TITLE: Kokoro Connect(ココロコネクト Kokoro Konekuto^?)

GENRE: school life, slice of life, supernatural, drama, comedy, romance, gender bender.

AGE TARGET: shonen

MANGA: Yes

LIGHT NOVEL: Yes

NUMBER OF EPISODES: 17(13+4)

YEAR OF RELEASE: 2012

ANIMATION STUDIO: Silver Link

ORIGINAL IDEA BY:

Sadanatsu Anda(Writer)
Shiromizakana(Illustrator)



Hi there! It's been quite a while since I last talked about an anime(Lately it's been manga all along in this blog) so let's take a look at Kokoro Connect, an anime which ended on the thirty first of December of 2012 (In fact, the last four episodes were released that day).
Kokoro Connect is an anime that lasted 17 episodes from July to December of 2012(The last four episodes are treated as a different season , but they are a continuation of the story and in the official chronology they are episodes number 14,15,16 and 17 ) . Its target is shonen , although there's quite a bit of romance, especially in some arcs. The thing is that, like a lot of series lately, this anime is not an original product but an adaptation of a light novel with the same title that is longer , something that could lead us to think that there will be more Kokoro Connect in the future(I hope so XD ). Let's start with the plot:

PLOT

This series has elements of fantasy/supernatural, although its main genre are school life, everyday life, a bit of ecchi and a lot of talking about feelings.
The story is set on a japanese high school , altough some events take place in other locations, like a warehouse or in the streets of Tokyo.
Soon after the beginning of the first semester, two boys and three girls decide to start a club in order to have fun in their high school life. However, they need to find a purpose for the club or it will be disbanded. While they are still thinking a certain being called Fuuzen Kazura appears in front of them (while possessing the body of a teacher) and says that he want to "study" them. A few seconds after those words the five students realize that they have switched bodies! And that's when the first plot arc starts, when the five studens have to cope with switching bodies randomly while having to attend to classes and without other people realizing their "problem".
This anime is an adaptation of a series of light novels so not all the light novels are adapted in this series. In fact, only the first four novels  were adapted in this anime.

CHARACTERS

-Taichi Yaegashi: the main character of the story, at least in my opinion. Taichi is guy who always try to help people , as he is always seeking new ways of helping his friends from the club. He is a very honest person although there's a moment when he has to lie and he does it quite well XD
-Iori Tagase: Iori is weird as hell XD. She seems to be a cheerful girl with an ability to make everyone around her smile. The truth is that there's a point on the series where she doesn't even know how to behave cause she says that her cheerful personality was just a facade and that she doesn't even remember what was her personality was like after so much time fooling the people around her.
-Himeko Hinaba: Himeko is the most rational person of the group . She is the one who is the most suited to be a leader(although she is "just" the vice president") as she always manage to be calm in difficult times(especially after an encounter with Fuuzen Kazura). Nevertheless she shows an evolution in her character because she ends up being more honest with herself and tries to starts a love relationship.
-Yoshifumi Aoki: this guy is the happiest guy ever XD. He is always happy and tries to make other people cheerful. He is very honest although the other club member does not take him seriously most of the times because he acts in a silly way all the time.
He is in love with Kiriyama since the beginning of the series and he doesn't doubt about showing her his love, although she doesn't correspond him at all.
-Yui Kiriyama : she is a girl who has homophobia because of an incident in the past where some people tried to rape her, something that leads her to reject all kind of love from any guy.
She tries to help Iori in moments of need because she thinks very highly of her although most of the times Yui fails in her attempts to help Iori.
-Fuuzen Kazura: the coolest character of the series by far . We only see him when he randomly possesses Mr.Goto's body to inform the guys that a new phenomenon is going to start. The phenomenon's vary from body switching to telepathy, something that gives the series an awesome supernatural feeling.
He has a very calm attitude towards the guys as he is always complaining about having to inform them and about having to even walk XD although he does admit that he likes observing their reactions to the phenomenons .

VISUALS && OST

To be honest, if you are looking for an anime with awesome visuals this is not a good choice. I don't mean that the visuals are bad: they are good enough for this kind of story and the character design is kind of good because the characters have a pretty reasonable anatomy XD.
The animation is fluid although it has some moments where the number of frames resents, something not very important because it happens only once a while.
Have a look at the trailer:

And now have a look at the openings and endings:

CONCLUSION 

I liked the anime. A lot. It had been a while since I last saw something with this quality, eve I can get bored after looking at animes with girl's boobs with  no plot XD.
The plot is kind of interesting because it has a supernatural element an d because they explore the psychology of the characters.

Additional links:
More information about Kokoro Connect: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LightNovel/KokoroConnect

MARK:9.0