Kobato.

Expectation: Protagonist magically heals broken hearts from lots of emotional high school romances, divorces, and mild trauma in each episode that ends on happy notes. Alright, sounds like just the right blend of bittersweet but warm and empowering, I'm in.

Reality: Ditzy girl with 0 superpowers devotes the majority of her life to a failing kindergarten with predictable children. "Helps" people by forcing her way into the daily lives of neighbourhood's residents, and is rewarded when they smile.

- I was initially surprised that I hadn't heard of this anime before. The description sounded appealing for a sensitive sh*t like me, and I generally appreciate ... protagonists who try to make others' lives better, because I too, like helping people in real life. Now I know why it was never popular, and hope it stays that way. It is NOTHING like the description said; the description is a LIE.

- Out of 24 episodes, we can say maybe 2 of them were actually 'broken heart' related stories. Literally everyone else was under 10 years old and 'healing their hearts' could be as simple as telling someone they're awesome that day. That's. It. There is no deeper meaning, no tragic backstory, and very little focus on young adults or anything adult, really. This show is a show about KINDERGARTENERS. PRESCHOOLERS. TODDLERS.

- And I love toddlers. e.g. Gakuen Babysitters is one of my favourite 'feel-good' series to watch. But ... this isn't one of them. Where Gakuen Babysitters shows realistic sides (good AND bad) behaviour from babies and their families... these toddlers were one-dimensional. They had as much depth as a cardboard tree cut out. Their voices sound the same, they generally do what they're told, they're unrealistically peppy all the time; they're basically a lifeless NPC army.

- Protagonist has too many aspirations, and there's too many genres and elements stuffed into one series. You're never sure if you're watching a magical fantasy anime, supernatural spirits, working part time job lifestyles, or fake Japanese mafia. They somehow cram all of that into one episiode, so nothing makes sense.

- They introduce new characters (e.g. Kohaku) and then you only see them again when the protagonist needs their help DESPERATELY. It's inconsistent and very confusing. And the characters. Ohmygod, the side characters. I wish I could say the supporting characters saved this show - they didn't. While we do get VERY good looking male characters that were totally my type and why I even bothered watching at all (Doumoto is best boy) ... we don't really learn much about any of them, male or female. They had a lot of potential, but it seemed like the writers were content with focusing on the idiotic protagonist and her "love interest who is not a love interest".

- Re: love interest
God, that guy is a piece of WORK. He is an arrogant jerk to everyone. He works 3 jobs at any time, taking out his unresolved childhood trauma on strangers, and never smiles. But of course, because of how poorly this anime is written, he's somehow The World's Most Eligible Bachelor to our protagonist. She sees him as a 'project' to take on, similar to women who want to change womanizers they've fallen in love with. No. Do not. Stop. Ladies, you know this kind of story never ends well. You can't change someone who doesn't want to change on their own! But this anime will tell you that is exactly possible, and ONE WOMAN can change the world. The way the world revolves around the protagonist perfectly, they could've showed her ending world hunger and achieve world peace, and it would be a plausible storyline.

I am actually really bummed about this part. Like I sincerely hope that this anime did not influence viewers too much and encourage females to chase after men who are abusive towards them. While the efforts to improve someone's life are commendable, there are so many other people who will appreciate the love, energy, effort, and support given out. 'Projects' could benefit more from professional psychotherapy than years of well-meaning do-gooders who don't address the root source of trauma, neglect, abandonment etc.

- The love interest's character growth improves... by the end of the anime. Same thing with the other side characters including "Ioryogi." I actually found the 'talking plush toy animal' gag very annoying after 2 episodes. Especially because they employed slapstick humor throughout the series, breathing fireballs and other 'comic relief' scenes that came off as cringy to me. I don't think I could reasonably tolerate this much slapstick humor unless I was 12 years old again. He could've been an intelligent bodyguard dog of sorts, but no, they had him as a menacing toy that yelled every. five. seconds. It wasn't funny to me.

- Did I mention that the kindergarten the protagonist is obsessed with is in unexplained debt? Throughout the series, we know that the land(?) the school sits on is valuable, and the teacher owes money. But why she owes money, how the debt even started, isn't explained until Episode 22+, and even then, it's very vague. Like two sentences. It's incredibly frustrating to watch, and felt like the writers created fake drama so the story would have some plot. Huge waste of time.

- Lastly. The stream I watched this on translated the candy representing hearts into 'confetti,' which was mildly offensive. I'm pretty sure the correct translation should be Konpeitō (金平糖, コンペイトー), a standard in Japanese sweets and known globally...

- The graphics were also terrible (though I'm not sure if this was because of the streaming platform), only 360p available, so it felt like I was watching a series from 2005 and not 2009, when it was supposed to have aired. Other graphic / artist rant - Kobato's clothes are faded pastel tones at all times... but they're not done well. There's a lot of cream yellow, maroon, light green or light pink. I didn't really like any of her outfits, they felt like a very weird clash of 'Lolita meets Mori girl' fashion. There's so many ways and colors to do that well, and this fell flat. Hurt the eyes.

In conclusion:
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I'm just utterly relieved it's over. I wanted to drop this series many, many, times, but the social pressure of people on MAL generally finishing their series kept me going. I didn't understand the word 'Pollyanna' and thought it was Americans misunderstanding optimistic people. No. If I only had one word to describe the whole series, it would be that: Pollyanna. Now I know the perfect definition of it, embodied in Kobato, and why it's unattractive.

If you still want to watch this anime.
Nothing happens from episode 1 - 12. That's right. You can completely skip the first half and literally won't miss anything.

So the story is great, she tries to help people to achieve a goal. I get the character cuteness. What I is hard for me to understand is her stupidity. There is no need to have a character who is cute and a bit clumsy...but it doesn't have to be stupid. The series overall is very sexist and abusive. Yes the overall premise of the story is beautiful and heartwarming, but I don't get why the character needs to be senseless and imprudent to communicate her will to help. I also do not agree with the "dog" character been so violent against "woman". Maybe ... it is because this is the "old" way of portraying woman for the Japanese Anime/Manga community where a female character equal cute and adorable they are clumsy and stupid, but I do not believe it is a good message to support and teach our youngsters. Again, the story is great and the overall message is great. However it was poorly damaged by the poor character development. Stupidity doesn't equal cute, neither does clumsiness.

I found Kobato's energy enjoyable and the series somewhat refreshing, but the story's presentation really is so incredibly bad that I can't give it a recommendation. There is far too little explanation upfront, it takes way too long for Kobato's journey to kick off for real, and it doesn't go anywhere once it does.

The glacial pace of Kobato works against it in a big way. There is no reason for this to be 24 episodes, even by the standards of somber slice of life anime. It's way too basic to justify the time sink by any stretch of the imagination.

But.

The ending really is quite good ... and worth watching.

I found myself getting extremely tired of the episodes in the middle of the series because they were almost entirely wheelspinning. If, like me, you feel the same, I recommend doing what I did. I skipped from Episode 10 to Episode 18. You could probably stand to skip from earlier, to be honest. By that point, the premise will be well established in your mind. Once you understand the dynamic between Kobato and Fujimoto, have met Fujimoto's friend from school, and the know the backstory of the kindergarten plot, you will miss essentially nothing by doing this. The Christmas storyline is not skippable, and the series decides to actually adopt a pace after that point. A good ending doesn't make a good show.

The crossover with Trubasa: Reservoir Chronicles happens in the Valentines Day episode and is welcome, but pointless.