Some men give away the best secrets.
What They Say:
As the body switching becomes more common place, the Student Cultural Society members become more adventures with each other’s body.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Kokoro Connect shook things up a bit in the previous episode not only with doing a three person swap but also having one of the faculty come into play. The teacher was controlled by an observer that made it clear in an amusing fashion that they’re being watched and that there is a bigger plan of sorts here, even if they’re not being clued in as to what it is. The whole sequence was fairly creepy but it help to paint a picture where you know that there is definitely something going on here and it may have some form of resolution as it progresses forward. While you expect the group to try and do some deduction along the way, you know a lot of it is just going to be fun and unusual exploration.
With events here, we get an awkward opening sequence with some real griping, but things change elsewhere after a bit to something more amusing as we see the guys getting into the girls bodies and getting ready to have a lot of fun with it. The girls, now in the guys bodies, at least are smart enough to make sure they grab the cell phones off of them first. And that definitely slows down the way things could go since they just want to have fun. But the girls can get back at them easily too, starting to threaten running around the campus naked in order to make a big show of it all.
Where the show does do some interesting and amusing things is when it comes down to a problem that Kiriyama has as she’s learned the real strength of a man by being in one’s body. There are problems she has that causes this fear, and it’s something that talks about while in Aoki’s body. For her though, he goes the distance and shows her how a woman can take down nearly any man by kicking him square in the crotch. It’s a pain she can’t even fathom as she experiences it, and it’s difficult in a way to see him essentially doing it to himself. Which is why it’s poetic that the switch happens in the middle of the pain and he gets a taste of his own medicine.
In Summary:
Considering where the show can go, especially after the revelations in the previous episode, a lot of what we get here seems pretty listless. It does clue is in on the characters a bit more through their dialogue, such as Aoki’s enjoyment of pro wrestling and how it does have an impact on his life, but it doesn’t feel like it really comes together well. I really liked the scene between Aoki and Kiriyama as they talk about the differences in physical strength and the understand she’s come to by being in a male body, and how he teaches her some things about it, but it also doesn’t feel like the episode really went anywhere. I was hoping for a bit more scandalous humor and silliness, and we did get some but just not enough. I’m still hopeful for the show to find its footing but this episode felt like a step back after the second episode.
Grade: C+
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.
