School Days: Magical Heart Kokoro-chan

The School Days series is one of my favourite and most hated anime all at once. Such a shocking tale of lies and deceit that could be easily turned into a day time soap opera.

Magical Heart Kokoro-chan was nothing like this. While using the same characters as School days, this OVA is nothing like its parent show. It is infact the story of a team of superheroes sent to fight against an evil super villain hell bent on turning the entire population of the town in to perverted lecherous zombies.

This is one anime that is so bad is is actually good.. If you have watched ... the original School Days then it is worth watching this as you will be already familiar with the characters and their traits which is what makes this anime worth it.

To start off- unlike it's parent series, this OVA was indeed meant to punk the audience in an April Fools frenzies. I would say it takes place somewhere inside the actual series before crap actually went down. Reason- it still shows how happy Makoto and Kotonoha are and a still jealous Sekai. Also on comparing it to its parent series- it does keep the bit of blood and gore and minor nudity and perversion.

Now- unlike the fellow series it has it's own twist that makes the series go into the state of most anime series- all the same characters....but all (for the most part) happy ... and no drama, and a set of them are superheroes. Some being part of a team, the others work as singles- but they all come together for the greater good. While this OVA didn't make me totally hate Makoto's guts he does redeem himself by trying to be the hero. The other girls all seem to be doing better- and we finally see a person's mother who looks to be a decent parent.

Story:6- again decent and makes the dark series just a bit lighter and comical without tearing it apart with hypocrisy.
Art/Sound/and Character: 7/and 6's- art was the same as the anime and it was a bit cuter and more revealing. The sound was over all the same and the characters are still roughly 2 dimensional with the only change is their superhero lives.

Overall- a good break from the evil darkness of the main show and more like brain soap for those who needed it.

The first impressions I had about this OVA weren’t really favorable. Because of the ridiculousness of the original anime, I didn’t expect much other than another not-so-good parody of the magical girl genre and I wasn’t expecting this OVA to be serious in the slightest. This is only one episode so a lot was going to be as packed in as possible.

However, I was met with exactly those expectations. It seemed they aged up Kokoro to make it appropriate for the animators to draw her in sexy clothes and sexy gear and to show off the panty shots. This OVA is very unapologetic about their ... panty shots and enlarged breasts (especially when you consider Kotonoha’s aversion to sex in the series).

This is an alternate universe where magical girls are real and so are villains. It’s clear who is fulfilling each role. If there’s any plot twists, it’s that Kokoro actually has a double set of secret identities and Makoto Itou is actually a good guy. We finally see Sekai’s mother, even if it’s brief.

The animation is standard but the art is still pretty cute despite the dark themes. There’s nothing really to say much else to say about it. Everything is in place and, because it’s not my humor, it’s not that funny to me. I never liked Makoto or Sekai but it was funny seeing her get some comeuppance, even if it’s not as extreme as it was in the original anime or game.

Clearly, this OVA was aimed towards the fans of the type of sexualized jokes and not someone like me whose only enjoyment was seeing the Nice Boat meme come up randomly.


Would I recommend this OVA to others? Sure, if they “School Days” fans. I wouldn’t really recommend this as a magical series or to magical girl fans, especially if they’re not familiar with “School Days”. At least, Magical Heart’s outfit is really cute. Too bad it’s wasted.

(Part of Project Magic!!)