Kokoro Connect

Plot

The story primarily involves five high school students – Taichi, Iori, Himeko, Yoshifumi, and Yui – who are all the only members of the Student Cultural Research Club at the high school they attend. They all face various supernatural, sense-altering phenomena in their daily lives, all seemingly caused by a cryptic entity which refers to itself as 'Heartseed', who is intent on using the phenomena to test the characters for an unknown goal. As the five undergo these phenomena, the strength of their bonds will be tested.

Characters

Main characters

Taichi Yaegashi (八重樫 太一, Yaegashi Taichi)

Voiced by: Takahiro Mizushima (Japanese); Greg Ayres (English)

Taichi is the main protagonist and a big professional wrestling fan. He and four others formed the cultural club because their school did not have the club they wanted to join. He is generally selfless and will usually try to help others in need. He confesses his love to Iori in the Hito Random arc, however he gets rejected since it was believed she was going to "die." They do start a relationship but break up very shortly after because Iori believed Taichi did not know the real "her". During the events of Michi Random, his feelings began to change and he confesses to Himeko by the end of the series.

Iori Nagase (永瀬 伊織, Nagase Iori)

Voiced by: Aki Toyosaki (Japanese); Monica Rial (English)

Iori is the easy going president of the cultural club. She lives alone with her mother who is seldom at home. Having previously had a violent stepfather, she had learned to alter her personality to fit the expectations of others to the point where she is unsure who she was originally supposed to be. She is in love with Taichi, but decides to postpone their relationship until the phenomena was over. In Kizu Random, she finds out that Himeko has feelings for Taichi, too; Iori confronts her and later encourages her to confess to him. By the end of the Kako Random arc, she starts to question whether or not she has feelings for Taichi and if people really know the real her; throughout the course of the series, their feelings toward each other change back into friendship and they do not date again, though they remain happy that they fell in love with each other. She is controlled several times by Heartseed when a phenomenon is about to end.

Himeko Inaba (稲葉 姫子, Inaba Himeko)

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese); Luci Christian (English)

Himeko is the vice president of the cultural club, who has a contrasting personality with Iori. She often reacts violently to Taichi or Yoshifumi's jokes, and is nicknamed "Inaban" by Iori. She was a computer club member but quit after having an argument with the president of that club, and then joined the cultural club. She is generally distrustful of others and worries a lot, even more so when they begin swapping bodies. Between them, she is the most calm and rational when dealing with unexpected situations. During Kizu Random, Heartseed confronts her in coming to the realization that she has feelings for Taichi when she was pretending she did not know. She confesses to him after the class trip by the encouragement of Iori, declaring that she would make him fall for her even if he was in love with Iori. Over the course of the series, she gets more and more attached to the group, especially Taichi, and softens her sharp and rational personality. In the end of the Michi Random arc, she starts dating Taichi and at the end of the light novels, they are still a couple.

Yamaboshi High School

Maiko Fujishima (藤島 麻衣子, Fujishima Maiko)

Voiced by: Shizuka Itō (Japanese); Carli Mosier (English)

Class 1-3's representative and is quite perverted in nature.

Ryūzen Gotō (後藤 龍善, Gotō Ryūzen)

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese); David Matranga (English)

Class 1-3's homeroom teacher and cultural club advisor, who is often possessed by Heartseed. He also moderates the jazz club. He occasionally gives advice to the club in the form of moral teaching.

Shingo Watase (渡瀬 伸吾, Watase Shingo)

Voiced by: Yūki Ono (Japanese); Connor Leach (English)

Taichi, Iori, and Himeko's classmate. He has a crush on Maiko.

Shōto Shiroyama (城山 翔斗, Shiroyama Shōto)

Voiced by: Mitsuhiro Ichiki (Japanese); Johnny De La Cerda (English)

Taichi, Iori, and Himeko's classmate who is nicknamed "Prince" in his class and his jazz club. He had a crush on Iori, but was quickly declined, mostly due to him asking during the period when Iori was isolated from the class.

Kaoru Setouchi (瀬戸内 薫, Setouchi Kaoru)

Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka (Japanese); Shannon Emerick (English)

Class 2-2's representative in the second year of the story. In Michi Random, she has a crush on Shōto. When Iori rejected Shōto, she got angry and made several rumors about Iori, and hired some miscreants from other schools to ruin the cultural club's presentation. Ironically, while being blamed by the miscreants for the kidnapping of Inaban, she ends up becoming friends with Iori, changing her appearance, physical and mental, to be more tame and nice.

