it's not my taste. I'll always give it a chance. I gave this anime all 10. Not just because it's perfect in every way, no anime is perfect. It's doesn't matter how the sound, or quality it's in. What matters is how the anime gave you that "feeling" in the end. How it impacted on the audience, how it will end with a strong impact that leaves your mind lingering. Any anime that does that to me is what I consider an amazing anime, and this anime is the perfect example of that. Kokoro Connect. Kokoro Connect definitely succeeded it's purpose on expressing my emotions. The impression it gave made me view life in a different aspect. It taught, and gave me a realization that this is how humans are. We're powerless. Even when we try to settle things all by ourselves. We will always need someone in our lives to help us at one point. Life just works that way. This. Is. How. We. Are... No one can live all by themselves. We will always strive for love and comfort. These are human instincts. Hardships will always come. But everyone will always get through it. Just when you are about to break. Your friends will always be their to help you up, and that would be one of the great aspects of Kokoro Connect. This had to be one of the strongest point this anime has shown me, Inspiration. It inspired me to become a better person! and obviously changed my perspective on how life is! If it doesn't with you? well... I doubt it. I wouldn't say this is the grand of grands of all animes. But I think any anime should strive to become like Kokoro Connect An anime that encourages oneself in a more positive way. All an all it's rare to watch any anime that are like this. Veryyyy rare. I highly recommend it! it'll definitely will be in my memories forever. I'll never forget it.

Friends... What can we do without them. I thought at first that Kokoro Connect was going to just be pure romance, but I was totally wrong. This anime truly brought about the emotion that the characters are feeling in to play. I would say that those who want something realistic probably don't wanna try to watch this, because it's filled with phenomenon, which I believe could be possible in a way. In any case, Kokoro Connect is a great anime, with amazing drama scene for viewers to enjoy. So if you like drama, romance, and some comedy, only some, then I really recommend this to you. Story: 10 I've been seriously trying to find an anime that's like this for such a long time. The emotion that was in this anime was just enough to match many others that could be considered the best. The plot was arranged perfectly. Not too fast and not too slow. It might not be as sad as Clannad, but it may match it in terms of friendship wise, or relationship. For me, I personally like it because it explained so much about friendship, and how that bond could overcome many obstacle, as long as it doesn't break. I'm not sure if it's just me or not but I don't really like how they start off the anime. I'll give it about average, but since episode 1, everything after that was just amazing. Kokoro Connect exceeded my expectation, since they put "new" ideas that they came up with to build such a great anime. That's just my opinion, since this anime is probably one of those anime where you either like it or you don't. Art: 9 The art style looks very adorable, cut, smooth, and very eye catching. I'm not so good on the art and animation stuff, but I think that the color, texture, and the motion of the movement characters make are very well made. That just might be where I watch the video though. Since the art looks like K-On, I though it was just going to be a nice, happy, and romantic anime with good comedy, but now I realize that this art style really fit into making the tears of the characters looks more "realistic". What that means is, not a Huge amount of tears flying around, comedy wise, or just a touch of tears, making you feel only a little heart breaking. Not all that, but instead, it brought out the true emotion of how the characters, or should I say, how the people should really feel, the serious emotion that all anime should have in order to make viewers sob over it. Sound: 10 The voice acting and background noise is really, really realistic. In some anime, they tends to bring emotion, or how serious the situation is in the scene by adding either serious, sad, or funny background noise. Sometime they over did it and it sounds too serious than it was suppose to. I'm sure this happens to some of you. One minute ago you just watch and watch and sometime doesn't even realize the background noise, but a second later you just realize it since the sound doesn't match how serious the scene should have been. Kokoro Connect is what I believe to have an outstanding quality in sounds. The timing and all were very well arranged to where it's suppose to be, and the background noise isn't what really set the mood, but the voice actor who really put their feelings into every word that they spoke. This anime had a great voice actors and a great sound track which is why I gave it a 10. Character: 9 I probably said this already, but the characters is the subject which is the building block to make an anime good, and the voice of each individual characters brought lots of emotion to the listeners, which makes the anime more realistic in terms of life situation, if this was actually going to happen. This is another anime which I believe to not have that bad of an annoying characters, but I do admit that some characters could really get out people's nerves. But that is what they want you to feel, which is great in another way. The role characters have really fit with the situation that they're in. When characters cry, they could be annoying for other anime, but Kokoro Connect made sure that you Will feel sad when you actually pay attention to the scene and what's going on. This certainly doesn't apply to everyone, but only those who truly believe in friendship, and how hard life can be if no one support you. Enjoyment: 10 This anime certainly made my week, and a great start for new year, even though it's been a couple weeks past new year, and this anime came out in 2012. I've been watching many, many sad anime over a year or two, but this anime really bought me closer to tears than any other (doesn't apply to Clannad, 5 centimeters per second, or some others which I forgot). So I believe That to be the reason why i gave this a 10 for enjoyment. Overall: 10 Maybe I grade this a little too high, but in my opinion, it truly is a great anime which I would totally hope for more. If you read this review and gotten to this far, thank you for reading. I don't really care if you agree or not with me, but no one can change who you really are, so you can say this is either helpful or not, but I hope it did help even if it's just a little bit.

