Story (7/10):
The story for Kokoro Connect was fairly unique for a romance/drama/slice of life/comedy. The supernatural element, despite being the most interesting aspect of the show, was kind of awkwardly thrust into the story (in my opinion, but this is my review anyhow) in an attempt to make it interesting. Seeing as there are still four episodes I have yet to watch, I'm hoping perhaps the supernatural portion of the show will have a smoother ending than the way Fuusenkazura/Heartseed was left completely unexplained. If the show had given more information about this instead of wasting some time trying to make interesting situations for the characters, perhaps I would have given an eight or nine for the story.
Art (7/10):
Although I am a fan Yukiko Horiguchi's character designs for K-On!, (as it was what initially attracted me to Kokoro Connect) it objectively is neither amazing nor disappointing. (Yes, I did check in several places, K-On! and Kokoro Connect DO share the same character designer, but for Kokoro Connect she is merely the original character designer as there is more than one.) The animation is normal for any show these days. Calling it mediocre sounds a bit harsh as it wasn't poor animation, but it wasn't anything more than what you would have expected from a romance/drama/slice of life/comedy. Since a seven on MAL is defined as 'good,' I will give this category no more and no less than what it deserves.
Sound (7/10):
I really enjoyed the first ending theme of Kokoro Connect and will probably add it to my playlist of favourite OP/ED themes. The other themes were okay, nothing you wouldn't have expected from this show, but I only listened to them once before I started skipping over them. The background music helped convey the emotion of the characters when it needed to and the voice acting was well done, thus I gave this category a seven for being 'good' but not really standing out from other shows of the same genres.
Character (8/10):
Some spoilers here!
As the synopsis hints at, each character has their own issues from the past that they are still struggling to cope with. I was really disappointed in the fact that Taichi had no apparent issues to deal with from his past. To me it merely seemed as if the writer(s) used him as the romantic aspect of the show to attract a wider audience and to give Inaba an issue to struggle with. I suppose Kokoro Connect would have been less interesting without Inaba's feelings for Taichi, as it served to create a more hopeful atmosphere later in the show after she realized her feelings and Iori chewed her out, and Taichi himself was presented as the 'hero' so he couldn't really have been given much more of a role besides a romantic interest and protagonist, but the love triangle (if you can call it that...) was left unresolved. Iori was given the best background story out of all the characters, and I believe her issues were nicely resolved at the end of the show. Kiriyama and Aoki's relationship progression was also well done, and I believe both of their character backgrounds were pretty good (despite Aoki appearing as more of a background character for comedic relief initially, he eventually scooted into the spotlight later once Kiriyama's fear was explained.) I was hoping Fujishima would also have more character development, but alas the series was only 13 episodes long and did not have enough time/room to develop anything with the background characters. With Fuusenkazura/Heartseed I was very frustrated with his lack of a background story, no true explanation for anything that was happening with the experiments he was doing on StuCS, the crap with 'a second Heartseed.' I felt he was just so awkwardly thrust into the story and occasionally just caused phenomena to give an excuse to further the character development of the main five. Not taking Heartseed into my rating of character development (because I'm pretending he wasn't even a part of this show for how the writers didn't explain jack about him), I gave it an eight for creating a few decently interesting characters (most series struggle with even that), especially Fujishima for being an unexpected variable in this sort of show. (I guess from the way Heartseed explained his reasons for the experiments in the show he was just doing what he did for 'entertainment,' but I'm not satisfied with that answer.)
I feel as though this show deserves an eight for enjoyment, as it did not fail to keep my attention over the span of its 13 episodes and did occasionally make my kokoro go brokoro with dem feels. Overall I'm giving the show a seven as SOME aspects of the show could have had more development (love triangle) or explanation (Heartseed I & II) which would have given it a smoother ending.
