The gang of five find themselves with a real life or death challenge.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the show having dome some good stuff with the characters recently and especially in the previous episode, my hopes for the show continues to grow as everyone starts to look more at others and themselves as the body switching goes. The opening alone has an amusing moment as Aoki and Yui talk to each other behind the school as there’s some tension growing between them, with him asking her outright if there’s someone she likes and if it’s Taichi. That almost takes a fun route with her admitting she likes him, but she follows it up with it all being that she likes him as a friend and nothing more. The group has plenty of potential for a lot of romantic and sexual shenanigans, and it has a potty mouth at times that I like, but it’s avoiding going far with what these characters could do.
With this episode, we get some amusing time spent between Taichi and Iori as they talk throug hthings that come from some of what’s come up before, and it has its moments, but it all leads into a very different moment. That is when Heartseed takes over her body in his deadpan way and talks briefly about how absolutely boring this cast of characters is considering the situation that they’re in. From his perspective, and from some viewers, it’s certainly understandable. And what that leads into is him making a radical move with Iori’s body, setting her up for death, and pushing the four remaining members of the group into a position where things have to change with how it’s unfolding.
What he does after that, with her in the hospital, is the kind of cruel but fascinating situation that you want to see play out. With her life coming to an end, he allows them the ability to switch bodies with an oral command and they can choose who will die in her body, either one of them or Iori herself. This puts the kids in a real dilemma as they all want to save her on some level and there are some selfless types in the mix here that will go the distance because of their personality. But Iori has to be drawn into the equation as well and the show excels well here with dealing with the situation when it comes to the dialogue and the real challenge that they’re facing with each other and Iori’s life. And having it all come on top of the revelation that Taichi made to her only adds to its impact.
In Summary:
Kokoro Connect has a chance to go big here and really change things, but it’s not a surprise at how things are handled at the end. What I did like is that the four kids are put through a real test here and the victim, Iori, is forced to participate in it as well by being switched out of her body to see what’s really going on. The combination of all of this in the second half with the character fun in the first half when it comes to the relationships makes for a good episode, predictable as parts may be. With the way the show has gone, it would not surprise me if it takes some chances and if it had followed through on the premise, but it doesn’t surprise me that it went this way either. The show continues to give me hope for something more and comes close to it.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
