What They Say:
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The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With an opening episode that wowed me for a lot of it as we got to know Haruka’s back story in detail, really coming to understand the issues she had growing up and why she’s like she is, Kotoura-san won me over easily, even if I knew that it won’t use that darkness regularly. But even if it doesn’t revisit it often, it’s been shown in a way that really makes it clear the suffering she went to and was more than just a couple minutes of a flashback or something shoehorned in later on in the season in order to understand things. Giving us this foundation right from the start makes Haruka a lot more interesting and provides a greater understanding of the character than we normally get from some characters across their entire multi-season run.
With her making a friend in Manabe, even with his perverted thoughts available to her that definitely do disturb her, they’re getting along well and add a bit of energy to things. The rest of the class is kind of unnerved by it all though, which is interested to see. While her school life gets a little better because of him, her school life changes in another way when a girl from another class, Yuriko, shows up and invites her (and Manabe) to join the ESP Society since she figured out the truth of Haruka’s abilities. This also introduces us to Munato, a pint-sized student the same age as Yuriko who is the calm and collected side of things with his intelligence, but he’s also fascinated by the world of ESP and what it offers.
The introduction of Yuriko does give us some of her past and explains her own fascination with ESP, since her mother was denounced as a fraud over time when she was a child and she had to suffer through seeing her mother commit suicide. The ESP Society doesn’t quite come together smoothly in a way, it’s kind of glossed over, but with Yuriko knowing that Haruka saw this in her mind, it makes it easier for them to get along and for Haruka to understand her potential new friend well enough. When they do a fortune telling event at the school, it’s interesting to see how Haruka handles being on the front lines of things as there are many people interested in it, at least until they start to realize that she’s the real deal. Then they want to get a lot closer to her since it’s all a novelty. This plays out well overall, though it also leads to a confrontation with another student who has quite the grudge against Haruka. While that is an expected route, what makes it work is that it helps to reinforce the bonds of the ESP Society itself and to push Manabe to defending her all the easier to do.
In Summary:
While the show isn’t as strong as the first episode, as expected, I really liked seeing the experiences that Haruka has now that there’s potential for people that she can call friends. Even those with some perverted thoughts like Manabe. There’s a lot going on in this episode with the new character introduced, the ESP Society and firming up what exists between Haruka and Manabe. But it also manages to put in some new tension with another classmate and expands well on Yuriko’s character in a way I didn’t expect, making her someone that can connect with Haruka in a way that other students and kids haven’t been able to before. This series is still turning into my dark horse favorite for the season and this episode just helps solidify that.
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.
