Review of Kokoro Connect

PROPER MINDSET Just by reading the description I was reminded of the old Bodyjack hentai. I thought they would make the watered version of it here but I must say it turned out to be better than I expected. Not too much better though; it’s still just another silly school comedy. THE STAFF - The signs were not very reassuring though, as it is animated and by Silver Link, a studio that produces nothing more than no-brainer ecchi comedies, such as Baka to Test, C3, and Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Their production values are always good and have lots of funky cinematics, plus all their shows have interestingpremises and colorful characters. At the same time they never try to make anything serious out of them, so everything ends up being nothing more than retarded jokes and softporn. So far Kokoro Connect appears to be their best work by miles for taking a really ridiculous premise and trying to make the best out of it. And by best I mean to focus a lot more on character immersion than erotic humor. And indeed, it starts as a complete joke with some stereotypical high schoolers changing bodies and progresses slowly into showing how each one of them feels and acts under pressure.
- Directing is done by Oonuma Shin, who has made nothing besides romances and school comedies. He is good at his field but never produced something great.
- Based on light novels by some nobody. Translated into “Nothing to see here”.

CAST & SCRIPT
The show is full of scenes where the characters deal with some pretty interesting concepts, such as what value does your identity have if you are not acknowledged by your exterior form, or how you deal with mental disorders such as androphobia or parental abandonment. The whole body exchange gimmick ends up working as a nice excuse for the characters to reveal their secrets to one another by experiencing what others see and feel when you are inside their body. This way they become far more than just stereotypes because they were affected by something in their lives which turned them to act like the usual cheery girl or a cooldere.

Another element the scriptwriters used as a lure is the mystery behind the romances and the origin of the creatures which cause all this trouble. You are constantly intrigued to find out which one is going to hook up with which other, or how, or why. Plus, you kind of want to find out what do those aliens plan to learn or achieve by performing this experiment. They may simply be just trolling them out of boredom but at least the creators make it look attention-grabbing.

Of course they never elaborate on the aliens, and the whole story is still nothing more than forced drama for the sake of throwing in a conflict out of nowhere. Silly shows like these almost always burn out all their material in a few episodes. Since they lack an overall story and have simple characters, such anime usually have a great beginning, before they quickly burn out all their interesting topics in about 3 episodes and head for retarded fan service afterwards. And indeed, in this case all the characters opened up to one another very fast, and the body swap thing started to get boring. So what could they possibly do to keep you interested? Why, by throwing in more gimmicks! Since the original plot device grew tiresome, they just replaced it with another one and later on characters act out of character or change age instead of bodies. Thus once again you have an excuse to keep watching just to see how they will cope with that.

Of course the whole thing is still quite light and at no point should you take it seriously.
- It has lots of erotic jokes, such as the guys trying to have fun of the girls’ bodies, while their minds are swapped. Plus the usual lesbian comic relief, toilet fuss, and misunderstandings.
- Plus, it plays out as a harem, since Taichi is an overused dull/blunt male teenager with blank personality who always gets to be the center of all romantic tensions with the girls, while the other male is just needless extra.
- The characters also open up too fast and reach to epiphanies way too easy just by chatting for a few minutes. How the devil do they even know so much about psychology, anyways? Well, whatever, every time they sit down to talk about their issues, they just talk for a few minutes and almost magically decades of depressed emotions and mental scars are healed right away. If only real life was so easy… Although they are presenting and trying to deal with interesting emotional and psychological problems, the catharsis comes too fast and too cheap.
- It would be a lot better if we were shown a lot more of their troubles instead of just using talking as the only method for exposition. I mean, why not having flashbacks from the memories of the person you have taken over its body? It sure beats having a guy talking without ever showing anything it troubles him all the time. Yet sadly almost always the exposition is done with blah-blah and close to zero showing anything regarding that.

LEGACY
You practically get a show based on forced drama and trolling. It is quite light despite its heavy themes and by the end of it no amount of new gimmicks will be enough to keep most people interested about a bunch of teenagers who have a dozen issues each but otherwise solve them with a friendly chat. And don’t expect much of an ending either. I can’t say it is much of a show and at best you can have a mediocre time waster on your hands.

Of course there will be those who will say a school drama/comedy doesn’t need anything more than just interesting everyday issues being dealt in an easy going way, and that the real identity of the aliens is not really important to consider it a minus. Well I am sorry but if you are never given all the answers, everything feels like it happens JUST BECAUSE and not for a good reason, not for an objective, and above all not for being anything significant. If you are not given a goal, you are not given a reason to care. And this is what Kokoro Connect did wrong. It was fooling around with its themes, refused to be mature or serious even when it could easily be, and by the end of the day ended as yet another forgettable title.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 6/10
General Artwork 1/2 (generic school setting)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic harem archetypes)
Backgrounds 1/2 (generic school setting)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 2/2 (good cinematics during dramatic moments)

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 2/4 (average)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 5/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 1/2 (not much)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 1/2 (simple and rather open)

CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10
Presence 1/2 (generic harem archetypes)
Personality 2/2 (cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 2/2 (they all get some)
Development 0/2 (nothing is actually changing because of the light handling)
Catharsis 1/2 (overblown but it’s there)

VALUE SECTION: 2/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 0/3 (no reason to rewatch)
Memorability 2/4 (good concept but nothing else besides that)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 2/10
Art 0/1 (looks generic)
Sound 0/2 (sounds meh)
Story 1/3 (good concept but loose handling)
Characters 1/2 (generic harem archetypes with some hints of depth)

VERDICT: 4.5/10