(L) Kokoro Connect [anime]

[kuroishinigami]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Hmm... so I tried the three "big" moe Slice of Life anime this season (Tari Tari, Koichoco and Kokoro Connect) and Kokoro Connect was the last of the bunch. This is excluding the three ecchi titles (Imouto fetish one, the Sengoku period heroes being moe girls one, and that male lead being a pervert one), which I won't be trying in the first place or sequels (Yuru Yuri S2).

To be frank, I didn't like this one too much and it's got little to do with any criticisms of "generic" or "fanservice" or whatnot. It's got more to do with how the body-switching plot was told. It practically came outta no where without explanation and the "body-switching" periods were completely random. It reminded me of the "rock" from Natsuiro Kiseki where the rock would grant miracles "because it can" and "when it wanted". Same deal here with the body-switching. I didn't feel there was much of a coherent stucture to the series' premise as it felt all over the place, at least from this first episode.

As for the fanservice, it was pretty mild so I have no real problem with it. Iori is just one big tease with a little bit of perverted spunk but that's about it. In fact I was amused (but not loling) at some of the jokes that were said by her. Reminded me of the more funnier moments of "NisioIsin-like dialogue" though far less masturbatory and rambling, but also slightly less funnier.

From the audiovisual side, it was largely unimpressive. Silver Link is known for pretty low-budget material and the same is the case here. Seriously, the anime looks like if it was made in 2005 or 2006. Audio wise, apart from that one mischievious track that was played in the classroom when the "self-inspection" took place, it was either largely absent or insignificant. In others words, the production values for this is quite mediocre as it was not very pleasing to look at.

In regards to characters, the female characters seem to be fine. We have a tsundere (albeit not a violent one hopefully), a playful genki one and a taskmaster type. I didn't get infuriated at any of them as they were largely inoffensive and as mentioned above I was amused at some of Iori's (the genki one) antics. The male characters however are more boring than watching grass grow and more generic than the sky is blue. However, uninteresting, milquetoast male characters seem to be a common problem for modern slice of life anime so I won't bag on it too much.

I do however, disagree with the K-on comparisons. Aside from the fact the character designs are from the same artist and Iori shares the same VA as Yui from K-on, the rest of the atmosphere and premise wasn't K-on like at all. K-on had a lot of goofy, airheaded humour and was also an all-female cast. Kokoro Connect seems to be more flirtatious and very may well deal with "gender" issues since it does have a mixed cast. We'll see if this is the case though. Not to mention K-on did have a musical element, regardless of the fact how much people debate regarding how much of a music anime K-on was.

So overall, I found this watchable but not really likable. Compared to Tari Tari, this completely pales. At least however it is vastly better than that revolting Koichoco's first episode so I'll definitely give it a few more episodes before giving the ultimatum.

This is just the first episode, the reason for the body switching will be explained in due times, also the reason why the 5 of them was picked for it. Personally though, the first episode was pretty good for someon who doesn't like moe slice of life shows like me, but maybe that's because I cheated and read ahead so I know what to expect. That and I'm a fan of sawashiro miyuki's voice and wonder how she will fare voicing high school girl lol

[larethian]

^ Good to hear. It's baffling to me why the LN is in top 12 in Konorano. I tried to cheat, but there's no volume 1 in my store! So I gave up cheating

[Chaos2Frozen]

^ For me, I don't have it in a language I'm comfortable with >.>

The manga scans wasn't very far ahead either; if the preview for the next episode is any indication, it has already caught up -_-

[HandofFate]

I feel like the market is getting flooded with these "random students join a do-nothing club and hang out" animes.

Some of the interactions in episode 1 do seem interesting as far as character introductions go. I didn't know what the show was about so I thought it was another club anime.

Not sure if the body-switching is enough to keep me interested atm though.

[Om Nerabdator]

one question is this show gonna be all about body switching or is other stuff gonna pop up?

[maximilianjenus]

do not reply to that question please, I don't want to get spoiled (or at least reply to it inside a spoiler tag.)

i liked this, not a lot but it's an enjoyable watch, the 7/10 scores i have seen makes this justice.

it has low budget but I can tolerate that, it would have been horribly generic and a skip, but rather than using fanservice/nudity to shine as several shows have been doing lately, it's using the bodyswap mechanic and believable humour.

[AmeNoJaku]

After reading all the negative opinions posted here, I expected the worst... but it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, it looks more like a KyoAni production (without budget and PS), rather than Silver Link... i.e. bland and inspired.

On the other hand, it's only the first episode, it can get a lot better... or worse

[Flower]

Not that bad, actually ... the 1/2 ep preview was ok, but the rest of the ep (and the resultant whole picture result) was pretty good, I thought. Nothing earth-shaking yet or such, but pleasant enough, I guess. I have the strangest feeling that the series is going to succeed or fail for me based largely on how "convincing" the reactions and esp the chara development in response to all the body switching and such will turn out to be.

A tentative keeper for now.

[Om Nerabdator]

that creepy guy in the preview is weirding me out....i hope it doesnt turn into one of those "disturbing" animes

[maximilianjenus]

Well, in the times we are living if this was gonna be one of those fanservice heavy animes it would have been obvious now, we would alreayd have gotten a scene where one of the guys chaning into a girl takes off his/her clothes, or maybe have one girl (in a guy's body) peeing.

since we are already apst that point we can rest assured it won't go there.

[Shimapan]

I found the first episode quite entertainig, better than expected.

So far I like Iori the best (and no, the mole has nothing to do with it).
The scene with her switch was great. "Hey, what's that? Breasts?" *fondle* *fondle*
However, when the other girl was offering her "help", I certainly wouldn't have turned her away. "Why, just go ahead, I'll just fondle yours in exchange."

