Otaku’s, Otakette’s & the young’ins, I present to thee a review of Kokoro Connect or Hearts Connect in English. CUE THE MUSIC!!!
As per usual during first period we have History class, so get your jotters out and start taking notes!
Kokoro Connect is a 17 episode, 2012 (in Japan) anime series based on the Light Novel series of the same name with 11 volumes released between 2010 and 2013 of which only the first 4 are adapted in the anime, which, really shocked me and explains the ending. The episodes were split into one full season of 13 and then 4 specials two months later. It is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America and was only released on BD/DVD in 2013 between October and December. It’s lisenced in Australia by Hanabee, but for some reason Manga Entertainment in the UK hasn’t (as of yet), which sucks for me as I can’t buy it unless I import it, but I’m not made of money. The series was produced by a relatively unknown studio called Silver Link who haven’t really worked on anything majorly known; the only ones I can sort of recognise are Non Non Biyori, Strike The Blood & Baka and Test. The director is Shinya Kawatsura whose only other real known proper director role is Non Non Biyori, but he has director a couple of episodes of different shows like Durarara!! and Blue Exorcist. He does a great job in this show though.
Story
Kokoro Connect tells the extraordinary journey of the five members of the Student Cultural Research Club; Pro-wrestling fan Taichi Yaegashi, club president Iori Nagise, Queen Tsundere Himeko Inaba, nicest guy ever Yoshifumi Aoki and miss karate hotness Yui Kiriyama as they begin the series doing what they normally do, effectively breaking the ice with the viewer when suddenly, for us and them, the five start to randomly swap personalities with each other at the blink of an eye and for random periods of time.
This phenomenon completely takes everyone by surprise and at first they don’t really understand how they should act, what it even means or what the boundaries are for what it happening, which leads to some rather funny situations like the one presented when Taichi (a teen boy) swaps with Iori (an attractive teen girl with C-cup breasts) and he starts to fiddle with her boobs, as her; because being a guy, no matter how respectable you are, the desire and temptation of boobs right at your finger-tips is just too much to bare and he proceeds as any guy would. Obviously this causes problems between the club members the more they swap bodies, when, out of nowhere, a being in possession of their teacher Mr. Goto, who calls himself Heartseed, but I call the “Mythical Dope King of the Whatever Maaaan”. I know he’s supposed to be emotionless and monotone but when he’s in Mr. Goto he just looks like some doped out madman. There’s actually something really weird about Heartseed, he overly polite while at the same time extremely passive-aggressive.
Anyway, back on track. Heartseed, or the Mythical Dope King of the Whatever Maaaan, explains to the group that, or rather just bluntly tells them that he is responsible for this phenomenon and will keep it going until it stops entertaining him. When asked why, he states that he finds the five of them interesting individuals and then just leaves………and so we have our anime.
Now, normally I wouldn’t stand for an opening like that, labelling it as shit and just giving up with the show, but it was the idea and the situation of the body swapping that intrigued the crap out of me. I found myself, like Heartseed, extremely interested to see how these people would deal with this phenomenon and how it would strain or improve their relationships. Other situations and phenomenon’s are forced on the group over time that sees them dealing with the idea of death (and the possibility of replacing said dying person), the release of their true desires, hearing what each other is really thinking and regaining ones youth (and it’s memories).
And that is where the crummy, “just deal with it, okay!” opening expands and becomes such a gripping story about how far friendship truly goes, what it means to be yourself, how real are our feelings, how we change how we act in front of other people just to keep up an image so as to hide how we really feel inside and if we made and are making the right choices in life.
Let it be known that if you proceed to watch this show, make sure to wear a helmet, because this show is constantly beating you on the head with the, “BE SAD, IT’LL MAKE YOU BETTER!” stick, the “YOU’RE NOT SAD ENOUGH!” hammer & the, “SADNESS 3: SADNESS WITH A VENGENCE” ball and chain.
But then again, we do get momentary respites, like during the youth phenomenon when the characters sometimes turn into children and they are just the most adorable things you’ve ever seen. I usually don’t react to shit like that, but I couldn’t help it this time, because of how the personalities reflected their older selves.
Characters
Taichi
Taichi is the male lead for the show and is a “Selfish Freak”, which pretty much sums up Taichi completely. He is self-less to such a fault that he instantly offers up his life to save another’s without thinking of how his death would affect other people, like his little sister. At the beginning of the show, he is in love with Iori and she with him. But as the phenomenon’s continue and everyone’s feelings develop and change, his love switches from Iori to Inaba.
Iori
Iori is the main crux for the depression the show put me in at times, even though I would describe her initial personality as bubbly, dirty & cheerful. I wish I could elaborate but I can’t bring myself to spoil her backstory, it’s too tragic to be felt merely by reading b&w characters on a screen. Just know that, at her age, she’s been through too much and done so many things that it’s comes to a point where the individual of Iori Nagise just doesn’t exist anymore. But she does for the most part keep a smile on her face and soldier on, even though that may be a lie as well. Everytime I see her character on screen my stomach goes into knots and I just feel uncomfortable, but I do love her character so much, that I can’t look away.
