Since childhood, Haruka Kotoura's classmates have seen her as a creepy and monstrous person. This is due to her ability to read other people's minds—the same ability that drove her parents away, leaving her alone with her grandfather. As a result, she has grown accustomed to the bitter treatment by the people around her, becoming completely cold and unsociable to others.
However, everything starts to change when Haruka transfers to a new school. While most are off put by her as usual, she meets Yoshihisa Manabe, who finds her power astonishing. Yoshihisa then proceeds to befriend Haruka, promising to never leave her no matter what happens.
Haruka's new experiences of social belonging thus begin, meeting new friends and learning to open herself along the way.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Kotoura-san has the makings of an exceptional show. It has the ambition to be both an emotional drama and an uplifting comedy, to be an experience full of highs and lows to keep you engrossed to the end. It even has an intriguing premise providing a solid foundation for its narrative. Regrettably, it is clear from the very first episode that not only is Kotoura-san plagued by atrocious writing, it furthermore has the entirely wrong attitude when it comes to the use of drama in general. Kotoura-san tells the story of Kotoura Haruka, a girl with the power to read people's minds. Whilst one would expectsuch a power to be a gift, this unfortunately couldn't be further from the truth for Kotoura, who goes through tragedy and strife. As more and more people reject her, she sinks into the depth of loneliness. Abandoned by her parents and afraid to get hurt, she moves from school to school, keeping people at distance. But upon transferring into yet another school, she meets Manabe, a perverted yet honest individual who accepts Kotoura for who she is, and tries with the help of others to get Kotoura to accept herself.
With such a promising premise, how did it all go wrong?
Kotoura-san, bless its poor, forsaken heart, knows nothing of subtlety. When it comes to the drama, the show's writers want you to know for certain what's happening on screen is tragic, and they are not leaving it up to chance. Kotoura-san makes sure you know by shoving it in your face, being incredibly melodramatic, and blaring histrionic orchestral music at your ears. You can practically hear the director shouting "ARE YOU SAD YET? BE SAD NOW!". The writing is so heavy-handed in its approach that the scenes often don't even make sense, as elements designed to make the scenes even more full of anguish are carelessly introduced without proper thought. At worst, things get completely out of hand as you are bombarded with one melodramatic scene after another.
The very first episode is a perfect example. Kotoura's tragic backstory is told, where each depressing event in her life is immediately followed up by another one, aiming to be even sadder than the last. Eventually it escalates into a ridiculous scene in which Kotoura-san, previously finding her only solace in a stray kitten, breaks down because she is informed that the cat has been taken away, leaving her alone. This would be acceptable, however the woman who informs Kotoura proceeds to shout at her, telling her to "Leave and never come back!" for no apparent reason. This is one of the many contrivances used to easily make the scene more emotional, which are the defining hallmarks of Kotoura-san.
The complete lack of subtlety in Kotoura-san's drama is replicated in the fanservice as well. The fanservice consists of eponymous Kotoura being cute, a rather innocent and likable form. However, when the show wants you to notice how cute she is, it again makes sure this is impossible to ignore; once again you are assaulted with one cute scene of Kotoura after another. Kotoura would be more endearing if not for how persistently the show confronts us with it. That said, the fanservice is still a relative highlight of the series, even if poorly executed like the other aspects.
Unfortunately, the comedic aspect of Kotoura-san is also lacking. The essential joke of the series is that the male lead Manabe has a perverted fantasy of Kotoura; who will then get embarrassed and annoyed at him. This joke is then repeated throughout the entire series. Funny as it was the first few times, by the fiftieth iteration of the joke it was getting incredibly tedious. It is fortunate that the show invested in other jokes, however these are also repeated frequently and whilst some of the jokes were funny enough to withstand constant repetition, the majority were not. The repetition of this poor comedy becomes a dull monotony for the viewer. Additionally the humour comes at often inopportune times, causing a large emotional whiplash when placed right in the middle of a dramatic scene, a problem that pervades the entire show. If you are the sort that likes "perverted humour" then the comedy will most likely be more amusing, and will sustain its freshness for much longer.
For the writers, all that seems to matter is the result. They appear not to care if the story makes little sense or is filled with plot holes; so long as the dramatic scenes are saturated with sadness and woe, they consider it a job well done. This attitude is ultimately what's responsible for the terrible writing. It is indeed unsurprising that the writer who was unable to come up with enough jokes to last the series, was also unable to write more than one pattern of character development. Kotoura-san is rescued from her depression by her friends (notably Manabe) at least three times. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that it's the same issue every time, simply disguised by a different context. Ultimately what happens every time is that Kotoura becomes self-loathing and depressed because she blames herself for bad events, only to be "saved" by Manabe and the rest of her friends. Call me a cynic, but although it is clear that Kotoura suffered a tramautic past, the drama feels insincere when Kotoura is saved by Manabe through the same process multiple times.
The comedy, romance, and drama that make up the plot of Kotoura-san were in shambles. The quality of writing is dismal, it desired the story to end up a cohesive mix of these disparate narrative elements, but either they couldn't be bothered to actually put in the time and effort to make it work within a story, or they were simply unable to. Whatever the reason, the sheer quantity of inconsistent tone and plot holes is almost insulting- it's a depressing thought that this standard was deemed acceptable.
The art and character designs were of low quality, they both look messy and have very little detail. For the comedy segments this is not so much a problem, as the 4koma style character designs suit it well. However, when it comes to the dramatic scenes the character designs are in stark contrast to the melodrama, and appear incredibly awkward when the art gets in your face. The music is generic and lacks subtlety, dramatic scores being employed ruthlessly in every single scene bar one notable exception that verges upon melancholy. The opening is cute and likable, if not ultimately forgettable; the ending is simply nondescript.
On a more positive note, the characters are all pretty likable. They evoke sympathy from the audience even if they are well defined by a limited number of distinctive traits, and are at times enjoyable to watch; you certainly shouldn't have a problem with any of them. Well, perhaps apart from Moritani. She starts the series as an antagonistic figure, only to have her personality overhauled, leading to an abrupt and irrational character change that is poorly explained. Again, the attitude of the writing shines through once again. However, there is one facet of Kotoura-san that was done right, and that was the romance. The relationship that develops between Manabe and Kotoura was surprisingly well done over the course of the series, despite it's repitious nature. Their interaction isn't complex or deep, but in a show where characters can just change personality at the drop of a hat, it was a real highlight.
To conclude, the incredibly forceful attempts to evoke emotion in Kotoura-san is stifling, demonstrating an extreme example of the "tell not show" attitude to drama. If you can ignore poor writing, and relish heavy-handed drama and comedy, then this show will probably be of great enjoyment to you. If, on the other hand, you loathe over the top melodrama and care at all about plot progression, then Kotoura-san is nothing more than a trainwreck.
onesnowyday_
Our childhood is often filled with many blanks and not much memories. The few you might remember are some friends you made or games you played. But, what if the memories you remember most vividly were the ones filled with bullying,ignorance, and broken hearts? Kotoura-san starts off as a seemingly sad and powerful drama. Maybe a bit generic. What throws people off is that after the first half of the show, it just hits you with all this comedy that you weren't expecting. This is probably what caused the downfall of the show. I can't say I exactly disliked the comedy, but it would've been betterif the producer had focused a bit more on the drama. Still, there were some good comedy moments, and the drama was well played.
The art is nice and fits the mood of the story. It is a bit generic, but if you're a fan of moe, then the artwork might be something for you. There sad and happy moments of the story are portrayed pretty nicely, the coloring and shading helped the mood.
Character development has its sweet and heat breaking moments. From Kotoura starting to learn to trust her friends and deal with yet, more bullying, to Moritani learning to deal with jealousy, it was pretty nice to watch. And so...friendship is building up between Moritani and the rest of the ESP Research Club. One thing that did kinda bug me was that the relationship between Kotoura and her mom was not really in depth. It seemed like they introduced her in the beginning and just decided to put her off for a while.
