Switch it up with Kokoro Connect
Hello! This is Lilatheen Amoreday with your weekly anime review! I’m here to bring you the anime’s that make you laugh, and despise! I watch them, review them and then share them with all of you! If you have any suggestions on what I should review or watch, email me or comment below! Hopefully you’ll like what you see! This week’s anime is Kokoro Connect!
Picture this~ You’re with your four best friends, hanging out after school. Your best friend forgets her notebook in the other room and she runs out to get it. You turn to your other best friend to make a comment about getting something to drink. You blink, and suddenly, you’re in a different classroom. You take a look around and try to comprehend what just happened and ponder how you got there in the first place. Then you let out a gasp in horror as you look down at yourself. You have body parts that you didn’t have before, you’re voice is high and you’re wearing a girl’s uniform. Such is what happens to Taichi Yaegashi, and his friend’s Iori Nagase, Himeko Inaba, Yoshifumi Aoki and Yui Kiriyama in one of my personal favorite anime’s Kokoro Connect.
Kokoro Connect is an anime drama, a manga and a light novel! The first episode aired on July 8, 2012 and has 17 amazing episodes in total. The anime follows five friends in high school who experience strange phenomenons. Some of these phenomenons include switching bodies, reading minds (temporarily.), having their desires unleashed (you can only imagine the mayhem that caused), and even transforming into their past selves (not in that order.) The person who is causing these phenomenons is a spirit called “Heartseed” or at least we assume him/her to be a spirit. Heartseed is a pretty interesting character. His reasoning for messing with the kids is “he finds them interesting” he/she doesn’t really have a lot to say. He comes to them in the form of their club advisor Ryūzen Gotō (meaning he takes over their bodies.) The rest of the plot you’ll have to discover by watching it on your own.
This anime is not only intriguing but also ADDICTING! If you love mystery, romance, comedy, thrill, terror, crying and/or staying up till 3:00 in the morning to watch the next episode this anime will fulfill all of that. Each character brings a different flavor to the table. Taichi Yaegashi, the thoughtful (and extremely attractive) boy is always there for his friends. He stands by them and would even die for them. Obviously he is just part of one of the many love triangles in this anime. Next is Iori Nagase, a fun loving, and super energetic and ditsy female character! She does everything she can for her friends and tends to hide her feelings in order to protect them, even if it means that she gets hurt because of it. Himeko Inaba, the Tsundere in this anime is…well…a Tsundere character. Hard on the outside but emotional on the inside. Finally there are Yoshifumi Aoki and Yui Kiriyama, a crazy pair of “lovebirds.” Yoshifumi Aoki is in love and obsessed with Yui while she on the other hand wants nothing to do with him (for the most part.) Each character offers those of us watching a chance to connect and bond with each of them.
Connecting with the characters in an anime is extremely important to me. If the character is bland or tasteless, I end up praying that they get killed off in the next episode. However, with these characters I felt myself rooting for their success and crying when they failed. Not only do the character’s provide an emotional tug but the music that accompanies the anime is absolutely amazing. Anime tends to be repetitive after awhile, however, this anime kept me interested the whole time (which is pretty cool since I get super bored easily.) I also really have a hard time with love triangles. Most of the time they start to really become agitating. Especially when the guy ends up choosing the “wrong” girl. They played it out nicely though (no spoilers!)
There are very few negative things I can say about this anime but there are a few things that I would like to point out. There are scenes in which breasts, butts, and panties are exposed. There is also cursing in this anime so be wary of that as well. There are also sexual encounters and points in the story where mature themes are mentioned (i.e.: rape, molestation, alcoholism, gang violence) There is also a female that enjoys poking and prodding and making sexual advances towards one of the heroines in this anime.
Despite all this, the anime has very strong themes of friendship, loyalty, finding yourself, being true to whom you are and good triumphing over evil. I would not say that this anime appeals to a certain sex. There is a great deal of action in this anime as well as drama so do not let that sway you from watching it. The light novel follows what happens after the seventeenth episode so if you are dying to see more check it out! Happy watching mina!
~Lilatheen~
You can fine the list of episodes here (subbed)
Or you can download or read the light novels here (The first two books)
You can watch the trailer here