My personal opinion is that a lot of people find slice of life/school comedies very unappealing because the entire setup of teenage angst and relationship problems set within an educational environment seems unoriginal and really really boring. I think that the lack of explosions is what turns off most people from watching slice of life anime. I’m not against slice of life, in fact I’ve seen an anime or two that surprised me and had me more excited than some of the action packed blood and boob filled shows I’ve seen in the past.
There has to be some kind of hook to get the viewer watching from start to finish, because honestly who would want to watch someone argue about school and love triangles with family and friends for 13 episodes? Kokoro Connect has that as well a well executed story and fine art. It’s a good show, not great, but good. This is my review.
MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW
Story
The story concerns a group of five buddies in a Cultural Research School club who experience body switching and a few other supernatural dilemmas which I won’t spoil for you controlled by a soul called Heart Seed to complicate and test their friendship. This is definitely Kokoro’s strongest point. The hook that I mentioned before is that the fantasy aspect of the show is approached with a lot of realism. If you take out the fantasy it would be an ordinary school comedy/drama. But that’s what makes it so fun to watch. It’s so different from your usual high school dramedies but has enough typical aspects to prevent the show from straying too far from the genre. The execution is perfect. It also deals with themes of love, sexual angst, spousal abuse, abandonment and androphobia which are all handled with a lot of maturity.
Art
The animation of the show is really simple with lots of bright colours. Character designs are exaggerated for comedic slapstick purposes however this isn’t done too often. Characters don’t look too similar and the backgrounds range from blurry to detailed (I loved the wrestling references in the background).The school desk, chairs and clothing are all clear and colourful but the trees and wall posters appear as blurry spots of paint which bothered me a bit but this style actually began to grow on me. Oh yeah, ever notice how high school students look a lot older than they actually are?
Characters
This is the Kokoro’s weakest point. That sounds a bit harsh because this part of the show wasn’t that bad. I’ll rather say it’s the Kokoro’s least strongest point. All five characters are likable, strong and care for each other deeply, but I feel that three of the five characters were more developed than the other two. I think trying to fully develop characters can be tricky especially if it’s a group of quite a few like in Kokoro Connect and just within 13 episodes. The other thing that also bothered me was that halfway through the story after a certain event, they began to feel extremely sorry for themselves and this lasted for quite a while. I know this was done for character development and may not bother people so much because it’s not really a major problem but it reached a point where I just wanted to punch the characters for all that sulking and sinking into self pity. In the end I still cared for and liked them but if their slumps didn’t last so long it wouldn’t have bothered me so much and wouldn’t have made the story feel so repetitive.
Sound
I’ve never seen an ED change so much with a 13 episode anime. All the songs were alright but forgettable. They’re definitely not worth writing about but all of them were pretty upbeat pop songs. I saw the dubbed version of Kokoro and the voice acting wasn’t that bad. I’ve loved Greg Ayres ever since I heard him in “Welcome to the NHK”. Here his talents are on full display as he is the lead for once and not just a supporting character (I know it’s an ensemble cast but it definitely feels like he’s the lead and has the most pivotal character.) His voice just screams adolescence which is a perfect fit for Taichi (who happens to be a wrestling fan). Everyone else wasn’t bad, I love how English voice actresses keep cute girly characters from being annoying. Not fantastic voice acting but far good enough to keep it from being terrible with the exception of Mr Ayres who obviously was the best of the bunch.
Enjoyment
All in all this was a good watch, it had an original mature story bringing something else to the slice of life/school dramedy genre and bright and bubbly art. The music and voice acting (with the exception of Greg Ayres, God I love this guy) weren’t great but also not bad. I’d recommend this as something to watch on a rainy day or if you’re looking for an interesting fantasy story with a couple of laughs and some tear jerking moments.
7/10
