Reviews

Kobato is a girl of currently unknown origins whose job is to "heal" the hearts of the world around her. Every time she heals a heart, a candy-like gem called Confetto will appear in a glass bottle in which she carries around. When this glass bottle finally fills up, she will get her wish granted. Thus, the story of Kobato follows her attempts to find people to heal.

Story
Oh boy... Where do I even begin. The whole storyline has been put out so slowly I've lost interest. Even as a major fan of slice of life and non-related episodic anime (in which my favourites include Hidamari Sketch and Aria, as well as being a fan of Sketchbook and GA), this doesn't draw me in in any way possible.

EDIT: 6 episodes after I originally wrote this, I'd say it jsut got worse. they made a highly pointless time skip, in which we end upa few months later, with NO advancement to the storyline, and she just goes on continuing to collect Confetto.

Art
For some plus points, I've always been a fan of the animation Madhouse does, and this is no exception.

Music
Music is decent, except when Kobato sings. It's too darn fake-sounding.

Character
Boy oh boy number 2...

The anime appears to have 3 main characters. Starting with Fujimoto, the guy appears to be an absolute jerk, but "becomes nicer" after meeting up with Kobato. Appears to have some issues that he helps Kobato find an owner for a stray cat after telling his college classmates he doesn't want to help them isn't very convincing. Secondly, Kobato's character is highly annoying. Her naivety is beyond that of even a child, or maybe the word should be stupidity? Or bimbotic? Either way, this is the first time I did not like a Kana Hanazawa character. The third main in Ioryogi is possibly the most likeable of the trio. That said, the bossy, fire breathing stuff animal is no Mokona or Keroberos, and pretty much insults the great "stuff animals" that we have seen by CLAMP thus far.

Enjoyment
While fire breathing, klutzy antics can be enjoyable once in a while, seeing every episode REALLY gets old, and poor characters and a lack of the heart warming feeling from a slice of life anime really kills off the enjoyment.

Overall, this anime has gone is a very poor direction. If I was new to the slice of life genre, watching this will make me want to permanantly avoid it. I had such high hopes for Kobato. Poor CLAMP production, poor Madhouse production. Disappointing.