Overall, the drama mixed with comedy makes this show pretty enjoyable. (Manabe having pervy dreams of Kotoura really makes this worth watching lol) Of course, I'd love to see Kotoura overcome more challenges as well. This show left me with mixed feelings. There were some moments I really enjoyed, yet some I felt kinda bored with. Nonetheless, I still think the drama part of the show displayed some pretty valuable lessons.
It seems the biggest problem the show is having is the transition from hardcore drama to just plain comedy. I don't find this much of a problem since I think a show that's too serious is just plain boring. I recommend that if you're expecting Kotoura-san to just be a really good drama, then it's best you don't watch it. Of course, this is just my opinion.
aNinjaWithAIDS
Wow... Just wow. This show easily makes it onto my highest favorites. There is nothing I can truly nit pick about the show that would detract me from my rating. It took me for a ride I won't soon forget. Story: This is among the most emotional stories I have ever had the grace and the priveledge of experiencing. I'm not lying when I say this: It deserves to be seated in the high heavens for the drama genre. Why? Haruka's backstory alone had me under emotional torture. The show itself proved how serious it can get when it wants to, and boy they wasted notime in doing so. I have never had a stronger first impression for any show of any medium (yes, even stronger than Clannad). That isn't the say the story is always dramatic; in fact the comedy was equally well done. I might have broken a lung in laughter. Even if it's the same gag, there's still the hint of freshness in that it's done differently each time in differently awkward, yet appropriate situations. Bottom line: If you have any sympathy in you, then this show will exploit every part of it. It's likely the show will crush your soul once or twice, but it also leaves you happy and satisfied. Kotoura-san is absolutely top tier in it's story, and it's not just a simple Romantic Comedy. This story is one for the ages! 10/10.
Art: It's simple, doesn't try to innovate, or invoke scenery porn all the time; but it's that simplicity which makes it very clear what we should be feeling and when.The graphics were very pleasant to watch, and I had no problem with it whatsoever (especially since I marathoned the show) .The special effects were also very pretty to look at and weren't overdone in the sense that they never distracted me from the one fantasy element the show focused on: the telepathy. The character designs were plain for the most part, but very cleanly done which is fitting for telling a story in an otherwise mundane setting. I didn't see any notably bad off modeling (QUALITY!!) during my marathon. I found all of the characters' movements to be enjoyable and sensible except for one: Daichi "fish lips" Muroto. His mouth was just too weird and strange for me to watch, and I can't see why they made that his default expression. He looks like a derp to me when he's supposed to be the smart one, and that doesn't register well with me. Still, the art overall is simple, yet elegant and vividly expressive. 9/10
Sound: The voice acting was absolutely perfect! The characters' emotions and personalities were portrayed in a very clear and concise manner on top of sounding their age. The characters' feelings can be readily felt in their voices, and each voice suited each character in each situation to excellent degrees. The opening and ending themes didn't catch on with me at first, but I grew to love them. As for the soundtrack, I didn't just hear the music, I felt it too. The classical music inspired soundtrack also accompinies the story to carry the appropriate emotions. Seriously, listen to the prolouge theme, as in right now. It is the most profound example of this phenomenon the OST can provide. Otherwise, the simplicity wins again, both in my heart and in it's catchy listening value outside the show. Pure ear candy 10/10.
Character: It's amazing how much I attached myself to the main heroine in just 10 minutes. She is among the deepest and most dynamic characters I've ever followed. Everything about her from her personality, motivations, and thought processes is perfectly justified and empathic to me. Manabe couldn't be a better foil for her, even if he tried. A guy who freely admits his perversion and an overall free and flexible thinker makes for the best long-term counter to Kotoura's telepathy in the most enjoyable way possible. Manabe may be an idiot, but his heart is definitely in the right place and he knows it! The guy definitely earns his balls as well as Kotoura's love by the end. The main supporting cast also develops surprisingly well and likable over, but some of those character's motivations were sold a bit short (I'm looking at you, Moritani, and your distaste for dojo inheritance). Muruto's neutral stance towards Mifune is also annoying and baffling to me, but not extremely so. Otherwise, the characters felt human and were dramaticly driven and they all had real power behind them. 9/10
Enjoyment: I marathoned the entire show in just one night. That alone speaks volumes how much I enjoyed this show: it was an insatiable addiction! 10/10
Overall: WATCH IT! I don't care who you are, or what genre you're normally into. Do yourself a service: drown in your own tears, break yourself in laughter, and/or just enjoy the ride. It's probably the wildest emotional roller coaster out there if you can stand seeing Manabe's perverted thoughts. 10/10
MarlyTT
Have you ever tried rubbing lemon on your eyes? Because that pretty much describes what this show tries too hard to do. Forced drama, everywhere. So the first five or so minutes of the first episode is the part where all the people ate up for some reason and it apparently managed to leave such an impact that people thought that this show was going to be good just from those five minutes alone. So this girl can read other people's minds, but her feelings get hurt because she doesn't realize she has such powers, and she's a bit insensitive because she was young. Alright,that's not too bad so far. It's fairly realistic as far as fictional mind reading powers go, but then stuff happens. Namely, the "everyone is conveniently an asshole and stupid" cliche- Where if you are too lazy to give a character a well written tragic backstory, then fuck it, just force it! Just make everything around them happen conveniently to drag them down! What makes me baffled is that it's not like the writers did not have the time to devote a whole episode for this; Instead, it's just rushed and feels completely forced, leading to an extremely lazy writing. In its original form as a 4Koma comic, this wouldn't be a necessity, but as an adaptation, I think it needs some more attention especially if you're trying to tell a serious story.
So, apparently Kotoura remains stupid about her mind reading powers while growing up and doesn't learn to shut up about it, and eventually pisses off her parents because her father is the most irresponsible father ever and her mother is just genuinely retarded. Instead of believing multiple doctors claiming that Kotoura is not a compulsive liar, she decides to believe her homeroom teacher who says she is. Who needs those PHDs? Then she sort of ditches Kotoura in her grandfather's house, and then the actual plot happens. Well, not before showing us that Kotoura gets more traumatic experience out of her favorite cat not being at the usual spot than being ditched by her parents. Brilliant. She eventually comes across the main character while still showing off that she can read minds, although she fully realizes that she's going to get her feelings hurt anyways about it because she's retarded- And what a surprise, the main character's mind is all wacky and funny! It's almost like some people honestly don't give a shit about Kotoura for once because she's the most important person ever! Realism! This apparently causes Kotoura to take interest just because he just so happened to not pay attention to her presence like every other human being that was ever around Kotoura in her life. That being said, this main character is awfully written too. He's solely characterized by his wacky silly perverted mind, and the writers can't seem to stop making overdone jokes about this, and this continues to drag on every episode in this show. Of course, outside of this, he acts like the most generic main character ever and serves as a white knight of sorts to Kotoura because everyone around her happens to be conveniently a dick just so that the main character can have a role.
But wait, there's more! More dumb characters are introduced; Daichi and Yuriko. They're both members of some stupid ESP research club, which I don't see how it got approved in the first place. Yuriko's initial plan was to use Kotoura's ability to prove to people that psychics were real because her mom died because nobody believed that she was a psychic. Now, I don't see how showing off that Kotoura is psychic proves whether her mom was ever a psychic in the first place, but that'd be too logical. Furthermore, why would Kotoura even agree to help Yuriko when clearly mind reading only makes her depressed? There's literally no reason.
But there was a reason after all- The show uses this as an excuse to introduce the next half-assed character. This character is named Moritani, and she is in love with the main character because of whole ten seconds they shared in the past. This causes her to get jealous of Kotoura because she was attracting all the attention from the main character. And then the next part is just awful: Kotoura makes a mistake, and accidentally ends up reading someone else's mind, so clearly this means that she has to actively target someone visually to read their mind. It's not something passive where she just 'hears' other people's minds. Therefore, she can technically just choose not to read minds at all, which is precisely what she doesn't do ever and she barfs all over herself because that's what people do when they're depressed and realize that others think badly of you. Then the main character defends Kotoura because she gets bullied yet again despite it being her own fault completely, which triggers Moritani to become even more jealous and causes her to order her friends to beat him up. Yeah, I'd call someone else to beat my secret love interest too because that's a smart thing to do. And she even manages to ask for help from people associated with her family dojo, so it's clearly impossible for that someone to realize she was responsible for it.
