(There will be SPOILERS in my review)
(This review will contain episode 14-17)
[Story]: (7/10) (SPOILERS)
The five members of the Cultural Research Club encounter a bizzare phenomenon one day when Aoki and Yui switch bodies without warning. The same begins to happen to the other club members, throwing their daily lives into disarray.
Now this is what you call a legit "Power of Friendship" that overcomes obstacles and at the same time building and making said friendship even stronger. Not like that "Fairy Tail" bullsh*t where the power of friendship literally trumps everything because of.............."Friendship".
The story of this show is fairly simple and nothing too complicated. A mysterious entity called "Heartseed" decided to mess with the members of the Cultural Research Club members by switching their bodies around at random times. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only who thought that the "Body switching" phenomena was going to last for the entire show. The Body switching arc is basically just a set-up and only lasted for like the first half of the series.
From there on, more phenomena started to occur or what I'd like to call it "More story arcs...an excuse for character development". Some of you are probably thinking right now that I'm bashing the show. Actually, I'm not. In another universe, I would be bashing this show right now if it wasn't done properly. However, in this universe, they executed it properly. Every time a new arc or a new phenomena occurs, the show explores the characters past, their weakness, who they really are on the inside, the dark secrets that the characters don't want to reveal and etc. I'll go more in-depth on the "Characters" category
The following story arc are as follows "Body switching" arc, "Uncontrollable desires" arc, "Time Regression" arc, and the arc that was part of Ep. 14-17 was "Emotion Transmission" arc.
My review for the story category wasn't that long because the show's entire focus was the character themselves and how they dealt with the phenomena that they are put in.
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[Art/Animation]: (8/10)
Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought this was an A-1 Pictures or Kyoto Animation anime at first. The character design just looks so similar to......let's say SAO or K-On. From their face to their body structure, it's similar. Maybe Silver Link and A-1 Pictures or maybe KyoAni had a collaboration? I highly doubt it. Moving on, the animation background looks....plain. It's plainly (no pun intended) obvious that the budget for the animation wasn't that high.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
The soundtrack isn't really anything special. At best, they're average. The bulk of my score will come from the OP and ED theme songs.
The OP theme songs are "Paradigm" by eufonius, "Kimi Rythm" by Masaki Imai and "Kimochi Signal" (Blu-Ray Exclusive) by Sayuri Hiroshita. The ED theme songs are "Kokoro no Kara" by Team.Nekokan feat. Junca Amaoto, "Cry out" by Team.Nekokan feat. atsuko and "Salvage" by Team.Nekokan feat. Rekka Katakiri. In the OP theme songs department, I only like the 1st (BR version) and 2nd OP theme songs. The 1st OP theme song that aired on TV did not sound like an anime opening at all. It sounded like a VN OP. In other words, it just didn't fit. In the ED theme songs department, I love the first 2 ED theme songs...the first being the best. Not only did the song's instrumentals sound great, the singer's voice also sounds damn beautiful. Additionally, what made the first 2 ED theme songs even more great is the way they used it. The preview to ending transition is just so perfect. Now that's how you hype the viewers up for the next episode. The 3rd ED theme song just wasn't my taste so I didn't really like it.
I watched the show in English Dub so I'll be reviewing the English VA's. In my opinion, their performances were pretty decent. There wasn't anything wrong with their voice. The issue is 50% of the time, the Voice Actors had to read their lines slowly making some of the conversations awkward to watch. This is why I don't like Sentai Filmwork's past dubbing..Instead of adding and changing lines, they stuck with the original translation. Dubbing an original translation has never and will never work.
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[Characters]: (9/10)
The show's weakest point, in my opinion, is the story. It's simple and it's really nothing too complicated. In turn, the show made up for it's weak storyline by having characters that are likable and developed. The character interactions are also fun to watch and worth watching.
By watching the first 2 episodes, you think you already know the characters. Their personalities are so blatantly obvious and cliched. Ineba is the calm "senpai-like leader", Taichi is that male protagonist that everyone somehow likes, Iori is that innocent kind-off annoying high school girl and etc. This is the best part ..For each phenomena, what the show did here is break down the walls that the characters build on themselves and reveal all the dark secrets that they were trying to hide. Some of these dark/minor secrets are what made them who they are are. By revealing each of the character's secrets, this causes the characters to break down in a horrible way and their friendship in a jumbled mess.
What I love about the show is the character/relationship development. Every main character in the show is literally developed and I'm completely surprised since it's very rare for a 12/13 episode anime to develop 5 main characters. Each phenomena basically forces the character to develop. I guess, you could call it a "Forced Character Development"?. Nah, I won't use that term.
The relationship development is just brilliant. The phenomena breaks these guy's friendship apart and it shows how these guys dealt with it. They helped each other out and proved that nothing and I mean nothing will tear their friendship apart. In fact, the phenomena just makes their friendship even stronger.
I would have rated the show with a score of 8 but the extra episodes (Ep. 14-17) made the show even better. The character development that Iyori got and her true personality just shocked me to death..not literally. I can relate to Iyori because I was also like Iyori when I was in middle school. I had to show my fake personality just so I can fit in with my so-called friends. I hated acting like that because on the inside, I'm not an innocent nice kid.
The only minor flaw that I found in the show is Heartseed. He's not a bad character per say but not much is known about him. All we know about him is a he's a mysterious entity bothering the members of the Cultural Research Club for his own entertainment. That's pretty much it. Where did he (or she?) originate? Why does he/she exist in the first place, Is he really just there for his own entertainment or does he/she have bigger motives? I could go on with the list of questions. Like I said though, it's only a minor flaw and it won't affect my enjoyment for this show.
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[Enjoyment]: (9/10)
There were some moments where the show would get boring but for the most part, I enjoyed the show. Especially the "Michi Random" arc. Did you know that those next episode previews increased my enjoyment rating? It was just plain torture, and I mean this in a good way, when I see those previews.
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[VERDICT]
"Kokoro Connect" is one of the greatest dramatic/slife-of-life anime that I have watched. While the plot may be weak, it makes up for it by having a strong character interactions/development. Depending on how you lived your high school life or your past, you might have one or two characters that relates to you like I did.
[OVERALL]: (8/10) (Before watching the "Michi Random" arc)
[OVERALL]: (9/10) (After watching the "Michi Random" arc) (True Score)
Pros:
+Well-done Animation
+Great Dramatic/Slice-of-life anime
+Almost perfectly executed dramatic moments
+Strong Character Development
+Great Soundtrack (Plus the OP and ED theme songs)
+Effective use of Next Episode Previews
+Michi Random arc
Cons:
-Weak plot
-Heartseed's character was not explained properly.