This review contains some spoilers. I picked this up thinking it comes with the warm-and-fuzzy, slice of life package like AnoHana (AnoHana has lots of problems but I really dig the world it's set in and how it's presented to us), coupled with enough emotional drama like Kimi no na wa, but nope. Didn't happen. ----------------------------- Story - 3 Kokoro Connect has a solid premise—that's partly what drew me to it in the first place. The main issue is that it didn't quite meet my expectations, because although it touches upon deeper topics specific to the experiences of older teens (the light novel is categorized as seinen, which I suppose is fair), it nonetheless does so in a sorta halfhearted manner. Although the meat of the plot stems from a supernatural element, it's clear that the creator was attempting to use this supernatural quality as a way to explore "realistic struggles." But unfortunately, these attempts fell flat. Listen, realism isn't constructed through cherrypicking a couple of the "personal struggles of the youths," attaching them to each character, and then info-dumping your way to resolution with the occasional deus ex machina intervention to speed things along (but more on that later because omg, the characters). That's not realistic at all. That doesn't make me feel like I'm watching something real and worthwhile and relatable. In reality (see what I did there?), the story of Kokoro Connect feels like an empty shell of what it could have been. Sure, characters wax philosophy about the self and their love for one another, but it feels like it's coming from a textbook and not from the heart. The storytelling is just, simply put, kinda lazy. Taichi's reasoning for loving wrestling, for instance, is told to us almost like a lesson, as if he's just rattling off facts of Taichi 101, which is hilarious because the piece of information is presented LITERALLY AS EVIDENCE, as a piece of information to affirm Inaba's theory of Taichi's freakish selflessness, rather than as a piece of character subtlety. All the "secrets" of each character are just straight-forwardly revealed in a "Fine, I'll tell you my secret" kind of way—there is no initial intrigue, no poking around needed. Instead it's a boring ask-and-you-shall-receive type of conflict (which isn't really a conflict?) They might as well just give us a Handbook to All the Characters so we can just read about them instead of watching the story unfold. Heartseed's presence is absolutely nonsensical. He's just a one-dimensional catalyst. It'd be so much cooler if he were some uber mysterious, unapproachable mega-being, but instead he's just...kinda there. Initially he shows up, messes with things for "fun" (uh, sure), info-dumps some random bits of information about his abilities and his plans and his thoughts or whatever, then disappears again. Why?? What's the point?? (I mean, thanks for conveniently being there I guess). I mean I'll give this show props for baffling me in the first few episodes with all the personality switcheroo—that was pretty fun. See? The premise works guys! But the execution is horrible! And amidst all the chaos, that was when the character dynamics really stood out. But then came everything else and I, uh, lost interest really fast. Art - 6 The show's got some cool color schemes and lighting in key moments of emotional drama which I appreciated. Those were the very few moments when I felt some things—mainly just, like, shock or horror at certain instances of the plot, and only in the beginning. The character artwork is distinctive enough for me to remember who's who, which is...good. Too bad Taichi looks like your classic self-insert hero, so eh. Sound - 3 It's sad because part of the reason AnoHana works is that it has a great OST. Kokoro Connect's soundtrack is pretty nonexistent if not just forgettable. If it had better music, I'm sure I would have felt more things. Music is magical. Character - 2 OH BOY, HERE WE GO. Where do I begin. Taichi is a dud. His personality is hardly a personality. At one point Inaba accuses his selfless nature of actually being selfish. Well...yeah. Anything anyone does can be taken as a form of selfishness, this is not an original piece of information, okay. Taichi, you idiot. His very presence makes me think that this is a borderline harem anime, which kinda takes away the realism it seems to be going for, and inserts an unbelievable amount of silly optimism into the conflicts as a form of feel-good (but lazy) resolution. And this show is supposed to be seinen. Inaba seems to be the only level-headed character here, the only one I even remotely cared about, but even then, SOMEHOW, she becomes reduced to a simple personality "type." Dude, she had so much potential, and it was all ruined. I guess this kind of oversimplification and making characters flat and recognizable by one trait is the best way to keep the characters organized as their personalities jump around, but still. Plus, her personal philosophy about her personality is sort of hard to believe and doesn't really make any sense. At one point, she talks about how she was born distrusting others, as if there is a gene that causes you to be distrustful or something, but what? Trust is a social trait, it's born from social interaction and observation, created after birth, not during it or because of it or whatever. It should vary accordingly as you age and meet new people and spend time with the people around you—family, friends, strangers. It's hard to believe that Inaba hasn't changed at all since birth, just as it's hard to believe that Iori seems to cling onto the idea that her initial personality at birth (or as a child) is her "true" personality. That also literally makes no sense. This show might single-handedly kill the nature v. nurture debate. Yui's issue was really interesting at first, but it got resolved WAY too fast. Like WAY TOO FAST. It's a serious trauma—it should not be even remotely resolved in the form of a few kind words and sketchy promises from Taichi, ESPECIALLY when said words are spoken and said promises are made in the middle of the