I never knew about it or heard of it, and none of my friends have seen it.
But one day I stumbled across a meme that made me laugh, it was an animeme. And the show that the meme was from was Kokoro Connect. After doing some research, I found out it was a comedy/romance anime. That’s my favorite genre! This will be perfect! Was that still the case when I finished the show? Let’s talk about it.
Story: 8/10
From the beginning of the first episode, we immediately get the picture of what’s going on. The main five protagonists are in a club they call StuCS, or “Student Cultural Society” (it’s a club for people who don’t like the other clubs). The group is introduced to a strange occurrence that happens to them, two of the members switch bodies for a random amount of time. This is the doing of their possessed teacher Mr. Cho, but the possesser’s name is Heartseed. Heartseed has the ability to possess and control a person for any amount of time, however he usually only does it to communicate. The main premise of the show is about the students going through Heartseed’s powers and learning more about each other as the story goes on. I really liked the story and how it was executed. What’s different about some romance anime situations is that this show’s students go through real world difficulties and they learn to be there for one another. However, there are some flaws in the story which makes it difficult for me to rate it higher than an 8. My main issue with this show is how rushed and poorly executed the last couple of episodes were. It was like they had more story build up and character development after episode 11 involved, but the studio for the show said, “we are only doing two more episodes of this show”. I don’t know, it’s just annoying how some shows do this, I had high hopes that this show wouldn’t do that. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the show.
Art: 7/10
The style of this show seems old for the year it was made, which was 2012. It looks like an anime that was made in the early 2000’s. But does it mean it was bad art? Of course not, there were some beautiful shots and scenes, such as the bridge and abandoned warehouse scene.
Sound: 7/10
The sound on this show felt rushed at some times, and some of them felt like there was no emotion. Meh, whatever.
Characters: 9/10
Taichi Yaegashi:
The main guy in the club/show. He is a strange character, as there really isn’t much to say about him. When we are introduced to him, we see that he is definitely laid back and relaxed, okay well that’s normal for an anime protagonist. As the show goes on, we see him become more and more serious with the events that start to happen, which hooked me into this world because of how real his emotions were. This was my favorite character in the show because of how he was friends with everyone and no one seemed to dislike him (well…).
Iori Nagase:
One of the main girls in the club, she was Taichi’s love interest in the first arc. This girl’s arc was confusing. There was a story built up for this character throughout the entire show, and when it came to the end of the show when it was revealed, it was… disappointing. It was so rushed and it made me so upset. However, I have to give credit in the middle of the show when she took one for the team, so bonus points there.
Himeko Inaba:
The second main girl in the show, she was my favorite out of the girl bunch. Her brutal comebacks and depressing attitude gave a sense of realism for the show. She seemed like the only “real” character, as her emotions and reactions were similar to many people I know in real life. However, she did something stupid in this show. Heartseed had a command where if they hid in their rooms to try to avoid his “curse”, something bad would happen. As she is the smartest person in the club, she would know better and not do this right? Wrong! She spends four episodes at home alone in the dark, and of course, something bad happened, idiot.
Yui Kiriyama:
The last main girl in the show. I feel like this girl went through the most when she shouldn’t have. Yui was the most innocent and wholesome girl in the show, and of course she’s the one with the backstory of being sexually assaulted. Aside from that, I really liked this girl and her growing relationship with Aoki, from her hating him to “oh this guy really loves me I should be more grateful”, kind of like that. Also I could relate to this character because she does karate, which I also do which is epic.
Yoshifumi Aoki:
The last main guy in the club. I liked this guy. He was the comic relief in the show, and came in clutch in certain moments. I felt bad for this guy the way he loved Yui so much and she hated him for it, but they both had their reasons I guess. I will say his character development was well done and satisfying to watch. Overall a really good character. Oh wait he’s a pervert? Oh… well everyone has their thing.
Heartseed:
The villain of the show. I really liked him. If you want to make a good villain you have to make them scary and entertaining, which is what Heartseed was. The fact that at any point Heartseed could do anything to the kids and they couldn’t do anything about it was stressful, which is what I think the show wanted to happen. However, some of his actions were just unfair sometimes, like the bridge scene, oh that danged bridge scene, making me cry that episode. Also he targeted these kids because they were “entertaining”? Kind of sketch my guy.
Enjoyment/Overall: 9/10
I really enjoyed this show. Nuff said. This show was a surprise on how good it was. The only thing I can say is that the ending could have been stretched out or done better, it felt very rushed and it was obvious to see. Nonetheless, I enjoyed Kokoro Connect, would watch it again.
