With just a little push in the right direction, this show could really be something.   At first glance, Kokoro Connect looks like yet another take on the "school club that does nothing" subgenre that's become popular over the last few years, but what makes it different is so far its saving grace. Body switching is definitely not typical fare for high school anime, and it is nice to see an attempt to be different. The way it's presented in this episode is interesting as well; one second you're in your own body, the next you're elsewhere. The blink-or-you'll-miss-it idea of body switching sets up an interesting mystery, and I hope the explanation turns out to be just as compelling.   But while this show seems to want to distinguish itself from the pack, it still falls into some of the usual traps. There are two girls and one boy in the clubroom; let's make sex jokes! Get the boy to say incriminating things by promising pantsu! Two girls are alone in a classroom? Time for lesbians! Kokoro Connect doesn't seem to trust its own premise to carry itself through, or at least not yet. It was disappointing to see a show that seems to want to be engaging on a different level have to resort to pandering. I hope that this changes in the upcoming episodes.   That said, I do like the characters so far, especially the glimpse we got into their home lives and how they compared and contrasted with how they behave at school. We need more of that and less of the pandering jokes. The show describes the club as a random group that was thrown together because of school rules, and we don't really get a feel for how well they know each other in this episode. The body-switching can easily lend itself to a "walk in my shoes" plotline, making it much more character-oriented. Despite using familiar elements, it's hard to predict what kind of show Kokoro Connect will ultimately be, and that curiosity is enough for me to keep watching. Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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