So at this point, it should be pretty noticeable that every 'drama' in this series is half-assed, forced, and just completely caused because the characters are mentally deficient. It's like watching a movie about zombie apocalypse where everything bad happens only because the characters are dumb and one just lets the zombies in because he thought he needed some fresh air- Except worse, because at least those movies are visually fun- This show is just boring, forced conflicts happening just for the sake of having a conflict. Then they constantly try to cram what they classify as "comedy" in, which includes a scene where the main character imagines Kotoura in a swimsuit or something. It's like the writers can't make up their mind about what they wanted to write, so they just taped the two together without any regard for transition. And unfortunately the show only gets worse from here- The show eventually introduces a mystery arc, where in theory, it should be interesting in conjunction with Kotoura's mind-reading powers.
Summary of the "mystery" arc: Kotoura does something stupid and she gets into a trouble. In this particular case, she walks alone at night when she fully realizes it's dangerous to do so because there's a culprit somewhere in the local area, meets a person who's pretty much a stranger at this point, and follows that person only to realize that person was the culprit all along. This sort of twist would make Shyamalan shake his head in disapproval. And then the last episode just quickly resolves the whole mother-Kotoura conflict that the series has been building up to for the entire cour in five minutes. Brilliant pacing.
Considering how much useless filler there was in this series, this wouldn't really be classified as "rushed." Now one may argue that since this is an adaptation of a 4-koma comic, you shouldn't expect a well-written story. But that is the silliest argument, because if the series is going to attempt to take itself seriously, then it should be treated as such. The fact is simple; They tried to cram some drama in and failed pretty hard. Hopefully after this show, people won't decide that a show is going to be "good" just from the first five minutes of the first episode.
DRaaX
Prepare yourselves for a good brief enjoyment. At the beginning, we got a great dose of drama. To be honest I almost cried. I was worried about if they could do a good job mixing the comedy and the drama, without making any drastic change, but after ten minutes I was laughing and during all the anime both were mixed very well. Besides, although the drama is a little bit exaggerated, it will reach you and you will establish an emotional bond with the main character quickly. In addition, the story transmits a good message about the injustice of the way the society thinks, unfortunately itis too forced, for being too cruel and for being too pure. Kotoura has had problems with establishing relationships because of her ability to read people´s minds and according to the anime, everybody except her new friends have bad thoughts all the time. And that is something I didn’t like because it is not very realistic. However, that’s the only bad point of the story. It is enjoyable and charming.
The art is not something that will amaze you but you will be comfortable with and surely you will enjoy the expressivity of the faces when they are surprised. There are some people that didn’t liked the way the mouth of Muroto is drowned, but I found it very funny and a good way to give liveliness to one of the less participating characters.
Referring to the sound, I know when a soundtrack is good when in the scenes I notice that background music stringing along with the moment. In this case I didn’t realize at all. They are suitable for the scenes but nothing to be aware of. The same goes for the opening and ending songs and seyus. They all do their job good but without delighting us.
About the characters, they are pretty well done, however I think they could have done a better job with their psychological part. The main character, as I said before, has problems to socialize and the huge problems she has had and the distrust she has in people disappear surprisingly quickly as she met Manabe. I think it would have been great to give that part more importance, but I understand that with only 12 chapters they have to focus in other things. Referring to Manabe, the main male character, he is very simple but his perverted thoughts and the relationship he has with Kotoura offers plenty of comedy, and a little bit romance, to the anime. About Moritani, I didn’t like her psychological evolution very much either. She is also a lovely character, but it is unrealistic how fast she stops having bad thoughts about Kotoura. And the last thing I would like to remark about is Kotoura’s mother. I like the role she has, it is essential for the drama part, but like I’ve said, it would have been great if they had developed psychologically more this character and give more emphasize and more depth to the relationship between Kotoura and her. The other characters, although they fulfill well their part, there is no need to say anything else about them.
In summary, it is a very entertaining anime, which mixes very well drama and comedy. I enjoyed it very much. However, because of its length, it cannot offer an in depth psychological part but enough to catch your attention and to teach you a little bit of empathy. I recommend it if you are looking for something light, charming and entertaining, but I don’t if you are looking for a great drama or something that will move your heart.
tomislol
Well then. First off ill give a short reason why i decided to pick this up. I absolutely love watching RomCom's so i decided to watch this. Simple as that. But what intrigued me was that the main heroine had psychic mind reading powers, i somehow thought that having that kind of thing in the anime would have delicious drama involved. And i was right. Story: 7 The way they started this anime, on episode one, i somehow thought it was going to be an amazing anime. The first 11 minutes was just crazy, incredibly tragic and sad. And somehow in the same episode it turned from crazydramatic-ness into something pretty damn hilarious. being a some what veteran of anime watching it was seriously easily predicted that she would get a few friends that would support her regardless of her freakish powers. Even though i knew that i still felt happy for her when she made her first friend.
Overall the story started out kind of nice i suppose but it started to feel a little bit awkward. I cannot really explain how but it just is. The story had potential to be something better but then it went downhill and then it went up hill but then downhill or some thing like that. But overall the story was not bad but at the same time not something spectacular.
A lot of things seemed really sudden, at least to me it did. One particular scene was the rooftop scene with Tsukino. I've seen many scenes similar to that, where the main characters win their battles by just talking and pleading. But man did that happen so quick. She started her plea and within 30 seconds it worked. What the flying F**K? Maybe it's just me. Maybe i just don't like things happening so fast.
The process is more interesting not the result.
Art: 4
I gotta say the art for this is not to my liking. I won't go as far as to say that it completely sucks. Maybe it is a sort of art style, a new style that i have not seen much before. I just think that it feels lazy.
Sound: 5
I almost never even notice the background music playing because i feel that it just isn't that great. It doesn't really stand out. There are only 2 tracks i liked, the ending theme song, which was pretty nice and peaceful and had a lot of great meanings behind it , and the track that played during the serious moments.
Character: 7
Manabe:
Manabe is a pretty cool guy. He doesn't afraid of anything.
Even though he is seriously a perverted master of some sort he really does care about Kotoura which is pretty cool, a typical feature in all the main male leads in pretty much all animes.
Kotoura:
Her character was pretty interesting to watch grow. I know i made some kind of grammar mistake in that previous sentence....
ANYHOW. She had so much doubt in trusting people and in people trusting her and even decides to run away to prevent hurting others, but in the end she goes back. Good for her!
Yuriko:
I would say she's a bitch for trying to use someone just for her own selfish needs but in the end she is really guilty about it so i guess it's all yippy skippy.
Muroto:
Did i spell his name right? Ill just call him Megane-Kun.
Megane-kun was a really interesting character. For one he is small as hell and smart as hell. He always has that =3 kind of face on but whenever he does not have it on it means he is serious. I always enjoyed seeing his serious side. The stuff he says to Yuriko is really great, "I will neither help you or stop you, i am here because i choose to be" That's some pretty cool sh*t.
Moritani:
Truth be told, i really did not like this character. The show wudve been the same , if not better, without this character. She just .... sucks.... but at least she had the guts to confess to Manabe in the end. But still. she sucks.....
Enjoyment: 6
Ehhh this show was alright, it had potential to be a lot better but that's not to say that it was really bad. It is a pretty average anime, i probably would not recommend it to a random person, but if you kind of find this anime interesting from the given synopsis i will do nothing to stop you from watching it. But just a friendly warning , do not expect much from it.
