Kotoura-San

I watched the anime expecting to be one of those run of the mill school anime but with a bit of twist. But would I got was memorable experience of a girl ostracised as a child, because of her gift ( ability to read the minds of other people), finally make friend and be accepted for who she is, my main criticism with the show however was the last arc (police arc). It just felt out of place and didn't suit what the anime was maybe it could of worked if the anime had of been longer but it was all compacted into roughly four episodes.

You can't help but love the main character and feel happy for her as she makes friends and it is sure to make you laugh, her relationship with each character is unique in its own way especially with the main mail character they have extremely comical relationship with a love story behind it

Overall I would say this is a must see in the world of anime and I will most certainly be re-watching this in the near future

ジャンルはとりあえずラブコメ。相手の気持ちが読めてしまう琴浦さんとエロスの真鍋君の関係を中心に描いている。
一話は神回だった！！最初の１５分ほどで自分を凄く暗い気持ちにさせてくれて感動した。すごく期待したが二話以降は普通だった。２話以降どんどんパワーダウンしていったのは残念だったが、所々心安らぐいい話があったら良かったと思う。
笑えるところも多くて、真鍋君のエロス妄想だったり、森谷さんが暴走したり、室戸先輩がクールに突っ込んだりとキャラに印象があったと思う。
キャラでいえば真鍋君はここ最近見た中では間違いなく一番のイケメンな主人公。真鍋君のキャラでトラウマシーンも吹き飛ばされてしまうようないい味が出ている。

良い点：
・真鍋のエロ妄想で慌てる琴浦さんが可愛すぎ＾＾
キャラ目的だけでも見ていけるアニメｗｗｗｗ
・ED　EDが反則的に泣かせにくる

満足感が高い作品かも。
続編あるといいなぁー。ないだろなぁー。。。

どーでもいいけど真鍋君と警察の女の人って何か似てない？
最初は真鍋君の母親かと思ったよｗｗｗ

It was either 3 or 2 stars and I decided to take the harsh route, and I will fully explain why. I know I'll get the famed "0 of 123211 readers found this helpful" tagged right above but it's worth it to get the honest and blatant truth out about this anime. This review involves spoilers as I will touch on major plot elements (I call them plot "failings") as a resource for my opinions.

The Beginning

Okay. So the first episode is pretty intense. I will admit I am pretty prone to get feels-ey with anime, and not everyone is going to be the same in this department but I'm more sensitive than most. 10 minutes in to episode 1 is just heart wrenching. One of the saddest openings to an anime you will probably ever watch. However...another reviewer stated this quite elegantly...it's just about blatant emotional manipulation. The first episode over and done with, we can move on to actually caring about any substance, story, or character development that such a character driven show should certainly have, correct?

Not so.

The rest of the show

The trick here is that this show is not a drama. The first episode is merely elusive in its ways of letting you know that this anime is actually a simple, light-hearted sorta-romcom. You are so bunked up on the first 10-15 minutes of the episode 1 that it literally influences you to excuse the next few for absolutely nothing of any substance happening at all. Once you're over that they give you the beating of Manabe to refresh it, and by the time you've recovered from that the final (pathetic) story arc begins with the cop-chick. These moments in particular are so well done in creating emotion within the viewer, but I'm at an absolute loss at how they manage to make such light of these situations in their aftermath. Kotoura's powers end up being utterly invisible throughout the series despite the show revolving around her. They become a simple, meaningless tool to support most of the perv comedy from Manabe, and an occasional thought enforcer for Kotoura. She seems to do a damn good job of holding in all her thoughts now a days...so why isn't she making friends yet? I mean she just transferred schools, good time to start fresh right?

I kid you not in saying that Kotoura's powers end up being worthless. They literally affect no important plot point. It just ends up being her "thing" that she can kinda do and sometimes the show uses it for comedic or emotional effect. The first 10 minutes of the show plays it out like she is *tortured* by these constant barraging of thoughts she doesn't want to hear, the rest of the series completely seems to absolve her of this issue. I guess it's because she has her power under control? Ok...good for her...so why are we supposed to feel sad anymore? She can freaking read minds! That's a pretty awesome talent.

The plot points surrounding the blue haired girl (already forgot her name because I don't care) are utterly flat and hardly robust as the first couple episodes made it out to be. Her mother committed suicide which is understandably tragic, but her "mission" is strangely not very intimidating in the way the show seems to want to make it. So...she wants to prove ESP exists because her mother died as a result of a lack of belief in ESP? OK. Understandable...but why do they act like it's some kind of sinister master plan, as she keeps it under the table and draped like a big old secret from everyone else? Who wouldn't understand her motivation from the get go? There was nothing to hide, so her eventual coming out with it was hardly effective in being emotional because it's like...who *wouldn't* understand why you're motivated to prove the existence of ESP? They made it seem like she was planning to kill Kotoura in the library with the candle stick.

