Saturday 18 August 2012

Kokoro Connect - Episode 7

With a new set of worries on their collective minds, it's time to see what Japan's unluckiest group of high school kids have to face next under the constant threat of their normally suppressed desires running out of control.

Inevitably, things aren't working out particularly well in terms of keeping those desires hidden - in Taichi's case, his subconscious desire to sleep means that he simply doesn't have an option of over-riding what he wants, while Iori's desperation to lighten the mood when anything serious is in play leads to her making a fool of herself in front of the entire class.  All of this seemingly pales into comparison with Yui's problems, as she continues to refuse to go to school at all after her run-in with the police last episode.


Despite assuring everyone that she'll be back at school soon enough, a visit from her club-mates shows that she really isn't handling the current situation, and more specifically her concerns about doing someone some serious damage on a whim, very well at all - the trouble is, Yui's decision to hide away really hasn't impressed Inaba at all, and her emotions become such that she can't stop herself accusing Yui of "playing the victim", driving a wedge between herself and her friend in the process.  Come the next day, even Iori and Taichi aren't immune to losing her temper, but it seems that it's Inaba who is once again taking the brunt of everyone's problems upon her shoulders with the group's friendship threatening to break down entirely.

Having introduced its premise last week, this was a pretty good start to the story arc proper, using its concept in a fun and entertaining fashion to start with before escalating the problems which arise from blurting out what's on your mind in the second.  Come the end of the episode, it's Taichi and Inaba that once again prove to be the most fascinating characters, with the latter in particular almost begging for more attention to allow us to delve a little deeper into her personality, but overall the cast of characters mixed in with the current scenario holds so much promise that recent weeks have seen Kokoro Connect move from one of my summer season also-rans into a must watch for me.

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