~Til next time
Tomislol
NipahAllDay
I had some mixed feelings with the anime. While the anime did a good job with the main cast, but I had some problems with it. When the anime started out, it was pretty dark, but became light hearted comedy. It's like Madoka Magica, but in reverse. It's about a girl name Kotoura that has a horrible past because of her ESP. She have a hard time making friends and her parents had a divorce because of her. She can't tell when people are thinking in their mind or if they are actually talking. She blurts out personal things and people were disgusted by her. Peopletreats her as an outcast. When she go to a new school, she meant this person name Manabe. He was the only one that Kotoura can't see how he feel because he is a simple minded perverted idiot. He was the one that slowly open her heart and accepts him. Then they join(forced) ESP Research Club. Where they met Mifune and Muroto. After couple of episodes a character named Moritani join their group. The anime has some arcs that progress nicely and some are episodic. I thought the story was enjoyable and solid for most part.(Excluding episode 11. Geez that episode was anti-climatic) The problem was that some of the character action feels awkward and unnatural. Tbh I feel like some minor/non important characters actions felt kinda not normal. They felt kinda like plot device. Though the anime does a good job mixing light and dark tone in the series.
The animation is pretty nice. I like how the color tone change. When the anime gets dark, it has more of black and dark blue shadings. While the lighter moods as yellowish/orange colorful palette. The character designs was good. They have an interesting design. I like how some characters eyes change depending on the circumstances. When this certain character feel scared their eyes look like you would see in Corpse Party. The facial expression was well done. Props to the animators.
The music is average. Nothing special imo. Though I love the opening and endings songs. Pretty catchy and heart touching.
The characters has some good development. You get to grow to love the characters. Though the problem i had with it is that I question some of their actions and decisions. Few characters felt bipolar. Two characters started out as bitches, but at the end they aren't bitchy characters. The one main antagonist in one certain arc motives was pretty crappy and make you like "bruh really?" A few part felt kinda melodramatic.
Overall I think the anime is good. The anime teach you that you shouldn't keep yours feeling inside and tell how you really feel. Also that how you think isn't how the person really feel. I give the anime 7.5/10. It would of been higher if it has some yuri..........
OdysseusUlysses
Kotura-san is a ham sandwich…….. (Nurse, he's out of bed again!) Let me elaborate, what i mean is that the aforementioned sandwich which consists of bread and ham shares similar qualities with Kotura-san, and its not that their both assembled by underpaid employees who spend most of their days wishing the earth would explode..(although thats also true..) Its that both are quite good if you simply want a cheap quick snack, or if your just not really hungry for something more substantial. Ones a food, ones a anime (their both cops!) but no-one said they were gonna be filling… But enough ofthese high flying and bitingly witty sandwich analogies (always popular at parties) lets talk plot…
Kotura-san is, rather obviously, about Kotoura, no problems so far, although i must say i really love the amount of imagination and pizzaz they put into the title, thats a good sign right…
Kotoura Haruka is a 15-year-old girl who can read people's minds. Now you'd think this would make her the luckiest person in the world, and it should, but Kotoura is… well she's an idiot. And so logically she uses her powers idiotically, reading peoples minds and spitting out their secrets for all to hear. This causes her to be shunned by those around her, even her her own parents who go so far as to ditch her on her millionaire grandpa and piss off, (millionaire?). After this traumatic experience she shuts herself off and becomes bitter and melancholic, moving from school to school as a result. That is until she arrives at generic high school number 300192, where she meets Manabe Yoshihisa, one of her classmates, who because of his simple and kind hearted nature quickly accepts and appreciates her for who she is, creepy mind reading ability and all. And so gradually Kotura begins to open up and tries to live the life she always wanted, to simply be happy with her friends (and drive around in a van solving mystery's).
I would describe the plot in this series (using the, universal measuring system of sandwiches, naturally), as being just plain bread and butter. Its pretty much by the numbers what you'd expect, a lone socially awkward student transfers into a new school, they think its gonna be just like all the other schools (japan must have like a north south jerk divide when it comes to schools…), they meet someone who understands them or accepts them for what they are, blah blah blah, they join a weird club, theres some obstacles or problems to overcome but at the end everyones better friends because of it. (By the power of Friendship!!!!)
Whatever, we all know the plots not the reason we're watching a series called kotoura-san released in January…. the month were rejected idea's come together to blow their own brains and hope the ensuing spectacle will at least mildly entertain us.
So lets get to the meat of this series, or rather, (snicker,…) the ham!!!! (oh I'm sorry, did i get some of my wit on you, I do apologise.)
So of course its Katoura, and first things first…. GOD DAMN IS SHE CUTE, like they took every ounce of cuteness they had saved in the cute bank and shoved it into Katoura shares, she's cuter than a baby lambs pet kitten, I mean they pulled every trick in the preverbal book to make you sympathetic to this character, not only is she ridiculously cute but they also gave her own over the top tragic back story, one that would make even Clannad fans roll their eyes…
Basically life treated her as it own personal shuttlecock and knocked her for six (phrasing, boom!). This caused her to close herself off until she met Manabe who immediately accepts her, and also almost immediately, she changes into what she really is, a timid little girl who just wants to loved (ah, bless). And thats really about it, (keep in mind this all happens in the first episode). After that theres not much to say about Katoura's character, she pretty much just falls into the role of "female rom-com character", there are some sweets bits with her mother here and there but its far too little far too late. Her mind reading ability is also never really looked into or explored, why can she read minds? can others? how does it work? can she turn it off and on? In fact as the series goes on its almost forgotten, only working when its convenient for the plot. In fact this whole series could exist without the mind reading ability at all, just replace it with any social stigma and it wouldn't have made a lick of difference.
But my real peeve with this character is her uselessness, constantly throughout the show despite effectively having a super power, Katoura-san proves to about as useful as a magnifying glass to a blind man. No matter what the situation Katoura-san needs the help of someone else (usually Manabe) to save her, i can understand it at the beginning, but later, hmm i don't know… Unfortunately it all makes for a very predictable watch, which is real shame because there was some potential in Katoura to be an interesting character, but whatever...
In short kotura is defiantly the best thing about the show as she's just so damn cute and can deliver a nice scene once in a while, but unfortunately thats all there really is, she's like a sandwich cut into an amusing shape, fun to look at but still just a sandwich…
The other characters are just damn forgettable, Manabe is the most boring human being on the planet, he's in love with Katoura-san, and thats it… he'd throw himself in front of a truck to save Katoura's shoe. What did he do before she came along, was he just a robot pre-programmed to activate when he met Katoura? We learn nothing about him, other than he has mildly naught thoughts about women occasionally (that BASTARD!). They give us no reason at all to care or relate to this guy, his every thought and move seems to be dictated by Katoura's existence, it's very charming but boring as hell to watch. (His sandwich ranking = bread thats fallen on ground...)
The same goes for everyone else. there's Yuriko, the club president who wants to prove her mother was really a physic by using Katoura, but it goes nowhere and just sort of fizzles out… There's Moritani who starts out interesting but then just becomes wallpaper... and then there that other guy who blah blah blah, voice of Katsuargi Keima from the world god only knows, blah blah blah, dry bread…….
Lets talk comedy, since this show is a comedy, the majority of humour comes from Manabe fantasising about Katoura-san and then Katoura getting embarrassed and angry. But the show works on the logic that jokes get funnier the more times you see them, does it work, you decide…(hint, it doesn't). I can defiantly see some people enjoying this style of humour but it wasn't my particular sandwich so if you like the usually rom-com style of comedy then you'll probably enjoy this, if not theres nothing really new here for you. (sandwich ranking= Marmite sandwich)
One thing i want to say about the art style, is that this series was made by some of the same people who created Mitsudomoe, and this similar style can really be seen in Katoura-san particularly with regard to making the series look as cute as possible, a skill that was well honed in Mitsudomoe. Just thought id put that in.
Overall Katoura-san is a pretty weak series that offers very little in the way of anything new or interesting, despite its interesting premise. However the show is difficult to hate despite its many flaws, due to the cute and charming way in which its presented, it manages to have its nice moments but unfortunately they're not enough to save the show from the depths of mediocrity where it will surely fall. If you are a big fan of rom-coms and just want to watch another one, then Katoura-san will fit the bill perfectly, but if your like me and want something more from a series, then Katoura-san will leave you still feeling hungry… And speaking of hungry all this talk of food has made me just that, I'm off to get something to eat, i think i'll make myself, you guessed it….
soup...