The final story arc (schizo cop)

Okay *breaths*. This was awful . Such a horribly mangled, barely thrown together couple of episodes following the derangement of some schizophrenic cop who wants to beat up high school kids with a stick. Her motive? She hates that Kotoura-san has friends because she didn't have any. This is like a 3-4 episode arc of high school children being taken out in alley ways with a baton. How does it end? Well, Kotoura is about to be made it in to a batting post and she has a 30 second or so inner monologue about how she has something to live for now, so she's not just going to roll over and die (or simply get knocked pretty hard in the head I think would end up being the case here), so what does she do? Use her ESP to predict the movements of her attacker and do a cool dodge? Nothing like it, she screams Manabe's name. What? That was her line of defense? Her attempt at "surviving"? What's more is Manabe magically MANIFESTS to block the attack out of nowhere! He does it with his forearm, by which I'm guessing this must not have been a very powerful attack, capable of doing very little else other than maybe giving Kotoura a bruise on the head. This is a secluded roof top people! Where and when did he come from! These are details that get washed away with the rest of this nonsense. The cop comes to her senses after some inner fighting provoked by a short and sweet approach by Kotoura and decides to turn herself in. What happens? Nothing . This woman (whether under the effects of split personality disorder or not) has beat (close to death?) multiple high school girls in secluded alley ways, and has a severe dysfunction of the brain (split personality disorder is no laughing matter people), and they let her off without even doing community service. What's more is they allow her to keep on working in law enforcement? Huh? Did nobody else raise their eyebrows at this absolute rubbish? It's not borderline nonsense, it is the definition of nonsense. Wait though...the first 10 minutes of episode 1 were amazing...yeah.

Kotoura and her mother

This is my final point of discussion I'd like to make. You're led on right off the bat to really hate this chick. She abandons her daughter as a mere child. Just the sheer act of child abandonment is disgusting in its own right, but we're forced to choke down on what is actually supposed to be the reconciling of Kotoura and her mother, as if any person in their right mind actually thinks it'd be cute for that to happen. I'll admit, I've read a great deal of comments from people who do think it's cute, they are happy for Kotoura and the mother...I will never in my life understand why. That could just be a perceptual difference. It might have been different had the mother returned much later on as a changed woman...apologetic and sorry for her utter *failings* as a mother (abandonment being probably the pinnacle of parental failings in the entire book of parental failure), but that's not what they wanted to do. Instead they portray her as a begrudging bitch, like she's some kind of high school chick with a vendetta. Immature isn't even a word I feel is appropriate. It's something beyond that. What does this do for viewers like me? Only compound on the utter hatred I already had for the character. This all makes the cute little moment where her eyes finally go back to normal near the end (from the "dead" look) completely worthless to me because I don't even want it, and to be honest neither should Kotoura. What does she possibly have to gain from putting any trust in this woman anymore? I wanted those pillows at the end to be filled with bricks. I appreciated that they gave Kotoura her moment to actually say what needed to be said but it wasn't enough. That mother needed to be punished by the writers, but really all she did was "get away" with being a terrible mother, and that's horridly unfulfilling from my point of view as a watcher of this series.

In conclusion

If what you've gained from this is that I'm horribly dissatisfied with this series then you are right on point. I say the first star is because I saw it through to the end, so that has to count for something. It earned an extra star because the comedy was bearable and at times funny. The show absolutely failed to capitalize on any of the other elements that shined through as having incredible potential (um, the emotional drama they were capable of is utterly unmatched if the first 10 minutes of Ep1 are any indication). At the end of the day it's a mediocre rom-com with slappy humor, and an occasional mood swing in to Kotoura's or any of the other "damaged" characters pasts, and none of it really breaks the skin, meaning it has a long way to go to get to your heart.

Cute show. Wam bam opening. Utterly disappointing directly after that. Rubbish story arcs with no logical or sensible aftermath or even things to be learned from. I wouldn't waste your time with this one.

You could watch the first 10 minutes of episode 1 though. That's pretty good.

Forget the characters, forget the odd mixture of serious drama and comedy, forget Kotoura's psychic ability. Above all else, this is a fun show to watch. Though not the greatest slice of life rom com I've seen, it might be one of the most enjoyable one I've seen. Manabe and Kotoura's relationship is very beautiful, despite all the pervy stuff that goes on. This show was very consistent in quality until it slightly falters in the final story arch. But the OP is one of my favorites in recent memory. (Demo Demo Demo!)

If you're looking for a funny, if sometimes crazy and unpredictable show, do yourself a favor and watch Kotoura-san, one of winter 2013's best shows.