Anime: Kotoura-san

Kotoura-san is definitely not your average show, but it ultimately achieves only average marks.
Here is how:

Presentation:

I can only describe the show's presentation style as "cute, wuffly and somewhat crude".

While Kotoura-san definitely looks distinct from other shows, it looks distinct not in an "awesome full of personality way", but rather in a "sloppy kiddy drawings" kind of way. Not sure if this was a conscious decision on part of the show's creators or just lack of budget.

That being said, all of these simple drawings and simple sounds still succeed in getting the show's simple emotions across. While there aren't certainly any visuals that are memorable, the overall presentation theme is still a job decently done. I guess i'm comfortable giving a "6" in both categories.

Story:

Kotoura is a psychic who can read minds. She was just born that way, nobody knows why. Her parents had trouble dealing with that aspect of their child, so she had a moderately tragic past (of the parental abandonment + no friends variety), but then she meets that honest and straightforward guy and suddenly her whole life turns upside down.

This simple premise could have been brilliant, because it allows for both serious comedy and serious drama. Problem is, the creators did a fairly half-hearted job at both.

Early episodes do a good job at showing off comedic potential of interaction between a girl who pretty much expects people to not say what they think and a guy who is pretty much unable to lie. But then the show proceeds to abuse the two-three joke patterns it nailed for the rest of the series, and these patterns are not even that good, so it gets old pretty fast.

The drama part is a little bit better in the sense that the ability of the main pair to influence and change people around them. The main dynamic works like this: the girl spots lies, gets somewhat hurt and then relies on the guy's honest strength to sets everything straight. And after a while, the girl learns the same strength herself, so it's not all mysoginistic :P.
It is a very good basic dynamic that is effectively and actually somewhat convincingly applied to various situations that the characters find themselves in. It also serves to punctuate the story's main conflict, which is essentially about trust and ability of people to trust other people, regardless of the danger of their secrets exposed. This core conflict is carried through the whole story to a very satisfying conclusion, which speaks to the strenght of the show's drama.

The problem with the drama part is that it clashes violently with the show's comedic parts and generally simple presentation. When those characters that look like they came straight out of a kid's sketchbook sit around and make silly jokes at the socially maladjusted psychic's expense, it works alright. However, when those same characters suddenly segue into remorse, regret and tears, and said psychic suddenly goes from being the butt of the jokes to someone who really knows and understands another person's mind, it really rubs you the wrong way and cheapens the whole experience.

So yeah, ultimately i'd say this is an example of an at least 8-worthy story that got shot in the foot by being in presence of too much immature comedy and having an unfitting presentation style.
Well, it did fulfill the minimum requirement of a "6" rated story which is to make me cry at some point (in this case, in the end), so 6 is what i'll give it.

Characters:

Kotoura-san's character work is decent for female cast and weak for male cast.
The show's girls have backstories, conflicts, emotions, stuff to work through (which they do in quite a good way, too). The supporting cast does a very good job of supporting both the main conflict, by providing a good amount of quite different takes on the matter of trust between girls (mostly high school, with a couple of high school to adult relationships thrown in for good measure), and the development of main female character, by putting her to all sorts of tests.

The male cast, on another hand, is all about oscillating between "pervert" and "protective" (with one of the more important guys stuck in permanent "protective") and really doesn't do anything else. Which is kind of sad and actually prevents any form of development of actual relationships beyond the most basic (essentially all you get in this regard is some token confessions at the end).

Character work cannot be considered truly good if it can't handle relationships between characters. So while i like what Kotoura is doing with characters in general, 7/10 is as high as it can go.

Value:
Sadly, not much.

The show didn't play to it's strengths (in fact, it seems to be very confused about what it's strengths even are), so it cannot serve as an example that would further the development of the medium. It's childish presentation prevents it from being a good recommendation to lovers of serious stories. It's attempts at serious drama are jarring enough to make it a bad recommendation as a kids show.