SeitenSoushi
Kotoura-san is a series that exceeded my initial expectations. Please read on to find out why: Story: 8 I started getting Sankarea vibes after a couple of episodes, since Kotoura-san began with somewhat heavy drama before turning into more of a romantic comedy (with some occasional drama), but I did enjoy the show very much, just like I did Sankarea. Other than that, I guess these two series are rather different so don't read too much into my comparison. We have a fairly unique premise (I don't personally remember many other anime about psychics, especially portrayed as they are here), and I think that the storywas sufficiently interesting to follow in the end.
Being adapted from a yonkoma, I expected comedy and I wasn't disappointed. Though Manabe's pervertedness (if that's a word) did get a bit overdone, I still found it funny to watch, especially seeing Kotoura's reactions to said pervertedness. The more dramatic elements were also generally well done and I appreciate that the show went beyond the usual cute slice-of-life story that I initially envisaged.
Art/Animation: 8
The character designs aren't particularly detailed, but are attractive nonetheless.
The one thing I didn't really understand was Muroto's lips, and then when I saw his sleeping eyes... I thought it was a funny aesthetic idiosyncrasy to include.
Anyhow, the backgrounds were decent and animation generally consistent. So all in all, no complaints here.
Sound: 8
Ah, I will forever be awed by Kanemoto Hisako's ability to sound so effortlessly cute (at least, imo). She does a good job at playing Kotoura here, and I think really suits the role well. I haven't really heard her in many other series so I keep being reminded of Ika Musume when she speaks. (It's not just me, is it?)
Fukushima Jun is competent in giving us the slightly silly tone of Manabe. It's basically the first time I've heard his voice acting and I think he did great.
Hanazawa Kana sounds rather different than most roles I've heard her in, but is still pleasant and engaging to listen to, portraying Mifune's enthusiasm very well.
When listening to Shimono Hiro as Muroto, I am again reminded of another character, this time Keima (from Kaminomi).
As for Moritani (voiced by Kubo Yurika), she was nice in general, but I liked her the most when she would become easily upset over little things.
I liked the OP song from Nakajima Megumi, and I thought the main ED, by Chisuga Haruka, was even better. The other EDs are ... amusing, to say the least. The background music was also fitting and well-made, so altogether Kotoura-san has a solid soundtrack.
Characters: 9
Manabe is a funny and generally idiotic sort of character, but underneath he's a genuine nice guy and does care very much for Kotoura, so I liked him.
Kotoura's character has a really tragic past; it's hard not to sympathise with her. However, things do improve as she becomes more cheerful upon meeting the rest of the ESP Research Club (which belies the fact that they're really just there to hang out together), particularly Manabe. I don't remember other psychics' childhoods being explored in this way so the show gets some plus points for that.
Moritani was initially a complete jerk and I still think that the sudden change in her personality was rather unexpected and abrupt, but I eventually grew to like her too.
As for Mifune and Muroto, I found the dynamic between them fairly interesting, and I wish they'd have developed their relationship further or given us more backstory, though I guess with the main focus on Kotoura and Manabe, there wasn't really time for that.
Enjoyment: 8
Those who like this kind of comedic style will enjoy watching the perverted antics of Manabe. An entertaining and individualistic series, Kotoura-san looks just like another school-based romantic comedy but her rather dark past and the added dramatic elements make for a great overall package.
In summary, definitely a very enjoyable show.
Overall: 8
For anyone looking for a good heartwarming anime with a little romance, I'd recommend Kotoura-san. It's nothing groundbreaking but does a good job at mixing comedy and drama and is a very decent watch.
Thanks for reading! Please give feedback if you found it helpful (^_−)☆
KingArthur13th
Kotoura-San was somewhat of a disappointment and had so much lost potential is just saddening. The first three episodes gave us the impression that Kotoura-San will be more of a romantic dramatic with some comedy to ease the tension. Even though I thought highly of Kotoura-San in the beginning, this show began to deteriorate into a poorly done slap-stick comedy that couldn't even deliver good jokes in no time flat. The romance is barely there and what is there only includes that stereotypical romance with a bunch of blushing and no one acting on their feelings so don't expect a romance as beautiful as Toradoraeither. Kotoura-San is suppose to be about how Kotoura is able to make and keep friends even though she has the ability to read minds which has driven off everyone else she has ever come in contact with. There's very little to actually enjoy about this show after the first half and just has so much lost potential. A story could of been built off of Kotoura's relationship with her mother and how her friends help her through it or at least involve a growing relationship between Manabe and Kotoura.
PyraXadon
As the winter season of 2013 comes to an end, and the new spring season fast approaching, I thought I would take the time to review a little romcom show at the beginning of the 2013 anime season by the name of Kotoura-san; a show, which I feel is slightly above average than what most romcom's would have. Story (7.48/10): The story of Kotoura-san is interesting nonetheless. As a big fan of great exposition, I find the one to this show, to be some of the fastest, and most informative exposition in all of anime history. In just about ten minutes into the show,the first fifteen or so years of Kotoura Haruka's life is revealed to the audience, giving an absolute perfect start for the rest of the series. From the trials and tribulations of her life, Haruka is now exposed to newfound experiences and joys, from which she had never experienced before.
From this, the anime does seem quite interesting, as the exposition is the reason why this anime is so popular. As for the rest of the series, well...it doesn't really quite match up. The idea of the series revolves around Haruka's psychic ability to read people's minds, which gives a quite tragic and devastating-looking story as she suffers bullying and loneliness, completely changing her outlook on life. This idea is shown and does make up the show, for about 3 to 4 episodes.
What I find very confusing about this show, is the fact that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It wants to be a romantic comedy, involving a perverted guy as the main lead, but it also wants to be a drama show where the main character still faces the problems that she has had for the entirety of her life. In the end, we get this heavily mixed show, which is the combination of both ideas, which isn't executed as well as it could've been. Sure, by themselves, we would get a good show either way, but together, it didn't quite seem to click for me.
On top of that, the anime does get a tad side-story like as the anime does go a completely different direction halfway through the anime, and forgets the most important aspect, the mind-reading ability that Kotoura has. While yes, the anime does go back on track and put that as the main focus again towards the end, it was a bit odd seeing how the anime seemed to forget what it really was in the first place.
The ending felt a bit rushed too, as the creators seemed to just place a bunch of things together in order to create something that resembled an end. It felt like a rushed piece of work, and it was slightly saddening for the whole series to end on something so generic and rushed. Good end, but it was an idea done before.
The series altogether felt like a romcom with a small twist in it in the end. There's nothing wrong with a romcom, (as I watch many of them), but the way it was presented, along with this other idea that didn't click as well as it could've, made it a little awkward to watch. A fair story still, nonetheless.
Characters (7.69/10): Kotoura Haruka, as the main character of the entire show, as well as her last name being the show's title as a whole, is a very standard moe girl with a slight twist to her. For the most part, she is presented as a girl who has had many hardships in life. In fact, she is presented as a cold, unsocial girl after the 10 minute exposition. Beyond the first 2 episodes, Haruka becomes a rather different character, getting embarrassed at the main guy's perverted thoughts, always smiling, and being happy. It felt rushed. Like my previous point, the story of Kotoura-san was presented as a tragic story, so it was quite odd to see the actual affected person be so cheerful and happy at the very start of the anime. Personally, I do like her character, as she starts to open up as she begins to feel like a normal person, as well as having more of a personality than 80% of the anime female world, but the series went a bit to fast on her development to become a general romcom main female.
Next is Manabe (I can't remember his first name). One word, pervert. Manabe is shown at the very beginning to be a very perverted guy, having these fantasies about Kotoura inviting him to do things, which, coupled with her mind-reading ability, makes for some interesting flip-outs. Manabe is actually quite generic. He obviously cares very much for Kotoura, and does his very best to protect and care for her, but honestly, I really can't think of anything else in terms of who or what he is. His personality really only stems off from Kotoura, and I felt like he really didn't have anything else other than that. Most of the other characters actually do have better character traits and personalities than him.
