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*This review takes the 4 extra episodes in account as well.
==========【【Non Spoiler Review】】:==========
Would a person be the same person if their personality completely changes? What if you add in past memories?
Is the person talking/thinking inside your head, considered to be your true self?
Kokoro Connect is an anime that will analyze these questions. But not necessarily give an answer to them.

This masterpiece hugely deals with human philosophy and psychology (such as Freudianism). My synopsis is a series of miraculous phenomenon that occur to the members of the Culture Research Club. These series of events will completely change their lives physically but a lot more mentally. In ... the end you will be thinking a lot in real life.

The anime focuses on these 4 major definition of a person or human life (as I call it):
• Personality (Ego)
• Inner Desires (Freud's Id)
• Past (Memories)
• Inner thoughts ("True Self")

(Spoiler~ish warning, but does not effect your reaction to the anime)
The anime takes these and twist it around in the characters finding interesting results such modifying definitions can serve as a social catalyst. That might sound confusing but if you know what catalyst mean and watch the anime you will completely understand.

Next, the actual story and the characters. The story would blow your mind because of the results of those questions and the experiment. The characters are loveable and the anime take a huge amount of time (you can even say 100%) to develop each character. The story is really exciting and it takes a good amount of pauses to be able to sink in all the information (if you care about it).

==========【【Spoiler Review:】】:==========
Note that this section is about what I understand about the series. I'll start out by listing the main questions this anime experiments with. Then I'll analyze each arc with respect to the questions. In the end I'll summarize the anime by answering each question. The answers are what I think the author was trying to say.

【Anime's Philosophical and Psychological Questions:】
Would a person be the same person if their personality completely changes? What if you add in past memories?
What would happen if your desires take over you? Is it good or bad to follow your desires?
Why does a person change over time? Does their past memories even matter to them in the present? Would you go back at any point and time to change the way you act? Should you?
Is the person talking/thinking inside your head, considered to be your true self?

【Arc by Arc Analysis 】
• 1st Arc - Personality:
From those experiments you can easily see that Personality is not the only thing that defines a person even thought a lot of people say personality is the thing that matters the most in a person. Iori's revelations are completely amazing. She serves as the philosopher of this series asking those questions and participating in them. She fears that she cannot find her true self because of her multi-personality however Taichi told her that it doesn't matter because all those personality defines her. But...he was completely wrong...he did not know anything about the real Iori as seen in the 4th arc and finds out all those personality are not her at all.

• 4th Arc - Inner Thoughts: (will do 2nd and 3rd out of order because 1st and 4th are related):
In the 4th arc, Iori becomes crazy with the idea that the voice in her head is actually she herself fearing that the voice will finally come out which it did. However she fails to realize that the voice in her head is actually her conscious rather than her subconscious which subconscious defines a person way more than your conscious (I believe). In the end the author never really answer the question that "what aspect of a person taken out would completely change the person itself?" The author ended it with the cliche "a person is whoever and whatever you want to be, no matter your appearance, personality, memories, and your inner thoughts". Even though it is a cliche it is really interesting because it gets the audience to continue thinking.

This arc was the most anxious one and you can Iori is stupid for panicking. However I don't believe that in the end because people actually do worry about true self and their inner thoughts.

• 2nd Arc - Inner Desires:
This arc focus mainly that your inner desires (id) is dangerous without control (superego). However the main focus is actually sparking the romance between Inaban and Taichi. The members tried to avoid this experiment by avoiding eachother which of course turn out to be a bad idea. However once they
came back together in the camp trip, we see that no-superego can act as a catalyst to spark love.

Loved this arc but there isn't a lot to give to answer the questions. Inaban x Taichi FTW!!

• 3rd Arc - Memories:
This arc focuses mainly on how people changes between times and how memories can greatly define a person. Each members visits their past life in random which cause Aoki to remember his love for Nana, this causes Yui to be jealous and suspicious for his love for her. However it results in Aoki explaining
that he cannot deny his past but he in the present is the actually him. After that comes Iori's incident about trying to change her past and find her true self. However in the end it results in the cliche "You cannot and should not change the past, the present you is the actual you". This cliche applies to Aoki's
incident as well.

This arc wasn't so much significant in answering the question too. However it is really enjoyable and we can see a whole lot of background story of each character.

• Afterstory:
This was my most favorite arc and the series did a really good job tying it up together. Inaban x Taichi was so OMG!! I'm jealous lol. Anyways Taichi and Iori conversation with eachother in the world of thoughts finally gave a conclusion. They loved eachother but never knew much about eachother. Once again

this anime ended with the cliche of "if we stick together we can get through with anything" but it was still amazing. However there is a lot of questions that we can ask about even though we felt that it was tied up greatly. But these questions are more about real life rather than the anime.

【Answer to those questions (answered by what I thought the author and anime said:】
• Would a person be the same person if their personality completely changes? What if you add in past memories?
The author did not completely answered this question. However it showed that the personality and memories aren't the only one that makes that person, themself.

• What would happen if your desires take over you? Is it good or bad to follow your desires?
It would be very dangerous however it can serve as a catalyst for goals that you are scared to achieve, therefore it is both good and bad.

• Why does a person change over time? Does their past memories even matter to them in the present? Would you go back at any point and time to change the way you act? Should you?
Past experience give you knowledge not to do something again in the future. People change because they don't want to make the same mistakes. Iori wants to go back and change her ways but she realize that she shouldn't.