night in an empty park (apparently Yui's trauma isn't traumatic enough for her to be triggered by such a setting, which I find hard to believe) with a man, no less. It's just much too unbelievable, and I was left thinking that the creator didn't understand, at all, how to write characters who are emotionally and psychologically damaged. Yui is the result of a halfhearted attempt at constructing a (SPOILER) victim of sexual assault, as in that her actions and shifts in emotion are not believable at all. Aoki is just kind of there and ultimately forgettable. Enjoyment - 3 By episode 5, I was basically done and ready to move on. This was a major wtf moment for me. The characters were way too chill during a moment of extreme crisis; Heartseed had revealed to possess an extremely disturbing motive, and everyone just kind of rolls with it? Okay? Yes, tears are shed, but it's portrayed in an almost blasé way, as if the characters are just miming the actions but not really living through them. To be honest, that basically sums up the entire show. Like I said before, there is no heart. Regurgitation of bits of philosophy will not make me feel things. I can get that at school. Overall - 3 I think I know what the anime is trying to be, maybe, but its execution leaves something to be desired. It sort of becomes a hot mess of random moods and genres, oscillating drastically between a lighthearted slice-of-life/romance/comedy harem and supernatural drama in a way that gave me whiplash. Basically, it has an identity crisis of its own (if this is in fact intentional it would be ironic and admittedly ingenious). There are actually some serious moments that can't be taken seriously at all, moments that I actually found to be low-key hilarious, even though I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to be a dark comedy, s…

Hm, where to start? At the beginning the show kinda just throws you into what is happening to these people. There is no set up to learn and appreciate the "normal" state of these characters before they are forced into the mess of their situation. It's a common approach for stories with similar tropes. You wake up and your life is fucked up. The story then proceeds to combine deep analysis of internal trauma, pretending to be other people and masturbation. Surprisingly, that's not how it goes in Kokoro connect. Instead the scene is set with the knowledge that something has happened and more importantly, this is the character set. And there I think is where the show differentiates itself from other media that has used the trope. Switching bodies is an extremely personal experience, something that most spend a great deal of time analyzing or at least addressing. Kokoro connect almost brushes it to the side and only uses it to guide the story. Instead of the trope infecting the characters being the story, the trope guiding the characters to infect each other is. It illuminates what the events say about the characters as a group and about the characters as individuals while pushing particular aspects of their personal qualities into the shadows. And so the phenomena forced upon by heart seed aren't really the point. I read somebody describing the show as Deus ex Machina: the Show. In the way that I'm taking about, it almost is. The phenomena are only present to give a bit of life. So, a secondary effect is that the transition between phenomena doesn't really matter, any one of them could facilitate the exact same character development and the story doesn't form arcs as well as many people think. So, back to the beginning. There's problems, there's characters. And holy fuck is it hard to get the character at first. They're all generic anime characters and have anime names. The content of what makes a person might be connected wholly to the body but holy fuck does that make it hard to understand who is who. I honestly watched it with the character list open the first several episodes. The first goal of the show is to get Taichi to solve everybody's problems, set up a harem and make people have character in one episode bursts of exposing past trauma. Not really, but that's the line that it danced against and almost shifted into for a lot of people. The show manages to do it kinda well, not winning any awards for the execution but reasonably good. Taichi remains a bit of a selfless nobody protag while Yui and other guy lack quite a bit of identity outside of the primary love triangle. However, the facet of the characters that shines is in how they interact with each other. I can't articulate why this was done well or bad or anything as well as I can other aspects, which is unfortunate because this is what made the show good. Many times throughout the series laughs were coaxed out of me and once or twice I struggled to keep myself from hysterics. Other times, particularly and mostly at an episode centred upon Nagase, I was close to tears. That whole episode was just flawlessly executed and when the final theme ends and the previews for the next episode are done, you're shaken and emotionally confused about what you just watch. My motions were in a highly tightened state and it was one of those moments you go, "Fuuuck." and laugh and cry a bit. And any anime that can make me elicit tears or laughter when I'm sitting alone watching it on my laptop with headphones on gets big kudos from me. These people felt real, or at least more real than for most anime. These people were fun and easy to care about, or at least more so than for most anime. The finale may have been lacklustre and Michi Random may have been all kinds of shit (relative to the main series, it could stand alone as decent, however my thoughts with regards to this are the same ones everybody has so no point in going into that). This review may be overly positive due to the possibly mediocre brilliance of the show paired with its highly enjoyable nature. I may have forgotten a place to comment about how the music is an appropriate and effective asset in its context, doing wonders for the mood. I enjoyed the thing. Two thumbs up and a well deserved pat on the back for Kokoro Connect.