Keep in mind i'm writing this almost a decade after release, and a few months after I watched this.
I really wanted to like this anime, I had just watched Kiznaiver a week or 2 prior, and I wanted something with a similar vibe, so the premise to this show seemed like a perfect fit. It even has a similar art style to Kyo Ani works like Tamako market, K-on, etc, since the character designer for those, Yukiko Horiguchi, also illustrated the characters for the kokoro connect light novel, and the studio basically adapted the style into the anime.
Story: 2. I thought the premise was
...
pretty cool at first, what gave me the biggest suspicion was when the first episode ended with no explanation, antagonist, or growth from the fact that they just switched bodies. This immediately made me feel like the show would be aimless since they are so okay with not giving us at least a goal to work towards/something to look forward to. My suspicions were right as they give us a pretty dull and lame antagonist later who's motivations aren't even made clear by the end of this season. I don't mind when shows give us a bit of mystery, but what makes mysteries fun is the journey to uncover them and the reveals themselves, this show gives the main characters absolutely zero tools to uncover the true nature of heart seeker, thus making them just his experiments essentially (or at least i'm assuming since it's not fully explained) for the entire show. Comparing this to kiznaiver, at least in that show we get an understanding of what's going on in a basic degree in the first episode so that we're given a reason to care about what happens next.
Another thing is the interpersonal drama. It seems so bland that they are literally switching bodies and all this cool supernatural stuff and the main thing they do is to understand a love triangle. There are some cool character moments here and there, but this is the main thing we're lead to care about for a good chunk of the series.
Art:7. The art is pretty good, especially for the time and it still holds up, but if you compare them to Kyo ani works that Yukiko Horiguchi actually worked as character designer on, you can see the difference in quality immediately. Those anime are able to use the same style as this, but make the colors more vibrant, and the animation for fluid, which makes this show seem lesser in comparison. I only compare these because it looks so much like K-on, Chuunibyou, Tamako, etc, that it's hard not to compare. That being said the foundation of the art is still amazing, which is why I still praise it.
Character: 3. The first episode made the characters feel so promising, they all had their own personalities and I liked little things like Aoki loving wrestling, and them showing a poster of the undertaker. The reason why I am so bothered by the characters is how they decided to use them; after the introductions, our main character Taichi becomes the typical super harem hero guy who solves every girl's problems while also being super modest and not falling for them until we get closer to the climax of the season.Now, I have no problem with that trope being in an anime, but in a show like this is reduces the other characters to nothing until it's convenient. We already established that there's nothing any of the characters can do about the things the antagonist does to them, whether it's swapping bodies, or sharing each other's thoughts, etc, the only way they seem to have to counter this is to solve each other's problems/ make sure these phenomenon don't make them go insane; so why in the hell is Taichi the ONLY character that knows how to solve anyone's problems. It would make 10x more sense to have some other characters at least solve some of their emotional problems since some characters are closer than others, but no, Taichi has to rescue everyone.
There's a point where Iori becomes a more developed character later and begins to questions truths and lies about other characters, but it seems so contrived to me and only exists to give the characters a reason to second guess themselves. I feel like the characters are in an uncanny valley where they want to be taken seriously as stand ins for us, but are also kinda tropey. I'd rather they commit to them being more realistic or just not at all. New Iori is so unbelievable that to me in a show that's about swapping bodies and thoughts and stuff.
Enjoyment:4. Once I got used to the premise and the characters also got used to the premise, It started to get extremely boring. I only got through the end because of sunken cost fallacy, only to realize that this season doesn't give us a proper ending. I was hoping for them to give us a nugget of truth behind our antagonist heartseeker at least once or twice just to keep me invested, but they just make him float along the story, almost for no reason, which killed my enjoyment. Since this show is mostly based on interpersonal drama, that's what's expected to carry the show, and since I felt that was generic, of course it' s going to be hard for me to enjoy the show.
Overall, I felt like the show had potential, but fell short. Shows like Kiznaiver did it better with even more characters, and less time. Even though Kiznaiver is more of a parody of the genre in some aspects, it captured the whole 'band of misfits who were brought together and must learn about each other through supernatural means' thing a lot better, and with way better art. If you enjoyed this show, I'm glad you did, I just think that if you like interpersonal drama with a tight cast of characters, then there are other shows that you can check out.
Apr 5, 2021
Kokoro Connect
(Anime)
add
Keep in mind i'm writing this almost a decade after release, and a few months after I watched this.
I really wanted to like this anime, I had just watched Kiznaiver a week or 2 prior, and I wanted something with a similar vibe, so the premise to this show seemed like a perfect fit. It even has a similar art style to Kyo Ani works like Tamako market, K-on, etc, since the character designer for those, Yukiko Horiguchi, also illustrated the characters for the kokoro connect light novel, and the studio basically adapted the style into the anime. Story: 2. I thought the premise was ... 
Dec 30, 2020
Medaka Box Abnormal
(Anime)
add
I liked the first season a lot more.
I was optimistic in the first few episodes since the show had that new season smell; they were re-introducing us to characters, while also adding new stuff and building up to an overarching plot (Which is very different from the episodic nature of the first season). It was after the excitement wore off I realized we were left with a slow paced show that slogs through the battles. It's not all bad, I enjoyed some of the fights, and the strategies they used, but it felt cheap when compared to the huge catalog of popular shonen anime ... |
