Directors: Shinya Kawatsura, Shin Oonuma
Animation Production: Silver Link
Music: Yasuhiro Misawa
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy, High School, Supernatural
Seasons: Summer 2012, Fall 2012
Episodes: 17 (13 TV + 4 OVA)
Final say: VARIABLE DOSAGE PRESCRIPTIONS
SIPPABLE OVER A STREAM if you either find enjoyment in high-volume melodrama, or is generally well-tuned to the Mari Okada-esque aesthetic of high school narratives.
SKIPPABLE FODDER if you squirm at the notion of emotion, or the overabundance of it. Kokoro Connect is levels deep in alien territory when one observes it within the scope of the curious shunning of melodrama in American/Western entertainment.
Needless to say, this endless barrage of high school dramas in anime would certainly provide audiences with little lack of materials that strives to explore the meddling years of teenhood, the uncertainty of emotions, the masking of feelings and the eventual outbursts when one finally loses their mind. Kokoro Connect’s disappointingly surface-level development of its world rules and character portraits did the series little favours in providing the experience with appropriate gravitas.
However, beyond that the series does employ a series of intriguing artistic flavours in its visual direction, especially in its generous servings of a satellite surveillance aesthetic that effectively communicates the nature of the main characters’ feeling of being watched, experimented upon.
Recommendations: Alternative Titles
Kiznavier
An uncanny resemblance between this original Trigger production and Kokoro Connect demands one to experience the former as well, as it spins the genre with a heavy dose of fun and extroverted personality.
AnoHana
Employs similar devices that binds contrasting characters together, centring the narrative around the ghost of an old friend who passed away years ago.