Well, the show does have a unique art style which does allow it to do a lot of interesting things with the characters on a fairly low budget, so that's a contribution. On another hand, it does give an exellent example of how one builds a story about trust, even if you have to dig this example out of the rough of bad comedy. So i guess 4/10 for value is somewhat deserved.

Enjoyment:
I don't see many people really enjoying this show. The only kind of person i can imagine that would get good enjoyment mileage out of it is someone who can really relate to the issue of being different enough to be implicitly distrusted even by his/her own parents. For most others, it is a show that tries to entertain, but kinda flops due to repetitiveness, and then attempts drama, and does only moderately well.
5/10 in this category.

PROPER MINDSET
Well, that was a cheap troll to begin a show…
Kotoura-san begins as a most tragic slice of life regarding a girl which can read minds. She ends up making everybody hate her for that, because she keeps revealing secrets of people that were better off remaining hidden. She gets rejected by everybody and lives a lonely life, until she is approached by people her age that are not bothered by her power and even aim to help her train and make use of it. Nice and cute so far but eventually a troll.

The fail of this show is that it tries to attract your attention with very tragic beginnings of various events, before it completely throws them away in ten minutes and replaces them with comedy and light fan service. We are supposed to sympathise with the girl and then keep watching regardless of the show not being dramatic but just another fluffy school life series.

Before I move to other aspects of this anime let me point out that Kotoura-san is by far the most attractive new title of the winter season for most in the fandom exactly because it is switching from tragic to comedy in a heartbeat. If you have watched enough anime, you will realize that the winning formula for most mainstream anime is to have very tragic premises with very light presentation; and this is what it does very good. Most viewers don’t care about a show being serious about its themes but rather to be an emotional roller coaster. So yes, the sudden mood swings will make most to laugh and cry like immature 14 year old girls, and in a way that is what the series was heading for in the first place.

That of course counts for the AVERAGE anime viewer, who is very easy to be impressed and treats anime as superficial entertainment. A veteran A-type watcher like myself will see the whole thing as yet another series that wastes its true potential for shallow entertainment. And let’s not kid ourselves; it is a shallow series that will be forgotten fast exactly because it is doing that. For the demanding audience, this anime is NOT really doing anything with its premise, other than trolling you into laughing right when you are crying. Works fine if you your emotions are an uncontrollable maelstrom, and doesn’t if you have self-constrain and prefer to look at the execution. Kotoura-san is undeniably a low-tier B-type show and not a high-tier A type that will be talked about in a few years from now.

PRODUCTION VALUES
So now that I have prepared you properly for how to perceive this show, let me point out that it is made with a low budget all across the board. The characters are all drawn very cartoony and there aren’t any fancy cinematics or songs to make the series attractive. Not that it has anything worth to be Kyoto Animation level or that good visuals mean anything in the longrun if the show still manages to inflict the watcher with emotions; a thing it manages even with the crumbs it throws at you. That is something noteworthy, especially for managing to be far more interesting to KyoAni’s Tamako Market that airs next to Kotoura-san and despite its budget it is just another mediocre moe show.

SCRIPT & CAST
Let’s move to the premise, which is becoming stupid very fast since the drama is always overblown and even unrealistic. And I will prove that by presenting both ends of the spectrum it tries to cover.