• Is the person talking/thinking inside your head, considered to be your true self?
This is the hardest one to put in words but easiest if you already have an answer for yourself. Your inner thoughts are suppose to be you, but it is not completely you. In the anime you can see that inner thoughts can be negative at times but it is because of their immediate reaction to what happened to them (like Iori's reaction to Inaban and Yui's treatment of her). But in the end Iori never take consideration of her subconscious that she really loves all of CRC. She is fixed on the idea that inner thoughts is 100% your true self. So the answer to this questions is no, your inner thoughts is not completely the person you actually are but they are your immediate mental reaction to what has happened to you at the time. Your subconscious should be most of your true self since it is your reaction and perspective of all of your life.

This was a comment sent to the Director Masahiro Ando during an event. It is a list of why I think Zetsuen no Tempest was a masterpiece.

Heavy Spoiler Warning

I love Zetsuen no Tempest, I rank it #1 of my favorite Overall Anime list. This is because I really enjoyed this anime within these reasons.
#1) The background story of a dead girlfriend made it a great romance emotional story.
#2) The incorporation of Shakespeare's Tempest and Hamlet gives the anime a different connotation that respected old values unlike other anime.
#3) This anime did not focus on the ecchi but really took the time to ... develop a story. This I respect a lot because there are not a lot of anime which does this.
#4) The suspense of Yoshino revealing his girlfriend was so heart-beating I almost couldn't breathe.
#5) Fuwa Aika is probably the best anime girlfriend there is for me because I am greatly attracted into her philosophy, she is smart, and she is those girls who can never misunderstand her boyfriend.
#6) Zetsuen no Tempest covers almost every genre there exist. It is an anime that fits both genders (shounen and shojo).
#7) The ending was perfect, I cried at the end with Fuwa Aika's final message to Yoshino and Mahiro with the OST Reminiscence played in the background.

Overall, I love Zetsuen no Tempest for being different than other anime. It is an anime who I believe the director, author, and staff put a lot of time an effort to make this anime as dramatic, heart beating, suspenseful, and sad as it is. I cannot thank the staff members enough for making such a masterpiece. Please continue to put the aspects of these anime into your future productions. Thank you so much!!

PS: For episodes 8-12, Masahiro Ando, you did a great job making those episodes not boring. To be honest those were the most interesting episodes and made me like Yoshino and realize that he is a moral strategist. Those episodes were so interesting that I did not realize they were just standing and talking.

The way I write a review is different. Rather than starting out which pros and cons of the anime I write out what I understood from the anime and the messages of the author first.

This anime, is the most interesting out of all I've ever watched. The author takes a really idealistic environment trying to show a realistic meaning. It made me think a lot about it. Basically this anime indirectly focus on philosophy and values of our existence.

Character development was done very well but most end up dying right as it is fully developed which isn't negative but the characters that die do have ... an important role later especially Shun. I'll end it short since if I continue 90% of this review will be of each individual character lol.

The first 3/4 story reminds me of a book called "The Giver" where the MC thinks she's living in a Utopia but many things she encounters will make her doubt the society she lives in. The last quarter of the story involves how 2 intellectual societies clashes and who has the right to remain dominant. This made me thought if we ever met an alien or if one species somehow mutated to an intellectual one, who would have the right to be dominant. The obvious (cliche) answer would be, we would negotiate and eventually live together, but this answer is also the most idealistic one that probably might not happen for a very long time.

I felt sorry for the Queerats, not because they were once human but because the things they did were not wrong, it was a simple revolution that humans done before as well (especially French and American revolution) to throw out the monarchy for democracy. Yakomura did deserve to die but 90% of his purpose was correct just the 10% he wanted to become the superior of the Queerats. It was a good thing the anime ended with giving justice to the Queerats but most of the colonies are dead anyways.

Now how the anime was paced was interesting too. I felt that it went very slow but the speed makes sense for a 24 episode anime. Even with so many stuff happening, way more than Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, it felt like it was a 64 episode anime. Basically it is weird that I thought it went slow when it makes more sense that I would say it went fast because too much things happen at the same time. I think this is what perfect pacing feels like. It's been a really long time since I 've watched an anime with good pacing.

Finally, the message of the author to modern time. The suspicion of the Cantus' society would be similar to our suspicion of our government and that we are way too skeptic. Cantus' society was actually doing the right thing to keep a Utopia even though they had to control everyone's memories. The lost of freedom for perfect protection hmm seems like it is definately a real world modern problem. The second message is in Humans & Queerats. I believe the author is trying to say something about our racism. I find racism fights way too cliche so I don't want to talk about it here since I bet there is absolutely nothing new about racism right now. But another message might also be "who has the right to be dominant in the ecosystem". That question is interesting but it doesn't matter until we find some alien or a species having something close to human intelligence. In the end, that means the author has his/her own theories and questions but don't dare to give an answers.

The flaws in this anime was how it confuses the audience by skipping some important parts and using those parts as flashbacks. It would also be a lot better if they show how did Saki led the village. The tainted cats are still alive and still being used. But did Saki stopped the program to control the village's mind and memories? The thing I was looking the most foward how that society can be changed to become a more of a true Utopia rather than the current. But that was never shown sadly. Once again that means the author does not know how an Utopia would work, but it's natural not to know lol.

NO SPOILER REVIEW
This is a very unique review format but it fits for movies like these. Good thing is I'm not writing paragraphs

Personal Nickname:
Anohana the Afterstory

Note:
80% Recap and 20% New Content. They could have done better.

Expectation Met Value: 4/5 (it's a recap so my expectations were low so they were easily met)
...
New Content Value: 3/5 (expected something more to tie the afterstory)

Did you cry?: They had about 3 feels trigger and they cut out some parts in the end. This caused me to just be eye watery but no tears was dropped sadly. But someone next to me was crying too good.

Was it worth it?: Every penny, saw some friends cry.

Overall Rating: Movie = 8/10, Original Anime = 9/10, Overall Series: 9/10