(L) Kokoro Connect [anime]

[s07195]

Originally Posted by blaze0041

It irks me a little bit that the ED song, Kokoro no Kana by Team.Nekokan [Neko] featuring. Junca Amaoto (ココロノカラ / Team.ねこかん[猫]featuring.天乙准花), would only be available in physical (CD) form bundled with the Blu-ray volume 1 (episodes 1 & 2) limited edition...

It is, however, available on the iTunes Store, though only if you have a Japanese iTunes account (I think):
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/kok...546217440?l=en

Having a listen to it, I really like the full version (perhaps aside from the gaps of silence), definitely contrasts with the faster songs from the R21 album a years back...

So if you don't like Apple or importing, you're screwed? NOO!

...I was planning to buy the physical copy as I saw a store carry the OP theme.

EDIT: @Gohan78 I think that was the general review of the series made (or at least book 1) before the anime aired.

[MeoTwister5]

As the drama unfolds and Iori faces the specter of death, Heartseed's words at the end makes you wonder what he really is. To me he's one of either two things:

1. An alien-like observer who knows nothing about human nature and human reactions, thus puts these high schoolers into a twisted experiment to see how human nature works in the shadow of lost individuality and identity.

2. A sort of omnipotent being who does, actually, greatly understand humanity, and does this because he sees something wrong with these high schoolers and subjects them to this trial as a why of teaching them something.

Heartseed's parting words are a bit too neutral for me to conclude what kind of person he is. The second possibility I listed has more benevolence than the first, but again you have to question the method even if you know the motive. For an omnipotent and probably godlike figure, his methods seem too cruel to be benevolent, but his parting much too convenient and forgiving for an observer.

Maybe he's simply amoral?

In any case, that was a gripping last half of the episode. One of the more... emotional final confessions I've seen in a long time.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by blaze0041

It irks me a little bit that the ED song, Kokoro no Kana by Team.Nekokan [Neko] featuring. Junca Amaoto (ココロノカラ / Team.ねこかん[猫]featuring.天乙准花), would only be available in physical (CD) form bundled with the Blu-ray volume 1 (episodes 1 & 2) limited edition...

It is, however, available on the iTunes Store, though only if you have a Japanese iTunes account (I think):
http://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/kok...546217440?l=en

Having a listen to it, I really like the full version (perhaps aside from the gaps of silence), definitely contrasts with the faster songs from the R21 album a years back...

Just listened to it and I have to agree with you. Love the song aside from the silence at the start (it's just a tad too long on the full version).

[Blonto]

Originally Posted by Qilin

Why not? Haruhi Suzumiya is indeed a gigantic plot device.

However, she compensates by being much better characterized, allowing her to bear some semblance of an actual personality. That said, while she may be a plot device, she is much more than just that. At the very least, I can perceive her as an actual character.

On the other hand, Heartseed strikes me as something of a periphery element tacked on solely to keep the plot in motion. There hardly anything remotely humanizing about him. For now, he is nothing more than a plot device.

I don't think they're comparable due to focus. Haruhi was always the main character, the center of the plot so of course she'd get development. Heartseed is more like Yuki's boss. This kind of story simply doesn't allow him to be developed as a character.
In the end I guess it depends on whether you see certain plot developments as "cheating" or not.

Aside from that, the fact is that this kind of premise from the start depends on the author's imagination rather than action and consequence. The kids go through one completely unexplainable event (starting with body switching), then another and another. You can't get more "I'm the author so I want this to happen" than that, so I suppose I just see any attempt to give some explanation as an improvement, as long as it doesn't contradict itself.

But I think we agree on some points: Heartseed IS a plot device and Mr. exposition and his problem isn't so much the fact that he adds a supernatural element into the show, but how undeveloped he is.

[jeroz]

Now the question is, what if he gets a lot more screen time next to develop his character, if he actually got any interesting bits, would he still be dismissed as a plot device?

[Qilin]

Originally Posted by Blonto

I don't think they're comparable due to focus. Haruhi was always the main character, the center of the plot so of course she'd get development. Heartseed is more like Yuki's boss. This kind of story simply doesn't allow him to be developed as a character.
In the end I guess it depends on whether you see certain plot developments as "cheating" or not.

That's just the thing. Because of the type of story that this is, I have very little hopes that his character will be developed much further than it already has been. Thus, he is likely doomed to bear his plot device status for the rest of the series.

Originally Posted by Blonto

But I think we agree on some points: Heartseed IS a plot device and Mr. exposition and his problem isn't so much the fact that he adds a supernatural element into the show, but how undeveloped he is.

