Kokoro Connect

When five students at Yamaboshi Academy realize that there are no clubs where they fit in, they band together to form the Student Cultural Society, or "StuCS" for short. The club consists of: Taichi Yaegashi, a hardcore wrestling fan; Iori Nagase, an indecisive optimist; Himeko Inaba, a calm computer genius; Yui Kiriyama, a petite karate practitioner; and Yoshifumi Aoki, the class clown.

One day, Aoki and Yui experience a strange incident when, without warning, they switch bodies for a short period of time. As this supernatural phenomenon continues to occur randomly amongst the five friends, they begin to realize that it is not just fun and games. Now forced to become closer than ever, they soon discover each other's hidden secrets and emotional scars, which could end up tearing the StuCS and their friendship apart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

The cast from the Kokoro Connect drama CD reprised their roles in the anime.

The anime uses locations in Yokohama as reference, with cooperation from the Yokohama Film Commission and the Yokohama Gakuen high school.

Episode Videos

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kokoro Connect, Kokoro Connect: On Air
Sequel:	Kokoro Connect: Michi Random

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Inaba, Himeko

Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Nagase, Iori

Main

Toyosaki, Aki
Japanese

Yaegashi, Taichi

Main

Mizushima, Takahiro
Japanese

Kiriyama, Yui

Main

Kanemoto, Hisako
Japanese

Aoki, Yoshifumi

Main

Terashima, Takuma
Japanese

Fuusenkazura

Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji
Japanese

Fujishima, Maiko

Supporting

Itou, Shizuka
Japanese

Yaegashi, Rina

Supporting

Oogame, Asuka
Japanese

Gotou, Ryuuzen

Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji
Japanese

Kiriyama, Mother

Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Yamanaka, Takahiro

Producer

Nakagawa, Jirou

Producer

Kaneko, Hayato

Producer, Planning

Masaki, Daisuke

Assistant Producer

Edit

Opening Theme

	"Kimochi Signal (キモチシグナル)" by Sayuri Horishita (eps 1-10)
	1: "Paradigm (パラダイム)" by eufonius (eps 1-10)
	2: "Kimi Rhythm (キミリズム)" by Masaki Imai (eps 12-13)

Edit

Ending Theme

	1: "Kokoro no Kara (ココロノカラ)" by Team.Nekokan [Neko] featuring. Junca Amaoto (eps 1-5)
	2: "Cry out" by Team.Nekokan [Neko] featuring. atsuko (eps 6-10)
	3: "Salvage" by Team.Nekokan [Neko] featuring. Rekka Katakiri (eps 11-13)

More reviews

Reviews

Jun 17, 2013

SeitenSoushi

Recommended

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 ...

Open

Gift

Jul 30, 2012

Yume_to_Tsubasa

Recommended

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.

...

Open

Gift

Sep 27, 2014

jesterthomas

Mixed Feelings

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.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Complete Anime Adaptations (part 4)

by Yuriko_Sakai

50 Entries · 22 Restacks

Vibrant Romances

by jXcileJ

34 Entries · 37 Restacks

Crying at 2 A.M.

by evvya

30 Entries · 32 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

North American Anime & Manga Releases for March

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for March Week 1: March 7 - 13 Anime Releases Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation Complete Collection DVD Pha...read more

Mar 6, 2017 10:25 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (12 comments)

Q2 2014 Anime Licenses [Update 7/12]

Sentai Filmworks (North America):Haikyuu!! Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou (The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior) Isshuukan Friends. (One Week Friends) Lov...read more

Apr 5, 2014 2:33 PM by Dunois | Discuss (80 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Kokoro Connect Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Aug 25, 2012	209 replies	by Lanz »» May 4, 10:40 PM
Poll: Kokoro Connect Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Sep 29, 2012	332 replies	by Redna-X »» Apr 28, 2:35 PM
Poll: Kokoro Connect Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jul 28, 2012	389 replies	by Lanz »» Apr 27, 1:56 AM
Wild theory? IhnalakoKaina - Apr 5	1 replies	by EveryAnimeReview »» Apr 5, 8:35 PM
Poll: Kokoro Connect Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Jul 14, 2012	193 replies	by xoxocadence »» Apr 1, 7:04 PM

Recent Featured Articles

In Numbers: The Best Anime of the Decade

What's the #1 anime of the 2010s? Which year was the best? What studio had the most hits? We have the answers to all these questions and more!

by Shymander

582,577 views

Top 15 Best School Anime

School life is an important part of youth so it is not unusual that there is a huge variety of anime shows exploring this theme. Take a look at this list of the best 15 school anime to see what makes them so interesting and captivating!

by FreeNightFalls

1,715,117 views

Collection School Life GIF

Kokoro Connect

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Inaba, Himeko

Nagase, Iori

Yaegashi, Taichi

Kiriyama, Yui

Aoki, Yoshifumi

Fuusenkazura

Fujishima, Maiko

Yaegashi, Rina

Gotou, Ryuuzen

Kiriyama, Mother

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Kokoro Connect

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-