Mifune Yuriko. Normally, I wouldn't talk about more characters other than the main two, but this cast of characters is so small, that I felt like I should put more work into explaining the cast in greater detail. Yuriko is the president of the ESP society, which is the home base for this show. (Reminds me of Haruhi's SOS brigade. Even the gender ratios are the same.) As an outgoing sort of girl, Yuriko actually has quite a lot of depth for a secondary female character. I could even go as far as saying that she has more than Manabe. Without spoiling too much, Yuriko has also had a tragic past, and uses it as her motivation for continuing what she is doing throughout the series. She has a lot of growth as well, and I was surprised that the rest of the cast got a lot of growth in terms of development.
Daichi. Short guy with glasses, and a strong attachment with Yuriko. Quite comical and wise. He's sort of the short end of the stick here.
Moritani Hiyori. I find this character to be quite a drastic addition to this somewhat balanced cast, as her initial debut can turn some people off. As the would-be successor of the Moritani Dojo, (where everyone shouts Mori for every pose they make), Hiyori is shown to have a lot of growth as well by starting off as an antagonist in the good half of the show, and becoming a friend in the meh part of the show. She gets a good chunk of development, and has some good points to her as a character.
The side characters consist of about 5 noticable characters, with two of them being Haruka's family, and the other three being those other ones that help drive the story along. There's not too much development there for them, but they provide some decent obstacles and support for Haruka's existence, making her a bigger focus for the show.
Overall, the cast is decent, consisting of fairly well developed females, and underdeveloped males, creating a sort of cast that sort of works, but could use some help. It wasn't a perfect cast, but it was good enough, I suppose.
Art and sound (7.34/10 and 7.65/10): The art of Kotoura-san is a heavily, white oriented palette with most of the colors and character designs featuring a brighter color on the spectrum. It has a very big slice-of-life and simple feel, as the characters do feature exaggerated expressions with the majority of the episode consisting of them. (Mostly, Kotoura makes the exaggerated expressions.) The character designs are mostly moe-heavy, as Kotoura is very moe herself. The light-hearted looking art is quite pleasing to the eyes and overall quite decent. It's also quite easy to tell if a character is in a normal state or in a slightly insane state.
The sound is quite an interesting mix. The OP has a very happy and cheerful feel with a soft voice for the singer. It's very reminiscent of a romcom show as it sounds somewhat generic. I wouldn't say it was to the point of it being forgettable, but it does sound somewhat generic. The ED is a huge contrast, featuring a very sad and tragic song with images of Kotoura as the background. It sounds pretty damn good, and it was definitely different than normal. There are still some different ED's as comical ones, like a Kotoura chibi sliding on her stomach across ice, wearing a school swimsuit. (Not even kidding.) I like how these tracks contrast, as the OP sort of starts out this anime in a happy and cheerful way, like how the anime is, before ending in a melancholy tone with the ED, always reminding you that you're watching a show with a tragic backstory.
The sound overall is definitely above average, and not as forgettable as many romance shows have churned out.
Personal Enjoyment (7.56/10): I will say that I am on the fence with this one. On one hand, I like the show, as I truly did feel compassion towards Kotoura for her difficult life and the curse she was born with. But on the other hand, I felt like it was sort of generic and predictable (as most romance shows usually are.) I still feel like the show was missing something in order to tie the tragic backstory and the light-hearted present day together, as the story felt like water and oil. No matter how you mix them up, they won't come together. Overall though, I did enjoy the show, as the light-hearted comedy did make me laugh some, and the story was quite intriguing for me to continue watching. In the end, I found this show to be a somewhat confusing show in its idea, but also a slightly rewarding show to watch as well. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it did provide some decent storytelling and messages throughout. I felt really happy for Kotoura in the end though, so thats a plus. Still could've gone without that last arc at the end. That felt really pointless. -_-
Overall Score: (7.34/10)
-Neptune-
Kotoura-san is a comedy and romance/drama. I typically like fantasy/supernatural, action, and drama genres, so I didn't expect much from this show, but it was surprisingly attractive in its own way. Kotoura's life has been nothing but a road of sad memories ever since her childhood, but now she's taken a different road, starting with the encounter of fellow student shining with positivity. Of course, past mistakes and problems can't be resolved that easily, and it'll take time for Kotoura and her newfound friends to restore the happiness that she had lost. Story: 7/10 The story might seem a bit tragic at first, and many would expectan emotional coaster, but it really isn't as dark as it seems from first glance. From then on, the show is actually more light and comedic. Of course, the story has its fair share of serious moments as well. I think the story is satisfying even if it is more comedy than drama because Kotoura, the main female protagonist, had a very tragic past, and it was fair that her life was shown to get better after her childhood years of suffering. Otherwise, the viewers would feel way too bad for her and the story would be branded as nothing but a sad and pitiful tragedy that would never be resolved. The stories for some of the main characters were a bit anti-climatic or didn't have much of a resolution, but other than that the main story focusing on Kotoura was nice.
Art: 7/10
The art and animation weren't top notch but was bearable enough for me to watch the whole series without being disappointed or distracted from the story. I specifically like Kotoura's character design and the others' were fair. The chibi art styles in some scenes were fun to watch and were well done too.
Sound: 7/10
The first ED song - Kibou no Sora was rather good and emotional too. The voices were alright, including Kotoura's which was pretty cute. The OP and EDs are nothing memorable but last throughout the show.
Character: 9/10
The best part about the show is the main female protagonist, Kotoura who I could relate with the most. Her life experiences and troubles are very similar to mine when I was younger. At some point in my life, I had lost hope too, like Kotoura, and I stopped trying to make friends and shut myself away from the outside world because of how I had been treated in the past. In Kotoura's case, she met a fellow student, Manabe who didn't mind her for who she was and accepted her. (There aren't many people who are like Manabe from where I come from at least) If this were to happen in real life, and a unfortunate person were to meet some good friends, their life would change for the better immediately too, especially if they yearn for company and friendship, so the character development is logical. You can clearly see Kotoura's character development with her opening up to more people and even developing feelings for Manabe. The treatment she got from some of the main characters might have been chilly at first, but one doesn't just expect a student who is made fun of constantly to suddenly become popular with everyone. The way the other characters eventually came to accept Kotoura for who she was flowed really naturally and didn't feel too forced. It took effort to bring the group of friends together which was respectable.
Enjoyment: 8/10
The show is enjoyable while being watched, and can provide you with enough fun and interest to finish the show. After watching it and comparing it with some other emotional, drama animes, this show really isn't the greatest one out there, but this show wasn't bad in terms of in the slice of life/comedy genre since it isn't too cliche. A relevant story and clear aim accompanied by enough serious moments are provided anyway. The events are mostly logical and correlates with reality, if that's what you're looking for.
Overall: 7/10
The show isn't anything special and probably won't be too memorable, but it's a good experience to be able to sympathize with some of the characters, at least for me.
HidamariSeashore
This is my first review in a while, so please bear with me! Kotoura-san is basically about a girl, named Haruka Kotoura, who has ESP. Unfortunately, due to her ESP, her life has been completely ruined. That is, until she meets Yoshihisa Manabe, who, despite his perverted nature, accepts her as a friend. It's basically about Haruka finding love and acceptance, despite the disasters in her past. This was one of the anime I had planned to watch during the Winter 2013 season, but I forgot about it until earlier this year. I thought that Kotoura-san would be a comedy, and for the most part, I wasright (and a great one, at that). Trust me, I laughed at nearly every joke there was in this series, even Manabe-kun's fantasies about Kotoura! It's not just comedy, though; it has a touch of drama in it, too, along with romance between Kotoura and Manabe-kun. I think Kotoura-san is one of the only anime that can mix rom-com and drama that well.
This series also has great music! I fell in love with the OP very quickly, and it took me a while to like the ED, too, but I did! Also, you either like or hate all of the characters because of that little spark they have about them. The art and animation isn't the best, but you'll get used to it.
