Compared with my ramble on the rating system and the long-ish review on Erased I will try and make this a bit shorter. I find that purposely overloaded reviews have a negative impact and I myself struggle finishing them when reading so here we go:
I believe I have avoided spoilers but take care if you see an indication that I may have done differently. This is a review based on the overall impact of the story rather than a breakdown of things like animation/sounds and such. This is just more of my thing as everything is subjective therefore I will not tell you that the
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art is mediocre or not as that is not something for me to judge unless I see visible errors in the art/sound.
Kokoro Connect is everything one can expect from both the obvious name of the anime as well as the genre which is, don't even wait for it..... high-school drama.
If you are in the market for this type of an anime then this will be right up your alley as Kokoroco(written as such on MAL which is kind of shorter) does little to stray from the recipe. Don't get me wrong I find that using a similar formula can indeed result in a somewhat unique anime if enough effort is put into it and I think this one falls right into that category.
Kokoroco introduces 5 students to us who are members of the same club. The club activities are completely irrelevant as the characters spend the entire anime dealing with their problems. The problems consist of both their relationships and the introduction of a third party that messes with their emotions and subsequently relationships for some unknown reason.
The relationships between the characters are prettty obvious from the very first episodes but that should be taken as a good point in terms on an anime with 17 episodes (including the OVAs that are directly tied to the main shows plot). We have the classic outgoing guy (Aoki) who always expresses himself openly who is in love with a girl that is completely rejecting him at the start (due to some circumstances from her past). This unfolds into a pretty basic pattern of "I will say I love you till you do the same" and so on and so forth. This relationship formula is pretty basic but nonetheless interesting to observe as both of the characters (as usual) uncover their troubled pasts to each other and eventually move along with their lives.
Their relationship is however basically just a sidetrack to the more prominent one which is.... a moment of forced suspense kek: a love triangle!! Wew lad that is indeed a shocking revelation.
Enough with the sarcasm though. The remaining 3 characters Iori(the cheerful one with a troubled past), Inaba(tsundere) and Taichi(ye olde I will help and save everyone so they all love me guy) form a love triangle of sorts where both girls acknowledge the others efforts and still remain friends. Or do they? This is one of the sources of friction and what we came in here for in the first place: Drama ladies and gentlemen. Is the drama good though? Depends. From the perspective of a 25 year old working male that has little(almost none) experience in relationships I still feel like the drama was blown out of proportions at some points which can by some current memers considered a pretty cringe moment. Indeed I have felt a bit embarassed by some of the situations as from a grown up (to a certain extent) perspective the most I could fathom is that the character of Iori and Inaba who are central to the drama were basically just trying to find what they should do in life. The notion of people wearing masks and lying and acting differently is portrayed as something horrific that destroys one identity but in fact it is a well known common practice for humans as social beings. Every day we adapt to our surroundings to get what we want or to avoid things we don't. Seeing a person struggle to the point of mental breakdown from a completely normal social phenomenon was kind of awkward for me to watch. In the end the characters realized the most obvious truth > to be yourself just do what you want be that something that adheres to others wishes or to yours. It took the show quite a while to come to this simple conclusion but that can be understood as the process of growing up for the young teenagers. I understood this show more of a drama about growing up rather than love even though its presence is undeniable.
Without further ado I will say the following: Kokoroco is a classic highschool drama that introduces a supernatural element (boy that is new haHaa) that messes up the relationships or maybe even kickstarts them from a certain perspective. The MAL synopsis is misleading as the personality exchange is just one of several issue they face and the last one seemed to me like the most influential one so don't believe that switching bodies is the only thing there is to it.
The show ended on a rather positive note but I would expect people to get angry over the pairing that has happened. In any case I believe the ending was pretty clear from the way the show was heading and my overall enjoyment was not impaired by it in any way.
This anime tugs on your heart strings at some points but at least it does not do so using cheap albeit usual methods. It will not make your jaw drop from sudden plot twists although there are some present. Taking into account that these characters are still young their patter of behavior is easily predictable. The supernatural element introduced serves as a sort of ignition fo start the drama and force the characters in situations where they have to confront their feelings. This causes a lot of friction which is exactly what we wanted no?
In any case Kokoroco is a good watch that will not break any walls down but it definitely gave me what I came to it for. It was a full fledged-drama full of mistakes/fixes and relationship troubles presented in a casual, very inviting sort of way that does not make the viewer question the integrity of the show. A solid 8 in my book.
Look at me writing a short review here.... I should stop. Thanks for reading.
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Apr 2, 2016
Kokoro Connect
(Anime)
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Compared with my ramble on the rating system and the long-ish review on Erased I will try and make this a bit shorter. I find that purposely overloaded reviews have a negative impact and I myself struggle finishing them when reading so here we go:
I believe I have avoided spoilers but take care if you see an indication that I may have done differently. This is a review based on the overall impact of the story rather than a breakdown of things like animation/sounds and such. This is just more of my thing as everything is subjective therefore I will not tell you that the ... 
Mar 28, 2016
Boku dake ga Inai Machi
(Anime)
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For the sake of clarity and ease of reading I will be using Erased as the name of this anime even though personally I do prefer the Japanese one.
TLDR found at the bottom. Introduction: This anime came out of the blue as the new hit that has shaken some very withered and old trees. It came like a fresh breeze in this era of anime industry overflowing with shows pandering to the young and still new to the phenomenon. In no way do I intend to insult new anime viewers (in some regards I may be seen as just another one), but ... |
