A student club with three girls and two boys meets after school to chat and do nothing in particular. They start randomly swapping bodies.
Now, I seem to be largely alone here, but I actually liked this episode. It was mostly people sitting around and talking, but I don’t mind because I actually like these people. Sure, they’re high school students who hang around and chat and do nothing, but I don’t think that makes them boring. They have genuinely interesting personalities. These are people I could see myself being friends with.
Take as an example the computer girl. At first I assumed she’d be a Yuki Nagato clone. She’s not at all though, she’s actually overbearing and quite talkative. And she actually treats each of the other characters differently, as if she has a relationship with them. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed Hourou Musuko so much. For characters to feel genuine to me, they need to have relationships with others. Real people don’t treat everyone else equally like they do in anime. We joke with some people, we’re serious with others, we talk about one hobby with one friend, a different hobby with another. Kokoro Connect seems on track to portray more genuine relationships in this way.
The first episode wasn’t all that funny, but I don’t think it was supposed to be. I think we’re just building up the characters at the moment. The atmosphere reminds me a bit of both Natsuiru and Hyouka, with how we follow a tight-knit group of friends.
I thought of the possibility that the anime is just about likable characters interacting with each other as well, but I do not think the male characters are interesting. I like the females fine though.
Male characters in high school anime are pretty much hopeless but atleast the girls don’t live to bone him.
Some of them seem to want to bone each other though. Not that I’m complaining.
So far I don’t mind the males. The one is amusing since he hits on everyone, the other is kind of witty. We’ll see though, I don’t feel like I know them too well yet just from the first episode. Much of the reason I like them is for the way the females interact with them, so I don’t exactly like them for themselves alone.
Well, I didn’t hate the episode, so I’m not dropping this series as of yet. We’ll see.
I agree w/ Flawfinder that the guys are superfluous. Let’s hope they transfer to another school in ep. 2 (this won’t happen, I know).
In any case your are not alone, Draggle, as I liked this ep., as well. Not only do the club members have interesting personalities, the girls are also cute. I particularly like Computer Girl. She has some resemblance w/ that adorable girl in K-ON of the same first name, Tachibana Himeko. I like both her voice (not highpitched) and her hairstyle with that strand of hair in her face.
Background art is a bit simply but the characters themselves are drawn and animated nicely (much better than in Natsuiro), so I’m looking forward to this show.
I don’t know, I think the guys make the females stronger by giving them someone to argue with and switch bodies with. 🙂
Glad to hear you liked it. Computer Girl is my favorite too right now (although the purple haired one is a close second). Her lower pitched voice is part of the reason for me too. There’s only so much squealing I can stomach from anime.
You’re not alone in liking this opening episode, though it wasn’t enough to lock a spot in my summer shows quite yet. I don’t think I’m quite as interested in their high school lives and the humor as much as I am in the possibly more serious implications of the switching; there are a couple of troubling hints at personal issues, like Iori’s absent mother and Inaba’s strained interaction with what appears to either be a brother or father. Perhaps a switch is exactly what’s needed for these problems to be addressed and resolved.
Yep, it seems like they all have their secrets which are going to be aired out of the closet. Definitely a lot of potential there.