My opinion? Kotoura-san is definitely an anime worth the watch. Don't pay attention to the relatively low score it has here on MAL; it's much better than that. I know what's on your mind right now; you want to watch Kotoura-san right away. Go ahead!
mercury1980
Good: + Story is well developed + Good bonding relationship + Great animation (Madoka Magica cute) Bad: - Obnoxious characters - Comedy was not that funny - Too melodramaticThis anime has great animation. In fact, most anime companies now have improved their animation quality to provide better quality. In fact, I really liked how they tackle with dealing with relationships especially family problems. eg. Kotoura and her mom's misunderstanding. I also like how they get to know one another and build relationships and understanding.
However, my big problem with the show is the characters. The characters are very obnoxious and flat out stupid especially the main cast (Yoshihisa & Haruka). I really couldn't invest myself into the characters and their dilemma and what they are going through. Not only that the drama is hard to watch. The comedy wasn't that funny.
Haruka has parents that abandoned her and treated her like garbage just like Rea Sanka from SankaRea. The difference is Rea Sanka picks up more courage and goes through better development than compared to Haruka. Haruka is just a crybaby who is always self-doubting herself about her ability to read people's minds. When Tsukino tried to attack Haruka, Haruka just cries in the corner and does nothing at all. (damsel in distress)
Here is an advice to Haruka "It is good to have the ability to read people's minds and in fact some of my favorite character have such an ability like you. I also feel sorry for you for having your mother abandoned you but that doesn't mean you can cry non-stop and always panic when you are in danger. Take a good look at Rea Sanka, she really can conquer her problems. In fact, I liked her determination. She is not a crybaby. You also have good friends who support you."
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Hachiman from Oregairu was bullied by others and nobody cares for him but he never complain and cry like Haruka.
Wow! This is going to be a dramatic story with lots of "What kind of drugs are they on when they came up with this?". Let me tell you, I have seen a lof of anime characters gone through way worse situations than any of the characters in this anime, and they never cry and complain.
If you really like this anime, good for you. But I just found this show so annoying. I give this anime a 4 out of 10.
Story 5/10
Art 6/10
Sound 6/10
Character 3/10
Enjoyment 4/10
Overall 4/10
darkflamemaster2
The ability of telepathy. Who wouldn't want to read a teacher's mind and get all the answers to a test or be able to fight another person while knowing what they are going to do next? You might not want to after watching Kotoura-San, because the basis of this anime is about how a young girl must deal with a power which she can't control and which ruins her life. Story- Enjoyable story and pretty dramatic at times. Some of the things which happen to Kotoura makes you want to thank the god of your choice that you are not in her situation, while othertimes you wish that you could smack the people that mistreat her so much. But is only enjoyable. It will not be winning the Oscars anytime soon so don't expect too much from the story when you watch this anime.
Art-
Art was pretty good. It really captured the emotions of the different characters, whether they be embarrassed, happy, or sad. I thought that the artwork was perfect for this anime and I couldn't ask for anything else because it just seemed to fit.
Characters-
The characters included a very colorful cast of people. From the extremely perverted Manabe to the Katsuragi Keiima copycat Muroto, the characters were interesting and each had a very unique personality. I felt that Korouto's character developement was very enjoyable to watch, because it showed her journey from the abused and lonely child that she was to a more confident person who finally had people who were by her side and would not leave her.
Enjoyment-
I loved it. That's all i can really say. I loved the comedy and character interactions. It really made me laugh out loud when Manabe or some other character made fun of Kotoura. And the way she responded to them was too funny and cute.
Overall-
Watch Kotoura-san expecting to feel something. Watch it expecting to feel say or happy because you will, laugh, groan, or cry at the situations that the characters get into. I found myself disregarding the story most of the time just to watch a specific scene again and again because it was really cute, so gut wretchingly sad, or so ridiculously funny that i couldn't go on without seeing it again.
Greninja46
I am a fan of the romantic comedy genre, despite the many flaws that plague it, and hence I started watching Kotoura-san absolutely ready to like it without setting expectations too high. The first episode started out promising, and it seemed like Kotoura-san could be a really heartwarming story at the beginning..... ......Yeah, you've probably guessed it. Barely 3 episodes into the series (probably even before that), Kotoura-san starts rolling downhill. Fast. And it never really recovers. Don't get me wrong. Kotoura-san had a lot of potential and there are moments when it really delivers as a rom-com. Unfortunately, these blink-and-you-miss moments make up a very smallfraction of the show, and before you know it we are back to a lumbering narrative which really seems unsure of where it is going, grates upon your nerves and only succeeds in making the show an ordeal to watch.
Story:6
To be honest, this part of the show probably deserved a 4 or a 5, the only reason I award it a 6 because the original premise was rather novel. A story about love and friendship centering around a girl who is shunned because of her ability to read minds.....that can't be too bad, right?
Unfortunately, Kotoura-san suffers from innumerable plotholes. Permit me to refine that metaphor: Kotoura-san seems bent on creating artificial plotholes and dragging itself into them. Cliches basically litter the storyline, the drama is overdone even for romantic comedy, and it repeats itself far too often. The writing ranges from mediocre to downright atrocious, and the end result is a storyline that downgrades itself from potentially fun to positively meh. Kotoura-san labours through 12 episodes with a plotline that could have been completed in four.
Art:6
I'm not sure about the art aspect: I personally thought it was okay and it seemed to go well with the storyline of the show, though I would say this art style isn't for everyone, especially not for those who prefer gorgeously detailed, visually pleasing anime. Animation is fairly average throughout.
Sound:7
Good enough for the show. Voice acting was above average and actually managed to freshen up an otherwise flagging plot on more than one occasion. While the opening theme is not bad, I liked the ending theme more. It is, overall, one of the better aspects of the show.
Characters:6
Another big problem for Kotoura-san is the treatment of its characters, especially the show's namesake Haruka Kotoura. With the (admittedly good) intention of making her a touching character, they try to accentuate her loneliness and her tendency of blaming herself when others get hurt because of her ability to read minds. That in itself is not bad, but there is a very, very fine line between well executed drama and melodrama. And unfotunately, both the show and its protagonist grossly overshoot the mark. The result: Kotoura-san basically drones on the same theme in 11 out of 12 episodes, and it's hardly pleasant.
The other characters in the main cast vary in quality: Yoshihisa Manabe is a stereotypical male lead complete with exaggerated stupidity, erotic fantasies, and the 'I'll always protect you' vibe, Chizuru Mifune is funny and likeable in parts, although her motivations and the reason behind them are testimony to the lack of quality in the writing department, Daichi Muroto is not very often noticeable, but he is good in the times he does get to talk, however his motives and decisions are also questionable. Hiyori Moritani is initially the bad guy( I mean girl), who midway through the series does a complete one-eighty (no surprises there). Overall a very average character.
The supporting cast is small and mediocre. Kotoura's grandpa tries to be funny but isn't really so, and is positively creepy in parts. Kotoura's mother is actually present in only about four episodes, and her exaggerated indifference and hatred is predictable and boring. The monk guy is there for some reason which I still haven't figured out, I'm pretty sure the story would have been pretty much the same without him. One or two characters appear here and there, but there isn't really much to say about them
Enjoyment:6
I actually regret giving this a 6...there were parts of the show that were enjoyable and without all the plotholes and drama, the score here could have easily been an 8.
Conclusion:
Would I recommend Kotoura-san to you? That's a hard one to answer. Watch it if you can, but try not to pay too much attention to the story and you might end up enjoying it for what it manages to do right. It won't take a Sherlock Holmes to find far better series in the rom-com genre than this, though.
Toucanbird
Kotoura-san: She Already Knows What I'm Going To Say Going into this series, I thought we had another generic, cheaply animated AIC comedy on our hands. However, this series really throws you for a loop as soon as you watch the first 15 minutes. It has the start of a tragedy series with some rather heart-wrenching moments as you watch a little girl's family collapse all around her. The story of this series revolves around a girl named Haruka Kotoura who has ESP, the ability to read minds. She discovers this gift at an early age, although her family, friends, and peers have difficulty adjusting to it.Kotoura usually says what others are thinking aloud which causes several problems as well as causes marital problems between her mother and father. After taking her to several specialists and being run through many difficult troubles, Haruka's mother abandons her, leaving her in the care of her grandfather. After moving from school-to-school and isolating herself from making friends, she encounters a boy at her new school named Manabe that sees her power differently from her peers. He immediately befriends Kotoura and stands up for her when she is in trouble. The series revolves around Kotoura meeting new friends at her new school and overcoming even more hardships. She decides to join the ESP Research Society Club, a rather strange club at her school where she meets another character that had to overcome a difficult past.