Inaba
Now, Iori may have been the lead female at the start of the show, but Queen Tsundere Inaba steals the show in the end. I call her Queen Tsundere, because out of all the Tsundere’s I’ve experienced, she is the most suffocating (I haven’t seen Toradora yet).Sure like all Tsundere’s she comes out of her shell and gets the guy, but my god, she just chops and changes like a fucking light switch. Her Tsundere tendencies become more sarcastic later on in the show which does make it more bearable. This is just one blip, however on Inaba’s personality that I can get over, because she just rocks so bad. I mean, Inaba is my favourite character in the show by a warp drive, purely based on the fact that me and her are kindred spirits, cut from the same branch, two peas in a pod, when it comes to our dealing of situations and how we keep our cards close to our chests……if that chest was 50,000 leagues under the sea. You see, the two of us, simply, when it comes to making decisions, we carefully examine and consider every single possible opportunity (good and bad) that could happen. EVERY SINGLE ONE. So as to make sure that there is no danger for our friends, so that they can do whatever they want and enjoy themselves to the fullest with no problems and we can relax. And when it comes to privacy, we both have trust issues in the sense that we don’t let anyone in at all and keep virtually everything a secret for fear that if we completely revealed ourselves it would change everyone’s opinions of us and then hate us. Plus, we don’t deem ourselves important enough to express who we are as we see ourselves as less of importance than everyone else. So, because we are one and the same, I love Inaba.
Aoki
Aoki is an interesting, yet un-interesting character as over the course of the show we practically learn absolutely nothing about him other than what we see on the surface which is that he is the nicest guy ever and he loves his friends and loves Yui with all his heart. That’s it. Yep, less to say about him than Taichi.
Yui
Yui, like Iori, puts my stomach in knots every time I see her. Again I won’t go into detail on, but it’s bad and something that cannot accept in this world, it is something totally unforgivable and it disgusts and scares me to death. But apart from that, when Yui recovers, she is such a warm person and such a strong woman come the end. Plus she is super attractive.
Art/Animation
Because of the lack of cast and any big physical activities they have to do or even places they go, animation is of a minimal level. Nothing really beyond walking, standing/sitting up/down, some running, tears etc. Really simple, but smooth. Art wise though there are loads of similar looking shows out there, it’s in the same vain as Another I would say most of all, or hell, even K-On! at times which means it looks good and that’s it. It’s good. Gradients were nice (can you sense my desperation for something to write about?)
Sound
The soundtrack was done by Toshiki Kameyama and for the little I’ve heard it’s not special. But it does it’s job of fitting in with the anime and for enhancing the emotionally drive of the given situation. Lots of slow pianos and violins, there is this one harmonica track though that I really liked so there is that.
The show has 3 opening theme and four ending themes, which boggled my mind as I didn’t notice because for the most part the opening animation stayed the same.
Opening 1 is Paradigm by Eufonius and it’s an okay song, nice and upbeat.
Opening 2 is Kimochi Signal by Sayuri Horishita and I really liked this song, great voice and the lyrics at parts really resonate with the show which was great.
Opening 3 is Kimi Rhythm by Masaki Imai and I really liked this song as well for it’s great vocals and catchy chorus.
Ending 1 is Kokoro no Kara by Team Nekokan feat. Junca Amaoto and I’m not too fond of it.
Ending 2 is Cry Out by Team Nekokan feat. Atsuko and I’m really fond of this, nice voice companied with sweet acoustic guitar.
Ending 3 is Salvage by Team Nekokan feat. Rekka Katakiri and it’s more rock oriented track that’s okay.
Ending 4 is I Scream Chocolatl by Team Nekokan feat. Lia and it’s nice quiet track.
The dub cast for the five leads are fantastic and performs such a varied and emotional performance in the show. It’s actually one of the best dubs I’ve heard.
Greg Ayres (Koyuki in Beck & Kaoru in Ouran High School Host Club) voices Taichi.
Monica Rial (Renge in Ouran & Shiro in Deadman Wonderland) voices Iori (also Aki Toyosaki voices her in Japanese and I love her).
Luci Christian (Honey senpai in Ouran & Nagisa in Clannad) voices Inaba. Shit, she voices Nagisa!? Like I need any other reason to like her.
Clint Bickham (Shizo in Kino’s Journey & Sōjirō Seta in Rurouni Kenshin) voices Aoki.
Emily Neves (Kotomi Ichinose in Clannad & Yuuki Miku in HSOTD) voices Yui.
Enjoyment
For me this show is the most unique show I think I’ve seen since Gurren Lagann, and that’s saying something. I can’t seriously think of or remember a show as unique as this. That’s enough enjoyment for me, but the show is a bit heavy-handed with the depression side to it and if that kind of show is too much for you, you just will never enjoy yourself. But if depression can be classed as enjoyment then the show is bag-fulls of fun. I will definitely watch this show over and over again, because after going through such an emotionally traumatizing journey with these characters, damn-near side-by-side with them, I feel I have a deep connection with this show that goes beyond, “It’s a show I really like”.
So that’s my review for Kokoro Connect. I love the show to death. I’d love to give it a 9/10 personally, but as a critic and reviewer, I have to look at it critically and comparatively with the other shows I’ve seen and doesn’t quite reach the 8/10 on an overall technical and professional scale compared to the other shows, because I can’t honestly say, as much as I would like to, that this show is better than Blood +, Clannad and The Melancholy of Haruhi fucking Suzumiya or on par with Evangelion, Darker Than Black, Another, Baccano! and Sword Art Online (wink wink, check the review).
If you've read this far thank you so much, I love you (totally if your female & in a not-gay way if your male), and I hope you enjoyed it and will give the show a shot. God knows what my next review is going to be, but in the meantime I'm going to try and tackle Mysterious Girlfriend X, which I am not looking forward to.
So, until next-time, love your anime and take care.
This world is Rotten. Rotten people should be killed off to cleanse this world. – Death Note