Specifically, I dislike how it seems that the sole purpose of his character is to generate conflict within the story. He's strikes me as something of a convenient plot element that works as the author's mouthpiece. Of course, fleshing out his character might work in building him into a character. However, any time that could be spent for that purpose would probably be much better spent on developing the main cast, the show's main asset.

[Sumeragi]

*Prepares to watch all episodes*

[Diveman]

I don't know about you, but I thought Episode 5 was brilliant, it made me rage, laugh, feel sadness and relief all in the same ep. This anime is something else.

[EroKing]

Freebies.

[Arturia Polaris]

^^ Itadakimasu.

Inaban <3

Arturia

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Qilin

That's just the thing. Because of the type of story that this is, I have very little hopes that his character will be developed much further than it already has been. Thus, he is likely doomed to bear his plot device status for the rest of the series....

"Little hopes...likely doomed...." Let's not worry about what might be and just react to what is. I have no idea where this guy (or whatever) comes from, or what his/her/its motives are. I would be disappointed if we never found out -- but even that could be an interesting feeling. I'll just wait and see.

Personally, I find Heartseed fascinating, and I think the personality has been developed already. We know he is performing some kind of duty. We know he feels a lack of energy and determination. We know he is absurdly powerful and somewhat capricious. We know he is trying to get a reaction and observe the results. We don't have clear ideas of who/what he/she/it is, but we do have scraps of personality and action to react to. And I react with great interest. Sure he is a "plot device," but he seems to me to be a lot more. I can even think of him as a symbol of the irresistible power of the world to mess with us. Most of us don't have such a weird character interfering in our lives, but we do have a big world around us doing the same thing.

Anyway, just to say that my own natural reactions here differ from yours. Vive la différence.

[Blonto]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

"Little hopes...likely doomed...." Let's not worry about what might be and just react to what is. I have no idea where this guy (or whatever) comes from, or what his/her/its motives are. I would be disappointed if we never found out -- but even that could be an interesting feeling. I'll just wait and see.

Personally, I find Heartseed fascinating, and I think the personality has been developed already. We know he is performing some kind of duty. We know he feels a lack of energy and determination. We know he is absurdly powerful and somewhat capricious. We know he is trying to get a reaction and observe the results. We don't have clear ideas of who/what he/she/it is, but we do have scraps of personality and action to react to. And I react with great interest. Sure he is a "plot device," but he seems to me to be a lot more. I can even think of him as a symbol of the irresistible power of the world to mess with us. Most of us don't have such a weird character interfering in our lives, but we do have a big world around us doing the same thing.

Anyway, just to say that my own natural reactions here differ from yours. Vive la différence.

Don't get me wrong, I like that Heartseed is in the story. I don't mind that he's a mysterious omnipotent being or a plot device. I think his status as an out of reach entity wouldn't go well with trying to develop him as a human character. However, I also wish we'd learn a bit more about him. I have a feeling we won't know anything more about him by the end of the series than we know now and that's unfortunate.

[maximilianjenus]

i would rather have them develop aiki and taichi than float vine.

[SRanger]

So does Inaba win the cocoa kinect?

Or is this going to be another series where the clear cut favorite girl that the audience adores is going to lose

see: Ami from Toradora

[Master Assassin]

Originally Posted by SRanger

So does Inaba win the cocoa kinect?

Or is this going to be another series where the clear cut favorite girl that the audience adores is going to lose

see: Ami from Toradora

I'd gladly point out answers for you, but this is not the place to be doing that. We have a thread in the manga section.

[Chaos2Frozen]

And clear cut is abit of a stretch, I'm noticing there's a lot of people that support Iori as well.

[exs120]

Or maybe it's more likely the girl that SHOULD win that loses...

It always, always goes back to the "first girl always wins" trope. So by default, I guess Iori has to win now...

[Arturia Polaris]

Ahhh, but there's a problem there.

Iori and Taichi kissed. Which is correct.

But Inaban and Taichi kissed as well. And it was Inaban's first kiss as well, as she points out.

So who actually was first? Inaban or Iori?

Iori herself is the one that's freaking out over "the body defines who one is"

By that logic, Inaban wins.

It's very well set up... *nods sagely*

Arturia

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by exs120

Or maybe it's more likely the girl that SHOULD win that loses...

It always, always goes back to the "first girl always wins" trope. So by default, I guess Iori has to win now...

Well, I think that Inaba and Iori both hinted at romantic feelings for Taichi around the same time.

And Inaba did make the masturbation reveal before Iori did anything close to that...

[exs120]

Which is the beauty of the first girl wins...who is first? First introduced, first to confess, first to be confessed to, most featured in the OP/ED etc. Usually it's very clear who the first girl is, and most would say Iori. I know not to believe anything with this show though because of the body swapping nature.

I'm all for Inaba though. It's about time a show subverted this trope!