Others

Chinatsu Mihashi (三橋 千夏, Mihashi Chinatsu)

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida (Japanese); Shannon Emerick (English)

An old karate rival of Yui's who appears to be hung up over a certain promise Yui apparently made.

Nana Nishino (西野 菜々, Nishino Nana)

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (Japanese); Hayley Adams (English)

Yoshifumi's old girlfriend whom he dated in middle school before she moved to Sendai. Her appearance is similar to that of Yui's when Yoshifumi was in middle school, but she cut her hair after moving away.

Anzu Kiriyama (桐山 杏, Kiriyama Anzu)

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese); Tiffany Terrell (English)

Yui's younger sister.

Rina Yaegashi (八重樫 莉奈, Yaegashi Rina)

Voiced by: Asuka Ōgame (Japanese); Brittney Karbowski (English)

Taichi's elementary school age younger sister. She often gives advice to her brother about love. Like Ryūzen and Iori, she is sometimes controlled by Heartseed, but a different one from the Heartseed the cultural club members know of.

Reika Nagase (永瀬 玲佳, Nagase Reika)

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese); Molly Searcy (English)

Iori's single parent. She has dated five different men, but has only been married to three out of the five.

Media

Light novel

Kokoro Connect began as a light novel series written by Sadanatsu Anda, with illustrations by Yukiko Horiguchi under the pen name Shiromizakana. Anda entered the first novel in the series, originally titled Hito Tsunagari Te, Doko e Yuku (ヒトツナガリテ、ドコへユク), into Enterbrain's 11th Entertainment Awards in 2009 and the novel won the Special Prize. The first volume, renamed Kokoro Connect Hito Random, was published on January 30, 2010, under Enterbrain's Famitsu Bunko imprint. The main series ended with the tenth release of the novels on March 30, 2013, and a side-story collection was released on September 30, 2013. During their panel at Anime Expo 2018, J-Novel Club announced that they have licensed the light novel.

Manga

A manga adaptation illustrated by Cuteg was serialized in Enterbrain's Famitsu Comic Clear online manga magazine between October 22, 2010, and August 23, 2013. Enterbrain published five tankōbon volumes between May 14, 2011, and September 14, 2013. Seven Seas Entertainment began releasing the series in North America in August 2014. A second manga based on the anime adaptation, illustrated by Na! and titled Kokoro Connect On Air, was serialized between the August 2012 and April 2013 issues of Kadokawa Shoten's Nyantype magazine. A single volume was released on March 30, 2013. Enterbrain published two volumes of an anthology titled Magi-Cu 4-koma Kokoro Connect on July 25 and September 25, 2012.

Drama CDs

Enterbrain released a drama CD titled Kokoro Connect Natsu to Mizugi to Bōfūu (ココロコネクト 夏と水着と暴風雨, Heart Connect Summer, Swimsuits, and a Storm) on February 16, 2011. A second drama CD titled Kokoro Connect Haru to Date to Imōto Gokko (ココロコネクト 春とデートと妹ごっこ, Heart Connect Spring, a Date, and Playing a Little Sister) was released on January 6, 2012.

Anime

An anime adaptation was directed by Shinya Kawatsura and produced by Silver Link. The anime's screenplay is written by Fumihiko Shimo, the character designs are by Toshifumi Akai, and the sound director is Toshiki Kameyama. The cast is the same with the drama CD cast. Of the 17 episodes, the first 13 were aired in Japan between July 8 and September 30, 2012. The four remaining episodes aired on AT-X on December 30, 2012. The anime was released on seven Blu-ray Disc (BD)/DVD compilation volumes between October 24, 2012, and April 24, 2013.

