Kotoura-san Online

My initial assessment of Kotoura-san was less than optimistic. The show's (tired) format is that of a goofy high-school drama, featuring a young girl with a special power and boy who is a total pervert (except when he's not) who likes for no immediately discernible reason, along with the typical assortment of mildly quirky supporting characters. This includes, of course, the obligatory love triangle; though in the interest of avoiding spoilers I won't say with whom.

All right, nothing special here; until you start actually watching the show, that is. Then it rapidly becomes much more interesting. The show paints a rather grim picture of life for people who are different/special/empowered, and in particular for Kotoura, who lacks any practical understanding of how her ability works, if it's normal, or how to moderate her interactions with others. I was genuinely moved by the honest and relatable portrayal of Kotoura; particularly in the emotionally charged first few episodes.

Generally speaking, the central characters start out a bit flat and round out fairly nicely over the duration of the series. The regrettable exception to this is Manabe, who isn't as fully developed as the other characters, for (what may actually be good) reasons. It's perfectly fine to have solid characters who don't need evolution; a good example would be Hajime from Gatchaman Crowds, who despite being the hero of the show, doesn't have (or need) a development arc.

Overall, the show paints characters in a relatable and empathetic fashion. Even the 'villains', if you want to call them that. I thoroughly recommend the show as being heartfelt and overall well-put together.

Protagonist Kotoura has an unusual ability; she can read people's minds. This isn't much of a gift though as it causes her friends and even her parents to abandon her. Deciding that she needs to make a fresh start she starts at a new school. At first it looks like things may go badly here as well; then she meets Manabe a boy who isn't bothered by the fact that she can read his mind; in fact it rather amuses him especially when he embarrasses with her with his perverted thoughts! She soon makes more friends when she is press-ganged into the ESP club. Over the next few episodes the group have their ups and downs then one day Kotoura reads the mind of a violent criminal and faints; when she comes to she and the others will have to decide what to do; she doesn't know who had the violent thoughts and knows that the police will be suspicious if she approaches them.

Anybody starting this series will be surprised by just how depressing it appears to be; the opening scenes are heart-breaking as we see poor Kotoura's friends and family rejecting her… thankfully things get more cheerful when Manabe is introduced in a genuinely laugh out loud scene. The story is a fun mix of comedy and drama. There is a fair amount of fan service; usually in Manabe's pervy fantasies but also in the mandatory beach episode; these aren't too explicit compared to many such series though. The characters were fun for the most part although Kotoura's mother's terrible treatment of her was disturbing; her grandfather was disturbing in another way… his thoughts about her were as perverted as Manabe's making him a bit too creepy. Overall I'd say this series is well worth watching if you like some drama with your comedy.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

This is the first anime i have watched where it was funny enough to make me laugh but had a good enough story to keep me interested. I love the characters and their interactions.Another thing i like is that the original bully Mori is not a stereotype trope of the bad guy turned good. She is a well rounded character that adds a little bit of pizazz to the entire show. I think its stupid i have to carry on with this to get ten lines really. Well watt ya gonna do i supposed its there for a reason 10 out of 10 reason 10 out of 10 i would definitely recommend and i already have. I am going to end up buying tha manga because i cant get emough. The show is available on Netflix so it didn't cost anything its self and i hope to see it return in the future for a second season.

For years there has been quirky, and strange anime that sometimes uses the unknown or phenomenal abilities that the human brain can produce. Much like for Haruka. A young girl trapped in a maze of turmoil because of her ability to read minds. Starting at age 6 Haruka learned that she could read people's thoughts, but what made it dangerous was that Haruka would respond to those thoughts out loud. This in turn began a downward spiral into a near endless abyss of anguish with an overdose of emotional pain no human should ever endure alone. Suffering endless transfers between schools the young Haruka just wanted to be left alone mainly because of her gift. It would soon come a time when her next transfer would bring about a new sudden change. A change that needed an unforeseen event. Such as a pervert - Manabe.

Although manabe is an arrow straight pervert as most boys are he comes to realize that Haruka is gifted with a clairvoyant power when he pieces together her facial expressions to his rather unique skill of dirty thoughts. Needless to say he loves the idea of being able to be read just because it embarrasses Haruka to no end. This would lead on to a new avenue for both of them. The ESP club led by Yuriko Mifune. Plus add in another few key characters such as Moritani, and Moruto who are also club members, and you have a full episode of laughs, dirty thoughts, and rather sensitive subjects about life. Especially when it comes down to haruka's painful past when her mother abandons Haruka leaving her in the care of her grandfather.

The series tags off subjects such as laughter, sadness, betrayal, infidelity, as well as simple ignorance by those who do not understand haruka's awful pain. I give this series an easy ten for the simple reason for those who wrote the episodes knew how to tug on the heart strings of the home audience. You'll laugh, cry, get angry, and even feel the characters' pain through every episode. This has been a very refreshing series. Make sure you have a box of tissues beside you.

Honestly I did have a few tears here and there with this anime. You'd honestly feel sorry for Kotoura because she had stupid parents abandoning her as she admitted to both of them that they are cheating on each other. Also the fact she has the ability to read ppl's minds and blabs their thoughts out to them.

If I was Kotoura, I wouldn't want that kind of mother coming back to my life again and I would't care how much of a desperate alcoholic she is just to force me to forgive her. I felt like punching my tablet at how angry I was at Kotouras mother and even thinking about it, makes me a whole lot angrier lol. I know this kind of thing unfortunately happens for real to families. You just wouldn't know what type of people like Kotoura are going through in their heartbreaking personal lives.

Now we got my sad bits over, we'll move onto the funny bits. I'm so glad Kotoura eventually found a group of friends who care about her and accept her for who she is, even if she does read ppl's minds. I honestly ship her with Manabe regardless of his pervy thoughts about her. Actually he reminds me of Kintaro from Golden Boy so Manabe was equally fun to watch and is actually a pretty likeable character. I was so glad that both him and Kotoura admitted their love for one another in the end but why no kiss man?!!!!

I suppose I gotta read the manga series in that case! Anyways brillant anime, characters, sub actors and storyline. 9/10 on me!

I'm going to be very honest about "kotoura-san; it's one of the worst anime shows I've ever seen. Now I've only watched episode one, but this show was so bad, that I felt like saying how it was only after I finished the episode. I'm not even going to evaluate each criteria piece because it was that bad. The only good things about the show was the ending theme and the idea of the show. At least the creators came up with such a good idea that had potential, but failed in a lot of categories. Now here are the flaws. First, the characters were terrible. After a while of saying Kotoura-San being upset because of her ESP, it just get so annoying. Second was the story itself. Now, some stuff came off as decent such as the first five or ten minutes of the first episode, but after that, everything was terrible. I mean, Manabe kun started to like Kotoura-San only after sometime after she entered the classroom. The story was basically pathetic after he came because all the home run moments were killed by worthless comedy that involved his affection for Kotoura-San. The opening theme was probably one of the worst songs I've ever heard in an anime show. It did not at all fit in with the show. The sill faces the characters showed just made the anime look unsophisticated. This anime seemed like a complete joke rather then being a dramedy. Kotoura-San was a three-dimensional character, but Manabe-kun was one-dimensional. There was no depth for his character so everything seemed pathetic about him. In total this show flopped in a lot of categories. Now, f the show does turn better after episode one, I'll change my review, but if not, it will remain.