First Impression – Kokoro Connect
Totally late, but it’s never too late for some good ol’ fashion body swapping~!
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Well hello there strange body swapping series aka Kokoro Connect! I will admit the K-ON/Idolmaster character designs got me really interested in this series in the first place, but I just wanted to listen to Hisako Kanemoto’s cute voice of course! She really has started to become a favorite of mine lately, anyway it is time to join Hoshi on this epic tag for the first impressions post. |
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Originally I hoped to get this first impression out before the second episode, but I obviously failed in that attempt. Anyway, as our supernatural slice-of-life of the season, Kokoro Connect has the potential to be something interesting, but can it do it? It’s time to give this show the spotlight and see what we think so far.~ |
The Student Cultural Society and their Voices
hoshi: Our main focus is obviously the members of the Student Cultural Society, a miscellaneous club to host these students’ individual tastes and situations that have brought them together to fill out their mandatory requirement to join a club. And those five members?: Taichi, our nonchalant protagonist who’s the normal high school boy with a thing for pro-wrestling and big boobs apparently; Iori, the happy-go-lucky and fun member; Inaba, our serious, no-nonsense, short-tempered member who wants everyone to get straight to the point; and Aoki, our player/lover boy who’s all over Yui, our last member with a thing for cutesy stuff. Other than that, there just wasn’t much character development, becoming quite the turn off at first. However, being the first episode, I realized its purpose really is to introduce the very outer layers of the main characters and leave only tiny hints at some internal conflicts. While it was a bit hard to watch these characters at first, I have some hope that we will get to see more development from them, or at least some nice, dramatic back stories to them.~
fosh: So I already mentioned Hisako Kanemoto as Yui from this series, but did you notice she voices a lot of blonde characters like Yayoi from Smile Precure, Yuki in Kore wa zombie, Grunhilde in Mouretsu Pirates, Astrea in Rinne no Lagrange and then there is Ika Musume with blue hair! Other than Hisako running around we have the talented Aki Toyosaki who most us probably know as Yui from K-ON and she usually ends up voicing the very hyperactive character…this time it is more of the same from her playing the role of Iori. Rounding out the girls we have Miyuki Sawashiro as Himeko, but I always think of her as Saeko Busujima from HoTD…as for the guys we have Takuma Terashima as Aoki who we can tell after meetng him he has a crush on Yui! So what else has officially done? I can’t say I am really familiar with any of his work besides Umehara from Amagami SS. And finally the last guy in the main cast Takahiro Mizushima as Taichi who was quite interesting in the first episode and he has shown up in Guilty Crown as Yahiro. So yeah this is one great cast of actors for this series; however a few of them are completely new to me.
Overall Thoughts
fosh: Great first episode for me even thou I already gave in and saw the first fifteen minutes thanks to the crap preview version which meant super low quality video, but the full episode was worth the second watch thanks to the high quality artwork! YES! While the series “plot” might not be interesting to most of us out there we can all agree that the artwork is decent, but it might not be as high up there like something like Tari Tari or Sword Art Online for the current season…anyway I can’t wait to see more of this show even if I just tune in weekly to watch for the character designs.
Plot wise I can tell where things will end up aka guy swaps bodies with x girl and gropes chest so you can basically rinse and repeat that scene over and over again! Or you can go the Haiyore Nyaruko-san route and play it off as a comedy thing right? Did anyone else notice how fast that random girl jumped all over Iori? GOOD GOD! What the hell is that about? Is Lori like romantically involved with that student or something? Because wow! She was practically foaming at the mouth when she was trying to get with her…
Other than that very odd one sided sexual scene I am really curious to learn why this whole body swapping thing seems to only affect this small group of friends or is this just a case of Natsuiro Kiseki aka slice of life with a bit of magic thrown in to spice things up? I hope we find out why soon, maybe that club room is cursed!? Damn did Yuuko cross over from Dusk Maiden to haunt the class with some voodoo magic? I look forward to more body swapping action next week! Who will be the first to change bodies with Himeko? And what was the deal with the teacher in the preview for the second episode? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!
Overall the whole episode seemed to move really fast with not that much to digest from the episode. It was only setting up our plot line, establishing the mystery, and introducing the very baseline to our characters and their home lives, which is another reason while I’m still willing to give this a try. I’m sure that the whole body-swapping phenomenon will get explained more as the episodes progress and that clues will pop up; whether quickly or not, we’ll just have to see. It seems like things get weirder judging from the preview of the next episode (which I still have yet to watch). I can only take one episode like this one!~
Preview: Skipping the preview this time around since the second episode is already out, but look forward to another Kokoro Connect episode and post that will hopefully be done on time! Have another great macro by Fosh! Until next week then~!!
And we don’t mind at all.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Since you guys are going to keep doing the show, I won’t comment on the second episode here, except to say that it really stepped up in my opinion.
I actually found the ‘messy’ art style a bit refreshing. Things like Iori’s beauty mark (and her mom’s not matching one) and Aoki’s terrible fitting uniform helped bring the characters to a level of realism that is higher than most ‘moeblob’ shows, because they’re specific repeated things.
One thing I wonder is whether Taichi and Iori’s easier acceptance of the idea of Aoki and Yui’s switch is what led to their being switched next.
Looking forward to commenting on the next post in the series!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Agreed episode two is far better in terms of story and a few reveals I did not see coming! Thanks Highway <3
Ahhh yeah I noticed that as well it seems very interesting and like you said refreshing.
Ahahah yeah I have no idea! I always laugh when the girls swap with the guys I am waiting for a Haiyore! Nyaruko moment to happen any minute…but there is an overall message of walking a mile in someone elses shoes I assume that is the meaning behind all of this? If not GOOOD JOB xD
Awesome we look forward to that.
POWUH: iLurker with 12 comments
What I really liked was that the body switching wasn’t the only plot device. I really want to know more about Iori’s issues as well as explore Taichi’s relationship with his sister.
Inaba seems to be an interesting character that does put a wrench in the groups dynamics.
I think character’s will carry the anime, and yes the second episode is shiet!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Right it appears we might be dealing with some darker issues between characters like Lori and Taichi? YES! I can’t wait to find out why Lori’s mom is never home….
Yep this will be a character driven series for sure.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Will Random Lesbian Chick appear again??? One can hope ^.^
And lol, tht scene look right out of an harem anime with some switches.
Asuna is in KoroCon??Wait…. nah. But Yui looks lk Asuna donchathink??/Watch/Backlog list +1!!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’d bet that there will be another scene when one of the guys is in Iori’s body where they get caught off guard by Fujishima and it goes a lot farther than Iori wants.
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
lol yes let’s hope random Lesbian Chick appears again. She was awesome
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 30 comments
I hope her and Taichi in get into a pokemon battle!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahahah yeah I have a feeling there is some yuri relationship between Lori and the glasses girl.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Great show, one of the few I actually champ at the bit for. I’ve seen the first two and the pacing and character development are up to par. I am intrigued by the overall theme of the proceedings. “What would you do in their shoes?”
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I know right? Seems very exciting so far and all of the characters are interesting so far my favorites are Yui and Lori <3 <3 but the important part for me is there are guys in the main cast! I bet the original idea had all girls...
Yeah there is a message hidden in there about the whole living life through someone else type of thing.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, when one girl found out the other girl spent time alone at home without a parent around, I saw some uneasy feelings going on.
Plus, we have that whole,”She’s mine, keep your hands offa her” ending. I was thinking, that either she was trying to get the two together, or was attempting to start something where she came out on top, or something else. What happens next is the best compliment you can pay to a story….