Kotoura-san: First Impressions

For some reason, I can never get enough of the supernatural anime. No, I do not mean supernatural in the way of Death Note, or Code Geass, but more in the way of cutesy, not overly over thought, dragged out series. When I saw the synopsis for Kotoura-san, this seemed to be right up my ally, with cutesy animation, good light hearted story, and perhaps a character I could some-what relate to.

Watching the first episode, it was dark in tone, but it gave nice back story to our main character, Kotoura: a psychic girl who can read peoples minds. It started with small things, such as knowing what was for breakfast or beating someone in a match of rock paper scissors. However, as she got older, she started reading into peoples feelings, such as knowing who the girls in her class liked. Her psychic abilities drove a crack through her family as well. Her mother who used to be very nice, now was drinking a lot and got angry more often. Her dad also started cheating on his wife and he never came home that much. Eventually this leads to her getting abandoned to her grandpa, and her mom wishing she had never given birth to her. And due to all the teasing, she decided to transfer schools.

Pretty dark right? Luckily for me, that was only half of the first episode. The second half comes when she meets Manabe, a daydreaming boy in her new class. Although he has no interest in her at first, he learns she is psychic and accepts it, except for the part where he has to keep his perverted thoughts under control. After meeting Manabe, she eventually joins the ESP Research Society, where she has friends and is accepted by everyone.

The story for this is actually pretty good due to the fact it is dark in tone at first, but yet light hearted later on. I can't wait to see how Kotoura develops further because in anime there's a magical little thing called friendship and it has been known to do magical things.

The art and music for this anime are also very cute. In the first part, it was dark and dreary, but when she met Manabe, the tone lightened up instantly. Despite being the character that sticks out the most, Kotoura is well drawn with blonde hair and loli-like. Manabe looks, unfortunately, like any harem male lead, despite this not being a harem. The open theme is admittedly very catchy and light hearted, and the end theme is also very good.

For some reason, I find Kotoura very relateable character. Maybe it is because I was always on the getting teased end at school and can understand some of her pain, but either way, she is well developed. Manabe is your average perverted guy lead, but he is a guy lead focused on making friends with the main character, not getting in bed with her, though it might seem like that at times.

Over all, I hope that this anime can deliver what I was hoping. So far, even though it has only only two episodes released, I am very pleased. If you haven't seen this anime yet, please do. I am almost possitive you will not regret it.