While some people might have found the tone of this series to be rather herky jerky, I found the tonal shifts of this series to be a pleasant surprise and the biggest strength of this series. Kotoura is really not what you'd expect it to be. It turns from tragedy to comedy on a whim and I found it to be a refreshing take on the comedy genre. There were several aspects of this series I found to be endearing. While there are plenty of animes out there that stress the power of friendship, I don't think there are many as powerful as this series in regards to how much of an impact it can really have.
The characters played a big role in that regard and I'd consider it one of the strengths of this series. Manabe was genuinely one of my favorite friend/potential love interest characters I've seen in an anime. Kotoura wasn't the strongest of leads, but she had her redeeming qualities. I found it easy to sympathize with her character due to her past experiences going into this series. The ESP Research Club members were certainly interesting to say the least with Mifune the club president who's goal is to prove ESP exists to avenge her mother (who had ESP) and Muroto the vice president, the quietly quirky childhood friend of Mifune. There is one other main character named Moritani who will play an intricate role in the series as it progresses and her roles in the series become more and more interesting. I found every character that was introduced to be interesting in their own ways, especially the Kotoura family members.
While this series was a pleasant surprise, it still had pretty obvious weaknesses. The biggest in regards to the story was that this series seemed to take a rather strange turn toward the middle-latter half of the series. The story became less about Kotoura and her power and more about the club trying to solve a mystery about an assailant that's been attacking high school girls. To be honest, this mini-arc seemed really out-of-place and didn't do much in the grand scheme of the series. It did have subtle moments with Manabe and Moritani that sort of helped in regards to character development...but didn't do much to progress the story. It didn't seem very well written and watered down the series as a whole. To be honest, I found it boring. Let's just say if there's a 3-4 episode stretch in a 12 episode anime that bores me, that doesn't bode well. I thought they probably should've tried to put a little more focus on Kotoura's relationship development with her friends and family since I found that to be the strongest aspect of the series. I also found some of the logic applied to the series to be a little strange and off-putting. It just took some strange approaches toward addressing certain issues in the series. I won't go into detail as to what they are for spoiler reasons, but they aren't very hard to pick up on.
The art and animation is definitely not one of the stronger suits either. There isn't anything remarkable about the animation as the character models are rather bland and don't have much detail. It seems a little strange at first since this series starts off on rather tragic events. That is one of the problems with a series like this. It has comedy and tragedy elements so the animation style only suits one of the styles in particular. Still, I felt the animators should've tried to find a happier medium.
Overall, I did find this to be one of AIC's better works of late. After the disappointment that was Seitokai no Ichizon Lv 2 and the simplistic zero plot comedy that was Acchi Kocchi, it was nice to see AIC try something a little different with Kotoura-san. This series is sort of a difficult one to recommend because it really seems like one of those series you're either going to really love or really hate. I wouldn't call Kotoura-san a groundbreaking comedy in regards to mixing and matching genres, but it was a really nice attempt. If you liked a series like Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai, you might want to give Kotoura-san a chance. I wouldn't quite put Kotoura-san on Chuunibyou's level, but I did feel its comedy was slightly better and it's drama to be a bit worse. All-in-all, Kotoura-san is like an exotic food. You're either going to really like it or really dislike it...but it is at least worth a try if you're into the comedy/romance/tragedy genre.
Nyarlathotep21
Although not a perfect anime, it should deserve the 9 rating. It has a lot of good storytelling and some memorable characters with a good light-hearted comedy. The characters are memorable as well people like Kotoura who is the main female protagonist and Manabe, the main male protagonist. The people in the ESP club like Mifune and Muroto have some of the most funny interactions ever and so have the main two protagonists. This show is not without it flaws, however. The show started to become a slice of life comedy by the end of episode four. Although later it picks up in episode 9and ends until the end of the serials.
Story
The Story of Kotoura-san is about this girl who was born with the ability to read people's minds. Unable to differentiate between what humans' thoughts are and what speech is, she would often say things that are really people thoughts. Because of this, she didn't make a lot of friends because they would outright reject her after she would say their secret. It was not until she meets Manabe, a perverted yet light-hearted person who eventuality becomes her first friend that accepts her for what she is even though that means she may read his perverted thoughts. And also the club of ESP.
Characters
Most of the characters of this series had major character development and were all interesting and memorable. I thought they could have show the background of Manabe because we don't know what his family background. Other than that, the characters all changed throughout the series as it goes on.
Art
Nothing really to say but just beautiful and amazing. It fit show greatly and nothing too stylish as it may even damage the animation and it overall tone.
Enjoyment
Very enjoyable with the slice of life parts and latter parts but it was hard to watch the first 10 minutes of the first episode.
Sound
The soundtrack was great with music able to fit perfectly with the tone of the setting with both melancholic to dramatic.
Overall
It's a great supernatural show with a mixed bag of slice of life, comedy and drama. The characters are great and each bring their own to the table and overall of the story. There are no useless characters within the story.
Lord_Rutsah
So much lost potential... It makes the show almost unbearable to watch! I see so many people liking this, but honestly, it's a bigger disappointment than Tokyo ESP (and that's no easy feat). Like Tokyo ESP which offers us a first episode of mindless violent badassness, Kotoura-san starts by telling the story of... You guessed it, Kotoura! The girl was born with the ability to read minds, except she didn't know she was differnet to begin with, which led to a lot of complications. She is called a freak, everyone hates her, her parents get divorced after she accidentally reveals that they had been cheating oneach other, her mother (who was in charge of her)grows to hate her (and show that in no unclear terms) and abandons her too, the one pet she finds (kinda) to keep her company is taken away from her and all the while she can hear everyone both physically and mentally blaming her. The coloring is done brilliantly, starting from colorful at her first days, gradually becoming darker and darker. Mere words cannot describe how amazing a villain set this is. In less than 12 minutes the show has created the background for one of the best psychotic monsters in media history. The girl had amazing potential for evil incarnate, one of those creatures beyond hope, wearing the shell of a human, wanting nothing but watch the world burn, utterly consumed by the pain inside.
Well, apparently she wasn't "beyond help" after all and in fact hadn't yet developed any psychotic tendancies. In all that self-isolation she apparently kept hidden a very loving and caring character instead of deep all-consuming hatred for everything that is humanity. After the first 12 minutes of holy-s#%t-hardcore drama the show throws at us, Kotoura (now 15), rerolls at her new school where she meets a MORON who apparently doesn't care about her mind reading abilities and starts thinking "funny" goofy things that cheer her up and make her a happier person. By all means male lead, go jump off a cliff. After that the whole show turns into a comedy and Kotoura's background is gradually explored. Kotoura also starts developing feelings for the retard that stopped what could have been abyssely evil. Sorry but I just cann't let it go! He's like a cockblocker for psychos!
The show goes full cliche after this. In fact it annoyes me a loooot that Kotoura doesn't have any major traumas. She does have occasional awkard moments but nothing serious.(Spoilers alert) At some point she even finds her mother (who was a total bi#%^ to her) and forgives her without a second thought. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. Or more importantly, you can't do that show! You just can't! You can't just write off what you have shown be to be completely horrible and dark experiences that would drive anyone insane in a month, let alone 15 F%$@ING YEARS.
The art is incredibly cutesy, especially for Kotoura-san (who's more or less a loli) but makes the males seem somewhat silly. The music fits and with the exception of the main male lead which I would like to choke the voice acting fits good.
If the show had started as a comedy I propably would really like it, but by the gods, you can't throw so much hardcore drama at us and then go full comedy/slice of life.