The anime has seven pieces of theme music: three opening themes and four ending themes. The first opening theme is "Paradigm" (パラダイム, Paradaimu) by Eufonius and is used for the first ten episodes. The episodes released on BD and DVD, as well as the AT-X broadcast, replace "Paradigm" with "Kimochi Signal" (キモチシグナル, Kimochi Shigunaru) by Sayuri Horishita. Beginning with episode 12, the opening theme is "Kimi Rhythm" (キミリズム, Kimi Rizumu) by Masaki Imai. The first ending theme is "Kokoro no Kara" (ココロノカラ) by Team.Nekokan [Neko] feat. Junca Amaoto for the first five episodes. The second ending theme is "Cry Out" by Team Nekokan feat. Atsuko for episodes six through ten. The third ending theme is "Salvage" by Team.Nekokan [Neko] feat. Rekka Katakiri for episodes 11 through 13. The fourth ending theme is "I scream Chocolatl" by Team.Nekokan [Neko] feat. Lia for episodes 14 through 17. An insert song titled "Milkshake" (ミルクセーキ, Miruku Sēki) sung by Sayuri Horishita was used in episode 17.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll. Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in North America and released the first 13 episodes on BD/DVD on October 22, 2013, and the remaining four on December 10 of that same year. Hanabee has licensed the series in Australia. After the acquisition of Crunchyroll by Sony Pictures Television, Kokoro Connect, among several Sentai Filmworks titles, was dropped from the Crunchyroll streaming service on March 31, 2022.

At an advance screening of the anime series on June 24, 2012, voice actor Mitsuhiro Ichiki had supposedly auditioned for a character role and was invited to the event to allegedly be announced as a surprise cast member. It was then revealed at the event that Ichiki was to in fact be chosen as head of public relations, with his audition revealed to be a candid-camera style fake. While Ichiki accepted the role as head of PR, criticism of the event led to a flow of criticism directed towards the staff and voice actors involved on blog websites and Twitter accounts, as well as people not directly involved. The staff of the show posted an official statement on September 2, 2012, apologizing for "insufficient consideration regarding performers" leading to "widespread discomfort and misunderstanding", promising to seriously reflect on the incident in the future. They had also cancelled the Internet radio program Kokoro Connect Bunken Shinbun as a result. Ichiki also posted a statement the same day, mentioning how he felt no ill will towards the staff as a result of the incident and denies any bullying or harassment taking place.

Visual novel

A visual novel developed by Banpresto and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment under the title Kokoro Connect Yochi Random (ココロコネクト ヨチランダム, Heart Connect Random Prediction) was released on the PlayStation Portable on November 22, 2012.

Reception

Theron Martin of Anime News Network (ANN) published a positive review covering the first eight episodes of the anime series. Despite finding criticism in the "erratic artistic merits" of the show's overall aesthetic and the resolution of issues being handled "too easily and simply", he gave praise to the main cast for their deep characterizations, the first two arcs having "a good balance of light humor and varying degrees of drama" (singling out the second arc as the strongest), and the voice actors for conveying their characters during the first arc's body switching moments, concluding that: "Kokoro Connect is not an outstanding series so far, but it exploits its defining gimmicks effectively enough to avoid being labeled as a heavily-derivative, run-of-the-mill one." Bamboo Dong reviewed the home video release for the same website in 2013. While commending the show's premise for having its characters confront personal problems through imaginative scenarios and the talents of the English voice actors, he criticized the writers for utilizing "lazy storytelling and [lazy] conflict resolution" when dealing with various societal issues, concluding that: "Kokoro Connect is a fine little series for what it is, but it could have been magnificent."

Carlos Ross, writing for THEM Anime Reviews, reviewed the TV series and its continuation Michi Random: He was critical of Heartseed as the catalyst for the supernatural events feeling "contrived, artificial or outright cringeworthy" but was positive towards the "impressive character work" of the ensemble cast and their interactions with each other being "realistically fluid and constantly evolving" like real-life relationships. Ross wrote that despite a "superfluous" subplot, the underutilization of Yui and Yoshifumi, and some "blatant plot holes" towards the conclusion, he praised Michi Random for putting the focus on Iori and showing the main cast being "strong-willed and determined" in their latest predicament, calling it "a fitting endcap to a light, but likable school drama, and brings this saga to a satisfying close while hinting at more to come."

Fellow ANN editor Rebecca Silverman reviewed the first volume of the 2011 manga adaptation in 2014. She wrote that it felt "decidedly underwhelming" with CUTEG's "cute and attractive" illustrations failing to portray the "emotional pull" and body swap moments of the previous works, concluding that: "I really enjoyed the anime and was excited to read this, but it fell far short of the mark with confusing body switches and art that's more cute than useful."