Kokoro Connect - Episode 10

The gang are all back together just in time for their school camping trip, so it appears that happy days are here again for our quintet of school friends.  Or perhaps not...

While most of the group are delighted at a chance to spend some time together in relative normality while trying to put the issue of Heartseed's current "experiment" to the back of their minds for a little while, Inaba is clearly having a much tougher time than her companions as she moodily and skittishly stomps around the others, showing a surprisingly competitive streak when it comes to preparing food alongside Iori in particular as her desires strike her unexpectedly.

Given her behaviour it seems like only a matter of time before things come to a head for Inaba, and lo and behold this is exactly what happens as her actions in front of Iori lead her friend to come to the realisation that Inaba is quite clearly in love with Taichi.  Try as she might (quite literally), Inaba can't run from either this fact or her friend, leading to her and Iori having it out in the middle of the woodland regarding why Inaba tried to push Iori and Taichi together despite having feelings for him herself.  If this seems like the kind of thing likely to destroy the friendship of those involved, Iori is having none of it, insisting that it isn't like Inaba to give up without a fight.  Thus, broken friendships are mending, but possibly not for long now that we have an escalating love triangle in the group's midst, which could prove more problematic than any of Heartseed's games...

I had high hopes for this week's Kokoro Connect as it brought its current story arc to its conclusion, and it certainly delivered - Inaba has been a strong character throughout, but the glimpse underneath that seemingly thick skin we've seen a few times throughout the series to date set the tone well for an episode which really brought her raw emotion and true feelings to the fore in an almost gut-wrenchingly striking manner.  Take away its unique spin on things and this series is currently just another high school romance show at its core, but that really shouldn't detract from the fact that Kokoro Connect has employed some notably strong story-telling when it's really needed to, and between that and the catalyst that is its strong base of characters has brought to the show, it seems to be building further upon that base by the week.