- Let’s start with the first episode, where the girl gets in trouble for talking when she shouldn’t. I understand that probing peoples’ thoughts is wrong and could easily make you a hated person, but just why didn’t anyone try to make use of this ability all these years? It is just impossible to imagine this girl never using it to pass tests easier. Or for her parents to use her for telling them what their relatives or supervisors really thought about them. Or to become the most powerful person in school by blackmailing or controlling information. Or to rule the world. Hell, there are so many secret organizations that could make good use of her, yet nobody ever tries to use that power to his advantage and just hates her. They don’t even try to send her to a school for problematic children and just tolerate her. Everybody is just pretending that everybody is fine, like it would kill them to try making use of the talents set in front of them. No sir, she doesn’t have amazing superpowers that can help us take over the universe; she is just a compulsive liar and a troublemaker. We are all dull and normal people, and even those who aren’t must pretend to be. Sorry if I call this A LOAD OF CRAP! The setting is not the middle ages; it is modern Japan where they make a spectacle out of every minor and useless thing there is. I am of course overthinking this but it is out of context considering the time and place. And it is of course done for the sake of building up overblown tragedy. And sure, all tragedies are in effect overblown events caused by human stupidity. But MAN, this is so completely one-sided it just can’t pass my suspension of disbelief.

And let’s face it, the only thing this girl ever needed to learn is good manners. If she can’t keep her mouth shut and keeps revealing all of peoples’ secrets left and right, she was worth the hatred she received. You don’t need to be a mind reader in order to be that snitch nobody likes in class. I used to be the class’ snitch too in elementary school; I used to rat out everybody’s mischievous acts to the teachers. I wanted to keep those fools under control before growing up to be assholes. Well, not only it didn’t work but everybody disliked me; so I stopped trying to fix what was broken beyond repair. By the time I was in junior high, I was no longer a snitch, people disliked me less (but still did) and those assholes turned out to be as I expected and are now either bums, hiding from the police, OR DEAD! MWAHAHAHA WHO IS THE SMARTASS NOW YOU ASSHOLES?!

… Oh wait, I went off topic here. Anyways, what I wanted to say is the following. If that girl didn’t realize that the truth is NOT solving problems if not used properly, even after all the times she got burned because of it, then she is a complete retard. And excuse me for being unable to feel anything for a retarded snitch.

- The problem exists even when she DOES manage to keep her mouth shut, but for inappropriate issues. In the second episode, she doesn’t talk when she should. You see, she meets people who are part of a paranormal school club (since apparently there is a school club for about everything) and the people there want to help her promote her skills. Upon trying to do so, some bitches constantly harass her for being special and getting all the attention, and she reacts by NOT TELLING ANYONE ABOUT IT! What the hell man, ten minutes ago she couldn’t keep her mouth shut and now lets these jealous nobodies to tell her off? This is again proof of how the drama in this show is stupid as hell. It helps you of course to feel like a hormone-crazy teenager but it all comes down to the heroine talking when she shouldn’t and not talking when she should. This girl is a masochist! Third episode, she doesn’t reveal how much she is in love, as if it’s going to kill her, while not talking is exactly what makes her suffer in the first place. SHE DESERVES THE TREATMENT SHE GETS! Something similar happens with the boy that wants to be her friend. He doesn’t mind her dreaded power because he is also a retard! Really, she asked him why he is not afraid, and even by reading his mind, he has no idea why! A retard!

Another issue which makes things even more stupid is the whole mind-reading fuss. You are never let to understand how exactly it works. And I don’t mean some technobabbling nonsense; I mean HOW it works. At some cases the heroine reads minds unconsciously, at some others only when she focuses. At some point she can read only people next to her, at some others even when they are away from her. And if she can read minds, why is she constantly tricked by others? Why does she even ask them when she can just extract the truth? Why isn’t she a genius for learning everything straight from the source and instead acts like a stupid girl with an IQ of 80? Why hasn’t she gone insane from reading thousands of minds every day?

LEGACY
Ok, I am again overthinking this but as I said, it is details such as these which prevent this anime from being anything other than an unrealistic school show that circles around HERP DERP people. The drama doesn’t even mean anything after awhile, since it keeps jumping back and forth to mediocre school comedy and erotic humour. All the episodes are about some problem that builds up and resolves within 10 minutes in a cheap and stupid reason. It is just silly fun, just another mediocrity that tries poorly to troll you into liking it before you realize how obviously mediocre it is and give up on it.