I've got the strong impression that Himeko (the grumpy girl) will be the next one for a body change. They showed her being grumpy when leaving and returning, and they spent all that time explaining her the body switch. I'd be surprised if she doesn't switch next, or very soon at least. Hmm, now who will she switch with? I think Taichi is more likely. Then the others (esp. at home) will be surprised why she isn't grumpy any more.

[Kaoru Chujo]

I think this could be outstanding. The voice work was great. This may be the best I've ever liked Toyosaki Aki (Iori). And Sawashiro Miyuki (Inaba) gave us something really complex and wonderful, in my opinion. Even Kanemoto Hisako (Yui, formerly Squid Girl) was really good. And I liked Mizushima Takahiro as the normal (sort of) Taichi.

The situation gives the whole cast a real workout, playing second-hand the characters whose consciousnesses have switched into their character's body. This high-level seiyuu stuff makes it all the more lame that the first words you hear are from Taichi's little sister, voiced really badly (at that point, anyway) by Oogame Asuka. She was better at the end of the episode.

I've read a little bit further in the manga, and I can understand why the original LN is popular. The situation will get richer and more complex in ep2.

I liked the rumpled uniforms, which basically hid most of the attractiveness the girls may have had. I imagined everyone wearing those jackets and sweaters on a warm day in September and could almost smell the sweat from here, lol.

The animation was much less snazzy than the usual Silver Link stuff, but still good, in my opinion. Added a layer of reality to the unreal situation, for me.

EDIT: The girl "with the yuri goggles" who volunteered to fondle Taichi/Iori is played by Itou Shizuka. Typecasting, lol.

[Master_Yoma]

Body switching at any time but it look like this is going to get wacky

[Silvance]

Well, that was an amusing episode. I thought the body swap is going to be permanent, but it seems that's not the case. Considering how random the switch is like, I can't imagine just how much chaos and hilarity is in store for the anime viewers in next episodes or so.

[Triple_R]

Just watched the first episode. It has definite potential. Iori is pretty likeable, Inaba is a good contrast to Iori and gave off a good first impression to me, and the other three are Ok so far, at least.

The body-switching thing makes for a good plot device, at the very least, imo.

That being said...

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

It seemed off for some reason to me.

Yeah, it felt a bit off to me too. I think that, for me, the main issue was that its more comedic/lighthearted elements didn't blend that well with its more serious/suspenseful elements.

A good example of this is the scene where Taichi starts seeing things through Iori's eyes. That scene started out very well, and I think it perfectly captured how a lot of teenaged guys would react to being suddenly body-switched with a cute girl their age.

But then you get the over-the-top yuri girl pushing herself all over TaIori, and it just killed that mood of intense realism for me. I like yuri, but the way it was used there just didn't fit well, imo.

A fair number of scenes in this episode where like that for me. It's like the show couldn't decide if it wanted to play this sort of thing for easy laughs and titillation, or if it wanted to play it seriously. I think the show is held back a bit by anime trope adherence, which sometimes gets in the way of making the most out of this body-switch premise.

But still, the potential is there. I will be watching more of it.

Originally Posted by HandofFate

I feel like the market is getting flooded with these "random students join a do-nothing club and hang out" animes.

Yeah, I'm with you here. Why not just make this a straight-up pro wrestling fan club? At least that would be different. Besides, you even have a poster of The Undertaker in that club room.

As a guy who used to be a big pro wrestling fan, I really loved that reference in this episode.

[DXMichael]

Depending on how they do things with this anime, it can go down the good path...or the bad path.

The first episode was 'ok' nothing really special, just the usual introduction to what this anime will be about. It didn't really offer me personally anything to stick around to watch it (Well...except to see what mischief the boys will do once inside the girls body ) But what they do when inside the bodies can really determine how good of an anime this will be. If they spend the next 5-6 episodes wondering why it's happening and trying to find a way to stop it then, it wont be exactly to my taste.

If they spend the next 5-6 episodes running around, experiencing each others lives differently and *Ahem* getting up to some other peculiar things *Ahem* then I may enjoy this more than I ought to

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Watched the first episode. It's pretty entertaining & interesting. It looks low-budget indeed. But I'm better stuck with a low-budget anime that executed well than big budget fails *coughguiltycrowncoughaquarionevolcough*. Will follow this along with Hyouka, Eureka 7 AO, & Muv Luv Alt - Total Eclipse.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Body switch episodes is a staple of Super Sentai and tends to be funny. But entire season of body switching? Some premise.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

I feel like the market is getting flooded with these "random students join a do-nothing club and hang out" animes.

Some of the interactions in episode 1 do seem interesting as far as character introductions go. I didn't know what the show was about so I thought it was another club anime.

Not sure if the body-switching is enough to keep me interested atm though.

There seems a flood of these "friendship" type animes period. I have a feeling that the blockbuster success of Anohana had something to do with it. It can get tiring yeh, but at least it's moving away from the pure "cute girls doing cute things" or "fanservice" centric type of slice of life shows that largely rely on just comedy. Not all are bad (e.g. Hyouka and Tari Tari so far), so I'm willing to give Kokoro Connect a few more episodes despite not really liking what I saw from the first ep.

[Tokkan]

Okay... Watched episode 2.

Iori getting all philosophical about the soul while in Aoki's body was unexpected but nice. It's a sign of a level of seriousness being underneath all that fluffy playful exterior. Betting she has issues with her parents' divorce and being home alone most of the time, even if she tried to make it seem like it's not such a big deal to her.

Also, nice move Inaban. Setting up Taichi and Iori as a couple to protect Iori from Fujishima... without either of their consent and right in front of Taichi while she and him had switched bodies. This is going to end wonderfully, I'm sure of it.